MC Lyte: Award Tour Damainon Ewell The more that things change, the more things stay the same. Not so in the case of MC Lyte. Ten years after her only Grammy nomination, she has been nominated again for "Best Solo Performance By A Female MC For A Track Or Single, a new category the world-famous award program offers. She has time and again persevered without the luxuries of a major label and continually justifies her 17 years in the music industry. While her name continues to pass through many conversations throughout music and Hollywood circles, she maintains her sense of self. MC Lyte wants the public to be aware that her success did not come to be because of any bureaucracy or red tape. Before taking a trip to Africa, she sat with Allhiphop.com to give her recipe for longevity, and why she feels her Grammy nomination was not a fluke. Allhiphop.com: We received word that you were recently nominated for a Grammy award. MC Lyte: I know. Can you believe that? Allhiphop.com: Under what category were you nominated under? MC Lyte: "Best Solo Performance By A Female MC For A Track Or Single." Allhiphop.com: What song actually got nominated? MC Lyte: "Ride Wit’ Me." Allhiphop.com: How many Grammy awards were you previously nominated for? MC Lyte: This is my second nomination. Allhiphop.com: Share your thoughts on the whole situation and how you feel about getting nominated again. MC Lyte: It’s funny, because I called Da Brat, and I left her message congratulating her on her nomination. She hit me back and left me a message saying, "man, I don’t even know what I got nominated for." Because she said that, it made me think, "well s###, I know what I got nominated for." I got nominated for 17 years in the business of putting my heart and my time in. What’s happening now is they realize the importance of the female MC. The public does, but the record labels still don’t because there’s not enough of them. So, that’s how we got nominated, because there ain’t enough female MCs in the game that put singles out this year. The Grammys is about the prestige; it’s about your peers voting for you. Your peers understanding how hard you work, and they understand that MC Lyte ain’t giving up. Everything that I’ve put into the business so far is worthy of a nomination in a female category. Allhiphop.com: Who are some of the other acts you are up against in the nomination? MC Lyte: You mean who am I joined by? To me, any one of us that walk away with that is a feat well won by a female MC. We all inspire one another, so for one of us to get it helps us to recognize and understand how hard we all work. It’s Missy (Elliott), (Queen) Latifah, Da Brat, and Lil’ Kim. Allhiphop.com: The benchmark artists amongst the female MCs. MC Lyte: Exactly. And it’s hard, because in the past when they sent me those lists, you had 60 or 70 names of female rappers, and half of them you didn’t know their names. So, you wound up picking who was the most familiar. Allhiphop.com: When you saw those lists and you didn’t recognize most of the names, did it make you believe that the Grammys were playing a sort of favoritism game? MC Lyte: I don’t think it’s favoritism. I think it’s all of your peers. They see you working hard. That’s the only way I know the Grammys work. You would have to show me some cases where they did. Allhiphop.com: The reason I asked that is because I’ve heard different perspectives about the matter. Some say what you just said, and others would disagree with what you said. MC Lyte: I cannot comment on the matter unless you can show me where someone should have been nominated and wasn’t, or someone who shouldn’t have been nominated and was. I know there was a big discrepancy with the Alicia Keys-India.Arie thing. Allhiphop.com: That was actually one of the situations people have discussed with me. MC Lyte: Again, it’s your peers and not the fans that determine the Grammy Awards. It’s the musicians; it’s the record industry, period. Allhiphop.com: I guess if you want the fan recognition, you got to win a Billboard Award. MC Lyte: Or an American Music Award, or the Kid’s Choice Award. The Grammys, to me, ring true because I’m not with a major label. I don’t have anyone in there lobbying for me. I don’t have the budget to get my song played on the radio. So, for me to get a nomination just proves that it’s real when they cite you for working hard and giving credible work. "Ride Wit’ Me" is a hot ass song! I didn’t get in the video and show skin, so there wasn’t a reason, other than I’m MC Lyte, for them to play the video. BET used to run me down to play my stuff, but they gave me no love on the video side, and radio was almost as difficult. There was some key people, some key DJs, PDs and MDs in places that showed me love and recognized that the song was hot. It was different, and it wasn’t what everybody else was doing. Allhiphop.com: Talk about the deal you just struck with Pantene, the hair care company. MC Lyte: It’s a tour. I’m doing a Pantene tour. I leave out the end of February, and I do it with Nikki Giovanni and Donna Richardson. It’s a nationwide tour, and we go to these cities and talk to young girls. Allhiphop.com: Are you talking about modeling or any topics like that? MC Lyte: Actually, we are talking to them about everything they want to talk about. Everything that’s affecting them in their neighborhoods, trying to shape and mold the young women of tomorrow. They come down, they get pampered, they get entertained, there […]

Ice T is perhaps the most understated legend of hip-hop music. EVER. As the original gangster of hip-hop, his influence, is represented in nearly every aspect of the genre seen today. While Schoolly D fathered it, Ice populated it, making it possible for Eazy E. NWA, and every other n#### with an attitude to have a voice. In the 1990’s, Ice-T championed freedom of speech, honesty in lyrics, and expansion of hip-hop. But Ice’s achievements didn’t stop with music. He’s one of the more popular rappers-turned-actors and has been on TV or film since the early 90’s. And, for those that thought Ice the rapper fell, off…you couldn’t be more wrong. He’s shifted to the indie game, getting more money than he ever saw while signed to Warner Bros. With his new crew SMG (a group that includes Smooth The Hustler and Trigger The Gambler) he looks to do it all over again. Peep game. AllHipHop.com: Can you speak on this new venture, Final Level? What is it all about and what people can expect? Ice-T: I had done an Internet venture in LA back in the day with Acomic Pop. Atomic Pop went out of business. I kind of shut it down. I came to New York to basically do the Law and Order show. I kind of lost my whole interest in trying to run my own record label from the ground up. It’s just so much work and something I didn’t want to do. I like the part of the business where you take the group, you take them in the studio, you make the records and then figure some place to sell them. What happened was we finished the Sex Money and Guns (SMG) album , myself Smooth Da Hustla and Trigger the Gambla. We had a lot of product and being honest kind of like falls on deaf ears if your not showing them Nelly or something that’s hot at the moment. It really aggravates you. I’m a different kind of cat. All my stuff is a little bit offset and like certain groups like Kool G Rap, we’ve been able to make a career off of making music that wasn’t mainstream but we have a nice fan base. A lot of the groups in the Bay area thousands and thousand of records but you may not know them. There’s a way of doing that and I know how to do it. I just kind of started getting discouraged and I told Mickey (Benston, Ice-T’s manager), well look man lets get us a distribution deal. Lets go out, get a distribution deal because we got so much product we need to have a way out. Then we connected to Kazaa who is basically your peer to peer. We told them let us put something on your site for sell and lets see how it does. They let me put up the Ice-T The Pimp Penal Code album. That album features nothing but pimps just dropping game and then we put the SMG album on it for $4.99 and we sold like 15,000 of them. People are really hungry for that thing. And we made all the five dollars. So that’s cool. We get the whole profit. I sold platinum records. n*ggas don’t know, but you can go out here and sell a platinum record and after your video and everythings done if you see 100,000 you may be happy. The internet itself worked, but I’ve been on the Internet long enough to know that motherf*ckers still gotta go to the store. They wanna buy it. AllHipHop.com: Somebody said you can get in a little bit of trouble for the p### and pimping with the Law and order folks. Ice-T: I been through so much sh*t in my life. It’s not like I’m Leonardo Dicaprio and I’m in some sh*t . Law and Order knows who they hired. AllHipHop.com: What made you redo Body Count? Ice-T: Well Body Count stopped because of death. Master V, the drummer died of leukemia and Mooseman the bassplayer got killed in the hood just standing on the corner. He was in his neighborhood and n*ggas just rode up and blasted because he lives in a gang area and was at just wrong place wrong time. Having lost the two members we couldn’t get that chemistry with new players, so it just took a while and then also the world got kind of complacent. The war kind of brought back that energy we needed for Body Count to exist. It’s an aggressive band and I’m singing about sh*t . When everybody happy and bling blinging and spinning their rims we sound a little angry. AllHipHop.com: You spoke a lot about political issues and injustice. Ice-T: The album is war music. It’s about street sh*t , its about b*tches and its wild. I’m just really trying to bring back that sinister evil violent sounding metal, because I mean I listen to the other rock/rap groups but they not as evil as BC. We sound a little bit more sinister. We got a new drummer named OT and new bass player name Vincent Price. They got the vibe. Catch Ice-T At AllHipHop and SOB’s Plain Rap concert series, along with Kool Keith and SMG on December 14. For more info: http://www.sobs.com

AllHipHop.com: What do you think about hip-hop nowadays coming from your background which expands from the golden era, the "gangsta era," the "political era" right up until now? Ice-T: I think its done well, its survived. I’m very happy to see alot of the young cats that are making the music making the money. It’s expanding off into clothing and different things. I’m tryna be part of all that. I think the side of it that’s really missing though is the political side. I miss Public Enemy , Ice Cube and that aggression. Every rap record, I don’t give a f*ck who you listen to, has something positive but n*ggas don’t play them. I’m a big 50 Cent fan. When you heard Rebel Without a Pause and you heard NWA you knew there was some aggression and that was violence. I was in Brooklyn at this donut spot and I saw this kid and we sat down and spoke about some things. He said "we got the money, we got the car, I got the jewels, I got everything. What do I do with the money? What do I do with the money? I bought every car I can buy. You got it too Ice, what do we do with the money? Do we just keep spending it on ourselves or do we put it together and do something? Now if we would do something what would we do? I was like "yo this little n*gga had a book bag and was thinking." I said "man sh*t , I think you just gave me a record." You can make a dollar, but keeping one, that’s a complicated decision. AllHipHop.com: So what’s new in your life now? Ice-T: Basically what I do is Law and Order five days a week, so I left L.A. and I got in a new relationship. Me and my girl stay out here. I got an apartment on the upper Westside. We go out. I hit the clubs if I don’t gotta work the next day and then on the weekends I go in the studio. It’s like the same thing, it’s just not the 100 motherf*ckers I had in LA. AllHipHop.com: What’s your opinion on the hip-hop scene on the West coast? Ice-T: It’s disappearing. The thing of it is the West coast, not the Bay but L.A. hip-hop was only like four major organisms. It was Rhyme Syndicate, the cats I put out, it was NWA and who they became, it was a little something from the cats from Delicious Vinyl and then little stuff from a label called Techno Hop, that’s where I started. It had Compton’s Most Wanted and King Tee. That’s it . That’s why you don’t really see L.A. beef, because all of us kind of came from the same crew. Cube went off on his thing. Cube was only able to really spur Mack 10. That was the only group he was able to get out that was successful. Dre is like the monster producer from mars or some sh*t in anything he touches, but how much can Dre do? The downfall to L.A. is due to L.A. radio. L.A. radio is worst than New York radio. L.A. radio doesn’t play regional records. If you go down to New Orleans you gonna hear Master P every other record. L.A. doesn’t play L.A. music. They don’t cater to the LA artist so they don’t give anybody a chance to grow. They haven’t broke a group from L.A. since Mack 10. Certain people break. Eminem don’t count because he from Detroit. They aint doing it. The only time was when Suge was mashin’ the sh*t and they was playing that Death Row sh*t every 15 minutes. AllHipHop.com: What’s your view on the current air of beef in hip-hop and how some of them appear to be heading off wax? Ice-T: I think it’s bullsh*t honestly. I think if you gonna rap on a record about a n*gga then that’s that. The problem is I think Biggie and Pac showed us where that goes. I really aint gonna mention nobodys names over no record no more because I know where they live. So if I got the time, why don’t I just go knock on n*ggas door? Why am I rapping about it? It’s kind of corny. AllHipHop.com: I remember when you were in the Pee Wee Herman video. When you look back at those times with all that stuff what do you see? Ice-T: I look stupid. That sh*t was stupid but at the time it was hip. You know like when people usually say "I seen you in Breakin’." I’m like yea OK, but before you diss me, show me a picture of what you wore to the movies to see it. I was still looking cooler than you then, so at the time it was cool. Honestly I look at myself as a person who took hip-hop for a hell of a ride. From picking up a mic and rapping to being able to go around the world 4 or 5 times to speaking lectures to doing television, movies and rock. I took it for a ride. It’s like it’s been exciting to me and to still be in and to be respected, that’s the best thing. Respect is the best thing. Your not gonna be the best rapper to everybody but the respect goes beyond that. A lot of people may not like Master P’s music but they respect the fact that he came out of New Orleans and blew the f*ck up. That’s a good feeling, especially in an enviroment like hip-hop where n*ggas don’t respect sh*t . They’ll diss you so quick in this business.Catch Ice-T At AllHipHop and SOB’s Plain Rap concert series, along with Kool Keith and SMG on December 14. For more info: http://www.sobs.com

