“You’ve got to be living under a rock if you don’t know my voice.”
That’s the first words you hear on “MUNYUN” one of the standout tracks off of Playboi Carti’s latest album MUSIC. And if you heard the song then you probably know that DJ Swamp Izzo yelled that sentence. A veteran figure in Atlanta rap, Izzo has played a pivotal role in shaping the sound of contemporary hip-hop, helping launch generational talents like Young Thug and Future. Now, he’s the spiritual guide behind MUSIC, which is on track to be the biggest album of Carti’s career.
Izzo is featured on a dozen tracks across the sprawling album. He takes on the role of hype man, shouting a mix of affirmations (“What’s up, baby boy”), aspirational instructions (“Go back in”), while hyping himself up—sometimes yelling his name more than ten times in a single song. While speaking to Complex, Izzo sums up his presence succinctly: “If you’ve ever heard a mixtape, you should get it.”
This isn’t the first time a superstar rapper has used the freewheeling mixtape template for their album. In a way, it’s similar to the role DJ Drama played on Tyler, the Creator’s classic Call Me If You Get Lost. The key difference, however, is that DJ Drama added his vocals to pre-recorded tracks, while Swamp Izzo was there in the studio, often pulling up right after spinning at the Blue Flame Lounge.
“Every studio session is not the same because he rents out the building,” Izzo tells Complex. “So it’s a bunch of rooms. So you might have one room where there’s just a bunch of clothes. He’s just vibing that day. So the vibe that day is he’s trying on clothes and he’s just styling. You might get in a studio setting and there just be like bags of money everywhere.”
Despite it being well-known that Swamp Izzo would be part of MUSIC—and the fact that he’s a regular at Rolling Loud performances—some fans were taken aback by his presence and the various sound effects—which ranged from gunshots to eerie laughter.
“For people who are just hearing it for the first time and aren’t familiar with mixtapes, I think it’s a shock,” Izzo said. “They’re like, ‘What is this? This isn’t what we’re accustomed to.’ But as I look at the comments, they listen again and again. Then they get it.”
This may be the most commercially successful project Swamp Izzo has ever been a part of, but it’s not the most culturally significant. Izzo has hosted street classics from Young Thug (everything from the I Came from Nothing series and 1017 Thug to Rich Gang’s Tha Tour Vol. 1) to Young Scooter’s Street Lottery.
All of this Southern history is infused in MUSIC, and you can feel it—whether it’s the Lil Wayne nods, the Rich Kidz sample, or the homages to Bankroll Fresh and SpaceGhostPurrp. Some of this influence comes from Izzo, but Carti also has his finger on the pulse. As Izzo puts it: “I judge every artist by how much they study hip-hop. [Young] Thug studied it more, so he can input more ideas. Same with Carti… Carti listens to Wu-Tang. He’s attuned. He’s paying attention. You can’t tell?”
We spoke to Swamp Izzo about the making of MUSIC, what some of those studio sessions were like, Young Scooter’s legacy, and more.
The interview, lightly edited for clarity, is below.
What’s been your reaction to the reaction around your presence on the album?
For the newcomers, the first time hearing it, it’s like a shocker because it’s not Carti in a sense. I come with a hip-hop feel. I come from the mixtape era, so I bring that element to it. A lot of samples—of course the Rich Kidz—and just a lot of yelling and excitement over the songs. For the people who are just hearing it for the first time and are not aware of mixtapes, I think that it’s a shocker. “What is this? This is not what we accustomed to.” As I look at the comments, they listen again and again. Then they get it.
I think what you’re referring to is maybe some younger people being like “who is Swamp Izzo,” correct?
Yeah. I did so much and I just try to stay away from honestly talking about what I do. I just try to just do as much as I can do. So if you listen to the Latto record, “Blick Sum,” you’re going to feel my presence. If you go back and just listen to Westside Gunn’s “Mr Everything” with Young Jeezy, [you feel my] presence. And you know Westside Gunn is super, super hip-hop. But I’m still bringing my element to that.
If you think of Atlanta—and any artist from the beginning structure of their career—I had my hands on it in the beginning.
I comment to every fan on my Instagram and Twitter. They’ll tell me, “Swamp, I hate you today. You spammed the album out.” And I’d be like, “Yo, if you just give me another listen, you’ll see what type of energy I’m on.”
This is high energy. I’m actually screaming, yelling to get you to understand this energy of the music. If you watch them shows, the Rolling Louds, that’s where I got it from. I was like, “I can’t just be the regular mixtape version.” So I’m really yelling, losing my voice creating that energy.
How’d you link with Carti?
I’ve been knew him. He’s from the city. I knew him from his work. Personally, this is something he just always wanted to do. We started with one or two songs. We put it out and we’re like “Let’s do another song.” So if you notice for the year, we was just releasing records, just seeing how it would feel. And we was getting the kind of response we wanted. And then we were like, “You know what, let’s do a whole album.” And remember this is five years in the making. So he had to build up the confidence, the energy to do it this way.
What was the first song y’all did together?
I don’t even remember the first song we did together. I don’t know because when we first locked in, I left the Blue Flame, 3 or 4 am. I think we did like six songs. There’s a lot of songs that haven’t came out yet, so I don’t know the actual names of them actually.
I feel like this album is nostalgic. And I was just wondering when you first linked with him, was it like, “Yo, I want that old Atlanta shit.”
I think it just grew. He had an idea of what he wanted me to actually bring onto one song, if that makes sense. So he was like, “I just want the intro on the song.”
What song was that?
I don’t remember. Even with the album, while everybody was waiting on it, we was naming the songs. We were just recording. We don’t have a title, we don’t have a direction. Everything is just free spirited. We might say, “we’re getting high” and the song might come out “Walking Down the Street.” So I can hear the song and be like, “oh yeah, that’s the song” but couldn’t give you a title.
It sounds like you were in the studio with him a lot?
Allways. Every time.
What’s a studio session with Carti like?
Every studio session is not the same because he rents out the building. So it’s a bunch of rooms. So you might have one room where there’s just a bunch of clothes. He’s just vibing that day. So the vibe that day is he’s trying on clothes and he’s just styling. You might get in a studio setting and there just be like bags of money everywhere.
Or one day he just had a bunch of jewelry on and I’m just looking at him, “Oh, that’s where we at today.” So you just hear different elements of a song we just record from that day. It’s never a plan. Every time I’ve ever been in there it was like, “What’s up? What’s going on at the clubs?” Put on a beat and we’ll just start talking for an hour and a half, two hours. We might just be eating it and he’s like “I’m going in the booth.” And then when he get out of the booth he’d be like, “Yeah Swamp go on top of that.”
So the first song, “POP OUT,” we did that during the prolong of the album coming out. The album was done, supposed to drop at midnight. He’s like, “Nah, Swamp, just go in the other room and give me some more energy.” I’m like, “For real? It’s done. We ready. We locked.” And he’s like, “We’re going to drop at 3 AM.” So if you listen to “Pop Out” you’ll hear “I’m in here with Swamp right now…on my mama.”
We just trying to make the album more and more exciting. So we just cramming. We recorded all the way up to the album actually came out. So when they dropped at 7 AM, we were still in the studio, on everything I love.
Was that stressful for you?
Excitement! I knew it was going to change the world. But you got to think, we still in there fighting over a hundred songs trying to get it down to 24, 25. Still couldn’t do it.
It was already 24, 25 at midnight. It was locked. Something happened behind the [scenes] that he was like, “let’s go back in.” So the song selection started changing. What you heard, the final, that was a whole different shuffle. Because he’s still storming in his mind, he’s still creating. He’s doing interviews, everybody wants to talk. “What’s the hold up?” He’d get off an interview and be like, “Pull that beat up.”
I’m actually there for every song, every session because a different element needs to be done. Now you can add the Swamp Izzo drop to it, but it has to be right and it has to be wrong at the same time.
What does that mean?
It has to feel good and bad at the same time. That’s why when you heard it, you had that feeling like, “I don’t know if that’s what I’m accustomed to. Maybe that’s too much.” And I say, “We ain’t in any category. Stop thinking like that. We want to change all that thinking.”
Were you always into Carti’s music? Because you have a long history of working with more traditional rappers.
I was always into it. Because I’m on radio too. I was always excited about what him and Lil Uzi Vert was doing. That was really exciting. [Now] the performance he was doing at Rolling Loud, I didn’t understand that until I got around. Really, when I did the first Rolling Loud with him, I was confused.
What year was that?
I think [2023.] I’m coming from a different area of music of course. But this energy that the kids was bringing was always what I wanted. So when I finally got an urge for it, it was like drugs. It was like real crank. It was like doing every drug at one time and I wanted more and more. And that’s what you hear on the album. I was like, “Oh, I know what energy y’all want.” And that’s what I was trying to bring to it with the high energy, the yelling and the screaming. I’m trying to really get to that point where the kids were already at.
