Throughout the evolution of rap music, there’s been an array of sounds that have defined the genre. From early hip hop to gangster music, rap artists have relied on their production to help translate their realities into songs. In the South, in particular, heavy drums and bass help tell the story of rappers who has grown up in the streets. Like Young Jeezy, Plies, and Eightball & MJG, these street lyricists all have relied on one man to musically visualize and transform their lives in beat form.

Meet Tracey Sewell aka Midnight Black.

This platinum-recording producer and songwriter has had a successful career that spans over 10 years. Born and raised on the Westside of Atlanta, Georgia, Midnight Black’s own realities of serving prison time and living that street-life, easily justifies why he is the “go-to” guy for rappers who want street and club bangers. The man who helped shape the Corporate Thugz Entertainment (CTE) sound, is about as low-key as Young Jeezy on a personal level.  Professionally, his production speaks for itself as he creates masterpieces in a basement studio adorned with numerous gold and platinum plaques. Not the one for the spotlight, Midnight Black is humbled by the accolades but wishes to one day receive that Holy Grail in music…a Grammy award.  So, let’s just say he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime time soon. In 2012, the “trap star of street music” wishes to expand his musical platform and give the world something they’ve never heard. With current projects in the work with Southside Atlanta rapper 2 Chainz, Plies, and CTE artist Freddie Gibbs, Midnight Black will pull in overtime in the studio to make sure he gives each artist “1000%…whatever it takes to get the job done”.

Right before Christmas and after the recent release of Young Jeezy’s TM:103 album, STACKS Magazine was given the opportunity to sit down with Midnight Black. We talked openly and candidly about his life, the long list of artists he’s worked with, what new producers can expect in this business,  the Midnight Massacre mixtape, and much more.

Here’s the full interview:

 

What city are you from?
MB: Well, I’m Midnight Black, I’m from Adamsville USA. For all of you that don’t know, that’s on the Westside of Atlanta, Georgia…where I was born and raised.

How long have you been producing music?
MB: This is my 10th year “professionally”. Professionally meaning, when you’re getting checks in the mail…that’s when you are a producer. Before you begin doing that, you’re just an “aspiring” producer.

What inspired you to get into the music business and become a producer?
MB: I always had a love for music. I got caught up in a bad situation. I had to choose another game and this is the game I chose. So, I dived in it…full fledged.
Tell our readers, who some of the artists are that you’ve produced tracks for.
MB: I started off producing stuff like “Mr. Big Time”, “Check My Footwork”, Trillville “Watch Me Do This”, Kizzy Rock, Pastor Troy, and DSGB stuff. My first placement was Greg Street’s “Vol. 1 6’oclock” when Greg Street released his mixtape nationally (and put them in stores and stuff) when he was signed to Atlantic. My second project was a Sammy remix I did for Dallas Austin, “I Like It” that went platinum. I did the Sammy Sam album “Step Daddy” album, DSGB album. And from there I went to make the Boyz In The Hood album with Young Jeezy and Block. And then I went to Jeezy…oh wait…no, I went to Ying Yang twins. I had two on that album that went platinum. After that album went platinum, Jeezy came through with his movement.  I had two on that album that went double platinum. Plies came…and he kept going gold, gold, gold with the work we did on all 3 albums. I’ve been on all four Jeezy albums: TM:101, Thug Motivation 101, The Inspiration, The Recession, and right now TM:103. I did “All We Do (Smoke & Fuck)”. I got the new Plies sh*t jumping the “28 Grams”. I f*cked with the DJ mixtapes that’s doing good in the streets right now.

What is your process when creating a new track? How do you get into your zone?
MB: My creative process is really spontaneous. It’s like I can be sitting here thinking about a beat. When yall leave, I’m going to make that muthaf*cka. Or I can be driving or I can be in there fishing and make a beat. It comes…I try to get it out when it comes.