Remy Martin, the 23-year-old protégée of Big Pun, lingers at a crossroads. She is unsigned, but clearly commands the allure and lyrics to join any team or label. AllHipHop.com caught up to Remy as she ponders the future and a bunch of other entertaining stuff. AllHipHop.com: So where are you at right now? Remy: Right now, I’m in the process of trying to find a new deal. I’m trying to see where I’mma go, who am I gonna put my career hands in. Not even my career, because I’ll never put my career in nobody hands ever again. Who am I gonna let, you know, who am I gonna trust to help me. Because I gotta put my album out, I gotta get some material out, I gotta do something, you know what I’m saying? I can’t do it independently; I can’t just put out my own album. I do mix CDs, I do all that other sh*t. But right now, I’m in the process of trying to get a deal, and just get my album out. That’s about it. So n*ggas could shut the f**k up already. [Laughs] AllHipHop: So you have most of the album already… like, it’s ready? Remy: Well, I got crazy sh*t from when I was signed to Loud. Like, I got songs that I did with Pun before he died. I got songs that I did with Pun, I got songs with Nore, a song with Claudette Ortiz from City High. But I wanna do new sh*t. I’m gonna wanna do a new album. AllHipHop: Are you scared that, well probably not scared, that… Remy: That it won’t be good? AllHipHop: Nah. That when you get to a label, that you’re gonna get to a label and you’re gonna lose some of that creative control? Remy: I mean, it’s not even really creative control. It’s nothing that I really have a problem with. As long as I can pick my own beat. I write all my own rhymes, every f**king syllable you ever heard me spit, I wrote. So it’s like, they can’t take that from me. And all I gotta do is pick my beats. All that other sh*t, it don’t matter to me. As far as little dumb sh*it like, what’s gonna be the first single; maybe that might be a little problem. AllHipHop: And image-wise. Do you think that image-wise there’s gonna be any kind of change or that they would even try to change you? Remy: I guess so. I don’t think there’s a problem. We went through that when I was signed to Loud, they really was stressing… Yo, I had to tell these n*ggas everyday like, ‘Quit trying to change me, Gina!’ [Laughs] n*ggas was out of control like, ‘Yo, but Rem we need to do a happy song, you know, a song for the ladies. You can’t say kill the b*tches on every song.’ So it’s like, we went through that for a little bit. I don’t think I’m ugly. And then it’s not like I dress like a f**king s###-bag-w####, with a skirt up the crack of my ass. Even though, you might catch me with a skirt up the crack of my ass one day [laughing] and you might catch me with my pants hanging off my ass the next day. I could never be Kim, to the point where she feels like, I know she feel like sometimes, like sometimes she just wanna come outside in her f**king sweatsuit. But she can’t because of the image that they set up for her. Or how Da Brat was, she was so stuck in the whole tomboyish thing. When she did come out, everybody was like, ‘Oh my God, did you see Da Brat?’ So, I don’t wanna be stuck in that. You know what I be hearing? And it’s so crazy because I didn’t even know that I had a image yet. Everybody’s like, ‘Yo, you know who’s trying to steal your image? Babs from Making the Band.’ AllHipHop: You know what it is? Again like I said, there’s very very few girls that n*ggas I’ ll give props to like that. And a lot of guys are saying that she can spit. Remy: Who Babs? Let’s just put it as, if I woulda went to the Making the Band audition, she would not be there. That’s what I think. I’m not saying, I don’t think she’s dumb wack. AllHipHop: You can’t think of not one girl that’s rhyming that could even hold a candle, could open a show for Remy Martin? Remy: I don’t know. I like Fox [Brown]. But I know she doesn’t write all her rhymes, so that takes mad credibility away. I literally ran into n*ggas that… I asked her. She told me that she writes her own rhymes. But I only like Foxy when she rhyme a certain way. I like her when she’s on some gutter sh*t, she be flipping little reggae sh*t, that’s cool with me. I don’t like when she on that Lil’ Kim sh*t. And then I like Kim, but I only like Kim when she be trying to being like she been looking like. When she OD-ing, like the Christina Aguilera sh*t she be on sometimes? I hate that sh*t! Eve? She has a man that she thinks she gone love forever and all that other sh*t, like those songs. I don’t f**king know! I thought Ms. Jade was gonna be alright, but I don’t know what happened. AllHipHop: When you first started coming out on the scene, it was Jane Blaze, Sonya Blade, Lady Luck. That whole class, I guess you could call it. Remy: Luck? Luck is cool, cool peoples. Luck calls me on a daily basis. Girls in the industry, you said Eve is for her happy little ‘Got a man’ songs. I mean like, she’s okay, but I can’t think of a hot 16, like a whole Eve 16 where I […]

Tucked away in a small room at the Roc-A-Fella Records’ offices with the remnants of ‘dro smoke in the air, Memphis Bleek is pensively viewing an unfinished version of his latest video, “Round Here” from his new album M.A.D.E. “I’ve seen this 30 times,” he says of the clip. “I ain’t had a video in three years, so I got to make sure sh*t is tight.” The last time we saw M. Easy in a video of his, hot vixens flanked his side as he asked the ladies who ran this m####. That is what Memph Bleek was. Now, the day after Jay-Z’s Madison Square Garden concert and the day before Thanksgiving, the Brooklyn native is pointing out his brother’s cameo in the clip and gushing over his young son. This is what Memph Bleek is. AllHipHop.com: We had an interview with you not too long ago, and you were talking about what you were doing during you break from recording. Can you give us an update on the condition of your brother? Memphis Bleek: Yeah, he’s chillin’. He in the video to let n##### know he’s back. It’s just a weird thing, to lose somebody close to you. I only got one brother. That’s it. That’s my homie, my partner, my hit man, my security—he’s everything. That’s the big brother, know what I’m saying? So he’s gonna hold me down. To lose that is like…. Who else is in your corner that’s really gonna work with you off love? Like, you don’t have that no more. You don’ t know what’s real or what’s fake in this industry, and family is the only thing you have left. So to lose that is crazy. AllHipHop.com: So how was the Jay-Z concert last night and that experience? Bleek: The Garden is legendary. That’s history. I’m right over the bridge. Any bridge: Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg. I’m right over there. So when I look out the window, I could see it. You always dream, as a rapper, that you want to rock an event like that, a venue like that. I done did everybody else’s venue in they city, but to do my own is a blessing. And for my man to go out like that with his last show, retiring and on top of his game—Who could ask for anything better? That’s like David Robison retiring and they just won the championship. That’s real. AllHipHop.com: When people were taking shots at Jay-Z some time back, you stepped up and supported him vocally. Can you speak on your relationship with him outside of rap? Bleek: Outside of rap, that’s my brother. He’s a brother from another mother to me. And the love I have for him, I can’t even explain that. He changed my life, let alone my friends and my family’s life. How would you thank a man for that? There’s no real way, so you got to show it. Everybody taking little pop shots at Jay, it’s nothing to me. That’s like you taking shots at my brother, and I’m going to come get you. Get at you, whatever. And he’s a good dude, man. And you know in the world, people eat up kindness. They take kindness for weakness and they eat it up. He extends his hand to anybody, no matter [what]. And it just seems like every time it comes back to bite him. So I’m tired of sitting back and watching it happen. So I felt like I should speak up for him. AllHipHop.com: Out of anybody, you probably have the best account of his career starting from beginning to this last album. Is there ever a moment, like last night on stage, where you think to yourself you’re rolling with who many people consider the greatest rapper of all time? Bleek: Everyday I wake up and think about that. I knew Jay from times when my mom would say ‘Go upstairs and see if Jay’s mom has any sugar.’ So I never thought that the greatest rapper lived in my building, you know what I mean? That’s crazy to me. So now to see him being on stage, [with] the Roots playing for him, Mary J. coming out, R. Kelly [coming out]. I’m looking at everything, like my boy is connected. He’s the dude. I told him he needs to run for Governor. AllHipHop.com: Speaking of politics, recently the Brooklyn Democrat Committee was in the news, because they couldn’t come to an agreement on whom to endorse as a presidential candidate. Have you been following anything on the presidential election? Bleek: Nah. Ain’t nobody talking what I want to hear. It’s all about the kids to me. P. Diddy is representing more than anybody to me. [laughs] AllHipHop.com: And while we’re on current events, what’s your take on the whole Michael Jackson scenario? Bleek: I don’t know, man? It’s crazy to be a 40-year-old man and you like kids and you don’t have a lady in your bed first. So I don’t even want to think about that. Nah, I don’t know? He’s buggin’. AllHipHop.com: Do you think the media is making him appear guilty before the case? Bleek: Yeah they are pumping it up, because Michael Jackson got a history of touching little fannies on the boys. But you know, innocent until proven guilty. But, the media reverses it sometimes. AllHipHop.com: So if you were on tour in California, would you let Michael Jackson watch your kid? Bleek: Come on family. Michael Jackson will never see little Easy. I would never want him to see Michael Jackson, because that’s not the real Michael Jackson. I want him to see the black, jeri-curled hair Michael Jackson. That’s the dude he needs to see. That dude, that’s an alien—straight up. AllHipHop.com: Since Jay may buy the Nets, are you a Knicks fan or a Nets fan? Bleek: I’m a Knicks fan—early. To the death. AllHipHop.com: So if Jay brought the Nets to Brooklyn, you wouldn’t change? […]

