Outlawz: 40 Million Albums
After 2Pac
Nestled in the heart of Atlanta, the Outlawz are gathered in their secluded studio, bobbing their heads intently. They’re listening to a track that will potentially be used for their next album, a sample-heavy banger laced with story-telling strings. And though they’re already in the studio, grinding, for right now they’re focus is their two releases Outlawz for Life 2005 and Chapter 2: the Rebirth.
It’s EDI, who for today at least, is the most vocal of the group that gathers everyone into the adjacent room to conduct the interview. On the TV hanging high overhead, BET’s Rap City is on, and Fat Joe is discussing his forthcoming album, as they speak candidly on everything from fake beefs in the industry to Kadafi’s murder, to how after over a decade in the game and 40 + million sold they have still managed to remain one of rap’s biggest underdogs.
Have you been conscious of radio while you’ve been recording?
Castro: We’re trying to make nice songs— really good, put together songs and the radio should probably take to them. But we don’t ever consciously make songs for the radio.
So there’s no pressure to do the radio thing?
EDI: For us, the pressure comes in when you’re trying to deal with the majors, cuz that’s what the majors want. They want you to come in with hit records already. But the truth of the matter is, nobody knows what a hit record is. You can just guess and hope, like ‘yeah, that sound like a hit’ but you can put it out and it be a dud and vice versa. But we don’t ever put pressure on ourselves, like ‘yo, we gotta do some radio hits, man.’
Castro: We’d fuck up doing that shit [laughing]. It’d probably take us 8 days per song to do that shit…
EDI: Yeah, if we did that the album would probably be corny too.
What’s the concept behind 1 Nation?
EDI: We feel like 1 Nation might be the little bit of light left in the rap game. Alotta beef goin on right now, that’s popular, we feel like who done did that type of shit better than us? Rap music is keeping the music world afloat single-handedly, so for us to go about it the wrong way getting into all these petty conflicts…when you have a conflict with a dude, you might not wanna hurt him physically, but you got cats around you that ain’t got nuthin to lose that’s like, ‘okay give me $10,000 and I’ll spray up they bus’. So the mentality is getting real dangerous. We on some 1 Nation shit. My kids gotta eat, your kids gotta eat and if ya’ll keep on this type of shit, fuckin up the game, then somebody’s gonna have to come in an regulate and we’ll put a movement together and smash on niggaz. You gotta a beef and ya’ll goin’ about it the wrong way, we gonna get in the middle of it and make sure it ain’t a problem.
What do you think about the artist that are beefin’ just for record sales?
EDI: I ain’t even mad at that. But don’t let it get confused to where people start thinking it’s a real beef and you get people worked up to where they start wantin’ to go out and do shit. A lot of these cats ain’t gonna blow a whistle, they ain’t gonna do nuthin, they just gonna make they records in the studio, but it’s the people around them that get caught up in the hype of it.
But don’t you think that whole concept is detrimental to Hip Hop as a whole?
Castro: It’s detrimental to our community as a whole, cuz it’s not progressive. Children are heavily influenced by the radio and shit like that, so they need to think more about that shit. But who am I? I just got my opinion.
Can you talk about your childhood and how being around the Panther movement influenced you?
EDI: I was a baby so I was too young to be influenced that much. I didn’t really get a chance to witness a lot of what was going on back then cuz by the time we was growin’ up that shit was over. The FBI had came in and…
Castro: [laughing] Shut shit down…
EDI: Yeah, they had shut it down by the time we got to the age where we could really feel anything. It was a done deal and all you had was the repercussions and the aftermath of the Panthers.
Like…?
EDI: You know, a lot of hard times, a lot of people going to jail, poverty, drug addiction, all of that going on. Not just with the Panthers, but the whole community. Once the whole sixties and seventies movement got killed, that’s what you had left—gang bangers, you had crack, you had unemployment, all those things. We was just a product of that, we came up under that.
But was the overall mentality or ideology impressed upon you? And how did that affect you as artists?
Castro: We felt it cuz a lot of the old heads would come around and kick it to us, and shit like that, I’m pretty sure some shit rubbed off on us. We never did no free lunch programs or nothing [laughing].
It seems like you guys would have a problem being marketed since your conscious but still street. The artists that are successful in that arena, the dead prez’s and others kinda fit into that whole stereo-type of “consciousness” visually.
