But Eddie F, unlike so many DJ’ that didn’t take the time out to explore ‘other’ opportunities, has ventured on to work with music’ elite including Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, LL Cool J, Will Smith, Destiny's Child, Luther Vandross and RunDMC. And now, as the pioneer he is, Eddie F will be behind a new software program that will boost ailing music sales.

It’s been a long time since Heavy D and the Boys. How would you best describe your journey?

Eddie F: I’ve been through a lot of facets. Starting off has an artist and having been a business person behind the group and then branching out into my own business and management; producer, managing artists. Having my own company early on; Untouchables Entertainment Group… owning a studio and then going on to having a major publishing company that does records for everybody including Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige to Run DMC to Destiny’ Child. And then becoming V.P. of A&R at LaFace. to the V.P. of A&R at Motown; it almost felt like the same type of journey… like going to school. It felt like an education. It felt like starting out new to the business and then kind of going to explore different areas as far as learning on the fly based on the music and based on success. And then at the end kind of feeling like I almost went to college or grad school when I was at Motown. And then taking all that knowledge and then transferring it to a new form of technology. And I’ve always worked with… people that know me know that I’ve always dealt with computers and technology. I was actually going to major in computer science and we made a hit record and I left. My last day of college was the day we were supposed to shoot the video for “Mr. Big Stuff”. I was supposed to be in my freshman year. It became a hit record and we started doing shows. I’ve always had the technology buzz in the background. And I still work on computers and technology. I kind of run my own small network. I’m all in Apple Computers. I have a relationship with Apple. When the technology thing started coming together, I was like wow, everything I’ve been kind of like doing is sort of synergizing together. To be presented with the opportunity with Voxonic; it kind of lets me utilize all of the tools that I’ve picked up along the way.

In this day and age running your own business in hip hop is something new. But with you it isn’t.  Can you elaborate about new artists coming into the industry who need to know this art form is a business?

Eddie F: What I see now and I really like it… I see a lot of artists and a lot of performers realize that the business part of the music is real serious. And a lot of artists … for lack of a better word, I think that a lot of artists were young and really got into this game early on… as oppose to taking this game real serious; as a business. And people understand while you’re making music and while you’re being creative… it is a business. And the most successful artist nowadays, realizes that immediately. It’s not so much as a manager or business person that has to stay on them. It’s them staying on themselves and knowing that I need people around me that are going to help me execute. Much bigger industry now; rap and hip hop is main stream culture now. I remember when we came out, you’d be happy if you got a top 10 rap record… R&B. That was almost like a number 1 pop record because you couldn’t even get played on all the stations. All the stations wouldn’t play rap. It wasn’t as entranced in American culture. And now that I think the music is more widely accepted, there are more business opportunities with hip hop and rap culture. I think a lot of artists are taking advantage of that. The smart ones are. And there are a lot more of them and I think that’s great.

With Voxonic you’ll be using a groundbreaking software and be at the forefront of technology in music. How will you handle yet another milestone in your career?

Eddie F: To be honest… at the end of the day, I just love music. And I love working with interesting new things and I’m more of… I became more of a fan of what the technology can do and realizing that there’s a whole world out there outside of the U.S. … Outside of English speaking countries… I just immediately realized wow, this is revolutionary. To be able to transform people’ vocal delivery into another language in their own voice…

Do you think that will help boost ailing CD sales?

Eddie F: Yes. Not only CD sales. I think there are so many other different aspects to this technology… Music is just the edge. Music is the tip of the iceberg as far as I’m concerned. There is a need for this type of technology.

With this new technology, you’re going to have a tremendous amount of people interested in working with you.

Eddie F: Right now, it’s set up where it’s exclusively through Voxonic. And I know that there are no plans to license… right now. But you know, it’s a constantly changing industry. I wouldn’t rule it out. I would just say that it’s not available at this time … LOL.

Your career spans way over 20 years. The number 20 is just the clinical part of it.  People don’t know the underground part of it to where people started to recognize you. Who are you interested in working with that you haven’t worked with already?

Eddie F: I would really like to work with Kanye.

Why?

Eddie F: Because I really like… I love his music. I love his attitude even more. I think it’s kind of brash at times. He gave hip hop a direction when people didn’t know which way to go. I’ve always respected the fact that he did ‘Through the Wire’, he had the accident; he did his own video. And anybody that’s like… puts their career on their back and make it happen like that… you can’t have anything but respect for them.

I recently interviewed CL Smooth for his new album American Me. Pioneers of hip hop are coming back because audiences want to hear them. What do you think of that?

Eddie F: I think that CL was always way, way ahead of his time. The things that he says and the metaphors that he using and how he was breaking things down… I think people really get it off the bat. And I think true MC’s heard what he was saying and they were like wow, this guy’s really deep. Again, hip hop was so new at that time, if you had a ‘commercial’ hip hop/R&B hook; like I said you could barely get on the radio. So for somebody who was a true hip hop artist, it would be even harder. He made commercial records like ‘Let’s Reminisce’ but that wasn’t the true essence of who CL is. It was all the other records. The same thing goes for Pete Rock. I look at them as like … almost the way you look at jazz greats. There are just great musicians that are part of the culture. They never sold millions and millions of records but everybody looks at them as the greats of the culture… that’s how I look at both of those guys.  I hope that the album gets the attention. And I hope he does fantastic.

You’ve had a successful career. What would you advise or tell someone who is trying to achieve what you’ve had or further?

Eddie F: Always be in a position to understand what’s happening with your career, your business and your music. I think at times people become artists and they kind of like sit back and let everything happen around them and let everybody do things for them. Sometimes people don’t have a full understanding of everything that’s going on. At the end of the day, it’s music business. Be creative and do the things you do as an artist but make sure you handle the music business part of it as well. As much as you can. If you don’t understand what’s going on… make sure it’s explained to you. Make sure it makes sense. Don’t just listen to what people say because they say ‘they got you’ or ‘they got it’.

Why is it so important that artists know their business?

Eddie F: Whether somebody has your best intentions or not; things happen. People get busy, they make mistakes. At the end of the day if you’re not in control of your business and don’t know what’s going on… who does? And sometimes people think that just because they hire people that this person is going to take care of everything… take care of their lives. And every once in a while you’ll find a special person that really, really will have your back and kind of like put you before them. But it’s not really common because everybody has a life and has things to do as well. So you have to be responsible and make sure they are on top of their stuff.