CHOPS is one of the producers that's on the rise. He has been in the game for a minute now and has done a lot of work that you may have heard.

He's done tracks for Kanye West, Young Jeezy, National Anthem, Chamillionaire, We Breakin' Up, E-40, Rollin On Candy, and DJ Clue, . he's also done tracks on over 50 TV shows including MTV's Rob & Big, and Speed Channel's Unique Whips.

I recently had the chance to chop (no pun intended) it up with him to find out a little more about his work, his future and his production style.

Enjoy the read!

Profit: What motivated you to become a producer?

CHOPS: When I was little I was in like a gifted program, and we would get to skip other classes and do creative type stuff. The other kids would bring in stuff like synthesizers and drum machines and things. My one boy brought in a Boss DR-110 which was like a beginners drum machine that had sounds along the lines of the TR-808. I would borrow that from him, and borrow keyboards and amps from my music teacher, and just sit and figure out things like Run-DMC drum patterns and shit. Eventually I got my own equipment and it went from there.

Did you have any major influences in the industry that made you really want to be a producer?

I'm a fan of a lot of producers, and I respect a lot of people's work, but there wasn't one that made me want to do this. There's no idol or anything. I wanted to do this because of the thing itself. To this day I wake up wanting to make beats, man.

Your group, The Mountain Brothers, signed a major label deal. What made you branch away from rapping and focus more on production?

The guys in the group got me into the rapping part. I was just making tracks at first. People seemed to dig the rapping too so I kept at it some. It's always been about the tracks for me though. When I get the urge, which is usually when there's money involved, I'll break out the rhymes now and then haha.

Do you feel you get the recognition you deserve?

That's a good question, I like that one. I feel that I do when people hear the music. Getting motherfuckers to listen is the hardest thing man. Lots of artists have their own in-house dudes, or say they have an A&R who does beats, or a manager who does beats. They tend to stick with someone who's around them 24/7 even if it means they make low quality records, and even it hurts their sales. Once people actually listen to my shit though, they dig something. Especially these days. My shit is together now man. It wasn't always ready for prime time. A lot of people, when they face a tough road, they just turn and go the other way. I kept at this and got stronger. You know how in like a kung fu movie, a dude thinks he's the shit, gets shut down, and then goes back and trains his ass off and then comes back to house motherfuckers? That's me, I'm back to house motherfuckers. And I have a manager, Mike who kept at this and believed in me for years. It's just starting to pan out now for real. All we need now is people with ears.

Besides Kanye West, Snoop & Young Jeezy, what other mainstream artists have you worked with or done beats for?

The Game, E-40, Chamillionaire, Paul Wall, Bun B, Raekwon, ODB, Talib Kweli, Daz, Kurupt, Ice Cube, man it's more all the time. But I'm not one of them dudes who starts working with certain names and starts thinking they're the shit, and forgets about everybody else. I work with all kinds of artists. We have different levels of business we can do with you depending on your situation. If you want all the exact same rights and control a major artist gets, you gotta kick out major label type funds. But we (me and my management) work with a lot of indies because we've been independent since day one. And people don't always have access to good tracks to help them shine.

I know working with Kanye certainly had to be a milestone for you. Did you find yourself trying to branch out more, production wise, to do some that fit Kanye's style?

Man I got tracks for damn near everybody out there. They just don't all know it yet. I love it when somebody who's made an impact, or somebody who I respect, enjoys the music enough to get down, because it helps send the message that I'm on the right path with this, and I'm a motherfucker who knows what he's doing. But I branch out because I like to make a variety of music.

I know producers are critical of the work they put out. How hard are you on yourself when making beats for artists such as Snoop, Chamillionaire, Paul Wall, etc?

I'm pretty critical and I tend to take a little more time on tracks. I'll spend the time if a track needs or deserves it. You see all kinds of people with videos of themselves making a beat in like 10 minutes. That's good and well, but for me I'm just getting started at that point. There's all kinds of details in my music. Something as small as switching out a hi-hat sound makes a huge difference in a beat and how it makes you feel. If you make a sculpture, you don't just hit a big rock with a hammer a few times, and then be done. You get in there with your chisels and carve out eyes, nostrils, fingers. Make that shit come to life. I will say Jeezy seems to really know what he wants, who he is, and what the right sound for him is. A lot of people don't know that, but that's where a good producer can help out.

