Take a look inside the mind of MARS and you will find a humble, hard-working, wildly creative and hella West Coast Grammy winning producer. Respected industry wide as one of the illest idea-dudes in music, the chairman of the Billboards chilled out with DOPE Magazine Director Ari Alyssa on a recent tour stop in Atlanta.
Read an Excerpt of the Full Length Interview
(Arionne Alyssa: AA) So you just got back from Tokyo not too long ago. How was your experience?
(MARS: MARS) This is true. It was really fun and exciting. I’ve been a few times before, but this last time I went to do Billboard Live with Faith Evans. We had two shows a day so it was kind of strenuous, bit at the same time really fun.
(AA) You grew up in the Golden State. How did that shape you into the person you are today?
(MARS) Well, of course, wherever you grow up, there’s a certain type of music, a certain type of lifestyle and upbringing so I naturally had the West Coast kind of backbone. At the same time, my dad is a minister so I grew up in church. I didn’t necessarily get to dabble into Hip Hop or learn about it until I got into junior high school. I’d sneak and listen to music. That’s how I got the balance between the church and the Hip Hop elements and started tapping into it.
(AA) You co-founded the dynamite production team 1500-or-Nothin’ when you were all pretty young. What kind of pressure came with that?
(MARS) It wasn’t pressure at all. It was just fun; just an idea. We were all just out of high school and we just kind of formed a team. We just had fun rehearsing and doing songs together. Bobby Valentino actually enlisted us to do a showcase for him to get his deal with Def Jam. We didn’t have a name or anything. That’s how we came up with it. He said, “Y’all are DOPE, man. How much are y’all charging?” and we said “Man, give us 1500 or nothing.” He asked was our name was and Rance said, “Man, just ‘1500 or Nothin’ – just cut the check. Let’s go!” (Laughs!)
(MARS) When I was working with Kanye on “Stronger,” I got the opportunity to just sit back and see his approach to how he does things. That whole session of him showing me different things and even asking my opinion of stuff, it just kind of enlightened me. I kept thinking, “Man, this is Kanye West – the biggest artist ever. Why are you asking me?” That just showed how into the world and into the consumer he is. He wants to make the best music possible for them. I took those notations and I incorporated it into what I do. As far as other artists, naturally Tip and Snoop. They’re great to work with because they know what they want. They make my job easy.
(AA) You’ve accomplished so much already. What’s your definition of success?
(MARS) Success is accomplishing something that you’ve been praying about and that you know that you can do. I never had an option of doing music. I never had to choose between being a doctor, or a lawyer, or anything else, because I always knew what I wanted to do. I took whatever it was to do it.