Bass Brothers

Bass Brothers is the professional name for the team of Mark and Jeff Bass, the Detroit producers responsible for grooming megastar Eminem in his early days and collaborating on much of his subsequent music. Before that they worked with George Clinton. Tracks from those sessions ended up on the P-Funk All Stars album Dope Dogs. Jeff Bass is considered one of the most influential people in Eminem's career. On their work with Eminem, Mark and Jeff Bass are credited as F.B.T. Productions.

Although Interscope marketed Dr. Dre as Eminem's major producer in order to boost his credibility as a white rapper in the hip-hop community, the Bass Brothers have in fact produced more individual tracks for the rapper than Dre. Jeff Bass performed the "Public Service Announcements" that introduce both The Slim Shady LP and The Marshall Mathers LP. Most recently, he performed the "Another Public Service Announcement" from D12's album Devil's Night when he got punched by Rondell Benne, who replaces him as the announcer for that album.

Most of Eminem's hit singles have been either produced by Dre ("My Name Is", "The Real Slim Shady", and "Just Lose It") or Jeff Bass ("Without Me", "Beautiful" and "Lose Yourself").

Both have won Grammy Awards for their work with Eminem. Jeff Bass won an Best Original Song Oscar in 2003 for co-writing "Lose Yourself" from the film 8 Mile.^[1]

The Bass Brothers also own a Detroit record label called Web Entertainment, home to both rock artists (The Romantics) and hip-hop acts (King Gordy).

Mark Bass: "In 1990, Jeffrey and I landed a deal to produce a hip-hop rap project called Tycie & Woody for Elektra Records, operating for the first time as the 'Funky Bass Brothers [later changing to F.B.T. (Funky Bass Team) due to the addition of Mike Wilder to the team].' We met George Clinton and started working as a production team for George and for his label, Westbound Records. Unfortunately, most of the acts that we produced for Westbound were never released, and we feel it was some of our best work. Generally speaking, we always worked with black artists, although not intentionally. That changed, of course, when Mark heard a white rapper named M&M freestyle on a local radio show in 1992 and invited him to the studio for free time."

The song "Touchdown" off T.I.'s album T.I. vs. T.I.P. released at 2007, featuring Eminem was produced by Eminem and Jeff Bass. Mark produced George Clinton's album, George Clinton and His Gangsters of Love released September 16, 2008. In 2009 Jeff co-produced the fifth single "Beautiful" of Eminem's album Relapse.

Although the brothers no longer do significant production for Eminem, the rapper has stated that they maintain a positive and close relationship.

Discography

Business ventures

• Bassmint Productions
• Mashin' Duck Records^[2]
• Web Entertainment^[3]
• F.B.T. Productions LLC^[4]

See also

• F.B.T. Productions, LLC v. Aftermath Records

References