MJG needs no introduction. As one half of the Memphis, Tennessee duo 8Ball & MJG, he’s considered a Southern Hip Hop pioneer and a living legend. Fresh out of a Bad Boy contract, G’s next move is to do it on his own. His new solo album, This Might Be The Day, will be released independently through his own MJG Music imprint, with the help from Atlanta-based indie label 404 Muzik and for Ball and G fans, he’s still space age pimpin’. What have you been doing since you were last on the scene? Just been off in the lab working out. We’ve been doing the 8Ball & MJG thang. The last thing, you know, was [our] Bad Boy situation. But other than that, man, we’ve just been staying at it. Over the last couple of years, I’ve been getting my label together. It’s always been something that I wanted to do, but I’ve just been working on doing that. I’ve got a couple artists, been grooming them and just getting things together like that, and trying to look at things from a CEO perspective, as well as artist. So, you’re no longer with Bad Boy at all? No. What was the situation with that? Why did you leave? Well, it was just one of them thangs that was a good experience while it lasted, but basically it was just time to move on to another level. We had a couple good records there, and like I said, it was a good experience to be able to work with somebody like Diddy. And for him to allow us to be able to work with him, everything was cool. We just had to be move on to another level. The last two 8Ball & MJG albums; were you guys satisfied with what y’all put out on Bad Boy, or was there too much influence on the Bad Boy side? You know, it really wasn’t. We had a lot of creative control over there at Bad Boy. We were just working with different producers, and trying to reach out and work with a couple producers we had never worked with before. So we kinda used that opportunity. But as far as the producers that we were working with, it was still all about what we picked and what we wanted. It wasn’t really a big, big difference. It was just a couple of different producers that we never worked with but you know it was all cool, cause we were able to pick and choose how we want it. What’s been your secret for having longevity in the game? Just try to stay fresh and young and hard about the love that we got for the game. Try to have the same love and respect for the game that we had when we came in. It’s just hard work, other than that, but hard work yields good results. Other than that, we just keep the love of the game genuine and that’s what really fuels us to go on and on. How do you keep the 8Ball & MJG sound and still be relevant as the game and sound changes over the years? Stick to just kinda doing you, because if a fan or person likes your stuff, then it had to be some uniqueness about it to make them like it. So, we just try to stick to doing us. But at the same time just come up with new ideas for doing us and incorporate it into our music. That’s why we always say “space age.” We have been saying that for a long time because we’ve been trying to not only be cool for the time, but kinda make people focus on what was ahead, too. So, it’s like speaking for now and the future, so it kinda put a little bit ahead of the game. But not too far, we don’t wanna seem like we futuristic or nothing but at the same time we trying to be aware of what’s going on now and what’s to come. Do you feel the game gives you the respect you deserve? Yeah, man. I feel just for me to be able to be here, sound mind and body, able to still continue to do this. I believe the game showed me enough respect, just that fact there alone. You’re considered a living legend. What do you think makes a living legend? It was a tag that a lot of our fans put on us cause it’s still kinda hard for me to actually say it. I could say that it was easy to say it, but really, I’m not that arrogant. But we’ve had a lot of friends, partners, fans and family say, “Man, y’all [are] like some living legends, man.” We just kept hearing it so much. You don’t normally hear that about people til after they die or something happened to them, or they 100 years old or something. We wanted to be like, “Since we hear that a lot, let’s embrace it now while we’re alive.” Let’s just say we’re living it. Most legends aren’t legends until after their gone. You and Ball have always been space age pimps. Many people say they learned how to pimp from y’all. How do you feel about that? It makes me feel good, as long as they’re really getting they pimpin’ on, in whichever way that they see fit, and look at it like a positive thing. Gettin’