What’s your best performance on the album?
“GOOD CREDIT.” That was the element like, “Hold on Kendrick [Lamar], let me say something.” Know how hard that is? You know how big that was? That was life changing. That’s when you stopped the world. The world is always turning but I grabbed it.
Were all you guys in the studio?
No. He had to approve it, of course. We sent it back. He had to go with it. We changing everything about what it’s supposed to sound like. Talking about me and Kendrick, first time ever. If you are who you are and then somebody just says something on it—it’s kind of like a roll of the dice too. Because we waiting on approval. Will he understand that? He comes from the era. I’ve been a fan of him since Jay Rock and Little Wayne. He’s on the hook [for “All My Life (In the Ghetto)”]—”ghetto, ghetto, ghetto.”
What kind of notes does Carti give? Is he very descriptive?
He’s always creating mentally. So every song is never complete. Every song on the album is still not complete to his liking. He’s always creating, which is exciting for me. Because I’ve been in the studio with people who just be complete. On my mama he’d be like, “Yo Swamp, go back in again.” I be like, “All right. Give me some honey and some tea.”
The adrenaline is super high as soon as you walk in the studio until you leave. That’s why we be burnt for days. We be burnt out. We’ll go do six, seven songs burnt. We done gave every ounce of energy and that’s what he wanted to always be. All the songs need to be high energy. All the songs need to touch you from as soon as it comes on because we only thinking about the biggest picture, the biggest state. We’re thinking about 50, 60,000 people at one time, not just one.
Is that why the album took so long? Because he’s always adjusting?
Nah, the album really kind of been done. I kind of sneaked it off to people a year and a half ago. “The album is done, me and Carti…world premiere.” And everybody is like “Impossible. He won’t drop.”
So I started doing all the events with him. Every time I do an event I’d be like, “it’s coming.” But every time I say it was coming it’s because I was guaranteed it was done. But like I said, he grows on it. Things just grow into a whole other song. So just say “EVIL J0RDAN.” It’s cool, but as he listen, he’d be like “Put another beat on and it.” And it grows and it’s just fungus. It just keeps growing and growing until we have so many songs.
Do you guys ever talk about old school Atlanta rap?
Yeah, of course. He’s definitely an element of Atlanta rap. He’s been paying attention to everything. This project was really to just let people understand that he understood. It wasn’t just about me going and saying, “let’s do this.” No, he understood. The Rich Kidz? He’s a fan of it. He’s been listening the whole time.
Settle a debate for me: The “Carti World” adlib on “RADAR”, is that Playboy Carti doing Lil Wayne or is that a little Wayne adlib?
That’s the debate. I seen that. I can’t answer it.
Do you know the answer?
Of course I do.
He’s been teasing BABY BOI.
Ready. Done.
Is BABY BOI new music?
New music. He got over 50, 60 songs done. Completed to his liking? I couldn’t say. But they’re done. If I was still in that mixtape era, we’d have BABY BOI one through nine. Fifteen years ago, we were so heartfelt on them exclusives. We couldn’t even sleep until we put it out before everybody. .
How would you describe your role on the album?
I call myself God DJ. I’m probably the only DJ to have blessed more successful artists on planet Earth. Young Scooter, Young Thug, Future, Carti. Unbelievable, right?
I think the most amazing thing is where you found them. Like you worked with Future in the late 2000s?
The beginning. The first mixtape he was ever on was mines. And it wasn’t for him, it was for Young Scooter. Young Scooter came before Future. The first mixtape ever was Plug Talk. They best friends. You give me the music and I put it together how I wanted to put it together. The first song on the mixtape was Future rapping on Scooter’s mixtape. I stopped the music so he could say his name for the first time. It was “The Future.” I stopped the music so he could say it to the world.
That was important in history because he was my little man. He didn’t really care about music. I was really forcing music on him. Scooter, he didn’t really care about it. But I got all this equipment and you my little man, you have to rap because I want to make it.
What do you remember about those days with Future and Scooter?
As far as Scooter goes—rest in peace—I loved his drive more because he didn’t care about it and it became something. So the whole time I’m pushing him, “that’s the song I’m playing it in the club.” He didn’t care nothing about it at all.
When was the last time you talked to Scooter?
