Tuesday 6 March 2007

DJ Toomp is hip-hop's producing king

DJ Toomp
With his production skills having helped score Grammy Awards for T.I. (best rap solo performance for "What You Know") and Ludacris (best rap album for "Release Therapy"), DJ Toomp is busy on other hip-hop fronts. After producing Young Jeezy's latest hit, "I Luv It", he has lined up a slew of additional collaborations on upcoming projects by Young Buck, Busta Rhymes, 8Ball & MJG, Mariah Carey and Slim Thug. Slated to be Ludacris' next single is another DJ Toomp production, "Mouths to Feed". Then there's the hookup he made with Kanye West when the latter did a cameo on an early version of Young Jeezy's "I Got Money", another Toomp contribution to the young rapper's second album, "The Inspiration".

"Kanye and I got together one night at Sony Studios," DJ Toomp says, "and felt there was a chemistry. We came up with at least four to five songs. We'll see what actually makes the album." In the meantime, thanks to the heightened exposure that can come with such collaborations, DJ Toomp and his NZone Entertainment label partner Bernard Parks Jr. recently signed a new song deal with Island Def Jam chairman Antonio "L.A." Reid. And they are planning to build a studio in their home base of Atlanta. By the middle of this year, DJ Toomp and Parks also want to establish a Los Angeles base of operations.

But the pair isn't stopping there. They're also eyeing a segue into R&B. While in Los Angeles during Grammy Week, DJ Toomp and Parks were busy making the rounds with one of their R&B acts: Six20, an Atlanta songwriting/production trio whose name is inspired by the Bible verse Matthew 6:20. Also on the NZone roster is Atlanta male rapper Suga Suga. Under the Zone Boy production banner are up-and-coming producers Ole-E and Kenoe.

"I take certain beats out of melodies to get rappers to listen," DJ Toomp says of his technique. "I don't know yet how people are going to dig this, but I also want to bring melody back."

Holding up another Atlantan - Gnarls Barkley's Cee-Lo Green - as a creative role model, DJ Toomp says, "He is the perfect example of why you shouldn't limit yourself. 'Crazy' was a brilliant, unexpected record that crossed all boundaries: rock, alternative, urban." "Rappers and other songwriters have to come up with better subject matter," Parks adds. "Because everyone wants to be street, there aren't any more topics there."

(Monsters and Critics)



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