Hailing from Massachusetts, a new face and name to some, but a producer that has been around for some time, is J. Cardim.  Working with big names such as Red Cafe, L.O.X. and most recently Joe Budden, the Beatsmith is etching his name in history as one of the elite producers of this era.

HipHopWired: Everybody usually knows about the artists but not a lot of people know about the producer or the dj, so you could just give us an introduction to exactly who J. Cardim is.  You've been in the game for awhile, but a lot of people might not know who you are exactly.

Cardim: I started out working with Jean Grae about 5 years ago, that was my first placement on her album, I did her Intro and Outro.  With Jean Grae I worked with Kweli and a whole bunch of other artists.  For the first 2-3 years I was really underground with Jean Grae, Talib Kweli, Saigon, AZ and it was probably '07 or '08 when I tried to adjust more to the mainstream.  I've been in the studio with Juelz lately, Red Café- I got some joints with him, L.O.X. and Cassidy.  Even as far as southern artists, we got the “Holla at a Playa” remix with Lil Wayne and Jae Millz.  I had this record on my album last year called “Born and Raised” with Paul Wall and Shawty Lo and this cat from Miami called Ghostwridah.  I'm trying to do my thing in the south as well.

French Montana feat. Cassidy - "Straight Cash"

Red Cafe - "What It B Like"

HipHopWired: Can you just tell a little more about your beginnings?  How did you start producing, what made you want to become a producer?

Cardim: I'm sure like a lot of producers probably feel this way, like Kanye West and a lot of producers who actually rap, I used to be a rapper.  So, if you're from Boston, you probably know that.  I even dropped a couple records out there that I produced.  My main thing as a rapper, when I was a rapper, was I didn't want to use industry beats.  Everybody else, especially when I was in high school and mixtapes were huge and rapping over other people's beats was the main thing that everybody was doing, so my thing was to do something different and make my own beats and original music, my shit was all original.  People around my neighborhood in Cambridge, Mass started listening to my shit and was like “Yo your beats are hot, where do you get your beats?” I told them I made them, they're like “That's good, let me get some”.  I didn't even think of charging them, I just gave it to them and they would give me something like a $50 bag of weed or a couple hundred dollars for a beat CD with like 20 beats on it, you know it would just be whatever but this is what they gave me, I didn't even ask for nothing.  I started realizing that the money was in the beats and not in the rapping, because I had been rapping before that for about 5 years and I didn't make a cent off one verse and all the sudden people are throwing me money for my beats and that's when I became a producer full time.

HipHopWired: You were talking about working with Red Café and many others and there was a time a few months ago where you and Joe Budden were going heavy, are you guys trying to work on a project together or did you just keep linking up over and over again?

Cardim: Joe Budden, basically my manager met him before I did in the summer of 2009, they were in the studio together and he played him a couple of my beats and he ended up using them for the Escape Route mixtape, it was 2 joints- “Clothes on a Mannequin” and “No Comment”.  My manager, who's a very persistent guy, he kept in touch with Joe Budden after that and was like “Yo I got more joints, I got more joints” , my manager went to a session with him and they knocked out like 4 or 5 of my joints and I wasn't even there.  So I started coming through and we started building a vibe, building a sound together and that's basically what happened, we kind of clicked off and started knocking off tracks like it was nothing.  At first I was just going to do a couple joints for his album, but now we're talking probably going to a majority if not the whole album The Great Escape.

Joe Budden - "Something To Ride 2"

Joe Budden - "Downfall"

HipHopWired: Any other rappers that you've been working closely with?

Cardim: Red Café was one that I always worked closely with as well.  When he dropped The Co-Op I did 3 joints on there with him and DJ Envy.  He's another artist that we work closely with, anything I need he always hooks me up with, like he's always on my projects and he's got a crazy solo record on my album coming out next month.  Styles P and Sheek too, shout out to them, they hold me down all the time.

HipHopWired: Since you transitioned to it, can you speak on your next album that you're going to be working on?

Cardim: My next project, the one I dropped last year Your Favorite Rapper's Favorite Producer, basically I'm doing another one.  It's J. Cardim Presents: Dice Music The IN Crowd.  We got a couple of the artists from Dice Music and we want to focus on them this time.  My last joint was just really focusing on me as a producer and putting all the big names that I worked with from '08 to '09.  So this album is really just to present my artists.  We got a lot of big names on it as well.  We got Juelz, Gunplay, Brisco, Paul Wall, Red Café again, the whole L.O.X.- Jada, Styles, Sheek, Bun B, French Montana, we still getting more records done.  Pretty much that's what we're doing, trying to break my artists and show what we got, you know build a wave and then start throwing tracks from my artists after that.

Joe Budden, Emilio Rojas, Chief C - "Unstoppable"

Termanology, Sha Stimuli, G-Eyez - "G Like Me"

Ludacris - "OG's Theme"

HipHopWIred: Going back to the production side, as a northern producer, how do you stay afloat in a time where southern beats are basically what everybody is looking for?

Cardim: You got to move with the times first off, I think as a producer or rapper or artist you got to move with the times.  Some rappers up north embrace the south and got unity with them.  Some people just stay with the true New York sound, there's nothing wrong with that.  I think as a producer, this isn't just a hobby or a job, you're trying to stay relevant.  You just got to go where it's at, I'm basically where the money's at.  If the money's at the South, then I'm going to be making some southern beats if that's what they want, but it's always got the J. Cardim touch to it, but it depends on who I'm working with.  If I'm working with Joe Budden I'm not going to bring down some hard 808 and southern beats because I know that's not his lane, but if I'm in Miami and I'm in a studio session with who knows Down South, it's all 808s and whatever.  I throw in a couple organic and non-sensian boom bap beats in there just to show them, because sometimes you never know, but it just depends where you're at.  I got all types of sounds.

