Talk about the New Orleans hip-hop scene.
I was with Cash Money my whole life, my whole career. When I was there, I brought the streets with me. So when I left, I took the streets with me. It’s a small city. Everybody knows everybody. In my situation, people took sides. When I left, I started Chopper City. You either Chopper City or you Cash Money. You got a few people who Cash Money but you got a majority of the city that’s Chopper City. At one time it was all about Cash Money and No Limit as far as the world knew. But they had a whole lot of other labels doing they thing on the local level. Once all of us started branching off, Juve left and got UTP, I left and got Chopper City, you had Soulja Slim who had Cut Throat Committee. And then Juve and Slim both being out the Magnolia. People take sides. Me and Slim was running neck and neck. We was like brothers. At one time, Cash Money and No Limit wasn’t seeing eye to eye. Slim used to be with No Limit and I ran with Cash Money, but me and Slim was always tight. We went to school together. We grew up together. When he left No Limit, I left Cash Money, it was Chopper City/Cut Throat but we clashed together. We were eating off the same plate. We all in the same gang. So really Cash Money and No Limit don’t really exist if you come to New Orleans and really check. It ain’t about that no more.

What did you learn from your Cash Money experience?
That business is business and friendship is friendship. You can’t mix business with pleasure. This game is like 90% business and 10% talent. You can have all the talent in the world but if you don’t have your business right it’s a waste of time. If you don’t got your business right it don’t make no sense. I learned because when I was with Cash Money it was like one big family. All for one and one for all. We never went by black and white. We had words. We dealt with each other from a heart to heart basis. We weren’t even tripping off the money, but behind the scenes, it was like millions of dollars being made. The record company and the managers were all the same. Now that I left and I’m doing my own thing, I learned that’s a conflict of interest. Your manager is supposed to go to bat for you with the record company. When you got both of them working with the same titles, then your business is bound to get fucked up. What I learned is have your business right.

From what I know, it seems you’ve had to overcome some rough spots in your life.
I had a heroin addiction. I used to shoot heroin. I started getting loaded when I was 15-16. In July, it will be two years that I’ve been clean. I got a son. He looks up to me and he respects me to the highest. My daddy got killed when I was 12 years old so my mom was stuck raising two boys by herself. When you’re in the ghetto, in the hood, a single parent raising two boys it’s kind of hard on you. So the streets took me under, adopted me and I got caught up. The shit I’ve been through, the shit I’ve seen made me the man I am today. You got to go through stuff. Experience is the best teacher. I wouldn’t trade my past for nothing. I’m glad I went through it because it got me to where I’m at. I feel like I overcame with faith and positive people around me. I got to be here for some reason because I should be in penitentiary or dead or something. Continued on page 3 »