Talent: Music A&R
Company: Atlantic Records
Contact: www.myspace.com/damonsmusicpage

What’s exactly your role over at Atlantic Records?

My role is A&R produce records, sign artist,  then help the artist make the best record they can.

You’re in A&R and a producer over there?

No I’m not a producer here, just an A&R.

What projects are you currently working on right now?

I'm working on Juvenile, Trick Daddy, this girl Crystal that I signed, this girl named Beige, Yola the Great and Plies.

When you are working on the projects, are you the creativity behind it? Are you in the studio everyday with the artist or is it a matter of when they turn in the project you just take it to the executives?

I’m definitely involved with the creative process. Some artist more than others, some artist I sit there with them and rock with them the whole way through. Some artist they don’t even want to have me around when they’re recording. They just want me to put in the music and they just want to do their thing and turn around and give me the records and get feedback. Whenever I can, I like to be in the studio as personally involved with creative process as it is happening as possible.

With some of the artist that you have a personal relationship with, do you think you put more of an effort to get there product out and make sure that is as creative as possible or is it the same with everyone? 

I mean obviously the better the relationship that you have with someone, the easier it is to work with them. In situations where artist don’t want to talk you and you talk to just have to their manager its not going to be the same. It’s a business. Its not personal and if that’s how it has to go down, then that’s how it has to go down and I take it like that. But obviously I feel like I’m going to be more effective If I can kick it with the artist and have my own relationship with them and just share my view and try and help push them in the right direction

Talk about the transition from Bad Boy to Atlantic. What’s the difference?

Wow, It’s the difference between a boutique and a major label. At a boutique label you have a lot of people wearing a lot of different hats and its more of a like a crew. At a major label its much bigger and roles are a lot more specifically defined I would say is the biggest difference. They were both great experiences. There is definitely things I miss about working at Bad Boy but I wouldn’t trade working here.

As an A&R how do you determine if an artist or a producer has what it takes to get to the next level?

With the producer its about that track. If someone walks in and he plays me 20 beats and only one of them is hot I’m going to be a little less excited about him than opposed a guy that walks in with 20 joints and just hits me over the head and there all crazy. I mean as far as artist are concerned it’s a long conversation but the bottom line is that it’s all about urgency. It is all about walking in the door with urgency. Most of the artist that are getting signed right now are not walking in here and quote on quote chopping a deal. We are coming after them. They are out there doing what they are doing and we want to be in business with them. We want to connect their movement with our power and make it even bigger. I’m  happy to take meetings and I always want to listen to stuff but especially with rappers its just really about just going out there and grinding and creating a sense of anticipation in the marketplace and showing the labels, yo this is what the streets want.

What advice would you give those looking to be in the industry?

I mean at this point in the game, its like I said before, its just all about creating urgency for yourself. Its not a secret. I don’t think we have any rappers here on this label that didn’t have some sort of independent or local buzz or excitement about them in there own marketplace. There isn’t one as a matter of fact. Everybody here came from something and was hot on their block before they got here and that’s just how we do it. You know we don’t want people that are just going to sit back and sit in that chair and wait for us to do everything. We want people that are self motivated, that are doing it themselves and we are just coming in and adding and contributing to the efforts that they have set forth. That’s when you know that you are going to get a real worker, someone that’s going to kick ass and not stop and if you need to sit down and take a breather they are going to keep going and vice versa.

Whats the worst mistake that you think you have seen an artist or a producer do trying to get into the industry?

For producers there’s a ton of shit. I hear producer say oh wait I want to copy right my beats. For the time that it takes for you to sit around and wait for that copyright to come back from that patent office or whatever, you will have missed out on that project. On of top of that, if you have a real relationship, nobody’s jacking your music. We are not sitting there trying to jack peoples records. If I were to do that to every producer that walked through the door, I would have no relationships and no one would give me any beats. I would be useless to the company then get fired. When I hear that I kinda gotta laugh because that’s a true sign of someone that is green in the experience and doesn’t know anything. You read all the how to books and it all says copyright your material and I understand maybe if your making a demo and you’re a rapper, you would want to copyright that. I get that a little more than producer just making beats. Beats come and go. Even though I’m not a jacker, the talented ones aren’t worred about that because they know they can sit and they are just pouring out of there head. And even if they got jacked for a hot one they wouldn’t be worried about it because they know they are going to make 20 more tomorrow. The ones who are sitting there worried about it are the ones that I have to be leery of to be honest with you. I hate it when people put those stupid stamps on their beats where  its saying there name the whole time. I got this beat from this one cat from Florida the whole CD kept saying the name of the producer. This is a such and such production, this is a such and production, this is a such and such production so that they would hope that they wouldn’t get jacked. I cant use it. The way we make records nowadays people don’t know is, we take a beat and if we like the beat the artist likes the beats he’s going to put it in protools and 2 track it and he’s going to make a record to it. And if we like the record we’re going to call the producer, tell him and  we’re going to  pay for it and we cut them a check and they hand us a protools file. If the artist doesn’t have the opportunity to make that record on their own then the producers never going to get on. I’m not going to play an artist a record that has that stamp on it. I’m not period. I’m not because I know stuff like that turns an artist off immediately. Simple things that set people off sometimes and that’s one of them So I tell people don’t put stamps on it. Its cool if you put it on the top of the record  just once,  this is a such and such beat everybody does that, that’s cool but to have it going throughout the beat that’s annoying. Harassing people is annoying. I respect persistence and I know you kinds gotta. You have to be persistent in this business but you know I get guys that send me beats then like 2 hours later, did you get it, did you get it. Did you listen, did you listen. I have a ton of stuff I have to get through everything and trust me if its hot I will get at you. What else is annoying is when someone gives me a CD and you don’t put any information on the CD.  As far as artist, if I had a dollar for every time an artist walked in the door and said I'm the hottest shit. I mean I’d be rich. I mean I guess you might have to say that if you don’t have that confidence you might not get taken seriously but at the same time I mean tell me something different. Okay I have heard that a million times rather than saying I’m the hottest on the planet, why not show me. Find a creative way to show me. One time this guy came in and he had a DVD from a performance of his.