The man is one of the most accomplished hitmakers in Hip-Hop. He's the musical foundation on which the empire that is Cash Money Records was built. And he's one of the best deejays in the game. It is in that latter capacity that the NOLA legend is collaborating with ROCK THE BELLS. Fresh will be spinning for this year's Yachts, Beats & Art, and he spoke about looking forward to a great time.

"It's always a good vibe. Miami is always a good vibe," Fresh tells ROCK THE BELLS. "It's one of them towns—I love the people, the culture and everything that goes with it. I love the people in Miami. Everybody is cool under the cover of art and music, the way it goes together—and culture. It's definitely a good time every time I do it."

"Every time it's different. A lot of times, it's different people from out of town. It's not necessarily [going to be] always Miami. It's kind of like you have really got to read the crowd. I don't have a set or a certain thing that I kinda go to. I'm the guy that reads the crowd to see what the vibe is like and the temperature is like. So I really don't have nothing that I can say like 'this is what I'd do all the time.' I really don't know. Sometimes it's old, sometimes it's in-between that."

"I'm the DJ that reads the crowd. I'm not the dude who just plays the hits."

We've all been to gigs where the DJ seems to be spinning for his own taste than reading the crowd.

"A lot of times, that's the opening DJ," Mannie says with a laugh. "When he's trying to win the DJ contest of the world. I'm like, 'dude, all you had to do is play records.'"

When Fresh is on the turntables, he's giving the crowd a musical experience that spans his vast musical knowledge and highlights his ability to connect the dots across generations and "eras."

"My thing is, now, [I do] more of my mixes," explains Fresh. "My set now is my mashups, and a lot of them are old school with new. A lot of my set is my music. Even though it's other people's stuff, it's my spin—what would the remix sound like? It's a lot of times, I don't even have to rely on playing the latest and the greatest. I's like 'Damn, he did that—he put those two songs together.' That's starting to be my go-to: creating my own mixes that's Mannie Fresh shit. And me playing in my own way."

Mannie Fresh began his career as a DJ, and his love of the art has always informed his approach to both the turntables and the recording booth.

"The DJ's job is to keep the party rocking," he says. "You know little elements in songs that the crowd like. It might be the 808 drum machine. If it's a jammin'-ass song, it might not even be about no lyrics. It's just gotta have that beat to it. You put all of that into your production, as well—just the little hints you get from DJing. You can play something and you know as a DJ, this is the part of the song that people like. And instantly—that's the hook!"