were building their scene out there. They wanted to go from regional to national and be more experimental. It was cool because I was at a crossroads in my career, too. Exposure to other creative people from different areas made me like a sponge. Whatever or whoever I interacted with, I learned from.” Steve recalled seeing Mannie hook up an SP-1200, mixing and transitioning samples in a way he had never seen. “The first thing I noticed was him as
a DJ,” Steve recalled. “I could see he had the skills because he was scratching on every record, and showing the skills right off. I could only imagine how he rocks the crowd.Then, I saw him work on the drum machine. And it wasn’t a drum machine that had a lot of sounds in it. I could tell it was a challenge, but he was rising to the challenge with limited equipment...and he was fast. His hands were fast .” Mannie shared similar memories of their interaction, noting that Steve’s work ethic inspired him to seize opportunities and to be firm on his abilities.“Be daring. Don’t be scared to take chances,” Mannie said. “There’s nothing wrong with making a song your own, and I think that’s what made the Mannie Fresh sound. It’s been a lot of times when an artist tried to make me cater to them, and I have to say, ‘You hired me, so you gotta let me do me.’ And a lot of that confidence came from being around people like Steve Hurley.” By the start of the early ’90s, Mannie and Gregory’s growing regional popularity had put them on the radar of RCA Records, which moved the two out to Los Angeles to try their hand in the city that was then breathing new life into hip-hop through artists like N.W.A. Mannie would leave for L.A.with his father’s blessing.His mother, a teacher, was led to believe that he was attending classes at Southern University in Baton Rouge.“My dad was like,‘If you come back, we all fucked. I’m protecting you right now,’” he said with a laugh. Gregory and Mannie’s main task in Los Angeles was to work on a follow-up to D Rules the Nation .While Gregory was being courted as a solo artist, Mannie’s ear and production talent quickly put him in high demand.“People didn’t know how to program drum machines or keyboards, so they kept me around,” Mannie said.“I think it made Greg feel some kind of way. Even though I was working on our project, I was working on a lot of other stuff by myself. I was dumb to a lot of shit. Like, you know, I’m from the South, and I can’t believe I’m in the studio where the Beastie Boys would pass through, or Ice-T. I’m happy to see these dudes, and anybody who wants beats, or
Time (Project Rapp)” was a nod to the Second Line dance style synonymous with the street parties and parades of New Orleans. While creating the beat, Mannie decided to “make it sound like New Orleans,” layering a discordant jazz sample and a bass tone that resembled a tuba over drums from his TR-808, while Gregory D rattled off the names of New Orleans wards, hoods, and projects. New Orleans, which had given the world so much music already, had its first homegrown hip-hop anthem, a song the whole city could embrace. “Buck Jump Time” would be released as the B-side to “Where You From? (Party People),”a track that put the duo ahead of the curve of the call-and-response trend that was sweeping the New Orleans club scene at the time. “Those songs were the hottest throughout Louisiana for years,” Mannie said. “Whenever [‘Buck Jump Time’] came on, people went crazy. So, to me, I was already on. I didn’t care about the money or any of that. It was just a great feeling to have a song like this.” “Buck Jump Time” would appear on the duo’s second album, D Rules the Nation , released through Dallas-based Yo! Records in 1989. While working on that project, Mannie was introduced to producer Steve “Silk” Hurley. Steve had been at the forefront of the Chicago house music movement, with massive dance hits like “I Can’t Turn Around” and “Jack Your Body,” and was now in the midst of a mainstream crossover that would soon find him working with Prince, Janet Jackson, and Madonna. Neither Mannie nor Steve was familiar with the other’s music, but the label saw an opportunity in teaming two producers responsible for their respective regions’ sounds. In addition to engineering sessions at Chicago’s Tanglewood Studios, Steve would ultimately be tasked with creating the final mixes for D Rules the Nation . “He was already a legend to me in my mind. Man, that dude was cold,” Steve said of Mannie. “The first day we listened to music, we tried to get familiar with each other, and the guys were really cool. They told me a little about their backstory and how they
52 WaxPoetics
( top) Mannie Fresh and Gregory D accepting the Best Rap Album honor for D Rules the Nation at the Big Easy Awards in New Orleans in 1990. Photo courtesy of Mannie Fresh.
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