Master P, Mia X and Beats By The Pound Talk Ice Cream Man 20th Anniversary [EXCLUSIVE]

When Percy “Master P” Miller released his fifth solo album Ice Cream Man on April 16, 1996, his career was at a turning point. With one foot in the studio and one foot still in the street, Master P was living a life where he was either on the cusp of stardom, or inches away from death or jail.

Growing up in New Orleans’ notorious Calliope Projects, Master P was like so many others from the neighborhood: poor and not expected to live long. But P found a way out, initially through basketball with a scholarship to the University of Houston. Eventually, he left school and went back to the streets. Although he would inherit $10,000 from a settlement involving the death of his grandfather and use some of the money to open at record store in Richmond, Calif. P still had to take risks in the streets to fund his dreams.

Master P attained moderate popularity on the West coast and throughout the Midwest with his albums The Ghettos Tryin To Kill Me! (1994) and 99 Ways To Die (1995). But it wasn’t until he released True, the third album from his group TRU, that things really started to take off. Largely because of the anthem “I’m Bout It, Bout It.”

“The beat for ‘Bout It’ was for a song I had with Mr. Serv-On called ‘Bucking Like A Winchester,'” says the producer behind the song, KLC of No Limit Records’ in-house production team Beats By the Pound. “P came down to New Orleans and took the beat and did a 30-second commercial for Wild Wayne on Q93 and the commercial got hot. So he took the beat back to the Bay and made a song of it. I don’t think he really had any intention on making it a record.”

Intentional or not, “‘Bout It” gave Master P his first big hit and presented an opportunity to take his career and record label to the next level. It was important that his next album be the proper follow up. Knowing this, P returned home to New Orleans and proceeded to put together the album that would change his life for forever, Ice Cream Man.

“It was a masterpiece,” P tells HipHopWired.com. “It took me to a national level as far as making music and being discovered. It dropped the same year 2Pac passed and it opened the doors for what we call ‘trap music. It paved the way for the Gucci Mane’s and Young Jeezy’s, it shed that light. After Ice Cream Man, everybody came out because they wasn’t afraid to show they were from the South and making street music.”

Gucci Mane pays tribute to Master P at the 2010 Vh1 Hip Hop Honors 

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Master P’s classic, HipHopWired.com talked with Master P, Mia X and producers KLC, Mo B. Dick and Craig B of Beats By the Pound to get the story behind the making of the album and some of the classic tracks that appeared.

Photo: Master P

The Lead Up To Ice Cream Man

Master P: Even when I was living in Richmond all I was screaming was New Orleans. Coming home and being able to help put Southern Hip-Hop on the map and putting New Orleans on the map was incredible for me, especially with what I learned in the Bay Area and Richmond with the indie hustle. Nobody wanted to put out an album independently back then. Going to the Bay for me was like going to school. I was studying and understanding the business of being independent. I took that hustle back home and took over the world.

From naming the album, to everything, I knew it was going to be special, but I didn’t know how big it was going to be. I didn’t know it was going be a classic or change Southern Hip-Hop, but I knew something was special about it. It put us in place where every hood respected us.

Mia X: P had been making a lot of records in Cali. With Ice Cream Man he got the opportunity to be home working in his element. New Orleans is slow and fast paced at the same time. It’s not like any place else, it’s like an island in the South. We do things so different. The way we eat, talk and think about our families. We have a different vibe, even our approach to music is tribal. P got to hook up with some different producers that gave him another vibe. He was able to get the sound of Uptown.

KLC: I was already in but still kind of new to No Limit. I came in under Mr. Serv-On. They was doing one of the TRU albums when I came in. I did the original “‘Bout It.” When I hooked up with P, I pretty much was the in house producer, then Mo B. and Craig B came in. Odell wasn’t there yet. P was working with K-Lou and we recorded everything at his studio. I don’t even remember how many songs I did on the album, hell I don’t know how many songs I did on any of those albums, we was turning them out so fast.

Mo B. Dick: Me and P are cousins. That’s my dad’s oldest brother’s grandson. I was living in Wichita, Kansas when he was promoting The Ghetto’s Tryin To Kill Me! I took a road trip with my frat brothers in Omega Psi Phi and we made a stop in Dallas to get some rest. While we were in Dallas, we went to a club. After being in there for 10 minutes, somebody got shot. So as we are making our way out the club and the smoke clears, I see somebody trying to get my attention from the DJ booth and it was P. I hadn’t seen him in six years. The last time I saw him was at [P’s brother] Kevin’s funeral. When we saw each other he asked if I was I was still doing music. I was doing my independent thing in Morgan City, Louisiana with a group I had calld Critical Condition. I told him I’m still doing music, and he said “you need to f*ck with me in California, I got some big sh*t going.” I told him send for me, and he sent for me two weeks later and the rest is No Limit history. We started working on several things.

