Grammy Award-winning songwriter and producer Patrick "J. Que" Smith is no stranger to success. Having penned tunes for the likes of Usher, Fantasia, Toni Braxton, Ruben Studdard, Chris Brown and Kelly Rowland, J. Que, who is also a member of the infamous songwriting team The Clutch, has built an impressive catalogue of hits that continues to expand. In fact, it was J. Que's gift for songwriting and melody that catapulted Usher to new heights with his massive hit "Yeah!", the biggest single of 2004. Currently, his songwriting talents can be heard on records including Omarion's "Icebox," Ciara's "Like A Boy," and Fantasia's "Baby Makin' Hips." However, despite being so accomplished, J. Que has remained humble and describes himself as grateful for his success. He was kind enough to spend the day with Spaceship Entertainment's own, Seven, where the two discussed various aspect of music, industry politics, and life.

SE (Seven): OK, so let's talk a little bit about your background. Now both of your parents are ministers. Is that correct?

J. Que: Yes...

SE (Seven): So how did your parents take to you entering the music business? More specifically, doing secular music?

J. Que: Well, the whole getting into the music business thing freaked my folks out because I actually started out at a junior college on a full-ride scholarship and ended up going to Auburn [University] for a quick second. Got my GPA up to like 3.87. It was so long ago. I had four or six hours left and I called home and told Mom and Dad that I didn't want to do this anymore; that I didn't want to go to school anymore. I wanted to do music. My older brother, Greg - who I have a company with called Battery 5 - was out here at an audition with Warner Brothers. So I was like, well, "You know, I followed my brother to college so of course I was going to follow him to Atlanta." Mom and Dad, at first, were like, "I don't think so." And then they really sat down and thought about it for a second and called me back and were like, "If you're going to try it, try it now. You don't want to be like forty looking back thinking 'What if...'." So I kinda messed around and said, "Cool, I'm going to get out here and try it." And when they found out what I was trying wasn't gospel music, oh yeah, they tripped for like a minute. More my dad than my mom. But since I was about this big, I've been very bullheaded. When I make up my mind, that's what I'm going to go do. Like, if it doesn't work out, then let me find out it doesn't work. And so I told my dad that I was going and I came out here and they gave me a hard, hard time. And my argument with them was always the same thing, "Like, when you and Mom...I know you two are ministers and love the Lord, and you love each other also. When y'all want to spend a little time together, y'all don't want to hear "Hosanna on High."

SE (Seven): (Laughs)

J. Que: So I was like, "There's got to be a way for me to make good music and not go to hell. Y'all can't tell me there's no way for me not to do it."

SE (Seven): Right.

J. Que: And then just strangely enough, about a year later, my mom and dad were at a revival somewhere where they had never been before. And someone came up to them and just told them, "I don't know why I'm telling you this but the Lord has put it on my heart. You have a son that's doing music and you're uncomfortable with the way that he's doing it. But he's going to do very well. This is what God has for him to do."

SE (Seven): So this person didn't know you at all?

J. Que: No, didn't even know my mom and dad either.

SE (Seven): Really? Wow.

J. Que: And this person was like, "Let him do what he loves to do. He's doing what God has for him to do."

SE (Seven): OK.

J. Que: Mom and Dad really calmed down after that. My dad still gave me a hard time. He kept telling me I was lazy and that I needed to get a real job. Of course after I signed my first publishing deal, all that shit STOPPED! He was on my team.

SE (Seven): I bet (laughs). But they say if you are doing what you love, don't worry about the money because the money will follow. And that obviously was the case in your situation.

J. Que: Right. Exactly! As long as you're persistent.

SE (Seven): Alright. So you wrote Usher's "Yeah!" from his 2004 effort Confessions . Now that is probably the biggest hit that you and Usher both have had in your careers.

J Que: Yeah, that was my biggest hit (laughs).

SE (Seven): In fact, you probably spending some of that Confessions money as we speak (laughs).

J. Que: Yeah, they told me that that record for a second was the biggest record in American radio history. So actually I bought my car with a piece of the first radio check I got from that record.

SE (Seven): Just a piece of the check, huh (laughs)? But, how did the success of "Yeah!" impact your career?

