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Talent: Producers
Members: Dru Brett, Mayne Zayne
Contact: www.myspace.com/therunners
Does anybody know? While at first the question posed seems like a rather general inquiry of sorts, it could've easily applied to the production duo The Runners (as in, does anybody know who they are?). The beatsmiths were virtual unknowns as recently as 2005 when they crafted, "Does Anybody Know", for Fat Joes All Or Nothing, the first song they ever placed for a major recording artist. Then Dru Brett and Mayne Zayne, who compose The Runners, shopped a particular bass heavy, snare snapping track and their fortunes changed, seemingly overnight. Everyday Im hustlin/ Everyday Im hustlin/ Everyday Im/ Everyday Im. Rick Ross's massive hit "Hustlin", produced by The Runners, instantly put them in over demand. Everyone from Lil Wayne (Money On Mind) to Jim Jones (Reppin Time) To Young Jeezy has since been blessed by the duos trademark measured and screwed sound. "We had to breakthrough that barrier and get noticed, and thats what Hustlin really did", explains Dru. "[It] brought us to the forefront of this business for a fact. Thats how we got out there." But The Runners have been planning for this moment from the time they met as toddlers in Vero Beach, Florida. Their fathers were both physicians and their families soon became fast friends. Thats when Dru and Mayne, who grew up with a healthy love of music, clicked. When Dru's family moved to North Carolina during his teen years, he and Mayne they momentarily lost touch with each other but both continued their musical interests separately. When they reunited through telephone, Dru and Mayne discovered they'd each been toiling with DJing and production. The duo then re-teamed officially in 2003 as The Runners and set up shop in Orlando, where they launched Trac-N-Field Entertainment. Influenced by the likes of other duos such as The Neptunes and Timbaland, The Runners production style has exploded in clubs and on radio much like their counterparts. Similar to their true production idol, the legendary Dr. Dre, who created a style for an entire coast, The Runners want to serve as the new Miami sound machine for an entire region. From Rosss enormous smash, to DJ Khaleds ode to Dade County, Born N Raised, to upstart Smitty's underground hit Lil Haiti, The Runners have been instrumental in the crafting the new hip-hop soundtrack of the 305. "Were trying to give Miami that sound that Dre gave California, or certain producers gave Atlanta", says Dru. "I think thats what people are hearing in our records now." Its the emotional charge in each track that makes listeners so familiar with their production and what they hear. The instant reaction. Right at the moment the music starts. And The Runners plan to bring that to R&B soon, too. "At first they called us one hit wonders", says Mayne. "But they called us that when we had a couple of hits out there. Wait til they hear the R&B stuff. Its gonna blow their socks off!" Already in the studio working with Young Jeezy, Trick Daddy, Jadakiss, and Trey Songz, The Runners are just beginning to show the world who they really are. From hip-hop to R&B, and with mounting interests in fashion, modeling, television, and a label deal, The Runners name is becoming a brand associated with unparalleled success. "Were gonna go far in this business, because its never enough for us. Its whats next", says Dru. "We want to take it to that level." "Were living out our dreams, but we havent finished them yet. Thats why were here. Thats what we live for", continues Mayne. "In five years to come, you'll see us all over the place; expect to see us on TV, in commercials, in every magazine. Its a part of the big picture." "We embrace this. Were about our business, because this is the music business. We bring the music to the table, but we also bring the business to the table. So were gonna be a success. Dont just look at us as producers, but as entrepreneurs and businessmen, as well."
How’d you guys
get the name The Runners?
Me and Mayne have been friends since pre-school and we decided to come together
when we were like 17 or 18. We came up with a company name calle Trac-N-Field.
We thought
the name The Runners was the best thing to be associated with that.
How long have each
of you two guys been producing?
We have been doing production since we were about 15, so ill say about 6 years now.
Was it something
that came natural or did you need to go to school or anything like that to
learn?
