It’s been 20 years since Juvenile jumped on a classic Mannie Fresh beat and declared that Cash Money was taking over for the ‘99 and 2000. Fact is, “Back Dat Azz Up” can still can turn any party upside down. Now 50 years young, Fresh says his new music will transport fans back to that golden era.
In an interview with XXL magazine, the super producer talked details on The Fresh Files, a joint LP with Lil Wayne.
“I feel like it’s the Wayne that people want to hear,” he told the media outlet. “The format of those songs are even different from the two that are on this album. The format on ‘Start This S--t Off Right’—that wasn’t the way the song was put together. There were some people that felt it was too musical and they dumbed the song down. On the project that I’m putting out, you’re going to get the version of how the song was before it was touched. When you do something with people, you have to compromise. By no means am I arguing with it. At the end of the day, that’s Wayne’s baby. Tha Carteris his thing. I get it. Tha Carterwas important to him. Wayne was gone for so long, so I knew why he was so protective of how he did this one. The cool thing is that there are some diehard Mannie Fresh and Lil Wayne fans that want to hear Wayne over Mannie Fresh beats without engineers tampering with it or without a room full of people going, “It would be cool if we moved this here.” So the ones you’re getting from me are the way Mannie Fresh would have did it. They are unreleased songs. S--t, I got about two albums worth of songs on Wayne.”
Back at the A3C Festival last fall, right before Weezy took to the stage, Fresh dropped the first hints of this album exclusively to LiveXLive.
“I always felt homie was gonna hold his own,” Mannie detailed backstage after his set. People like Big Krit, Pastor Troy, Currensy and The Diplomats came up to him and showed love.
“Big ups to him for always answering the phone no matter what was going on. I can I always say my dude — low point for me, low point for him [or] when we was up — always answered the phone. Before I knew Wayne, I knew his dad. His das was always like ‘this dude got star qualities.’ When I met him he was right. First one there, last one to leave. It’s still that way. When we worked on Tha Carter [V], people don’t know we got like 13 songs, we dumbed it down to two. And we did that in three days. So the chemistry is still there, still crazy. Dude was like, let this ride and you can put those out. The world will get to hear Mannie Fresh/ Carter. It’ll be ‘The Fresh File.’”
The legendary producer is proud that his longtime friend and collaborator Lil Wayne is considered the most influential artist of the new generation. The New Orleans boards man also encourages younger fans to go back and do their homework on artists that came before Weezy.
“Wayne is they dude,” Fresh told LiveXLive in Atlanta. “He is they dude. I grew up with seven heroes. I love that [the kids] like Wayne, but I’m challenging this new generation, yall gotta go out and experience music Bro. Check out the Rakim’s, the Nas’, the Jay-Zs. Check out the dudes that came before that. [Wayne] is my dude, I love him to death, but know where hip-hop came from.”
“You would have not had a Mannie Fresh if it’s not for a Rakim or a Nas or a Kool G. Rap,” he detailed. “I grew up on these dudes., That’s what made me cool. If I could get a conversation with a Nas or a Kool G. Rap, my life is complete. I want them on [my album]. I hate the politics in rap right now. Because I think those dudes deserve a chance. Those the pioneers that made it. They aint lost it, they still nice. Let’s give them a shot. You know who I would love to have on my album? Kool G. Rap. He’s always been nice on the mic.”
