By no means a new face in the realm of Hip-Hop production, DJ Khalil still exudes the energy of a rookie who just landed their first placement. Perhaps it’s because after a decade of recording, he’s only now reaching his prime, and beginning to receive the recognition his peers feel he deserves. Underground enthusiasts will recognize the young man as one-half of L.A. duo Self Scientific, and those more amused by Billboard topping artists can see his signature on recent albums from 50 Cent and The Game. At this moment in time, Khalil Abdul-Rahman is as busy as any studio guru on the left coast. Along with his in-house production duties for Aftermath Entertainment and work on a new album with partner Chase Infinite, Khalil has been expanding his musical repetoir to include film scores and alternative rock. With a keen business sense and strong artistic integrity, Khalil brought an honest and open approach to his conversation with AllHipHop.com that can be appreciated by all.  AllHipHop.com: How’s everything with you Khalil?  DJ Khalil: It’s been so crazy today man. I’m running around back and forth to the Guitar Center, starting to DeeJay again so I’m trying to get back into that and I’m so behind. I’m in the Specialist Crew, so they’re helping me get caught up with DJ stuff. So I’m doing that, plus trying to turn the score in for this made-for-TV film.  AllHipHop.com: What’s that all about?  DJ Khalil: Man, I just get work like that. I’m trying to do film stuff too, like I had a song in the movie Derailed, and now I’m working on this animated feature called Blockheads. They had a comic that was in the back of every XXL for like a year, and now they’re doing a film so I’m doing all the music for that. It’s a dope concept, and they’ve got the trailer up on YouTube already with music that I did for it already. AllHipHop.com: After a decade of producing, one of your beats has hit major radio rotation. The 50 and Akon track “I’ll Still Kill” is killing it right now with the video and everything. Is that a big deal for you?  DJ Khalil: It’s a dream really. Even when I see the video I can’t believe it, I have to pinch myself. I’ve been dreaming of getting a single, that’s a big deal for me. And actually, that’s not even my official first single. Nobody really knows that I did Keith Murray’s “Candy Bar,” and they did a video and everything for that. But this was a big deal, to have a single with two of the top artists in the world, and to have a song that lyrically everybody likes. My mom likes the song, and so does my older brother who doesn’t even listen to Hip Hop. I haven’t had a song that universally likes, where it’s their favorite song on the album. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that, from executives to kids or whoever. My nephews think I’m like God right now because I produced that song. It’s just the best feeling man, I’m so happy to have that and for people to really accept it and like it. And I love the song. You know, sometimes you do songs and they won’t come out exactly how you wanted them to. But the song is really dope, and I’m glad people appreciate it.  AllHipHop.com: Seeing as “Candy Bar” was the single from that Keith Murray album, there’s obviously a big difference between Def Jam promoting that and Interscope pushing 50.  DJ Khalil: You know, 50 is worldwide. Keith Murray was just getting out of jail then, and that was supposed to be his comeback record. Def Jam was really hyped on it, and it was like a different stage for him. But the funny thing is, people really know that song. When I say that I did that song, people are like “You did that?” and they’ll sing the hook to it and everything. So as much as it may not have been promoted, people do remember that song.  AllHipHop.com: I was thinking, when people first see this interview on the site they might think they were getting DJ Khaled. Has that two-letter difference in names ever been mistaken in a business or media situation?  DJ Khalil: I get that all the time, but it hasn’t been on a major level. People have mixed the names up a little bit, but it’s never been too big. Nothing where it’s been a mistaken identity. People will just say it sometimes like “Khaled?” I’m like “No. Khalil, Kha-lil.”   AllHipHop.com: It looks like you’ve got a serious hustle going on between all your various roles and projects. How do you keep yourself focused on one project, with so much else going on?   DJ Khalil: I’m really goal oriented, and my management is always on top of me. I set plans for what I want to do, people I want to work with and where I want to go. I have specific goals for what I want to accomplish and we just go according to that. I just want people to hear music from me all the time, and have music everywhere. The only way you can do that is keep working on various projects, and I don’t even care about money half the time. I just want to be a part of a lot of projects, and I want to be a part of a lot of TV and film stuff too. I have an alternative group that I just started called the New Royales, and we have like 30 songs done. It’s a blend of different styles of music, from Portishead to Stereolab, White Stripes to Bjork. It’s all that in one, but it’s got a Hip-Hop base to it. It’s a really different sound, but creatively it’s the best project I’ve worked on in my whole life. I’m […]

Five and Done; quick questions to keep it moving before a full fledged interview on this here site. We caught up with Fat Joe while he was in NYC’s Chung King Studios, playing his new album, The Elephant in the Room, set to drop March 11. “The room is Hip-Hop,” said Joe Crack regarding the album’s title, while also going as far to say, “My new gimmick is trying to make street records big.” With the album featuring production from Danja Hands, LV and DJ Premier, Joe kept his word. Look out for an album preview soon, but for now, here’s The Bronx bred rapper’s take on five or so topics. On his new gimmick—making street records big…“You know when you hear an album, especially a New York artist’s album, we love the underground s**t but it don’t sound big, like a movie. Ya know what I’m saying? We try to take all of our songs and turn them into movies; an anthem. It’s not thin. I don’t know if I can desribe it better to you. Just take it and make it bigger. You get a guy’s album and he’s just rhyming to some samples and it just ain’t going anywhere. We want to take street s**t that n****s love and turn them into anthems.” On balancing the wants of fans that like the singing (read: lead single “I Won’t Tell” f/ J. Holiday) versus those that want hardcore ish…“Give them a hell of a hit record out the box. And then you give them a “300” and a “The Crack House” and everybody…the drugs is on the street. There’s nothing you can do about it.” On Big Pun still not getting his proper due…“He doesn’t. He’s the best lyricist ever in the game of Hip-Hop, if you ask me. If you put him on paper, black & white, he’s the best lyricist in the game ever. Honestly, I don’t know what else to tell y’all. I hear his s**t, and I was there when he recorded it and I still don’t know half the s**t he said…”I ain’t saying cats is biting his flow, I’m just saying a lot of cats is influenced by his flow. I never even wanted to spit that flow because I didn’t want people to say I was biting or trying to be like Pun. Then I seen it so accepted, I might as well go in.” On splitting home bases between The BX and MI Yayo…“I live in New York, and Miami as well. Two weeks here, two weeks there. I love Miami but New York’s my home. [Living in Miami] allows me to be free. If you notice I make different kind of music because I be out there. Here [NYC] I feel like we all trapped in a bubble up here man. It’s repetitious. Turn on the mixshow tonight, turn it on tomorrow, every n***a saying the same s###, they’re not expanding, they’re not making it crazier. So I gotta go down there to just feel free.” On whether he would go back to a major label…“Never, no way, are you kidding me?! You want me to go back to slavery? Are you nuts? It’s a long story short man; I sold two million records on a major label and turned around twice, not once, twice and never seen a royalty in my life. There’s n****s that sell four million and don’t see a royalty. It’s funny math when you f**k with the majors. It’s real funny math. They give you 18 points [but] every dollar they ever spent—marketing, whatever or their event—comes out of your 18 points. What happens to the 82 points?! So then the artists turns around he sells a million records, they made six and a half million dollars off of him. And he’s lucky if they give him a half a million as an advance towards his new album, which is really half a million off the six and a half million they just made off the n***a. Please!”

Missed opportunities, bungled promotion, poor timing; all the aforementioned are just a few of the reasons a promising rap career can find itself stalled. Michael “Killer Mike” Render knows this intimately. The once star nouveau Dungeon Family delegate won a Grammy with OutKast (“The Whole World”), dropped an underappreciated debut (Monster) and nevertheless rolled with Big Boi’s Purple Ribbon only to have his sophomore effort (Ghetto Extraordinary) never be released by the label. While Internet savvy fans were recently able to finally cop his second album [Ed. Note: Do yourself a favor and find The Killer mixtape], Killer Mike has refused to become a rap footnote off sheer will. Since late 2006 the Atlanta rapper dropped the critically hailed I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind (which formally introduced his Grind Time Rap Gang crew), hosted a show on comedic web portal Super Deluxe (Killer Mike’s Grind Time Sports Show), done voice acting work for the Cartoon Network (Frisky Dingo, Aqua Teen Hunger Force) and in late 2007 aligned his Grind Time Official label with Bay Area based label SMC Recordings. The result, Killer Mike refuses to have his influence perish before he can bring his A-Town style rap lyricism to as many ears as possible. AllHipHop.com: What’s been up, what’s been going on?Killer Mike: Man, I fell off. I picked myself up, dusted myself off and came back up. AllHipHop.com: How did a brother from Adamsville get down with SMC in the Bay Area?Killer Mike: What it is the dude Will [Bronson] he used to be a writer and he’s an A&R over there. The dude just got an incredible love for dope music. Instead looking at it like we signing regional acts, he looks at it like the people he signs are regional powerhouses. When you look at the [Mistah] F.A.B.’s, and the Messy Marv’s, the San Quinn’s out there, those people are known globally for that area. I don’t even think a lot of times we know how far we go. Like I went in a bar in Amsterdam and I was hearing my s**t.Will, he found the music. He did a deal with [Pastor] Troy. Troy people got in touch with one of my mans, and the rest is history. I really like the business model that they had over there. Where I was in terms of being in the underground, I was on some s**t like, I’ma make sure me and my crew get what they deserve. I’ve had numerous conversations with good friends like Chamillionaire, the homie Paul Wall, Slim Thugga, because they really came out of that independent movement. Then I started talking to people like Jimmy [Jones] in the early days Dipset, like four or five years ago. Jimmy gave me a lot of grind advice and I just started applying it. Doing my thing, self-distributing on the underground, doing one stop distributors and s**t, and it attracted attention. Ya know, SMC wasn’t the first company that came to me. Koch came to me first. [But] they were in the middle of blowing up, the roster got real heavy. Alan Grunblatt was very cool but I really wanted to be somewhere where me and my company could grow, and grow exponentially; not have to wait at all. I’ve had too much of that. So I didn’t want just a situation for me. I wanted a distribution situation for the company Grind Time and me being the first artist off that company. The dollars and the business made sense so here we go.AllHipHop.com: I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind II will be released through SMC, is it done yet?Killer Mike: Nah, I’m working. I got records done. But I look at with I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind ??, on this one I wanted to really expand what I was doing in terms of…I’m cool with a lot of people in the industry… Not cool on no homeboy s**t, cool like I love their music, they love mine. On this one I want to have Mr. F.A.B. and Yukmouth, on this one, Trae, 8Ball & MJG, Bun B. Florida, you got everybody poppin’ in Florida now. I’m really trying to show people that this ain’t the next movement of these four or five cats and they just want you to be on they s**t. I really f**k with what’s going on in The Bay. I really f**k with what’s going on in Texas. I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind II is about showing that the grind is national. It’s not just local. It’s not just doing petty ass drug deals on the block. It’s about if Mistah F.A.B. has his thing going and he’s a leader there, and I have my thing in Atlanta going, then why shouldn’t we unite and make dope music and make sure that people from the A and The Bay can kick it and conglomerate in the clubs and what not? Ultimately that’s what I want to see. I’m reminiscing of when the Geto Boys and N.W.A was dealing with one another. I’m not one of those artists that left a major label and got soft and got mad. I really looked at it as an opportunity to build something. Atlanta has no underground and that’s what Grind Time is about to become. As well as pushing back out major records. It’s exciting to me. AllHipHop.com: So are you completely off Purple Ribbon?Killer Mike: I’m off. I’m out and I didn’t have to pay a dime. Ever, I don’t have to pay nothing for none of my albums and that’s very rare in the record business. I want to thank Big Boi for that. I appreciate it. AllHipHop.com: Have y’all spoken?Killer Mike: We spoke about a month ago. I can’t speak from his side in terms of all of his feelings and his emotions around me. But Big Boi and Dre provided me with an opportunity to totally change my life. I’m forever in their debt for that. I […]