AllHipHop: Ya’ll have a strong force around ya’ll, can ya’ll enjoy life in that state? Lloyd Banks: It’s crazy because my success came kind of faster than an average artist. I can’t go no where in New York right now. Like when 50 walks through the mall they won’t care if he’s with his baby mother, grandmother, whoever they are still going to run up on him. They not thinking about if they’re disrespecting him all they see is 50 Cent. I’m to the point where I can go certain places but even now it kind of grew, like I don’t have a record out, I don’t have an album out, so therefore what I was killing the streets with were the mixtapes and I was still getting that type of popularity off the mixtapes. So I’m feeling like, sometimes you over grow other peoples expectations before your own because I’m feeling like I’m not a star until I sell records, they’re feeling like you’re a star already so while you still feel like you can go to Jamaica Avenue or you can go to the mall, you already grew out through the expectations. It’s kind of like a hard new process, you have to know when to be certain places and when not to be certain there. AllHipHop: Were you there when 50 was in Philly for this Iverson stuff? Lloyd Banks: Yeah it was hard, they had locked the whole street down. In Philly the Reebok store wasn’t the biggest store. So it was crammed up there, 50 he jumped on cars and everything. AllHipHop: Is it true you are originally from Baltimore? Lloyd Banks: I was born in Baltimore. I was born on the run, I grew up in Queens. The only reason why I was born in Baltimore was because my pops was on the run at the time. He took my moms with him to Baltimore, I stayed there for about a year or two then came back to Queens. AllHipHop: Ya’ll shut down the mixtape game and the problem now is that everybody is trying to do the same thing that ya’ll did and everyone can’t do that. I’m kind of tired of seeing that every artist has to have a full fledged mixtape Lloyd Banks: Especially artists who already have an album out. I’m doing that now for a reference for what is going to come on my album every now and then. I’ll give them a hook. When my album comes out there will be no more Lloyd Banks: mixtapes, I’ll still be hitting mixtapes, I’m not going to put out just me because if you are hustling back, you can’t be a platinum artist and then go and put out a mixtape. You have to hit individually, give a few freestyles to this DJ, give a few freestyles to that DJ because they own the market. I better get that award this year too or we fighting. AllHipHop: What award? Lloyd Banks: Best New Artist on a Mixtape. AllHipHop: Oh for the Mixtape Awards, are ya’ll going to be there? Lloyd Banks: Oh I’m going to be there if I win, I might be there if I lose too, but I’m not feeling that one. I mean who else. I gotta get that. It’s funny because I stretch that point because I take more pride in that s### right now than any other award just because that’s what built me. There’s a lot of people who know me only from mixtapes. That’s more important to me than any Grammy or anything at this point. Until I start selling albums, then I’ll want a Grammy. For now I want the Mixtape Award. AllHipHop: Do you get sick of artists sweating you? Lloyd Banks: It’s cool as long as you know what relationships are what, at the end of the day it’s all good. I got two records with Joe, a record with Eve, a record with Missy, Mya, with Alicia Keys, I got a record with the kid Novel, got the Rah Digga record. It’s so many features that I have, I got two Brandy records one that’s going to be on the Barbershop 2 Soundrack that’s with me, Fabolous, and Brandy it got to be a freestyle that turned into a record, and I got another record for her album that’s coming out. So my features go on and on. AllHipHop: You could eat off that alone really Lloyd Banks: Yeah that alone, not to mention I’m Ghost writing too. Oh for who, (catches his-self) I guess you can’t Lloyd Banks: Ah, a good Ghost writer never tells. I’m just saying I’m a Hustler baby I’m not going to tell you. AllHipHop: What’s it like working with Eminem? Lloyd Banks: Yeah he’s the man, we click tight because he’s a lyricist. We click real tight. I respect his opinion to the up most, he really listens. That kind of shocked me because he was doing my verses and I was like damn, this is Eminem this dude done sold a lot of records. From the first mixtape he knows the verses from them. He’s a work-a-holic. Like we be staying in the studio forever. AllHipHop: What’s the future for you, where are you trying to end up? Lloyd Banks: With me I’m real business minded man. I don’t want to rap forever. 50 sold more albums than n##### do in their whole career. Like LL Cool J been in the game for what ten years, but this is his tenth album. Either or, it just takes that many records to sell that many records. If I can have the success that I think I’m going to have, I don’t want to rap forever. I want to learn the boards, I want to learn how to produce, I want to have my own artists, I don’t want to rap forever. I’m not going to be 30 years rapping. That’s not going to […]

Juvenile getting back with Cash Money is like N.W.A. reunion that everybody longed for. Juve’s return marks the return of the label’s greatest selling rapper and a mending of past beefs – sort of. While his foray alone didn’t get exactly as he planned, the Magnolia representer is taking it back to ’98 with his eyes fixed on the future. AllHipHop.com: What’s going on right now with ya’ll? J: You know what’s up, we trying to get this album out December the 23rd. Juve The Great man, you heard me! AllHipHop.com: Why you call it that? J: Because man I gave them what they wanted, a lot of people say "when we going to hear some songs like on 400 degrees? That was the Juve I know." I gave them that same thing, Juve The Great, himself. AllHipHop.com: Your still the best selling artist that Cash Money ever had. J: I know this man. AllHipHop.com: What made you guys patch things up, are ya’ll patched up or is it just straight business? J: It’s straight business man it’s not too much of a friendship, It’s just a fact. Come on man lets do this business. Let’s get this business right and lets do this and make some money. AllHipHop.com: Yeah, who made the connection, was it you or them? J: Me. I was making sure I was going to make the connection because of my lawyer. I would say my lawyer made the connection. AllHipHop.com: So, is it a better situation than you had before money wise?I know you had beef over the money. J: Yeah, I am not tripping. AllHipHop.com: So how are you trying to come out? The last album was almost another era ago, Rap has changed. J: I’m a trendsetter myself and I always felt like that. I felt that I was a rapper that could change the whole era and the way people do things so I just did me man. I tried to branch out a little bit. Do different flows, different skills… different topics. AllHipHop.com: What other crew members are going to be on the album? J: I got Manny n the first single and that’s really just about it. Everything else is just Juve and UTP. AllHipHop.com: UTP, the group is still together? I guess some people thought it was a wrap. J: Well people thought it was a wrap because [Young] Buck made his move to G-Unit. The whole thing with Buck leaving at the time, is I wasn’t straight and we always had this thing if you had an opportunity come to you, you take it. You always come back and look out for the captain. AllHipHop.com: So there’s no beef between you and Young Buck then? J: Nah, there isn’t no beef between Buck and me. AllHipHop.com: So your happy for him and he’s had a lot of success… J: Yeah! No matter what Buck does it makes me look good because I spent a lot of time with him. AllHipHop.com: So you won’t be on the album though? J: Nah, unfortunately when I was doing my album I was captivated to myself and he was traveling with G-Unit. AllHipHop.com: So do you have a label situation that you’re trying to setup? J: Yeah, right on the nose. AllHipHop.com: Any detail about that? J: I don’t want to put to many details out there but we been back and fourth with Sony and we’re to the money point. And if that don’t work I got a liitle change. AllHipHop.com: So how are the people responding to you coming back? A lot of people were pretty happy to see you back to where you started more or less because they want to catch that old feeling back from the early days. J: I knew my fans were happy, because my fans really want to hear me and a lot of people who liked Cash Money back then. So with me doing that, I know it was a good move for Skip and Wacko too because we on the Universal system which is the best system in the music industry. I want to take full advantage of that. AllHipHop.com: I remember your first video, it was one of the craziest videos I ever saw. It was just raw, I was like "who is this dude he’s so ghetto?" How different is that Juvenile to this Juvenile? J: That’s where I’m at to be honest with you. I’m on some other s###. I done jumped the fence like 20 times on this album. AllHipHop.com: You recently had an issue with the law J: I don’t even want to get into that because that’s nothing major and that situation been handled and taken care of. Somebody want to be on frontline, they want to promote s### and I ain’t trying to give them that. AllHipHop.com: What are your views on the Internet, I heard you had a situation with a bootlegger. J: I’m going to be honest with you; it was a friend of mine that stole something from me. You aren’t going to kill them, but you going to whoop em. That was more personal if anything. AllHipHop.com: Are you open to more or less stay out of trouble? J: I’m going to stay out of trouble, Juve don’t get convicted for nothing. All the promotion they put on TV, I jumped a bootlegger and stuff like that, you got to understand that don’t hurt me. Not to be the most ignorant person in the world, but some of my fans want to know if you’ll bust a m########### in the head. AllHipHop.com: Is it hard to maintain that rep? J: I’m not trying to maintain anything; I’m a people person. AllHipHop.com: So you and little Wayne have ya’ll managed to patch anything up? His last album was 500 degrees. J: We haven’t never sat down and talked or anything like that. We still in the same building but rushing him would […]

Luther Campbell has seen more in his 20 year career than perhaps any single person in the rap game. He has seen the top of the game after coming from the bottom, straight outta Miami’s Liberty City. Beef? Luke almost invented the concept. The rapper took on the U.S. Government, a President, Senators, not to mention the rappers he has taken on. Now with some years behind him, Luke is coaching a kid’s football team and raising money for programs dedicated to improving the lives of kids. With a tell all book and 20th Anniversary album on the way, don’t think Luke has lost his step. Miami’s original bad boy is back. AllHipHop.com: I got this report on you coaching a high school little league football team Luther Campbell: Basically I’ve ran a program since 14 years ago in Liberty City. Really what happened was people just found out that I was coaching the team that my son plays on in Miami Lakes. For the last 3 years they been trying to get me to coach. I’m like a founder of my program, so I was kind of caught up between how would it look if. I’m the founder of my program which really, we go year round baseball, football, basketball and track. I was kind of caught in between okay, should I do it or should I not do it. I know so much about football. One of the coaches got a team and they asked me to coach, so basically I’m out there coaching anyway. I just went on ahead and got certified and started coaching. The kids are 10 and 11. A 90 pound football team. AllHipHop.com: Do they know about your legacy in the rap game? LC: Yeah a lot of the kids know and their parents know. A lot of their parents grew up to the music and after all, this year is my 20th anniversary. I’m pretty sure I might of had something to do with them coming in to the world. They know the music. I did a song for the Dolphins called "Run Ricky Run." What we doing down here is I’m taking the song and r- doing it where we will sell the song at the stadium and all the proceeds will got to the programs like the one my son is in. Those programs run short of money every year. Hopefully my record that I do, people buy at the stadium locally and donate all the proceeds to these different charities to make sure they succeed. AllHipHop.com: What do you have planned for your 20th anniversary? LC: I’ma do a 20th Anniversary weekend. I got certain clubs real famous clubs down here. I started off DJing at the parties so each one of the things that I started and that people know about, we gonna re-live those things on the weekend. AllHipHop.com: I also heard you have some words for Snoop Dogg on your new album. LC: I was a bit offended by one of the little pranks they did on the show (Doggyfizzle Televizzle) and they said I was a washed up rapper. I got a problem with that and everybody in my camp had a problem with that. He was cool with us and we thought he had enough respect for me not to do something like that, being that he’s on all these "Girls Gone Wild" videos, which is a take off of my "Freak Show" videos and our peep shows. On this album it’s gonna be a serious emphasis on people like him saying slick things. The way I think, hip-hop needs to be brought back into perspective as for what it used to be. I wanna give my opinion about the state of hip-hop. I think a lot of that is missing. I’m saying a lot of things to alot of people and hopefully they hear it and they wont be offended by it cuz I aint doing nothing but telling the truth. From Snoop on down to Puffy to everybody else. I got something to say. A lot of people calling theirselves pimps. I’m adressing that. Saying you a pimp and your a player. Its a lot of things I’m addressing on this album. AllHipHop.com: What is your take on that because the pimp is being labeled the new "gangsta" of rap. LC: I got a problem with that. Its bananas that I sit there and I look at some of these magazines. Guys talking bout they pimps and Don Juan giving out cups to everybody. You can buy it online now and that makes you a pimp. All they need to do is define what a pimp is. A pimp is a person who prostitutes women. The women sell their body and they make their money and give it to the pimp and the pimp gives the girl what he wants to give the girl. All theses guys are claiming that they pimps and their not pimps. On one song they say they a pimp, the next song they say "oh Ima take you shopping, buy you clothes, buy you this. That makes you a trick and a pimp. I don’t get that, so I think it needs to be said because aint nobody else saying it. Did you ever get into the pimp game at all? LC: Never got in the pimp game. People thought I was a pimp because I always had girls at strip clubs and all my girls hustle. What I do is not pimping because I don’t take their money. I pay them to dance for me. What they do on the side while they are at a party, at a club, at a show and what they do on the side is their thing. They pimping theirselves and I aint mad at that. That’s their business. They don’t go and get with no rappers and then come to me and give me they money. No no no […]

