Hip-hop moves quickly. The sounds change, the styles change, and for some artists, keeping up with the latest trends is a challenge. Still, no matter the wave, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League is focused on one thing: legacy.
The production duo made their mark as a trio back in 2005, landing tracks like Jeezy’s “Don’t Get Caught,” from the Atlanta rapper’s classic major label debut, Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101. The next year, they won a Grammy for their work on Mary J. Blige’s The Breakthrough album. When they laid the instrumentation for Rick Ross and JAY-Z’s unforgettable 2008 fan favorite “Maybach Music,” from Rozay’s Trilla album, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League separated themselves from the rest of the production pack while simultaneously helping Ross develop the regal sound that would cement him as rap royalty.
As far as hip-hop’s kings go, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League has laced them all: Drake (“Paris Morton Music”), DJ Khaled (“Hip Hop”), Lil Wayne (“Knockout”) and Nas (“No Introduction”). Most recently, they’ve been tending to Jeezy’s kingdom, with the release of his first independent album, I Might Forgive… But I Don’t Forget, which dropped on November 3. The second half of the powerful double LP was produced exclusively by JL. The emotional canvas that they provided gave the self-proclaimed four-time “trapper of the year” the space to show fans how he continues to go from Snowman to grown man.
Genius sat with Erik “Rook” Ortiz and Kevin “Colione” Crowe of the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League to talk about working with Jeezy and the legacy that they’re working to build for themselves.
GENIUS: Before we touch on the new Jeezy project, I want to go back, because y’all have been down with Sno since ’05, since the classic Let’s Get It: Thug Motivation 101. How did y’all first link with him?
ROOK: Man, yo, to make a long story short, [Jeezy’s former manager and QC COO] Coach K actually got a hold of our CD that we were passing out called 38 Special. It was a CD that had 38 beats, and Jeezy got a hold of it through Coach K … So he got a hold of it, and then eventually he did a bunch of tracks.
COLIONE: I remember when we first got in the studio together over at Jazze Pha’s spot when he was working on the Boyz N Da Hood project. And I remember hearing a whole album we did with him that never got released. He has it. Every once in a while when we do studio sessions, he’ll pull it up and play the album, and we’ll just jam out and smoke weed and get haircuts, do shit like that. But it’s a classic, and he needs to put that out.
But we go way back, just creating music with him. He’s officially part of the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League. We create together. He’ll have ideas for music. It’s like that classic producer-artist relationship that we don’t have with a lot of people. We have that with Jeezy and artists like Ross, just a few. So when we get together and do a bulk quantity of work, it’s something special, man. We put our full energy into it. We’re back and forth with Jeezy, hands-on. Rook’s involved in mixing and mastering now. We’re taking things from the top to the bottom now.
GENIUS: This project in particular felt deeply personal for Jeezy. Not only is it his first one off of Def Jam, his first independent one; he’s naming names and addressing a lot of stuff that people want to know his feelings on. Accusations, people who took shots at him—he’s kind of getting his final word. How emotional did these studio sessions get?
COLIONE: It’s music therapy. We went through music therapy. He just don’t break out his pad for anything. This album was something that he’s been going through actually; we could see with his book Adversity For Sale and different things that he’s writing about. He’s really in a truthful space. He’s saying something; he’s pouring his heart out from different experiences. You can hear it in his voice: what he’s learned, his traumas, and different things like that. It’s special, bro. He’s going through a lot of things, and he’s expressing it. He calls it our music therapy. He’s like, “Yo, I need y’all to come to the studio. We need to do some music therapy.” And a lot of those great records come out of that.
ROOK: For example, “Since Pac Died,” that record, the rough version, was already incredible. But when I was listening back, I was like, “Yo, he’s really saying some shit on here that hopefully doesn’t get lost because of the big production of the beat.” So I said, “Yo, let’s scale it back on the second half of the track and let’s just put live strings on there so people would just hear your voice and the strings are more intimate.” So we did it. Jeezy wasn’t there. And then when he came back, we finished it. And the first time we heard it, we was like, “Yo.” We were speechless for a good two, three minutes. He’s like, “Wow. Wow.”