EDI: Yeah, and that’s just it. We not all the way to the right they are, we ain’t chewin’ sticks and dreadin’ and all that. We in the middle of the niggaz on the corner, sellin’ the dope all that. And there’s a whole lot of us that’s in the middle that’s not necessarily tryin to change the world tomorrow or start a revolution tomorrow, but they ain’t tryin to fuck up they communities and sell dope cuz they learned that that ain’t what’s up. So we in the middle of those two extremes.
Can you talk about what went down with Cash Money?
Castro: We didn’t sign. Actually we signed and they didn’t cut our check and we got tired of waiting around for this magical day or whatever, so we was like fuck it man, we can’t wait all year. A lot of people was really countin’ on us and waitin’ on us to put somethin’ out. We felt obligated to make sure we do that, and plus we gotta eat too. We ain’t tryin’ to sit around while niggaz is feedin’ they face. I want everybody to eat, but I gotta eat too. So we’re back on our hustle, doin our independent thing like we was doin before.
How long were you sitting over there?
EDI: It really wasn’t really that long…
Castro [laughing] It was like 24 hours…
EDI: [laughing] It wasn’t that long. But in this game we learned to read the signs. We learned that in the rap game, a day is like a month and a month is like a year. So, nah, it wasn’t long at all it was about 24 hours, but I know it don’t take long to get a check. I’ve been in the game long enough to know. Checks get cut like that, so we had to move on. They do what they do, we do what we do.
What would it take for you to sign with another major, just them cuttin’ a check, or…
EDI: At this point, we ain’t even tryin’ to sign with nobody. We’re tryin’ to ball independently. We’re not tryin to knock on the major’s door and hope they’ll accept us into they private club, we gonna start our own. If you pay attention to the game, a lot of major artists are doin’ that anyway and it’s gonna continue to happen cuz budgets are shrinkin’, records ain’t selling like they used to, the scans ain’t there like they used to be. If you still wanna get paid, you can do 200- 300,000 independent and still be livin’ like a king.
EDI, you were saying in an interview a couple of years ago that Kadafi’s murder had nothing to do with Tupac. Do you still stand by that?
EDI: I know for a fact it didn’t have nothin’ to do with that. It’s just the fact that they was family and they was related, but one thing didn’t have nothin’ to do with the other. A lot of people wanted to make it seem like that cuz it sounds good in the media and it’s good for reading and shit, but it wasn’t like that.
I think since Pac has died it’s almost become a religion the way people follow him. How does it feel when people approach you asking if he’s really dead and all that?
EDI: Being that it’s a personal situation, of course that can be aggravating. You be wantin’ people just to use a little bit more class than to ask you somethin’ like that. But I understand they curiosity and I understand the whole mysteriousness about it and that’s all cool, if that’s what you into. You into conspiracy theories and all that and you think the niggaz in Cuba, I ain’t mad at you. It’s not surprising to me cuz he put it down and he deserves the accolades and the fact that people don’t wanna let him go, I feel like it’s well earned.
Castro: That’s a helluva way to die, when nobody wanna believe you dead. Who could ask for something more than that?
What do you think about Interscope putting out these Pac albums with Eminem producing and everybody and they momma on the tracks…
EDI: If you gonna do it, be sincere about, don’t just look at it as another collabo. Do it like I would do it. I can’t ask everybody to be as emotionally involved in it as we are, but I just hope cats really appreciate the shit and really doin it cuz it’s an honor and not just cuz it’s hot and you can get free promotion and shit. And if you got verses that you tryin to use, make sure his mother eats, go about it the right way, be a man about it.
But is it corny to ya’ll? I’m not tryin’ to start nuthin, but overall, is the concept of these dudes that never even knew him doin tracks with him…
Castro: It is what it is. Pac was a powerful dude in the music business, so people wanna work with him. On top of that, his family got a mission, mainly his mother and she’s building a center in Stone Mountain, GA. Part of those proceeds go to that. It’s just giving people what they want. I understand why people like, ‘why is he on a song with him, they didn’t get along’ and whoptie-woo— man just enjoy the song.
EDI: Or don’t enjoy it, you ain’t gotta listen. Some songs come out hot some come out horrible…
Castro: A lot of people be getting all emotionally attached, shit. But they be jealous though cuz they be wantin’ it to be them.
