love them niggas, them my niggas for life. I’m gon’ buy them mo’ whips for no reason. Shit, we keeping it gangsta. When I walked in here you were making a purchase. It wasn’t a whip though. Yeah, this called kush right here. You know, niggas be making up all types of other names and shit: Gorganic kush, bubonic kush, all kinds of shit — I just call it the best. As long as it’s the best, you could make up any name for it, I don’t care. As long as it’s the best. Is it true that you spend $3,000 a day on weed? Yeah, I got a bad habit. I just was paying my weedman when you walked in here. I just bought 2 ounces for $1,400. It’s a real big part of my life, but it equals everything out. If I don’t have weed, the engineers get roughed up, bitches might get elbowed here and there, a nigga at the car wash might get a “fuck you” and not get paid, you know. So it’s not a bad habit, it’s a good investment? Great! It keeps me out of trouble. The kush keeps me outta trouble. Other than the SK riding with me everywhere, it keeps me outta trouble, man. How instrumental is weed to your music? Aw man, weed is Hip Hop. It’s a lotta niggas who don’t smoke it, but it’s a part of life for me. It goes hand in hand with my music, it lets me get away and just focus on my music. How has your status as a boss improved since you put out Port of Miami? Right now I’m feeling good to be able to call my company and say, “Yo, I need Mannie Fresh,” and now my nigga is here. But before my music came out I was a certified street boss. Niggas knew I was from the streets, and niggas died to get in this position, and niggas killed to get in this position. But once you make music, people look at you different. It ain’t just the streets, now it’s the whole entertainment part. And the people who don’t really know you think they know you. So just trust me, I’m the boss, I run this shit. Believe that.
going on? You’re involved in real estate, too, aren’t you? Yeah, we just opened an upscale barbershop and beauty salon on Old National in Atlanta; it’s like one of the nicest ones in the world. It’s real exotic. We doing that, and we’re putting together a clothing line, which is really coming along. I’m gon’ build a store in Miami on one of the biggest streets in my hood, and we doing all that independent. You already know, the film, M-I-Yayo, everybody should go get it when it drops. Trilla, the album of the year, I already know everybody gon’ go and get that when it drops, that’s mandatory. Do you think Trilla is going to get five blunts in OZONE? Aw, it’s too easy. OZONE is like one of the most accurate magazines when it comes to ratings because OZONE really be in the streets. I see y’all everywhere, that’s why y’all get the most pictures of me, and the most interviews. Y’all know that Port of Miami came out 11 months ago, close to a year ago, and we still doing five shows a week. We still getting and doing everything we supposed to be doing. We got the Converse endorsements. I just did my acting debut in the film Days of Wrath alongside Lawrence Fishborne. Shout out to Faizon Love. It’s gon’ be a great movie, make sure y’all look for that. We just doing our thing, man, on all levels. Why is Trilla going to be the album of the year? ‘Cause I’m making the best music out right now. I can’t tell you everything about the album ‘cause I wanna keep a lot of it a surprise, but you already know I got my homie Jay-Z on it. “Maybach Music,” that’s gon’ be a huge record, monumental. And of course you know Triple C is on the album, Lil Wayne on it, and you see Mannie Fresh right here with me in the studio. Pharrell checked in, my brothers Cool & Dre checked in, everybody checkin’ in man, so, you know. Hands down, it’s gon’ be the album of the year.
It’s M-I-Yayo, it’s always tension in the air in Miami - but I love it! That’s the way it goes, and if you didn’t understand that, you wouldn’t survive. I understand it. It’s not uncomfortable when it’s four guns riding in the car with me. That’s normal.
This last year has to have been a ride for you with all the mainstream fame. Yeah, yeah, yeah, man. A lot of snakes came out the grass. Old, garbage lawyers. I had to step my game up. Old garbage lawyer wanted to sue me, but he’s stupid. He’s a loser. His career is finished. Can you talk about that? What went down with the lawyer situation? [The lawyer] tried to — well, the shit’s still going on, but I don’t care. I’m good. So basically it’s like dude is trying to come up off of you or something? Yeeeaaaah. He trying to say we threatened him — bodily harm to kill him and all this and that we took money and all that. But after the case is over I’ll talk to y’all in-depth, you know? But we laughing about that shit, we getting money, man. We doing our thing and we expect that. We anticipate shit like that. It’s just like as if there’s been a lot of break-ins in your neighborhood and everybody house been getting broke into one by one, so you know what you gotta do — cut all the lights off and sit in there with the 50 round drum, and just wait. You gotta be patient, a nigga gon’ stick his head through the window and you know how you gotta do it. And that’s all I’m doing. I’m sitting in the dark, with that 50 round, 50 caliber, just waiting to blow a bitch head off. Believe that. Okay, so besides the music, the movie, and the label deal, what else do you have
What’s going on with you and Trick Daddy? I heard he’s on the album? Yeah, he on my album, too, “Day in Day Out,” look out for that. Look out for Trick Daddy on the album. I know for a while, you two had a little turmoil. Is everything cool now? Yeah, you gotta understand man, real niggas do real shit. It’s like, when you a nigga, and you move wit’ yo camp, whatever’s happening in the streets, all that shit reflects. People hear shit and people gon’ say shit, but when you are bosses and there’s two rich niggas from two different sides in the same area, that tension gon’ always be in the air. And I’m comfortable with that. Trick my nigga, he know what time it is. He know where I’m at. I know where he at, that’s how we get down. It’s M-I-Yayo, it’s always tension in the air in Miami — but I love it! That’s the way it goes, and if you didn’t understand that, you wouldn’t survive. I understand it. It’s not uncomfortable when it’s four guns riding in the car with me, that’s normal. I’m not uncomfortable. I been knowing Trick for a long time. That’s my nigga, man. Is there anything that does make you uncomfortable? Is there anything that bothers Rick Ross? Being broke, man. That makes me uncomfortable; knowing that I’m not rich would make me uncomfortable. That’s what would make me uncomfortable. What a nigga says can’t make me uncomfortable. But not gettin’ money? That would make me uncomfortable, and I’m real comfortable right now. As far as MI-Yayo, Miami, we doing our thing. We putting a lot of young niggas on. Y’all, as OZONE MAG // 53