C-RIDE
MIAMI, FL
Tell us a little bit about your background. I got in some trouble and had to leave Miami and move to Atlanta in 2000, when Pastor Troy was running shit. By staying in Atlanta, it attracted me to dark 808s. In Miami they speed everything up just like how niggas Houston slow their shit down. So when I got to Atlanta I heard the crunk shit slowed down with niggas yelling and I love it. That’s not what I do but the love the style. I’d rather listen to Lil Jon over Pharrell. Growing up, who would you say were some of your influences? Since I’m from Carol City, Miami listening to Luke was inevitable. I had to grow up on Luke. But really, I’m from the No Limit and Hot Boys era. I liked Master P because sometimes it sounded like he just went in the booth like he was drunk or high. I could tell he wasn’t writing a lot of that shit. He was just vibing because he had them beats. I liked Outkast, but I was a G. Andre went over my head sometimes, but I still dug the music. If that’s the case would you say that you aspire to over people’s heads too? Yeah, kinda. Rappers say the same shit because they around the same shit everyday. So I just wanted to separate myself from the average by using different metaphors and words. After the first rhyme I ever recorded, some people threw a contract in my face. I knew I had something right then. Plus when I moved back to Miami in 2003 there was like 30,000 more rappers now. So I started focusing on saying things to make you rewind and listen again.
from Florida. But Miami don’t really get out, we stay among ourselves. I want to change that. How did you hook up with Cool & Dre and Epidemic? I recorded a CD with another company and they packaged it up and gave it to a lot of people. A DJ gave it to Cool & Dre and they kept calling asking about me. Then when they saw me they were happy to see I wasn’t looking like a monster so it was on. I got with them in the beginning of ’04, when Dirtbag first got signed to Epidemic/Jive. I was having a lot offers with just 3 songs. Nothing has really came out yet, but I know I know that everything happens for a reason. What are you promoting right now? I just did a mixtape called Comin’ From Da Bottom with DJ Ideal. It’s my first official mixtape, the first one to get pressed up. It’s led to me doing a lot of features down here. You can ask around, people know about me now. It’s really worked out for me. Mixtapes are for DJs in the South, that’s how your music gets heard... The rest of this interview is featured in the June issue of OZONE Magazine at www.OZONEMAG.com.
Everyone’s eyes are starting to look towards Miami for the next wave of music. What do you feel that you are bringing to the table? I want to unite Miami. Rick Ross got everybody down here trying to see who’s next. I’m trying to make Miami like Houston and Atlanta. I wanna bring unity to Miami and Florida period. Do you think Florida has unity? Well, we didn’t support Plies and T-Pain when they was blowing up because they weren’t from Miami, even though they are OZONE
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