What do you see yourselves doin’ in the next 5 years?
Castro: Puttin’ out alotta albums, establishing this 1 Nation brand, and hopefully branching off into some other things in the entertainment field.
It’s EDI, who for today at least, is the most vocal of the group that gathers everyone into the adjacent room to conduct the interview. On the TV hanging high overhead, BET’s Rap City is on, and Fat Joe is discussing his forthcoming album, as they speak candidly on everything from fake beefs in the industry to Kadafi’s murder, to how after over a decade in the game and 40 + million sold they have still managed to remain one of rap’s biggest underdogs.
Have you been conscious of radio while you’ve been recording?
Castro: We’re trying to make nice songs— really good, put together songs and the radio should probably take to them. But we don’t ever consciously make songs for the radio.
So there’s no pressure to do the radio thing?
EDI: For us, the pressure comes in when you’re trying to deal with the majors, cuz that’s what the majors want. They want you to come in with hit records already. But the truth of the matter is, nobody knows what a hit record is. You can just guess and hope, like ‘yeah, that sound like a hit’ but you can put it out and it be a dud and vice versa. But we don’t ever put pressure on ourselves, like ‘yo, we gotta do some radio hits, man.’
Castro: We’d fuck up doing that shit [laughing]. It’d probably take us 8 days per song to do that shit…
EDI: Yeah, if we did that the album would probably be corny too.
What’s the concept behind 1 Nation?
EDI: We feel like 1 Nation might be the little bit of light left in the rap game. Alotta beef goin on right now, that’s popular, we feel like who done did that type of shit better than us? Rap music is keeping the music world afloat single-handedly, so for us to go about it the wrong way getting into all these petty conflicts…when you have a conflict with a dude, you might not wanna hurt him physically, but you got cats around you that ain’t got nuthin to lose that’s like, ‘okay give me $10,000 and I’ll spray up they bus’. So the mentality is getting real dangerous. We on some 1 Nation shit. My kids gotta eat, your kids gotta eat and if ya’ll keep on this type of shit, fuckin up the game, then somebody’s gonna have to come in an regulate and we’ll put a movement together and smash on niggaz. You gotta a beef and ya’ll goin’ about it the wrong way, we gonna get in the middle of it and make sure it ain’t a problem.
What do you think about the artist that are beefin’ just for record sales?
EDI: I ain’t even mad at that. But don’t let it get confused to where people start thinking it’s a real beef and you get people worked up to where they start wantin’ to go out and do shit. A lot of these cats ain’t gonna blow a whistle, they ain’t gonna do nuthin, they just gonna make they records in the studio, but it’s the people around them that get caught up in the hype of it.
But don’t you think that whole concept is detrimental to Hip Hop as a whole?
Castro: It’s detrimental to our community as a whole, cuz it’s not progressive. Children are heavily influenced by the radio and shit like that, so they need to think more about that shit. But who am I? I just got my opinion.
Can you talk about your childhood and how being around the Panther movement influenced you?
EDI: I was a baby so I was too young to be influenced that much. I didn’t really get a chance to witness a lot of what was going on back then cuz by the time we was growin’ up that shit was over. The FBI had came in and…
Castro: [laughing] Shut shit down…
EDI: Yeah, they had shut it down by the time we got to the age where we could really feel anything. It was a done deal and all you had was the repercussions and the aftermath of the Panthers.
Like…?
EDI: You know, a lot of hard times, a lot of people going to jail, poverty, drug addiction, all of that going on. Not just with the Panthers, but the whole community. Once the whole sixties and seventies movement got killed, that’s what you had left—gang bangers, you had crack, you had unemployment, all those things. We was just a product of that, we came up under that.
But was the overall mentality or ideology impressed upon you? And how did that affect you as artists?
Castro: We felt it cuz a lot of the old heads would come around and kick it to us, and shit like that, I’m pretty sure some shit rubbed off on us. We never did no free lunch programs or nothing [laughing].
It seems like you guys would have a problem being marketed since your conscious but still street. The artists that are successful in that arena, the dead prez’s and others kinda fit into that whole stereo-type of “consciousness” visually.