Prodigy: The Prodigal Son, Part 1 AllHipHop.com: So what’s up with that Saigon incident? Prodigy: Let me start off like this, I don’t like talking about ni***s like Saigon, and certain ni***s I got beef with. It’s like I’m giving them free promotion. They’re no where near the caliber of artist that I am, so they shouldn’t be allowed to come out of my mouth but I will talk about it because I want people to have a clear understanding of what’s really going on because there’s a lot of lies circulating. The Saigon situation started off like this. When Saigon came home from jail, we had no idea who this dude was. Aight some dude came home and Alchemist knew him. He was doing some work with Al because he was close with Ghetto Inmates with Tru Life and all them n****s. That’s the first time I heard of Saigon, I heard Alchemist playing some sh*t, [saying] he just came home, [he] Tru Life peoples. That was before the Tru Life s**t, so I was like aight cool. Time goes on and I do a little song with Tru Life and I didn’t even know who Tru Life was, but I found who he was because Alchemist was doing music for him. I was like who you doing that beat for; I came to Al’s crib one day. Al said the kid want to give you some money to do a verse and I ain’t really want to do it to tell you the truth because I just wasn’t feeling his music. He told me he got some bread for you, [so] I was like aight I’ll do it. So I laid it down for him. What I did, I gave him an old verse, I didn’t even write something new. I wasn’t going to bust my brain cells for some ni*** that I wasn’t really feeling his music, I was just trying to get a quick check. It was something I never said before. So I spit that on there, got the money and bounced. Maybe like six months to a year later, we did the Any Given Sunday soundtrack. We gave them the song and I had spit the same verse I said on the Tru Life record. They was like “Yo that’s the same verse” and I was like, “Oh sh*t it was a mistake I didn’t mean to do that.” I don’t want to put that same verse that’s stupid, f**k the money and f**k why I did it I don’t never want to put the same verse on something and people say P getting lazy, P can’t write a new rhyme. I don’t want that look out there. It was really an honest mistake. So Tru Life was heated, [he was like] tell P he got to do the verse over. I was like Cool, I’ll do that. I was working on so much other s**t it wasn’t a priority to go back and fix the verse for him. So time was going on and they was getting mad that I didn’t hurry up and do it and they paid me. So he started making threats. So when he started making threats I was like, Son, you expect me to come fix it after you making threats? That sh*t needs to chill. He sending threats through Alchemist, I’m like what? I’m really not fixing it now, f*** them n****s. It ain’t my fault I didn’t fix it as fast as you wanted me to do it, so f*** it. Now you want to say some greasy sh*t, so f*** you then. So when he realized I wasn’t going to do it he got tight.  I was in Soundtrack studios one night and Alchemist came through and was like “Yo I’m about to go do a song with Infamous Mobb and [DJ] Muggs and all that.” I’m like cool, I’ll be here working on the album. So Al left and I’m in the studio chilling. A few hours later I get a phone call so I think it was Twin or Al and was like, “Yo Tru Life ran up in the studio.” I’m like what the f*** happened? So they said Al was in the studio chilling, and Tru Life was in the same studio in another room. So they seen Al, they like when we see P we going to kill that n****! I’m like “What, but Al didn’t call me to tell me that.” He just heard that and was like aight whatever started to continue to make music. So Twin and them came into the same studio with Al, and when they walked in Tru Life and them thought that Al called them n****s because they just said I’m going to kill [P] and twenty minutes later, Twin and all my ni***s come in the same studio. So Tru Life was only two deep. So they got scared and came back with mad ni***s with guns and all kind of s**t. They were like yo, give the message to your man P. They snatched my little man chain and smacked him with the gun. When they smacked him with the gun, the gun went off, and it almost shot him in his head in the studio. And when that happened all of them got scared and they left after that because the gun went off by mistake. So they call me, yo them n****s came into the studio, they smacked son with the gun. So n****s was mad at Alchemist for a little while but it wasn’t Al’s fault, because Tru Life came and said he going to kill P so why Al ain’t call nobody and warn anybody in the room. AllHipHop.com: He didn’t take the threat serious? Prodigy: He not even thinking like that, Al is just doing his beats. He not thinking about no street s**t like that, I was even mad at Al for a minute. But […]

Prodigy of Mobb Deep infamy was to begins serving a three and a half year jail sentence for unlawful gun possession on January 8, but was granted a 30 day reprieve. AllHipHop sat down with Capital P so he could set the record straight. Even as one half of Mobb Deep, Albert “Prodigy” Johnson always stood out as the face of the group. Though Juvenile Hell would make for an overlooked debut from the Queensbridge duo, their follow up, The Infamous, would seal their legacy in the streets. Packed to the brim with classic street ministries (“Shook Ones Part 2,” “Survival Of The Fittest”), gritty production, and the indelible Dun language, The Infamous was a cornerstone of New York hardcore Rap. The Mobb maintained their signature sound on the darker Hell On Earth and finally popped off commercially with Murda Musik featuring the hit “Quiet Storm.”  Unfortunately their momentum slowed down going into the new millennium. P’s solid solo album H.N.I.C. didn’t perform to everyone’s expectations and Jay-Z went on to throw him under the bus on the seminal diss track “The Takeover.” Furthermore their next three albums (Infamy, Amerikaz Nightmare, Blood Money) would all be met with mixed reviews.  All in all P continued to carry himself like the hardest dude in the country. Capital P’s live by the gun mentality would eventually catch up to him last year when he was caught with a burner and faced some serious time due to his previous criminal record. In a chess move, he copped out and agreed to serve three and a half years. With a turn in date of January 9th, Prodigy surprisingly doesn’t seem phased at all by the looming jail sentence. Instead he seems only focused on his new effort H.N.I.C. Part 2 and wants to let the full story be known. P Double shares his insight on Hip-Hop cops, his lengthy Rap Beef resume and how he is dealing with it all as the clock ticks down.AllHipHop.com: You’re turning yourself in shortly to serve three years in prison, how are you feeling considering everything you are facing?Prodigy: I’m feeling good. I’m feeling real good because the album came out kind of crazy; it really came together at the last minute. I’ve been working on H.N.I.C. 2 for a minute now; probably like since 2003 or 2004. The reason for the hold up was basically Mobb Deep was making new deals all the time, just trying stay relevant. Without Mobb Deep being relevant, nothing else matters. Mobb Deep is what made everything possible. We was doing our deals, doing our touring, going overseas, doing American tours. After The Massacre and the Anger Management tour, when we got back home I had some time to go in and finish up my album even before I caught the case. It’s not like I’m putting out the album because of my situation. It was already in motion. When I caught the case and I realized I had to cop out to the three years I basically just, aight I got to wrap this up. So I started rounding up the producers and all my video n****s like boom. We got this much space, we got to wrap the rest of this album up. So they started getting me their best s**t and the video n****s started giving me their best ideas. We really did it, we made it. AllHipHop.com: What are your days like?Prodigy: Right now, it’s real hectic. Doing interviews everyday, doing the radio, press s**t. I’m basically finished recording the whole album, we just mixing and mastering. I might do a couple last minute joints my last days here. Other than that I’m basically done. January 9th I go in.AllHipHop.com: Please explain to the readers what happened when you were arrested and why exactly you had to cop out to the three years. Prodigy: Basically what happened in my case I took Alchemist out for his birthday last year to this club Show. It was Shareefa’s album release party. We got to the door and the promoters are “Oh Mobb Deep, we’re going to get ya’ll in.” So we waiting and while we waiting I see the little Hip-Hop task force. I noticed them; Yeah that’s the same dudes that pulled me over before. It was the Blood Money album release party at The Roxy and at the show there was an ill fight that broke out on stage. We went outside we got to the cars and s**t, I had a driver. I’m in the passenger seat and an unmarked car pulls us over. The guy gets out, a young black cop, he look younger than me even, probably twenty five. Walked up to the car, [opened] the door and was like Albert Johnson step out the car. So I get out the car and I’m like what’s up? They’re like “You’re under arrest.” I’m like for what? You pulling me out of the car and I ain’t even do nothing. I’m thinking it got to do something with the fight that happened in the club. I’m like can you tell me what I’m under arrest for? To tell you the truth from looking at the guy he didn’t look like no cop, he dressed regular. He look like one of my n****s or something. Right away I’m thinking like these n****s ain’t cops. Ni***s be doing that in New York; they be riding around like cops, pulling n****s over, robbing n****s, or doing whatever, kidnapping people. So then I seen a uniform officer, like a sergeant or captain. He walked over and he started talking to the guy and so I’m like Oh ok he is a real cop. So I got into the car with them, I kept asking what am I under arrest for. They’re like “We’ll tell you when we get downtown.” So I sat there and thought about the situation and started saying I’m going to start picking his brain. So I […]

