I’m
not saying that [mixtape DJs] are getting rich off artists and the artist ain’t getting no benefits from it, but yeah, they’re getting paid. To me, doing a mixtape is like putting out an album. I might as well take those same rhymes and put it on some of my own beats and put a record out instead of paying for some street credibility that a nigga’s trying to sell me, telling me that this [mixtape] is what I need to make my album sell. If someone’s getting paid [off my mixtape], I want to get money too. If everybody can get paid, it’s a beautiful thing. But as soon as you put your rhymes over beats, it’s no longer a mixtape. It’s an independent album. What I propose is that mixtape DJs start hosting independent record releases. Instead of the rappers taking the small end of the money or no money at all and wait for the mixtape DJ to blow them up, why don’t the DJs take $5,000 or $10,000 and jump on these independent mixtapes and host them muthafuckers. They need to say “hosted by DJ so-and-so” now, because with the copyright game and the way the powers that be are playing dirty now, they can come get their houses and cars. Even with “for promo only” on it, it’s still copywritten music and they’re still going to get sued. So we’ve gotta come up with new, creative ways to put this stuff out and still keep the same street flavor that we get out of mixtapes. DJs are gonna have to start doing mixtapes of their own music. That’s just the bottom line. If you’ve got a reputable artist that’s hot, it’s going to sell whether you use existing beats that’s already on the radio or brand new beats. People just want to hear these hot dudes rhyme and want to hear some new material cause everything is so watered down right now. In my case, I don’t have a publishing deal right now, so Jive doesn’t have jurisdiction on my income. But in most cases, the artists do have some type of deal with their label. At the end of the day it’s easier to give up [a freestyle] and still run with your business than it is when you’re dealing with total copyright infringement. 64 // OZONE MAG
I don’t buy mixtapes or listen to them. I like [artists like] Young Jeezy and Lil Wayne, but I ain’t never heard none of their mixtapes. I don’t participate in that shit. Do I think Jeezy would be where he’s at without his mixtapes? Hell yeah. The nigga is cold. Wayne is on top of his game right now. That nigga ain’t gotta rap on other niggas’ beats just to get people to know that he can rap. He could take those same rhymes and put them on some indie shit on the site and get paid. Most of those independent [labels] are getting $7 or $8 per record, and a nigga like Jeezy right now can sell 50,000 independent records. Even if he just gets on a record and farts, we’re going to buy it. I think [the idea that artists need mixtapes to sell albums] is the attitude that these [DJs] want us to have. But I do think it’s dirty that record labels pay mixtape DJs to do a mixtape on an artist and then turn around and send the Feds to niggas’ studios to arrest them and fuck over ‘em like that. I think that’s some fucked up shit. I think it is very unfair that record labels are paying niggas like Drama to do mixtapes and then they turn around and sell a nigga out and throw him under the bus. That’s fucked up. If they’re going to turn their heads on [mixtape DJs] then they need to go ahead and turn their heads on the whole thing. I think it’s easier for them to condone the shit. [The record labels] are going to have to adjust their approach a little bit. The first time we talked [about doing a UGK Gangsta Grillz mixtape] me and Drama had figured out a way for both of us to get paid. We ain’t gonna expose all the details of what we were talking about, but we came up with a way that both of us could get paid. We were going to do a Gangsta Grillz, mixtape style, but using beats that I produced. [Our record label] Jive was going to give Drama $10,000 to do our mixtape, and he was going to give us the $10,000 back. I said, “Nah, you keep the $10,000 and let’s do the mixtape over our beats, you host the muthafucker, we’ll walk in Jive and let them press up 100,000 or 150,000 copies and put it in the stores as a limited edition.” In a case like that, I can make Jive give me $100,000 [advance] and