J. Que: Well what's amazing to me is that I've gotten better because I think the more you do anything, you get better.

SE (Seven): Right, and with that success, that in itself is obviously rewarding.

J Que: Umm...honestly, it was a lot easier for me to get meetings. People would actually listen to what I said. Like when I would tell someone before, "Naw I don't like that track," or "I don't think that's going to be the right single to release from such and such artist," they would tell me "Yeah...cool." But after "Yeah!" happened, I'm like "Yo, I don't think that's the right record," all of sudden they were like "Cool. So do you think is the right record J. Que?" I'm like "Really!?!" All of a sudden, I've got a meeting with Clive Davis. Never got to meet with Clive Davis before! So you know... it helped. My favorite part is it just really helped not only me, but [it helped] my family out and people around me out. Because all of the people I had been fans of...we were all broke together. The shit really started paying off. Because see, like the thing with me and Keri, nobody was fucking with me and Keri. People would fuck with us here, but not everywhere. But "Yeah!" set up a situation for all three of us, me, Sean, and Keri, to go in and write "Red Light" on the same album off the same album. That ended up getting Keri into a really sweet publishing deal...which she was going to get anyway because she had just signed her album deal. But all that exposure just started to help everybody out. It helped Hitco out. Hands down it helped my bank account out.

SE (Seven): (laughs)

J. Que: You know...it definitely helped set some things in motion.

SE (Seven): OK. Fair enough. It seems like so much emphasis is placed on producers. You know, when you hear about an artist coming out, the articles are always boasting about how they're working the hottest producers...Rodney Jerkins, Timbaland, Bryan Michael Cox, Neptunes, and so on. And it seems, music is at a point now, where the role of the producer is valued as equally as the role of the actual artist, if not more. What is your take on that?

J Que: Producers are more important than the artists these days, one of the problems. Which is why I don't only equate bad album sales to downloading. Back in the day, I think that labels signed artists.

SE (Seven): Right.

J Que: Labels still sign artists and there's a lot of incredible artists out there, but a lot of A&R are quick to sign acts now. Which is, you might not be the best talent, you might not have the best start potential, but "you look good so let me put this song on you right quick and then let's go ahead and get you in a Pepsi ad. We'll make our money back and then we really aint fucking with you anymore because no one likes you anyway." I think how they cover that up is by putting Joe Blow with getting Lil' Jon on the record. Lil' Jon, is an artist. So he has star quality. People fuck with Lil' Jon. They just don't fuck with his music; they fuck with him. So what they do, they mess around and take like me, someone unknown artists. They don't take anytime to develop me or anything like that but they cut a record with me and Lil' Jon and it's screaming Lil' Jon. People are gonna fuck with it. But no one is really invested in me. So then my album ends up doing nothing. The song does well, but I end up doing nothing. You know, people talk about downloading all the time. Dawg, I think at last count, I think at last count Usher is at 22 million albums worldwide.

SE (Seven): Just for Confessions ?

J. Que: Yes. People will still buy albums; they just have to believe in the artist. And they have to have a good album. I think sometimes sticking someone with the hottest producer isn't the right move.

SE (Seven): Right because you do have some artists who are placed with these big name, expensive producers, and they still don't have any success with their projects.

J. Que: Exactly, I think the Neptunes probably said it best. They did that record with Toni Braxton, that "Hit The Freeway" record. I believe they went on record saying, "Hey man, we're not the right producers for everybody. But if you going to give us the money, we're going to take it." You know...I get that. And then sometimes, the best producers for like you as an artist, might not be Kanye [West]. It might be that dude sitting at the end of the bar who didn't get a shot yet, but ya'll just make great music together. You know what I mean?

SE (Seven): Exactly. With that being said, do you sometimes feel the producer also overshadows the songwriter?

J Que: I think that definitely happens. However, I think that's changing.

SE (Seven): Think so?