What equipment do you use?
MB: I can’t lie. For every album and everything I’ve ever done, I never use the same thing. I always change it up because music is changing. They got some new sh*t that’s better than the sh*t they had last year. You got to keep up with that sh*t if you really doing that sh*t. So I make sure I invest in my sounds and sh*t. So me, I use everything. Ain’t no telling what the f*ck I’m going to do. It’s like “Go Hard or Go Home” that was live. That was live bass, live guitar, and some horns. Sometimes, I don’t Midi up to make a beat. That means, I’m going live into Protools…live with no sync. It’s a creation. So it’s like whatever I’m trying to get out musically, I got to get it out to and paint the picture. So when you hear it, you’ll get it. I don’t like doing stuff where you got to figure it out. Because you got to sit there and figure that shit out, that mean I didn’t do my job. When it comes on, it need to capture your soul. It got to feel like a drug. Like ooh, that sh*t feels so good…”turn that on again”. Music is supposed to motivate you. It’s like soup. Whenever you eat it, it’s going to be good for you.

{pause: Midnight wants to make sure he shout out a few people…}

     Oh don’t forget, these some ni**as I’ve always love…Eightball & MJG. I love working with them. Shout out to them and Big Duke, Slim from 112. I did his solo album. I executive produced for that. I had 7 songs on that. Me, Slim and a couple of other guys. Shout out to Pauly Calhoun and the Calhoun Boys and my boy Scooby-Do, Scooby-Do you what I’m talking about. So we had fun making that album. Faith Evans writing and stuff. Those were good times. Me and Sean Garret did some stuff together as well.

How long does it take you to create a hit? What are the key components to creating a hit song?
MB: To be honest with you, a hit is like “love”…you can’t describe it. It’s indescribable. When it comes on, when you get it…you feel it. That’s what a “hit” is. I go in there and try to paint the picture I’m trying to paint. But when it’s mixed in with vocals, whatever the projection is, sometimes you hit and you miss. It’s like gumbo. I don’t think nobody has the hand book or the road map for making hits. I don’t think anybody that’s ever been in the music game, stayed on top. Everybody has had dry spots. Even then, you just keep going and keep going and keep going until you can’t go no more.

Do you have a certain style of music (i.e. street, pop, R&B, etc) that you mainly create?
MB: I do like whatever’s for the cause. Or whatever I got to do to get the job done. If I’m f*cking with Jeezy, I know I got to give him that hard sh*t. If I’m f*cking with Plies, I know I got to give him that ghetto hard sh*t…that backwood hard sh*t. If I’m f*cking with Eightball & MJG, I know I got to give them that “pimping”.

     I feel that I’ve done a lot. But it’s a lot that the world hasn’t even heard yet. When they hear it, it’s a wrap. I love music and I feel that sometimes I have to slow down. I’ll put it like that, I have to slow down.

{pause: Midnight’s phone started ringing…}
Have you ever said “No” to an artist who wanted tracks from you? What does the artist need to bring to the table when you work with them?
MB: Yes, I get a million people coming to me. I f*ck with the city and the ones who really trying to do it. The ones whose trying to do the same thing I’m doing. I invest my money in it. So, they got to invest they money in it and they got to invest they time in it. Ain’t shit in this game free. You ain’t gone make no money if you ain’t gone spend no money. Point blank period.

     The artists coming to me has really got to be developed. I ain’t got the time to play with a muthaf*cka. I aint got that time to sit down and baby sit a muthaf*cka. A muthaf*cka got to come to me ready. That’s how I really like it. When an artist don’t come to me ready, that shit is agitating. It’s agitating. I like money but time is money. So, I got to choose my time wisely. But, I think I’m getting out of that realm. I think I got a lot to offer. If I really paid attention and zoom in and tune in to the artist a little bit more, I probably could bring something out of it. That’s one of the things I’m doing this year like be on some Christopher Columbus sh*t…discover a muthaf*cka.

Are there any artists, who you have not worked with, you would like to?
MB: Yes, it’s some muthaf*ckas I’m waiting on. They know I’m waiting on their asses.

Bels: Like who?
MB: I’m waiting on a couple of my partnas. We all doing different sh*t and ni**as got different grinds. We all over the muthaf*cking place. But, I’m waiting to have fun in the studio with a couple of my partnas. I’m waiting to see how this sh*t gone turn out. I ain’t go lie to you. It’s about 20-30 artists that I’m just ready to go in on. But 10 of them are some ni**as that I really know, before the world knew who they was. I’ll keep it like that because they know who they are.

