10 Things We Learned From Mannie Fresh's Microphone Check

Producer talks new Yasiin Bey album, Tha Carter V, and more.

Go D.J. - It's a rare treat to hear Mannie Fresh speak. Without words, he's been changing the landscape of pop culture and bridging the gap between New Orleans big band music and hip hop since the '90s.The live instrumentation on "Back That Azz Up" and the drum patterns on "Bling Bling," for example, certified the Cash Money team in the mainstream ("bling bling" was even added to the Oxford-English dictionary) and his new album with Yasiin Bey is doing something similar, connecting the bounce of the South with one of the most thought-provoking lyricists. ("It's hard to get him to rap like that," Fresh said of the artist formerly known as Mos Def.)In a special sit down for NPR's new Microphone Check series with Brooklyn-born DJ Ali Shaheed Muhammad (of Lucy Pearl and A Tribe Called Quest fame), Fresh not only drops a Bounce ver...
The Mind of Mannie Fresh - Of all the bangers Mannie Fresh has made, he still feels like he hasn't yet created his quintessential hit. "I like a lot of the songs I've done, but I haven't had that moment yet where I just wanted to just back up from the drum machine and be like, 'd--n, that's it," he said. The closest he's gotten? "It wasn't a song, it was an album, it was probably Juvenile, 400 Degreez."(Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for BMI)
Set It Off - What made 400 Degreez so special to Fresh? For most of the tracks, there were actual musicians in the booth playing live as Juve rapped. "It was a great process," Fresh said.(Photo: Rick Diamond/BET/Getty Images for BET)/content/dam/betcom/images/2013/05/Music-05-01-05-15/051513-music-mannie-fresh.jpg

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Go D.J. - It's a rare treat to hear Mannie Fresh speak. Without words, he's been changing the landscape of pop culture and bridging the gap between New Orleans big band music and hip hop since the '90s.The live instrumentation on "Back That Azz Up" and the drum patterns on "Bling Bling," for example, certified the Cash Money team in the mainstream ("bling bling" was even added to the Oxford-English dictionary) and his new album with Yasiin Bey is doing something similar, connecting the bounce of the South with one of the most thought-provoking lyricists. ("It's hard to get him to rap like that," Fresh said of the artist formerly known as Mos Def.)In a special sit down for NPR's new Microphone Check series with Brooklyn-born DJ Ali Shaheed Muhammad (of Lucy Pearl and A Tribe Called Quest fame), Fresh not only drops a Bounce ver...

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