Two days before turning himself in to prison FOR AN 18-MONTH STINT, Jacksonville’s flagship rapper/sanger Young Cash talked with OZONE about the case, snitches, and facing the music. Here he clears up several rumors, and offers some insight on what the future holds for those with one foot in the studio and one in the streets. By now, most people know you have to go away for a little while. Can you explain the situation? My brother was notorious in the streets so the Feds always been watching us, and the music shit put the spotlight on us. When my brother got shot they wasn’t really fuckin’ wit’ him ‘cause they thought he wasn’t doin’ nothin’ no more. That’s when I took over. The indictment papers say in 2003 me and 2 of my pa’tnas went to Brownsville, Texas, which is the border of Mexico. And from then on it says I was distributing kilos of cocaine and marijuana from Texas to Florida from 20032006. They didn’t arrest me until 2008. What happened from after they got you? They take all your shit, all your money, anything they think came from drug money, and basically leave you naked out here, unless you got some money hidden somewhere. I had a few dollars put away from the music shit. So basically, they had 5 C.I.’s on my paperwork – C.I. is a confidential informant – it was 2 Mexicans I knew, another Mexican I met later, another Mexican from down here, and they say Dirt Diggla, which is one of my pa’tnas. At first I was like, they ever never caught me wit’ shit, it’s just they word against mine. I never thought they would tell on me. I was under them, they was my connect, so I thought the Feds were trying to go up. So I was like, I’ll take it to trial. The Feds was like, “Go ahead and take it to trial, we got your homeboy from Texas, and we got 2 Mexicans with the same story.” I said fuck it, I ain’t even gonna play myself ‘cause the Feds got a 98% conviction rate. Basically you had to plead guilty because they had witnesses. I pled guilty and laid myself at the mercy of the courts. The judge showed leniency because it was so long ago. And then, the Feds only had evidence from 2003-2006, so for 2 years before they arrested me I was an upstanding citizen. Another factor of why he was lenient on my sentence is I have a 7-year-old autistic son. I had a sweet ass lawyer, the judge was real lenient and seen I was a changed nigga, I ain’t never got caught wit’ shit it was just a bunch of muthafuckas tellin’ on me to get their time reduced. I only got a year and a half. Coming from a street perspective, that’s real good, but coming from a music perspective, missing a year and a half is real bad.
Naw man, they ain’t even worried ‘bout no rappers. Rappers fuck theyself up. Some of these rap niggas wanna get in the game and then try to do all this wild shit for publicity or for their image. In reality, the real niggas don’t want no part of that shit. I don’t want no part in going to prison, being away from my family, my little boy, my music. This shit is ridiculous. I was reading an article on 50 Cent and he was saying rap is missing authenticity. Nobody real is coming out. It ain’t been a nigga like 50 Cent, a nigga that done been to jail, been shot up, his story was so real that’s why people took to him. So there’s no authenticity in rap these days? I love Rick Ross, Ross is my nigga, but tell me what nigga can lie about being a Correctional Officer, come back and still be on top? Ain’t nothing against Rick Ross, we all in the same camp, he had his reasons for lying, but I never thought I’d see something like that in our generation where everybody claiming real shit. How can people get in touch with you while you’re gone? Is there an address to write? It’s gonna be posted on my Facebook and Twitter. com/YoungCash. I got a team that’s gonna keep my shit running. I’m leaving my computer with my people so I’m still selling hooks and beats. Is there anything else you want to let people know about? I’m going in a dog, I’m coming out a beast. God speaks to me all the time, he told me and my brother that eventually I was gonna have to face the music on all this drug shit. It’s a whole gang of rappers in the city runnin’ they mouth saying, “He ain’t a real street nigga, he ain’t this, he ain’t that.” Then the shit hit the fan and it really shut niggas the fuck up. How do you deal with hate in your own city? I never fed into that type of shit. I never retaliated or did a diss record on niggas I know was talkin’ shit. A lot of people talk down on me and my nigga Lil Henn, and our whole movement, but niggas really should be applauding a nigga like me. I’m the first nigga in Jacksonville with the state of mind like these Texas niggas that support they own shit. If it wasn’t for me, DJs still wouldn’t be playin’ y’all shit. Nobody was showing love. I showed niggas how to market theyself and get on in they own city. After Young Cash had 2 or 3 songs played in the Jacksonville club, which was unheard of, then you had T-Rone’s shit bammin’ in the club, Bread Boyz, Saw Money, Hustle House, they all have shit playin’ in the club. One nigga started that. You’re welcome. For the entire interview visit OZONEMag.com
Do you think rappers are targeted by the police?
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