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RockMeTV recently talked with former Bad Boy producer (among other things) Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie and the five part video interview (all five parts embedded at the bottom of this post) is definitely a must watch for long time Bad Boy fans.

In part 1, he talks about how he developed his production skills and came up in the industry. In part 2, the subject turns to ghost producing and ghostwriting, producing vs. beat making and his relationship with Kanye West. The part about "ghost" work was very interesting to me because Angelettie said something that I've said to people a million times: if you are credited in the album book and, as such, given your publishing and your royalties and all of that - you are not a ghostwriter. If you see something, it's not a ghost. Songwriting is an art and part of the music industry.

When he talked about what it means to be an actual music producer, he had some interesting thoughts, as well. Here's what he said:

"Making the beat does not make you a producer. It makes you a beat maker. A producer is Jermaine Dupri. A producer is P. Diddy. A producer is Deric "D-Dot" Angelettie. A producer is now Kanye West. A producer is now Pharrell. Because I've experienced guys that have, back in the days, that have just given beats and heard their records for the first time when it was on the radio and it became a smash and they run around saying they produced that. No, you did the beat for that one third - or eighth - of the portion that it takes to make a hit record. That's like Ben Roethlisberger for the Steelers, who I love by the way, saying 'I won the Super Bowl.' 'We' won the Super Bowl."

In part 3, he was asked about the current Bad Boy sound with the host Gemini Keez saying he thought something was missing, but Angelettie had a great answer about the need to evolve and that it's a credit to Bad Boy to even still be around. It sounds like he's produced some new music for Cassie and Diddy. "My career started in 1990 and it's 2009 and I'm still here producing for Cassie and Puffy and I did Fat Joe, wrote a song called 'I Won't Tell," he said.

They talked about a potential documentary on the run of The Hitmen from 1996 to 2001. It would be produced by all 11 members, including Diddy and he called the project a "concept of doing a story on that area," with a tentative title of "A Team More Stronger Than Yours." He was asked about the controversy surrounding it on the internet (I'm not sure what controversy this is, as this was the first I even heard of this documentary at all) and here is what he said:

"It's put out there to be a educational piece. To explain to people the behind the scenes stories of what they heard - the real behind the scenes. It's not a Puffy bashing story, it's not a Bad Boy bashing story. It's the story - uncut, good and bad. The contract disputes, the chicks, the money, the parties - you know what I'm saying, it's just the story. And there's gonna be positive in it and there's gonna be negative in it. There's gonna be controversy in it; there's gonna be drama in it. But, that's what it's supposed to be because that was the real.

It's not taking from one perspective of all 11 men - I mean, all 10 Hitmen against Puffy or Puffy against the 10 of us - it was 11 of us on the team and from 1996 to 2001, we did something historic and for those that don't know, now you know. The controversy comes in because people heard the Puffy stories and they heard all the stories over the years about battles of money and contracts and who's getting robbed and who's doing this and who's doing that. That ain't this documentary. This documentary is not gonna go into that.

Now, obviously, if there was a producer/Bad Boy problem or a Puffy/producer problem, we're gonna address it. But, it's not one sided. Puffy has just as much say on what happened as the producer would because it's what happened. It's in the past, but it's still what happened.

Also, the positive things, like how the records got made, how relationships was with Biggie and Mase and The Lox and being young, black and spanish and white and coming from nothing and getting money and feeding our families. Like, there's so much positive in it, too, you see what I'm saying. It's a story.

But, it's an educational piece because we really want people be like 'Wow, that's how it was done.' It wasn't just this person in here making the records, it wasn't just this person in here writing, it wasn't just this person in here doing this. It was a collaboration and an effort that was unlike nothing you ever seen. So, that's the story of The Hitmen."

In part 4, he talks about how The Madd Rapper was created, saying that it was borne out of the East/West beef and, specifically, he came up with it while watching a music video where they were being imitated. He also talks about how artists need to sometimes be produced, rather than doing everything and being in control of all aspects of a song. This is another point I really agree with. It seems like these days you have acts that hit one record and then they want to do everything and run everything and that's just not how it works.

Finally, in part 5, they talk about beef and Angelettie mentions how rappers these days are crossing lines that The Madd Rapper never crossed or would have crossed, like the involvement of family and criminal records.

All in all, it's an excellent interview from start to finish. Check it out below: