La Mar “Mars” Edwards is one of the busiest producers in the game right now. He had a hand in most of the tracks for Game’s new LP, The R.E.D. Album, and he’s gearing up for the late September return to music by his close compatriot, T.I.

“Definitely, that’s my brother, we got a company together,” Mars said on the phone from his home in LA about whether he has tracks already waiting for Tip once he gets out of prison next month. “He’ll always be my brother, he’ll always be a friend and production partner. I’ll always be working with Tip. He’s been sitting for a year. So I’ve been thinking about my brother. I have all different types of directions, all types of different stuff.”

Mars and 1500 Or Nothin, his collective of producers/musicians, certainly have enough to stay busy in the interim.

“We’re working on Tip, we’re working on the High School movie with Snoop and Wiz Khalifa,” he shared. “We’re working on Will Smith, bringing him back. That’s actually him on the other line right now. Snoop’s daughter, we just put out her first single. We’re doing the whole album. Mario wants me to do a mixtape with him, we’re working on that. I’m working on Ashanti. We’re just working on as much as possible.”

Besides producing songs such as “Martians Vs Goblins” (featuring Tyler, the Creator) and “Speakers on Blast” (with Big Boi and E-40) for Game, Mars is also one of the co-executive producers on The R.E.D. Album which drops on August 23. —Shaheem Reid