DX: Are you saying it’s basically not worth it to sign to a major labels these days?
SD: I’m not saying that at all, I’m saying you got to do what’s right for yourself and your business. As an artist, you've got to think like a business, because you are a brand. Most labels will take that brand and run with it as that’s how they make money, the major record labels. As an indie, you can maneuver, but you gotta put in more groundwork. If you want to be famous, go ahead and pursue that dream of signing to a major record label to be famous. If you want to be successful and grind knowing that you're busted your ass to get your music out to the masses, then you gotta make that decision and cross that bridge. A lot of people are famous and not making any money, a lot of people are not famous and making a shitload of money. You gotta decide what your target market is and go for it.

DX: Do you think labels came with those 360 deals, because they were desperate?
SD: They came with that, because they wasn’t making no money. I wouldn’t call it desperate. What kid you know gives all his money back? The 360 is set up to take advantage again as they was taking advantage of artists back in the day. What happened was the digital [era] came in, and they wasn’t able to handle that. Artists that were shopping independent digital deals for themselves were making money and the record labels weren’t making any money. These 360’s mean it’s all way around the board at all ends as they take a little bit of everything you make and give you a little bit of what you really are worth. Don’t listen to me, check for yourself, if that’s what you want to do to get you famous, go for it. The Nappy Roots, we know [that] a 360 deal at this point and time is not in our best interest, but all deals are negotiable.

DX: From all that you're telling me, it seems like your independent and loving it...
SD: I’m independent and loving it, but I have ties to a major because I’m smart. I’m not gonna sit here and say that major labels don’t take care of you. Indie’s won’t get you the exposure that exposure that a major label would, because they don’t have the budget. Indie’s have a much smaller budget, they can’t shoot that big video, or get your song placed with the power like a major.

DX: A lot of the music that Nappy Roots made a lot of people would put it into the category of “Good soulful southern Hip Hop." Would you say one of the problems with Atlantic was they tried to force ya’ll out ya’ll lane and say your sound wasn’t universal enough?
SD: No man, I think the image that was portrayed Atlantic was able to run with was because were we were from. We put out a sound that was original and that nobody else was doing at the time. We got compared to OutKast, Goodie Mob, Arrested Development, and that was great. Within that, we put out music that was fun, but at the same time, people that wasn’t where we were from really couldn’t relate to all what we saying. Those years we took off, we stepped back to see what was going on. We didn’t want to paint ourselves and be categorized as these “Country Boys down from college.” You knew were we from on the first album, on the second album we blessed y'all with some knowledge and some jewels. This album, The Humdinger, it will be all that and a whole lot more. Same beats, dope lyrics, dope concepts, and we gonna come back with a vision.

DX: That was evident in "Fast Cars" [click to listen]
SD: Yeah and you know what man to tell you the truth we was just having fun in the studio that day. We was working on our DJ Smallz mixtape [Cookout Music] [click to listen], we heard the beat that was dope and we just took it and ran with it. We know that if it’s dope for us, hopefully the fans will like it and appreciate it. We had no idea that song was going to catch on at all man. It was one of the highest rated songs on HipHopDX and that record had many positive comments about it. I thank everybody that listened and supported it, because without the fans, we wouldn’t be here today.

DX: Would you say that the Nappy Roots broke the stereotype that the south is not all about those dance epidemic songs?
SD: I wouldn’t say we broke the stereotype, I think we showed it wasn’t always about this, that, and the other. I think we always been a group that showed to do you, be true to who you are, and you don’t have to be someone else to fit in. If you don’t have a $100,000 chain, it’s okay; I don’t either. You don’t have to have a big mansion, because a lot of these things when it’s all said and done is not worth it.