Former Cash Money producer, Mannie Fresh, has signed a deal with Def Jam Recordings. He will produce for and oversee Def Jam’s roster of southern artists as a part of the deal. Mannie Fresh talked about signing with Def Jam to New Orleans Radio Station Q93 according to hnnlive.com.

“I just did a deal with Jay-Z,” said the producer. “Dude reached out to me. He flew me up, we talked about it and they wrote something nice. It was a nice little proposal. What made me take the deal is they didn’t want me to only do this exclusive deal with them. They were like, ‘You can go do whatever it is you do,’ so my thing [at Def Jam0 is to overlook the southern artists they have, as well as sign artists.”

Look out for Mannie Fresh’s forthcoming production on albums from TI, Nas and Juvenile.