By Niki Gatewood
A genuine smile betrays the perpetual look of concentration that usually dominates the rich, chocolate features of Dominick “Nottz” Lamb. His sense of humor is merciless. The self-professed underground producer’s stealthy wit is as contagious as the viral videos that are plaguing Hip-Hop. The corners of his mouth begin to lift and a radiant smile shines brightly.
Finally, he releases a hearty laugh while he begins describing the rampant use of the vocoder. “I just can’t see people that [others] need to get permission to use [the vocoder] when Roger and them boys were the first to actually use that. Did y’all get permission to use that? I can’t f**k with it. I mean, it’s a cool thing if you’re Roger Troutman. Not everybody is T-Pain. Not everybody can really use that.” For those that don’t know, Nottz is fully qualified to check just about anybody. He's produced music for just about everybody - The Game, Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg, Little Brother, AZ, Scarface, Busta Rhymes and the list goes on and on.
While he’s chastising wanna-be singers, Nottz is equally prepared to unload on these quasi-MCs. His upcoming untitled CD touts a song called “Can’t Hide The Truth,” and the song serves as a verbal castigation to those who are playing around with Hip-Hop. There’s more to come.
Next up is Nottz’s Top 5 Dead or Alive, where his signature smirk reappears. There’s nothing quasi about his list.
B.I.G.
"Well, you know, B.I.G. will always be up there. B.I.G. had a handful of albums and every last one of them sounded crazy. When you hear some of Biggie’s s***, it seems like he did that yesterday, you know what I mean? There’s so many people [whose]…careers were launched off that dude’s style, and it’s crazy…You hear dudes who sound like that dude—that’s not it—but you know where they got it from."
Jay-Z
"You’ll always put Jay in that position, well the old Jay, when Jay was on top. Every verse that he spit was crazy. Then you got these dudes who are sounding like Jay. I don’t even know dude name, dude sound just like Jay, dude’s voice and all. I’m like, yo. That makes me look at Jay like oh, wow. Then he let people take his spot. He was supposed to have been retiring, you know what I’m saying, years ago and he ain’t do it. It just made me look at him like anybody can outspit this n***a now. You got a lot of cats that will rip Jay to pieces now. You know what I’m saying?"
"I mean, I got some dudes out here that will probably tear that dude to pieces. Then, you really got to look at it like this, he got money. Then you got a lot of cats that got money and that’s basically the only thing that they can throw out at a dude. Then you got ignorant mother f***ers that only listen to that kind of s**t. Like, ‘Okay, yeah, he only talking about his money, oh he got him.’ Not really listening to what he’s talking about-- Don’t get me wrong, Jay can spit his ass off, but there are some dudes out here that will probably tear that dude to pieces."
Rakim
"I’m like from the old school. I like Rakim. Rakim’s music is timeless. He was spitting s*** back in the day that dudes are just now spitting. He still got a million and one MCs that are trying to sound like him. I don’t know what it is. He was just before his time. I feel if you get him on some newere music he could probably do something—especially to the people who haven’t heard him before, [like] the younger folks."
KRS-ONE
"KRS, he’s always gonna be that teacher. These young dudes really need to go back and cop every last one of KRS-ONE’s album. They need to really do that. I believe that KRS-ONE put down the blueprint of Hip-Hop."
Scarface
"I don’t want him to [retire] but I respect it. Because we’re getting older, ain’t nobody getting younger. It don’t look right for older cats to be rapping. Let the young boys do it; but, at least put them on to some right s***. [Let’s] make sure they do it right. They have to rep this Hip-Hop s**t right. The way it’s going it’s f**king up."
He’s probably one of the realest dudes you’ll ever meet. When I first met him he were at Pharrell’s studio. Pharrell told me to, ‘Come by; I got somebody I want for you to meet.’ So, when I got there he was like, ‘He’s on his way.’ When we were about to leave he was coming through the door. We waited and you know what I’m saying he was like, ‘I heard about you, man. I heard that had got some s**t. Play some s**t for me.’ I played some s**t for him and s**t. He was like, ‘Where’s your studio at?’ I was like it’s probably about 10, 15 minutes away. [Then] the n**** hopped in the truck with me, it was me, my manager and one of my homeboys. We made the join that was on his album. We’ve been f***ing with him ever since.
That’s crazy man. And I know the n***a a real n***as, he was like look, ‘Let’s stop at Wendy’s right quick.’ We stopped at Wendy’s and got some food and s**t, drive-thru. Most of these cats want to go to a f**king, high dollar ass restaurant, we ain’t trying to hear that s**t. Cool ass n***a. He’s one of the realest dudes you’ll ever meet.
The Sidebar
Nottz talent is undeniable as tracks like Scarface’s “Girl U Know” and Snoop’s “That’s That S**t” are on their way to becoming classics. Busta Rhymes introduced Nottz’ production work to the masses with “Everybody Rise” which is one the classics on Extinction Level Event. Keep watching as Nottz continues to thrive.