give Bun a $100,000 [advance].
make a record about it. Fuck ‘em in the ass, man.
If you want to settle for $10,000, that’s you. But me, I like advances. I like money. I don’t give a fuck about getting niggas on the street to like it. But even though I feel a certain way about the mixtape game, when it comes down to the RIAA vs. mixtape DJs, I’m riding with [DJs like] Drama. I’m never going to ride with the establishment. I support Drama because they threw him under the bus, and a whole bunch of these record labels were paying him to do their mixtapes. You and I both know we had the conversation because Jive was trying to pay him [to do a UGK Gangsta Grillz].
They’re making $8 a record, and some of them are selling 150,000 mixtapes every time they drop, so somebody is getting some money. Even if the production cost is just a dollar, they’re still making money. Even after their promotion if they’re only making $5 a record, $5 times 100,000 is $500,000 and if Pimp C’s name is on that muthafucker, you’re gonna break me off. And if the DJs don’t want to support UGK, fuck them anyways because my fans are drug dealers, strippers, hot boys, and hot girls, and I don’t give a damn about selling no records to no other muthafuckers. I don’t give a fuck if they don’t like me on the East coast. I don’t give a damn if the record company don’t like it. I don’t give a fuck and that’s my attitude toward the game. If I don’t eat, you ain’t gonna eat off me.
And Jive ain’t on an island of their own. These muthafuckers [at all the record labels] were up there paying this dude [Drama] to do mixtapes on their artist. For a brand new artist that needs a street buzz and has never sold no records, that’s a great thing to do. Get them a DJ with a name, put a mixtape out, get people hyped on you, and then you’re able to get a deal. But for a nigga like me that likes money, and niggas buy my records anyway, I can’t fuck with it. I gotta get me some bread. But at the end of the day, the same people that was paying Drama to do mixtapes send the Feds at him, and I think that’s real fucked up. I’m riding with Drama because they fucked over him. He ain’t doing nothing worse than what the record companies are doing; putting out records and trying not to pay the artist. If you see a nigga in the street who has sold 100,000 records and he looks broke, something is wrong. Even if he only sold 50,000 records, somebody got paid somewhere. So even though I don’t do mixtapes and all that, I still gotta ride with Drama because he’s a product of the streets. At the end of the day, fans don’t give a fuck about [the politics]. They just want to hear their favorite rapper. He was supplying the streets with the dope that they needed to keep going in between these weak-ass watered-down albums where they won’t let a nigga sample no muthafuckin’ records no more. And Drama is just the first example of what the Feds are going to do to a bunch of muthafuckers if they don’t get their game together.
“I’VE NEVER TOLD A DJ, ‘NO, I WON’T GET ON YOUR MIXTAPE.’ I JUST ASK THEM HOW MUCH MONEY WE’RE GOING TO MAKE. BUT WHEN I TALK ABOUT MONEY, NIGGAS DON’T WANT TO TALK TO ME NO MORE. WELL, YOU CAN’T GO TO THE DOPE MAN AND BUY NO COCAINE IF YOU AIN’T GOT NO MONEY.”
But you know what [the raid] did? It made Drama the most famous mixtape DJ in the world, and I’m sure he knows what to do with that [reputation] because that muthafucker is smart. Shit, you’ve gotta be smart to fool everybody into thinking that you ain’t making no money off these mixtapes.