Ice Cube in the movies did a lot for fans as a rapper too. So when he speaks, listen. All these years, and O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson is still the n***a you love to hate. That is, if you think a rapper who got started over twenty years ago cannot still be relevant in 2008. Cube has another stinging treatise directed at gangsta rap and Hip-Hop’s naysayers with “Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It.” The songs video cements the audacity of rap scapegoats, with Cube dropping quotables like, “I’m trying to get me a Maybach, how you motherf***ers gonna tell me don’t say that, You the ones we learned it from, I heard n***a back in 1971.”Along the path of his career Cube has smacked the nation upside it head with gangsta rap as part of N.W.A, dropped solo classics like Amerikkka’s Most Wanted and The Predator, and possessed enough clout to see his 2006 solo Laugh Now, Cry Late become a Gold record independentl. As an actor, Cube diversified his resume to include writer, director and producer ever since his acting debut in John Singleton’s Boyz N The Hood and, of course, blessed us with the DVD collection staple Friday. On Friday (Jan 11) his latest film, First Sunday, hits theaters while the summer will see Cube release his eigth solo album Raw Footage. Here, Cube waxes philosophical everything from Katt Williams to Dr. Dre to impromptu advice from Laurence Fishburne.AllHipHop.com: The new video for “Gangtsa Rap Me Do It” is getting a lot burn, how important was the visual?Ice Cube: I wanted something that didn’t take away from the footage. The footage to me is just as powerful as the lyrics, especially how they’re laid in there. I just wanted people to [sighing] stop blaming the world’s problems on gangsta rap, because that’s just easy. Please, that’s like blaming the messenger or blaming the mirror for what you see or what you hear. To me [the video is] a way to show how hypocritical that is and do it in a sarcastic way. And then make sure people understood what I was saying with the song. People were like, “Wait are you saying that you down with it? You ain’t? What are you saying?” I wanted to make it sure it was clear on what I was trying to present. AllHipHop.com: What inspired you to make the song?Ice Cube: A lot of bulls**t last year. From the Don Imus thing to people just appearing on all these shows and just brushing gangsta rap with a broad stroke like this is the reason, when that’s bulls**t. We grew up watching these people and then decided to do what we do.  Gangsta rap is the product of…s**t, I mean it’s the product of a lot things but when you break it down, you take a little Muhammad Ali and a little Richard Pryor, you throw in some crack and then you throw in some gangbanging, and at the other end of all that s**t, to try to make sense of it all, you get gangsta rap. That’s what happened in the ’80s that started all this. It’s a culmination of that era, combusting into lyrics and poetry. Some people use it like a newspaper, some people use it like a comic book and it’s everything in between. But gangsta rap ain’t the reason why all this s**t is going haywire. [story continues below] AllHipHop.com: Was there any particular event that made you write this song?Ice Cube: It was all of it. It was just a snowball effect. It seemed like for two weeks we was bombarded with it. It was bulls**t. AllHipHop.com: Your new film with Tracy Morgan, First Sunday, is your film production company Cube Vision involved?Ice Cube: Yeah, we produced it. It was written and directed by a guy named David E. Talbert. He’s done plays and stuff so he’s kind of coming up through that Tyler Perry thing; not with him [but] being a guy who gets a lot of people to see his plays, now he’s going to the big screen. This is a story that he wrote that was cool. When you say me and Tracy Morgan being stupid enough to rob a church, that made you laugh right there. But when I read [the script], it wasn’t just fun and games. It wasn’t some buffoonery. It talked about the reason, and the social issues and the responsibility that the church has to the community. It spoke on some real issues that we dealing with in every community right now. That’s what really turned me on, the “dramedy” aspect of it. People are going to come in to laugh and have fun, but it might send you away crying in spots too. It’s just that kind of movie. AllHipHop.com: You must get tons of scripts. Are those things you always look for in what to get behind or the roles you take?Ice Cube: People’s misnotion on Hollywood is that, “Aww man, you can making anything you want to.” It’s just not true. Everybody gotta be down. The script gotta be good. The director gotta be competent and good. The actors gotta all come together. The money that the movie company wanna spend gotta be right. The time they want to do it gotta be right. So all these things gotta come into play for a movie to get made. I got different scripts in different stages of development. This is one that came into play, it was something that we definitely wanted to do and it was just right at the time. This is the one we stepped up to the plate. But we got a lot of stuff in development. Movies come out at different times for different reasons. Some get made, some don’t for different reasons. AllHipHop.com: You’ve had a hand in launching the careers of cats like Chris Tucker, Mike Epps and Katt Williams, what did you see in each of them?Ice […]

When did DJs start getting so much publicity, start producing full length albums, and begin booking shoe, clothing, and other financially viable endorsements?  Although some think this is a recent occurrence, DJs such as Grandmaster Flash, Marly Marl, Jazzy Jeff, and others were at the forefront of the Hip-Hop scene in the late 70s and early 80s, and had larger profiles than the rappers they DeeJayed for.  As Hip-Hop moved through various phases, the DJ became somewhat expendable and lost the momentum that was powered by the pioneers. DJ Mars decided that this downward spiral needed to change.  Raised in the North Eastern part of the country, he grew up watching DJs rock the radio on his favorite stations. Upon his arrival at Clark Atlanta University, he saw little attention being paid to the men and women behind the tables making the crowds move. Mars, founded The World Famous Superfriends in an effort to shine a much needed spotlight on the individuals that kept the parties in Atlanta rocking.  The SuperFriends became a much needed blueprint for many of the DJ crews that are currently taking the industry by storm.In addition to being the President and Founder of The World Famous Superfriends, Mars is an accomplished tour DJ, as well as the goto DJ for all of the major events in Atlanta.  Mars took time out with AllHipHop.com to discuss everything from the decline of The Justo Mixtape Awards, to why Mike Vick’s sentence was unfair. Take notes DJs….AllHipHop.com: How did you get started DeeJaying?DJ Mars: I guess it was just a neighborhood thing, growing up in Springfield (Massachusetts.)  The age that I was then, you were either break dancing, rapping, writing graffiti, or deejaying.  So i just gravitated towards the deejaying.  So I guess that’s how I was introduced to the whole Hip-Hop thing.  The very first record I ever bought was “Planet Rock,” and that came out in like ’81 or ’82, so I guess that’s where my history starts in terms of deejaying.AllHipHop.com:  How did you end up in Atlanta?DJ Mars:  College. I attended and graduated from Clark Atlanta University. I got down here right out of High School in ’91. Right after I graduated, I just stayed. There was no reason to go back to Massachusetts so I was like, “I’m staying right here.”AllHipHop.com:  Was Clark where you founded The Superfriends?DJ Mars: Oh yeah, definitely.AllHipHop.com:  Tell me how that came about.DJ Mars: That whole movement started because the DJ market in Atlanta and the South period wasn’t like it was in New York. Meaning the DJs never had any rights down here.  You would be on the radio but the radio station wouldn’t promote the DJ’s name. They wouldn’t promote the DJ period. I didn’t grow up like that. Growing up in the NorthEast, the DJ was everything. You went to a party because of the DJ.  If you came to New York and turned on WBLS or KISS, you turned those stations on because of Marly Marl, or because of Red Alert.  Down here the DJ was like last on the list.  I figured as opposed to one person shouting, and screaming, and crying about what the DJ isn’t getting, I just formed a crew of a bunch of DJs that felt the same way.  AllHipHop.com:  Do you feel like a pioneer? Because now DJs are running things and The Superfriends were instrumental in putting DJs in the forefront more.DJ Mars:  Definitely. In Atlanta we weren’t the first DJ crew. It probably started before us, but we just made it popular. I would say like the J-Team, they were big before we got out there, and Big Oomp camp, they were out here first. What we did was make all the DJs highlight their personal attributes.  So, once the Superfriends formed, you got ten other crews that formed after us, but they followed the same model that we put together.AllHipHop.com:  You started deejaying for Outkast really early in the day. How did you get that gig?DJ Mars: A friend of mine introduced me to ‘Dre, and Big at least a year before their first single came out.  As soon as I met them I was like ” Damn these n****s is hot. They are on some different s**t.”  At the time, everybody had their own opinion of what Atlanta Hip-Hop was like but they were just on straight flavor.  So I used to go to the spot that they refer to as “The Dungeon.” I used to be there with them all the time recording. My mistake was, I went home for the summer. That was early on in my college career. You know out of sight, out of mind. I was gone for damn near three months. By the time I came back, they had recorded “Player’s Ball” for Laface (Records), and their movement was moving.  So they had to find somebody to replace me. So I missed the boat, and that’s when I decided that I’m never leaving Atlanta.AllHipHop.com:  Obviously your buzz was still high, because you went on to DJ for more very famous Atlanta artists.DJ Mars: From that opportunity, the next year I was able to work with Usher on his first album.  After I graduated, I went from Usher to Monica, from Monica to Kelis, to Ciara, and now I do Ciara and Ne-Yo.  AllHipHop.com:  Who are some DJs that you feel are on your level in the DeeJaying game?DJ Mars:  First off on the national side, I gotta say Kid Capri.  The kind of DJ that I am, I basically learned from the Kid Capri mixtape school. On the local scene, and I don’t say local to belittle them,  I’d say my man DJ Tron who’s been killin the clubs since I got here. My man DJ Searcy, who’s been killin the clubs and turned into an incredible business man. Those are the guys that at the end of the day I want to end up where they are. […]