COLIONE: Actually, that was supposed to be the name of the album, Since Pac Died, but he changed it to [I Might Forgive… But I Don’t Forget]. And that record right there, he really pours it out in the writing. All of his writing on this album is movie quality—visualizations in what he’s writing. This is a classic Jeezy. This is one of his best works. I love it. It’s incredible.
GENIUS: Y’all aren’t the lyricists, so y’all aren’t putting the words to it, right? But you’re definitely providing emotions as well. How do we hear the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League voice even though technically we don’t hear y’all voices?
ROOK: I think the music is just a result of how we feel anyway. All the tracks, everything is just how you’re feeling. And it’s a result of all those experiences we talk about [in the studio]. The past, what you’re going through that day, and even a conversation with Jeezy. He might tell you something; he might have a conversation with you or even an idea or, “Yo, I want to talk about this. I want to talk about that.” And then we’ll have something that fits that. And Coli’s really good at matching that vibe with Jeezy.
GENIUS: Who’s idea was it to sample K-Ci & JoJo’s “Life” on “Never Be a Fan”?
COLIONE: Man, that was Sno. That’s one of his favorite songs. He’s always listened to it. He was going through that a lot, and he came to me. He called me like, “Yo, we got to do the ‘Life Life’ song.” And I listened to it and just what he was going through and what we was going through at the time—it was just inspiring. So I started it. We started getting it going, and it just started building itself. And then Rook came in, and then it has that feeling on there. Y’all can definitely feel it when you listen to it. You can definitely tell where he’s going with that record and how he feels about those situations.
GENIUS: Y’all have been posting BTS clips of y’all producing this album, with live strings and choirs. It feels like a lot of time and care was taken to make sure the music was right. I feel like that’s part of the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League brand.
COLIONE: We added live choirs, live strings, instrumentation, saxophones. We gave it the full service. Me and Rook call it the full service whenever we go on set to make these music movies with certain artists. This is legacy material for us. So I’m just glad we’re a part of it and that J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League and Jeezy got to do something great for music together like this. It’s a celebration.
ROOK: Yeah. I think the album is timeless, to be honest. It’s getting a great response online from what I’ve seen. And it’s one of those albums that just keeps on going. Because if you make music—there’s nothing wrong with making music for the time and that sounds current. But there’s nothing like making timeless music because you can always go back to it, and it’s going to sound great no matter what era you’re in.
GENIUS: I’d imagine that it takes time to make J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League music. How do you balance how you guys work with an audience who wants something instantly?
COLIONE: We’re creating these worlds, these music worlds… We’re artists in our own way—how we’re doing legacy work when we do the bulk of a project, where we’re more involved, where we’re taking this music to another level, not just instant gratification by saying that you sound like something that’s on the radio right now. We’re taking topics and exploring these topics in a musical way. That’s not necessarily popular, but it gets the point across musically [in a better way].
ROOK: Yeah, and to add on top of that, we’re pretty fucking quick. I know it’s a microwave era, but we know how to make shit quick. We’re fucking veterans. So it ain’t like we’re slowly just doing this and we’re not taking our time. We did a fucking whole album quick, in two months, really.
GENIUS: I’ve been hearing talk of a Conway the Machine album fully produced by J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League. Can y’all talk about that one?
COLIONE: Absolutely. Just like we were talking earlier about legacy work, I think it’s that time for Conway to step up and be produced—all full service, strings, whatever that feeling or emotion that he has to express together because we work hands on. We created something, and I can’t wait to release this. I can’t wait.
ROOK: I mean, this shit is incredible. Right now, we’re in the middle of mixing that one. But you got to expect the unexpected, because I think people expect a certain style or sound from Conway, and they expect certain things from us. So this is something new for both of us. We go into places that I don’t think people are ready for. It’s a throwback album, but it’s not throwback gutter, if that makes sense. It’s like throwback Bad Boy—’97 Bad Boy, Death Row, that era. It’s musical, and it’s new, but it’s a crazy, crazy combination of sounds, and we’re mixing that muthafucka now.
GENIUS: That sounds like a crazy combination. Outside of Conway, what else are y’all working on?
COLIONE: We’ve been working with Ross a lot lately. Doing a lot of work hands-on with him. He’s got the new [project with] Meek coming out … that album’s incredible. And then I don’t want to say too much, but yeah, we’ve been working on Ross’ new album, which is going to be incredible. It’s some of the greatest music he’s been writing.