J. Que: Yeah...well I know it's changing. Because it doesn't matter to people now who is necessarily, at least when I get a call, whether or not I'm producing the record solely by myself, whether or I'm producing with someone...They don't care. We just need a song from J. Que. We just need a song from J. Que. I think that's very evident with Sean Garrett. It don't matter who did the beat, this is Sean Garrett?! This is Ne-Yo?! People want it. I think it's just become evident that a hot beat is half of the equation, but it's only half of the equation. People need to be able to invest in records. You can have hottest beat in the world, but if you don't relate to the song...

SE (Seven): It's not going to fly.

J. Que: It's going to play in the club, but nobody is going to buy the album. Which is why I think that in a lot of cases, uptempo records make a great bang and they get out there and get the artist noticed, but it's the ballads that sell the album.

SE (Seven): Exactly. There's very evident...Look at Bryan Michael Cox with "We Belong Together" and all of the tracks he's doing for people these days.

J. Que: The Mary record!

SE (Seven): Right, "Be Without You." That record sent her first week sales through the roof.

J. Que: It might the biggest record she's ever had. I would venture to say it's the biggest record she's ever had.

SE (Seven): And the biggest first week for any female R&B artist. So the ballads are definitely are coming back.

J. Que: I think they have to. You know, I think that pretty soon it's going to be about the artist again. When the music business was at it's peak, it was about the artist. Somewhere along the way it became about the producer, now it's turning to the era of being about the writer, the only place it has left to go, which is the rightful place, is back to the artist. It's about the artist. And we [songwriters] just like to make good music. We make good music for people to listen to, so that they fuck with the artist.

SE (Seven): So who are some producers and/or songwriters that J. Que admires or is inspired by?

J. Que: Well...older, definitely Babyface. Also, Lionel Richie. Umm...out now, of course I think Tim [Timbaland] is the shit, Polow is the shit, Ne-Yo is the shit, B. Cox is out of control...that whole Blackbaby camp is out of control, Bryan, Adonis, Donnie Scantz, Kendrick, umm even Sam. Like a lot of folks don't know that Bryan's main engineer...Sam? He produces.

SE (Seven): Is that right?

J. Que: One of my first records I placed with, is with Sam. Sam is dope. So I really like them. Antonio Dixon and Eric Dawkins. They're called Anonymous. They actually used to be with the Underdogs and they just broke away. Eric is incredible. Eric might be the best singer I've ever met...in my life.

SE (Seven): Now in addition to writing and producing records on your own, you are also a part of a collective group called The Clutch. Define what the "The Clutch" is for those who may not be familiar with all of you collectively.

J. Que: Well, The Clutch is a production team, which is composed primarily of writers. The five people that really started it were myself, Keri Hilson, umm.... maybe I should just say a song or two of what people have done. OK, myself we've already covered that. Keri...Usher, Ruben.   Zeke [Ezekiel Lewis]....Whitney Houston. He also did a record on Teairra Mari's album called "New Shit" that I really like. I'm not sure if he'd bring that up though.

SE (Seven): (laughs)

J. Que: Balewa Muhammad, who has done more shit than all of us combined (laughs)...umm Balewa...pretty much all the Jaheim hits you know and love.   He also did "Dirrty" for Christina Aguilera. He did "Oh" for Ciara, "Touch of My Hand" on the last Britney album, which I liked just because it's about masturbation and I think that masturbation is the shit...

SE: WOW! (laughs)

J. Que: ...And you can quote me on that (laughs). Umm...and Candice Nelson. Candice is the baby who has the least amount of work, but even with that, the "She Don't" record that's out on the radio is her. She's already placed records on Alicia Keys, J. Lo, and Brandy's albums. She has "Resentment" on the new Beyonce album. Candice is the shit.

SE (Seven): Yeah I love Candice. She is amazingly talented.

J. Que: I love my Clutch! Yeah, but umm we're a production team. We came together...we didn't get together, but we wrote together for the first time during the MTV Awards last year.

SE (Seven): All five of you?