Since 1992, DAS Efx has made it their mission in life to prove that they can compete with the best that Hip-Hop has to offer. Throughout their career, they have achieved many personal triumphs and suffered many setbacks, and have seen the best and the worst this industry has to offer. Coming off a five-year hiatus and returning on the independent circuit, Dray and Skoob now see how difficult the competition has become. On the cusps of a new deal with UTR Music Group and their new album, “How We Do,” DAS Efx wants to show critics once and for all that they are a legitimate staple in this game, and not the one-dimensional duo that has been their reputation for most of their career. Dray and Skoob are still “straight from the sewer,” and they are determined to inject their trademark griminess back into Hip-Hop. DAS Efx took time away from their schedules to re-introduce themselves to Allhiphop.com and the public at large to affirm their position in the game and how they plan to play the cards they have been dealt. Allhiphop.com: Let’s into the new album and other things that are going on. What made you decide to come back after a five year absence? Skoob: We still on the grind, man. We parted ways with our former label, Elektra, and parted ways with our management in order to jump on our feet and find the next deal. It took this amount of time. It’s not like we was out of the studio not recording and all that. Dealing with different independent labels is a crazy situation all in itself. We had a couple of experiences before we got to this one. Dray: I love making music. It didn’t matter that it was five years. It could have been four or seven, but we always knew we wanted to come back. It’s the love of the music, man. Allhiphop.com: What kind of catalog have you built up in the time you were away? Skoob: We got some things, man. Even if the beats may be a little outdated, the lyrics are there. We got 2-4 albums worth of material easy. In the meantime, we probably let out two white labels to let people know we were still breathing in the underground. Allhiphop.com: I noticed on the album you had little to no guest appearances. Did you purposely not go out and snatch up a bunch of guests? Dray: Well, it’s hard to get in touch with a lot of people that you would like to rock with. You got to go through their manager, you got to go through their label, you got to go through their mom, their pop, and plus on top of that, they want $10,000. When you are working with an independent, it’s kind of hard to get it poppin’ like that. Skoob: We tried to let the cats we got in our camp shine because we got a couple of artists that we’ve been working with over the years, trying to get them popping off, you know what I mean? We got all types of stuff on the album, from club music to truck music, man. It’s all there. We definitely wanted to let everybody we ain’t skipped a beat, man. Lyrical skills are still there. Allhiphop.com: What’s been your overall experience with the major labels in the years you’ve been in the industry? Dray: They got a bottom line, you know what I mean? They are just like any other company. They want you to come out and sell 300,000 or something like that. They don’t believe in trying to stick with the project or really working it. I’m not a disgruntled artist, and I know that you have to give them something to work with. My thing is if the first single doesn’t do what they anticipate it doing, yo, let’s jump on the second single. Let’s give it a fair run, you know? The majors are like a conveyor belt. The artists keep coming through and they give each artist a certain amount of time and attention, and then they move on regardless. Skoob: We’ve seen a lot, man. I can’t say we’ve seen it all because I’m still looking up to cats like Quincy Jones, man. When it’s good, it’s good, but when it’s really not that good, you got to work hard, man. It’s not like you can wake up, write a rap and it’s on the radio the next day selling a million records. It ain’t that type of party. There’s definitely a lot of politics involved, a lot of hard work and dedication. You really get to find out who you are as a person, as an artist, everything. It really challenges your emotions, and if you ain’t built for it, it can break you in half quick. Allhiphop.com: With the independent deal, do you have more options and more freedom to move around and do your thing? Dray: Yeah, but you are also taking shorts on that end as well. You’re not guaranteed all the publicity in the magazines; it’s more or less hand-to-hand combat. Allhiphop.com: Do you feel like in the overall scheme of things, the money situation can be better for you? Dray: It depends on what independent label you are with. That’s what I’m seeing. There are certain things that are a must in my book. I know the game as well as some other people, but just from looking, I know certain things are a must. You need certain advertising, and you need to have the public aware of the material. Allhiphop.com: Have you frequented the mixtape circuit at all over the last five years? Skoob: We haven’t been doing our job as far as the mixtape circuit. They got a couple of songs from us, but as far as going the freestyle route and rhyming over other n####’s beats, we ain’t even get on that yet. Allhiphop.com: What kind […]

In 1993, veteran journalist Gay Talese released the book “Fame and Obscurity,” a collection of articles he’d written about New York City. The book was critically acclaimed, and went on to become a bestseller. A year later, novice rapper Nas released the album illmatic, a collection of songs he’d written about New York City. The album was also critically acclaimed, but only recently did it become a bestseller—RIAA certified platinum. Now that Nas is an international rap star after releasing six solo albums, two star-studded group compilation albums, a remix album, and an album of unreleased underground gems, he’s taking a back seat so he can guide the artists on his ill will record label. The Bravehearts, however, have been looming in the shadow of Nas’ fame since the Queensbridge lyricist dropped his debut album back in ‘94. With the release of their upcoming album, Bravehearted, the duo of Jungle Jay and Wiz are looking to turn their time toiling around in obscurity into full-fledged fame. AllHipHop.com: Well, The first thing I wanted to ask y’all was about Horse. Jungle Jay: Who, son? Wiz: He was just a feature, man. Jungle: He said ‘who?’ Wiz: Dogs was a feature on the “Oochie Wally.” Jungle: Nah, he was just a dude from the Bridge, you know what I’m saying? Hanging around us and we put him on the record. He not really built to go through all this s###. Like, you gotta be really be built for the ups and downs of this business. He just wanted ups, you know what I’m saying? Then soon as Jay-Z started going at Nas, he disappeared. He wasn’t brave. AllHipHop.com: Your bio says it’s just y’all two in the group and Nas and Nashawn are auxiliaries. Why aren’t they a part of the group since they appear with y’all so much? Wiz: Well, Nas is a soloist and has been for years. And Nashawn is an upcoming soloist, and we just a group of playboys. AllHipHop.com: So how long have you two been rhyming together? Wiz: We been rhyming for years, but we’ve been official Bravehearts on contract for about 18 months. AllHipHop.com: I wanted to ask about the criticism of Nas not being as good of a businessman as other rappers like Eminem or Nelly, for example. Jungle: I can answer that easy. We from the ‘hood, for real. A lot of these people are college graduates rapping and talking like they from the ‘hood. They got business degrees, so you know people are going to give them a budget. Like, “Yeah you know what to do what a budget, you got a degree.” Nas is from the ‘hood for real, you know what I’m saying? He dropped out of high school. We all really ‘hood people, so it’s going to take us a second, and we younger then all them guys. All them guys are over 30. Ain’t none of us 30. Wiz: We all dropped out of school, man. That’s why. Jungle: Yeah, the leader of our click dropped out of school. The leaders of all these other dudes, Jay-Z and Cam’ron—all these dudes been to college. College was no hope for us. College? We thought we would all be dead before we could even fill out an application or take an SAT. That’s not even in the category for us. The options was dying and getting locked up so fast you could even think about no college. AllHipHop.com: Has being down with Nas like an enhanced education? Wiz: Pretty much, experience has been our best teacher. Jungle: Just being with Nas has been an experience. Going through all the ups and downs, hearing his problems with the labels and how he got through the problems. He had a long career. It’s not like he just came through rapping and then he was gone, and had to find somewhere else to find money. He was the only artist on Sony that was signed back then. I think him and Lauryn Hill, or something. AllHipHop.com: You mentioned Horse not wanting to be there for the downs. And beef has been so prevalent in hip-hop lately; can you speak on how if somebody just disses one person then the whole crew has to respond? Jungle: Because that person is feeding that whole crew. Like, so if Nas is feeding me for the past 10 years and Jay-Z tries to assassinate his whole character and his whole being and tries to get him out the game—he’s hurting me. That’s hurting me and my family. That’s hurting all the people that Nas helps. Nas will be like, “Man, it ain’t nothing.” I’ll be like, “Yes it is, son! You gotta dead that! Wiz: Yes it is! Yeah! Jungle: And Horse on the other hand is just scared. He look at it like they gon’ beat us up. Wiz: [Mocking Horse] “Oh they gon’ kill us. I’m the biggest one; I’m gon’ to get shot. I’m bigger. They can see me first.” Jungle: They talking about Jungle is too rough or too wild to hang with—he was scared to hang with me. AllHipHop.com: So do you think all dis tracks should be responded to? Jungle: Nah! Not all dis tracks should be responded to. Only certain ones: good hip-hop battles for the fans. Those are the only ones that should be responded. If it’s going to make hip-hop better and make the fans like it better. It gotta be big for hip-hop like when Nas responded to Jay-Z. Don’t do it to try and blow up. AllHipHop.com: Can you speak on the tracks Jim Jones has been throwing out? Jungle: He’s a dirt bag! He’s a street dude; you don’t answer people like that. You just see him in the street. Period. That dirty fake blood ni**a, man. I’ma destroy that ni**a. I will destroy him, yo. With one fatal fu**ing swing of the arm, yo. Believe me. AllHipHop.com: You know the “Bomb First” track that […]

