DX: One thing that stands out about your projects is the unity. It seems like everyone on the west coast is on there…
BL: That’s how it’s supposed to be.

DX: How important was bringing everyone together in terms of establishing this new west?
BL: It’s already being done, but it’s important period just for the streets and for real people to get together worldwide. Bitch niggas are such a large majority of the world. Then you deal with the music business and bitch niggas are the majority there too. So it’s just about seeing the real and the real linking up, taking that stand and drawing that line in the sand. For me, I’m in such a blessed position, I wanted to spread those blessings to the people who inspire you to push your pen, rap and perform like you do.

It’s important that other like-minded people get together, share that vision and make it bigger. It’s so many armies and so many teams, that if we get together, we can converge on so many things and take it to a stellar level. Especially when the education is there and we’re being calculating about what we do and how we implement things. That’s what’s missing out here, but not anymore. It’s getting everywhere. I’m very content with what’s going on, not only here, but everywhere else.

DX: There’s this pro wrestling mentality, where everyone wants you guys to face off or something.
BL: People always ask me about Game, like he’s my arch nemesis. What the fuck? We’re good. I knew dude before I was signed, and when the Guerilla Black and Game shit was jumping off, I was mediating between that shit. When Game had the peace talks with 50, I was there in his hotel room like, “Yo, don’t block your blessings.” So, when dude did the corny shit he did with that, he was trying to lash out and get attention. All that did was make me famous. I was like, “Damn. I gotta send him a box of wine or some shit.”

I genuinely have love for dude. His brother is my brother; Big Fase 100 is my brother. His sister, B-Fly is my sister. Me and his mom talk all the time. We were at a Father’s Day thing together just this Sunday. It was Dre’s mom, his mom and my mom, so I’ve got love for him. Niggas blow that wrestling shit out of proportion. At the time he did that record I wanted to beat him up, but that ain’t shit. It’s all love.

All of us came up together. All of us know somebody that they know. I get tired of people asking me about Bishop versus Game. There is no versus. I got love for dude. He does his thing and I do my thing. There will be one day where you see us do a record together. It’s so sensitive with what went on with that situation as far as Aftermath, the shit between him and 50 Cent and him being moved to Geffen. People ask me that shit as if I just have pictures of Game on my wall with darts and a bulls-eye on them. It’s like I’m Hulk Hogan and he’s “Macho Man” Randy Savage and shit.

DX: Another misconception is that you’re a new artist. How much of a calculated build up was it to get to this point?
BL: You can calculate all you want, but at the end of the day, that shit took 29…going on 30 years of just living to get to this point. Then there’s the twists and turns of the road, ‘cause you don’t know what you’re supposed to do, going from being a teenager to where I am now. That shit was not overnight.

They think, “Yeah, he got in The Source in ‘Unsigned Hype,’ and then Dr. Dre saw it.” No motherfucker. I was in “Unsigned Hype” and I was still doing construction work, and I kept doing more construction work after a year and a million other issues went by. But, that was big for my spirit, the cats I was down with and all the people who were like, “Okay, who is this monkey ass, skinny nigga in this picture?” It put the energy in the world that I existed, and helped me to perpetuate this dream. So that was a blessing, but it was still so much groundwork. It’s still groundwork now. But, it all comes back to the Most High and how he makes things move.

DX: At any point did coming so close, only to have to go back to your nine-to-five make you want to quit?
BL: The nine-to-five was always there. The construction work was always there. The struggles through poverty were always there. But, when you just know that this is what you’re supposed to do—you don’t know how you’re gonna do it—but you know this is what you’re supposed to do, it just happens. You don’t want to give up. You just feel that next step, or that walk around the corner, or going to this club or show, or the next meeting could be the one. I was always in that mind state that it would happen. Even when it didn’t look like it would happen; in my eyes, it just hadn’t happened yet.

DX: Once it happened, you sparked off quite a bidding war, right?
BL: Well, I was a smart motherfucker. Once Dre said that shit on the radio, I took my ass to New York and went to every label out there. I didn’t know nothing about fucking New York, and I didn’t know anybody out there. I hopped out of the taxi and I ended up staying in Red Spyda’s vocal booth and sleeping in there, because of Beef and Red Spyda—blessings to them. I was out there trying to take meetings and shit, homeless. But, you’ve got to take those risks if you really want it. Continued on page 3 »