YouKnowIGotSoul has an interview with Bad Boy producer Antwan "Amadeus" Thompson, discussing some of his previous works and how he came to be represented by Bad Boy.
YKIGS: Talk to me about the Hitmen since you’re a current member with Bad Boy. We’ve had a chance to actually interview a bunch of the original members like Chucky Thompson, Stevie J., J-Dub and others. Tell us your story about you originally became a part of the crew.
Amadeus: When I started, I actually got a chance to meet Deric “D-Dot” Angelette who was one of the original Hitmen and we bonded immediately. He obviously saw something special in me as a producer and kinda mentored me. He always wanted to hear my tracks and what I was doing so he could critique them and give me whatever I needed to know in order to improve what I was doing and what I was creating. So I always had an in. One thing about me is I knew the importance of relationships and I knew the importance and the power of knowing people that are connected. I was always in label meetings and finding ways to find contacts and I wasn’t scared or ashamed to reach out to people and let people know what I did and try to meet up with them. I got into Bad Boy with D-Dot and got a chance to meet Harve Pierre back in the day and Conrad who was the A&R and got to hang around Puff for a little bit. Not too close, but I was in the mix. Everybody was pretty much familiar with who I was since I had always submitted music to them and I was always on their radar. When an opportunity presented itself in regard to me needing producer management, we all sat down and figured it out and everybody was comfortable and happy with it. So I signed on the dotted line and became a Bad Boy Hitmen. So it was just history after that.
Here are Bad Boy's positions on the most recent Billboard U.S. album and single charts, released on Thursday.
Bad Boy's lone position this week is the Hot Dance Club Play chart debut of Dirty Money's "A** on the Floor," likely pushed by the release of the dance remixes EP for the song.
Here are Bad Boy's positions on the most recent Billboard U.S. album and single charts, released on July 28. The delay in reporting is due to Billboard.biz's recent downtime. Sorry for the delay.
One interesting note: Diddy's "I'll Be Missing You" made a return to the charts, perhaps spurned on by tragedy in Norway and the loss of singer Amy Winehouse.
Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
73. "Last Train to Paris" by Dirty Money (down from 65).
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Catalog Albums
20. "Greatest Hits" by The Notorious B.I.G. (down from 18).
Singles
Rap Digital Songs
46. "I'll Be Missing You" by Diddy (re-entry).
49. "Coming Home" by Dirty Money (down from 34).
Here are Bad Boy's positions on the most recent Billboard U.S. album and single charts, released on July 21. The delay in reporting is due to Billboard.biz's recent downtime. Sorry for the delay.
Albums
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums
65. "Last Train to Paris" by Dirty Money (down from 62).
Top R&B/Hip-Hop Catalog Albums
18. "Greatest Hits" by The Notorious B.I.G. (up from 21).
YouKnowIGotSoul has an interview with producer Jeffrey "J-Dub" Walker. Their first question relates to Walker's signing with The Hitmen, Bad Boy's in-house production team.
Back in 1995, I came down here straight out of school. My homeboy was doing music in Detroit, he hooked up with some cats down in Atlanta and he was like “Come on man, let’s go down here and do this album,” so I came down and did the album. And then I hooked up with Noontime who had a group called Absolute (signed to Def Soul). I did their demo. Noontime shopped that demo to everybody: Def Jam, Sony and of course Bad Boy. When Diddy heard the demo, he immediately flew to Atlanta on a Friday and that Sunday I was in New York, and like Monday or Tuesday I was signed. So my career took off literally overnight, like I was sleeping on floors and doing demos to producing everybody’s music from Biggie to Total. The rest is history.
You can listen to the audio from the interview below.
Soul Culture has a making of feature about 112's self-titled debut album, from the perspective of group member Daron Jones and producer Steven "Stevie J." Jordan.
Among the cuts that didn't make the album were a collaboration with Blackstreet's Dave Hollister and "Erase The Day," a song that was produced by Al B. Sure! All in all, it's an interesting read. Check it out.
The Outlawz, a hip-hop group created by 2Pac who appeared on the Bad Boy diss record "Hit 'Em Up", and Lil' Cease have collaborated on a new record for DJ Kay Slay's upcoming album, "Bury the Hatchet."
