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f course, you’ve got the hit record “It’s Goin’ Down” right now. It kinda seems like you came out of nowhere. How long have you been recording and what brought about the interest in it? Since I was 12. I had a lot of cousins that rapped. I used to always rap with my folks. If my mama had company, she’d want me to come in there and rap for everybody. I’d do it and they’d give me money for doin’ it. That’s when I realized that I could do this. So that’s when I started doing it. Were you putting out music independently? Me and my homie Chino Dollar had our own label called Mastermind Music. I ended up signing myself over to Block [Entertainment]. How long ago was that? We did the deal in November. So you really blew up kinda quick. Had you already recorded “It’s Goin’ Down” when you hooked up with Block? Yeah, that’s how he heard about us, cause I was already out there in the streets in the A. I was all around the city pumpini’ my shit, workin’ and shit, and it just started picking up. The song’s got a real catchy hook and all that. Would you basically consider it just a party record or are you trying to say something? It’s not just partying. I could say “It’s goin’ down” for anything! “Man, them boys done pulled out them straps, it’s goin’ down!” Or “Oh man, she brought her and her partna! It’s goin’ down!” Or “Auntie Rose got the goddamn macaroni and cheese and them ribs for Thanksgiving, boy! It’s goin’ down!” So you’re tryin’ to bring that Atlanta slang to the world. Tryin’? That’s what I am doin’, baby! You’ve got that real thick ATL accent. Born and raised? In the A, yeah. A-Town stay down. Where do you see the future of Atlanta music? Of course we had the Outkast and Goodie Mob and Organized Noize sound at one point, then it kinda went to crunk, now it’s snap music. I don’t know. I just know that I’m tryin’ to bring fun back to it, and a sense of realism as well. Now that you’ve got a hit single, do you feel that there’s a lot of pressure to follow that up and avoid the “one-hit wonder” title? Do you feel like you have a follow-up? I feel like I do. I produced my next single and it’s called “I Know You See It.” What led you to start producing? I’ve got ideas. I just wanted to see if I could manifest some of them. If you listen to hooks, man, hooks ain’t nothin’ but melodies. For example I could’ve took that hook “Meet me in the trap, it’s goin’ down,” and play a bass line that’s the same tune. Just by itself, that’s the melody. Are you producing records for any other artists? I got people asking me right now. But I ain’t gonna put [their names] out there just yet. I’m tryin’ to surprise people. How does it feel to be linked up with the legendary Bad Boy? It feels good. I’ve got an official team behind me that’s tryin’ to make it work for me. So it feels great, you know? Shit, I came up! Tell me about your album New Joc City. It comes out June 6th. I talk about some of everything on the album. I talk about real, everyday life. I talk about a chick’s first time with a real dude. I talk about a lot of different things. It’s not just partying. I got some club records and I got some trap records. Are you a trappin’ dude, or a party type of dude? Everybody comes out tryin’ to be hard lately, talking about what they did in the streets and how much drugs they sold and all that. Naw, I’m more like a party type of dude. I ain’t even trippin’ over all that, man. It don’t even matter about how much dope I done sold. That’s the least of my concerns. That’s the last thing people should be worried about. That shit is meaningless to me. If I talk about it at all, I’ma talk about my transition from there til now, you know what I mean?
What do you think is gonna be the key for you to stay in this game and have longevity as an artist? Understanding the youth, even as an adult. You got to understand what they gon’ see. The older you get, the less you get caught up in the hip talk and the little sayings. But the younger people are always evolving. They’re always comin’ up with new talk. Right now, me being 23, if I go to a middle school or a high school they’re gonna be sayin’ some stuff and I’m gonna be like, what? And it wasn’t that long ago that I was in high school. But it just shows you how quick times can change. You’ve got to stay in touch with your youth and keep a sense of reality as well. I’m sure you don’t really want to talk about the whole situation in on the T.I./Yung Joc tour in Cincinnati where T.I.’s assistant was killed. But being that your name was put out there as having some sort of involvement, can you clarify what actually happened that night? There was no involvement. Honestly, no one did anything, from my camp to T.I.’s camp. The dude was intoxicated and that’s where the drama came from. I kept the peace and T.I. kept the peace. It just escalated from that to something else. Does being in a situation like that make you question your career? Naw, it doesn’t make me want to change my career at all. Cause at the end of the day, you’ve got people who go to work a regular 9-5 job and they’re sitting at their desk and some crazy deranged cat comes in there with a gun and shoots up the whole office. That happens. So it doesn’t make me rethink my livelihood but it just makes me more aware that you really have to watch your surroundings, cause at any given time you can be in the midst of a volatile situation. Whenever a rapper dies, everyone says “R.I.P.” and “Stop the violence” and all that, but it seems like people are not listening. What do you think artists like yourself can do to get the message across? As an artist, you become a target, regardless if you’re trying to be or not. You’re already a figure in the hip-hop community. People know who you are and know your background. People can almost look at you and tell how much you’re worth, or have an idea of what you’re worth. If a cat on the street sees a rapper walking by, he’s thinking, “He says he got $50,000 on his wrist. It looks like it. I know I can’t afford it, so, it might be. If I can get that off his wrist, shit, I can go flip that right quick and get some work and flip that and beyond.” You know what I’m sayin’? You gotta think about the way people think sometimes. Sometimes people don’t look at reality. People get caught up in surrealism. I thought art was supposed to imitate life, but I think cats got it twisted. It seems like they let their lives imitate art. As far as me, I don’t really know what needs to be done to keep the peace. All I know is what I do to keep the peace. If I’m involved in a situation, I’ll try my best to defuse it. If it had nothin’ to do with me, then it’s nothin’ I can do. Are the rest of the tour dates with you and T.I. rescheduled? Yeah, due to the circumstances, we had to postpone some of the dates. But I am gonna resume the full tour with T.I. when it’s rescheduled. It’s a couple other tours I’m doing. Right now I’m doing dates on Bow Wow’s tour, and Puff wanted me to let it be known that I’ma be touring with him come July and August. Really, the only criticism I’ve heard about you as an artist is that some people say Block is trying to mold you into Jeezy #2 or put you out the same way Jeezy came out. Do you think there’s any truth to that or do you feel like you stand on your own? I’m on my own. You don’t hear me talking about dope and AKs. You don’t even hear me stuntin’. I mean, that’s not what I do. I don’t do gangsta rap. So for somebody to say that Block is tryin’ to mold me into another Jeezy don’t even make sense. I talk about gangsta shit but I ain’t classified as a gangsta rapper. It’s a difference. So there’s no truth to that shit whatsoever. You know, me and Jeezy are cool. But Jeezy does what he does and I do what I do and we respect each other. Block is not tryin’ to mold me into a G. Joc is Joc. The only thing Block is tryin’ to do is polish me up so I can be an icon, that’s all. Anything else you want to say? I produced my next single and I’m directing my next video. I’m bout to drop the Gangsta Grillz next week called Welcome to my Block, and I’m reading some movie scripts right now.
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