J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League Tells All: The Stories Behind Their Biggest Hits
There's a good reason why the "J.U.S.T.I.C.E." in J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League stands for Just Undeniably Some of The Illest Composers Ever. Consisting of Erik "Rook" Ortiz, Kevin "Colione" Crowe, and Kenny "Barto" Bartolomei, the Florida-based production trio is responsible for supplying epic backdrops to the likes of Bun B, Juelz Santana, Young Jeezy, and most prominently Rick Ross. Their partnership with Rozay has provided us with aural gems like the "Maybach Music" trilogy, "Magnificent," and "Aston Martin Music," allowing J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League to cement themselves as one of hip-hop's most prominent producers in five short years. That's why we just had to get them to tell us some of the stories behind their biggest hits. Get ready to read about sample clearance nightmares, doing rock music, and beats they made with The Notorious B.I.G. in mind. Sexy lady voice says: "J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League , J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League..."
As told to Insanul "Incilin" Ahmed.
Juelz Santana "Rumble Young Man Rumble" (2005)
Colione:“This story goes way back to when J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League first became a group. When we first got together, we put out this CD called The .38 Special. And what we did was we put 38 of our top picks, from me, Rook, Barto, and [our management]. We got them pressed up and we sent them out. Everybody, everywhere got them. I think that beat was on that CD because we sent it out everywhere and then we started getting these calls from everyone who was like, 'Yo these beats are crazy!' It's when we finally started making a name for ourselves in the industry. I think 'Rumble Young Man Rumble' was about that time. And I don't know if anyone still has [that CD]. But man, I want it back.”
Rook: "It's funny because it's a song people always say that they love, and I keep on forgetting that we did that song. People don't realize that that version on the album is actually straight off the CD that Colione was talking about, The .38 Special. It wasn't multi-tracked or even mixed properly."
Young Jeezy "Bury Me A G" (2006)
Colione: "We went to Goodwill one day and we were just shopping through old records, sometimes we just listen to those. When we heard [Mille Jackson] singing on that song [‘Child of God’] we were like, 'Yo, that sample is so crazy!' She just killed it, put her heart and soul out on that song. And I was like, 'We’ve got to let people hear this.' So we actually recorded the sample into Logic to form the record. We used the sample, too. We didn't have to, but we did. We changed it up a lot, we lifted the original record. We built it up and added our own flair to it."<br><br>
<strong>Rook</strong>: "We sent that to Jeezy. But by the time he finished it, we actually were in the studio with him finishing the record. We did two different versions. We did the track version and I don't think anybody's ever heard the other version. I think he did a more radio-friendly version of it."
Young Buck "Buss Yo' Head" (2007)
Colione: "This is how we learned our lesson with samples. That was actually a sample that we used and it basically couldn't be cleared. I can't recall the name of the sample. I think it was Donna Summer or some shit like that. I could be wrong. But anyway, I remember that we had to replay and rethink the whole thing.
"You really have to be a great producer to be able to rethink and come up with something because a lot of these artists fall in love with the way that it sounds in the original. We call it the 'Two Track Blues.' Whenever you change something up and then re-present it, it's like,‘Yo, what did you do to it? It sounds different, it's not the same.’ So you really have to go in and make it sound different enough that it's not someone else's music and original enough that the artist is going to like it. So we went into that and we put live strings, live horns on that. In my opinion the original, that had the sample, was a little better. There was a little something about that. I don't know if it was because the instruments were differently tuned, but we did it though. We had to pull it off. And the thing about it is that we had one day to do it."
Rook: "The funny thing about that song that a lot of people don't know is that the guitar that's in that song isn't actually a guitar. That's actually [Barto] singing. He's making a guitar sound with his mouth."
Barto: [Laughs.] "Oh yo, for real! I forgot about that! And it's so crazy that you mentioned that because that's proof right there that in the clutch, we had to get it done. We didn't have a guitar or nothing. And I was uncomfortable with singing, too. So I was like, 'Fuck it. Y'all make some room, I'm going to sing on it, put some effects on it, then y'all come back.'"
