Recently, Hip Hop Enquirer got a chance to chop it up with North Carolina production duo Ru Gotti. They have credits to artist such as Young Jeezy, Travis Porter, Big Kuntry King, Freddie Gibbs, 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, Snoop, Busta Rhymes, Slim Thug, Blood Raw, and Juvenile.
HHE- We’re glad you guys took time out of your busy schedule to kick with HHE, what are you guys up do at this moment?
Gotti- Right now we’re just working in the studio but it’s nothing to take a minute out and kick it with yall.
HHE- Appreciate it, so what’s up with the name Ru Gotti? How did that come about?
Gotti- Well there’s two of us, Me (Gotti) and Black Jeruz, so we put our names together and came up with Ru Gotti. We linked up when I came down to North Carolina from New York. It’s been a movement ever since.
HHE- Ok the name makes since, when was your first break that gained you some recognition in the industry.
Gotti- I’m going to let Black handle that one, (hands phone to Black Jeruz). For me, It was on a DJ Envy mixtape in 2003. Before that I did some work with Juvenile and Dead Prez but that mixtape is what got my name buzzing. After that I started making some moves.
HHE- What kinda moves?
Black- I started landing sessions with Jeezy, 50 and Sha Money XL of G-Unit, and that lead me to produce around the Shady records camp for the next few years. I worked with Artist like 50, Lloyd Banks and Young Buck and even outside the camp with Slim Thug, Busta and Snoop. The Snoop track was “Snoop D.O. Double G”
HHE- Yea man it sounds like you were making moves, out of those artists which one did you really click with musically?
Black- Young Buck hands down. He’s a real dude and he loves what he does. Not that the other artist didn’t, but Buck really was in to what he was doing and we made some good tracks together. We still cool to this day.
HHE- That’s pretty cool to hear about Buck. What artist would you like to work with that you haven’t had a chance to yet?
Black- For real, we just make beats and judging from the sound from them we visualize what artist we could see writing to them. Lately we’ve had some tracks that we could see artist like Roscoe Dash, Rick Ross, T.I. and even B.o.B and Wiz Khalifa getting on.
HHE- Back to that sound, who influenced it and what tools do you use, how would you describe it?
Black- For me I love to sample, and that technique comes from The RZA. That old Wu Tang stuff is legendary, and Kanye kind of took that old style and made it cool now. I’ve been messing with it for a while now; I currently use the MPC and ASQ 10. My sound is more east coast and Gotti has a real southern sound to his.
HHE- So what side hustles do yall have going on, or do you guys only produce.
Black- We both are engineers along with producers and we are Co-Ceo’s of our company RU Gotti Music LLC based out of North Carolina. On the side hustle tip, I have a publishing deal with Universal; you have to make sure you get your credit! (Laughs)
HHE- That’s quite the hustle you guys have going on out there in North Carolina, what’s the main goal you hope to accomplish out of all of this.
Black- We just want to make quality music with a hard progressive sound that people around the world will hear. That’s about it, for real we just love what we do.
Follow us on Twitter @hiphopenqmag
