Welcome to BuzzMusic Smittie Da Hippie! you're a highly versatile artist and creator. how have you developed your skills over time?
I been producing for 20 years so I’ve had numerous teachers and mentors to help master my craft... as for my writing abilities, I would say that came from living and learning... everything else is just me doin what I gotta do.
How would you describe your engineering method? what could be the most challenging aspect in catering to the likes of other artists when producing?
My style of engineering is pretty versatile but still follows a format I was taught at the Art Institute by a very dope engineer. His name is Dan Cahill, August Alsina’s former engineer... I pretty much took what he taught me and applied to everything I already knew and it has nurtured my sound... And it takes the challenge out of recording any artist. All that’s left is to remember artist’s preferences when they record and we’re golden.
Tell us about your upcoming project "Tales From Da Soufside". What can we expect from this? can you hint to us the sound of this record?
This is a whole new sound for me production wise. I have little bit of everything on here... hip hop, reggaeton, etc. I put together some of the hottest underground artist in Atlanta for this one because I wanted to display the abundance of talent on my side of the city... the soufside doesn’t get much credit for creating Atlanta’s wave even though we’ve given the world producers like Jermaine Dupri and Mr. College Park, and we’ve given the world artist like 2 Chainz and Ludacris. The buzz I got with the moniker Been Frank is just a spark but with Tales From Da Soufside I wanna set da city on fire!!!
We love your merch "GreenHouse Apparel" and your versatility as an artistic creator. What are some main differences in approaching the apparel business as opposed to the Music business? in what ways does the two go hand in hand for you?
The design process definitely. With approaching the music business you gotta treat it like a charity meaning u gotta give away a lot for your fans but in the apparel business that’s like the fans opportunity to give back to u!!! All u need is some dope designs that fit your brand and style of music and your fans will proudly become brand ambassadors for you. I try to keep my designs closely related to the theme of the project it’s associated with so when I’m out or when a fan of my music or merch is out in public and people see even a shirt, it sparks enough conversation that a person would want to at least check out the sound that goes with these psychedelic designs.
We hear you are working on some upcoming music with some pretty hot underground artists. What can we expect from the next Smittie Da Hippie hit?
Well we’re still picking the track list and deciding what the first single is gonna be but one thing we can expect is this project will be epic... Some of the artist themselves were surprised by the collaborations I put together for this one so yeah I got a really good feeling Dj Khaled gone have to slide over cause we definitely got another one!!!
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