DX: Given your pending legal situation, do the positive aspects of being in that type of environment outweigh the negatives?
Rockness Monstah: The pros do outweigh the cons in that situation. Like I said, “I know I’m innocent, but ho, I’m innocent.” I trust that the DA is going to do his motherfuckin’ best to come up with what I want him to come up with. He’s gonna do his best to come up with that nothing that’s sitting there. Do your job and do it well. As long as he doesn’t have a bunch of malicious intent in his heart, then he should se what I want him to see. If that’s the case then I’ll be vindicated.

With that in mind, wasn’t nobody thinking about Rock from Heltah Skeltah a year ago…at least not separately from Boot Camp Clik. It’s starting to turn into one big publicity stunt that I involuntarily embarked on. Somebody just…well, you know the story and shit. A lot of motherfuckers were hollerin’ at me, and I got a whole lot of press. I probably got more press for Shell Shock than I was originally going to get.

DX: True. You guys get so much love from the fans, but that hasn’t necessarily translated into album sales. If you factor in that with the industry politics, was there ever a time when you considered hanging it up or getting a regular job?
Sean Price: Yeah, after Magnum Force. I was definitely like, “What the fuck am I doing, man? Let me get the fuck out of here.” I had some jobs, but I never really had a career job, you know? I had bum shit like working on trucks, messenger jobs or a bullshit construction job. Either that or I was selling drugs, and I didn’t really want to go back to that. The same effort I put into selling drugs, I said, “Let me give this Hip Hop shit one more try.” The same effort I put into selling crack, I put into working on Donkey Sean Jr. Monkey Bars and all that shit. Then it popped off.

DX: At one point, both of you were courted by other labels. Given the current climate of the industry, do you have a preference as far as staying independent or being on a major label?
Sean Price: Ah man, I’m Duck Down for life. If you see me on another label or in another situation you’ll start thinking, “Damn, I thought you were Duck Down for life.” Yeah, I’m there because Dru [Ha] is my manager and he wants the best situation for me. If he finds a better situation than what we have here, then of course he’s gonna lead me to that. But we’re still on Duck Down.

DX: There were talks between you guys and Roc-A-Fella, right Ruck?
Sean Price: There were talks, but there was no coming to the table or nothing. It didn’t happen, but it’s all good though. I was just with Jay-Z in Germany—me, Jay-Z, Memphis Bleek [click to read], Saigon [click to read] and Little Brother [click to read] did a big Splash! Festival out there.

DX: How about you Rock?
Rockness Monstah: My preference is money. And honestly it’s not just money, my preference is success. That comes in the form of money and personally fulfilling my own goals with this shit. That’s getting my raises, my ooh’s, my ahh’s and my square faces. All of that counts to me. I can get those on both. On an indie or a major, I can get money. I can get people to say, “That nigga gets busy.” If I put out Monsta Music tomorrow and it lands me and Duck Down a major deal with somebody, we’re gonna make that work. It doesn’t matter if it’s Koch, Universal or Interscope.

DX: One of the biggest things to change since you guys have done a group album has been the presence of the Internet. A lot of artists are against it, but I remember Rock being one of the first rappers with a page on BlackPlanet.com.
RM: Yeah, I mean the funny shit…[laughs] Black Planet was good to me too. The funny shit is that Duck Down was fuckin’ with the Internet before it was a phenomenon. I’m not just saying that to be tooting our own horn either. Before niggas was wrapping vans, we had our logo painted on the van. Back then you would only see tour buses and shit. The Duck Down van wasn’t even wrapped, the shit was just painted on there. As we were launching the label, we were sending out care packages to everybody with little remote controlled, model Duck Down vans inside. Everybody loved it, and before you knew it, niggas were wrapping vans. But shhh, don’t tell nobody I said that.

Big shouts out to Cavi. I’m not even sure if I’m saying the name right, but these niggas are charging hundreds of dollars for army fatigues. Act like that ain’t because of us? I told them on “Shell Shock,” on “Me 2 Nigga.” I said, “Who made Timb’s and camouflage a fad/now even fly bitches rockin’ dog tags.” I ain’t mad, but that was us. That’s not saying we were the first people wearing army fatigues and dog tags, because I must say Das EFX was on that shit too. But before us, the only niggas you might have seen wearing army fatigues on the streets were either really in the military or they were some stone cold, killer niggas. That was a special breed of killer niggas in the ‘hood that none of us had anything to do with. Now with this whole fad/phenomenon where you see even the bitches rockin’ camouflage spandex, we did that for y’all. Continued on page 4 »