2 Pistols f/ T-Pain & Tay Dizm "She Got It" (2008)
Colione: "I had known 2 Pistols for awhile from living in Florida. One time we got invited to a music conference in Florida. He had a song and it was called ‘She Got It.’ I heard the song and I played it for Rook, Barto, and [our mangers]. And I told them that I thought he had a great song and everybody agreed. But the only thing was that the music wasn't good at all. So we went back into the studio and we created the 'She Got It' music. We went back and 2 Pistols re-recorded the song. It came out pretty good. And a lot of people liked it and we ended up creating a situation for 2 Pistols since he was our artist at the time. We had a deal with Universal and the song did well. We sold two million ring tones. It’s a great strip club song.” [Laughs.]
Rick Ross f/ Jay-Z "Maybach Music" (2008)
Rook:“We met [Ross] through our managers. They had relationships with Ross and his managers. They came to the house, listened to a bunch a beats, but when he heard the 'Maybach Music' track, he was immediately like, 'Yo, I'm going to call this song 'Maybach Music' and I'm going to put Jay-Z on it.’ As soon as he heard it, we were in business for the whole movement.
"Originally the track sampled Friends of Distinction’s 'And I Love Him,' which was a cover song of a Beatles song [called] ‘And I Love Her.’ [We] went back and forth with the Beatles publishing company, Sony ATV, just to make sure that we did not infringe on their copyright. We have about 5 different version of 'Maybach Music.' Basically we had to completely take out that sample and rearrange, rethink, and redo how it was. We just had to make sure that everything was completely different while keeping the same vibe of the original track that Ross loves so much. It ended up being a classic. From that song on, it influenced us to do that with damn near every song that we do so we don't have to clear samples."
Rick Ross f/ T-Pain, Lil Wayne, & Kanye West 'Maybach Music 2" (2009)
Barto: "Right after Trilla had come out, Ross expressed to us that he wanted to do a second 'Maybach Music.' You know create a bigger, better [version of it]. 'Maybach' was a blueprint on its own. 'Maybach Music 2' we didn't want to do anything similar, we just wanted to keep that sense of sophistication. We sampled Dexter Wansel’s ['Time Is the Teacher']. We did our own thing to it, to the point where it became a totally new record. Dexter Wansel was the foundation for the form. But [afterwards] we added everything; the string arrangements, live guitar, bass, and drums. After everything came together [the sample] almost [wasn't] recognizable. [But] when you come across a sample, out of the respect to the artist, sometimes you just keep it."
Rook: "Ross let us know who was going to be on the song. So we were like, 'Okay, Kanye, Ross, and Wayne are on the song.' Basically we took each one of their personalities and musically catered it to them. By that time Kayne dropped Graduation. We catered his verse [by making it] real synthy but orchestrated and soulful. We catered Ross's verse to a more cinematic [sound], but it was also soulful with the organs, guitars, and church bells, reminiscent of [Port of Miami]. Wayne's verse, he is a milli, so we made it triumphant with horns, strings, and guitars. We made it real tasteful, too, so you really have to listen to how the instruments change because it is there."
Rick Ross f/ John Legend "Magnificent" (2009)
Barto: "With that record you can't really dissect it too much. It wasn't really thought out like that. We didn't think about how we were going to blend the best of both worlds, it just happened. Colione found that sample, [Gotta Make It Up to You’ by Angela Bofill], and it worked."<br><br>
<strong>Colione</strong>: "The story behind it was that the beat was created right around the time the movie <em>Notorious</em> came out. And that movie inspired us so we went back home and started making tracks for Notorious B.I.G., if he was still alive. It was one of the beats that came out when we were inspired by that movie."<br><br>
<strong>Rook</strong>: "Ross just so happened to pick it."
Lil Wayne f/ Nicki Minaj "Knockout" (2010)
Barto: "We have a good relationship with Wayne's engineer, KY. He mentioned that Wayne was doing a rock album. We didn't know if it was going to be rock guitars over rap beats or whatever. He was like, 'Nah, straight rock.' So, we were like, 'Let's do it.' When we got the call we basically got right to work. We were all picking up guitars and trying to rock out, experimenting with different genres. You can tell 'Knock Out' has a very early-2000s punk sound to it.
