DX: Now going back to Eric B…man, this the hardest question I gotta ask…I guess you gotta let me know if I’m overstepping my bounds, but I’m just gonna ask, it’s become Hip Hop folklore, but did Eric B in any way influence your move to Arizona?
KGR: Nah, not really. I know there was a lot of rumors going around and all that shit, people talking that witness protection program shit, which it never was. Source magazine did an interview with me [at the time] out in Arizona, so it’s like how could I be in the witness protection program doing shit like that? As a matter of fact, me and Eric still talk to this day. Basically [the real reason I moved is] I used to be around a lot of dudes in those times that was serious dudes. I mean, you can see for yourself if you look at the back of the Paid In Full album with the real 50 Cent and a couple other dudes on there with names that a lot of other real dudes in New York know. So that was always my circle. And it wasn’t just those dudes, it was other dudes too. Those dudes was from one part of Brooklyn and I fucked with, dudes from other parts of Brooklyn, dudes from parts of Queens, I was a young dude that was around older dudes. This is why when G Rap came out I came out on a mature level talking about real shit because I was around real shit. That’s why a lot of people credit G Rap for being like one of the first gangsta rappers because that’s what I was around. That was my life. But a lot of my dudes around me started dying, started getting killed, and it was really too close for comfort. It was dudes that used to come to my house and pick up my kids. And so the whole New York thing just started to turn me off after awhile. I had to change up how I moved, not because nobody influenced it but because I seen how shit was around me and that made me different. I didn’t wanna be the person I had become during those times. To me, what I was doing this music shit for was to better shit. Like, a lot of dudes like to call themselves keeping it real, they stay in the hood, walking around with Benzes parked in the hood, fucking all kinda jewelry and shit on, but you still laying your head up under fucking wolves. And when shit happen niggas think niggas flipped on ‘em. Nah, that’s the nature of the wolf, nigga. So I wanted to break outta New York for those reasons, ‘cause I seen a different life [for myself].

DX: Well I appreciate the candor on that, clarifying everything. That whole story just got out of control.
KGR: Right. The story did get out of control, but niggas can’t show you no documents with my name on ‘em. It was all bullshit. Niggas said 50 Cent ratted on Ja Rule, and then came out with documentation. Tell a nigga to say that with G Rap.

DX: Let’s get back to the time-line of your career here, I wanna move on to the Juice Crew stage, you said Polo was the one that brought you to Marley, but was Marley immediately like, “You’re in”?
KGR: Polo and Marley was mad tight. I think they went to high school together. So it was just sorta automatic [that I was put down with the Juice Crew]. I just went right up in and started recording with no problem.

DX: I gotta ask, who’s playing you in this Juice Crew movie that’s coming out?
KGR: I spoke to the dude, [director] Antoine Fuqua, and he wants me to play my part for a few scenes. So I’m not sure who exactly is gonna be playing me for the whole duration of the movie, but I know he does want me to play myself for a few scenes. I’m not sure yet if they’re performance scenes or what it is. We ain’t get in depth yet about what exactly he wants me to do.

DX: How’s that feel that they’re gonna like put a movie in the theatres about them days?
KGR: I mean, it’s crazy. They need to do that though. Juice Crew was a legendary movement in Hip Hop. We was the jumpstart for so many other cliques and crews that came after, one being Wu-Tang.

DX: Yeah definitely, Hit Squad, a bunch of crews came after that.
KGR: Yeah, Hit Squad, all that stuff was like an offspring of the Juice Crew movement. It’s a lot of dudes that came out and popped off that was heavily influenced by members of the Juice Crew.

DX: Now I understand your fellow Juice Crew alum Big Daddy Kane is gonna be executive producing the movie, and I gotta ask if back in the day having two legendary lyricists in the same crew ever caused any conflict? Did yours and Kane’s relationship ever become unfriendly competition?
KGR: It was always like a silent competition with me and Kane. We was different but similar. We were similar in the sense of both of us being rappers with these new flows with crazy wordplay. But we was different in the fact that I was more underground and Kane was able to break through to the mainstream and still keep his underground appeal. Continued on page 4 »