What a year! 2007 will probably go down as one of the strangest, loudest, most interesting years that Hip-Hop has ever gone through.  The highs of many comebacks. The lows of fleeting record sales and dropped artists. A host of collaborations both expected and non-traditional.  Khaled was the BESSST!!! The Hip-Hop cops were the worst.  We lost Stack Bundles. We lost Pimp C. Some of us lost our minds.50 and Kanye fought for stylistic supremacy, while Common did it for the people. The Wu dropped, KRS-One & Marley Marl dropped, Redman dropped, the Fugees did not. Looked like the 90s were almost back.  Lupe dropped the robots and got cool. Scarface got M.A.D.E. Jay-Z made an album we didn’t know he was still capable of and an apparently Wu’d out Ghostface went to Rehab after Amy refused. Even Styles P after his much ballyhooed radio blowup with 50 got another album to drop. Joe Budden got dropped, according to him on purpose. TI got clipped. Remy got clipped. Akon got clipped. CEOs got clipped (Dee from Ruff Ryders, Cash Money). So much Drama even Drama got clipped.  Hip-Hop was center stage all year. The revolution may not be televised but the Resurrection of Hip-Hop was in full effect on TV, LP and EP (Young Berg), DVD (everybody and they momma) and CD.But in the face of all that was great, once again we returned to the 90s and Hip-Hop was seemingly fully restored in its spot as public enemy number one.  Suddenly the bogeyman was back with beats booming, b*****s with boobs and booties bouncing and  shaking American morality to its core. Bill O’Reilly nightly, Oprah daily. Sharpton and Jackson when the cameras were rolling (what did he think the nizzle in fo’shizzle my nizzle stood for?). Surprisingly even Russell seemed to side with the devil on the censorship issue. Don Imus’s racist ramblings really railroaded Rap. The word N****r became a nuisance and once happy video vixens became crusaders against the maltreatment of women by Hip-Hop.  Didn’t they catch both seasons of Flavor of Love? Was Hip-Hop to blame for society’s ills? School shootings, mall shootings, church shootings. We had it all in 2007, and every attempt was made to attach Hip-Hop to it  in some way or another. Shout to Jason Whitlock whose overzealous crusade to demonize Hip-Hop allowed the logical to see what a ridiculous notion it was. But in an American Landscape where there was a 50% chance a Mormon, a woman, or a Black man could be president, Bin Laden hadn’t dropped a mixtape in a minute, North Korea had too many nukes to bad mouth, and that leaves Hip-Hop squarely in the crosshairs.  We won’t pour more dirt on Killa by mentioning 60 Minutes (no snitch).It’s okay. We’re used to it. The late C. Delores Tucker would be proud. What we have come to realize is that it’s not up to the O’Reillys and the Winfreys and the Sharptons to determine where we go from here.  We hold that power ourselves and our uzi weighs a ton. Without further ado, AllHipHop presents Hip-Hop: Public Enemy #1, the 2007 Year End Wrap-Up.ONES TO GROW ONWhen there is a lack of complete albums, there automatically is a dearth in album cuts. You know, those inspiring and moving songs that jam despite not having a video on TV or a budget YouTube clip. Here are are of the year’s best… AllHipHop’s 100 Ones To Grow On (zShare, PDF) BEST MAJOR LABEL ALBUMS 2007 was a damn good year for Hip-Hop music. It’s a longshot to say that Nas’ late 2006 “Hip Hop is Dead” diatribes were the impetus, but for whatever reason, plenty of acts got it together. For those who can only think in categories, Common and Talib Kweli held it down for the conscious set, Jay-Z surprised the Big Willie wannabes via cinematic inspiration and before we lost Pimp C, UGK refused to cede Houston’s time in the rap spotlight. Even Freeway got in on the party with his ridiculously late sophomore effort while Ghostface Killah and Scarface continued to be models of consistency. Here’s our Top Albums, in no particular order in case you’re reading along. Buck the World by Young Buck (G-Unit/Interscope)Underground Kingz by UGK (Jive/Zomba)Desire by Pharoahe Monch (SRC/Motown)Ear Drum by Talib Kweli (Blacksmith/Warner Brothers)Finding Forever by Common (G.O.O.D./Geffen)Graduation by Kanye West (G.O.O.D./Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam)American Gangster by Jay-Z (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam)MADE by Scarface (Asylum/Rap-A-Lot)Free At Last by Freeway (Def Jam/Roc-A-Fella) The Big Doe Rehab by Ghostface Killah (Def Jam)Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool by Lupe Fiasco (Atlantic)BEST INDEPENDENT ALBUMS Note to Hip-Hop detractors, album sales in music across mutliple genres are down, not just Hip-Hop, you ravioli heads. Seeing that the odds of making enough of a killing at sales registers to recoup those pesky marketing and promotion costs at a major label, the indie route looks pretty nice. The days of Koch being called a graveyard are numbered after all. Here are some under the radar burners that we dug all year, ahem, pause. Black Hollywood by Camp Lo (Good Hands)Return of the Mac by Prodigy (Koch)How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul? By Public Enemy (SlamJamz)I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead by El-P (Definitive Jux)Return of the Magnificent by DJ Jazzy Jeff (BBE/Rapster)HoodTREASON by NYOil (PEM/Masta Mix)Popular Demand by Black Milk (Fat Beats)The Offering by Killah Priest (Good Hands)West Coast Vaccine (The Cure) by Turf Talk (Sick Wid It)Below The Heavens by Blu & Exile (Sound In Color)Guilty By Affiliation by WC (Lenchmob Record)Getback by Little Brother (ABB)The Brick by Joell Ortiz (Koch) BEST PRODUCERSWith all the good music pulsing, there were plenty of sonic architects responsible for the tasty musical vibrations. DJ Toomp abosultely got busy this year, particularly with the work he hooked Kanye West and Jay-Z up with. It makes you wonder what exactly T.I. was thinking. While Polow Da Don took his hands off the white girls enough to hook up Young Buck. The relative […]

Industry Spotlight: Sujit Kundu A lot of artists are confounded with getting on the radio. When you hear somebody like Lil’ Wayne, Akon, Nelly or Chamillionaire on the radio, you can thank Sujit Kundu. It didn’t start with the radio though. Kundu started his career in rave parties in the Orange County area of California with no intention of landing in the music game. After kicking down some obstacles, his parties and performances were pulling in 4,000 people per show with the likes of Warren G, Cypress Hill, KRS-One and Mobb Deep. After graduating from the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), Kundu formed a business that catered to radio promotions and mix shows. Eventually, formed his own management/promotion company, deemed Skam Artist Inc., and then MCA Records in radio. Now, Kundu serves as the Vice President of Rhythm Crossover Promotions at Universal Records. Additionally, he manages about 18 DJs with a roster that includes DJ Irie and D-Nice. Peep the resume. Name: Sujit Kundu Job Title: VP of Rhythm Crossover Promotions – Universal Motown, CEO/Founder Skam Artist, Inc. Company Name: Universal Motown, SKAM ARTIST (Sujit Kundu Artist Management – is what SKAM stands for) Industry: Music/entertainment Location: New York, New York USA Job description: As the VP of Crossover Promotions for Motown, I promote Motown Artists’ music to over 100 radio stations across the country. Lil’ Wayne, Akon, Nelly are just a couple of the artists I work with at Universal Motown. Radio stations that are considered crossover are stations such as Hot 97 in New York or Power 106 in Los Angeles. At any given time we could be working on 10 to 15 projects, which also includes setting up promo tours, radio shows, radio interviews, market visits. At Skam Artist, we handle the bookings for over 18 of the countries top all format DJs. It is a very diverse group of DJs ranging from Sky Nellor, who you may see at the hottest fashion events or even DJing at 50 Cent’s album release party, to DJ Vice, who is the resident DJ of LAX in Las Vegas, who plays around 5-6 clubs/events per week. Length of time at job: Universal – 2.5 years. Skam Artist has been around for over 5 years. However, before it was called SKAM ARTIST, I operated under Baby Ree Management for approximately 5 years as well. How did you get into this position? – Universal Motown was a client of mine. I did retainer services for them [which means] I promoted their music on a project-to-project basis. When a position opened up, they offered it to me. I never meant to be a DJ agent. I was a club promoter that was approached by some DJs for management. Money wasn’t really anything to speak about – but this slowly evolved into a great business. Explain the hardest aspect of your job: There really isn’t anything hard about either of my jobs. When I think of people washing dishes 15 hours a day to put food on the table for their families, I realize that no matter what I think is hard it really isn’t. What do you love the most? Breaking a new artist is the most rewarding. In either job, when you can see an artist or a DJ start from nothing and become established it’s a great feeling. What is your greatest accomplishment? Being able to work in a field that I love. Where do you plan to go in your career from here? I have no idea. Offer a special quote or jewel to somebody that wants to be in your position. Don’t burn any bridges. Your word is all you have. Sometimes it’s worth taking a loss to keep your clients happy. Education/Experience Level Graduated College From UC Santa Barbara Your Years Of Experience 10 years Any professional groups you are a member of: n/a Final or additional statements: Thank you to all the artists who work so hard on their craft that they make promoting and or managing such a joy.

To the uninformed, Killa BH is a mere microbe on Planet Hip-Hop. To the Hip-Hop fanatic, Killa BH is one of the contributing factors to one of the preeminent artist mixtapes in recent memory, Joe Budden’s Mood Muzik 2: Can It Get Any Worse? On that album and its successor, Mood Muzik 3 (2007), the rapper – if you can call him that –offered a rarely seen dose of comic relief. In this AllHiphop.com exclusive…Killa BH delves deep into his rap career, solo album, his plans for Joe’s foes, his real role with Joe Budden’s Team Jump Off and a bunch of other stuff. Before we begin, here are some musical selections to get the casual reader in the “mood.” Digital Downloads: Killa BH – “Skit” Killa BH – “Folgers’ Brother” (Joe Budden Semi-Diss Dedication) AllHipHop.com: How did you get to meet up with Joe Budden (aka Mouse) to being his Number 1 sidekick? Killa BH: Well, it’s funny because I knew everyone in Mouse’s circle but him. The first person to introduce me Joe is a close friend of ours. He goes by the name of Dolla Dill. Growing up, he would try to keep me outta trouble, he always said, “Stay positive and keep away from the knuckle heads.” This was when my family and I were working on our clothing line, which was doing very well at the time. He was the first person to buy a shirt off me. As time passed, I was now hanging out with Joe’s best friend/ hype man the Big Werm. Years passed and I’m 19 straight outta high school in, college trying to make something of myself. Werm was acting at the time, which caused him to move to California. He would fly back and forward for shows and family. Whenever he came home we would always chill. That summer I was outta school on break and he said “ Yo mouse got us tickets to [Hot 97’s] Summer Jam, I’ve never been and I know you haven’t so let do the damn thing.” We went had a great time and afterwards met up with Mouse at his house. We had a great conversation about being productive considering I was having trouble in school and had thoughts of dropping out. He said “Yo, see young n***as today! You better keep you’re a** in school and finish.” After the long pep talk, he came to the conclusion that this kid needs an older figure in his life. After that, Werm asked me to take his position as the hype man. The rest is history. If it wasn’t for the people, family, relationship, and a few others I wouldn’t be where I am today. So thank you b***hes. AllHipHop.com: What exactly do you do? Killa BH: I mean, I rap like – Come on really when’s the last time you heard something like this?! The lyrical content I bring to this rap s**t is bananas. Outside of that I’m a businessman at heart. I’m one of the A&R’s a part of Team Jump Off and also the hype man. AllHipHop.com: How do you feel about being a comic relief rapper, yet dissing your man on his own s**t with your rendition of “Big Brother.” Killa BH: comedic rapper??? Come on son there’s nothing funny about my lyrics. I’m talking that real s###, I’m what’s missing from hip hop and that’s a fact! As far as me going at Joe it’s nothing personal. But I feel he’s the best right now. That may sound basis considering I’m his artist and apart of team jump off and also a close friend but outside of all of that my dude got some s### and the world will see shortly please believe it. AllHipHop.com: Who influenced your gruffy, comic style of rap? Killa BH: that’s a tough question, I mean I know I’m nice and all but it’s not hard to see that me and rap go together like peas and carrots. I would have to say my brother and my crew. AllHipHop.com: Is there any truth to the rumor that there is a Killa BH album coming? Killa BH: hell yea I’m recording an album!!!! It will be out the same time as the growth. Don’t be surprised if a killa bh tape is out in 08. AllHipHop.com: Saigon said he would slap the “earth, wind and fire” our of your homey. What’s the deal with the Saigon and that beef? Killa BH: Beef seems to be the topic of discussion as of late for my dude. This whole Saigon s**t is corny. Rappers use other rappers in their bars all the time. Whether it be negative or positive it said. I feel like other people can get away with saying s**t about different rapper and as soon as Joe says something its like, “What, I gotta go to war with this n***a now!” Team Jump Off is not thinking about Saigon or anyone else for that matter. The main focus is making classic music period. AllHipHop.com: What was the climate when Game was talking stuff? Killa BH: When that whole game s**t was taking place I wasn’t even in the picture. I came a year or two later. AllHipHop.com: And there is the topic of Royce Da 5’ 9”…something almost popped off after the AllHipHop Battle didn’t go as planned. Killa BH: Royce and Joe have spoken about working with each other in the future. I’m sure when ever that takes place its going to be crazy. AllHipHop.com: What if they didn’t dead it? Killa BH: Well, I mean, if they didn’t squash the beef then I would have to do what I gotta do and the world already knows what the out come would be. Killa BH is the future of Hip-Hop. Get with it or get “lost” like the TV show. See what I’m saying? Bars just come out even when I’m not trying to be hot! who does that? AllHipHop.com: Mood […]