Two weeks ago, my boy was in the Flame and I was playing his music and he FaceTimed him. I couldn’t hear him. He was like, “Yo, I’m over here with Izzo.” And he was just laughing. I couldn’t hear him. And on his birthday I had to work and I was just prolonged the whole day to actually call. So I was supposed to call him that day for his birthday.
What did you hear in Young Thug for you to want to fuck with him when you did?
A guy introduced me to Thug. When I first got in the studio with Thug, he didn’t even say nothing to me. He was over there and I was over there. He knew who I was. I didn’t know who he was and I didn’t know he knew who I was. It was so awkward. He was in his world talking to his people. He kept his family around, his sisters. They stayed there. Everywhere he went, he kept them. And I just started noticing he was just like a family person. So when I started talking to him, he started enlightening me. “I’ve been working out in these streets and I want to work with you.” So then we started cooking. He was on Cleveland. I just started taking him on Bankhead. So if you go on YouTube, he was always with me on Bankhead at the studio. I used to always have him over there. He was always a worker, but every time he used to rap, he used to say the craziest things in the world.
Have you guys been able to talk since he’s been home?
Yeah, of course. You heard him on the album, right?
He ready. I talked to him the other day. Just hit him. “I can feel you coming.” He’s coming.
What do you want to hear from a new Thug album?
What it was like. The trial tribulations. I was around when he was going through his court. That’s why they was pulling the mixtapes up in the court. I was there—the influence of the music. So they was trying to say the music was an element of it. He was speaking through it. But nah, he’s just a dreamer like me.
One of my favorite albums is Tha Tour. On the intro you talked about tour dates coming. What happened to the tour?
Tha Tour is my baby. We really cooked. Rest in Peace Rich Homie Quan. I think they literally did 600, 700 songs. No cap. They recorded so much music.
I’ll never forget we was in Miami and everybody was packing up to go to the club to celebrate because they recorded so many songs. I was like “Oh we about to go to Club LIV.” It’s about to be a movie. My first time going to LIV, I’m excited. And [Baby] was like, “Nah, you staying…pick the single.” My feelings was hurt, crushed because they packed up. Everybody’s going to LIV and I had to stay to listen to all these songs and when they got back I picked “Lifestyle.”
Why did you pick “Lifestyle?”
What Thug grew into was unbelievable. Every verse, hook—everything was unbelievable and it wasn’t missing anything. It was the perfect cake. But you got to be the best and just add Quan onto it.
Back to Carti, can you put this album in the context of the history of Atlanta rap?
This album supersedes everything I ever did in my entire life. Before it even came out.
How come?
Because we was already doing the Rolling Louds. I already felt the momentum. Real time, I was at 200, 300,000 followers. One picture, like “It’s coming,” I’m at a million. I’m like, “I’m being spammed. Something’s wrong.” Then you start seeing the comments. “When is it coming, you are our savior.”
Do you have any stories of Carti fans in real life?
I moved. They hacked everything on my daughters. I had to buy a whole new everything. So I have to stop posting her.
Because of Carti?
Yeah, I get every text, every email. “Yo they’re in your email. Who is trying to change your password?” Because they were thinking I’m holding the music on me. Which I was. I’m sorry. I had it the whole time.
It’s so scary. The music is so valuable. You don’t even know where to put it. It’s worth more than money.
Do you know how many times you say your name on the album?
I need to be in the Guinness Book of World record. Over a 100 times, 150 times. Intentionally.
I saw a number say 47. You think that’s low?
Can’t be. I probably did that on one song. Because, once again, I’m in the mind state of hundreds of thousands of people here. I’m yelling this so much so you can hear it.
My favorite song is “MUNYEN” because it sounds like a concert.
I was light on that one. Super light on that one. Come on, listen again. Listen to that one again.I was being modest on that one.
What’s the difference between how Carti records and someone like Young Thug?
Of course the music is different. I think they record the same. Because Carti records quietly. Like we all in the studio, they’re recording. So Fritz [Carti’s engineer] is in the headphones. Nobody can hear the recording until he comes out and plays it back. So the process is him in there. You could just see him jumping up, grabbing poles and stuff, creating the energy. But it’s not like you’re just sitting there listening to the words like, “Oh he’s going crazy.” I never witnessed that until we did “POP OUT” and I was just in there with him. So that’s why you hear me.
View news Source: https://www.complex.com/music/a/dimassanfiorenzo/playboi-carti-album-music-dj-swamp-izzo-making
