As a top producer in the game, Lamb has been making top R&B and hip hop artists flock to his sound lately. Producing hits, rather than just album cuts, Lamb has built a solid rep in a very short time. 24HHH sat down with the preacher’s son recently and let him tell us how and why he does his thing so well.

 

24H: So let the people know who you are.

 

Lamb: My name is Lamb. Music producer, song writer, I do everything pretty much.

 

24H: Okay and what style of music do you produce?

 

Lamb: R&B, hip hop, pop, gospel. That’s what I’ve produced so far.

 

24H: How long have you been at it?

 

Lamb: Professionally I been producing for three and a half years. But I been producing as a hobby since 96.

 

24H: And what inspired you to start producing?

 

Lamb: I’ve been playing the drums in the church since I was 5. I was playing football all my life and I played a college ball. But I’ve loved music all my life just because of my musical background and growing up in the church with my mom and my sister singin, so I just always loved music. When I was playing ball in college I was doin beats on the side. And then when I figured that some one liked my music, like if someone liked my beat and then asked me how much it was. That’s when I thought “Ok I can do this”.


 24H: So who’d you play ball for?

 

Lamb: In college I played for Florida A&M University. Then after that I got picked up by a free agency to the Dolphins but I was hurt goin into camp so it messed my chances up, so I never got a chance to play on an NFL field.

 

24H: Okay well everything obviously happens for a reason my man. So back to the music. What kind of equipment do you use to make your beats?

 

Lamb: I use the MPC. I use keyboards, I like the phantom. The phantom has fat sounds, the horns are big, their real thick. I like the richness of the phantom sound. But I really produce off of anything. I’ll go in the booth and knock on a piece of a block to get the sound that I’m looking for. So I just use myself, I beat box the sound. It’s spur of the moment with me. It’s not like I go in here and I know I’m gonna work with the keyboards, it’s just spur of the moment.

 

24H: Okay now I know you have a deep resume, let the people know where they might have heard your work?

 

Lamb: I worked with Keyshia Cole on her first single off her last album, a song called “Let It Go”. It featured Missy Elliot and Lil Kim. I  worked with Jazmine Sullivan on her first single, “Need You Bad”. I did “Ching A Ling” with Missy Elliot and “Pom Pom”, I wrote the hook. And all these songs I produced and wrote or co wrote those songs. I’ve worked with Fantasia, Ruben Studdard, Monica. That’s all I can think of right now.

 

24H: How did you go about getting your beats out there and being in the position your in right now?

 

Lamb: I had a cat that told me to put 25 beats on CD. Almost as if your makin a mixtape and what I had to do is put em’ on CD and put my number on there and hand em’ out. Hand em’ out to different local artists, artists who didn’t have a situation. Artists that told me I can only give ya $250 for the track, but I would do it just bein faithful with the little that I had feel me. And my beats that I made in college, I would bring em’ home and make a little money. Then through that I meant Brianna’s mom and she called me and told me to do something for Brianna. Then I did a record called “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and that led Brianna’s mom to tell me “I want you to do all my daughters stuff.” So I was just happy about that. Then she ended up goin to Missy’s label and that’s how I met Missy.


 


24H: Alright and it just took off from there?

 

Lamb: Yeah well they thought that the song “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” that I gave it to Cam’Ron. Cam came out with a song called “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” they came out with a video for it and everything. So I told them I didn’t do it, I wasn’t givin Brianna’s stuff away. So then when they realized I didn’t do it, they started thinking well he does have good ideas, for somebody to come out with a record he would do. So I gave em’ beats and Missy picked a beat and gave it to Fantasia. And that was my first placement through working with Missy. Then through that she kept bringin me around, I was livin with Missy for months working hand in hand with her. And we developed a chemistry and we do records together to this day.

 

24H: Okay now a lot of producers have a signature style or sound. Describe yours.

 

Lamb: I don’t think I have a sound. You can walk in the studio and hear a beat from me, walk out and then walk back in the studio and say “who did that?” on the second one. Cause I really don’t a have same style. It don’t sound like it, it don’t feel like it, had no elements alike. Just the records that I’ve been blessed to be a part of. “Let It Go” don’t sound like “Need You Bad”. And I pride myself on that.  A lot of producers they have a hit record and they keep with that same sound. So they say ‘ok I’ma keep getting my money, cause everyone’s coming for this sound’.

 

24H: But isn’t that how cats fall off?

 

Lamb: I don’t say they fall off cause if everything is really about making money… Some producers come in for two years and tear the industry up and then you don’t hear about em’ no more. But they had a sound in that two years. But when people stop messin with em’ they have to go and reinvent themselves. And only the great producers can reinvent themselves in that case. But, if your objective was to feed your family with four songs that came out, so be it. You did what you had to do. You don’t have to stay in the industry for 15 years. You can get 16 million on one royalty check. But I pride myself in being consistent rather than just a whole bunch of stuff and then stopping. I’m so blessed and fortunate to work with artists that like my material.

 

24H: What is it like in the studio when your playing your beats for artists?

 

Lamb: I still get butterflies when I play songs or records that I’ve written. Like I hope they like it, I’m bitin down on my teeth. Then you got some cats that look at it like ‘you got records out, I trust you’ but I still be bitin down.

 

24H: And you mentioned great producers above. Who are some producers you admire?

 

Lamb: I love what Timbaland does. I’m married to Timbaland and Missy’s chemistry more than I am with just Timbaland himself as a producer. How they made concept albums, or how they made albums that sonically sound the same. How they can create something that’s ours and nobody else can take. But I do look up to him as a producer. Pharrell, I got to work with him and see how he makes beats from scratch. Of course I look up to Dr. Dre, he had all of those songs that I was likin in junior high and high school so of course I  look up to him. Dark Child on the R&B side, Rodney Jerkins. He has so much music in him and he learned how to turn what he had in him through church  music and put it on a record and make it universal so everyone can listen to it and that was incredible to me. I look up to Missy as a producer. Missy is a producer more than she is an artist.

 

24H: What do you look for when working with an artist?

 

Lamb: Their job is to take the energy from the record and take it to the next level. Step up and be a superstar now in the studio. I love havin fun. It’s crazy, the artists that don’t have a record out, they act the most superstar-ish. The artists that been grindin and had albums out they come in, they come on time to everything. People would think they stuck up, but they not that, they workaholics. I look for that in a new artist especially, cause you haven’t had anything. Come in and do the record. Ya know, take the shades off. It’s time to work now. Come in with your hoodie and your sweats. Cause we gotta get somewhere first. We gonna have fun doin it, but we gotta get somewhere first.

 

24H: Aight Lamb well we definitely thank you for this time you’ve sat down with us. Any last words for the people?

 

Lamb: Well I am a God fearing man, I really believe that if you find God and you put all the trust in him first, he’ll bless you with everything you need. If you find out who God is to you everything will come.