With the rift between supposed “real” hip hop and “mainstream” hip hop seemingly growing vaster with each release, emcees D.G., Devious, Fast, G.O.D., and Zakee, the five member group of BK spitters that make up Pitch Black, wish not to be pigeon holed into either of hip hops seemingly opposed schools of thought. Pitch Black’s Premo produced lead single, “It’s All Real,” is a classic DJ Premier track that puts on full display the rhyming range of the group and has cats salivating for whatever other dopeness Pitch Black can deliver. Combine a dope single with a equally as dope video featuring an omnipresent hovering mic, and it’s a wrap, Pitch Black is here. The five emcees spoke with Allhiphop about the upcoming album, Pitch Black Law, hooking up with Premo, and they dispelled any thoughts that the sound of their lead single should have cats thinking that they are against mainstream records or that they are on some backpackism. In fact, Pitch Black says they just want to make good hip hop that has “integrity,” what a novel idea. Allhiphop.com: How did you guys find each other? G.O.D: We grew up together, we family, D.G., Fast, and G.O.D. are cousins, and we met Zakee through our first manager and is D is from around the way, so it goes way back. Allhiphop: It seems it’s hard for large hip hop groups to stay relevant and even get into the game, what made a five member group the route for you? G.O.D: I mean the chemistry is there, yaknowwhatImean, sometimes you only have a certain chemistry with certain individuals and when you know you’ve got a sound and a chemistry it’s something that you’re gona wanna keep going. We’ve got a sound that’s distinctive from other groups and anybody who hears that “It’s all Real” single can hear that from jump. So by having a different sound we bringing something to the game that not really in the game right now and that’s clearing an automatic slot for us. Allhiphop: The singles crazy, it’s bananas, how did ya’ll hook up with DJ Premier? Fast: Yo DJ Premier man, he’s the greatest man, he’s a real individual and ya know, real recognize real so when we got up it was just like a slam bang shin ding, ya know what I’m talkin’ bout. We met him through our first producer by the name of Rich Black, and the first Rich Black songs that were ever made were made in D&D studios and we use to work in studio A and Premo use to be in studio B right next door. So we would hear him cranking out some real classic s###, and we were like ‘damn man, we wanna work with Premo’ and ya know, he felt us, but he was busy at the time. So we waited it out, we waited for our turn and when he’s schedule was clear he got with us and we made “It’s all Real.” He felt that and he said he was gona give us another beat and then we made a song called “Got it Locked” with Foxy Brown and both of those songs are on the album. Allhiphop: Since about the early to mid 90’s there has been a growing rift in the hip hop fan base, between those who favor “real” hip hop and those who lean towards mainstream or radio friendly hip hop…what are your thoughts on that dynamic and where do you think Pitch Black fits in it? Zakee: Alright, as far as that is concerned, I think a little bit before that, hip hop kinda got divided cause before that era, everything was cool, Tribe Called Quest had their thing, NWA had their thing, EPMD had their thing, Eric B and Rakim had their thing, Kane had their thing, Slick Rick and Doug E Fresh Dana Dane had their thing and everybody was cool with what everybody was doing. Everybody had their own movement and what their we’re doing and everybody was cool, somewhere down the line that got divided and, so it was like alright, I can’t mess with them cause their making party music, I’m real hip hop. But since when is that real hip hop when one of the most important songs in hip hop history is a party song, Rappers’ Delight. Then somewhere down the line, where did we go wrong, that’s the whole problem. Pitch Black is neither of them, we Pitch Black, we represent everything that’s dark. Allhiphop: Talk about each other’s rhyming style and how it all blends together? Fast: I’m the flamboyant one of the group, I’m the poster boy, ya know, when I talk about the fast cars, fast life, yaknowwhatImtalkingbout, fast cash, I bring that element to the group. D.G: My style is basically just street, I gone keep mines street, I’m telling the ghetto tales, I’m doing the damn thing like that, I got a lot of passion and aggression with my style so you gona hear a lot of that. Devious: I’m the BK loud mouth, I’m the one who make all the noise, all the energy, a lyricist, and I deliver the laugh that go with the grit. I’ll think of the most craziest punchline you could think of that will be funny, but at the end of the day, when you think about it, it don’t be funny at all Zakee: My style is more like unpredictable, you just never know what I’m gona say I might say anything at any given time. G.O.D: I just try to show as many sides to life as I can man, I got quote what I say ‘G.O.D. is agony, exctasy, simplicity, complexity, mental fortitude and lyrical dexterity,’ yaknowwhatImsaying, I just try to be as lyrical as possible Let’s get into the album, what can we expect? Zakee: The album drops December 16th, we got a lot of production, a lot of big names. We got Teddy […]

Tha Eastsidaz have gotten a taste of what it feels like to be on the wrong side of the game. The group claims that the man who brought them to West Coast prominence, Snoop Dogg, duped the them of over $1 million each. With platinum and gold albums on their resume, Tha Eastsidaz say they have received about $240,000 and a platinum chain as payment for their success. Obviously, Snoop Dogg’s alleged reciprocity practices do not bode well with Tha Eastsidaz. The situation has reportedly gotten heated to the point of violence. Alongside a reputable accounting firm, they have decided to take their fight to the legal arena to get what is due them. AllHipHop.com talked to Tha Eastsidaz’s Tray Dee hours before an alleged and well-publicized shooting incident. The rapper was arrested in his home after a witness stated he was involved with the felony. Still, regardless of the case, the group just wants justice – by any means. Read the shocking interview. Allhiphop.com: We received a press release with a statement saying some disparaging things about Snoop Dogg. Is any of what I read true? Tray Deee: That’s as real as it gets, brother. They are a bunch of bustas, man. A bunch of opportunists who saw what was really going on and was hiding behind closed doors and really wasn’t participating in it. They got their stories together and created a character, man. They are like those “Peanuts” characters from Charlie Brown. They are a bunch of fabricated images without a foundation under them. One day, they kickin’ “187 on an undercover cop,” but deep down inside, he wanted to be a little pimp. I guess when the fame caught him, he got caught up in all the glitz and glamour. What he aspired to be when he looked out of his window, he wanted to be me. Allhiphop.com: The first Eastsidaz album went platinum, right? Tray Deee: The first one went platinum. The second one was headed to platinum, but they sabotaged it after we found out what the situation really was as far as how they did us on points and royalties. Allhiphop.com: Did they pay you and Goldie Loc the amount of money you were due from the first album? Tray Deee: We actually received $40,000. Allhiphop.com: You only got $40,000 from a platinum album? Who in the hell received the gist of that money? Tray Deee: Snoop and TVT. Allhiphop.com: What kind of numbers did the second album hit? Tray Deee: It went gold. It sold about 700,000 copies. Allhiphop.com: How was the money divvied up on that album? Tray Deee: We got a $200,000 advance and that was it. They raked in all the spoils and didn’t divide it. Snoop was all in it with that Steve Gottlieb dude. He tried to play all innocent and all that. He’s still smoking blunts and coaching kids, man. He’s the biggest sucker of them all. He ran. I tried to address the situation with him as a man. We’ve been going at it for the past two years. I’ve been trying to resolve with him diplomatically, not going to court, because I want him to say, “yeah man, I did wrong, but let me make it right.” He ain’t man enough to even do that. He would rather hire a bunch of security to protect me from getting to him. I’ve been checking him, man. He’s been living off of my “G” reputation since 1995. Allhiphop.com: On the outside, Snoop seems cool. But you know him – how is he outside of the cameras and paparazzi? Tray Deee: He’s a family man, wants to do right by his children. His wife runs the household. He just wants his little space to act like he’s pimpin’, but in actuality he’s paying. He’s paying Don (Magic) Juan and the hoes. He’s Don Juan’s main hoe! He don’t walk around Long Beach or nothing like that. He sends scouts out to look around to see who’s where so he knows which places to avoid. So when he shows up, everything’s cool. He has 20 bodyguards surrounding him with a bunch of blunt rollers and yes men. Allhiphop.com: I was reading a story about he gave you and Goldie Loc a chain as payment for the album. Is there any truth to that? Tray Deee: Yeah, a little platinum chain. He tried to say it cost $71,000, but then he turned around and said that’s what he paid for 10 of them. The first ones he gave us were cubic zirconias and silver. Then, he went to the jeweler and had them do up about 10 real pieces. I went and finished getting mine flooded out on my own expense. He’ll give you $5,000 to write a verse for him, or $5,000-$10,000 to do a song with him. He’ll turn around and make a million, or two or three. Allhiphop.com: Snoop has to be a multi-millionaire with all of that going on. Tray Deee: If you tell him you’re doing bad, he’ll give you $50 or something, then tell the bodyguards to show you the door. Allhiphop.com: What was the situation when you went to his house and tried to collect the money he owes you? Tray Deee: I went on peace to tell him to come clean with what he owes me. He ran out of his house and hopped in his truck. His bodyguard tried to tell him to come back. I told him to go ahead, add it up and chip mines off. I came back the next day to collect, and his people fired on me. Allhiphop.com: They shot at you? Tray Deee: Yeah, they unleashed some shots at me. Allhiphop.com: Well, the word on the street was you were shaking Snoop down. He was actually paying you. Tray Deee: No, we weren’t shaking him down. He was paying the homeboys to keep the rest of the homeboys off of him. He’s a b#### […]

