RICH BOY
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ne of the first to represent for Mobile, AL, multi-talented rapper and producer Rich Boy plans to drop his debut album A Product Of The Hustle on Interscope Records in early 2007. After a lengthy trial for attempted murder, a case in which he claimed self-defense, Rich Boy was sentenced to three years of probation. With that behind him, he hit the road on a promo tour and stopped by OZONE’s hometown of Orlando to reflect on his life and career. I hear you went through a trial recently. What was that about and what was the result? Well, I was charged with attempted murder. I was caught up, you know, I found out the hard way it wasn’t about that gangsta shit. Sometimes it takes something happening in your life for you to look at it in a different angle. So that’s what I’m doing, just trying to make the best of the situation and the opportunity I’ve got. I’m on three years probation. 18 months supervised, 18 months unsupervised. That’s gonna calm me down a lot. So I’m really just gonna be focusing on this music and what I need to be doing. And I just shot this video [for my single “Throw Some D’s On It”] so that’s even more motivation to be doing the right thing. Is it hard for you to be able to go on tour and hit the road with the right attitude, having just been through a trial and a life-changing experience? Yeah, it was real hard mentally. I couldn’t get my thoughts together. The hardest part was just hiding it. You be comin’ in your [hotel] room thinkin’ about that shit all day. But when you get around them DJs [on promo tour] you gotta give them your all. But at the same time, your mind is somewhere else. You don’t really look like a gangsta. You’re so laid-back. Yeah, but you can’t judge a person off looks. Look at all these people shootin’ up the schools. Serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer, you know, you wouldn’t expect him to tie you up and eat you. But I’m not a gangsta. I’m not a thug. My family, we’re the type of people that don’t mess with no one. So when it do happen, we don’t understand why someone would just mess with us. We don’t know how to handle that type of stuff. We’re real protective of ourselves. I’m protective of my life, if it comes to that. Now that you’ve put that situation behind you, you’re focused on the music? Most definitely. That’s a big weight off my shoulders, and I feel like my music is gonna be ten times better now. The whole time, I was just tryin’ to make music. Now that I’ve gone through the process of [the trial], it’s just another situation I can rap about, the positive things that came out of it. I ain’t gonna glorify it like most rappers do. I feel like that’s my responsibility in the rap game to bring back some real topics. Everybody’s talkin’ about jewelry, fuckin’ hoes. I even started out like that, but I was tryin’ to talk about real topics. I really wanna connect with the people going through struggles. People are always rappin’ about making money, but they don’t ever rap about the people that ain’t got shit. They talk about how they street niggas, but they don’t ever be reppin’ the people that are living in the streets. It’s cool to represent the dope boys and shit; I understand they’re the heroes. Every neighborhood looks up to the dope boys as the heroes, but what about reppin’ for the real people, the people that’s living in the streets? People that ain’t got shit. You gotta do music for them too. You rappin’ about a $100,000 watch, but these people can’t relate to that shit. Everybody ain’t gon’ have a $100,000 watch. Being from Alabama, do you think the term “Bama” is offensive? I just think people are ignorant to the word, so I don’t even think they realize what they’re saying. I don’t know who started that, or where that word came from. I really don’t understand it to the fullest myself, what the word “bama” actually means. Some people say it means that you’re stupid, slow, or whatever. If that’s what it stands for, I’m finna change the definition. People will look at that word different once they see what I’m doing and what I’m bringing to the table. Now that you’re on the road a lot, does it give you a different perspective on your hometown of Mobile, AL? Oh yeah, it lets me know what we need, what we got, what we don’t got. You know, I’ve been able to go around and look at these other cities and see these other opportunities they’ve got. I look at how they’ve helped each other right to the top. I gotta bring that mentality that I see in other cities back to my hometown and just try to change the way they think. I think that’s a big part of me. That’s a big mission I’m tryin’ to accomplish by being a rapper. Rappers have power, and I’m gonna try to use that to my advantage to bring something to my city.
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Do you feel a lot of pressure to succeed being the first rap representative from Mobile with a major opportunity like this? I’m such a laid-back guy, you know, I’m just chill. I don’t feel no pressure. The only pressure I ever felt was at that trial. But as far as getting it done, I just feel like it ain’t too far outta reach for me to do. If somebody else can do it, I can do it. If 50 [Cent] could do it, I can do it. They’re human like me. They bleed like me. I’m on the same level as anyone else, only difference is that some of them have more money or more exposure. They started off as nobodies and made a name for themselves, so I can make a name for myself just like anybody else. You said you make music about real topics and connect with the average person, but you’ve still got a single about rims, like everybody else. It’s like giving a kid candy – you give them what they want first. It’s just like students who don’t want to go to school. You gotta have things that make them wanna go to school, like the football team. I’m just tryin’ to give them what they want. Everybody’s rappin’ about certain things right now, so I gotta touch on that and then I can drive ‘em where I wanna take ‘em. Like my song “Lost Girls,” it’s about high level prostitution. There’s so many girls lookin’ for the richest nigga. They’re raised to come up off another person instead of just to come up their own way, by goin’ to school or doin’ what they do. They’re tryin’ to come up off the next person. There’s actually parents pushing the issue of finding a rich guy. Were you a victim of that mentality? Yeah, I was a victim. This girl left me for a dope boy that had a little more money. I ain’t no hater though. Now when I see her, she’s talkin’ about getting married [to me]. It’s funny. That just shows you how real my topics are. I’ve also got a song called “Ghetto Rich” about racial profiling. You went to college, didn’t you? I went to Tuskegee for mechanical engineering. I wanted to be an automobile designer. I used to draw cars all the time when I was young. I wanted to do something different cause everybody in the hood was doing the same thing. I just wanted to stand out. I knew someday I was gonna stand out in some type of way. I didn’t graduate cause I fell in love with the music. I learned how to make beats when I was goin’ to school, so that’s how I ended up dropping out. I was addicted to it. I used to just do beats all day, every day. I forgot about everything. Do you still produce a lot of your material? Yeah, I did two tracks on my album. I’m just now starting to get focused on it cause I’m through with the album. Me and Polow are gonna team up on the production tip. Polow’s a good partner because he lets me have all the creative control that I want. The only beat he picked for me on my album [A Product of the Hustle] was “Throw Some D’s On It.” We trust each other and that’s why we’re gonna make it a long way. We’re a team. Is there anything else you’d like to say? I just want people to start rapping about some real stuff. It ain’t gotta always be about drugs. I ain’t even knockin’ the people that rap about that, cause that’s what they do, but we gotta make this rap game better. We gotta upgrade. Upgrade your raps. - Julia Beverly