Coming Back Home and The Making Of Ice Cream Man

Master P: I recorded in two places, some in Richmond and the majority of it in New Orleans.What I did was, I took my producer K-Lou from Richmond and hooked him up with KLC and Beats By the Pound, we just created that masterful sound. We had the best of both worlds, the South and West connect, those were the markets that were into Hip-Hop and making music. Music comes from an environment and I put it in the music. I was able to show that hustler environment to the world. It was about getting money. It wasn’t about just being famous or being the best lyricist anymore, it changed the game and showed people you could make money off this. That was the 85/15 distribution deal with Priority. It broke the mold on how young Black entrepreneurs could make real money in the music industry.

Mia X: Myself and KLC was like, lets give him what he needs with the music. We knew once he accepted our offer the album was going to great. We knew what we had to offer, we was ready. We knew it was going to be different for him, stronger than his previous albums. Before, there were a lot of great albums that he put out, that did good in Richmond and Midwest. But they reminded you of different sounds. But Ice Cream Man was definitely New Orleans. He found his niche and it set him up for all of the albums that came afterwards. We knew it was going to be special because we knew what we were giving him.

KLC: When we went up in there, we just went in there like f*ck it. Like it was any other album. We didn’t go in there with any blueprint. We just got in the studio and did what we was feeling at that moment. One thing we never did was second guess our work. That was the start of us getting in the studio and cranking out records so fast, no one ever second guessed anything. No one would ever say “No, I don’t like this record.” They just got in there, recorded and that’s what it was. We didn’t have no plan going in, as far as the songs I did. I wasn’t there when he did the songs with the Bay Area producers. With me, he asked “KL what you got,” I pulled it up and it was that simple. But truthfully, we don’t remember none of that sh*t, only thing I remember is making the intro first. Those moments of putting the album together, I don’t even remember how the sessions went, I just remember being in there.

Craig B: He woudn’t have been able to make a “‘Bout It” or that album if it weren’t for the environment we were in. It was the timing too. The album blew up around the time 2Pac passed. P came in at a certain point in time where he could express himself and used the resources he had and expounded on them, profoundly.

Mo B. Dick: I knew we had a classic. We were in a creative zone. We had the art work already done before the album was done. I was sticking to the idea of “selling ice cream,” street hustling, the struggle and everything that comes with that. Everybody made a great contribution. This album gave birth to Beats by The Pound.

The Birth of Beats By the Pound

Mo B. Dick: We were in living outside of Richmond at the time and it was me, Mr. Serv-On, KLC and Mia X all sharing an apartment. We called ourselves “Three N*ggas and A Broad.” Me and KLC slept in living room, everybody slept by their equipment. We was just cranking the beats out. Me and KLC had met each other four years prior. I had the same manager as KLC when he was in group 39 Posse. We met in Louisiana when I had a show. My group needed DJ and KLC DJed for us. The next time I saw him was when he flew into California to work with P. When we saw that we was working together, I said, “Let’s become a production team. He said “What are going to call ourselves?” I said, “We produce pounds of beats and they pound, lets call ourselves Beats By the Pound.” When we worked on the last part of Ice Cream Man, we moved back to New Orleans. Serv-On was already bringing Craig B’s beats up there. We liked what he was doing so we approached him about being a part of our team and he said “C’mon let’s do it.” He quit his job that day and rolled wit us to the studio.

Craig B:  No{laughs}. I didn’t not quit my job. You can the stop the hustle, but you cant stop working. You can’t depend on a dream, but you can believe in a dream and try to achieve that. No, I was working . At the same time, when I got off work I was on the ASR-10 making beats. This was when beats was going to tapes, not CDs. I was giving my beat tapes to Mr. Serv-ON and he was giving them to P. A few cassettes got to Cali when they was in Richmond. Serve-On and Mia would freestyle on the beats. P would hear the beats and be like “who is that?” They said, “That’s Craig B, he’s in New Orleans.” So after that I got two beats on Ice Cream Man and two beats on Silkk’s The Shocker album. I started hanging out around KLC studio around the Parkway. P asked KLC and Mo B. what they thought of me and they vouched for me. That’s when Beats By The Pound got formed.

