STAY GETTIN' ENTERTAINMENT WAS FORMED AS A CONDUIT
FOR STAY GETTIN' PRODUCTIONSA PRODUCTION TEAM
CONSISTING OF MIKE MILZ AND KUNTRE A.K.A. CUTTY RED
TO FUNNEL CLASSIC TRACKS TO SOME OF TODAYS HOTTEST HIP HOP ARTIST.
THE OPPORTUNITY OF A LIFETIME CAME WHEN THE DRAMA KING DJ KAYSLAY ENLISTED STAY GETTIN' TO PRODUCE 5 TRACKS ON HIS 2004 SONY RECORDS RELEASE"STREETSWEEPERS VOL.2:PAIN FROM THE GAME". TRACKS PRODUCED ON THIS ALBUM INCLUDED "HARLEM" feat. CAMRON, "ALPHABETICAL SLAUGHTER" feat. PAPOOSE,"DRAMA" feat. LIL JON,BUN B,DAVID BANNER and BABY D, "GET RETARDED" feat. TWISTA and DIPSET.JUST TO NAME A FEWTHIS ULTIMATELY PARLAYED INTO A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH DIPSET'S FRONTMAN CAMRON WHO ALSO LOOKED TO STAY GETTIN' TO PRODUCE TRACKS FOR NUMEROUS PROJECTS WHICH INCLUDED 3 TRACKS ON THE DIPSET'S 2004 RELEASE DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY 2: SONGS PRODUCED: "GET USE TO THIS" feat. JR WRITER and JUELZ SANTANA, "DEAD MOTHAFUCKAS" feat. CAMRON and "AYO AIIGHT" feat. CAMRON and JUELZ SANTANA. THEY ALSO PRODUCED THE SONG "BUBBLE MUSIC" FOR CAMRON'S PURPLE HAZE ALBUM.WHICH WENT GOLD (500,000+) AND NUMEROUS TRACKS ON THEIR POPULAR MIX CDSTHROUGH THEIR GRIND AS A PRODUCTION TEAM, THEY WERE ABLE TO FORM A ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY BY THE SAME NAME AND ENLIST LONG TIME FRIEND AND ASSOCIATE ERIC A.K.A. E-WEEZY FOR A BIGGER BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE AND PUSH TO GO HARDER AT THE MUSIC INDUSTRY. THE FIRST ARTIST SIGNED TO S.G.E.(STAY GETTIN' ENTERTAINMENT) IS YOUNG LEEK WHO YOU KNOW BY NOW IS ONE OF THE YOUNGEST,HOTTEST ARTIST SIGNED TO DEF JAM RECORDS WHO IS BANGIN' THE RADIO AND CLUBS WITH THE HIT SINGLE "JIGGLE IT". THIS 15 YR.OLD RAPPER IS ABOUT TO KILL EM' THIS SUMMER WITH HIS DEBUT ALBUM ENTITLED "SOMETHIN' TO PROVE" KEEP YOUR EARS OPEN IT'S HOOOOOOOT!!!!!!!!!.AS FAR AS THE FUTURE KEEP YOUR EARS TO THE STREETS LOOK FOR NEW TRACKS BY STAY GETTIN ON UPCOMING ALBUMS SUCH AS CAMRON'S KILLA SEASON, SONG ENTITLED "GIRLS,CASH and CARS".OTHER UPCOMING PROJECTS INCLUDE TRACKS ON ARTIST SUCH AS FREEWAY,PAPOOSE(who is now in the middle of a bidding war),DIPSET, DJ KAYSLAY,YOUNG LEEK JUST TO NAME A FEW.HOLLA AT CHA BOYS!!!!!! BALTIMORE STAND UP!!!!!! STAY GETTIN'!!!!!!!!!!
Gettin Theirs
Local Production Duo Arent Businessmen--THEY'RE A BUSINESS, MAN
Stay Gettin Entertainment
Musician page
by Al Shipley
"As much as its been stressful, this is the best stress Ive ever had," Mike Miller says about the past year-in-the-life of Stay Gettin, the production company he founded over six years ago with partner Lawrence Simpson. Last October, Stay Gettin Entertainment inked a deal with Def Jam, which means the two now answer to the most famous artist-turned-executive in hip-hop. "Makin songs that Jay-Zs gonna like, thats a good stress."
Simpson, 28, and the baby-faced Miller, whos 25 but doesnt look a day over 18, ramble and shoot the shit in an East Baltimore studio like it was the local barbershop, so its not surprising that both cut hair at their day jobs. In fact, a barbershop is where they first met in 1999, when a song caught Millers ear as he was passing through. It just happened to be by one of the barbers. Simpson, pursuing a parallel career as MC Big Kuntré, says Miller "didnt believe that the barber who was cuttin hair was actually rapping." They became fast friends and production partners. They now bear Stay Gettin tattoos on their arms, and Miller notes, "We best friends for life."
