and make sure you don’t burn no bridges. That’s how I’ve gotten where I am, I’ve never burned bridges or crossed people. The era of the Suge Knights is over. That’s why we have the Lyor Cohens and the Kevin Liles, guys that don’t want no problems. What happened after working with Sacrifice? That’s what made get in the game, I just liked the little dude. I already had money so for me it was just me helping him out. But from hanging with Greg Street I met Tony Draper so I started kicking it with him when I was around 21 years old. ‘Pac was in jail during this time. But I became President of Suave House when we had 8Ball and MJG, Tela, Crime Boss, and South Circle. I did that for 3 years. Then I came back to Atlanta and Noonie [of Noontime] wanted me to be head A&R at Noontime. We was just a production company but then we wanted to be a label and put music out. That’s when we came out with Jim Crow. After they broke up we started managing Jazze Pha. I co-managed him, I dealt with the street side and Noonie dealt with the industry side. After that we created Shonuff Records. I had Block Entertainment. Noonie had Noontime, Jazze had Futuristic but we was all eating at the same table every night so we just formed all our companies and named it after Jazze’s first hit, “Shonuff.” Then we signed Ciara and got her a deal, then we signed Jody Breeze and got him a deal. But I wanted to do a street group on the side. So made Boyz N Da Hood. At first it was Trick Daddy, T.I., Sean Paul of the Youngbloodz, Jody Breeze, and me. But then I thought, anybody can make a supergroup so let me make some names. So I went and got Jeezy who I’ve known since he was 12 years old; Gee, who was signed to me through Block Entertainment; Duke, who had been around since Suave; and Jody, who was partially signed to me. We made four or five records that came out dope, so I took the original eight or nine songs and redid them. “Dem Boyz” was one of those records. I just took Trick off and put everyone else on there. Being that BNDH worked out real good, I branched off and started a street label. I was gonna run Block Entertainment like Master P did with No Limit, dropping street niggas every month, but still have Shonuff for bigger artists. It was gonna be a springboard for Shonuff. But because BNDH did so good and Jeezy getting his deal, Lyor, Kevin and Puff came to me like, “We want to give you a deal.” I had Capitol and Interscope Records on the table for deals too, but they gave me a multi-million dollar offer that I couldn’t refuse. Do you care what people think about you? Hell naw, I don’t care what nobody saw about me. There ain’t no flaw with me. I ain’t never been no sucka. If anybody got anything bad to say about Block you a hater. I get cats from out the hood and help them out. Well, how do you feel when people have things to say about you being in your artist’s interviews and videos? [laughs] Truthfully, with BNDH, that was my brainchild, that was real personal to me. I did that for my niggas in the streets, in the jails who felt misrepresented with that crunk shit. Plus, when Jeezy wasn’t there every time it was like I had to be the fourth member because it kind of throws people off if they just see three. People didn’t really think about it too hard until it was time to rap. I did it for those two reasons, it was my brainchild and I had to play that role. Plus, Puff told me, “Block, niggas used to laugh at me when I was in the videos and on the songs, but look at me, I’m still here. Make sure you recreate yourself. Use everything as a stepping stone.” So now, I got Yung Joc. You ain’t gonna see me in a lot of shit with Joc. But BNDH, that was personal. A lot of labels are hiring rappers and street cats to run certain operations. Do you think that’s a good look? Should people aiming to climb that ladder skewer their attitudes towards the street? Yeah, but only if you from the streets. But it depends on how far you up are on the ladder. Even with me, Lyor and Kevin probably think I should suit up when I go to meetings, but I go in Adidas with my pants sagging. Eventually I’ll mature to that level of suiting up anyway. But you should just be you. Like some of these niggas in Atlanta who have been here all these years but I never see them in the ‘hoods trying to help somebody. They hop on the radio and say they in the ‘hood helping the ‘hood, but we never see them. We don’t even see them in the ‘hood malls. I’m an Eastside nigga, man. What it look like if I get all this money and I can’t even ride down the street where my grandmamma lives? But I think the labels need a guy like me to stay in the hood, in
