Buckshot has definitely come a long way. Fifteen years ago he was “every emcees nightmare manifestin’” who wanted “to battle like every five minutes” [click here to read the full classic verses...]. But in 2008, Buckshot is more than just a rugged mic strangler, he’s a respected entrepreneur.

As co-CEO of Duck Down Records, in just the last couple of years Buckshot has proven that he can transform the label into more than just the home for his Boot Camp Clik, but a diverse array of artists, making The BDI Thug arguably the most powerful figure in today’s independent Hip Hop scene.
HipHopDX recently spoke with the budding business man about Duck Down’s next offering, his most recent collaboration with producer 9th Wonder entitled The Formula dropping April 29th [click here to listen to “Hold It Down”...]. We also discussed the onslaught of recent artist signings to Duck Down, which have helped to make his company “more of a Koch, the type of label that just puts records out,” as he explained to us.

And just so we didn’t bore everyone with business talk, we also spoke about Buckshot’s recent attempts to quit smoking weed, his slight disdain for Lil Wayne’s desire to cover a Black Moon classic, why Tupac was smart enough to not fight every fool who tested him, and for the first time on record Buckshot reveals his thoughts on his Boot Camp Click brethren Rock and his recent arrest for attempted murder.

HipHopDX: Let’s start off by discussing the next Duck Down release on the schedule, your sophomore collabo album with 9th Wonder, The Formula. So be straight with the HipHopDX readers, is this second go-round better or about equal to y’all’s first, Chemistry?
Buckshot: I would say that it’s another level. Better is a question of preference. It’s always better to me. Our goal is to get better. But to be practical, this album is another level because it’s basically adult contemporary Hip Hop at its beginning stages. When you listen to the Chemistry album [there’s] a lot of content on there. I’m talking about a lot of topics on there, but I’m also just going for broke, spittin’ fire in a lot of songs, just keeping the essence of what the art of rap is. So when you hear the new Formula album, everything on that album is basically [speaking on] topics, talking about everything. A lot of songs on there is more addressing [women]. I wouldn’t say [the songs are aimed at] females because of a sexual aspect of it, but I would say people are gonna feel that because they’re gonna hear a lot more hooks.

DX: 9th has called this a “grown up album,” and you just called it “adult contemporary Hip Hop,” so is Buckshot throwing in the towel on trying to reach the youth?
B: Let me ask you a question, does reach the youth mean to say, "Yo, fuck you, I bust my gun?" Does reaching the youth mean to be as lost as the youth? See, [the] teacher is 30-years-old and the student may be 12. The teacher has to teach the kid about what went on when he was coming up. He’s gonna teach the kid about [his] past in order for the kid to know about the kid’s present and future.

DX: Is this the final Buckshot and 9th Wonder album we’re gonna get, or do you guys have another tag team effort planned?
B: I’m not gonna say that it’s not, but I’m definitely not gonna say that it is. Our chemistry is so ill together. It’s natural. It feels good. It works for me and 9th. Me and 9th is really cool with each other. Whether we made a record tomorrow for the public or not, we are cool with each other.

DX: I don’t know if you guys need to release another album any time soon anyway, you’re gonna have enough out there in ’08 for fans to chew on. I understand you’re releasing three videos for this album [click here to watch video for “Go All Out”...]?
B: I’m trying to bring people into where the future of Hip Hop and the future of music and everything is going. So we got three videos, and that’s not even enough. That’s nothing. And I’m saying that because everything is going to the dot [com]. And being that it’s [going to] the dot, they wanna see [your video] and then they wanna see something else. It’s not like television where you can only see something when you’re given [it]. Like [with] television you can only watch a Buckshot video at five o’clock everyday because that’s when it [is] given to you. When you have a laptop you can go to DuckDown.com and watch [that video] all day. The only problem is you gonna get tired of watching that one video so you gonna wanna see more. And that’s fine with me because I do this.

DX: I understand one of the videos is gonna be like a 3D animated joint?
B: Yep, really it’s a bio 3D animated video. If you go to DuckDown.com our website opens up with the Duck Down man coming to life, and I took that to another level. Me and the Duck Down man is tag teaming in this video. People never got a chance to feel him or know him. But this is the year that people [are] gonna understand the Duck Down man, the artist. He’s a character, but he represents Duck Down Records. Continued on page 2 »