When making beats, do you cater to the artists style or do you just go with the flow?

Both. Sometimes I make tracks targeted to someone specific. Or like a range of artists. But other times I just feel like doing some shit, and it just works out that someone feels it fits them. "We Breakin Up" on Chamillionaire's album is just something I felt like doing. And to me that's the most personal, expressive song he's done. I think dude's a genius who's mostly known for a single that Weird Al covered.

What artists are you working with right now?

Right now we're finishing some stuff for Bun B which is gonna be crazy. Lil Wayne is on one of them. Got a single on the new E-40 album with Paul Wall on it. Working on some things with Lil Weavah out of Atlanta, Jim Jones and his people hollered about a track, Working on the new Jeezy project, and like I said dude knows a hit record and knows who and what he is and thats special, San Quinn out of San Francisco is recording some stuff, there's always something in the works, a few things we can not talk about as of now.

Did you ever get the chance to work with Pimp C? If so, what was that experience like?

No I never met him. He's a big inspiration though. RIP Pimp C. He lives on through music, not just his own but the people he affected. There's a lot of producers who wouldn't sound like they do, if he never existed. There's certain groups who, if your music doesn't sound at least a little bit like you've listened to them, you're fucking up. UGK is one of them.

What artists would you like to work with in the future?

Man there's so many. I always hesitate to put that out there because you never know what the cards have in store for you. I'll say I'm grateful for the chances I've had so far, and I feel like if people keep their ears open, I can provide the right music to help them get their vision across.

What direction do you see CHOPS going in 2008?

UP!

What equipment are you currently using?

I use a computer rig. These days you gotta have a computer in there somewhere, and you can do most everything in the box. I mix it up though, I'm always buying mics, instruments, guitars, basses, horns, different shit to use. And then when I get sick of it I'll throw it up on eBay or something. Really for the most part, it's not the gun, it's the shooter. At a certain level, once you get past beginner quality stuff, most anything out there will do the trick. But I do like changing things up just to give new ideas or sounds.

How different is it for you when you make a track for an artist versus making a score for a TV show or movie?

It's kinda similar because what you're doing is providing a feel, or like setting the tone. The best artists are ones where you can picture the scene without there even being a video. And the best tracks help you visualize that scene. When you're working with picture, the main difference is the actual picture is right there literally. And things need to line up a certain way.

Any TV shows you working with right now?

All kinds man. One that people might like that I did a ton on the first two season and more on the new season is Rob and Big. Alot of cable and some network stuff. Did something on that Victoria Beckham show a few months back. Doing some film work right now thats crazy but who knows when thats going to come out or if it ever will. Sometimes the best work I do on films or even with some artists never sees the light of day due to label and company issues, but I can not control that.


Do you have any advice for the aspiring producers out there?

Yeah. You have to be ready to give up a lot to do this shit. It has to be that important to you, to the point where maybe other things in life don't get the attention they should. You have to skimp on other things to feed this. And, you have to have a thick skin and be able to get rejected or ignored a whole fuckin lot. It's not whether you get knocked down, because you will get knocked down, that's guaranteed. It's what you do when that happens. Do you get back up? If you do get back up, do you actually fight, or do you just stand there and take more lumps? Or do you just fold, and throw in the towel?

My other advice is, make sure your drums hit. A lot of producers who are just starting out got weak drums. In fact we got a thing where we sell a pack of drum sounds, 10001 sounds that I put together over the decade or so I been doing this, for producers. It's like a career's worth of drums. You could just use them and be good. In fact major producers have used my drums on joints, Just Blaze on PSA for one. We got a Myspace page with info on the drum sounds.

Lastly, I wanna thank you for the opportunity for the interview, do you have any last words for the readers?

Yeah man thanks for the interview I appreciate it. And I'd like to give the Myspace address, that's where people can come through and check out my music, have a look at some articles, things of that nature. It's www.myspace.com/chopsmusicdotcom and if you're an artist and want to do business on some tracks, or a producer that wants that drum sounds hookup, you can holler about that.

Be sure to check out his myspace for more info, and listen to a few tracks he's done.