MB: Should I say who they are? {laughs}

Bels: Say somebody I know! {laughs} Anybody that we might know…say Rick Ross, would you work with Rick Ross?
MB: Ross will tell you this. Ross used to come to a studio in College Park that a friend of mine owned before when I was a nobody trying to get on. And Rick… it’s a ni**a around here with some masters. You might think I’m lying. It’s a ni**a around here with some masters with Rick Ross on some vintage Midnight Black sh*t. We did that when he was Teflon Don. I think he was with Suave House and running around with Block. I had just got out of prison. This ni**a I know that was locked up with me was like, “Man, I got this f*cking ni**a man that’s coming in from Florida that rap and I need some beats and a studio”. He brought the cash and booked out the studio and we was out there working. Those were the good days at T&S Studios. A lot of people used to come over there. Shawty Redd, Young Dro, Doeshun, Pastor Troy, Bobby Valentino, Block, Diablos, Mr. Big Time, Buck Power, and it’s a lot more I’m not naming and I’m missing. But, they were there too. If I missed yall and yall hearing this interview, I apologize. {laughs}

     I got to learn to watch what I say because I’m from two different worlds. So, I have done a lot of music independently and majorly. So, I got a lot of friends in music. And I got a lot of friends not music that be like, “Do that shit”. I got friends that push me. I got friends that will really push me and get on me like, “Hell naw, that ain’t no Grammy shit”. Then, they’ll come in here next time and I play it and they be like, “Yeah, that’s that Grammy shit”. That’s the only thing I haven’t got yet. We have been robbed twice over a f*cking Grammy. They owed us a Grammy on the TM: 101. And they owed us a Grammy for that f*cking Recession. “Yeah, yall robbed us for our fucking grammy on the Recession. I said it. And the TM: 101!”

     Excuse me yall, its Christmas time. The TM:103 just came out Tuesday [the album dropped Dec. 20]. And Jeezy hit the city yesterday, and it’s 7 o’clock [PM]. I just woke up and I’m back on it. F*ck it, I’m going to Crucial tonight. {laughs}

MB: The business side…I’m just gone be honest with you. I had to learn. I had my experiences. I had to learn one thing. The number one thing…regardless of who you know and what you doing and how you got there, you have to remember that every day, every second, 24 hours 365, 366…the shit is muthaf*cking business, business, business, business, business. And if you don’t treat it like business, somebody else gone treat it like they business. Simple. Or you gone get handled out of your business. Because this game right here, it ain’t gone wait on you. It ain’t gone put no muthaf*cking pacify in your mouth. This game right here going to run your ass the f*ck over. If you ain’t ready for it. And it’s work, work, work… consistent work. It’s damn near like I’m working out on this muthaf*ckin keyboard like a NFL player trying to make the Super Bowl. That’s how I look at it. Every time I’m trying to make a project, I’m trying to make the Super Bowl. Because I know if I make the Super Bowl it’s going to be a celebration. Going to the bank is the celebration. Cashing that check is the celebration. And being able to provide for my family that’s the celebration. That’s what this sh*t is all about. In this business, you got to love what you do first. Don’t get sidetracked by the business. You got to learn how to balance this sh*t. If you don’t, it’s gone eat you. You got to learn how to balance or it’s gone whip your ass up.

For an upcoming producer, could you give them some advice on how to sell and get their music heard?
MB: Everybody is making it in different kind of ways. Only thing I can say is bang…hustle. This sh*t is a hustle. This sh*t is all about your hustle. You sit there and wait on this sh*t to come to you. This sh*t ain’t coming to you. You got to go out there and get everything you trying to get. That’s what I learned. It’s like you trapping. It’s like I’m treating this sh*t now. I’m back in the trap like I got a bomb in my drawers and I’m serving everybody. This year, 2012 is my favorite year. So I’m serving everybody, C.O.D. Come with you’re A-game ‘cause my beats gone crush you! I don’t give a f*ck who you is. I got some intimidating beats.

     Yeah, I get pushed to come with my A-game too now. Doing what I do ain’t easy. Don’t get it twisted I’m talking sh*t. But, I got to come with my best sh*t too. And I got to keep coming with my best sh*t. Just like I’m sitting here talking, it’s a muthaf*cka sitting here looking at the video right now saying, “Sh*t, ni**a I’m trying to eat too and I’m gone eat.” And he’s trying to push my ass out the way so he can eat. I ain’t trying to push his ass out the way. But damn, I ain’t gone let your ass push me out the way. So I got to stay focus on what I’m doing. If I don’t stay focused, somebody going to stay focused on my shit. Somebody’s always watching. Someone’s always listening.