How would your mother deal with it if you were shot and killed? Not many people can muster up the strength to do what Afeni Shakur, mother of murdered rapper Tupac is doing. Her son has left a major impression on the arts and due to much of her efforts. Her son has sold 30 million records, 24 million of them, since his death in 1996. And with the guidance of a mother’s love, Shakur is making sure her son’s legacy lives on and continues to grow and inspire the legions and legions of cult like followers he inspired. Shakur wants to show that Pac was more than a rapper. He inspired young people to think, reach and love each other. With a new movie, "Tupac: Resurrection" and an accompanying soundtrack, Afeni Shakur spoke candidly with AllHipHop about her son’s legacy. AllHipHop.com: How was it plowing through all of that info on your son? Afeni Shakur: I have yet to go through my sons things that were removed from his home seven years ago, so what I don’t do is go through things. But Lauren and the Amaru staff, the Amaru production team and the MTV production team, Avon, they all did a magnificent job. My family helped, other members of my family are able to do things like that, but I am not the person that goes through anything, mostly (giggles). AllHipHop.com: Was Death Row or Suge Knight involved with this project at all? AS: Not at all. AllHipHop.com: What is your relationship with Suge Knight at this point? AS: Suge Knight is the executive producer of music that my son made during the period of time that he was a Death Row artist. As such because my son died, every time we use or every time one of those pieces of music is used or needs to be used in any way then, I have to have a relationship with Death Row because that’s who my son made those arrangements with. I have a relationship with Death Row and Suge Knight based upon the fact that my son had a relationship with them. We can not erase history but you know, we also do Tupac’s things, we have our own staff. AllHipHop.com: Lets talk a little bit about the soundtrack, because I have seen the movie but I haven’t heard the soundtrack, with the exception of "Running." AS: You haven’t heard the soundtrack? O.K. you’ve heard the one song "Running" and your also going to love "One Day at a Tim." Why wouldn’t I love "One Day at a Time?" I’m a recovering addict, I live my life one day at a time. That’s the name of the next track. "One Day at a Time" which is with the Outlaws,. Eminem produced it and I think on this one also Dre mixed it. This is wonderful music. They are three new songs. The other one would be "Ghost." They are three new songs and they are magnificent. We are really, really, really proud of them and then they work well with the other Tupac music. It’s like a nice walk down the lane. I think I can’t remember, I’ll mess it up if I try to tell you now. I’m so bad at it you know, but you know what else is on it which I like a lot (giggles from having a hard time remembering the title of a song)? AllHipHop.com: “Dear Mama?” AS: No, Oh God, it’s the one with 50 Cent. I’m sorry, I hope it’s not a bad thing for me to say it. I know people like whatever, but really I like when he says ( giggles) I love it, when he says "Until Makeveli returns, all eyes on me" (giggles) I love it, I love it, I love it. So that’s the last song on the track. So it begins one way then the last thing is 50 Cent and Tupac I love it. It’s great. I really think that it’s amazing it has that much passion. It’s a wonderful album, people will be happy, people will be alright about it. AllHipHop.com: What made you release the Biggie/Tupac song or re-release it, was there any particular statement you were making? AS: I can tell the truth and change the devil and let me tell you something. That song was in the original mix to go in the movie, yes it was, but that’s not how we saw that song. We need to give thanks to Eminem because that’s his vision for that song, and I resisted it. When I first heard it I said, "What is this? And then he said "please" just humble very, very humble. "Please I have a vision for this. I know what you are trying to do just trust me." Once he did it, I cried. A lot of us did. I cried because I would have wanted to do that, yes I would have, but I did not have the talent. He made it such a big song. I mean like the energy of it, it’s a big song. It’s the best that I heard of Biggie since he’s been gone. He’s so clear, so good you know, I like that. I like that we are able to honor Ms. Wallace with that song. She’s a good lady you know, and I need for her. She always says very nice things about me and I want to thank her like that. So I’m very proud of that song. AllHipHop.com: What do want people to remember most about Tupac, and is it hard for you to do these interviews? AS: The reason it’s not hard is because I don’t do them everyday. I say to the people, like before I started today I said, "You must remember now I’m not an entertainer, I’m the mother of the murdered person who is the subject of this movie." And this is not hard for me because I don’t do […]

You may not know her name, but you’ve seen the programs she helped create. Lauren Lazin has helmed the production of dozens of documentaries and original programs for MTV, including “Cribs,” “True Life,” and “Diary.” With a cable network docu-drama background, the jump to directing a feature-length film fitted for the big screen proved to be more of a leap, especially considering her big-screen debut would focus on Hip-Hop’s greatest influence: Tupac Shakur. With the help of Afeni Shakur, Lazin undertook the daunting task of piloting the ship that could steer Tupac’s legacy into uncharted territory. As Pac’s influence reaches a peak more than seven years after his death, Lazin presents a larger than life view of the man, dispels the myriad myths, and opens viewers’ minds to what Pac meant and means to generations of Hip-Hop heads and non-heads alike in “Tupac: Resurrection.” AllHipHop: Where did the idea originate to create a feature-length film about Tupac’s life? Lauren Lazin: From both Afeni and myself. It was a dream of hers. I’ve long wanted to make a documentary film and Tupac is obviously the most important artist of the last 20 years. I truly believe he is an icon and that’s a term people throw around very loosely these days, but I think he merits it. Tupac lived his life larger than life and I knew that he was someone that could really fill the screen. AllHipHop: How was the making of a feature length documentary different for you? Lazin: I was definitely ready for the challenge. I wanted to do something that would be an-hour-and-a-half, no commercials, that would be seen on a big screen. We conceived of it theatrically. And I’m hoping people go see it in a theater because it’s a real theatrical experience. The music is incredible and the visuals really take you through his life. At the same time it is a very personal and intimate film. It is Tupac’s life told through his own words. AllHipHop: Describe the process of directing a film from footage you had no control over creating. Lazin: It was daunting. There was a lot we did shoot, visually, to bring out the story and to give it that theatrical feel, but the meat of the material were the interviews done during his life. The great thing we had going for us was Tupac. He never gave a bad interview. He always really respected the people he was talking to, whether it was an important sit-down interview with BET or MTV, whether it was a deposition, whether it was a junket for a movie – he was very thoughtful and insightful. I really believe he wanted his story told in this manner. He was very helpful to us, there were a lot of clues about how he wanted his story to be told. My job was to make it into a movie that was dramatic and had a strong linear narrative to make sure it felt like him. Before I did anything on this film I talked with people who did know him. His mother, his aunt, his cousins, his sister, his closest friends – just so I could get a sense of him as a person. He was a very complex person. So it was important to get a sense of him from the people close to him. AllHipHop: Would you say you were a fan of Tupac’s before you began this project? Lazin: I was definitely a fan. Like a lot of people, I loved the hits. I always found him to be very entertaining. I directed a documentary on Dr. Dre right before this and any footage that Tupac was in really made me see how he jumped off the screen. He is the person you look at first. You’re drawn to him. I really grew to understand how remarkable a person he was. His influence on Hip-Hop and this generation is undeniable. He was truly a poet. AllHipHop: Tupac was full of contradictions. How were you able to build a cohesive vision for the story given so many inconsistencies in his life and message? Lazin: Human beings are complex. This movie is not black and white and neither was Tupac. He expressed the complexity of human nature, both in how he lived his life and how he talked about his life. I am proud that the film doesn’t reduce him to simple motives and actions. You get a very well rounded picture of Tupac in this film. He was very aware of his own complexity. This film is not only true to his life, but also everyone’s life. AllHipHop: Where do you think Tupac turned the corner and began predicting his unavoidable early death? Lazin: I don’t know if there was one point where he turned a corner. There were definitely shifts and turns. Prison was a very dark time for him. But his interviews from prison were the most insightful. He wasn’t getting high and he was very clear spoken. Sometimes during his darkest periods he was the most full of light. AllHipHop: Do you believe Pac was always his own person or do you believe he was the person he thought would have the most influence? Lazin: He was always true to himself. And that’s one way he was an inspiration to his fans. He was very aware of his own change and growth. He talks frankly in the film about his own mistakes, the things he wishes he could have done differently. He was honest, he spoke from the heart and a lot of that is due to Afeni. AllHipHop: Is there a side to Tupac that is seen in the film that we perhaps haven’t seen before? Lazin: People who have seen the film, and certainly the non-fans who have seen the film, fall in love with him. What’s been gratifying for me is that hard-core Tupac fans have told me they’ve learned new things about him from watching the film. He’s […]

Along with DJ Clue, Fatman Scoop was an original DJ yelling on tracks. When you hear the mighty “Mixdrop!” you know who’s mixing. In his downtime from being a staple radio host at Hot 97, Scoop has grown internationally known through his productions and label work. Scoop recently hosted and co-produced the “Inside Hip Hop” debut DVD. The first disc features superb interviews with hip-hop power movers like Lyor Cohen, Dame Dash, Steve Rifkind, Fat Joe and others. Somewhere between his radio show, his DVDs, and even hosting AllHipHop’s own “True Grit Volume 2” mix, Scoop sits down to catch up on things, discuss the movie, and reflect on his career as one of the best known radio personalities of our time. AllHipHop.com: So besides hosting, what is your role behind the scenes on “Inside Hip Hop”? Fatman Scoop: Something like Associate Producer. My thing is like I don’t credit for something I really don’t know about. Like saying that being a director is so easy and hands on. What I did was let [the directors] take the lead, so to speak, and I watched them. I’m an Associate Director, Associate Producer. By the third go round with this project, I should be able to take the reigns myself. AllHipHop: Were there executives that you thought should of gone on the first volume, that didn’t? FMS: Sure, sure! I give you the list right now: Puffy, Steve Stout, who else? Jimmy Iovine, a couple people I didn’t get to on this trip because it was so tough reaching out to them. Now Puffy, I’ve known for many years. I had to contend with his schedule. He’s a work horse. He’s doin’ thirty different things at forty different times. So I just have to wait on him. Jimmy Iovine, I’ll probably be going to the West Coast sometime [soon]. Dre, the good doctor, [we’ll] get him on there, and a couple other people. But there are people missing. AllHipHop: And that’s what leaves the viewer looking for number two. FMS: Exactly. So I didn’t have to go for the entire gusto right away. [Because on this there’s] executives who have done things that have changed Hip-hop. Look at Steve Rifkind! That man created the street team. My grand-mother has a street team. Your uncle has a street team. Paul Rosenberg, that’s Eminem. What’s bigger than that? Mona Scott, Violator. Busta Bus, LL, anybody that’s had some power, has been on Violator. Craig Cowman, the man runs Atlantic. Jesus Christ, Atlantic Records. That’s Sean Paul, that’s Lil’ Kim, that’s household names. Baby from Cash Money, [Fat] Joe from Terror Squad. I got Joe because I wanted to show that unique situation where the artist is the CEO. Same thing with Baby [Williams], the artist is actually the executive, and I wanted to show that side of it too. AllHipHop: Was there any point in the making, and I realize you’re a Hip-hop veteran and authority, but were you at all intimidated or humbled? FMS: Not intimidated because I know all these people personally, so it could be looked at as maybe more of a situation where I’m learning something. Just talking to Damon Dash. Now I’ve known Damon Dash for many years. Damon Dash is actually from my neighborhood in Harlem. Just listening to him talk was really great for me. It’s not an intimidation factor, it’s more like, “Wow, I didn’t know this about you.” AllHipHop: Changing up, just wanted to thank you for hosting our last mixtape. FMS: AllHipHop, and just having a connection with them, that’s a connection that happened organically. It’s not a connection where we had to pay for it or something like that. I genuinely like your site. I genuinely like the email alerts I get everyday. So what I did was, I sat down and figured out a way that we could both get together. And that will continue in the future! Because I love you guys. So, just that, and basically the fact that I’m about to own part of AV8 [Records] and be an owner in that. That’s where I come from. I come from being a record executive. I worked for Tommy Boy for two years so I understand what it’s like to be an executive and run a company. AllHipHop: Looking at your career, can you cite a big break that was instrumental in who you’ve become today? FMS: I can give two. One of my biggest breaks was being involved with a gentleman by the name of Alby Regusso. A guy named Daryl Rockhart was my original mentor. He taught me how to do things and do promotion. But my big break was when I met Alby Regusso, who at the time was the Don of Tommy Boy Records. He put me on with Tom Silverman and Monica Lynch. That’s where I took off with the pictures on the back of The Source, and all that type of stuff. The next big break was when I got involved with Hot 97. Those are the two big breaks. The final is just recently, a milestone in my career, [was] scoring a number one single in the United Kingdom over people like Liberty X and Suger Babes and Brittney Spears and groups that had millions of dollars in promotion and I didn’t have [that]. To see that triumph over giant monsters like [them], it was just a major thing for me. AllHipHop: Just like GURU says, “It’s mostly the voice.” Your voice is so much what we know you by best. What can you say about that. FMS: The voice is everything man. But the voice is one part of it. God is another part of it. And for God to put you in a position where you can have your voice out there as a platform, that in itself is another thing you got to thank God for. And I do every morning. And I don’t care if anybody thinks that […]

