So you signed them to Luke Records?

Yeah.

You also discovered Pitbull and Trick Daddy. Were they signed to Luke Records too?

They were signed to me. I discovered them. H-Town, Pitbull, JT Money, Poison Clan, 2 Live Crew, Lorenzo and quite a few other artists.

I’ve read that you don’t think you get the overall credit you deserve for all of your accomplishments. Do you get a lot of local Miami love though?

People in the South, definitely. It’s just on a national basis. I’m like the Rodney Dangerfield of hip-hop. Some of the things I did, some of the precedents I set, standards that I set, I don’t think I get enough credit. That’s the business that we in. Somebody got to be the black sheep and I guess I am.

You’ve achieved so many firsts. How have you done that?

You got to be creative. When you don’t have a big machine, or big budget, or billion dollar operation like a Sony or Universal behind you, you have to be creative. I’ve always been creative at what I do. When I didn’t have no money to hire promotion, I created street teams. When they told me kids are getting adult records that you’re putting out, when I was the first to put those out, then I created the warning stickers that’s on the records right now.

How are you such a keen businessman?

I get that from my parents and then I try to have common sense. I never claim to be no accountant or lawyer. I try to use sense and be a very honest person. Treat people how I would want them to treat me.

I also read that you are entering the adult entertainment industry.

Yes, there’s less traffic. It’s almost how when I started in rap, hip hop. Everyone was happy to be on major labels. As far as the business aspect it wasn’t as independent as it is right now. I look at the urban adult entertainment industry and there are a lack of creative stars. There is a lack of quality. There are some good quality movies, but there needs to be more. I think I can bring that over there, making some quality productions. Quality as well as classy. Classy magazines, movies, gentlemen’s clubs. You don’t have a chain of gentlemen’s clubs. A lot of things. It’s so open over there. It’s like when I convinced Shabba Ranks to stop doing dub plates and do albums, and I was getting ready to sign him up. I used to do him as an artist as well, him as well as a lot of other reggae artists at the club. At that time, reggae artists weren’t as popular all over the country and they just wanted to do dub plates. Same thing in the adult industry. I figure if I go in and do the same thing I did in the music business, it’d be alright. Continued on page 3 »