HipHopWired: Is there any way people can get in touch with you?

Cardim: Yeah, just get at me through Twitter, @jcardim.

Anyextee  If he gives us the money back..I'll terminate the contract and he is free to do.  Im not here to hold anyone down but I refuse to be ganked.

Apparently, Joell Ortiz is not the only member of Slaughterhouse that is dealing with record label issues as the issues between Joe Budden and his former stable, Amalgam Digital, is developing into a potential legal suit.

Budden has made the statement that he is no longer on the label, but it is becoming evident that Amalgam is seeing things different and stating that the rapper still owes what was required from his contract, including his third album The Great Escape.

Anyextee  He has not turned in Great Escape, he also owes one more album, and its his own fault why Escape Route sounded the way it did.

As dictated by the representative for the label, the New Jersey rapper has, allegedly, been conducting shady business which has thrown everyone else under the bus.

Anyextee  He lied to his group, he lied to his manager, he lied to other labels and he lied to his fan…Hes also lied to me.

Whatever the ACTUAL case may be, Joey hasn't bit his tongue on the situation and has given the short version of everything that went on between himself and the label in relation to business.

“cliff note version – dude wanted 2 sign SH, didn't happen…I signed a 2 album deal after PR, 1 digital, 1 physical w/ a 140k advance all in… 80 2 be paid up front, 60 4 them to hold 2 pay producers, mixing, etc.. said contract was 2 pages… 1 being the actual contract, 1 being the sheet 2 sign….”

As it stands now, Amalgam has stated that they are on the verge of suing the rapper due to theft.

HipHopWired will keep fans posted as things develop further…

When I ask Hip-Hop listeners their opinion on Joe Budden, it's just simply hate or love for Joey.  Maybe it's because of his very blunt and outspoken attitude that may come off as cocky that some people may not like.  Or maybe it's because Joe would rather rap about what he wants than what the people want.   However, in Escape Route,  we get an in depth look into the mind of Mr. Budden, which may just change your perspective on him.

Escape Route is a prelude to Joey's upcoming 3^rd studio album The Great Escape and Joe gives us both a preview of what is to come with his new album, while clearing things and disputes that he has encountered in the past.  As we start this CD Joe goes hard already on the intro with a heavy beat and some big punchlines.  Joe spits about the demons that he has inside of him, and tells us it's not right to judge him since we do not know what is really going on in Joe's life.  Joe continues this theme in his next song “Anti” which he gets gully about how raw he is and how he does not give a f*ck about what you think. He ends this track:

“Be clear, I ain't here to be friends, you can dislike me, I ain't here to pretend, run but you can't hide, I can't lie, told n*ggas in the first two bars I was anti!”

If you can't tell by the quote above, this is why some people are not too fond of Joey and feel he is too arrogant for his own good.  However, Joe's next song is a complete change of pace as it uses an almost dark rock-emo instrumental to help Joe get real.  Instead of hearing the f*ck me, f*ck you that you would usually hear, in “Never Again”  Joe gets real personal reencountering certain situations in his life he claimed he would never do again, only to find himself doing it again.

Budden continues to give us a look into his soul a couple tracks later with “Forgive Me.”  This track, which is also a personal apology for the past altercation with Method Man, not only tries to justify why he is the way he is but almost seems he apologize for it with lyrics like:

“Might say some things that's outlandish, but when I do I'm thinking without standards, I apologize take it as a letter, despite of my actions just know I was raised better.”

As tracks like “State of You” and “Good Enough” play, we get the same personal rap that Joey expresses as he tries to unravel himself out his web of emotions.  It isn't until “No Comment,” when Joe gets back to doing what he did through most of his “Mood Musik” series, stating his opinion.

Joey seems to be responding to most of the internet bloggers who question his controversial rapping in this song and starts to get back to his gritty flow.  This attitude continues to the next record “We Outa Here” which features all of Slaughter House including producer Street Runner.  Though the hook is some annoying autotune  sh*t( cuz what is an album without one?)  Slaughter House as they always do, come correct and spit some hot lines on this change of rate upbeat song.   One of my favorite parts of the whole album is on this track when Joey's voice starts off robotic and deep and eventually escalating to his regular voice.  It's something different and creative.

As the track spins, once Slaughter House disperses so does Joey's grimey flow.  In both songs
“Clothes on a Mannequin” and “Freight Train,” the jump off tries to once again show he isn't as bad as the public wants him to seem.  I understand that Joey is manning up and I do respect it, however, by this time it gets pretty irritating listening to him try to clear his name for the things he said.

If being harsh and gully is your style then stick to it.  It is not necessary to call yourself a monster in 3 CD's since 2007 and try to make it better now.  It takes a feature from Young Chris (yes from the Young Gunz, YES they are still making music!) that Budden gets back to his hard metaphors and his f*ck you attitude in the album's last track “Connect 4.”  Joe also shows some real nice word play with a couple lines where he uses board game metaphors:

“Off putting words together like Scrabble, Build your own Monopoly, they just gonna attack you, Cant Pictionary it, they gonna think its Taboo!”

So, after only 12 tracks the album is done.  There are 2 bonus tracks you can hear, but you got to buy it directly from the Amalgam Digital website. (Which I did not do).   Overall Joe does show a good mixture between his usually jump off and his personal emotions.  Though I think he tends to focus more on his emotions a lot. This album is still worth putting on that iPod.  If this indeed is a preview before the final piece of his third studio album trilogy then I think Budden fans will be completely happy with the outcome.