Cincinnati sucks! I should know because I live there. An almost non-existent music scene, coupled with racist, homicidal cops, an inordinate amount of illegal business (see: “Traffic,” “In Too Deep”), and post-riot economic and racial distress all add up to one f*ckin’ cesspool of a city. But in this gloomy environment there are a few flickers of light that have managed to shine through, namely a handful of talented hip-hop artists who have consistently blessed the locals with some much needed quality entertainment. One such ray of light consists of Fat Jon (MC/Producer), Pase Rock (MC/DJ), Kyle David (MC), and Sonic (Producer), the foursome known to every true hip-hop head as Five Deez. The Deez made their full-length debut in the fall of 2001 with the release of Koolmotor, an homage to their wide range of musical influences. In addition to their work as a unit, the group has also released a string of successful solo (Fat Jon, Pase) and side projects (3582) in the past few years that have elevated the Deez standing in the independent rap game. Now with the recent release of their sophomore full-length, Kinkynasti, the ‘Nati quartet is seeking to expand beyond the parameters of their past work by encompassing a less multifarious, but no less dope sound. Hopefully with this album Five Deez will finally be able to shine a light on a city currently immersed in social ill and hip-hop obscurity. Allhiphop.com: Let’s give our readers who may not be too familiar with Five Deez some background on the group. First, where did the name Five Deez come from? Fat Jon: Five Deez came from Fifth Dimension; that was the original name of the group. But there’s already a group called Fifth Dimension, so we flipped it hip-hop style and made it Five Deez. Allhiphop: When did the group come together? Fat Jon: ’93, officially. We were all doing sh*t in other groups before, and hanging out and rhyming and everything, but we decided to officially become a crew in ’93. Allhiphop: What and when was the first official Five Deez release? Fat Jon: The first official Five Deez release was “The WVDZ Sessions” in 1998. Allhiphop: How would you describe the Five Deez sound to those unfamiliar with your music? Pase Rock: It’s classic hip-hop at its core, but a little bit on the progressive side as far as the beats and the lyrics are concerned. I would say we try to just keep it real soulful and groovy. You can definitely hear the groove in every song, like each song definitely has a groove to it, a little bounce to it, a nice swing in the music. Fat Jon: Progressive sh*t you can feel. Allhiphop: Are there any groups out there you would feel comfortable comparing your sound to? Fat Jon & Pase Rock: Nope. Allhiphop: No rappers wanna do that. Fat Jon & Pase Rock: (laughs) Allhiphop: Five Deez hail from my hometown, the “home of jazz fest and blown spots/bearcats and bengals, no culture, no hip-hop.” So sum up for our readers your impression of the Cincinnati hip-hop scene, past and/or present? Pase Rock: I think it’s a two-sided coin, like good and bad. It’s bad in the sense that a lot of the groups don’t get exposure, I think a majority of the scene has an inferiority complex, it’s like because of the geography they feel that they can’t really get stuff jumping off on a larger scale. They get satisfied with local props. I think that’s the bad side of the coin. The good side of the coin is it’s a loosely unified scene; everybody is down with each other. They’re pretty supportive for the most part. Allhiphop: So how do you think that changed? Back in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s we were a musical Mecca. Fat Jon: Not for hip-hop; there was never a foundation until recently for that. There were a few people actually doing it, hand-to-hand selling tapes and CD’s, but nobody really got down for each other until ’92, ’93, ’94. And that started bumbling into what’s there today. But I know for (hip-hop) in the mid-‘80’s, late ‘80’s, it was horrible man. Allhiphop: Five Deez came on the scene around the same time as Mood and Hi-Tek, but you guys never signed to a major-label like they did, how come? Pase Rock: We weren’t really ready at that time. We were just off on our own, focusing on making the music and not as much on the business side, we were just honing our skills in the studio. Fat Jon: Just developing a sound. Because we got together and we had a lot of fun and sh*t… Pase Rock: And that’s pretty much what our focus was – having fun, making music. It wasn’t, ‘yo, let’s make a career out of this,’ where as Mood and Hi-Tek were more interested in the commerce side of things. Fat Jon: They were ‘bout it before we were. And they introduced those (business) elements to us, they were like, ‘it’s like this fellas.’ Pase Rock: Them and a few other people were like, ‘yo, y’all got what it takes, y’all need to be doing this.’ Allhiphop: So did you guys ever actually shop to a major? Pase Rock: We did a couple of things, but not too hard, we weren’t pursuing it. Fat Jon: We always knew that was just a way to get stroked. We never knew anybody that had a good story to tell, it’s all f*cked up stories. Pase Rock: We were young and just happy-go-lucky, we didn’t have any responsibilities and priorities at the time, and so it wasn’t really an issue to get signed. Allhiphop: You guys have a huge following in the ‘Nati, but I noticed you guys are bigger in Tokyo than you are in Clifton (University Of Cincinnati campus). How did that happen? Pase Rock: They just latched on to it for whatever reason. I can’t really […]

54th Regiment: Glory Days B’en Original In hip-hop, acts come and go, especially these days. But just when you were almost convinced that neo-soul was only good music worth buying, along comes an group that reminds you of what loved about the rap game from day one. Repping New Jersey, True Essence recording artists 54th Regiment is not your every day hip-hop act. With their original production, and a wide range of content, they represent what this thing of ours has lost in its rapid growth…authentic hip-hop. AllHipHop.com: I want to take the opportunity to let you guys clear the air on the confusion between 54th platoon (FUBU) and 54th Regiment? Unseen: On that situation, you can’t change history. We were first. Our history is documented from reels to DAT’s, music played on Hot 97. You can’t take that away. Ransom: The music speaks for itself. When you listen to the album, you won’t confuse it. MP: If you go back to movie Glory with Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman, it was always 54th Regiment. You can’t change history. AllHipHop: Why did you choose to use the name of the historical Buffalo Soldiers, the 54th Regiment? Unseen: The original 54th Regiment changed history. As far as our group, we all came together from different backgrounds like the members original regiment and we are going to change the face of today’s music. MP: We are all coming through our share of struggles, with a common goal to make it as artist. We struggled and earned our spot. AllHipHop: Your debut LP “Civil War” was featured in The Source’s Independence Day. How did that come about? Unseen: we recorded, manufactured and distributed it ourselves. We pushed it on the streets. Within a month, they heard about the album and it was history after that. AllHipHop: How do you differ from other hip-hop acts? Ransom: Styles. We bring different styles and a different flavor to the game. MP: We are coming with our own angles. We can go from stories, the party thing to the streets, we got everything covered. Ransom: I feel we are the true representation of hip-hop because we feel what are doing. A lot of cats don’t feel what they are doing. AllHipHop: How do guys feel about hip-hop as a whole right now with sales declining and a lot of garbage in rotation. Unseen: I think people need to stick doing what they do best. MP: Hip-Hop labels are so stuck on sales that they’re not worrying about the music. How are albums going to sell when you’re not focusing on the music? Ransom: I think it’s good that sales are falling off because we are going to be the saviors. Let the sales keep diminishing and we’ll get it back to where it belongs. P-Jigg: It’s all about the Regiment now. We are going to get the people listening to hip-hop again AllHipHop: Do you consider yourself underground artists? Unseen: We just do music. A lot of people try to categories on music. P-Jigg: I think that a lot mainstream stuff they put out is underground. They just have a lot of money behind it. MP: We got soul to our music. It’s not some popcorn music, something that’s here today and gone tomorrow… next year you wonder why you bought that CD. Ransom: MP’s album is called Instant Classic. Twenty years from now you’ll be able to put it in rotation. AllHipHop: So you guys are solo artists as well? Ransom: All of us are working on solo projects. MP’s album Instant Classic will be the first solo release. Matty Mal: The joint has nothing but bangers on it. It will be the hottest album out. AllHipHop: How do you feel all the beefs in hip-hop now? Unseen: Some of it is overboard. We don’t have beef with anyone. We’ll work with anyone who wants to work with us for the right price. P-Jigg: If we have beef. We’ll handle it. We’re not going to be making songs about. Matty Mal: It’s a waste time. If you have a beef with cat like that, you need to get it done or let it go. It’s crazy right now. AllHipHop: What are plans for the future? MP: We plan to shoot an independent movie on our lives in 2004, throw a few parties, and drop some more projects. Unseen: We’re doing more than rap.

Warren G has seen his fair share of beef. Reared in the wild, West Coast, the G-Funk originator bore firsthand witness to the dramatic conflicts during the mid-nineties (Dr. Dre is is brother and Snoop is a rap partner). But, Warren G is considered one of the greatest products of the Left Coast for many reasons, none of which include static. One is his ability to see the positive in all situations. Warren reveals how he linked up with KRS-One on the new QDIII-produced “Beef” documentary and soundtrack. Furthermore, he talks about the highly anticipated, much-delayed 213 album with Nate Dogg and Snoop Dogg. Beef hasn’t paid for Mr. G, its always been his penchant for the funk and rhymes. Seeing the positives in any situations, past and present, has fortified Warren’s attitude and his ability to create new business opportunities for himself. The Regulator is a busy man who will put his mark down when it is his time to write his name in the history books. AllHipHop.com: Talk about the new music on the Beef soundtrack? Warren G: I went and got involved in the movie and QD3 hollered at me. My uncle called and he was like well Warren they doing a soundtrack. You want to get involved and I said yah I’m down to do that. He said I think it’d be a good idea to do a record with KRS ONE. And we got down and KRS ONE was with it. Then lets do it. He came in and he explained to me how he had this hip hop declaration of peace going on, and I told him that I was with that one hundred percent. He came and spit his verse out in New York and I spit my verse out here in LA and the Little AI spit on the Japanese movement. Its just a big peace movement all the way from here to here to Japan. Showing people that in hip hop people can definitely get along and we can have our beef on wax and not on the streets. And its not an East Coast West Coast thing, its different. AllHipHop: Can you talk about what it was like to spit alongside another legend in the game like KRS ONE? Warren G: Oh my goodness. I mean I’m a big fan and at first I wasn’t tripping, but then I thought about and it was like G####### I’m in here doing a song with KRS ONE. And that really ya know let me know that I am on my way to being a super duper legend. And I really respected him and what he did when he was coming up so it really felt great. AllHipHop: Now do any of the parts in the film have you in it or does it discuss you directly or indirectly? Warren G: The way it is and the way its broken down as far as New York and how it is out in LA style and it don’t really take one individual and say whoopty whoop this that and this that. They had me when I was first starting out and when I was producing when I was with Tupac. Its mainly clips and different people narrating, like KRS ONE. A lot of different cats from out here narrating and doing their thing on it. AllHipHop: Now in Beef what do you think the goal of this type of documentary is, to education and explain different conflicts in hip hop or what? Warren G: Just to let people see and tell people how different individuals were really having their battles. It really lets you see how the Beef is. It shows you how back in the day instead of doing the fighting and shooting it shows you how these guys used to battle. And you look at that and say, Damn that’s how we should be doing it instead of violence. We gotta keep it like MC Shan and KRS ONE used to have it. And like how NWA and Ice Cube used to have it, they didn’t go shooting nobody, they handled it on record. Its showing you how bad things were at different points. Its basic goal is showing you that we ain’t gotta shoot each other we can handle things on wax. AllHipHop: Theres been a lot of buzz lately about you coming back together with Nate Dogg and Snoop Dogg and coming with a 213 project? Talk about that and your focus for this project. Warren G: Ya know we been doing work together, we just getting the business and everything straight. You can expect the 213 record coming soon. It feels real good being back with my two guys, I love them dudes. It makes me feel so good to work together. Us together is like the feature man, it’s the feature. We not gonna get a gang of artists together to do what we doing, were the feature right there, we don’t need others really. All we doing is getting with different producers like Dr. Dre, Battlecat, myself, Hi Tek, DJ Quik, its gonna be real nice. Just producers we like and love and its gonna be nice. And I got my solo coming because its time for that too. Its been a long time and we need something different out here to listen to and I’mma break it down how I do it and did it back in the day. I’m right there with these young dudes too is what I’m gonna show them. AllHipHop: Is the 2003 version of 213 going to sound similar to the group from back in the early 1990’s or explain your new sound? Warren G: Its incredibly. This piece. I can’t even explain it, its just us man. Its got a little bit of that old feel in it, its just us and how we work together, its really magic. I can’t even explain. All of us been together in Pop […]

