thaFormula.com - So far as being in the studio goes, are you the type that is in the studio 24/7 or only when your feeling it?

DJ Battlecat - It's never gonna be 24/7 because I have a life. I'm a father and I have a personal life but I try to put in enough hours to get the point across on what I'm doing. Sometimes I do so many songs a day.

thaFormula.com - Do you feel for all the time and effort you have put into production and Hip-Hop that you have got back everything you deserve?

DJ Battlecat - As far as being able to employ myself for one, yes. Number 2, the reputation is there but I'm gonna push it a little bit more because of the things that I want to do now is different. This time I'm doing my own album for the first time. My brother is an extremely talented artist that is a true legend and entrepreneur as well. He has that about his presence as an artist so I'm getting behind his album.

thaFormula.com - So you are finally doing a solo album?

DJ Battlecat - Yeah and it's more the expression of what touches me in music and the people who touch me in life and that's what the album is about. It's a lot of up tempo, a lot of energy, definitely a few legends on the record as well. Cube, Snoop, Dogg Pound, Xzibit and I would love to have Quik and Dre as that would really make me happy as far as on the mic, not so much on the production side. I would love to produce them on a song and have them on my album. 'Cause we basically lived some of the same crazy stuff and got a lot in common.

thaFormula.com - What would you say is the first rule to live by when trying to come into this rap business MC or production wise?

DJ Battlecat - The same thing that they teach you in school. If you really are a good listener that will help you a whole lot. If you are very concerned about really getting information, that will help you a lot and be very inquisitive in a positive manner about the things that you ask. A lot of people have a different mission on what they do when they want to get chance to meet a producer or rapper or whatnot. They don't seize the moment. I would take a tape recorder with me or a camera if I ever got the opportunity to so I could replay what was told and study it and use it. That's one of the first rules. Be honest about what you are inquiring about because if you're asking just to be asking, you know you're really hurt the opportunity for another person. Some people can get burnt out on wanting to help people because an artist feels like they won't use the information or some people feel like they can't get close because they think "oh, they don't want to talk to me." No, you got to really push the line if you really want it. Another thing, if you come in peace as far as asking them anyway, they shouldn't really see you as a problem. Always keep a smile even if they ain't smiling. You got to show them that you really love who you are and you really love what you do by giving us that positive energy in the first place.

thaFormula.com - Once a new artist gets a deal who do you suggest the would hire first business wise?

DJ Battlecat - I definitely would hire a lawyer. I wouldn't hire no manager first because there is some things that you could learn where you will find out how good you are at managing yourself. You never know how good you are in managing yourself until you try. A lot of people like to be lazy and give too much power and leeway over themselves to somebody else and they don't even know the full capacity of what they are capable of. So I would hire a lawyer because a lawyer can help you with every legal aspect of the contract in the business. There are some managers that are hands on, but at the end of the day it's the lawyers that are making friends, not really the managers.

thaFormula.com - So how important is a manager to an artist and can they make or break you as an artist?

DJ Battlecat - If he's passionately driven to educate, that's a good manager in the first place. If his ambition and intentions are to educate first, then that's a good manager. Number 2, he's got to be a go-getter, but you got to be a go-getter too. It's like you have to flood him with things he could use to administrate the opportunity of both of you being partners or entrepreneurs. Because if you don't have a entrepreneur drive or mind state in the first place, they are gonna see that you're just in this shit just to be playing. They can tell if they got a winner and it's very important that you let a manager know where you're not educated and how much you want to be educated. Because if you don't let him know that then they will promise you things and tell you this and make sure that you don't embarrass yourself or him so they will keep you behind and they go in the offices and make all these deals and really it's not really the deal you wanted to make or the impression you want them to see. So that's why its good to learn everything about a manager's position before you decide to give him the opportunity to take it on. A lot of people have got a lot of talent but their business is not good. Unfortunately I had some things that wasn't done correct and right, but because of my title being so good, it played it's part but it could have been felt even that much more because I learned how to market myself and what a publicist could do for me. I didn't understand that part until later in the game and I'm working on that right now and it's working out good for me because I'm becoming an editor as far as with film. I use iMovie and all that stuff. I got my hands in it all because it works. You might go somewhere and they might not have the setup that you're used to but then they got another setup that can do the job just as well. So I don't want to be handicapped just in one way of getting it and hustling or getting my point across as an entrepreneur or producer, CEO or anything. I'm learning about everything.

thaFormula.com - So for you Battlecat, what has been your biggest disappointment within the industry?

DJ Battlecat - People. It's not even the music. It's the people who affect the music. That's just basically it. How we are as a person is gonna affect our music. So that's really what it is as far as I'm concerned. Because we know what good music is and we really know how to create it but if you don't know the business and how to master certain things then it would entice you to give up of course. If your positive and you are a real innovative individual, then that's gonna come out through the music. But if you're not that person, I can see how you can only go so far with your music because it's got a lot to do with you. So I think when people start understanding who they are, what they love and who to really embrace and respect in their surroundings as a human being, I think they will have a better expression in whatever they are doing in life. Whether you are an engineer, producer, musician or whatever. It's people.

thaFormula.com - How is the solo album coming along and what else can people expect to hear you on?

DJ Battlecat - Ice Cube, I'm working with him. WC, Snoop. The Grand Hustle Family, they are very interested in my music and it was a surprise to see that because seeing as how successful they are but they still have some people in mind and in heart that they feel that they respect as far as music and the fact that they had me in mind was a blessing. So it's given me an opportunity to work with Grand Hustle Records new artists, if not T.I. himself so stuff like that is in the making. Also more R&B. Less Rap and more R&B because I been musically inclined for years and I haven't really had my opportunity to seize my musical side and I'm not trying to produce rappers the rest of my life. I'll smash it with R&B. I really would make a lot of people happy about music that they miss. So that's where I'm at to this year.

thaFormula.com - Let's talk about the remix you did for 2Pac and how that came about?

DJ Battlecat - Well what it was is that 2Pac wrote a letter to Interscope about some things that he wanted to happen on this record. The record was already done, but he wanted a remix for the single. He just wanted another opportunity to make this record felt so he reached out to the label and said "hey I want to get Battlecat and Warren G and a couple of other cats to do this remix." The letter went something like this, "Hey Battlecat how you doing, I been listening to your shit a long time and I really like your stuff. For this remix of "Temptations" I got you and a few other people in mind, but I really want you to do this remix if you can. If you can't it's all good, but I love what you do, I like your shit." He said "I got Warren G too because they worked with each other before on the "Got to get yours, Got to get mine." They had read it to me over the phone and I was definitely inspired. I was already in the studio so I started on it immediately and that's how that relationship happened. I had did remix for him before off of the "Strictly for My Niggaz" album but each time I got the opportunity to do these remixes, I don't know why I wasn't focused to give him exactly what I wanted to give him because as I got a little older in my production, I was like "man if I had these acapellas now, I would blaze them shits." So my friends and them they gave me some acapellas but I never put it out. But I'm gonna let Afeni Shakur hear the remixes I did if I ever catch her. I did some incredible stuff.

thaFormula.com - You got to put those out man…

DJ Battlecat - Well it's gonna be kind of hard. I love to do things by the book so everything will work all the way around. I think I'm just gonna do what I can do and just give it to her and see what she want to do with them. I'm gonna do a whole album of just like 10 songs that I like and if she likes it, she could put it out. I think she would love it because people that I have around me will definitely help blaze the record.

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