Mel-Man

Melvin Breeden , better known as Mel-Man, is a producer from Norfolk, Virginia. He is the President/CEO of Big Cat Records.


Early life

Mel-Man grew up in the city of Pittsburgh’s toughest neighborhood known as the Hill District. He was always into music as a youth and started rapping and producing locally. He released several albums and performed around the Tri-State region. Mel-Man, with help from Sam Sneed, met with Dr. Dre. He co-produced and is featured on Dr. Dre’s 1999 album, 2001.


Joining Aftermath

Mel-Man was introduced to Dre at the same time Dre was leaving Death Row and starting his own label. In 1996, Mel-Man was officially signed with Aftermath Entertainment. Although he was signed as a producer/artist, he was more known for his production skills. Dr. Dre took on producer Mel-Man as a co-producer, and his music took on a more synthesizer-based sound, using fewer vocal samples (as he had used on “Lil Ghetto Boy” and “Let Me Ride”, for example). Fellow Aftermath producer Focus has credited Mel-Man as a key architect in the current Aftermath sound (see references for details), who co-produced Dr. Dre’s 2001 album. He co-produced several tracks with Dr. Dre for Eminem’s second album The Marshall Mathers LP. He performed on the track “Shittin’ on the World” from the Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath compilation album.

Though a co-producer on Dr. Dre’s multi-platinum 2001 album, Mel-Man has not shared co-production credits with Dr. Dre since approximately 2002. In 2003, The Source magazine reported that Mel-Man had left Aftermath, though in 2004, Focus stated that Mel-Man had since re-joined the label.