How do you think we can create more awareness of the situation in Africa regarding conflict diamonds? I think things like this movie and us doing things to create awareness about the big companies that are stripping Africa of all its natural resources, diamonds being a big one. What we don’t know is that the shit we’re wearing is already ours anyway. If we can make the connection between the brothers over there and us and work together we can make more money off it. There won’t have to be poor people, kids getting their arms cut off, husbands getting snatched from their wives, and all that shit happening. If we stand together the way we ended apartheid we can do something just the same. “Black Republicans” came out a bit ago. Was that a leak? That was not supposed to come out. It’s all good, charge it to the game. It came out anyway. I would really have preferred to come out closer to my album because it’s on my album but it’s all good because it’s all about brotherhood at the moment. Do you think the track and album overall can help put Hip-Hop back on the right track? I hope it does, any good that come out of it, so be it. My main goal ain’t on some “bring real Hip-Hop back” shit, though. People look at it too hard. It’s just me saying “Hip-Hop’s dead, fuck you nigga. Take it how you wanna take it, prove me wrong.” There’s plenty of niggas out there doing it way big and giving us shit that we want to hear and I’m not taking shit from them. Real niggas know what I’m talking about and the other niggas gonna sit back and learn. Are major corporations killing Hip-Hop? Major corporations is killing this shit. It’s like, change is good. Change always gets rid of the old and brings in the new so we always gonna be beefin’ about it first. But you gotta change with change. A lot of corporations are coming in now and sometimes they make me embarrassed to be a rapper. If you look at the majority of the shit that’s out a lot of people who ignorant to this rap shit they think I’m doing the same thing, they can’t differentiate the good from the bad. You gotta just gotta keep it moving despite all the corny shit. Fuck it, do you. Do you think that the independent artists have a better chance of making good Hip Hop? Hell yeah, because you have the opportunity to do what you want, how you want, when you want, and still get that paper. What have you learned and applied from Street’s Disciple? When you’re creating a double album, you take your creativity all over the place. You get excited, and you want to do too much. You think that for a higher price, you want to give them a real piece of you. It’s a great achievement for me, but with this record, it’s a new day for me too. How did you link up with The Game? Well my niggas knew his niggas in Cali for a minute. So when I saw him blowing up and I was just watching he reached out to me, and he wasn’t getting a big head over this. Some people one day you see them and they’re cool and the next time you see them their nose is up in the air and shit like that cracks me up. But this nigga Game he just stayed a real nigga, the nigga was shouting me out about a lot of things. He’s got the most fire album out there, he’s just a good dude. How do you feel about 50 Cent going after The Game and even mentioning you on a couple of his songs? You know what, it’s cool to keep it gangsta and mention niggas’ names on records because I’ve been there before. I’ve done this on a real level. I did this when real niggas was in the game, from Pac to Suge walking around at the Soul Train Awards with army fatigues on and leather gloves looking for an enemy, and I’m in the crowd with my hard bottom shoes and pinky ring on. I’ve been there before with the best of them. So when I see the guys imitate the best of them, I just chuckle up a little bit, it’s all good, charge it to the game, it is what it is, you know? At the same time, 50 made good music for the most part, so you can’t take it lightly either, but it was really not my battle, it was not his place to battle me. He’s only done about three albums or so, and he’s benefited off the deaths of Pac and the lives of Jay and Nas, so he still has to burn his own path and put in some more work before he can fuck with a nigga like me. Honestly, he can’t even fuck with Game right now. Game is pure fire and he’s been in the industry like him so that’s more of in his league, but ain’t nobody fucking with that right now. Not too many people can see where I see in this business, you know? Do you think that 50’s attitude is hurting New York right now? 104
No, not really. We know he’s a New York nigga but he runs like a Cali or Down South nigga, so he doesn’t really sound New York, he sounds like a Cali nigga most of the time. But no, I think he’s helping New York right now, we need more 50s, but without the disrespect, just making music. Back in the day you were very heavy in representing QB and the artists out of QB. What is your relationship with other artists out of QB like Cormega? I spoke to him on the phone a while ago, we’re just getting cool. Niggas is getting too old for that beef shit, you know? So I’m cool. What about Mobb Deep? It’s too early to tell, right now. I can’t tell. I know that you and Quan have reconciled, will you be helping him with his project? I was always there for it, so I feel like, reconciled isn’t really the word. He called me and he told me how he feels, and he just felt like he was new at it, and didn’t know how to handle all the things that were coming his way. I can understand that so I just gave him his moment. I think what slowed his project down was that he had some shit that slowed him down on the legal side, he got caught up real quick and he got set back a little bit. I spoke to him and he’s cool, and he’s ready to go, so we can let it off. Have you been working with Dre on this new album? Yeah, a little bit. How has he changed from the days of The Firm? With The Firm was like we were doing a joint on Aftermath, and that was like the second album on Aftermath, I think I was on his first recording on Aftermath on a joint called “Been There, Done That.” The album was actually called The Aftermath. So The Firm album was probably his second release, so he was just coming out of all that shit with Death Row. He just started his brand, he was structuring his brand, so I was really excited to even be fucking with somebody like that while he was going through that. Now he’s way on his feet. His label is a major rap brand. Now he doesn’t have to fuck with anybody. So the fact that we got in there and got something done was real cool for me. Jay’s album is on par to do something like 800,000 his first week, while Diddy’s album did about 200,000. What sets the two apart, and where do you see your album fitting in between the two? I don’t really see any comparisons, because everybody has their own individuality. Everybody should do what they do and expect nothing more and nothing less. You shouldn’t expect to do what Diddy did unless you put in what Diddy put in, unless you’re trying to be like him. If you expect to sell what Jay sold, then you have to be doing all the work that nigga is doing. And why are you looking to do what he’s doing anyways? You’re supposed to be yourself. And for me, I’ve always done what I’ve done. I never lost my focus. I see what’s going on and I am not trying to do what anybody else is doing. Because then you have to step out of your own skin so you can do what they do. How do you plan to offset bootlegging from affecting your album? Right now there’s really nothing you can do, once the record is pressed up and it hits the plant. You have a few days before it hits the stores, and you can only expect that it’s going to be out there for those people. Unless people start going straight internet, or getting it straight from the mastering plant there’s really nothing you can do. Jim Jones has been talking slick recently. That’s for attention. I think everybody see it for what it is, he trying to sell. I respect it and understand that niggas is trying to eat and they gonna say what they gotta to say to get attention and get some hype on them. They gonna talk about your cat, goldfish, whatever. It’s the same way this kid Kramer gets on TV and says the word “nigger.” He’s just at a lost place in his life and he’s just trying to get attention. It’s not only Hip-Hop that’s dead. R&B is dead, rock is dead, TV is dead, ain’t no Good Times on TV today. Everything’s dead to some extent so these motherfuckers just trying to get some attention. It’s cool but they need to figure their shit out. What do you think about Carmen’s book? I don’t believe that she has a publisher, and I don’t believe any of the shit or hear anything about it, and when I do, it’s really nothing that I remember as the truth. So everybody is going to say what they have to say. It’s just like the Jim Jones, everybody is going to say what they have to say so they can feel how they want to feel. But I wish her the best, I hope that shit sells a kazillion copies, maybe that will stop some motherfuckers from trying to shake me down for cake every five minutes [laughs]. I