I know a whole bunch of hoes that fuck for free and will get their pussy wet for some dinner at night. I also know a bunch of prostitutes that make $3,000 - $4,000 a night out on these streets. So you’ve got different types of bitches and hoes out there. If [other artists] want to do mixtapes for free, why would [DJs] be mad at me? Miss me with that bullshit. I’m all about money. Straight business. And I might have only sold a quarter or half of the amount of records that these niggas done sold, so something’s wrong here. If I’m in the club with a nigga that I know has sold a bunch of records and his jewelry looks funny, somewhere along the line the money is not going back to his pocket. If I see a nigga who’s blowed up in the media and I know that he’s living bad and his shit is fucked up, something is really wrong here. If you’re a broke rapper with a record deal in the United States right now, something’s wrong because there is too much money to go around for that. If you’re a rapper and you’ve got a record deal but you’re broke and the CEO is riding around with more diamonds on his neck than your house cost, you better get your shit in line and figure out where the money is going. The whole record industry is acting like they’re broke right now, because as long as they keep crying and acting like they ain’t got no money, they ain’t gotta give nobody none. I don’t see Interscope hurting for money right now, do you? All of them muthafuckers [in the record industry] are rich. The music business ain’t that bad. Sure, some people ain’t selling as many records as they were selling before, and it’s probably because two weeks before everybody’s album comes out, the bootleg is out. If I got the bootleg for $5 the week before and it wasn’t good, what’s gonna make me go to the store and spend all my hard earned money on that album? I’m not gonna do it and you’re not gonna do it either. Do you know what I’m riding around listening to right now? Eazy Duz It. That’s some shit from a whole ‘nother era. I called Scarface and told him, “Look here, man. Whatever you got going on with the record label, please settle that shit and put an album out because we really need a good record right now, bro. Niggas’ shit is all watered down, no samples.” Niggas are sex symbols now. They got lip gloss all over they lips in the videos, looking extra shiny, and they want us to go to the store and spend our hard-earned money on that shit. Nah, man, we are going to spend $5 on the bootleg and check your shit out to see if it is jammin’. That’s why niggas’ record sales are going down, cause they’re putting out that bullshit. And the radio doesn’t help us, either. Shit, the radio is all being programmed by one or two companies that own the radio stations. Back in the day, everywhere I went they were playing a different record that was hot in that city and you wouldn’t hear it nowhere else. Now, everywhere I go, I hear the same damn Beyonce song playing all muthafuckin’ day long. It makes me sick to my stomach. So we’re turning on XM and Sirius and we’re buying mixtapes because niggas are starving for music. So yeah, I support the mixtape game, as long as I can get some money too. Let’s all get some money together.
Fuck the gotdamn publishing companies. Fuck the gotdamn record labels. Fuck all them. I’m riding with Drama. And all the hoe-ass niggas that were trying to talk down on him, shit, you better get real, cause those muthafuckers don’t give a damn about you. If they figure out a way, they’ll send the muthafuckin’ RIAA at us too.
But I never want [my opinions] to be misconstrued that the DJ is not important to this rap shit. There couldn’t be no rappers or Hip Hop music or gangsta music if it wasn’t for the DJs. We need DJs to serve it and spin it in the right fashion. Without them, there wouldn’t be no us. The shit don’t work without the DJs. DJs are very important. They’re just as important as the rappers, the producers, and the record companies.
I’ve never told a DJ, “No, I won’t get on your mixtape.” I just ask them how much money we’re going to make. But when I talk about money, niggas don’t want to talk to me no more. Well, you can’t go to the dope man and buy no cocaine if you ain’t got no money. Even if you’re getting it off consignment, at the end you’ve gotta come back with some muthafuckin’ money. So I always say, “Nigga, how much money are you making off this mixtape, and how much are you going to give me?” They never call back. So if a nigga don’t like my attitude towards this game and the way I do things, fuck ‘em in they pussies. Tell all these bitch ass niggas to get in line and go on and
So, I’m not angry at mixtape DJs. I just like money. I actually like greedy muthafuckin’ DJs more; I want to work with them because that means we’re going to get the most money together. Most [mixtape DJs] just aren’t greedy enough. They’re used to the way it’s being done. When a muthafucker wants to come in and try to challenge the structure of the game, people don’t like that. Who wants to give up $250,000 out of their $500,000? They don’t want to do that. // - as told to Julia Beverly OZONE MAG // 65