J. Que: Yes. There were a couple of companies that pulled us all together. We wrote...we got along great. We wrote and recorded six songs on a Friday. By Tuesday, four of those were gone. So we kind of sat back and said, "Well maybe we should think about doing this a little more often." So myself and Zeke decided that "Well fuck that, we're going to form a clique." Because Atlanta has pretty much stayed hot forever off of having a hot ass clique. So we were going to do the clique thing. We got on board and told everybody else. They were with it. We sat down and worked for a little while on trying to work some shit out. We got together as "The Clutch" around the beginning of this year. Since then, we've been able to lock down multiple song deals, about 60 records placed, a couple of singles. We got about seven singles about to come out. And...we're loving it. I mean one of my big things that I've always fussed about, not in a bad fussy way, but just trying to make sure that people get is using the word "producer" correctly. Because in the urban game it means something completely different that it means in any other type of music.

SE (Seven): Since you're discussing it, define for us what a "producer" is.

J. Que: OK, a producer in the urban game for some reason people think that if you did a track...you're a producer. That doesn't make you a producer. That makes you a songwriter . There's a songwriter for people who write the music and there's people who write the lyric and melody. That's the composer of the song. A producer actually makes the sequence. If there was a team, the producer would be the coach. Which is why Puffy [Diddy], while he was doing his thing, was a very good producer. He had a great ear; he knew what was going to work. He'd go in...you may do the music, you may write the record. But he'll come and say "I don't like that, take that out, put the bell here, fix that, you need to do this here, you need to do that there. Alright let me listen. Alright cool. Mix that down, let's go." He produced the record. Like there are guys out there, I understand, that do tracks that are producers. Like Bryan Cox does tracks. He produces. But Bryan produces because he will also sit his ass at the board and make sure that the record's right. Bryan Cox is a producer because the record's not coming out without his "OK. Let's go."

SE (Seven): OK

J. Que: I know a lot of writers have a lot of frustrations because a lot of times, what will happen these days is somebody will send you a track. You write the record. Demo the record. Arrange the record. Half the time you have to pump up the track to make the track make sense in the first place. Then you go cut the record on the artist and sit through the mix. And then when the shit gets done, the nigga that sent you that 35 second snippet four months ago is screaming "Hey dawg, I produced this record. This is my supper." That's just not fair you know?

SE (Seven): Right.

J. Que: I just firmly believe that you get what you do. Like there will never come a point in time where I'll ask somebody to give me anything. You know what I mean? If I produced the record, I want production. If I don't produce the record....if I just write the record and you handle that shit? Just because I got shit under my belt, I'm not going to try to take shit. If I write, I write. If I produce, I produce. And that's really, I guess, what our whole mission as The Clutch is, to just try to make shit more fair. And not only that, but really to help some of these new cats out. Because we all probably know someone that we think is the shit, but it seems like shit half the time seems so political that you feel like they're never going to get a chance to be heard anyway. So what we've done is we'll take people that may not have done anything , but if we like it...we'll fuck with you. And we're not going to take anything way from you. You know what I mean? The dude who did the "Take Me As I Am" record...

SE (Seven): Infinity?

J. Que: Yeah...Infinity is signing with The Clutch. Infinity never placed a record in his life before that. Nobody came in and said "Hey dawg. Fuck that dawg. You can't put your name on that shit. That's our shit dawg." That's not how it went down, so that's not how it's going down. We got a couple of other people that have never done anything in their lives, and we're dropping singles with them now. You know, I think it's just about chemistry, being fair, and getting back to what it was in the beginning. You know what I mean? So that's what we are.

SE (Seven): So how did the name "The Clutch" come about?

J. Que: Zeke and I were sitting in a hotel room, with Folayan Knight, who is the shit by the way, and Antonio Reid, Jr. We're in Miami...about to check out. So everybody's bags [are] in there, which is when we decided we're going to do this Clutch songwriting shit, and cut records all the time. Umm...we figured we're going to need a name. We started throwing out names, and I'm like "Well whatever it is, we have to be able to brand it. Like, we need to start thinking like a business." So we're thinking like, "What's something that really encompasses what we're trying to do?" We think and throw out names for a second. I finally say, "We need something that kind of says that there's two seconds left on the clock. We're down by two points. We want the ball! Give me the fuckin' ball." I said, "The name needs to say 'We come through nigga! We don't miss!'"

SE (Seven): (laughs)

J. Que: And, Junior says, "You mean like a clutch player?" And I go, "clutch?" And Zeke goes "No... The Clutch." (laughs) And then I'm like "Yeah. Yeahhh, we're official now."

