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As one of the most hardworking people in the music industry, Jazze Pha is constantly on the grind. Taking a well-deserved break from his hectic schedule, the producer talks to The Situation about his past, present, and his very promising future.
Deep
in the South, out Atlanta way, sits Jazze
Pha behind his MPZ3000, new Synam keyboard and Protious
2000, working all day long. As the producer of OutKast,
Ciara, Usher
and countless others over the past decade, Jazze Pha, born Phalon Alexander,
is known to be one of the most prolific producers in the industry. “I
stay busy,” he laughed when he spoke to The Situation.
The flavours coming from the South are burning hot pot of sizzling rhythms right now, with artists from the South continuously making it big. As the man who has brought the sounds of the South to the fore since the ’90s, Jazze Pha has seen the music coming out of Atlanta rise and rise over the last couple of years. Being a mainstay means he has insight as to why: “Because it’s new. It’s new and it’s fresh and it’s hot. Like Lil’ Jon, you know what I’m sayin’?. He makes hot records. He doesn’t just make really energetic rhythms, he makes energetic and crunk records down here in the South and it’s been going on since we’ve been making records. But I think that when you take it into an arena like you do with people like Usher, that’s what it takes to take it over the top. When you do it with Ciara, that takes it over the top, you know what I’m sayin’.”
Despite his reputation for being a producer of the Dirty South sound, Jazze Pha hasn’t embraced the crunk genre in its entirety as it doesn’t suit his style. “I do a little bit of it [crunk]. I think my music is a little bit of rhythm and blues. My music is a little more laid back or in my dance records, kind of universal. I don’t put a “crunk” name on there, that’s Lil’ Jon, that’s his thing. To us we’re in the South, you know what I’m sayin’, so when you say, ‘crunk’, you’re saying it’s something with a lot of energy.”
The South, however, is in his blood, but it hasn’t been his home all his life. Growing up, Jazze divided his time between his mother’s home in California and his father’s place in Memphis, whilst being surrounded by many influential artists of the music world. Being the son of James Alexander, the bass player of Otis Reading’s Bar-Kays, and the son of diva Denice Williams, has meant that music had been in the backbone of his life even before the cradle.
With such a musical childhood, he found himself in positions many could only dream about. As incentive, if Jazze earned good grades at school, he could tour with his father and could count Parliament-Funkadelic as babysitters. Then a career in the music industry is hardly surprising, and it’s a career of which his parents are supportive. “Oh yeah, most definitely. They’re in the music industry so they understand. They understand me taking a chance and trying doing this for a living. They understand what it means to get out here and be doing what you love to do, you know?”
Also in earlier days, Pha was employed as a roofer in California before following his dream. Now, those days are long gone. “[It was] hard labour, hard labour. It’s nothing like this. Oh most definitely, just a stop along the way, you know?” Roofing was not part of the dream but it wasn’t long until a label came knocking. Cash Money Records enlisted his talents with a 50-song deal as a producer and he never looked back. “Oh, it was a great opportunity, great opportunity. That I could actually play down the barriers of the situation that was only really one-producer driven, without anything fresh. And he just opened up to me and allowed me to come in there. I thought that was more of an accomplishment in itself, to just bring me in like that.”
Today, Pha has his own label and never stops working, in fact he lives and breathes the music industry professionally and socially. “Yeah it’s a full time situation,” he admits. With his name on the production credits of not only Outkast, Ciara and Usher, but also Ludacris, Aaliyah, Busta Rhymes, P. Diddy, Toni Braxton, Mya, Monica, Tupac, Bow Wow, Bobby Womack, Snoop Dogg, Nelly, Lil’ Kim, and Angie Stone, among others, he is still passionate about his own label. “Oh man, just be on the look out for Sho’ Nuff records, and just stay preferring us ’cos we’re a growing company and we’re just trying to serve them [the fans] with the big hits.”
The artist and producer relationship can be an intimate one, but it can also be a prosperous one for the artist with the right attitude. Pha sites Ciara as his dream person to work with. “I mean I got it… Ciara,” he says with conviction, “Because she understands it’s 90% business 10% talent, you know what I’m sayin’, and that’s evident in the way she handles business, the way she handles interviews, people. She’s just an all round artist. I think she’s the next Janet Jackson.”
When it’s time for fun, Pha will say, “I be havin’ fun with everybody!” As is imaginable, OutKast’s exuberance in their dress sense and music making would make them very fun to work with: “Definitely fun to work with and they are some creative people, just open to bright new ideas and I think that’s what is going to take them over the top and make them an A-list group. And I bet even with all their accomplishments, they still don’t get the credit they deserve, you know, because people are starting to look at them as a pop group.”
And work still beckons. As well as being a producer, Jazze Pha has featured on tracks for Angie Stone, OutKast and Lil’ Jon & the East Side Boys, to name a few. It is hard to know where to rank his best place in the hip hop scene, but Pha can enjoy both positions. “I prefer working with artists, but now I’m doing so many things as a featured artist that people are now anticipating my album. So I’m probably going to be forced to do an album now.”
Whatever the part he plays in hip hop, he will always be known as a mover and shaker, a person participating in hip hop’s future. Jazze Pha is currently working with Monica, Faith Evans and on the new Ciara album. More importantly, he’s working with a lot of new blood. When asked how hip hop will evolve, the acclaimed producer has a straight answer: “Just like it’s evolving now, because with crunk, it’s basically a whole genre of music, just like reggae songs. It’s just got so much to come. You can call it what you want to call it, but it’s just music….”
