Now, the minute you come to my little boy like ‘Hey, little man, you want to run this across the street for me?’ Oh, fuck that! Then naw, I’m tellin’. “Yeah, n-gga. It was that n-gga right there. I saw him. He had on a red shirt. He had on some white A1’s.’ Fuck that! You know what I’m sayin’?  You have the right to do your dirt, but it stops with my family. So, as far as the Stop Snitching movement…On the whole it’s some ignorant shit. But I think that has a lot to do with cats misconstruing the meaning.

Like if Me and you rob a bank and we have the mentality before we rob the bank like ‘Yeah, me and you about to do this. If anyone of us gets caught: shut the fuck up. Do your time and your money will be waiting for you when you get out.’ But if we rob the bank and I get pinched and I’m like ‘Yeah, dog it was his idea. It was him. He was the mastermind behind the whole shit.’ That’s snitching! You know what I’m saying? If you knew you was doing the dirt, so if you get caught…Yo, you gotta handle that. Don’t be no snitch. Don’t rat your man out. That’s snitching! But for it to mean, now, to turn a blind eye and let ignorant stuff go by…I think that’s kind of foul.

HipHopDX: The term “Backpack…”

Phonte: Once again…Another term that’s gone through several changes over the years. Pretty much, nowadays backpack is used to refer to anybody that ain’t…If you ain’t pimpin’ or you ain’t selling crack or on some dopeboy shit or whatever…Then mother fuckers will automatically call you backpack. And that’s just a lot of ignorance on the part of the listening audience and the media just wanting to put that label on you. People always feel the need to put a label on you to make themselves feel comfortable. So, that’s all it is…

HipHopDX: J Dilla…

Phonte: J Dilla is unquestionably one of the greatest producers and arguably the greatest producer to ever do it. Just his range and his influence in such a short period of time brought in a whole movement and really ignited a new way of thinking as far as Hip-Hop production. I can honestly say if it wasn’t for J Dilla, if it wasn’t for Slum Village, there would be no Little Brother. If it wasn’t for him redefining a genre, I’d probably still be rapping but I probably wouldn’t be doing it the way I do it now. His production really gave voice to a lot of people.

HipHopDX: The current hate for Southern mainstream acts.

Phonte: Mmm… Me and Rhymefest talk about this a lot. Well, I feel where cats are coming from because they kind of feel like it’s some inmates running the asylum type shit. Like ‘Man, them n-ggas can’t even rap like that man. Them n-ggas is wack. They doin’ that snap bullshit!” I feel where it’s coming from but the thing they got to understand is this: The reason why the South is winning and will continue to win, for awhile, I think, is because the South is a family oriented place. The South is big on family, just on a cultural level. An unspoken rule in the South is ‘Don’t go against your family. Don’t dis your family. Stick by your family. Whether they’re right, wrong or indifferent, stick by your family. I know Cousin Leroy is about to go to jail for the 5th time, but that’s family. Stick by your cousin. So, in music, it’s the same shit. So, when D4L, Dem Franchise Boys and cats like that come out, the South stands up for them. They feel like ‘Yo, we’re supporting one of our own.’ Like plenty of cats were beefing in Houston, but they realized like ‘Yo, if we stick together, we can make a whole lot more money pumpin’ each other up than we can by beefing.’ And that’s something New York still ain’t realized yet. And that’s why the South is winning. So instead of cats focusing on the South and saying ‘They’re messing up music…’ I think it’s more important to understand why they’re winning and then adapt that to your own situation. Now, the big thing with New York is ‘The Bring New York Back Movement.’ That’s cool but the problem is everybody wants to be the one n-gga to bring New York back.  If all the New York cats got together on one track…If you could get 50, Nas, Fat Joe, Jay, Cam, a Dipset n-gga…if you could all them n-ggas on one track and for them to bond together like ‘Yo, we doin’ this. It’s the birthplace of Hip-Hop and no disrespect to the South but we’re trying to bring some music like y’all fellas in the South is doing.’ If them n-ggas can do that, man…You have no idea what that would set off. But, everybody wants to be the King of New York! And because everybody wants to be King, all them n-ggas is lookin’ like pawns right now. Continued on page 6 »