For me I was actually learning how to play the piano when I
was like 15 and I couldn’t sit still long enough to really sit down and
learn how to play. My teacher was a college student at North Carolina so he
brought me to a studio and started teaching me how to work the equipment. I was
fascinated by how you could just make music on this equipment so I
started meeting up with him twice a week in the studio and to watch
and learn how to put music together. Mayne went to Full Sails but production
came natural to him becuase he played musical instruments in his
mother’s church when we were growing up. He had already played drums and the
piano so when he was like 15, he bought himself a Korg keyboard and started
making beats.
What’s your situation with DJ Khaled
and DJ Nasty?
Yea they’re our managers.
But isn’t it
kind of weird to have a DJ and also a producer as your manager knowing that
you’re a producer yourself?
I mean its not weird cause its never been a problem. If there has never
been a
problem that we encountered with that. We have been working with Nasty for a
while and that never really became an issue. Nasty works on several
projects that we do and you know he’s never tried to get in the way of our
projects. He’s always put us 1st on the projects that we
work on and actually the fact that they're DJs actually helped us because
they had so many personal relationships with artists. DJ Nasty
and Ludacris are still close, so when we were ready to work with Luda it
was nothing to do a face to face. Khaled he would go to Fat Joe when we
were ready to work. With Fat Joe it was like nothing to do a face to face so it
kind of helped us that they’re the DJing.
Name some of the artist that you guys have worked with?
We just did Young Jeezy and we worked face to face with him and we have his biggest single coming out. I think its gonna be the first or the second but its called Dreaming and its featuring Keisha Cole. We just did Trick Daddy and I think we got his single its called Bet Dat. We have three songs on his album. We did Young Dro, we got a crazy joint with him. We did UGK which is great to be apart of their album because you know their legends and we have song with them and its featured with Young Jeezy. We doing a Cheo cd which is one of Kanye’s artists. Ludacris of course face to face, Joe face to face, Currency which is Lil Wayne’s newest artist face to face, Lil Wayne. We just did three records on Lil Wyayne's The Carter 3.
When
you mean face to face, is it you’re actually in the studio with the person?
Yea exactly, we’re in the studio with them working
and at some point either when they’re dropping their vocals. We don’t just send music, we’re actually in the studio producing.
I read that you guys are in the process of creating
a Runners sound for R&B
Yep Yep
What does that
consist of, because on your tracks the hooks are always crazy.
Is it gonna be something like that where the hook is chopped and screwed?
Yea you’re definitely going to hear some of that influence in it But what we are doing now is taking the screwed stuff out of it because we gonna keep our same sound but we’re not gonna keep putting the screwed stuff in there. We don’t want to play it out. We’re kind of changing and revolving into something new and that Jeezy track, when you hear the Jeezy track, you will see something totally new. For R&B, we just did a song with Trey Songz. It’s a titled track for his album. The name of his album is called Trey Day and the name of the song we did is obviously called Trey Day. It’s the first song and we incorporated those elements of that sound from that screw stuff in it. You'll find a lot of people that are in R&B are coming up to us now and requesting that so its definitely a possibility in R&B
To go back to
where you said you're kind of taking the chopped and screwed sound out, right
now how would you describe the Runners sound?
I say The Runners sound is emotional because if you listen to our record, they start off maybe really really hard and then it kind of calms down and then it builds up again then it calms down and I think it just has an instant reaction with the crowd like. If you play Everyday I'm Hustlin in the club, its like theres an instant reaction, a little Haiti or Where the Cash At. Its just kind of like emotional changes records.
Besides the Rick
Ross's record I'm Hustlin, what other record would you consider right now
a major boost for your career that you guys have done that’s out in the streets
that people are vibing to
Obviously you know Money On My Mind, which is kind of like right before Rick Ross. I think that Currency's track Where The Cash At is going to be a great commercial record for us. For the streets that record that we just did with Trick Daddy. I’d say the Young Jeezy track because its so emotional and so different and I think its going to capture a lot of people’s attention and obviously that’s coming out with his new album so I think all those tracks kind of explains who we are and what we are doing.