Just like Hip-Hop artists, there are several DJs that are under-rated and don’t really get the credit and ‘shine’ they deserve. DJ Sir Charles Dixon is the perfect example. Sir Charles, although not widely credited for doing so, changed the sound of mainstream radio as we know it today. While holding down the mixshow slot during his reign at WPGC 95.5 [Washington, D.C.] in the late 80s, Sir Charles played unique records and incorporated a style of mixing and blending that literally changed the sound of not only D.C. radio, but the sound of radio stations throughout the entire Mid-Atlantic and North-Eastern regions. During the mid to late 80s, many of the youth had abandoned the airwaves and were ‘bumpin’ their Hip-Hop, House, and Go-Go cassettes. Charles’ unorthodox style of dress, along with his unique music selections, helped him create a lane of his own that the youth embraced and made them tune back into radio. He was one of the first DJs to straddle that fine line between urban and pop radio and was able to simultaneously reach kids from the projects in the toughest ‘hoods’, to the private school brats in the suburbs. Later he became a national mixshow promoter, moved to New York and deejayed on WBLS where he was responsible for bringing over one of his inspirations, the legendary DJ Grandmaster Flash. Nowadays Charles is a triple threat, a successful music producer, DJ, and promoter. The first R&B mixer ever to join Music Choice, Charles continues to satisfy the satellite television channel’s 36 million soul-starved listeners with The R&B / Hip-Hop Mixtape, his self-produced weekly music series. Dixon also discovered Australian talent Che’Nelle and signed her to his production company SCIP Records. It wasn’t long before Virgin records closed a deal with Dixon for Che’Nelle in one week . We caught up with Charles to discuss his past, his artist Che’Nelle, and his take on today’s DJs… AllHipHop.com: You have been credited by some as changing the sound of urban / pop radio especially in the Mid-Atlantic / North-Eastern regions. In the late 80s at WPGC 95.5 in D.C., you introduced listeners to a style of mixing and songs they were unfamiliar with. What was the key to your acceptance and success during that era?   DJ Sir Charles: That era was exactly 20 years ago and it was an exciting time for music. Young America paid little attention to the music that played on the radio. There was no internet, no iTunes, no iPods and no blank CDs to burn. Club DJs, record pools and the local Mom and Pop stores fed the masses with the hottest new music and hard to find classics. Growing up in Baltimore and hanging around some of the most influential DJs from clubs like Odell ‘s and Gatsby’s, I learned the art of programming and mixing music in a style that kept people dancing. I learned how to mix and blend all genre ‘s of music.   AllHipHop.com: You’re a DJ, record promoter, and producer. You discovered the artist Che’Nelle, her song “I Fell In Love With The DJ” featuring Cham is a club smash. How did this project come about and what are your aspirations for her?   DJ Sir Charles: I discovered MySpace.com and signed on in 2004. I started to take it serious and I worked on my network for about 6 months. One day while on the page, I discovered a young Asian artist with an image that just jumped off her page and caught my attention. I went on to review her music and I was blown away. Her style and sound as well as writing style was very unique. I sent her a message, added her page and waited for a reply. After a few days she replied and I requested a demo. Her manager, sent a package and I was hooked. After hearing her demo, I realized that she would be a great challenge for me. She was very different. Che ‘Nelle was born in Malaysia and moved to Australia when she was 10. She joined a band when she was 14. After about six months of speaking to her almost everyday, sending her tracks to write to and preparing her for the next steps for her career, I went to Perth, Australia to meet her. The trip was 30 hours on a plane one way, but it was worth it. While I was in Perth, I decided to video tape her in her studio laying a track down, singing live into a mic while she listened to the track in her headphones. So imagine hearing an accapella live with amazing range and texture with a powerful voice and then hearing her play the track back with the vocals mixed in the track! Amazing. I decided to shop her music and play this raw uncut video. I left for the states and set up a couple meetings. After a week of shopping, I met with Jason Flom and Steve Tramposch at Virgin. Jason, the CEO of Virgin wanted the deal closed in 3 days and the rest was history! AllHipHop.com: You deejayed at a spot called the Coffee Shop in NYC and you’ve produced the weekly R & B / Hip-Hop mixtape on Music Choice digital cable for the last 8 years. Elaborate on these efforts as well as your other deejaying gigs. DJ Sir Charles: I deejayed at the Coffee Shop for almost 3 years it was a great experience. It was great to be back in the clubs. They changed the format and I found an artist and I had little time to spin on weekends. My main outlet is Music Choice. I was the first DJ to spin on the Hip-Hop and R&B channel. Damon Williams, an old friend from WPGC and now the VP of programming at Music Choice, hired me in 1999 to spin for their 8 million subscribers. Today the channel can be seen and heard […]

December 18, 2007 was an important day for Radric “Gucci Mane” Davis. It had nothing to do with the release of his album, or with media drama about Young Jeezy. On this day he visited an Atlanta school in his neighborhood, Dobbs Elementary, to talk with students about getting good grades while rewarding them with some early Christmas gifts. Gucci has a lot to smile about this year with the release of his new album Back To The Trap House which penned one of the summer’s hits “Freaky Gurl.” Gucci’s former label Big Cat Records attempted to cash in on his notoriety by putting out what Gucci claims was an unauthorized album, Trap-A-Thon, prior to the official album’s December 11th release.   Just two years ago Gucci was in jail serving time for an assault charge while awaiting the outcome of a murder case in which charges were later dropped due to a lack of evidence. These days he’s playing a Santa of sorts to children in need. Here, Gucci Mane explains his motivation… Gucci Mane: “We just went to the kids and talked to the kids that get good grades and told [them] that I wanted to partner up with the school around the street from my house, an elementary school; they were having a lot of problems [with] a lot of the male students. I just wanted to talk to them to do better. Out of the 27 people that we got that were eligible to get toys, only nine of them were boys. I just wanted to challenge the little boys in the neighborhood to pay a little bit better [attention] to the books and stop fighting so much. I graduated from school and I definitely use school in my music so I try to just motivate them to do good; tell them it’s cool to be smart.”My message was just to be respectful and disciplinary. With the kids down here they have a lot of disciplinary problems; keeping them in line so they can teach them. I wanted to tell them before they get to entrepreneurship they’re so young…respect these teachers. Listen to what they have to say. That’s the message that I was trying to get to them.”I was never just a knuckle head; I was always a smart guy.  Even when I hustled I hustled with a motive, I hustled with a cause. It was always about being my own boss one day. That code was always in mind. “To be honest with you though, my music is not really for younger fans. We have an artist on our label we get him to go to the schools. My music is mostly for these kids’ parents. My music is for the 18 and older. If they [kids] listen to it, it’s not for them to listen to. It’s not a message for younger kids. I’m not a kid rapper. I could go on for days, about how it affects people that I know 18 and older. I know that there are people that come to my shows; there are people that I do this stuff for.  “Growing up, I liked the knowledge.  I was always smart enough to know at a young age that if I couldn’t do anything else, I needed to know how to shape the world around me and apply anything to get some money. So I applied that to the rap game. It’s all about words now, how you put them together. It’s all the same things.”I write all my music. I write R&B music. I’m basically a song writer. I ghost write for a lot of people. They definitely wouldn’t know that. I just wrote a song last night, me and Trey Songz.”[In regards to signing Shawnna] we’re definitely trying to make that happen. She just got out of her deal with DTP. [A joint venture with DTP] is not something that I wouldn’t want. I’m a big fan of DTP. Shout out to DTP. I always see Ludacris, all of them show me love. I’m a big fan of Ludacris. He’s my homie. “Shawnna definitely wants to get on with So Icey Entertainment and we want her there. I got her on two songs on my own album. I also gave her songs where me and my producer produced and let her do two versus. I only got one verse on my own album to get her some exposure. I always liked her style. I feel like she’s one of the best rappers in the game right now, male or female.”[Regarding the beef with Young Jeezy] I don’t know if I necessarily did anything about it. I just kept on continuing on with my life. I don’t even concentrate on nobody. I just let the media do the talking I just rap and make the money baby. They don’t affect my life at all. Honestly. I’ve been just gearing up for my new album. I’ve been writing new lyrics because I have to be back in studio in January; the first of January. It’s about to come out in May or June.  I just dropped the album so we’re trying to see how many I sold today.  Its big things going on with So Icey, we just gotta’ be patient.  “I went to that school the day before yesterday I had so much fun…I went back today! I went to another school [Harper’s Elementary] today and I had a pizza party with some more kids. I gave them from Play Station 2s all the way down to guitars.  I like to give back. I really like doing this stuff. I feel like I wasn’t always financially stable enough to give back. I always said that once I did achieve that I would do it. I’ve been waiting on that for a long time.”

AllHipHop’s Media Zone has been one of the top places on the Internet to find  the hottest, most exclusive Hip-Hop online.  We’ve broken a lot of new music and made the area home to get your daily fix on what’s hot in the rap game.   With a last look at the music in 2007, we compiled a list of what was strictly the most played music on the site.  Since we are not a radio station, our top 20 list will look quite different from your hometown radio stations because Internet ears are tuned into not just the top radio songs but, diss records, mixtape songs or just unreleased songs that just spread in the online world.    Take a look at our top 20 songs for 2007, we’re sure you’ll be surprised at some of the songs that made this list.   1) 50 Cent Ft. Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo “We On Some S***” (Cam’ron, Fat Joe, Czar Ent. Diss) Last Play Count: 130,362   2) 50 Cent Ft. Diddy and Jay-Z “I Get Money Forbes Remix” Last Play Count: 124,617   3) Jay-Z Ft. Pharrell “Blue Magic” Last Play Count: 110,952   4) 50 Cent (Lil Wayne Diss) “Part Time Lover” Added:08-17-2007, 9:23 AM Last Play Count: 110,198   5) Kanye West Ft. Lil Wayne “Barry Bonds” Added:08-14-2007, 9:22 PM Last Play Count: 106,996   6) Lil Wayne Ft. Hurricane Chris, Smitty, Jim Jones and Twista “Them Pots Is Hot” Added:10-02-2007, 12:29 AM Last Play Count: 100,427   7) Jay-Z Ft. Lil Wayne “Hello Brooklyn 2.0” Last Play Count: 93,297   8) Lil Wayne Ft. Nu Jerzey Devil “Bandana On The Right” Last Play Count: 93,034   9) Lil Wayne “Outstanding” Last Play Count: 92,689   10) Lloyd Banks “Deathwish” (Fat Joe, The Lox Diss) Added:10-05-2007, 12:42 AM Last Play Count: 90,534   11) Eminem “Untitled” Last Play Count: 90,126   12) 50 Cent “I Get Money” Last Play Count: 89,132   13) Lil Wayne and Juelz Santana “Bad Side” Last Play Count: 85,660   14) Lil Wayne “Pray To The Lord” Added:07-09-2007, 12:20 PM Last Play Count: 83,685   15) The Game Ft. Lil Wayne “Lyrical Homicide” Last Play Count: 82,192   16) Lil Wayne Ft. Bun B “Tell Me What You Need” Last Play Count: 76,975   17) Lil Wayne Ft. Hot Rod “Most Valuable Pimp” Last Play Count: 75,766   18) The Game Ft. Lil Wayne “Hard Times” Last Play Count: 74,680   19) Birdman Ft. Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, DJ Khaled, Dre, and Young Jeezy “Hundred Million Dollars” Last Play Count: 69,103    20) Fall Out Boy Ft. Kanye West, Travis, Lil Wayne, Paul Wall,Tyga, Skin Head Rob, and Lupe Fiasco “Arms Race (Remix)” Last Play Count: 68,724   Honorable Mention   Jadakiss Ft. Nas and AZ “A Hustler’s Wife” Last Play Count: 67,503   DJ Khaled Ft. T-Pain, Young Jeezy, Ludacris, Busta Rhymes, Big Boi, Lil Wayne, Fat Joe, Birdman, Rick Ross “I’m So Hood (Remix)” Last Play Count: 66,840    

