J Silva Interview

I2G kicked it with High Powered Entertainment’s CEO J Silva for a exclusive interview. We discuss his recent projects with Daz Dillinger (Gangsta Party), Kurupt & Roscoe (Frank & Jess Story) and future projects with Jayo Felony, Lil Flip, Kokane and Beanie Sigel and a certain west coast legend that is in the works. So sit back and enjoy.

Illuminati 2G is here with J. Silva how’s it going?

Hey man I am doing great, how you doing?

Good. Tell me a little bit about how you got your start in music and who are some of your musical influences out there?

Basically how I got started in music is I started making beats and I did it as a hobby. Like how most producers do when they start out, I started locally with a couple of friends. I started bumping into a few contacts and they enjoyed what they heard. I asked to do production on a couple peoples album and it was basically a domino reaction from there. Once I did one song, one thing led to another and got the opportunity to work with alot of people that I admire in the past and just keeping it pushing.

What inspired you to start up the label, High Powered Music, that you own?

Well there is a west coast artist out here named Killa Tay, who pretty much convinced me to do a compilation. He was like man there is alot of money in it for producers to start their own companies up. He helped me come up with the name and helped me get a couple features on there and we released the compilation and sold 10,000 on the streets. The compilation was called Hand To Hand Combat and I seen that the album was selling good and here we are.

A couple of years ago you dropped Daz Dillinger’s album Gangsta Party and you dropped the Frank & Jess Story from Kurupt and Roscoe. How did you come up with the whole concept of producing whole albums from artists? Is that something that you try to do each project?

Yeah pretty much. I am a producer and my first love is to always create and make the music. On the business side of it, wewant to sell records and prosper in other areas but as far as that goes, I am the main producer over at High Powered Entertainment. I have a few people on my production team, Cozmo and my brother P Silva and a couple other people that I let get involved and try to get their feet wet at the same time. I like to take most of it to the head.

As far as the process with these albums, do you already have the beats laid out and the artists pick them? Or are you there from start to finish, crafting and creating beats as the artists is creating rhymes for it?

Exactly, it kind of goes both ways. Alot of people do not believe it when I tell them, but it is the honest to God truth. Most of the beats and the albums and the things that I do, are created on the spot for the artist. Like a beat I would make for Lil Flip, obviously it would not be a good beat for Beanie Sigel. So I would either get a idea to do a project with Daz and either make a few beats or make the beats with him there. So he could still been in there and kind of custom tailor suit the kind of music that he wants. Daz came in a pretty much knocked out all the vocals in 2 days for that album.

Wow.

We can pretty much do a song every hour or 2. Music and beats and track it out. Of course it takes longer as far as the mixing and promoting of the record but just about every record that I have done, it did not take more than a week to do.

How was the experience working with Kurupt and Roscoe for the Frank & Jess album?

Aww man it was fantastic man. Just like Kurupt or Daz or Roscoe, I am a long time fan of what they do so it was a real honor for me to be in the lab working with them. They worked with the best people in the game from Dr. Dre, everybody. So I am always hella appreciative to be working with people that I admire. It is fantastic.

What other albums are set to drop on the label? I see the ad on the Frank & Jess booklet for a new Kokane album coming soon?

Yeah actually Kokane is signed to High Powered Entertainment as a artist. We knocked out about 100 songs in the past year or so. His album is on a totally different vibe, more of a live band feel. You know he is a singer and we have alot of rap features on there, were it is him in collaboration with people that either he or I have worked with the past. It is called Back To The Future so here is the whole premise of the whole album. We have old school, we have George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, Cameo, Zapp, Teena Marie, and on the other side of it we got Jadakiss, Too $hort, Lil Flip, Beanie Sigel so it is kind of something that is totally different then anything in the game right now. It does not sound like ANY other project that is out. It has a old school/new school type of vibe with alot of live band stuff.

Do you have a release date or anything set for that album?

No, not as of right now. We are just polishing up the artwork and preparing the launch for that for next year. No definite date as of now.

What are some of the other artists that you are working with that are on the label, looking to get their albums pressed up and done?

Right now the most current is Lil Flip. It is called Respect Me and that is definitely going to be a good album for us. Lil Flip is very well respected and very well rounded and a commerical artist so he can definitely generate that buzz that we need. His album drops September 29th on E1 Music, formerly Koch Entertainment. So that is going really well for us and we just finished up the paperwork and we are gonna start recording with Beanie Sigel. That is slated for the beginning of 2010 for his album. We got a couple other things in the works, that we are trying to nail down right now. Possible Too $hort album, and a couple other ones. So we are just trying to stay working and keep them coming.

Was there ever any talks with Kurupt and Roscoe to do another Frank & Jess album?

Yeah man there actually was shortly after we did the Frank & Jess album, Kurupt was working with DJ Quik on the Blaqkout album. He stays super super busy as well as us so yeah we definitely talked about doing a part 2 to that album for sure.

Another ad that I had seen was for….., and I have seen this one for a while is a Jayo Felony album called Still Trued Up?

I got that, yup I did that album too.

Ok

Yeah that is a album that we had on the back burner for a little while. We did the album and switched distributors and ended up doing a few other moves so we still have that on catalog and it will definitely be released in 2010. I just recently went in and touched up alot of the beats and we did a few more new songs for it so yeah it is definitely coming out in 2010.

How do you feel about collabo albums like a Frank & Jess or a Gangsta Party from Daz? Do you feel like that is missing from hip hop at the moment? Because I feel like there are so many albums that are out. You got as many guest appearances as producers on alot of new albums and it makes albums sound disjointed and all over the place. Your albums have a diverse sound in my opinion but you have that one producer and that one rapper and it takes it back to the premise of when rap first started. The MC and the DJ or the MC and the producer. What is your feelings on that as far as hip hop and albums with all these collaborations on them?

Well it has been going on for a while. Most of the people in the game do not have a specific in house producer and that is pretty much what we do is use our own team to utilize the whole album. I don’t see a problem with people getting music from outside sources becaise some rappers go around and collect as many hot beats as they can from alot of different cats, but that is definitely a element that is missing from the game. A producer for the whole camp. There are a few of them out there but not many.

What is your website or myspace information for people looking to check out your music and see what you got going on?

www.myspace.com/highpoweredent. www.highpoweredmusic.com. That one is currently being reconstructed but it will be back up shortly.

Well that is all the questions I have for you, appreciate you getting down for the interview. Is there any last words or shoutouts you want to get out there to the people?

Yeah just be on the lookout for that Lil Flip album, September 29th, definitely a high quality album and it is going to shock alot of people. Lil Flip is definitely coming with the lyricals that I think alot of people are going to appreciate and want to hear.

Appreciate it.

Alright thanks so much.