Is it important to have an attorney or manager? What can they do for you?

MB: Managers are very important. But it all depends on the nature of the manager. Some people get managers before they need them and they f*ck them all the way up before they even get to…the letter A.

{pause: referencing the recent Soulja Boy lawsuit allegations…}

A manager should never get 50%. Anybody shouldn’t. If a manager getting 50% of your sh*t, shoot’em! Tell’em Midnight Black said shoot’em goddamit. Say, “Midnight Black told me to shoot you. You robbing me.” He is robbing you. If your manager getting 50% of your sh*t, you never gone eat. Shit, you’re a slave. {laughs}

     A manager is there to help. You’re the one that get the money. But the manager is the one to keep things in order for you and go out and get things done for you. He takes a lot of responsibility too. But that’s a little bit too much. I don’t know what kind of agreement they in. You never know what’s going on. But that’s a little bit too much. The manager might be paying for everything like housing, studio time. If a manager is paying for you to live or the manager giving you a salary, yeah I can see some sh*t going down like that. But you as a grown man taking care of yourself, you show up at the studio and put in your time and effort too…that’s a little bit too much. To each is own. This sh*t is business. Like I said, you got to be on your business.

Besides Young Jeezy’s TM103 album, what other production credit should we look out for in 2012?
MB: 2 Chainz! 2 Chainz, some Plies. I’m waiting on some Slim stuff. He hadn’t cut it yet but I’m waiting on him to cut some records. I got some stuff coming out on Wingo of Jagged Edge (he about to come out solo). A new guy, St. Nick signed to DeVyne Stephens label. And USDA shit. I’m getting ready for Freddie Gibbs and whatever my homies over there at CTE needs. A whole bunch of shit. I’m going to be all over the place this year. I’m not even gone front. I’m really waiting for January 2. It’s going to be like muthaf*ckas open up the gates at the Kentucky Derby. Muthaf*ckas in the stands got that bag. I’m chasing that rabbit!

     I feel like that muthaf*cka on that commercial. “Today, I’m not going to be who you expect me to be.” I’m going to be all over the f*cking place. Do what I love the do. Over the years, I’ve kind of pick and choosed who I wanted to work with and just focused on that. This year, I’m just gone let it go and just bang, bang, bang. I got a few people mad at me about sh*t like that. I like to concentrate. I’m a producer. So like when I’m working on a artist, I don’t just like to give 200%. I got to go in and give 300%, 400%, 1000% whatever it takes to get the job done. I’m the type of muthaf*cka that gone be in the studio. We in there working on a song and the song coming out good and this shit take 72 hours and nobody went home in 72 hours that’s what it take to get the song done. I’m one of them type of producers. I ain’t like, “Oh man I got to go home and do this.” I’m gone sit there and get the song done and get all this f*cking work done too until everybody pass the f*ck out. That’s the type of producer I am. I go hard or I go the f*ck home. It’s simple. When you working like this, sometime it takes time. When I’m working I try to get in with the artist and figure out what I can do to give him my very best. I can’t give artist my very best just handing his ass a CD. We never spent time in the studio together for me to really know exactly what he trying to do. I’m a producer and a musician. So I don’t want to just be there shaking the dice trying to go see no fucking artist. I want to go in and it’s the same thing. Even if I got to do it from far away, I got to get on my job and send my best sh*t too. So it’s kind of like the door swing both ways. But it’s the hustle.

 

 

