TRAINING DAY Feel free to keep reading those other whack magz, where they sit in the office all day long and 90% of their former staff hate them. But it’s a well-known fact that over here at OZONE, life is one big never-ending road trip. A few former (and one current) OZONE contributors reminisce on their favorite mag moments.
NOEL MALCOLM (former OZONE assistant editor) What do you get when you put over 200 pounds of magazines in a 1999 Mercury Cougar and send off me and JB to visit five States in five days? Haven’t thought of it yet? That’s because you get three things: The foundation for OZONE becoming a monster in the South, 3,000+ miles on my damn car, and one memory that will stick with me for years to come! Five states in five days was a statement. Until that point OZONE was known mostly in Florida. Even though people from across the entire country were feeling OZONE, we hadn’t really had the opportunity to live up to the tagline “Coming to a city near YOU!” But this proved to be a time when we needed to give a voice to more of the Southern artists out there – people who had been clamoring for some shine on glossy pages in a then Southern-prejudiced Source and XXL. So it was a simple mission: OZONE to the rescue. On that excursion, we found the talent that would inspire the first “Patiently Waiting to Blow” issue. We first met with TJ Chapman from TJ’s DJ’s, and he and numerous other DJs helped set us up with an underground artist map that would give the world first dibs on some of our hottest Southern talents today. Diligently we kept on through the nights with JB and myself switching driving duties across thousands of miles of interstate. On our travels we found up and coming talents like Lil’ Scrappy and Trillville. The artist that most recently made us proud is Rich Boy, who we met at a restaurant with DJ Nick@Nite on our first trip to Mobile, AL. We linked up with DJs like B-Lord and H-Vidal and kept pushing. Hooked up with David Banner in Mississippi, stopped at the Dungeon in ATL, introduced ourselves to Collard Greens in South Carolina and wrapped up everything back in Florida. There were way too many names to mention from that one trip but many of the artists were featured in Issues #16 and 17 of the magazine and it was great being able to introduce them early to the masses. Their success has helped build the foundation for OZONE. That trip became a benchmark for the numerous other cross-country trips that happen almost on a monthly basis now, helping to spread the name of the magazine and take us from handing them out at clubs to tagging them on newsstands. Five states in five days, that was some fun shit.
RAYFIELD WARREN (former OZONE photographer) The two years that I spent with OZONE were the most memorable times of my life, as I experienced more during this period than a lot of people will probably experience in a lifetime. Whether I was taking pictures of Diddy in Miami, being told to take multiple photographs of Chingy for an article and coming back with only one that was usable, being scolded by Julia for not knowing who Elephant Man was at the “Get Low” remix video shoot or just hanging out with the OZONE family, every day was an adventure. It began at the Chili’s on Semoran and University Blvd. where I showed Julia some of my photographs. After about twenty minutes of talking and eating cheese sticks she changed my life forever with five words: “Okay, you can be down.” Although I am no longer with the magazine, the lessons that I learned while there are still with me and have played a major role in my development as a corporate executive. OZONE gave me the opportunity to build a strong foundation in Orlando which has allowed me to reach many of my goals and dreams and for that, I will always be grateful. ERIC PERRIN (current OZONE Features Editor) Since I joined the OZONE staff, literally every day has entailed some kind of adventure – from crackhead hunting on the West end of Atlanta to getting lectured by Pimp C in Austin, TX. One thing is guaranteed with OZONE: never expect a dull moment. It’s difficult to pinpoint my single favorite OZONE experience, but one that stands out in my mind was Super Bowl weekend 2007 in 42 // OZONE MAG
Miami. It was only my second time ever in Miami, and after driving the OZONE truck all night from Atlanta, I was tired as hell. I had damn near overdosed on CRUNK!!! Energy Drink and by the time we arrived on South Beach my heart was thumping so fast I know I must’ve been close to cardiac arrest. We were transporting over a thousand pounds of Super Bowl special edition magazines and the back of the truck was nearly scraping the ground. We made it to the OZONE mansion around 11 AM, and all I wanted to find was a bed. Instead, I found a pool in the back of the house overlooking Biscayne Bay, and my exhaustion evaporated. It was like taking an intravenous shot of the extraconcentrated horny goat weed with Ashwaganda; I was ready. I don’t think I slept more than two hours that weekend, but with the slew of celebrity guests we ran into, as a 21-year-old college student, it doesn’t get much better than this.
WALLY SPARKS (former OZONE Music Editor) My favorite OZONE memory isn’t really a memory of my own. It’s really a congratulatory feeling for JB and my longtime friend TJ Chapman. The amazing feat they were able to pull off with the OZONE Awards last August made me feel good to see my friends accomplishing something monumental. I really don’t want to turn this into a “you gotta be from the South to understand” type of rant, but for real, you have to have an appreciation for Southern rap music outside of the T.I.s, Lil Waynes, and UGKs of the world to realize how much of a timeless moment that was. Speaking of UGK, Bun B said something so real during his award acceptance speech that should tell you how big the OZONE Awards were: “I wanna thank everybody that actually came to this shit, cause I’ma be real and say what everybody ain’t gonna say. I ain’t know what this shit was gonna look like and I really didn’t know if I was gonna come, but… I came out and supported and I’ma bring a hundred trill niggas with me next year, and y’all better do the same. This is some South shit right here. Ain’t nobody else gonna come together and put this shit together for us but us… We gonna do this shit ten times bigger next year.” Man, you couldn’t get a better statement from a more qualified person. That was the icing on the cake of the whole weekend of controlled chaos in the Florida sun with some of the most important people in the music industry. It felt good to know that my personal friends that I’ve learned so much from were responsible for making it happen. It made me proud to be a Southern Hip Hop head.
(clockwise from below) Wally Sparks @ the Tech.Nitions conference in Vegas with OZONE’s Alabama affiliate Michael London; Eric Perrin having a lil too much fun at SXSW in Austin, TX; Noel Malcolm interviewing Gloria Velez in Miami - strictly because of her emcee skills, of course; Rayfield Warren sitting in as a test lighting subject before a Rodney Jerkins photo shoot in Orlando