J Manifest is a producer/entrepreneur out of North Carolina who has worked with everyone from Rick Ross to NBA Youngboy. We sat down to discuss Legion of Musik and his clothing line Kicks N Snarez.
Can you give us the rundown of how you got started in the game?
I’m originally from Rocky Mount, North Carolina – that’s the eastern part of NC for those that don’t know. It’s real country out there and not a lot going on music-wise, so not the easiest place to start a career. It was my older sister’s boyfriend who first introduced me to making music – his father had a recording studio and I would always tag along to be a sponge and soak up all the game I could. There was one day when I was 13-years-old where he gave me a shot to see what I could do behind the boards – mind you, this was the analog era so nothing digital, no ProTools, etc. and they were impressed with what I could do. After my sister’s boyfriend unfortunately passed, I kept going to the studio and eventually became the manager, essentially running that studio from age thirteen to sixten. At sixteen is when I really discovered and started making beats seriously. And then at eighteen, I used what I learned to open my own recording studio and been in business for the last twenty years ever since.
What have been some of the highlight placements over the years?
One of my first placements was in 2005-2006, Smack DVD that released under Koch Records. Even further back then that, my first ever official placement was with Gee Roberson (HHS987, Geffen Records, Maverick, etc.). Over the years I’ve had placements with Lil Wayne, Max B, Jadakiss, Beanie Sigel – and in more recent years I’ve had placements Rick Ross, Anthony Hamilton, Scrilla, NBA Youngboy, and really the list goes on.
Probably the biggest placement I’ve had numbers-wise was for Rick Ross’s “Drug Dealer’s Dream” in 2014 for his album ‘Mastermind’ – that’s got like 18M+ on Youtube right now.
Can you tell me about Kicks n Snarez? What’s the inspiration behind it, how did it come about, and what are you guys up to today?
Most definitely. Growing up we saw Jay-Z with Rocawear, Jeezy with 8732, and Puff with Sean John. We’ve seen a lot of artist brands, but we haven’t seen that many for producers. Now I want to be the producer to attach myself to a lifestyle brand – one that’s centered around the producer lifestyle. That’s why we called it Kicks n Snarez and we have the primary logo as a sneaker – “kicks” as in sneakers but also as in drums – and then the wings representing fly shit. We’re also working on our sneaker so lookout for that.
Can you talk about the work you do with artists?
Yeah so I work with a lot of artists, whether it’s people I’m making music with, people coming through the studio. So what I like to do is offer artist development, really anyone that comes to the studio I try to educate them about the music business and help them avoid mistakes. 5% of it’s business, but the other 95% is business. So anytime I’m working with something I always try to shed light on what I’ve learned and help them help themselves.
And can you also tell me about your other company, Legion of Musik, and what that’s all about?
Legion of Musik is the name of my studio (the one I’m sitting in now – in Raleigh, NC), and it’s also my production/producer development company. When I was younger I would be making music and making beats, but I didn’t really have any of the resources I needed to get music out. So that’s the inspiration for Legion of Musik – a production and producer management/development company where we work with producers to help source placements for their beats and connect them with resources they need to get their music heard and further their careers. We try to focus on producers from areas like where I come from in NC, where there aren’t that many outlets or opportunities so we can have the biggest impact.
Have to ask, how has it been for you as a studio and business owner through COVID and 2020?
As far as beats and placements, it was pretty slow. And the reason for that is artists aren’t making the same money they were, so they don’t have the same budgets for beats. Also the industry in general was just slow, period. On the flip side, on the recording and studio side of things, it was actually great. Going to the studio to record is one of the only things you actually could do, and with everyone locked in quarantine with cabin fever they all want to come record. We were able to figure out how to keep our doors open with limited capacity, social distancing, and all that – and we had people recording all kinds of music throughout 2020. So as far the studio goes, it was actually really good. On the beat side, not so much.
Any upcoming music releases to look forward to?
Yeah definitely. Coming up this year be on the lookout for Gunplay’s project on MMG – I’ll have a couple of joints on that one. Anthony Hamilton is also going to be dropping this year – I produced a few of the tracks on there as well. Outside of that, a lot of seeds planted and just waiting to get paperwork finalized before we announce. But yeah lots of music coming in 2021 that I’m excited about, and also be sure to check out Kicks n Snarez for some gear.
Aidan Werder