Sometimes, a rapper’s induction into the mainstream appears so fated that people mistake it as effortless.  After all, Carol City native Flo Rida had the support of heavyweights such as Rick Ross and the music of sought-after production duo The Runners to help deliver him into the national limelight.  And for his record “Low”, the #1 downloaded single on iTunes for three consecutive weeks, a T-Pain assist didn’t hurt either.  But scratch beneath the glossy surface of major label promotions and all-star entourages, and you will discover that Flo Rida has spent years differentiating his craft and devotedly promoting his music to anyone who would listen.  A drifter whose travels have been as widespread as his musical influences, the Florida rapper was right to return home at the moment his state was enjoying its Hip-Hop heyday.  With local powerhouse Poe Boy Entertainment behind him, it wasn’t long before Flo-Rida’s melodious flow, viral hooks, and universally appealing subject matter caught Atlantic’s eye.  Both humbled and animated by his achievements, Flo Rida chronicles the less glamorous episodes of his path to fame as he prepares for the February drop of his debut album, Mail On Sunday. AllHipHop.com: You’ve been winning on a lot of fronts lately, how does the sudden success feel?Flo Rida: I mean you know it’s the greatest feeling in the world. I feel like definitely all the things that I’ve been doing behind the scenes haven’t gone unnoticed. Having faith and putting God first is definitely paying off. I didn’t know it would be to this extent, but I’m definitely enjoying the successAllHipHop.com: A lot of people who are just getting to know you may feel that success came easy because of your high-level associations, so do you want to speak on how long you’ve been in the game grinding?Flo Rida: I’ve been doing this for like 12 years. I could give you some situations where I was living from sister to sister house and this one time I just got fed up. I was like, “Y’all don’t believe in me” and I was venting and I said “You know what? That’s it, I’m leaving,” and I left the house, and I walked 30 miles to a Nelly concert. I had blisters on my feet and all kinds of things and when I got there it was cancelled. I was like “Aww man, I was gonna take this demo to them and n****s gonna love it,” and [now] to have this Apple Bottoms song, this “Low” record is so crazy. And one time I went [to] Cali, I got on the Greyhound with just $200, I got there and had to stay on the streets for a couple of days.  I knew I could call my family at the end of the day and they would be there for me, but I took it upon myself to try to try to pay my own way. When I was out there, I went to Death Row Records, I went to Capitol Records, I went to The Beverly Center because I thought different celebrities would be there. I had a duffel bag that I put on top of the bus bench and when I came back out it was gone, man. I came back there and they said “You caused a bomb threat!” I was like “Wow,” I had to walk through Beverly Hills, finally I got my bag. That’s just some of the things I’ve done—sacrificing, giving my money to lawyers and they aren’t making anything happen, it hasn’t been no easy road.AllHipHop.com: What was it like touring with 2 Live Crew as a teenager?Flo Rida: It was a situation where I opened up with Scarface, me and my group [The Groundhoggz]. They needed someone who had a different type of flow and that could almost match one of the guy’s voices and do the hyping, and they contacted me and asked me to go to Hawaii. So I was like “I can’t turn that down,” I went to Hawaii and it started from there. It was a great thing, it’s kind of like now performing the “Low” record is almost like the 2 Live Crew thing, these girls are taking their clothes off on stage, I mean they wildin’.AllHipHop.com: You’re still together with the Groundhoggz crew, right?Flo Rida: Yes, they just in the lab right now making sure they come up with hit records for the most part and grinding. And we paying attention to other groups out there, trying to be the best we can be.  All of us decided we would still be a group, but if we have connects we gonna use ‘em from a solo standpoint as well, and whoever break out first, it’s all good, we’ll help each other. AllHipHop.com: You spent three years out in Cali and did some work with DeVante [Jodeci], why do you think things didn’t click out there and what made you return to Florida?Flo Rida: When I went out there, I didn’t have the proper demo or nothing like that.  I was doing it spur of the moment to show ‘em what I got.  It just wasn’t the right time. Things happen when you’re more knowledgeable about everything, and I’m glad it didn’t happen then.  I was out in Cali for three years working with DeVante and my manager, I used to work a 9-to-5 with him, and I always saved up money to go to the studio. And I would come back and let him hear the demos, and his brother’s the CEO of Poe Boy [Elric “E-Class” Prince]. I’ve known him for a long time. So I didn’t want to go back home, I wanted to come home when I had made it and I could help my family. But different A&Rs was in the building when Rick Ross was popping off, and they heard my demos and wanted to put a face to the music. I came home just for a visit and ended up […]

Rick Ross’ album got pushed back to February ’08 but it’s only giving him more time to preach his gospel of the hustle.Not many rappers can attest to getting a cosign from Jay Hova, moving over a million units, and becoming the first artist to attain platinum status off the strength of ring tone sales, in his rookie year with no more than two official singles released. With the aforementioned accomplishments, Rick Ross has earned his self-proclaimed title as The Boss. Ross flexes his muscle in every arena he chooses to enter with his hustle.With a year in the game, a sneaker with Dwyane Wade, and a documentary slated for release next year, Ross has a lot more to say. From moving weight to moving units, the struggle of fatherhood, and building an empire with Jay-Z by his side, Ross let’s AllHipHop.com in on his world, while giving us a brief overview of his upcoming sophomore release, Trilla; now set for a February ‘08 release.AllHipHop.com:  What’s the deal with the album?Rick Ross: It’s the hardest album of the year. I titled it Trilla. You know that’s realer than the fake, and I fed off that Michael Jackson Thriller a little bit. That’s where the idea first came from; being that that was like the first piece of vinyl my mom ever gave me when I was real young. I just remember the impact it had on me then. AllHipHop.com:  So what are some of the topics you’re speaking on this go-round? Still rapping about drugs, hustling and money?Rick Ross: You know I could never change that.  That’s just me.  And of course I gotta continue to motivate the people that are similar to The Boss; you know what I’m saying?  But on this album I also talk about being a Black parent, and trying to be the best father you can. Still caught up in that struggle at the same time, but it’s definitely going to raise a lot of eyebrows. The name of that record is titled “I’m Only Human.” I got my partner Rodney on the chorus. It’s just one of those real heartfelt records. It’s similar to the song “It’s My Time” on the first record, where I talk about the down side to life; you know what I’m saying? AllHipHop.com:  Yeah. It’s funny though. When rappers are popping bottles, living in mansions and shaking hands with the president, do you really think rapping about the streets is still relevant?Rick Ross: But what you have to realize is, when somebody’s been doing something in the street their whole life, one album ain’t gonna just change that immediately. I’m an example.  My album was real successful, but all my affiliations are still the same. I’m not that detached, you know what I’m saying? Now when you’re on the fifth album and there are so many other things you’re doin’, that’s going to be the same.  But for an artist like me, the streets come with me. Now they have jobs with me. That side ain’t never gonna go nowhere. You just work for the best. AllHipHop.com:  Most people are familiar with your Miami upbringing, but how has it affected the person you are, the artist you are?Rick Ross: I think it was the best place for The Boss to grow up at. We grew up in a low-income house, so my mom was at work a lot, but I still saw the beautiful side to it. As a child, you can grow up in the hood, but you can ride ten minutes in Miami and see some of the most breathtaking views in the world. So it just inspired me to want more at a young age. I believe my city had a lot to do with that, my lifestyle, the water, condominiums, cars, the weather. All that had a lot to do with the way I dress, the way I feel, the way I act, and how I talk.AllHipHop.com: We spoke a little about your debut album, Port of Miami, earlier.  When that album was released last year, you actually said you felt it was comparable to [Jay-Z’s] Reasonable Doubt or [Notorious BIG’s] Ready to Die. How so? Rick Ross:  Meaning, I see longevity. When I said that, I just looked at the empires that Jay-Z built.  I looked at the empires that Death Row built. I just looked at all of the greatest eras of Hip-Hop. And to me, as a fan, that’s when Hip-Hop was at its strongest point, when I could turn on the TV and not just see Snoop Dogg, but see Tupac on his side, Dr. Dre, Michel’e, and The Dogg Pound. It was exciting to me when I saw BIG and P. Diddy, and Mase and The Lox, because I could see longevity. I mean, you could still see Jadakiss in their now. So when I planted that seed, as far as my first album Port of Miami, I was just trying to give my fans that same vision. So when they see Rick Ross and they see DJ Khaled and they see Triple C, they see longevity too.AllHipHop.com: True. Well before there was Rick Ross and DJ Khaled, there was Trick Daddy, who recently signed to Def Jam Records.  Did you have a hand in that?Rick Ross: You already know.  When I was talking to Trick and he was getting’ his opportunity, tellin’ me he wanted to be a free agent and all of that, I just told him, “Man, whatever you do, just make the biggest move ever.” He’s on my new album. He just gave me a record for his new album. So I’m happy.  It ain’t nobody better I’d rather ride with, you feel me?  You might see a few more over there soon. Believe that.AllHipHop.com: That’s what’s up. When you first stepped out there, there was this huge association between you and Jay, in that Jay sort of took you under his wing.  What’s you guys’ relationship […]

