the9elements Interviews Ryan And Smitty

Posted by IV on May 18, 2012 // Leave Your Comment

( 4UMF NEWS ) the9elements Interviews Ryan And Smitty:

I recently chopped it up with production duo Ryan & Smitty, who are known for their work with Plies, Ginuwine, K. Michelle and more recently Nicki Minaj, who they laced with the beat for “HOV Lane” off her last album “Roman Reloaded”. We talked about they linked with Nicki, how they met, their musical inspirations, artists they wanna work with and more.

the9elements: You guys recently linked up with Nicki Minaj to produce her track “HOV Lane” off her recent album “Roman Reloaded”. How did you y’all link up with her?

Smitty: We have a studio on Melrose where we do a lot of networking with different people in the industry, and one of our good friends ended up bringing us a scout to the studio and we got in his ear. So then he was like, “bring me beats for Nicki”. So we just started going really HAM in the studio trying to make stuff for her, and she found something she really liked, and we were blessed for that.

T9E: Reading up on you guys, Ryan is from Las Vegas and Smitty, you’re from Detroit. How did you guys meet?

Ryan: We ended up linking in 2006. I was going to USC, and Smitty was out here from Detroit, and I had ran into one of his friends through a mutual friend. Kind of a crazy way to link up, but one day Smitty came through and we worked together a couple of times on few things over 2 years, and then 2 or 3 years later, we just decided to really go at it and put in work.

T9E: You guys have worked with Plies, Jaicko Lawrence, Ginuwine, K. Michelle and now Nicki Minaj. Is there an artist that you’ve worked with that you feel meshed with your style the best, when compared to others?

Smitty: Not to sound cocky or nothing, but I feel like a lot of them. Me and Ryan have 2 different musical backgrounds, so when we’re in with different people, we’re albe to create different sounds for each artist. So as long as they give us the time. When we’re doing 1 song, it’s a little harder to get the chemistry, but when we’re doing multiple songs, it becomes easy because we’re musical individuals and we know a lot about what’s hot out there, so we mesh well with the R&B singers as well as the Hip Hop acts. We’re also doing rock music right now.

T9E: Speaking of that, I saw that you guys have been working with Alien Ant Farm. Rock-wise, who else have you guys worked with?

Smitty: We’re doing some stuff with 2AM Club which should be really dope. We’re inspired by all the great rock bands. Ryan was a punk rock kid and I become a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and a big Anthony Keidis fan. So we sit here and listen to music or play music at all times, so it’s pretty dope.

For the full interview, head over to the9elements