In 2001, they released a five-song solo disc by Big Kuntré, which featured the song "Stay Gettin," and sold their first beats to local rapper Tim Trees. But Stay Gettin really established itself in Baltimores hip-hop scene with the compilation Operation Come Up. Simpson says they went after "every artist that was doin somethin in Baltimore" at the time, featuring local fixtures like EJ, Little Clayway, and the late C.D.S.
Stay Gettin was also making weekly bus trips up to New York. As a couple of nobodies from Baltimore, they got their foot in the door the old-fashioned way: standing outside major labels hoping to run into someone important. Miller recalls standing in the freezing cold because there was less competition in the winter. "We actually stood in New York--please print this--in weather that, when we spit, it would skip off the ground cause it froze by the time it hit the ground," he laughs.
Despite a lack of industry savvy, Stay Gettins perseverance paid off once the two finally wedged their way into Def Jam HQ. In 2003, one of the labels biggest stars, Camron, cut two songs from Stay Gettin beats, "Dead Motherfuckers" and "Shut the Fuck Up," songs that got spins on New Yorks Hot 97 before Miller and Simpson even knew the tracks existed. And their work with Cams Dipset crew brought them to the attention of one of New Yorks biggest DJs, Kay Slay, the self-styled "Drama King" who actually had to trick Camron into handing over Stay Gettins beats. The DJ "got Camron and all them drunk to steal the CD from Duke Da God, the A&R [rep], and blackmailed him," Miller recalls, clearly tickled by the thought of two of East Coast hip-hops most influential figures fighting over his beats.
Stay Gettin made a name for itself with hard-hitting beats like Camrons "Bubble Music," a spastic chop-shop job on a tune by reggae band Steel Pulse. But Miller and Simpson also found themselves continually overshadowed by New Yorks Heatmakerz, who have made similarly sample-driven tracks for the Diplomats and Kay Slay. "We mightve done a track, and somebody thinkin the Heatmakerz done it," Simpson laments, before noting that "it wasnt a competition thing. We would see them a lot--they would actually compliment us on certain tracks."
And Stay Gettin remains wary of being categorized solely by its clientele. "A lot of people, when we play the track theyll go, Thats that Dipset sound," Miller says. "But its not the Dipset sound, its our sound. Dipset just chose it."
But even with those hookups, Miller says they began to feel the itch to reconnect with local artists. "When you comin from Baltimore, people in New York or people from other places are not gonna hear what you hear," he says. So last year, Stay Gettin Productions became Stay Gettin Entertainment, and the two began to build a roster of local MCs, including Heavy Gold, formerly of Bossmans N.E.K. crew, and Tony Bosco. But it was a fortuitous studio session with a 15-year-old that paired Stay Gettin with the artist who would cement the Def Jam deal.
Last fall, Young Leek was a local sensation thanks to a bouncy, Baltimore club-infused party track called "Jiggle It" that got heavy airplay on 92Q. Leek went to Stay Gettin to get a more serious hip-hop feel for the song "Check," and in the course of the recording session Miller and Simpson saw major potential. "We did the song, went outside to talk for like 20 minutes, and were like, Can you imagine what we could do with this kid?" Miller says. A week after Def Jam A&R rep Plain Pat witnessed Leek perform to a frenzied crowd at Hammerjacks, Leek performed at a showcase in New York for label chairman L.A. Reid.
"They wouldnt let us leave the building," Miller says. "They didnt want us to go to another label. And literally the day after we signed the deal with Def Jam, we were back in Baltimore at work," he adds, noting that theyve both still got their day jobs at the same barbershop. "You have to come right back, you know what I mean, because bills gotta be paid."
The last few months have been a flurry of recording sessions, meetings, and trips out of town as Miller and Simpson have prepared for Stay Gettins Def Jam debut, Leeks Somethin to Prove, slated for release later this year. And Miller is quick to point out that most of the album was tracked in the same East Baltimore studio theyve worked in for years. "When a new city gets signed, you wanna keep as much of that sound as you have. You dont wanna be tainted by Swizz Beatz workin in the next studio," he says. "We actually got to do us. The sound on [Leeks] album is Stay Gettin."
Even as theyve made the shift from producers to label owners, Miller and Simpson have continued to sell beats, recently producing a song for Freeways upcoming album, Free at Last. But its the long rumored comeback album by their new boss that theyre the most eager to land a track on. Jay-Z "even gave us the invitation," Simpson excitedly notes, while Miller, as usual, finishes his sentence. "Yeah, like, Put some tracks on my desk." Most importantly, though, theyre now familiar faces in a building that they used to huddle outside of in the middle of the winter, just hoping to get a shot.
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