Method Man goes in on his acting, cartoons and smart dumb cats who read rumors. As for Wu-Tang; we tried. As a founding member of the legendary Wu Tang Clan, Method Man was originally considered the stand out star of the nine man crew. His break out hit “M.E.T.H.O.D. Man” from their classic Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) debut instantly put him under the Hip-Hop spotlight. He would go on to be a credible solo artist in his own right; garnering a couple of plaques for the work he put in. Now fast-forward to the present and the landscape has changed for Meth. Mr. Tical’s last two albums, Tical 0: The Prequel and 4:21…The Day After, went under the radar receiving little fanfare. Furthermore there is an apparent disruption in the Clan with some of the members crying foul about the group’s current creative direction. Still, Hot Nicks pushes on as his verses on 8 Diagrams and Ghostface’s The Big Doe Rehab suggest despite his Hollywood hustle, his rap darts still reach their mark. Ironically, in this game where your words are your livelihood, Method Man had very little to share with regards to the WTC n. But his choice words still weigh a ton. AllHipHop.com: Tell us about your recent role in Law & Order. Method Man: In the Law & Order episode I play a street thug and basically he beats someone to death in front of everybody in the neighborhood. He’s sitting back on the fact that you know snitches get stitches, and don’t snitch and all of that. Somebody actually steps up and says they witnessed it and they’re going to testify against them. So what they do is kill his wife. The cops go to investigate and find out he’s a polygamist and he has more than one wife and he gets arrested. So the neighborhood is like, S**t, if we do tell we go to jail and if we don’t…it’s basically about snitching and the people that snitch and s**t like that. It’s like you can’t trust the cops and you can’t trust the n***as you snitching on. AllHipHop.com: Speaking of the snitching controversy, where do you stand on that? Method Man: I’d rather leave that alone man. I got no comment on that. AllHipHop.com: Okay, let’s bring things up to speed. What are your feelings on the new Wu-Tang Clan album 8 Diagrams? Method Man: I don’t have anything to say about that either. No comment. AllHipHop.com: From listening to 8 Diagrams and The Big Doe Rehab it seems like you have a newfound hunger. You really went in on those tracks. Method Man: I’ve always been like that. People never took the time out to listen. Being an artist you go to do different things, you go to grow. I felt like my audience is basically trying to stagnate my growth. Because all of my new stuff that I was trying was just that, new stuff, I couldn’t stay in the same era that I was in. I was growing. There were so many different things that I wanted to try. Some people stuck with me, other people it is what it is. The people that stuck with me, it’s no surprise to them. People in the industry dramatize things like I’m hungry now, no I’ve been eating well for a while now. AllHipHop.com: There are rumors that Raekwon is putting together a project called Shaolin vs. Wu Tang. In his displeasure of the production on 8 Diagrams, this will feature Wu-Tang but with no RZA production. Any comment on that? Method Man: You won’t get me to talk about that either. That’s all Raekwon right there; you got to talk to him about that. No comment. AllHipHop.com: Another thing that has come to light is that some of the members have had issues with the finances within the group. Have you ever experienced any of that? Method Man: No comment. Let’s talk about something else dude. AllHipHop.com: Sure. Let’s take it back to Hollywood. What else you got going on the big screen? Method Man: I got a movie called The Wackness that just got picked up by the Sundance Movie Festival. It’s a movie starring Josh Peck, Ben Kingsley, and Mary Kate Olson is in it too. She has a kissing scene with Ben Kingsley, so they making a big deal out of that. But the movie is basically a coming of age flick where dude is graduating from High School and he’s having all these problems at home. He’s seeing a psychiatrist who is also one of his customers because he sells weed. Ben Kingsley is his psychiatrist is a f***ing drug addict. I’m the dude’s supplier. So I play a Jamaican weed dealer. It’s pretty cool, I think I’m going to surprise a lot of people. AllHipHop.com: Almost all your roles depict you as a street thug or as a pothead. Don’t you worry about being pigeonholed in those stereotypical roles? Method Man: I don’t care about that s**t. I just don’t want to be pigeonholed into the comedy s**t because they tried to keep me in that for a while. Luckily I got a good agent who’s gotten me in The Wire, The Corner, OZ; looking out for me and trying to get me these drama roles. So now I got a chance to show my range and basically show people I go beyond rapping. I think I’m pretty good at it but I have a lot to learn. When I can walk on the set and rewrite a scene, then I’m on. That’s what dudes like Deniro do. They get scripts and can just demand rewrites. I also got a comedy called Meet The Spartans coming out in February I believe. It’s done by the same people who did Date Movie. AllHipHop.com: So will you be leaning on doing more acting rather than rapping in 2008? Method Man: I’m just going wherever the wind blows. If […]

Ask anyone who has toured overseas in the last few years, and they’re sure to confirm that Hip Hop is alive and well outside of North America. Artists who don’t draw crowds of over 200 in an American city are able to pack clubs and halls with 1,000 people and more overseas, new jacks and OGs alike. While New York based producer Emile doesn’t perform live very often, the allure of European shows was too strong to ignore when he was recently invited to DeeJay on tour.       Emile is basically your favorite rapper’s best-kept secret. The fact his name rings industry bells, while drawing blanks among the consumer population, is a testament to his work ethic and disregard for the limelight. And as long as he’s in the studio with Ice Cube or contributing tracks to Busta Rhymes’ new project, he could care less if he’s recognized in public.       A day before departing the U.S., Emile still had a few minutes to run us through his history in the game and let the world know why he doesn’t plan to change a damn thing in 2008.  AllHipHop.com: Yo Emile, how’s everything going with you?  Emile: Dude, I’m leaving for a tour in Europe tomorrow.  AllHipHop.com: Crazy. How long are you going for and what kind of dates are you doing?  Emile: I actually did an album with this dude Ian Brown, who’s a big British artist. I produced half his album, and he’s doing this big tour of all these arenas with like 10,000 people a show. He was just like “Dude, if you want to come hang out and DeeJay you should come on through, cause I’d love to have you DeeJay rather than get an opening band.” So I was like “F**k yeah.”  AllHipHop.com: That sounds dope. Is this your first time going over there?  Emile: Yeah I’ve been quite a few times to Paris and London just producing. The biggest s**t I’ve done on stage was DeeJaying for The Beatnuts, because I don’t get a chance to do too much performing. That was another situation where they were my boys, and they asked if I felt like checking Europe out. They did a show in Switzerland once for New Years in an airplane hanger with 10,000 people, that was pretty sick.  AllHipHop.com: That’s wild because over here The Beatnuts would never get 10,000 people to a show.  Emile: I mean, what rapper does except for a select few? It’s just different. They’ll go out there and do “Props Over Here” and records like that, and people just lose their f***in mind, you know?  AllHipHop.com: Definitely. So from what I know, you grew up kind of a bad a** kind in Buffalo, sold bootleg tapes in junior high to buy turntables and practiced DeeJaying while under house arrest. Is that how it went?  Emile: I was just a bad kid.  I guess, never did anything really bad, just stupid s**t. Kept getting in minor trouble here and there, and it just kept building up and building up. Eventually I was actually looking at going away to juvenile detention for a year and change, but the judge offered me two years of house arrest instead. Hell yeah. I had some turntables and that was about it, no girlfriend, no cable, just some turntables. So that got me nice on the turntables. Before that, I had never really put in the work, but I really put it in during that time period. I had a bunch of records and some f****d up, Gemini BD40s or something like that. But by the time I got some techniques I was good to go.  AllHipHop.com: How long after that did you move to New York City?  Emile: That was ’96, and I moved to New York in ’98. I came out here, and luckily I had family so I had somewhere to crash. I worked every job that I could during the day and just made beats all night until I eventually ended up selling one of them s***s. After that I quit the job and was like “Let’s do this.”  AllHipHop.com: Sounds like it could be the opening of a feature film right there.  Emile: Yeah it was pretty crazy. A lot of my boys from Buffalo moved out here, some of them rapped, some made beats some of them DeeJayed. We were all just out here grinding, and I was in the basement making beats every night.  AllHipHop.com: Was the first beat you sold the one Cormega picked for his album?  Emile: That was the first thing that came out officially, but believe it or not the first beat I sold was to Rodney Jerkins, who’s a huge multi-platinum R&B producer. He was working on a rap project, and he had somehow heard my beats through a friend and he wanted to buy one. So that was the first check I got, $3000 from Rodney Jerkins. Man, that was the most money I’d seen at once. It wasn’t too long afterwards that one of my best friends started tour managing the group D12 and I met Proof. He really liked my beats and just wanted to get me working with the guys from Detroit. He got me with Obie Trice, and he sat down and wrote what would be “Don’t Come Down” for his first album. Cormega happened right around the same time as well, cause I was going over to In Your Ear studio all the time which is right by Queensbridge, and there was people affiliated with Cormega there so he got hold of my beat tape. He took one, and that was the first to get released, the intro to Cormega’s album (“Introspective” from The Realness).  AllHipHop.com: After that you must have started shopping your beats like crazy.  Emile: That was around the time I linked up with and got my manager, and started really pursuing s**t. All the s**t started happening at once, once I got on […]

From indie label shuffling to presidential campaigning, Kidz in the Hall are devoted students of the rap game. Naledge and Double-O, the duo better known as Kidz in the Hall, have been making music since their chance meeting in 2000 at a talent show at the University of Pennsylvania. The road from recording songs, making demos, and performing at local shows led to a connection with super producer, Just Blaze, who after hearing their demo, aligned himself with the group and even worked on their debut album School Was My Hustle. In 2006 the Kidz signed a group deal with Rawkus Records (via a joint venture  with Major League Entertainment), and released their debut album. However, after the release of the first album it was clear that the artists and the label weren’t on the same page when it came to pushing the group and have since parted ways. With the ink firmly dried on a new deal with Duck Down Records, the independent label started by the founding members of the Boot Camp Clik, rapper Naledge and producer Double-O are ready to take the Kidz In The Hall movement to the next level. The duo’s sophomore album, The In Crowd, drops March 2008, but for now, get your pen and paper kids, class is in session.AllHipHop.com: It recently came to light that you guys parted ways with Rawkus Records. What was the reason for the split?Naledge: To be quite honest, I never bought into the idea of being on Rawkus Records alone being able to sell records for the Kidz in the Hall. I always felt that if Rawkus properly utilized its brand to push our project, that our music could easily be the catalyst to the “revival” of its label. As much as people asked us if we felt honored to be on Rawkus, I always felt like they should have felt honored to have found us (not that they weren’t). For the most part, my relationship with Rawkus has been good. I mean not only do I have a solo deal with Rawkus, they also put out the very first LP that I have ever had in stores. Still, I feel as though they were not ready, nor willing to try to spend the money that it takes to break a new artist, something that formerly was their trademark. Who Rawkus was in the mid 90’s and who they are now is very much night and day. While I understand that they may feel that they have paid too many dues to invest in something that is not a “sure” thing, nothing in music is a sure thing. AllHipHop.com: With the critical acclaim you guys received from the album, School Was My Hustle, you guys probably could’ve worked out a major situation. Why sign with Duck Down?Naledge: We wanted the next Kidz in the Hall record to come out with a proper promotional push and we wanted to make sure we had the opportunity to at least be relevant in the marketplace. Duck Down was the one label that came at us in an aggressive way and understood the vision of where we wanted to go with our careers. Name brand or not, Dru Ha and his squad made everything make sense. They actually had a team that was excited about getting behind our project and furthering our movementDouble-O: Duck Down just seemed like the best fit. We liked their business acumen and they liked ours so it just felt right. And no disrespect to Rawkus because I think it was a good first time learning experience. We took what we learned from the situation and are now ready to take it to the next level. AllHipHop.com: There are usually a lot of legal problems that comes with switching labels. Did you guys encounter any problems in regards to ownership or anything like that? Double-O: Our deal with Rawkus was a one off so everything we recorded after School Was My Hustle is ours. We own it. We did a joint venture and, actually, the same joint venture between Major League and Rawkus is the same joint venture we now have with Duck Down.AllHipHop.com: What are you guys doing to keep your brand alive while in the transition period between labels and albums?Naledge: We got the mixtape out right now with Mick Boogie called Detention. That’s like the perfect transition right there. It’s new material that I think people will be able to enjoy until the album.Double-O: And we stay on the road. We’ve been on the road for like the last three or four months. We did a U.S. tour with Redman and a tour with the Clipse in the UK then went back out there for dates of our own. That’s how you stay connected by staying out there with the people. Meet the fans, flirt with the girls, you know. All part of the fun. AllHipHop.com: When does the new album come out?Double-O: The new album is dropping in March. A good amount of people have already peeped the “Driving Down the Block” trailer. We definitely going for that feeling with the record. The vibe is going to drop in like January and after that the second single then in March, the album drops. AllHipHop.com: Should fans still be looking for the solo project from Naledge?Naledge: The solo record is still there. It’s like 80 percent done. That album will probably be out like late ’08 or early ’09. Double-O: Everything is all about having the proper set-up. We started preparations really late, especially for a new artist’s first album. We’re better prepared as far as the release of this album goes. Once this joint drops we’re going to let it roll for a little bit. As soon as the buzz is where it needs to be we’re dropping Naledge’s joint. It’s going to be a good five or six months in between but everything will be set up and ready to go. AllHipHop.com: […]

