RAISING ARIZONA
WORDS BY MAURICE G. GARLAND PHOTO BY TY WATKINS
It’s 113 degrees in Phoenix, AZ, but Willy Northpole isn’t sweating a thing. He’s the coolest he’s been in a long time. His long-awaited debut album Tha Connect is finally in stores.
“It feels good,” he says via telephone, with the smile on his face evident from the joy in his voice. “I know what I did. I know how important this was for me and my city. Word of mouth is the best promotion I can have now. I have a product that I can actually sell. I have something on the shelf. I’m in grind mode now.” Willy burst onto the scene in 2007 with a Disturbing Tha Peace record deal and an OZONE West cover. From there he found himself answering two questions: “People rap in Phoenix?” and “Who the hell is Willy Northpole?” “That’s why I named my album Tha Connect,” says Northpole, who spent time as a G-Unit affiliate before joining DTP. “Everybody was asking what happens in Phoenix. I’m going to be the connect that tells everyone about what goes on here.” So tell us, because we’d hate to assume, what did you listen to growing up in Phoenix? When I was growing up I listened to Geto Boys, a lot of the West Coast and Death Row stuff, N.W.A. Then we got to into Pac. Then I got on Redman, he was one of the first artists that I kinda crossed over and listened to from the East Coast. Then I got incarcerated and when I got out I was listening to Biggie and Jay-Z. Since we’re between the South and the West, it depends on what catches out here. A lot of people from Phoenix are not from here. They come from Chicago, the South, some East coast people too, but there’s a lot of Chicago guys out here. The release of your debut album has been a two-year process. Would you say you’ve grown through the process? A lot of niggas can’t walk these shoes. As a new artist you gotta restrain yourself from running up in people’s office with baseball bats [laughs] but I love doing what I do. I just l love what I do. I definitely accomplished growth in the music and accomplished things like landing videos on TV. At the end of the day, we’re still human, I have to go through a lot of BS to get shit done. Radio is scared to play new artists. Radio used to play stuff because it was good, but now it’s so many politics. I just came in at a time when it’s fucked up. So far the reviews on your album have been pretty favorable. People are saying it’s an actual “album.” Is that what you set out to do? I come from an era where I loved albums. That’s the format I laid out on
12 // OZONE WEST MAG
the album, instead of focusing on singles. I started off with the intro and showed them my lyrical side, no hooks, damn near a freestyle. It’s 3 minutes of me spitting all the way through. Then we went to “Hood Shit.” I’m starting from the bottom, it’s a story in the album. That was the grimier side, going from banging and stupid shit and jail. Then we get to “Hood Dreamer” where I’m looking for a way out. From there it leads up to “The Life” with Ne-Yo. I have “My Beliefs” where I’m showing what went on in the Bible days and comparing it to what’s going on now. Then I have “The Story” and my dead homie tribute. I have some Slick Rick-like storytelling on there too. Nothing talking about rims and money. I really wanted to show me on this album. “The Life” could’ve been my single, but I couldn’t do that yet. I wanted to do that after the album was out, so that way I could go back to songs like “Body Marked Up” if I wanted to. I wanted to start from the bottom to the top. You see how Jay-Z started with Reasonable Doubt? He blew up and did Kingdom Come later on. Niggas hated on that, so he came back with American Gangster. He can go back to that when needs too. But cats that come out with their “lady records” first can’t do that. Many times when an artist signs to a label run by an artist, they get overshadowed by the bigger artist. We can’t necessarily say that’s the case with you. It’s easy to forget you’re even affiliated with Ludacris. I always told myself that I didn’t want to be like [DTP’s] other artists. I just wanted to be signed to the label and let me do what I do. He’s not on my album or my singles, but everybody knows who I’m signed to. I wanted to establish myself by getting my music out. It’s gonna be a process but I think it’s a plus. When you think of me you don’t just think of Ludacris. But we’ve done stuff together, I can call him and he’ll do whatever I ask. Do you think music is getting back to being homogenous, where it doesn’t always matter where you are from? You know, getting back to being strictly about the music? Because you haven’t shoved “I’m from Phoenix” down our throats. I’m not gonna rep my hood all the time and shove it down your throat. That’s like a Puerto Rican putting all Puerto Rican stuff on their album and not appealing to the Dominicans, but they’re Latin too. All I have to do is make music and just rep where I’m from. Music was fucked up for a minute. I think it’s coming back out the way it’s supposed to. If people let these new guys come out it will be good. Don’t get me wrong, some of these new niggas are weird as fuck, but they’re making good music though. We’ve got niggas rapping again. All we’ve got to do is keep that base. //