Chris Styles is the producer behind the hot 50 Cent songs "Window Shopper," "Disco Inferno," and "In my Hood." He is also the man behind Dangerous LLC. When he had a studio in his home Chris says he hit the studio everyday. Now that he has a studio in the city the man still spends over 100 hours in the studio. One of his managers is Sha Money who runs G-Unit Records and Chris is currently working with most of the G-Unit camp on their upcoming projects.

I wanted to ask about Dangerous LLC. I read you have several artists you work with. Who are some of the artists on your roster? I know about Deemi.
Chris Styles-Deemi is one of the artists signed to my production company. I have a group from Canada that's kind of crazy-- HB, Heaven Bound. I got Dawnn, she's working her deal now I cant say what label. I got a female group I'm putting together. They don't have a name yet but they have like 30 songs.

You know everybody is feeling "Window Shopper" and that's my husbands favorite song right now so I said let me talk to Chris. So did you work with 50 in the studio on that song?
Chris Styles-No I was there for the mix of the record. He was on tour when he did the record and then they, Sha brought back the joint to New York to mix the record and I was in there with Sha and Patten who did the mix of the record.

Which songs of 50's did you produce on The Massacre album?
Chris Styles-"Disco Inferno" and "In My Hood."

Here is a question. If someone was starting a home studio what kind of equipment should they start out with.
Chris Styles-There are so many things out there it's really to your liking. One of the things I would tell people is try to get shit that's compatible so when you ready to go to the bigger studio you can just bounce it down real easy. So I would stick to Pro Tools, try to stick to Pro Tools for recording purposes, Triton, MP2000, those are things I started out with and I still use.

What mainstream artists have you contributed production too lately?
Chris Styles- As G-Unit goes I'm working with everyone over there. Actually I'm working with MOP over at 50's crib right now. Young Buck, I just did a couple of joints for Banks. I just did a joint for Mase and Olivia maybe about a month ago. Its going to be on the Mase project. Just working man. My main concern is really Deemi.

Recording artist Deemi

I'm a fan of hers. I was supposed to interview her a few weeks ago but time conflicts it didn't work out.
Chris Styles-We can make that happen.

I read in your bio that you used to be an HIV counselor in New York. How did you go about getting into that field?
Chris Styles--Oh, what happened was I had a job. I've always been a dude that works. One of the jobs I had was peer counselor. Through the peer counseling I ended up doing that. I was spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS and domestic violence and substance abuse. That's kind of how that happened. I was doing that for a number of years maybe for like 7 years. I worked right inside of Rikers ya know what I mean.

Chris Styles and entertainer 50 Cent

I think you could really affect a lot of young people with this interview. A lot of them don't believe that young black people contract HIV. Did you ever interact with young people with HIV?
Chris Styles--Yeah man. I tell a story sometimes. One of our first times going out, cause we were spreading awareness about HIV, but the funny part was one day I went out to do a whole awareness thing. When I went out I met this young lady. When I walked in the door she was bad and when I say bad I mean she was drop dead gorgeous and up until that time I knew a person with HIV, but everybody was like older or gay, this was years ago. I know she came up and told her story after our presentation and you wouldn't believe that she had HIV. I'm being honest with you, I can't even explain it. I'll never forget her, she was Puerto Rican, she was crazy, I can see her now and that was 8-10 years ago. It was crazy.

I interviewed Needlz a couple of months ago and he was saying he has a manager who takes his beats out. I know you are in the studio a lot but do you have a manager that gets your beats out for you?
Chris Styles---Yeah. I know Needlz that's my Nigga. I'm kinda different. I got like the best management in the world. I'm managed by Sha Money who runs G-Unit Records and I'm managed by CC and Hip-Hop who runs Black Music at Atlantic and also manages Kanye and Just Blaze. So I'm surrounded by the best people. So anyone who knows me knows I'm real hands on. I'm a monster. I aint waiting for no manager to put out beats, I take my own initiative to go do what I gotta do. Even if I didn't have Sha as a manger, what I was doing is everywhere I knew 50 was going to be at, if I went to 50 house for a party I would have 20 CD's on me cause I knew there would be mad artists there so I'm giving out CD's all day. Contacting dudes like, "You heard that beat yet?"

Listen to Chris Styles

What are your long term goals in the industry?
Chris Styles---Let's see. This beat hustle thing is kind of wack. If you aint one of those top top producers, I 'm not saying I'm not going to get there because I'm well on my way, it's just that you gotta play beats for a dude, they have to record your record, two track your record, even those top notch producers have to go through what I go through. That gets annoying. Then you are check chasing in this game. I want to put myself in a position where I'm not check chasing. Running my own label, getting that overhead or take this money, and take all the money I am getting from this production thing and start up something on the side so I don't have to rely on this music because it's not reliable. For producers, they have a little more time span than an artist but it isn't that long so you also have to find something else that you can do.


Visit Chris' artist Deemi online at http://www.deemi.com

Chris Styles interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, and Thabiz.com 2005
Dorrie Williams-Wheeler is the author of Be My Sorority Sister Under Pressure and the Unplanned Pregnancy Book for Teens and College Students. She is the founder of Thabiz.com and Imissthe80s.com and writes for the Rap, Teen, and 1980s section at Bellaonline.com. She is an ASCAP member as a writer and a publisher. Please contact Dorrie for advertising inquiries, lyric writing inquiries, reprint rights, paying entertainment jobs, or general comments.
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Interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, thabiz.com November 2005.