How many producers in the game right now can say that they have a hit record? Plenty. Of those same producers, how many can say that have done scores for television shows and movie soundtracks? The pool is getting smaller. Finally, of that remaining bunch who can say that they have worked with Missy Elliott, Diddy, and Madonna! Left standing in a league of their own are the two brothers from Newark, New Jersey that form Soul Diggaz Production. Known as K-Mack and Bless, they  have been in the production game for over ten years. Having worked with pop icon Madonna and Missy Elliott on creating The Gap commercial the two divas starred in, the Soul Diggaz have had their work on display for millions hear and see on national television. Continuing their onscreen credits, The Soul Diggaz have produced hit records for the soundtracks to major films such as the theme song to The Fighting Temptations starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. While they have tested their waters with doing music for the big and silver screens, do not get things misconstrued! This sibling duo is all about the music. Matter of fact, they do what they do so well that in the past Puffy and Missy got into a bidding war over them!  You would think that the tug of war between Puffy and Missy would have The Soul Diggaz on a serious ego trip. Not even the case. These brothers were definitely reared right, coming from an extremely humble place with all they have accomplished. Noting that never getting too comfortable is key, they shed some light on what it takes to make it not only as producers but as creators of quality music.   AllHipHop.com: What can we hear on the radio right now that Soul Diggaz has done? K-Mack: We just signed a huge deal with Mosley Music and Interscope, it’s a long time venture. We co-produced “Let It Go” with Keyshia Cole featuring ‘Lil Kim and Missy Elliot; we did a song for B5 called “Hydrolic” featuring Bow Wow; Cheri Dennis “Portrait of Love” featuring Yung Joc and we have a song on Bow Wow and Omarion’s album Face Off called  “Jump Off”  AllHipHop.com: Impressive…we haven’t seen a sibling production team in a while… what was the music like growing up? Bless: We were both heavily into music and there was music always around us. Our family always listened to stuff. K-Mack: Listening to oldies but goodies. My moms back in the day would throw the 45s on 8 track tape. Back in the day it wasn’t too much entertainment but listen to music and just party amongst family.  AllHipHop.com: What was the first major production deal for Soul Diggaz? Bless: The first big placement we had was a record with Pras on the Ghetto Superstar album. That was our first big check, we got blessed with that. (Laughs) K-mack: That right there really gravitated us towards [the concept of] “Wow, you can really make a lot of money in this game.” Our first big production situation was when were with Mary J. Blige. She was starting a label called MJB/Burroughs Entertainment with Kirk Burroughs (former Bad Boy CEO). We were in-house producers [for MJB Entertainment]. That was our first time getting involved in a major production situation.   AllHipHop.com: Working as Mary J. Blige’s in-house producers seems like a terrific opportunity. Do you feel as though you started at the top by working with her? K-mack: Hmm…. I wouldn’t say that it was at the top. We had the opportunity to do some records with her, but we didn’t get any real placements over there.  AllHipHop.com: Did you both feel like you had a lot to live up to by working with Mary? Bless: I think back then Mary was just starting to be looked at as a huge artist. This was around the time  when she had the comeback record “I Can Love You Better” with ’Lil Kim. I think at that time we viewed working with Mary as a great opportunity. She was great in the studio, we learned a lot about vocal production. K-Mack: She also gave us the opportunity to work with Chaka Khan, they did a duet together that was on both of their albums. We also did a record called “Chasing Lies” for Mary. Overall, it was dope AllHipHop.com: What is the formula for a Soul Diggaz hit record? Bless: Put it this way, the song should either make you wanna love, have fun or think. If you got that from a song it’s a great record. The main thing is having a great chorus that everybody can sing to. You need a chorus that’s memorable 5 or 10 years down the line. You know, those records that make you be like, “Damn, I remember this was going on around the time this record came out,” now that’s a hit record!  AllHipHop.com: There are so many producers out. What can producers do to make their material stand out while still being commercial, approachable, and marketable? Bless: Nowadays, with so many producers you have to stand out above any and everything that’s out there. You have to really take your time with tweaking the sounds, the snares and things that make memorable breaks. Before the beat, the song is supposed to talk to you. A lot of producers coming up need to really dig deep and arrange their music the right way. With so much technology they’re getting beats ‘out of the box.’ [Producers are] quick to throw a voice on it that everybody knows and expect it to be a hit. K-mack: It’s a lot of programs out there now that are supposed to show you how to do beats but they come with the beat. All [the producer is] doing is adding one or two new sounds over top. We don’t really call that producing. You gotta start from scratch. You have to build, not just get beats from […]

Investigative journalist Ethan Brown recently followed up his critically acclaimed Queens Reigns Supreme with the true crime book titled Snitch: Informants, Cooperators, and the Corruption of Justice. Brown’s new book provides insight into the secret history of the Stop Snitching movement and documents a troubling by-product of the War on Drugs, “a cottage industry of cooperators” who pervert the US legal system. Snitch describes an ailing US criminal justice system that coddles defendants who play “The 5K game” in order to gain reduced sentences for themselves. Brown’s extensive research traces the subject back to the 1980’s with the evolution of huge mandatory sentences for miniscule amounts of street drugs. The sentencing guidelines did, however, provide an out for those accused, Section 5K 1.1, which states that if defendants gave “substantial assistance” to prosecutors they could receive a “downward departure” from the sentencing mandates.  Subsequently, Brown states that everybody in court started snitching, even if they had to lie.This new book is a provocative collection of comprehensively researched case studies annotated with compelling appendices containing court documents related to high profile cases such as the shooting of Tupac Shakur and the trial of Irv Gotti. A true crime revelation, Brown connects the dots between deadly shootings and court room skullduggery revealing a picture of an American justice system at odds with itself. Ethan Brown’s Snitch is published by PublicAffairs and is presently available from finer booksellers. Brown discusses his new book and a recent Supreme Court ruling which has enormous implications for tens of thousands of Americans currently behind the wall.AllHipHop.com:  Your body of work delves repeatedly into crime and the US justice system. But it also reaches into Hip-Hop culture in an intimate way.  How did you come to combining the two subjects in your writing?Ethan Brown: I grew up on Hip-Hop; I’ve been a Hip-Hop fan since I was a pre-teen. The first 45 I ever bought was the theme from Beat Street and I haven’t stopped listening to hip-hop ever since (though I’d say that my passion for hip-hop dropped off significantly beginning in the early 1990s with the rise of gangsta [sic] rap). I started becoming interested in criminal justice issues when I was in Journalism School at NYU in the mid-late 1990s. I was making a lot of street contacts and at the same time I began doing a lot of reading in the criminal justice/drug policy area. And when I began working at New York Magazine in 1999, I did a lot of writing on criminal justice issues, from writing about a Harlem based crack dealing crew called the Black Top Gang to doing a cover story about the very beginnings of the federal investigation into Irv “Gotti” Lorenzo. AllHipHop.com:  In the media these days it is common to hear Hip-Hop referred to as a criminal culture. Do you think it’s fair to say that Hip-Hop is any more criminal than other genre’s in the music business?Ethan Brown: I think that Hip-Hop takes its cues from the streets but I don’t think it’s a criminal culture at all. In fact, much of the time rappers simply model themselves after street guys—that’s why you have the phenomenon of rappers naming themselves after drug dealers, for example. AllHipHop.com: How did the Irv Gotti trial inspire the research into the subject matter you’ve presented in Snitch?Ethan Brown: I spent years researching the Irv Gotti case for my first book Queens Reigns Supreme. And the feds’ investigation into Irv spanned years and involved agencies ranging from the DEA, IRS and FBI. So, naturally I expected that the case against Irv—he was charged with money laundering—would represent the feds at their very best, with reams of evidence being brought to trial. But that did not happen. Instead, the feds paraded a casting call of cooperators and informants into the courtroom who were clearly not telling the truth. The credibility of these informants and cooperators was shredded under cross examination by Irv’s defense attorneys, and worse it turned out that the feds did very little investigative work of their own. So I asked myself: is this how the feds typically conduct investigations? And if so, what does this say about the criminal justice system in America? With Snitch, I tried to answer these questions. AllHipHop.com:  In what way does this snitch culture harm the US justice system?Ethan Brown: Well, we have a federal criminal justice system that is “snitch-led.” Investigative work has been replaced by the word of informants. And we’re not even corroborating the word of those informants. Worst of all, prosecutors have near total discretion in how they handle cooperators (for example, cooperators who commit perjury are rarely—if ever—punished). Unsurprisingly, this is a system in which the innocent are routinely convicted. AllHipHop.com: How did you research this book?Ethan Brown: Snitch involved poring over case files and courtroom transcripts for specific defendants and doing tons of research into drug policy and criminal justice policy.AllHipHop.com:  Did secrecy hamper your efforts? Ethan Brown: Not really, though it’s worth noting that cooperation process is shrouded in secrecy by the feds. AllHipHop.com: I’ve read that the US has the largest percentage of its citizens incarcerated than any other country in the world.  Is this a recent development?Ethan Brown: It is a fairly recent development. Our system of prisons and jails exploded in the mid to late 1980s with the passage of very harsh mandatory minimum sentences for drug related offenses. Have a look at these charts from the Department of Justice: “Of cases concluded in Federal district court since 1989, drug cases have increased at the greatest rate.”www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/fedtyp.htmThe incarceration rate in the US has gone from just over 100 offenders per 100,000 in 1980 to 500 offenders per 100,000 population now.www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/incrt.htmFinally, drug arrests have gone from under 500,000 in 1970 to more than 1.5 million now.www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/drug.htm  Much of this is the result of mandatory minimums.  AllHipHop.com:  What is “Hershey Bar Justice”? Ethan Brown: “Hershey Bar Justice” is a phrase used to describe sentences for selling […]