Photo: Screen shot

Recording “‘Bout It, Bout It II”

Master P: I thought that the first “‘Bout It” was slow. With the second one we added more energy into the record for the clubs and people who wanted to jump around.

Mia X: The original was such a success, P wanted to do a part two. We went in the studio and laid it down. “‘Bout It” is a term that is native to New Orleans. The way people said “let’s do it” or “I’m down with it,” we say “I’m ’bout it.” When P came home in ’94, he got caught up on the lingo after being in Cali so long. He thought “‘Bout It” would be a good catch phrase for a song. When he got ready to do Ice Cream Man, he thought it was a good idea to do a part two. It really didn’t matter to me, as long as KLC came correct with the beat, I didn’t have a problem with doing a part two. I thought it was a cool idea. I’m sure P is happy that he did it. It really helped push the album where it needed to go.

KLC: We did the song in one take, because at that time I didn’t have no track recorder. I had a DAT machine, an ASR-10 and a mic booth in my grandma basement. So when I hit record on the DAT machine, whatever came out, that’s what it was. If you f*cked up, we had to start all over again. There wasn’t no punching in or mutli-track recorder. He pretty much freestyled it. It got hot, he took it back to the Bay and put Mia X on it and that introduced me to the world as a producer, that was my biggest record up to that point. That gave me my identity on No Limit.

My daughter actually did the drums on “‘Bout It.” She was always in my grandmama basement hitting on my beat machine. One night I left the room and I had it on record mode and it was looping over. I had the strings and synths already, but she came in and just slapped the pad on the drum machine. I was sitting upstairs, I came back in the room and heard it and kept it the same. All I did was add an hi-hat. She was 2 years old. I think I’ve only told one other person that. I’ve never really got to talk about my music to anybody.

Recording “Break ‘Em Off Something” with UGK

Master P: Me and UGK had been working on a lot of music together. With that record, I had made the hook for the record in the projects in the bathroom on a 4-track recorder. Then when Pimp came down with the beat, I came out with the “hustler, baller, gangsta, cap peeler!” It was crazy after that. Being able to walk in to the projects and sing that song was crazy. When Pimp came with the beat, the magic just came with that record.

Mo B. Dick: I actually co-produced that track. I’ll never forget, it was November 17, it was a a rainy day. P was living in Houston. I already had a relationship with UGK via Critical Condition. The first song I collaborated with UGK was on “Playas From The South” on the Down South Hustlers compilation.

P was on his way to Houston from New Orleans and every once in a while I would ride with him to Houston. On this road trip we said we should work with UGK again. So he dropped me off in Port Arthur, Texas [where UGK is from and records]. Pimp C already had the track with the drums, organ and baseline. He said, “Mo, you trying to get on this?” When I heard that beat, I thought it was jammin’ like a mug. So I started playing with the Fender Rhodes [piano], and made a sound like some crystals. Then I added that whistle, that “ooooooh woooo oooooh woooo” part over the beat. From that point on, Pimp C was hooked on that sound. He started using it in his production. That’s how that happened. So when P came back to pick me up and record his verse, heard the beat, he put that mean mug on we call it that “boot in his mouth” or some people like to call it that ugly face. He got in there and went “hustler, baller, gangsta, cap peeler!” He pretty much freestlyed the whole verse and he wound up saying “don’t make me break you off something” at the end and that became the hook. Pimp went in and did his thing, then Bun did his thing and it was a wrap.

Recording “Mr. Ice Cream Man”

Master P: Growing up as a kid, ice cream was my favorite thing. Some kids loved candy, I liked ice cream and I ran after that truck all the time. Growing up in the Calliope projects at the time, it was the murder capital of the world. But seeing how the ice cream man would always come back, make his money and everyone still liked him, I said I wanted to be that. When I started working on the album, the first thing that came to mind was those bells. Once I got the bells and the concept and the music, I just went into what the Ice Cream Man do. The lifestyle, looking out the window of a young cat looking out at the world. I wanted to show the world that we was down here hustling, that were about our money. That created the “Ice Cream Man.” From the singing hook to the melody, the world fell in love with the song. We put Silkk on there and the world just loved it.

