I got the concept of the “Who?” from my grandmother, and it just shows how if you work hard and get somebody to motivate you like my grandmother motivated me, you can live your own American Dream. What’s your definition of The American Dream? The American Dream to me is being able to finally do what I want and be able to help others with my dream, so they could live their dream. Aside from your financial situation, what’s the biggest difference between this CD and Who is Mike Jones? This one has the street stuff that the last one had, but this one also has R&B. I got LeToya Luckett, Lil Mo, and Trey Songz on this album. I didn’t have none of that on the last album. I read that you’ve been writing some R&B stuff that Bryan Michael Cox was really impressed with. Oh yeah, Bryan Michael Cox heard a lot of the stuff I’ve done, so he knows what it is. I wrote the song “I Know” and I got Trey Songz on the hook. I also wrote one called “I’m Sorry” featuring Lil Mo and Pimp C, and I wrote the whole hook on that one, too. And it’s just about me apologizing to the girl for not doing right. On the last album I didn’t have none of that. On this album I’ve still got the street stuff, and you’re gonna hear more of the stuff you heard on Who is Mike Jones, but you’re also gonna hear the other side on this album, too. A lot of people are saying the Houston rap scene is kind of dying down, and that it’s not what it used to be. What do you think? I don’t think it’s dying down, if we’d have stayed in everybody’s face then they would have said that we’re getting oversaturated, feel me? So we all fell back to let somebody else shine. We fell back and other people started doing their thing, you know, hyphy started blowing up. We ain’t gotta have all the shine, we just want people to know that H-Town is relevant. You kinda disappeared completely for a while; do you feel that being away for so long diminished some of your shine or killed your buzz? I stepped back so that wouldn’t happen. When you get too much of anything people get tired of it. The Flavor of Love show was the hottest thing on TV, but when they show it so much you get tired of it like, “Oh, I missed it? Oh well, I’ll catch it next week, it ain’t a big deal.” It’s the same with music. So you gotta be strategic. Like Usher, for instance. He came out and sold ten million records and then he faded away — Usher ain’t dropped in 2 or 3 years, but when he come y’all gon’ know he coming. When you dropped Who is Mike Jones you had damn near the whole world yelling your name. Do you think with The American Dream album you’ll be able to create the same kind of tidal wave? Oh, most definitely. Even now I’m still doing the “Who?!” that’s me. Even the number, I still give it out. I called the number just to see if it works and it never rings. Did you get it disconnected? The number’s still mine and I still answer it. I was going back and forth with a phone company, but we’re good now. They tried to take my number because I put so much clientele behind it, but I told ‘em I couldn’t do that. Do you still feel that it’s necessary for you to yell out your name all the time, or do you think by now people know who you are? When I first started to say my name a lot everybody was like, “Damn, he say his name too much. Is he gon’ say his name that much on the next album?” But then the minute I stop saying my name they gon’ say, “Damn, I like it when he used to say his name; it ain’t the same now that he don’t say his name anymore.” But the most important thing people want to talk to me about is the American Dream, how I went from nothing to something. How people who didn’t believe in Mike Jones now gotta suck it up and see me on TV and see that I did the unthinkable. I did the impossible. Mike Jones is a dude that will prove anybody wrong that don’t believe in me, and it’s a lot of people that’s like Mike Jones in this world, that’s why I speak for the underdog all the time. And for the record, if it wasn’t for the movie, the album would’ve been out. What made you want to do the movie along with the CD? I wanted to do that with Who Is Mike Jones but the American Dream in my eyes, is really a first album. And the reason I say that is because on the Who Is Mike Jones album I wanted to get this celebrity, that celebrity, this guest appearance, that guest appearance, but everybody was like, “Naw, you hot, but you ain’t on our level hot so we can’t fuck with ya.” I was like, okay that’s cool, so I just had to play with the cards I was dealt. So, I got the “Back Then,” and the “Tippin,’” but if you look at Who Is Mike Jones I didn’t really have a lot of features on there. That’s not because I didn’t want to have them,
it’s because they didn’t want to get on the album. But now that I blew up, everybody and they momma wanna work with Mike Jones now, so now I’m able to put together the album that I really wanted the world to hear for the first time. So the whole “back then they didn’t want me” concept applies to artists as well? Yeah, but the artists that’s on this album wasn’t the “back then” people, they wasn’t the ones that wasn’t messin’ with me. It was other artists and celebrities who didn’t want to mess with me. Now they try to get me on their songs and I just don’t do ‘em. Even though you’ve gotten to the point where you can choose who you want to work with, do you feel that you still don’t get the amount of respect you deserve from Houston? I think the important people respect me. I think the haters don’t show me much love cause they feel that they’re supposed to be in my shoes, or they say shit like, “Man, that nigga can’t rap, anybody can do that. My little brother can do that.” But as long as the important people show me respect — the loyal fans — then I’m straight. Whenever I throw an event the whole city shows up. The haters are stuck outside hatin’, but you gon’ always have haters. People hate on you for a lot of different reasons, and they say all kinds of negative things about you and your music, but is there anything that is said about you that particularly bothers you? Nothing bothers me no more. It bothered me in the beginning when Who Is Mike Jones came out and people always said I need to lose fat and that I was chubby, and that my image wasn’t right for commercial success. But I got certified double platinum, so everything bad that people said about me doesn’t matter. Fuck what everybody else thinks. The people that hate don’t pay my bills anyway, so until you start making the money that I’m making, I’m not finna talk to you no more. I heard somewhere that your label Ice Age is under Swishahouse now, is that true? No sir. Ice Age is under Ice Age, most definitely. Me and Swisha decided to do our own thing and go our own way, but I still show the love and respect for them to still let them put their logo on the CD cover. But as far as when you watch the commercials and all that, its gon’ be strictly Ice Age Entertainment. What do you see for the future of Ice Age? I’m planning for a big future, I mean, that’s anybody who has invested in a record label, you wanna be the best thing smokin’ or at least make sure you put out good music and make good money. Tell me about your relationship with Michael Watts. Is it true that you refuse to go on stage with him? No, I don’t know where you got that from. I seen Watts like two days ago. It was cool, I seen him at the radio station; we shook hands like, “What’s up, what’s up,” and kept it moving. It ain’t no beef with Watts. Is Chamillionaire featured on The American Dream? Naw, he ain’t on the new album. But we’re not beefin’, that beef was over with two years ago. I mean, we’re both grown men, we both do our own thing and we both respect what each other is doing. I’ve got nothing but love for what he’s doing, and I’m pretty sure he feels the same way about me. Is there anything else you feel you need to prove to either your fans, critics, or more importantly to yourself? I ain’t gotta prove nothing. I just want my fans to know that I appreciate what they did, cause that’s how I was able to prove the critics wrong. That’s why I went into my own money to put this movie together to give to the fans because I appreciate all the love they’ve showed me. If your new album does as well as Who Is Mike Jones do you think that’ll be enough to silence all your haters and critics? I know they gon’ hate regardless. The critics was hating on me for the first album and I sold 2 million copies, and they gon’ hate on me for The American Dream if I go platinum on this album or not. They also gon’ hate on my third album, and the fourth album, and the fifth album; you’ll never be able to shake a critic. People hate on Jay-Z and he’s ten albums deep, so that’s one thing you’ll never do, shake a critic. There’s not one artist out that the critics don’t say at least one thing negative about, so I don’t try to impress my critics. You’ll lose your hair trying to impress the critics. Okay, last question. There’s a “Mike Jones sex tape” circulating on the internet. I’ve gotta ask, is that really you? Hell no. But my new album is in stores July 10th. (laughs) // OZONE MAG // 69