DX: Mack 10 never said anything bad about Cash Money. But many critics looked at his only release with them, 2001’s Bang or Ball, as a flop, considering the publicity he received signing with them. Many know the story with Gillie or T.Q. too. How important do you think it is for Cash Money to successfully bring out an artist not from the south?
GM: I think it’s important to them. Talking to Wayne, he emails, calls me constantly, he helped me with the ["Certified"] video, writing the treatment. He’s making it his business to make sure people know I’m affiliated, and that I’m as successful as I can be. Lord knows Slim and Baby…I love these guys to death, and I barely know dudes, but they go so hard for me, like I’ve never had nobody do. Mack 10 sold 400,000-something records [with Bang or Ball], so you’re talking about a guy who’s been independent his whole career, and Cash Money is an independent label with major distribution; I look at it as a success. People have such high standards. Me, I’m just looking at a gold plaque. I’m not worried about too much other stuff. Don’t nobody hold you down like you do. So I don’t expect anything more out of Cash Money than what they supposed to do.

DX: In 2004, 2005, when you started buzzing, a lot of critics forecast a changing-of-the-guard in the west. To some extent, that’s happened, and to some extent, it hasn’t happened. Three years later, do you think the urgency for somebody like you – and the “new class” is higher?
GM: I think it’s inevitable. Music is going up. A lot of people from the [west] coast are a lot more lyrical, and we’re making good records, trying to bring back good stuff. I don’t think it’s a necessity, I just think it’s inevitable. There’s a difference, and I think that’s what people never understood. The future is comin’, no matter if you want it to or not. It’s inevitable, and that’s how it is with this rap shit. From Crooked I, to Bishop Lamont, to Jay Rock, to Roccett, it’s inevitable that people see these faces. This is what people grew up off of – the rapper guys. [Young] Jeezy, T.I., you look at them dudes, at the [Vh1] Hip Hop Honors, these dudes are rapping exactly like Snoop [Dogg]. Not only are they rapping his song, but they have the same cadence, swag – even his tone. These guys have been listening to [Snoop’s] records all their life, so of course they’re gonna hear a G. Malone or a Jay Rock or a Roccett and say, “Damn, these niggas sound like them niggas,” and see that we’re real gangsters. It’s inevitable that all you gotta do is be heard. Once you’re heard, it is what it is.

DX: A lot of writers have tried to fuel beef within that new class, based on labels or gang affiliations. One thing that interested me is, you appeared on Roc C’s album, who is an independent artist on Stones Throw Records. Not many would expect to hear a million-dollar rapper for the first time there.
GM: I be gettin’ $4,000 or $5,000 a verse. But when I talk a nigga in the street, a nigga ain’t got $5,000. I’m an eastside nigga, so I know how hard it is for niggas trying to do their thing. If a nigga comes to me and says, “G, I got $300, dog, that’s all I got. I’m working at UPS, blah, blah, blah.” If they’re putting out product, if they’re doing their thing on the street, then I’m doing it; I probably don’t even want the money, really. That’s just this new way of thinking. It ain’t like that old school shit, that old west. We’ve been separated so long, dog. As youths, me, Bishop, Crooked, we didn’t get that same help from the fame. We didn’t want that to happen to the niggas under us. We didn’t want the 18 and 20 year-old niggas to think, “Oh, I can’t talk to Crooked I or Glasses Malone.” We don’t want that. I’ve really pushed that line. I don’t do V.I.P.’s when I go to the club; I be right there on the floor with everybody chilling. Niggas can walk up to me, talk to me, try to get game from you, I’ll give it to ‘em. Roc C was just a nigga I knew who was on a Hip Hop tip at Stones Throw. He ran into me, fucked with Bishop, I’m an eastside nigga, so if a nigga’s serious, come fuck with me, I’ma do whatever I’ma do for you, it ain’t nothing. It’s worth it if you’re a real dude. It just makes sense.

DX: Snoop, Tha Dogg Pound, Jurassic 5 and The Pharcyde all shared venues like The Good Life back in the early ‘90s. Have there been steady performance opportunities for your class to rock it on a weekly basis?
GM: I was 18 with a lowrider. That was real popular at the time – being a young dude, havin’ lowrider groupies. I was in the Ghetto Life Car Club with a lowrider. When we go to Crenshaw, I don’t remember seeing Snoop and [Ice] Cube over there, compared to now, where when you pop on Broadway, you’ll see Glasses, Jay Rock, Crooked and them. At my show you’ve got Guerilla Black, Hot Dollar, all these niggas on the horizon. I don’t remember seeing that when I was younger. That wasn’t something that was done. Now we just pop up everywhere that we at. If a nigga doing something – if Crooked I got a show, me and my niggas come out and support. That’s how we get down now. A lot of people knock the south, but we learned a lot from them niggas, dog. And that’s what they brought to the game. Continued on page 3 »