As far as your own personal projects , do you have any mixtapes out?
MB: Midnight Massacre that’s me coming back as a rapper and bringing my new sound and what I represent to the table. Basically, what I was doing on Midnight Massacre was telling you a story, a real-life story, a “once upon a time” of Midnight Black. From the past, present, what I’ve been through, what I’m going through. Not disrespecting nobody like that, I kind of felt like I needed to tell a story. A “once upon a time” in the Westside, from Atlanta, Adamsville. I needed to tell a trap story and some street sh*t. And represent where we come from and how we actually done it in a sense. As far as like from the streets, that’s another side of Midnight Black that the world don’t know. So I was like having fun at the same time and telling this story and paint a picture and bring a message to the table. I got a lot of homies in the federal penitentiary so it’s like…and a lot of homies in the state penitentiary. So I get a lot of calls. Calls be like, “What the fuck going on out here. Man, I got the CD in here reading the cover. I see your name on this b*tch. I’m like, My Ni**a.” So that sh*t be like keep going, keep going. “When I get back out, you showing me. Because you got hit first, so that let me know when I get out whatever I choose to do I can do it too. I just got to believe I can do it.” Some calls be from ni**as giving me motivation. And I got to give them motivation in a slick kind of way because they ain’t going home. They got life sentences. They got 30-40 years. O.G. partnas that got 20 years and 30 years. Ni**as that’s gone actually die in f*cking jail. That’s my friends that done did sh*t. That got real stripes. That done did the sh*t that everybody talking about. A lot of these ni**as talking about it, but a lot of these ni**as weren’t even there. And I think that’s what draw the line sometimes on what artist I work with and some I don’t. I sit down and listen. If you ain’t really representing what you talking about, I can’t fuck with you. Because I represent the streets for real and it’s like disrespectful. I got ni**as dead from that sh*t. Doing time for that sh*t. Did time for that sh*t. Ain’t going home for that sh*t. Ni**as missing Christmas right now. Ni**as in a cell right now going fucking crazy. Going through some sh*t you wouldn’t even imagine beyond your wildest dreams. Some sh*t I wouldn’t wish on no body. It’s life and that’s what keeps me strong.

What do you hope to accomplish in music…say 5 years from now?
MB: In 5 years, I’m going to still be doing music. I ain’t even gone lie to you. In 5 years, I’m going to be all over the place. In 5 years, I’m going to be on that fucking television…watch. Midnight gone be on tv on yall ass in 5 years.

What are you going to be doing on tv?
MB: I don’t know what the f*ck I’m going to be doing on tv. But I am going to ne be doing something. If I ain’t talking sh*t, I’m gonna be making hits. I’m going to be on that Quincy Jones sh*t doing Sanford & Son theme songs and sh*t. Quincy Jones is my musical inspiration. The stuff he does is timeless. That’s what hits are about timelessness. Just think about it, if you go play a Michael Jackson CD that “Off The Wall” sh*t that “Thriller” sh*t. You play that sh*t it’s like they made that sh*t like it’s supposed to come out today. But you think about it like, “What year is it?” Just imagine the kids that were into music that came along that was doing the sh*t Jeezy doing what Michael Jackson was doing. The “Off The Wall” album was the first platinum album that did a whole bunch of numbers and platinum albums like that. Now you got rap artists doing 10 million and stuff like that. Just imagine something like that. You turn that record on today and be like “Wow, that just came out yesterday.”

What is some advice you’d give to the young producers that aspires to get into the business?
MB: You got to have a plan, A to Z. You got to be dedicated to yourself and be loyal to yourself. You got to put the time in if you really want to do it. You got to be humble. You got to listen and know when to speak not to speak. You got to learn that the ego sh*t ain’t gone get you nowhere. It’s work. You got to choose your time wisely. It’s a lot of ingredients to the game. To sum it all up, it’s what you put in it. It’s really what you put in it. You send that bullsh*t, the sh*t gone come out sounding like bullsh*t. If you going hard, you gone hit. So keep going hard. So keep banging. If you sit on your ass, it ain’t coming to you. Never coming to you. You just gone be like, “Sh*t, I can do this sh*t.” In 5 years, you gone say “Man, I could’ve did this sh*t.” You got to have a plan A to Z. Go hard or go home.

There’s a whole bunch of producers and songwriters, I love they sh*t too. I’m a big fan of music too. I consider myself a soldier in music army. And you know how the army is, every soldier ain’t the same. You got humble soldiers. You got crazy soldiers. You got aggressive soldiers. I’m just a soldier in an army of ni**as making music. I’m trying to be the best and get to General status. Being in the army, that sh*t take hard work and discipline.

 

     Check out more of Midnight Black on Facebook/MidnightBlackBlack, Twitter@MidnightBlack12, LinkedIn/MidnightBlack, Myspace/MidnightBlack…new website coming 2012 www.midnightblackmusic.com.

 

Video interviews:

Click on the links below to see Parts 3 & 4:

Midnight Black talks new producers and 2012 work with 2 Chainz, Plies, and more…Part 3
Midnight Black talks Midnight Massacre mixtape, 5 year plan, and begin a hustler in this game…Part 4