That’s the
Keisha Cole track you talking about with Young Jeezy right?
Yeah the Keisha Cole track….right
Is she singing
regular or is it back to the chopped and screwed or…..
Its actually an east coast feel record. It has a sample in it and you know The Runners produced Murder. We can easily switch it up and have that record and she singing on it. Its called Dreaming and it just nothing to do with the chopped and screwed. I mean its nothing in that area at all. It’s a slow record
What do you say to people that say The Runners sound won’t last
forever and its just a phase for now?
I could
understand where they’d be coming from if we didn’t have another sound or
we couldn’t evolve as musicians but it’s like everybody else in the game,
you have to constantly change like Timbo changed and remade himself like six
times. It was so funny because we already had other
hit records out there that were already recorded. Like we have a single with
Ludacris called Slap Slap. Its gonna be probably like the second or third
single on his new album and it was totally different then every record The
Runners had already done and to Bet Dat. We did Bet Dat for Trick Daddy which
is his first single that we just completed yesterday and it was totally
different. It really wasn’t a big deal for
me to hear them say that because I knew we already had other records out there
that we’re different, totally different and especially with the Jeezy record,
I heard it
and it was so different. There was nothing they could say. There is nothing
for them to say after that, you know.
Recent talks are that you guys are in the process of putting
together a Runners mixtape. Will it consist of old tracks you guys did or
totally brand new tracks?
Some of the tracks are old like obviously I’m Hustlin. We throw the remix on that and it will also consist of new tracks and the thing about the Runners mixtape is that its all original beats only. So there is not going to be any freestyling over a Neptunes beat or anybody else’s beat. Its just gonna be totally original beats. And some of the stuff is new. We have all kinds of people getting on the mixtape, like Slick Pulla, Rick Ross, Lil Wayne. We got a joint with Lil Wayne and Juelz Santana on it and its all original and obviously we gonna remix some of the joints we already did like Money On My Mind. We got a remix for that we're putting on there. And we’re also including some of our newest records that no one else even has yet, like our Trick Daddy record and Fat Joe record, the Currency and the Jim Jones. All these are gonna be on it too.
When is that set
to hit the streets?
I’d say in like the next 3 or 4 weeks
With
the mixtape, is it gonna be majority signed people or how is that gonna work?
I’d say the majority is major signed people because we basically we’re kind of introducing all the new tracks we have coming out to the streets quickly as possible so its mainly major people but there are some like cats from Miami that we’re going to have on it that are coming up and we’re also gonna put people from Orlando on it that are coming. We're gonna holla at Treal to get them on it and Slim Goodye and a couple of other cats so there is going to be upcoming cats but I’d say for the majority it is going to be big names
With Orlando being your home, have you guys considered finding an artist out of Central Florida to sign to Trac-N-Field?
Yea we have. We’re working with an artist named K.C. He’s a singer. We’re trying to do something permanent with him as well as we have our own first rap artist that we’re working with right now and he’s actually from Ft. Pierce but he lives here in Orlando
What is the name of your artist?
His name is Bally.
In five years what do you guys want to be doing?
In five years I pretty much want to be on top of the game. I think that we’re still young. Being that we’re only 22 and we’re still far a long, I’d like to be running a label. I also would like to be running a label with multiple artist signed to it. I would like to have our own clothing line. I just want to take it to that level that Diddy took it to or that Russel Simmons took it.
Any last comments?
Look out for the new singles like I said the Jeezy single, the Trick Daddy single, the Fat Joe single, the Currency single, Jim Jones single, all the singles that we got coming. Ludacris single and also be looking out for The Runners. We’re going to be on MTV Diaries with Ludacris. I’m not sure what the exact day is but they filmed it already so be on the lookout.