Boardgame Words by Ms Rivercity // Photo by Joe Magnani
j.u.s.t.i.c.e league Production Credits: Young Jeezy “Bury Me a G,” Mary J Blige “No One Will Do,” B.G. f/ Young Jeezy “I Hustle”
Tampa Bay Area producers Colione, Rook & Kenny Barto have brought home some pretty impressive accolades over the past few years – including a Grammy. Together as the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, the trio can be found on the credits of Mary J. Blige’s platinum selling album The Breakthrough. Their diverse creations have also appeared on platinum projects by Young Jeezy and Juelz Santana, making J.L. a hot commodity in the beat market. How did you form the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League? Colione: We were doing music individually in Tampa. We met at some places and decided to bring together what everyone was doing on their own. Did any of you have any formal music training? Kenny: I did. I studied Music Theory and had some formal training in the past. Mostly the training I had was from playing live and doing instrumental music in the Bay Area. Colione: You hear people doing music and you want to get into it so you start researching for yourself and going to music stores. You end up purchasing a keyboard and pursuing it. You spend time on it and figure stuff out and then all of a sudden, as time goes by, you’re making music. What are some of the biggest records you’ve produced? Rook: I would say Mary J. Blige’s “No One Will Do” on The Breakthrough.ugh album. Young Jeezy’s “Bury Me a G”. Colione: We’ve also produced for Young Buck, J. Holiday, Shareefa, Juelz Santana, Shawna, Rick Ross, B.G. It’s hard to remember everyone. How would you describe your sound as a collective? Kenny: It’s hard to describe being that all three of us come from different musical backgrounds. We have different influences. We cover a pretty wide 88 // OZONE MAG
range of genres like Southern Hip Hop, West Coast, R&B, pop, and rock. You can describe it as quality music. There’s no way to pinpoint our direct sound. Rook: We’re the only ones producing for [both] the Boosies and Hillary Duffs. Colione: If you listen to J. Holiday’s album, we’ve got a track on their called “Ballin’” and it’s like got a rock/blues vibe and then we turn around and do “Bury Me a G” for Jeezy and that’s really Hip Hop and then we do an R&B song for Mary J. Blige. We listen to every type of music. I listen to rock. We don’t really have any boundaries, except for country; I don’t listen to that much country. With three producers on the team, how do you decide who will produce for which artist? Colione: We all come together and create the music. We all individually go in the studio and come up with something. We might come together on a track. Two of us might work on a track or all three of us or someone might do something by their self. It’s always different. However it works great, if it don’t work we’ll try something else. There’s not any conflict. We’re made to be a team. A lot of producers have artists they develop. Are you guys working with any artists like that? Rook: Yeah, we’re working with three artists right now. 2 Pistols has a song called “She Got It” that’s getting big. Another one we’re working with is Ja$; she’s the 106 & Park Freestyle Friday Champion. Also, we’re working with a kid from Tampa named F.A.M.E. We’re wrapping up his Real Nigga Radio mixtape with Bigga Rankin. All three of these artists are signed to J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League. What’s been your biggest accomplishment to date? Colione: Being a part of the Mary J. Blige album was a real blessing. I’d really like to work with Mary again in the future. Rook: We won a Grammy for working on her album. //