SE (Seven): (laughs) Alright, so is there an artist that you haven't worked with yet that you would like to?

J. Que: Any specific ones?

SE (Seven): It can be a list of artists...a specific artist...

J. Que: I don't think there's any specific artist that I haven't worked with that I would like work with...minus Babyface. And I'd really like to work with Shawn Stockman. I've talked to Shawn Stockman and he said he's still doing the Boyz II Men thing for now. I told him "Dawg, let me know."   If there were any artists I'd say I had a connection to, I'd say Boyz II Men really...I was watching Boyz II Men and that's when I decided that I was going to do music. So they were very influential in my life anyway. But I just adore Shawn Stockman's voice. Like there's not another word for it. That nigga's voice is damn near perfection.

SE (Seven): Was there a song that you thought that would never be a hit that actually became a hit?

J. Que: Ha! "My Neck, My Back"...Didn't really think that one was really going to go top 10.

SE (Seven): (Laughing)....that you worked on.

SE (Seven): So where do you gather your inspiration from as a songwriter?

J. Que: Most of my records now come from my girlfriend. I do a lot of watching. My favorite pastime, other than MySpace, is people watching. There's a lot of songs out there. I think you just have to be able to feel it. Like, the songs are there. I think you just to be able to hear them.

SE (Seven): So what are your views of the Grammy's? My friend and I are always discussing how the Grammy's, in our opinion isn't what it used to be. Do you agree with that?

J. Que: Umm...I mean there are definitely politics involved. But if you've ever seen a Grammy ballot, you'd understand why what wins, wins. Because as excited as you would be for voting for the Grammy's, the second they hand you that shit and you start seeing umm...Best Latin Vocal in Pop Acapella Traditional New Age Jazz Funk Trio, you're like "What the fuck!? I'm not doing this!" And there's like 85 million questions. You're like "I'm not doing this." And then you realize, all the mothafuckas that really don't know the urban shit are the mothafuckas that are probably going to vote for the records that they know or the records that they hear on the radio.

SE (Seven): You have a point there. So now, let's talk about the current projects. You co-wrote Omarion's new single "Icebox" along with the rest of The Clutch family. It's been getting great response from radio as well as online. Many people are saying that that song is what Omarion needs to take him to the next level. Tell us how that song came about.

J. Que: Umm, "Icebox" was actually real cool because Omarion's project was a project that we wanted to get on, but just dealing with some scheduling conflicts we were never really able to put it together. But, my little brother in crime, Eric Hudson, ended up getting the "Entourage" record, so we were really happy and excited for him about that. But we got a call from Sony, asking if we would be able to go in with Tim to do a record. And, you know the days they were trying to schedule it for just happened to be like two or three days when we weren't in session. So we were like "Yeah, you get us all there and we'll mash out." Of course Keri is already signed to Tim, so were like, "Whatever needs to happen...we're in." So we get out to L.A. and I remember because the day of the first session was my last day in session out in L.A. so I was double booked. I ended up getting out of my session pretty late, but [I] got over to the studio and O [Omarion] was already there and he had two tracks that had come from Tim's camp. He played one for me and I was like "I'm not really crazy about that one." And then he played me another track, which immediately caught my attention because it was definitely darker and I'm kind of into darker music. And that ended up being the "Icebox" track. So we sat around for a second and Omarion's absolutely full of ideas. So he's throwing ideas out, and he ended up saying he wants to write a song called "Cold." I wasn't necessarily crazy about calling anything cold because I told him, at the end of the day, I don't think people are going to flip [his] CD over, see a title called "Cold" and be like "That's my shit, I got to find out what that's about." I'm like that name's just not interesting enough. So we messed around and chopped that up and I listened to the track a little bit more and O screams at me "What about 'Icebox'? What about 'Icebox'?" I was like "What about icebox?" He was like, "I mean for the title of the song." I was like "Hell naw, nigga that aint hot!"