Mia X: I liked when he flipped the World Class Wrecking Cru record for the “Mr. Ice Cream Man” song. I thought it was a cool dedication to street music. I just wanted to see what he was going to do after that. Watching him come into his own was more rewarding than saying “the song I’m on is the joint.” Watching his fanbase grow and sell out arenas and clubs, I expected that to happen because I saw a different look I his eyes. I was there when he was doing 99 Million Ways to Die in California. But coming back home and being with his childhood friends and reflecting, it had an impact on the music and he needed that.

Mo B. Dick: We was vibing at K-Lou’s studio. K-Lou had some good production on the album. He brought the California side out of P. He started the beat, and I added some keyboard riffs on there and got some co-production on it. That’s when me and KLC started our relationship with K-Lou. P told Mia what to sing on there, I was just in there vibing and started singing “Mr Ice Cream maaan.” He said “cuz go put that on there” I dropped it and that’s what that was. That was my first time ever singing on a hook. From there P wanted to showcase me as much as possible.

Recording “Neverending Game”

Master P: New Orleans was the murder capital of the world. I saw so many of my homeboys die. At the end of the day, it’s about revenge and holding your own on the streets. Like I said on the song, “you kill me I kill you, my partna kill yo’ partnas.” That’s reality. That’s what we are facing. There are a lot R.I.P. shoutouts on the album. A lot of people didn’t make it 1996. That record is still relevant right now.

Craig B: That beat was just a beat that I made, it was before any type of situation. It was a beat I had and sent over. I don’t remember the inspiration behind it. You do so much shit and don’t even realize what people like. But I appreciate everyone who appreciated the music we did. I do know that we set the standard for what the game is now. Me and P wasn’t in the studio together, he just heard the beat and got on it.

But I do remember making “Ghetto Heroes.” That beat was inspired by a George Duke song I was listening to. Again, its not anything me and P collaborated on. It was a beat hat I knew if a rapper got on, they would have to dig deep inside themselves to tell their story. “Ghetto Heroes” got that out of him. When he heard the beat, he started making the hook, then he started freestyling, started writing and developed how he wanted to make the song. That’s hard right there. Who ever made songs about heroes out of the ghetto,or in the ghetto? When he heard that beat, it put him in a zone. It became a powerful song.

The Impact of Ice Cream Man

Master P: It motivated me. Like it’s time to get out here and handle business. The life that I was living at the time, a lot of peope didn’t think that I was going to make it. They figured I was going to get killed or go to jail. But the studio kept me out of trouble and it changed my life. Instead of being on the block, I turned the studio into my block, where I needed to be at. It kept me away fom the negativity. I realized that I could live longer and that I had a real family around me. Ice Cream Man ranks #1 among the No Limit albums, even over Ghetto D because it sparked everything. Without Ice Cream Man you wouldn’t have the rest of the No Limit albums, you wouldn’t have trap music, none of this. It opened the doors for everything.

Mia X: The album basically came in and learned what the culture was in New Orleans. People were putting out music years before Ice Cream Man, but what happened was Percy came home and got what we had to offer. The marketing strategy was so dope that it exposed New Orleans to the rest of the world and what we were doing. We had artists that had deals with Atlantic, Profile and RCA but didn’t do much. But the marketing strategy for this album let the world know that we always had our own sound that was unique to us.

KLC: I don’t think the album had a big impact until people realized how big No Limit had got. Truthfully, Cash Money was always a bigger label in the city of New Orleans because they were based in New Orleans and they started out with bounce music. P started his company in California. When he did that, he came back home and the second “‘Bout It” came out and it really broke. The first “‘Bout It” caught on in the Midwest because it was pretty much a gang banging record. But the hook and beat just had that West Caost affiliated sound. It caught on at home as the commercial because of the hook having New Orleans slang on it.

Right now, I’m on the road DJing for Mystikal. This is my first time really seeing theimpact that the music Beats By The Pound produced for No Limit had. We were just churning out records. The producers didn’t have a f*cking life, the artists did. The artist, once their album done, we don’t have to see them until next year. They might be around to hop on other people records. But for the producers, once one album was done, we had to hop on the next. So on and so on. The artists had time to do thing the producers didn’t.

Mo B. Dick: That album was so diverse. You had the California elements and Louisiana elements. Ups and  downs, highs and lows. It had some consciousness and commentary on there. It was about trying to make it out the hood, not hustling any more, not having your mom worry about you in the streets. It was a ghetto romantic. Outside of my album and Ghetto D, I think this was the album where everything was where it was supposed to go.