EDI: Yeah, and that’s just it. We not all the way to the right they are, we ain’t chewin’ sticks and dreadin’ and all that. We in the middle of the niggaz on the corner, sellin’ the dope all that. And there’s a whole lot of us that’s in the middle that’s not necessarily tryin to change the world tomorrow or start a revolution tomorrow, but they ain’t tryin to fuck up they communities and sell dope cuz they learned that that ain’t what’s up. So we in the middle of those two extremes.
Can you talk about what went down with Cash Money?
Castro: We didn’t sign. Actually we signed and they didn’t cut our check and we got tired of waiting around for this magical day or whatever, so we was like fuck it man, we can’t wait all year. A lot of people was really countin’ on us and waitin’ on us to put somethin’ out. We felt obligated to make sure we do that, and plus we gotta eat too. We ain’t tryin’ to sit around while niggaz is feedin’ they face. I want everybody to eat, but I gotta eat too. So we’re back on our hustle, doin our independent thing like we was doin before.
How long were you sitting over there?
EDI: It really wasn’t really that long…
Castro [laughing] It was like 24 hours…
EDI: [laughing] It wasn’t that long. But in this game we learned to read the signs. We learned that in the rap game, a day is like a month and a month is like a year. So, nah, it wasn’t long at all it was about 24 hours, but I know it don’t take long to get a check. I’ve been in the game long enough to know. Checks get cut like that, so we had to move on. They do what they do, we do what we do.
What would it take for you to sign with another major, just them cuttin’ a check, or…
EDI: At this point, we ain’t even tryin’ to sign with nobody. We’re tryin’ to ball independently. We’re not tryin to knock on the major’s door and hope they’ll accept us into they private club, we gonna start our own. If you pay attention to the game, a lot of major artists are doin’ that anyway and it’s gonna continue to happen cuz budgets are shrinkin’, records ain’t selling like they used to, the scans ain’t there like they used to be. If you still wanna get paid, you can do 200- 300,000 independent and still be livin’ like a king.
EDI, you were saying in an interview a couple of years ago that Kadafi’s murder had nothing to do with Tupac. Do you still stand by that?
EDI: I know for a fact it didn’t have nothin’ to do with that. It’s just the fact that they was family and they was related, but one thing didn’t have nothin’ to do with the other. A lot of people wanted to make it seem like that cuz it sounds good in the media and it’s good for reading and shit, but it wasn’t like that.
I think since Pac has died it’s almost become a religion the way people follow him. How does it feel when people approach you asking if he’s really dead and all that?
EDI: Being that it’s a personal situation, of course that can be aggravating. You be wantin’ people just to use a little bit more class than to ask you somethin’ like that. But I understand they curiosity and I understand the whole mysteriousness about it and that’s all cool, if that’s what you into. You into conspiracy theories and all that and you think the niggaz in Cuba, I ain’t mad at you. It’s not surprising to me cuz he put it down and he deserves the accolades and the fact that people don’t wanna let him go, I feel like it’s well earned.
Castro: That’s a helluva way to die, when nobody wanna believe you dead. Who could ask for something more than that?
What do you think about Interscope putting out these Pac albums with Eminem producing and everybody and they momma on the tracks…
EDI: If you gonna do it, be sincere about, don’t just look at it as another collabo. Do it like I would do it. I can’t ask everybody to be as emotionally involved in it as we are, but I just hope cats really appreciate the shit and really doin it cuz it’s an honor and not just cuz it’s hot and you can get free promotion and shit. And if you got verses that you tryin to use, make sure his mother eats, go about it the right way, be a man about it.
But is it corny to ya’ll? I’m not tryin’ to start nuthin, but overall, is the concept of these dudes that never even knew him doin tracks with him…
Castro: It is what it is. Pac was a powerful dude in the music business, so people wanna work with him. On top of that, his family got a mission, mainly his mother and she’s building a center in Stone Mountain, GA. Part of those proceeds go to that. It’s just giving people what they want. I understand why people like, ‘why is he on a song with him, they didn’t get along’ and whoptie-woo— man just enjoy the song.
EDI: Or don’t enjoy it, you ain’t gotta listen. Some songs come out hot some come out horrible…
Castro: A lot of people be getting all emotionally attached, shit. But they be jealous though cuz they be wantin’ it to be them.
What do you see yourselves doin’ in the next 5 years?
Castro: Puttin’ out alotta albums, establishing this 1 Nation brand, and hopefully branching off into some other things in the entertainment field.