SE (Seven): (laughs)

J. Que: And then he was like "Naw, naw I think you said it had to look cool on a piece of paper. It has to look great. I think it looks great written down." So I went back to where he was, and we looked at it written down and I was like "You know what, nigga I aint even mad. It does look good on a piece of paper." So I was like, "Cool, just give me a second." And I turned up the track real loud and sat there and bounced to it for second, and maybe two minutes later...a minute and a half later I was just screaming "I got this icebox where my heart used to be, I got this icebox where my heart used to be." And he was like "I like that." So I was like, "Cool we'll mess with that as the hook." And then, I sat down and threw a couple of melodies and ideas at him, about three of them, and we ended up going back to the very first one that I threw at him which was [the melody to].... (Singing) "Girl I really want work this out, I'm tired of fighting." And he was like "I liked that." And I was like "Well alright, let's figure out what we're talking about." He and I talked for a second and ended up coming up with the idea of being cold because I still liked his idea about the cold thing because the record felt really moving. And so I was like "What makes cold make sense... with icebox and having an icebox where my heart used to be?" And then I was like, what's the point when every dude...or not just every dude, but every person gets to that point in their life when they're just not the same? They've kind of become more guarded, and colder in a sense. I'm speaking for a dude...that's all I really speak for; you get to the point where you kind of open up and you give everything to a girl. And it seems like the first girl you seem to give everything to, just really does a number on you. I mean, just to be very frank with it, she fucks you up. You know you put it out there on some "I like you, I'll do anything for you," and she's like "Alright cool, you're a sucker. " And then you get fucked over. And then after that, you're just a little more harsher towards everyone you deal with.

SE (Seven): Right.

J. Que: So we did the B-section and the hook was done. I started writing the B-section and I ran it by him. And he had one or two suggestions if I could just change this up a little bit, that up a little bit. We did that. We started recording. I purposely didn't write it all because I know what the rest of the crew brings to the table. We've done enough records to know that it's going to be better with everybody involved than it would be with just me just doing it. So they got there...I played it for them. They were like "I got it." They ran out the room while we were recording and came right back in the room immediately...like it couldn't have been twenty minutes, came back in the room and were like "Alright, this is it," and sang it down. I was like "Nigga, that's it." So they went on and sent Omarion home, and I jumped in the booth and I did the demo and O came back the next day and we just started cutting it.

SE (Seven): That's what's up. Now, I know you have numerous projects currently going on, or in the works. What can the fans expect from you and The Clutch family in the near future?

J. Que: Let me see, there's an artist named Bayje. She's signed to Atlantic. We have the first single coming off of her project. Bayje is pretty dope. Kelly Rowland...Britney Spears, actually I'm just getting back in town from cutting two records with Britney.

SE (Seven): Yeah I hear Britney's about to make a huge comeback.

J. Que: Yeah it was funny because she was on the cover of the NY Post or something like that, coming to the studio. So she was coming up there to cut with us, so that's what we were working on. Cristal, who is also signed to Atlantic...why don't I go by record labels? OK, Atlantic...Crtisal, Bayje, I think we just did a hook for Twista and Trey Songz. They're going to do another record together. Sony...of course Kelly [Rowland]. They just asked us about doing a record for Amerie so we're going to see if we can get that in because we'd definitely love to. There's also an artist named Nikki Flores, a pop artist who is really dope. We just got a call.... they're putting Menudo back together.

SE (Seven): The one with Ricky Martin?

J. Que: Yeah that Ricky came out of. They're putting a new Menudo back together. And they just called us and asked if we would go in. They're trying to partner us up with another producer to do the whole album. So we're trying to figure out if we're going to be able to commit that kind of time to it. Umm....first and foremost, Keri Hilson!

SE (Seven): Yes!

J. Que: Everything else comes second to Keri Hilson. She's family. We absolutely love her and past that, we think she's incredible. Hell, I'll speak personally. I think she's incredible. I've been working with Keri longer than I've been working with anyone else. So definitely, definitely Keri Hilson. And we're actually about to go back in with Teairra Mari.

SE (Seven): OK, it all sounds very promising. So between the work you're doing individually along with the work with The Clutch, you will be one busy man. But I really do appreciate you sitting down and taking the time to speak with Spaceship Entertainment. We wish you and the crew continued success.

J. Que: Thank you. Not a problem. Anytime brother.

- Seven