"We weren't bored with hip-hop because everything that we had been doing had been pretty exiting. However, we are always hungry for more. I believe we are pretty talented producers of music in general, so people might box us in because they have only heard within a certain scope of what we can do. The opportunity to have placements on a rock album was too irresistible.
"I don't believe the idea of Wayne doing a rock album was initially welcome for the most part. It's funny how people just don't have faith in you. The same people who didn't have faith and were like, 'Wayne's on a rock album? Come on!' And I'm like, 'Yeah, we're going to be on it actually.' And I get a call or a text message from the same people talking about how they were fucking with the album. It's crazy. We were on board automatically for it as soon as we heard about it. I don't care what people are going to think. Let's do it, let's make it hot. Let's contribute to the album being a success. It's just part of having a vision for it and having faith."
Bun B f/ T-Pain "Trillionaire" (2010)
Barto: "We had great respect for Bun B as an artist before we worked with him. He had gotten in contact with us and expressed that he wanted to work with us and we were like, 'Of course.' I didn't really know what to expect but artistically I had high hopes. When we finally got into the studio, from the first second after everyone was introduced, it was like, 'Let's get to work.' There was no bullshit. No talking back and forth. No joking around. It was just straight up, 'Let me hear some beats.' The first session we actually made a beat for Bun right on the spot. And he was writing the record while we were working on the beat. And he went ahead and cut that record then boom, on to the next track. We played him a few more beats, he picked one he liked, then went ahead and wrote a rap for that one. It was like three or four the first day.
"From then on, every time Bun was in town he would hit us up and book sessions. It was nothing but work the whole time. We were working with Bun heavy. All night sessions, seven in the morning and not leaving until seven. We were straight up picking beats, making beats, and recording records. We must've done ten records with Bun and 'Trillionaire' just happened to be one of them. But the whole experience was really humbling working with Bun B because he's legendary. The man does not play when it comes to work. If there was an artist boot camp he would be the drill sergeant.
Rick Ross f/ Drake & Chrisette Michele "Aston Martin Music" (2010)
Rook: "I think there's a common denominator when it comes to Ross. Every song that we do with him is damn near the same story. He hears the beat, he has the vision for the song, and he gets it done. Early in the process of the album he heard the song and he told us what the song was going to be,and who he wanted to get on it. So we heard it and we formatted it.”
Corleone: “The way it works is that he tells us the vision, we end up adding to the music, then he invites us to his house and he wants us to change stuff because he's got a studio in his crib. He'll actually send it out or he'll have the artist that he wants to be featured on the song in the studio. He'll do the hooks. When he first played us ‘Aston Martin Music’ he didn't have his verses on there. He just played us the actual hook with Drake and Chrisette Michelle. We heard that, had the hook, then we started building around that and changing some stuff right there at the spot at his house. A lot of his songs on Teflon Don were completed later on because he likes to finish them closer to when his album is coming out.”
Rick Ross f/ T.I., Jadakiss, & Erykah Badu "Maybach Music 3" (2010)
Rook: "We wanted it to be better but also different than the other two. There was pressure. It took us a long time to come up with our concept. Basically, we had [many] variations of that song. When we first came up with the music, it took us at least six to seven months to complete. We had to actually write the score, find the right orchestra, the right players, and we had to find somebody who could record it correctly. It's not like we would do the track and then send it somebody else to arrange it. We [did the] arrangements ourselves.
“The thing is, we didn't know 100% if people would like it or not. Like, it was so dope but it was so different. When it leaked on the Internet, it became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter. It’s crazy and it’s a testament to great music. The 'Maybach Music' [series] is something you can't take away from us because we kind of changed the game of hip-hop. Not a lot of people do that. There is probably a handful of producers that can say they have done it. Like, Dre, Timberland, The Neptunes, you know what I'm sayin'? It's an honor for us."
