New Orleans hip-hop has its own unique flavor steeped in the city's rich musical
tradition. It blends both the traditional sounds and styles of jazz, second-line (a form
of Brass jazz played at funerals), zydeco, and a smattering of gospel with more modern
sounds of funk, old school hip-hop, dancehall reggae and New Orleans' bounce music. Add to
that a milky pimp-like flow spiced with New Orleans' distinct drawl and street slang and
what you have are Cash Money Records Mannie Fresh and Brian "Baby" Williams, the
duo that composees BigTymers. In 1992 "Baby" and his enterprising brother Ron
"Sugar Slim" Williams started their own label Cash Money Records and launched
several successful underground rap acts such as the Hot Boys, Juvenile and
B.G. Around the
time that the brothers started Cash Money, Baby met Mannie Fresh when they ran into each
other at a mutual friend's house. "When I found out that Baby did music, I thought
(maybe we can work together and pull something off) and it's been all gravy since
then," says Mannie whose early group Gregory D and Mannie Fresh was a major part of
New Orleans' old school hip-hop. Mannie teamed up with the Cash Money brothers and the
label became one of the hottest hit-making machines in the South. With Baby and Sugar Slim
at the top of the business end, and Mannie holding down the production side, the three
young men are the guiding force turning young talents on the Cash Money roster into
underground superstars. Not content to just handle the "business" of running a
label, Brian occasionally offered his spirited ad lib (he calls it "game
spitting") with Mannie on all Cash Money artists' albums. But a guest performance on
the Hot Boys underground classic LP "Get It How You Live" created such a buzz on
the street that the two hit the studio and became artists. There, the BigTymers were born.
"It wasn't planned," says Baby who in addition to being a sound business man
also admits to being quite a ladies man. "We were just dropping verses and doing the
intro on BG's tape and everybody else's tape and people kept asking us when we was gonna
come out so me and Fresh just went at it." The result of their collaboration was the
BigTymer's 1998 debut album "How U Luv' That" an album that rocked the South and
Midwest selling over 100,000 units without the benefit of major radio or video airplay.
"How U Luv That" is now being re-released nationally with nine brand new songs.
Produced by the irrepressible Mannie Fresh, "How U Luv That" offers the listener
a serious dose of live instrumentation, tight beats, bubbling basslines and sparkling
keyboards.
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