Mannie Fresh Talks Def Jam, Collaborations With Dr. Dre & Kanye West

by SLAVA KUPERSTEIN

Mannie Fresh explains why he's kept it independent, and what it was like working with two of Hip Hop's greatest producers.

As he continues to make his return to music, Mannie Fresh, recently reminisced about his reasons for remaining independent after leaving Def Jam.

"To me, Def Jam put my career on hold," he explained in an interview with billboard.com. I was used to making 13-14 songs a year and they trickled that down to nothing. They were telling me to go out and get big records. I went and got a record with [Lil] Wayne and brought it back to Def Jam. Although it got a million hits on my page, they still refused to put it out. To this day I haven't got answers. I don't hold grudges. I just know I won't do it again."

Fresh also discussed what it was like to record with two of his most well-known peers: Kanye West and Dr. Dre.

Kanye inspires me through his work ethic and his approach. He'll tell you his whole warm-up speech: "When we're doing a song, we're not doing a song just to be doing a song. We're striving for a No. 1 song." With Dr. Dre, he's a perfectionist. A lot of people ask why "Detox" is taking so long. It's because Dre is somebody that is trying to top what he's done. Will he do it? I don't know if he ever will, but I respect that he's trying to do so. You have to wait for a masterpiece.

 

We're all fans of Dre down South. He can park it in Atlanta and I promise you Detox would come out tomorrow.

"Kanye inspires me through his work ethic and his approach. He'll tell you his whole warm-up speech: 'When we're doing a song, we're not doing a song just to be doing a song. We're striving for a No. 1 song.'"

"With Dr. Dre, he's a perfectionist. A lot of people ask why Detox is taking so long. It's because Dre is somebody that is trying to top what he's done. Will he do it? I don't know if he ever will, but I respect that he's trying to do so. You have to wait for a masterpiece. We're all fans of Dre down South. He can park it in Atlanta and I promise you Detox would come out tomorrow."