thugs, if that’s what you wanna call us, in a corporate world. We’re adapting and getting money.
Slick Pulla: Pretty much my vocabulary, and a lot of times I like to say something that make you think a little bit too.
BloodRaw, even though you beat the Federal case, I heard that you recently got arrested for a similar situation. BloodRaw: I mean we ain’t gon’ get into the new case, but we gon’ get on the old case because that was big. The new shit is real petty, but the old case went down like this. On January 6th, 2006, we were about to leave the country to go to Europe on a 17 city tour and the U.S. Marshall picked me up. They expedited me to Panama City to face federal conspiracy charges. Then, on April 6th, 2006, I was acquitted, and by the blessing of God I’m here. There was a lot of niggas who held they nuts and counted me out. They say niggas was giving each other high-fives at the club, but this is destiny, homie. Can’t nobody stop this. We’re gonna be successful no matter what. When you put God first, everything is possible.
BloodRaw, how is the music scene in your hometown of Panama City, Florida? BloodRaw: The music scene is not real big. Panama City is drug-infested. We don’t have nobody to look up to. The kids don’t have no recreational centers, no idols or nothing. Kids in Panama City grow up and at 11 or 12 years old they’re trying to get a sack. I’m real influential to the younger generation that’s coming up now in Panama City, so I do everything I can to support the hood. Everybody knows I’m the Bang ‘Em Bay representer, but at the end of the day, I’m trying to bring Florida together. Florida as a whole has been divided for so long. But we’re coming together and I’m in a position to help out and bring us together as a state. I look forward to putting Florida on my back. I feel like Shaquille O’Neal and Dwayne Wade. I am Mr. Gunshine State.
Slick you recently got shot; why didn’t we hear more about that situation? Slick Pulla: Getting shot is not my claim to fame. If you in the hood and a certain situation goes down, that’s something that can happen at any given time to anybody. In that situation, I felt the cat was trying to make a move on me and I’m hotheaded so I went and slapped him and his homeboy, and it resulted in the shooting, but I’m blessed. How has the group dynamic changed as a result of the some of the situations you’ve been involved in? Slick: The group has pretty much stayed the same, man. It’s real street music, we been sticking to the same formula. It was the same thing coming in and it’s gonna be the same formula coming out. BloodRaw: The difference between us and a lot of other groups is that we don’t really look at it as a group. We came into this as family and with a lot of niggas. We’re all solo artists also, but we wanted to come out as a group first to show people that we could get down this way, and we can get down on the solo tip. Right now we’re just representing CTE. We gon’ be around for a long time, so if anybody else think this a game, they just finna’ see. Slick: Be prepared. Tell me about the new album, Corporate Thuggin’. Slick: It’s three great minds thinking alike for one common cause, and that’s to put the “real” back into this street movement, man. We gon’ give the people what they want and let ‘em know the Corporate Thuggin’ mindframe. BloodRaw: The whole CTE, Corporate Thuggin’, is just really showing the whole world what we stand for, what we live by. It’s blood, sweat, and tears: Corporate Thugz. Entertainment. USDA is the clique; we’re Slick Pulla and BloodRaw. Corporate Thugz Entertainment is the umbrella and USDA is the forefront. Really, this is just three young cats from different places, different states, who came together from the streets and got something to say.
I heard Jeezy heard you performing at a concert and signed you almost immediately afterwards. Is that true? BloodRaw: Yeah, in Dothan, Alabama. I’ll never forget that night. I love Dothan, man; it’s like a home to me also. Yeah, one night in Dothan, me and Jeezy was both on the ticket. Dothan is right next to Florida, so that’s like my market, too. Jeezy seen me perform the street song I had called “Represent,” and him and Kinky B lost their minds. So I came to the A and in less than a week we made it happen. Here I am now. Slick, you’ve been with CTE since 2000. Have you gotten restless within those seven years? Slick Pulla: It’s about playing your role. Restless for what? We’re family. Whatever accomplishment my big homie made is an accomplishment for me, too. It’s a team thing for me, and everybody is gonna get they chance to do what they need to do. We’ve been down since before it was even on and cracking like this. It’s all about playing your position in life. Whenever my homie shines, I shine. Whatever he does, that’s a reflection of me also. And whatever I do is a reflection of him, so we all shining together. I have no reason to be restless because everything has been right on stride. What are you most looking forward to from this project? BloodRaw: Really, I’m looking forward to us being together again because we’ve all been pretty successful from our mixtapes. We’re all been out doing our own shows and we were on road all the time. [points at Slick] I love being with my brother and I think this USDA project is gonna bring us back together. We’re gonna be on road, having fun like old times, and we gon’ still make money. Do you know what the first single is going to be? BloodRaw: I’m 90 percent sure it’s gonna be a song called “Check.” It’s by one of our in-house producers named TA, he gave us a banger. The song is about getting money and bringing all the tools it takes to get money.
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Corporate Thuggin’ is gonna be released under Def Jam, right? BloodRaw: Yeah, Def Jam. Everything we do is Def Jam. We got a label deal. Our solo projects are Def Jam, we got R&B artists, we got other rap artists and everything is through Def Jam. Do you guys have different positions or ranks in the group? BloodRaw: We all working on positions, me personally, I got my own label. Slick got his thing, we either gon’ run some type of department, or we gon’ be A&Rs or something. But like I say, we all learning as we’re being artists. We’re learning the business. It just doesn’t stop with being an artist. We’re all gonna have positions in this company. Slick: We’re a young label, but with all of big homie’s success, we’re in a good position. We’re learning things right up close and personal.
Speaking of Jeezy, how do you plan on emerging from behind his shadow? BloodRaw: We all had a following before this. We all brought something to the table, and Jeezy just made our situation better. Slick has a style that you can distinguish from anybody. He got his own flow and his own voice. When you hear me on a track, you know it’s me. It ain’t like we’re following in the footsteps of Jeezy. When we came in we had a following, and we’re doing our own thang. The people are gonna wanna hear more of us individually, but they gon’ love to hear us as a group.
What mindset do you guys have when you’re going into the booth? BloodRaw: We just really bring us. We just put that together and its like Peruvian Flake, you can’t get no better. It’s like a thousand grams on the scale, it just adds up. Slick is the fly, flashy, young nigga. I’m gonna bring the soul to the table, the gospel, and Jeezy gon’ do his thing. He gon’ talk them yams, he gon’ talk about being a boss and it’s just gonna be three different minds all with something to say. Slick, what defines your style and separates you from other rappers?
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if that’s l We thugs, a nna cal what youcw porate us, in a or ng e’re adapti world. Wtti y e on . and ge ng m - bloodraw
What other producers do you have on the CD? BloodRaw: We really did the in-house thing. We probably got four outside producers on the whole album: Shawty Redd, Midnight Black, Toomp, and Mannie Fresh. It’s a tight lil’ lineup, but the in-house producers really showed they ass. We got Nasty, the nasty one. We got TA, we got Speedy, and Tony Rey. They all really showed their ass on this project. Why separates Corporate Thuggin’ from other group albums? Slick Pulla: This album is gonna take you back to the 8Ball & MJG days. The UGK days, the Geto Boys and Goodie Mob days. There hasn’t been an album from a group in a long time where several people collectively got together and gave you a solid, straight drop album. It ain’t really went down like that in a minute. It seems like a lot of cats just get in where they fit in and throw a verse here or there. But we did this here from the beginning to the end. We finna take you on one helluva trip. //
OZONE MAG // 73