the South. Like Lil J at Rap-A –Lot. He reps the streets of Houston, that’s what I want to do for the A. You’ve been in the game for some years. What is it going to take for African-Americans to go from having imprints getting their own majors? The problem is that we don’t have distribution. The only way I see it is if we all link up together and create a secret society. Its gonna take people like Puff, Kevin Liles and Lil J, the type of cats that have more than money, but influence to go to a cat like Lyor to let us get distribution companies. We can’t distribute them, everything is locked down. Think 10 years ago with Suave, Rap-A-Lot and Three 6. When they had Southwest Distribution and companies like that, they all gone. The majors bought them all up so now you can’t make that easy money. That was a chess move they made, buy everything up so they can control the game. If everyone could distribute themselves they couldn’t control the game. Just imagine everybody getting $8 a CD. We wouldn’t need them! It ain’t nothing but a loan. All the millions they gave me ain’t nothing but a loan. But it’s gonna take money and power to do that. But I don’t see it coming no time soon. Blacks with their own distribution? We would have been done it. Look at all the money Master P, Puff, Russell Simmons have. Why don’t we have it? Do you make it a priority to teach your artists the ins and outs of the game? That’s what I do, I teach. I just made Big Duke over my whole A&R department. I been teaching [Slip-N-Slide] Rick Ross how to set himself up too. You got to sacrifice yourself to make others better. My father used to tell me, “If everybody works, everybody gotta eat or else the table will be destroyed.” So if you with Block Entertainment, you eating. If I can’t put you in a position to feed yourself I’ll just let you go, because there will be a problem eventually. When did you learn to delegate responsibilities? I learned through working with Greg, Suave and Noonie that you got to find people with their own strengths. I find start up companies and make them a part of my company. For example, Rico Brooks, he pretty much runs Block Entertainment. I’ve seen him grinding in the streets for years. Plus I know he knows how to deal with people, that’s a key when you are running a label. You got to know how to talk to people and treat people. You can’t be shining and have your artist still living in the projects with his mama. Although people will say, “That’s not my responsibility,” it is cause he’s a part of what you’re doing. You got to make people feel like they at home. Rico is real good with management because he can deal with people. Then I got my boy Kerry as the CFO. He runs the business and legal side of the company. I got him because he been running corporations for years. Then with A&R, Duke been around studios and rappers all his life. Our motto here is, “We eat what we kill.” If you killing you gonna be doing a lot of eating. If you ain’t killing you gonna be starving. So if you in this industry trying to work, come holla at me. I’m easy to get along with. What are your future plans? They call me Hosea Williams Jr. because I give back to the ‘hood. When I be in all these states, cats tell me that they don’t have an outlet. So what I’m doing is I’m going to the ‘hoods, finding hungry cats who got songs, got tracks and when they submit them to me I’ll get big names on them. We calling it Feed the Hungry. So for instance, when I see a cat out there who already got his shit banging in the club, on the mixtapes, on the radio but needs a bigger outlet, I’ll take his single and put a big name on the third verse and put it on the Feed the Hungry album and get him all over the world. Talk about this studio you just built. It’s called McKoy Street. That was my first million dollar trap so I named it after that, because now I’m working on my billion dollar trap. Puff, 8Ball & MJG, T.I. and Game have all recorded here already. I also have Joc, BNDH, my R&B group Final Draft and a lot of cats I’m helping in the hood recording here as well. I’m building two studios and an apartment in here. This the first studio I’ve owned by myself. I put it in the middle of Kirkwood because that’s where I’m from. You can’t buy a vibe. I’d rather be in the ‘hood and get a nice vibe than be downtown having to be all dressed up, you can work here in your drawers or whatever. When you step out you got a liquor store to the right. You got Ms. Ann with the best hamburgers in Georgia next to us. You got Wayfield foods. Up the street you at Moreland, so you can’t beat this. Any parting words? Put God first and never give up. OZONE
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