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hat have you guys been cooking up lately? Cool: We’ve been working at the Circle House studios for the past three months just banging out records left and right. We’ve got a new artist named Joe Hound that we just did a deal with for Skeleton Key/Epidemic. We’re in the process of wrapping up his album. We did five records on DJ Khaled’s album. We’re real excited about that. We’re back in the studio with Christina Milian working on her album. We just gave David Banner two huge records and we’ve also been working with Ludacris, T.I. and Jadakiss. We just gave Rick Ross two monster records for his album. We’re going all in. 2007 is gonna be big! Dre: Christina decided she wanted to go back in the studio early so she asked us and some other people to work on it. It’s us, The Runners, Danga, Eric Hudson, and Lil Jon. We’ll probably do like three or four tracks. I called all my friends to help us out on this one. We’re giving her a direction and everyone is really fucking with it. We’re just making great music. We’re not trying to do the whole album ‘cause we’re in the studio working a lot but we’re trying to do as much as we can. We brought in reinforcements to help make it pop. The people we’re bringing in we feel are the hottest dudes in the game. Are ya’ll involved with any community events? Cool: Actually, every year Willis McGahee does this charity football thing the week before the Super Bowl. It just so happens that the Super Bowl is here in Miami this year so it’s going to be extra big. The kids come out there and sign autographs. Me and Dre got our team that we’re coaching. Trick Daddy has a team. Dre’s performing, the whole Epidemic crew, DJ Khaled; Ross is coming on stage. You know, it’s just for the kids. You gotta give back to the community. Dre: It’s all fun. It’s for charity. We’re gonna go out there and do “Chevy Ridin High” and “Hustlin’.” It’s for the kids and it’s a getaway from all the bullshit we gotta deal with everyday. We’re real cool with Willis McGahee. We’re all from Miami. Everyone knows each other out here. We were involved in it last year. This year they asked us to be more involved. We’re helping make jerseys. Are there any ventures beside music you’re working on? Cool: We’re in the food business now. We co-own a restaurant called 510 Ocean on Ocean Drive. You can’t get lost. It’s the only minority owned restaurant on Ocean Drive. It was voted one of
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the top ten restaurants on South Beach. It’s the hottest spot on Saturdays. We have this thing on Saturdays called Social Snacks. All the Miami celebrity football and basketball players go up in there. We’re also getting a clothing line called Dirty Royalty. It’s crazy. We’re in some stores locally like the Shoe Gallery and a few other spots. We just put out two shirts and the buzz is so big right now I can’t even supply the demand. We’re waiting for the clothes to get in so we can lace everybody up. Another thing is that we’re involved in this online community called BattleRap.com. It’s like Myspace for rappers trying to get on. It’s been in production for about a year, so hopefully by the second or third quarter we should be rolling. What kind of food do you have at the restaurant? Dre: It’s fine dining so you know, steak, fish, Italian, things of that nature. It’s a really fly spot. We look up to people like Sean Combs. We watched how he opened up a restaurant and we had an opportunity so we jumped at it. The place is packed on Saturdays nights with people mingling. We’re bringing something called Dinner and a Movie. We’re going to show classic movies like Boomerang, Coming to America, Four Brothers, Set It Off – the shit that we fuck with, that’s classics to us. And every week, whatever movie we show, the star of that movie is going to be at the restaurant hosting that night. It’s dope. It’s a hot idea. How is your life different now than from your pre-celebrity days? Cool: Me and Dre have always been some real down-to-earth grounded guys. We go out and sometimes we underestimate how big we are. But it ain’t different; we’re just ourselves. People meet us and say we’re cool as hell. When we go out we get bombarded with people giving us their mixtapes and we listen to everybody. That stays with people for a while. They remember that Cool & Dre showed them love. But ain’t nothing really changed. The success has never infiltrated us. My number has always been the same. Dre: We try not to look at ourselves as celebrities, even though we gotta accept what it is. I kinda go through a lot more being that I’m doing the artist thing and a lot of people see me more often. My personal life is kinda out there. It’s crazy but it just comes with the territory and you gotta deal with it and keep it moving. Once in a while it may get frustrating but at the end of the day, we’re just some real niggas from Miami. Some-