Frizzo's Blog

Before there was Dr. Dre and Eminem, there was Manix and Eminem. Manix was Eminem's childhood friend and the creator of Eminem's first recordings. They formed a group called Bassmint Productions which later became Soul Intent. They released tapes in Detroit in the early nineties and created quite a buzz. I've known Manix personally for some time and we're now in the middle of creating a six song E.P. due for release this year. I found some time to make it out to his place and I brought along some recording equipment and I captured a short interview with Manix. He goes into depth in the interview about his earlier days of hip hop production, living in Detroit, and what it takes to stay in the game. Check out the video:

I made arrangements with Ayem and Melo to meet back up at the legal spot in Eastern Market in downtown Detroit. I made it there as scheduled, 11 am. Melo and Ayem, as well as my friend Duane, whom I had called on for help in the days production, were all late. I spent a good hour just walking around the area and getting some decent shots for the show. While waiting, a crackhead jumped out of a dumpster, wearing a woman's wig, and told me he's "putting the girls out of business". I was in no mood to have my cock sucked by a toothless, aids infested queer that just jumped out of a dumpster so I ignored him until he got the hint and left to go look inside another nearby dumpster for his breakfast...can't knock the hustle...errr... Everyone finally showed up and I felt relieved. I unloaded all my filming equipment and got my friend Duane familiar with the functions of the Canon Vixia I've been using. Melo and Ayem layed all their paint and caps out neatly in ...

I decided to take a 10 week certification course at the local public access channel in East Oakland county with the intention of making a variety show consisting of things that interest me. The channel is called CMNTV and it broadcasts to 150,000 households in the Detroit Metro area. The channel regularly has the standard "public access" type shows that are usually good for putting you to sleep if not for anything else. Upon finishing the course, it came time for me to get busy at producing my first show! I placed an ad on Craigslist looking for actors, models, graffiti artists, rappers, producers, etc,. The first person to contact me was the manager of a local graffiti artsist named MELO. After a few days of organizing, we finally got together in Detroit's Eastern Market section. They aquired permission to paint the side of a meat processing wharehouse on the corner of Adelaide and Orleans. The neighborhood wreaked of dead rotting animal parts thrown in the dum...