If you’ve followed Drop’s rap career these last couple years, you know he’s in all the right places with all the right people. Working with All Pro Records until recently and doing several major artist features, Drop created many SITUATIONS for himself. Here he talks about the things he did to create a buzz, his time with All Pro Records, and his plans now that he’s a free agent again. How did you come up in the rap game? Give us your history. First I started off in a group called Gutta Boyz. We did a tour of Florida and started getting calls outside of Florida. The situation didn’t work out. My pa’tna had a baby and he backed off. He felt like the music thang wasn’t going fast enough for him. I started doin’ my own thang and dropped a mixtape. It caught fire a lil bit. I kinda fell back off the rap thang for about a year, and when I came back I did a CD called Free Agent. Everybody was lovin’ it and DJ Prostyle approached me. He wanted to work with me so I started fuckin’ wit’ him. That was at the end of ’07. What happened after that? I got my credit off of the grind, hustlin’, being where I needed to be. I was at all the DJ retreats, conferences like TJ’s DJ’s, all that good stuff. I stayed in contact with everybody and kept my relationships good. Everybody in the industry, like Wendy Day and Tony Neal, still fucked with me when I came back out. What have you been working on lately? I just dropped a mixtape called No Rookie hosted by DJ Prostyle and DJ Drama. I got Boosie, Gorilla Zoe, Papa Duck, and Traffik on there – he’s part of All Pro Records. After that mixtape, the situation with [leaving] All Pro, it was a good look, but as far as what I represent and the business part wasn’t right for me. I just had to make the best decision for me as an artist. We cool, I still fuck with All Pro, but we don’t do business together. What’s the plan now moving forward? My mom is still my management. We’re always willing to work with everybody. As of right now, I just dropped another mixtape with Marquis Daniels – he plays for the Boston Celtics. We’re discussing doing a couple things together with his backing. I’m doing my thing and everybody fucks with me, if everything
works out, me and bruh gon’ make somethin’ happen. What’s up with that mixtape? How’s the response been? DJ Scream from Atlanta hosted it. We got Trina, Boosie and a couple other people on there. We did a record on that CD called “Swag for Sale” and the song got kinda hot. A few weeks ago I started getting a lot of calls saying 2 Pistols had done the record. I checked into it, but it ain’t really got nothin’ to do with 2 Pistols. We were posed to do somethin’ with the producer but it didn’t go down. [2 Pistols] has a song with the same beat and the same hook, so I was gettin’ confrontational calls like, “This nigga done stole your song and he put your name in it.” I listened to the track. I’m the type of nigga that my mind is open, so when I listened to the record, I don’t really look at it like a diss. He said my name but I didn’t look at it like a diss. I know how the streets can be, but I don’t get into all that. I didn’t really get into it with him like that. We were already supposed to do a record together anyway. You’ve done a lot of a collaborations. Would you say that’s helped you a lot? Yeah, I would agree with that. The one record I did with Wayne got over a million downloads on the internet. That helped me out a lot with exposure. I ran across a lot of mixtapes that had the record on there. The record with me and Boosie, he got that on two of his mixtapes. The one with me and Zoe, he pushed that record. I do good music. I only do music I feel is good enough to be put out. Which single are you promoting right now? The main single I’m pushing right now is off the mixtape with Marquis Daniels. It’s a song with me, him, and Trina called “She Don’t Like Me.” We’re goin’ in hard on that record. We’re just tryin’ to make shit happen. Is there anything else you wanna let the people know? Let everybody know I’m puttin’ on for Florida. Everybody will hear from me eventually. I ain’t goin’ nowhere. I’m gonna keep goin’ hard for the city and for the whole state. I’m the new face of Florida. //
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