LLOYD
R
&B sensation Lloyd is not your average R&B dude. He has been cosigned by such greats as Jazze Pha, Clive Davis and L.A. Reid, but still Lloyd remains a humble and modest man who is more concerned with family and friends than fortune and fame. Through all the adversity, Lloyd has opted to stay loyal to Irv Gotti and The Inc, who just inked a new distribution deal with Universal. Hoping to restore The Inc’s once prominent status, the confident crooner knows he has a lot to prove and is ready for the challenge. I know there have been some problems with The Inc, are you still with Irv Gotti? Of course. Irv just signed a major distribution deal with Universal worth millions of dollars. I’m at a point in my career right now where a lot of other labels were calling me offering me all kinds of things. I was ringing a lot of bells and I wanted to show Irv that I was ready for the next step. I was ready for a video, I was ready for a big marketing push, I was ready for an album, so when Irv called me and told me about his deal with Universal, he asked me if I was riding with him. I was like, “Of course, but these other labels are pretty much offering me a chance to control my own destiny and offering me a chance to open up my own company.” So I asked him if he could do the same, and he said yes. At the end of the day if Irv was ready to move, I was gonna be ready to move with him. I sat down with my lawyer and renegotiated my deal so I now own my own company, Young Goldie Music, and I got a lot to prove. I heard you were with Sho’Nuff as well, how does that work? I’m managed by Sho’Nuff. Shout out to Jazze and Noonie Lee. A lot of people don’t think of Sho’Nuff as a management company, but they’ve been doing a tremendous job with me. That’s my family over there. A lot of people don’t know that Noonie Lee actually started off as a manager of a lot of producers and writers. He owned a company called Noon Time and it was one of the most successful music companies in Atlanta and he decided to hook up with Jazze Pha and form Sho’Nuff Records and through Sho’Nuff you’ve heard Ciara, Jody Breeze, Cherish and many others. What separates you from the other R&B dudes in the game? The great thing about what we do is that you can’t manipulate it. You either got it or you don’t. It’s either sounding good or its not, so we’re just trying to go out here and make good music and we hope the masses listen. It’s good to know that I got big brothers that got my back such as Jazze, Dallas Austin, and Irv; they’ve really held me down. How have Dallas Austin, Jazze Pha and Irv Gotti influenced you? They feel that I am the future and they’ve encouraged that. They have surrounded me with greatness; I feel that if I surround myself with numb nuts then clearly I’ll end up one, but if I’m surrounded by greatness then I’m surely destined for it. Dallas gave me a room at the studio to perfect my music and that’s forcing me to work harder than ever, and with that help, I’ve spent a lot of time at the lab and have really perfected my craft. As a young man, it’s so overwhelming that they have all expressed to me that they enjoy my music. Dallas and Jazze and Irv have all embraced me and my sound and they are helping me to possibly become even greater than they are one day, if I work hard enough. So when is your new album coming out? It will be out March 20th, and it’s called Street Love. How have progressed musically since you first hit the scene? I think you are a reflection of how hard you work. So, the only thing that separates us is hard work. My biggest problem as a kid was that I’ve always been really talented and sometimes I rely on my talent and I get lazy. Now I realize that I’m a man and I gotta work hard. I’m trying to take everything in life more seriously, I’m trying to be on time everywhere I go, because I’m 20 years old now, I’m a man. What era of music do you prefer, the old school or the new school? Personally, I like to make everybody dance. But if you ask me what kind of picture I paint, it’s definitely realism and I try to talk about where I’m from and what I’ve been through. What inspires you to make music? I find inspiration in everything in life. I find inspiration just from waking up in the morning. I’ve been through a lot of hard times in my life and I’m still so fortunate to be here right now doing what I love to do. The 36
most important thing to me is not the money, I could care less about the fortune and fame, to me its all about the people around me, and making them happy, taking care of my family. I want to be in a position to make my family and my other people around me happy. Your song “You” has been blowing up, it’s definitely one of the hottest R&B songs in a while. Did you write it? I didn’t actually write that song, my good friend Jasper wrote the song “You” but I’ve co-written music alongside Jazze Pha, Michael Bryan Cox, James Lackey, Usher’s younger brother and I’ve co-written songs with 8Ball & MJG, Young Buck, Lil Scrappy and the list goes on and on. It was a good look getting Lil Wayne on there. Yeah, Wayne is like my brother, for him to be doing what he’s doing and still be on 106th & Park telling the world about me and my music means a lot to me. We have a lot in common. We’ve been through a lot of the same experiences; we’re both from New Orleans, we both lost our dads at a young age, we’ve both been through a lot in our lives. So, I tell everybody, he’s like a brother to me. It seems like you and Lil Wayne work really well together in the studio. I remember the first time I met Wayne, we were in a limo with a bunch of girls, and Wayne was singing a song on my album called, “I’m a G,” Wayne sung it line for line. He was singing it to this girl and everybody in the car was bustin’ up laughing. I was just vibin’ because I grew up listening to Lil Wayne and now he listens to my music. I think that we got a real good song, it was just the MTV Jam of the week. I think that Jasper and me are geniuses, I think that Jazze is a genius, I think that Irv Gotti’s a genius and I think that Universal has a history of producing great artists and has a history of having great runs. I think I’m in a good place. How do you feel about people saying that R&B is dead and that it isn’t what it used to be? Everyone that I know respects good music regardless of the genre, but as far R&B being dead, I got some things cooking up my sleeve that’s gonna show the world that the younger R&B cats are gonna step up. Shout out to Trey Songz, Chris Brown, Bobby Valentino, Omarion, One Chance, and every young person that’s doing they’re thing. If you follow you heart, your dreams will come true. - Eric Perrin