After being heard by 9 million fans of 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks needs little introduction. AllHipHop’s Jigsaw talked to 50’s chief lyrical machine gun. The conversation went as follows: AllHipHop: When you hooked up with 50 Cent did you know that it was going to be this big – like this? Lloyd Banks: I did. Even from the g##-go. He told me his whole approach of what he was going to do. He had a list of DJs, of like 60-70 DJs and their contacts. He told me he was gonna call all of them. He told me what his plan was. The next day, he was on the phone talking to all of them – Kay Slay, Whoo Kid, Cut Master C. Before you knew it, he told me, we was going to be on every mixtape. It’s kinda hard to be shocked or surprised when the n#### is telling you everything that is going to happen step by step. He’s telling, “Yo, you are going to get a buzz [if] you keep performing like this. They are going to start seeing that you are hot.” Then everything started happening. I think I will be more shocked when my solo stuff starts happening. AllHipHop: Why do you say that? Lloyd Banks: That’s when I hold the ball. It’s all up to me. Even the Beg For Mercy album, that’s going to be considered 50 Cent’s second album. As far as 50, he ain’t been wrong yet. AllHipHop: How hard to you think its going to be for you to establish an identity away from 50 and G-Unit? Lloyd Banks: Just as hard as it is to shoot a gun. We work so much, we work so hard…they ask me about the pressure. You only feel pressure when you don’t have enough material. That’s why a joint like “Magic Stick” can go on Kim’s album. It was for his album. At this point I got 26-27 records – I’m deep into my solo album. My album got to be turned in by February. By then, I’m going to have about 40 records. AllHipHop: You have a reputation of being a better mc than 50. Even 50 has admitted that. Is that a good thing? I mean it is a good thing but sometimes it can be flipped. Lloyd Banks: I mean as far as that, 50 and me got a different kind of relationship, 50 is like my big brother. He didn’t have to put me in the situation that I’m in; He could have easily gone on in the game as 50 Cent. And Lloyd Banks Would have ended up with God knows who or went to jail or even worse. So being in my position you don’t get big heads. I hear that a lot but that’s just because in hip-hop you got different parts, you got the backpack rappers, there’s different parts to hip-hop. I’m considered a lyricist but at the same time when you say Lloyd Banks is hot your saying 50 is hot because I’m signed to 50 Cent. What people don’t know is that he goes on cloud nine when he hear that sh*t, remember when Jay-z was saying “This a dude at home with the cereal box, trying to take my spot?” He feels good cause he’s like, “I’m that n####”. So that’s why I’m coming out so fast my album is coming out March 9th. AllHipHop: What’s the title? Lloyd Banks: Aw man, I can give that up, but whatever it is it’s going to be surrounded by money. I can’t use “money in the bank” because I used that for my mix tapes already. AllHipHop: There was a little rumor that you and 50 had beef and you might bounce from the group. Any truth to that? Lloyd Banks: It’s crazy when I made my decision to take the rap thing seriously, if it wasn’t for 50 I probably wouldn’t have joined with anybody else if I got in the rap game it would have been on my own. 50 been shot up, I was shot. When you get shot certain things change you start saying “who’s really your friends?” Or who’s around because you’re a good person to be around? So them people might not stay around that long. They might stay around long enough to shake hands but… We started seeing a lot of sh*t going on and we had a lot of similarities so when I made that decision to get with 50 in the game it was more like you know what “sh*t happens in this game”. I’m going to be in the game with somebody I’m going to take a bullet for and vice versa. That’s why it amuses me when you do this rap [battle] thing and I’m like that’s cool and all that but…50 is too big right now to jeopardize anything. Me I’m like I still got to solidify my spot but I’m still at the point where I will jump out the window. 50 got my situation secure, he got my family straight. 50 got my family straight, and I’m not saying that I want to go but I wouldn’t have a problem jeopardizing that right now. My whole thing for doing this was to make my family straight, because I could have been back in the street and been locked up for somebody that’s not going to become anything. AllHipHop: What were the conditions around you getting shot? Lloyd Banks: My situation was kind of different [than 50’s]; I wasn’t really a night person like party’s and all that, when I went to parties I was one of the people you had to watch out for. My mentality is still that way. Like standing outside of a club in Queens, you either wanted to get arrested, waiting for a b**ch, or waiting to get shot or you waiting to shoot somebody. That’s the only options you have standing outside a club, […]

Three years ago, the future of women in hip-hop seemed real promising. Mixtape addicts everywhere were being blessed with hot freestyles from a bevy of femcees who, for the first time in years, were really giving the fellas a run for their money. Tomboys everywhere celebrated the arrival of real emcees like Lady Luck, Jane Blaze and Vita, who were determined not to sacrifice their talent to the industry’s concepts of what a female emcee should be. But somewhere between the beef between Kim and Foxy, the Baddest B####, Missy losing weight and Eve becoming a fashion plate and pop icon, all those promising artists got lost. One artist took that time of confusion in Hip-Hop to study the game and pull ahead of the pack. Remy Martin was the personal pupil of one of the late greats – Big Pun. She debuted on the scene with her very own song, not a guest spot, on Pun’s second album, Yeeeah Babu And, in the event you missed it, she reminded non-believers of her ability by appearing on a track with some of the rowdiest dudes out of Brooklyn, MOP’s “Ante Up [remix].” But despite having paid her dues and shown her worth, Remy Martin is still fighting for the industry to recognize who she really is. And she’s doing all this despite a constant rumor mill that just can’t seem to leave her alone. Over the summer, this rumor mill became extra active. Just weeks after a mixtape DJ erroneously put the word out that Remy Martin was dissing her Terror Squad leader on tape, a robbery attempt in the Bronx had everyone believing the myth that Fat Joe had Remy’s face slashed. Recently, Remy sat down with AllHipHop.com, granting us the first interview since the incident, to set things straight. ALLHIPHOP.com: So you had an incident not too long ago? You wanna talk about that? REMY: We could talk about that, I don’t care. ALLHIPHOP: Aight, so what happened? REMY: I don’t know, I guess n##### was trying to rob me or whatever, and in the process, I got cut in my face. Like, I didn’t lose any of my jewelry, no money or nothing. But I did get a little cut on my face. I went fu**in’ crazy [laughs]… ALLHIPHOP: But it was guys that like… REMY: Yeah… ALLHIPHOP: It was on some straight roberry sh*t? REMY: Yeah… ALLHIPHOP: Where did it happen? REMY: In the Bronx. ALLHIPHOP: Like in the hood or…? REMY: In the hood. That’s where I be all day. Like, I have a serious problem with hangin’ in the hood all day. ALLHIPHOP: So what part of the Bronx is your hood? REMY: Castle Hill. ALLHIPHOP: You was born and raised there? REMY: Yeah, I lived in Queens for a while, in Astoria, Queens. But most of my life I lived in the Bronx in Castle Hill. I lived all over the Bronx, but most of the time, I was in Castle Hill. But since I got cut in my face in Castle Hill: f**k Castle Hill! [Laughs]. Nah, but I got a little animosity towards the hood right now. Nah, but it’s nothing, it’s minor. Everybody talking like ‘yo, she got a buck fifty.’ N##### say my sh*t is crazy. You can’t even really see it and… I just felt violated more than anything. ALLHIPHOP: People started talking about that in the rumor mill. REMY: What did you hear? ALLHIPHOP: I heard it was Terror Squad beef and you was trying to leave Terror Squad. REMY: Oh, word?! ALLHIPHOP: ‘Cause over the summer, it was something in a magazine about you and Cuban Link did a record dissing Fat Joe. REMY: Me and Cuban, we did records. Of course we did records when he was still Squad and everything. But we never did no record together dissing Fat Joe, that was a total lie. And it’s not even like really I’m leaving the Terror Squad, it’s more like business wise, I have to go other places. Those is my n##### and we cool peoples and all, but I never was signed to Terror Squad. Everybody thinks that, but I was always signed to Loud Records. When Loud Records went under, that’s when all my album push back and all that other s### started happening. But I never was signed to Terror Squad, so it has nothing to do with me “leaving” Terror Squad. It’s not even like I’m leaving, those is still my n#####, I see them, whatever whatever. It’s just business-wise, I don’t got no deal right now and Joe can’t handle what we need for Remy right now. But I don’t think Joe would ever get me cut in my face or plot for me to get… Joe didn’t even plot for Cuban to get cut in his face. ALLHIPHOP: You know everybody in the hood swear they an authority on anybody that’s from anywhere even near the hood. People say that you are the nicest female out there rhyming – period. REMY: [Laughing] I feel the same way. ALLHIPHOP: Who do you feel is your top competition out there right now? Whether they on the freestyle circuit, whether they signed and out there? REMY: I think… I been listening to this guy… Joe Budden, some sh*t called “Gangsta” something. Like I really listened to it, Joe is hot. Cassidy spit some sh*t, Cassidy is aight, I like Cassidy. I never heard a whole album or a whole song, but like the freestyles and all that, Cassidy is crazy. Who else do I like? As far as new artists that’s up and coming, I can’t think of no girls. ALLHIPHOP: How long have you been rhyming? REMY: I been rhyming for like 11 years, since I was young like 9, 10, so I got a little depth in it. I ain’t gonna say I been dead nice since that long, but like trying, playing with music and putting verses together, about […]