your pimpin’ on means you’re gettin’ your money and your whole attitude can be pimpin’. I spit a lot of pimpin’, been around it and also had my hands in it. That’s the reason you hear me say “pimp type” a lot. A lot of folks think I be saying “pimp tight” but I be sayin’ “pimp type.” My whole lifestyle, my whole swagger, everything I do my life and speak in my lyrics is sort of pimp type. I’m not necessarily saying I’m just a full time pimp and that’s all I ever did. I’m known amongst all the other pimps for pimpin’ hoes or whatever, but my whole swagger and style is sort of pimp type. I just got that type of pimpin’ edge about me. I’m just a pimp type kind of guy. Do you think a lot of the people out here got the whole pimp thing misconstrued? In this day and time, it’s about getting your money. It’s always been about getting your money, but a lot of cats out here are really on the pimp game hard and really are career pimps with hoes. I ain’t been no career pimp with them hoes. Like I said, I really had my hands in the game but that’s not exactly what I’m claiming. Like I said, I’m pimp type. If that had to be an area that I had to cover or if I had to, or if that music wasn’t here, then it might be a different story. But a lot of cats it’s really not in them. I know about the game because I’ve been around career pimps. A lot of cats are screaming pimpin’, but honestly, for me, I do too much music. I stay in the studio too much for me to have time to be pimpin’ some hoes. If they want to bring me something, it’s all good. They can bring it and I’ll accept it in a real pimpin’ type of way. But really I’m 110% bout my music. And I’m just a pimp type kind of guy. If a pimp could do music, he would wanna be me, basically. Why did you decide to put out another solo album instead of doing another 8ball & MJG album? I just felt like it was that time. I’m normally working on a lot of stuff, whether it’s a Ball & G record or some stuff I might be working on with my artists on MJG Muzik. I got a lot of stuff in the vault as far as records by myself but I just don’t be moving as fast like that, cause I like to get deep with my stuff, make sure that its there and I be a lot more focused. I be having fun doing the 8Ball & MJG albums, but I just felt like it’s that time right now. I just feel like the game needs me. What’s the title of your album? This Might Be The Day. This might be the day for a whole new change. This might be the day that everybody been waiting on. Actually, I don’t wanna be too arrogant and say this is the damn day right here, which it pretty much could be but this might be the day. What do you have on the album? I got one cut on there called “Shades,” that’s the first single. It’s basically about me and my love affair with shades. I got another song on there called “Its Been So Long” and that’s a song featuring 8Ball. It’s about life on the road or life away from home, and wanting to get back home. Got another song on there called “Dangerous” that’s featuring Gucci Mane. It’s about females who dangerous and bad, but in good way. Like, she can go to school, work, or take care of the house, kids, cook, clean. Handle up on hers if she had to with the strap, shoot dice, drink beer and the whole nine yards. I got another song on the album called “Big Time” and it’s just about doing things that’s all good and doing things big time with this sweet little tender that you just met or you’ve been wanting to get with, and you’ve noticed she looking good and you just letting her know that if she get with me everything gonna be all good—cause we do it big time. And that’s featuring Pleasure P from Pretty Ricky. For people who have already heard 8Ball & MJG and know what you’re bringing and your style, what’s gonna be different on this album? Well, you will know for sure that it’s up-to-date, fresh material; it’s new thoughts. On the lead song, “This Might Be The Day,” I’m also singing on that track. And that’s another thing I pretty much have done, throughout my whole career on a lot of our older stuff, I’ve written a lot of our older stuff or either sung on some of it or a lot of it. I also produced a lot of our tracks, our classic stuff that we are known for. I’ve been kinda underground getting my whole thing together to let the world know that I’m really not only an artist, I’m a writer. I sing, I produce, I do it all. And that’s basically what MJG Muzik is about. [I’m] not calling it MJG Muzik because it’s me on a song. The whole concept, the ideas, the music, some of the singing, the singing that other singers are singing on there and everything is all from input from me. It’s stuff written by me and produced by me, and that’s what MJG Muzik is all about. So that would be a lot of difference, but from the sound, a lot of stuff will probably sound similar because I’ve always had a big input on our music. So, most definitely [you’ll] hear different stuff. It won’t sound like everything else that’s out and you will be able to hear that it’s not the same old, same old and I’m doing different stuff. But at the same time, I’m still keeping it MJG but its just newer, fresher MJG and MJG in maybe a couple of different ways you haven’t heard him. // OZONE MAG // 55