///B HAMP Words by Ms Rivercity Photo by Keith Milburn
You’re probably familiar with B-Hamp’s Talladega Nights inspired single “Ricky Bobby” that took off last year. He never had an opportunity to share his story with OZONE so we reached out to him for a few questions. B Dash is still putting out new music and will be appearing at 23 parties All Star Weekend (yes, TWENTY THREE). Last year you had the Ricky Bobby single poppin’. How did you get that song out there? When I recorded “Ricky Bobby” I was in a group. “Ricky Bobby” was my solo song. When I recorded it, I was just playin’ around, being goofy, and I gave it to my manager and he heard somethin’ in it. He gave it to DJ G Rock and they took it to the other DJs around here. They liked it and blew it up in the clubs. And YouTube helped me a lot. Which clubs started playing “Ricky Bobby” first? It started in Rhythm City on Sundays, Stars Lounge, Cirque was hittin’ it. In Fort Worth it was at Club Access, Cristal’s…it was crazy how quick everybody caught on to it. I didn’t expect it to blow up that fast. You had a couple other songs buzzing in your area after that too. What were those? I put out “I Be Jiggin” and “Put You On,” which was a slow song featuring Dorrough and Daron Jones from 112. I also had another song called “Don’t Say Nothin’.” When did you drop the album? Was it through a major label? I dropped an album in May of last year. I’m signed to the label CKB Entertainment and it was distributed through Malaco Music group. I had a bunch of major labels reach out – Sony, BMG, Asylum, Koch, a lot. Malaco was the one that stepped forward and let us know what they wanted to do, and it was great so that’s who we went with. Who else is on CKB Entertainment? CKB just signed two new artists – Cor’ess is an R&B singer featured on my new track “Fooly” 8 // OZONE MAG
and Motion is another rapper. And we have the rappers Lil Rick and Aqua Man. We’re also working with an R&B group called Lush. What’s going on with your Yums deal? I have a clothing line with Yums. We put out a bunch of stuff with Yums and we have a bunch of stuff coming up that y’all will see soon. And I have eyewear called Forever K. Michaels. How did you get interested in music in the first place? When I was younger I used to sit in front of the television and watch The Box channel that used to be on basic cable. I would watch videos all day – from country, to R&B, to rap, to pop, everything. Me and my little brother knew every word to every song on the radio. My mama used to be like, “Shut up!” And when I’d get ready for church I’d imitate James Brown and dance in the mirror. In high school I was on the step team, in theatre, so I always knew I had to do something with music. What are your plans for All Star Weekend? We have 23 parties planned and people still calling. I’m tryin’ to work ‘em all in. The first party starts Wednesday. A lot of the clubs don’t end til 6 in the morning because it’s All Star Weekend. What else do you have in the works? We got that new single “Fooly.” Look out for the official video soon – we just put up the unofficial video on YouTube. I’m working on a new mixtape right now, and I’ve got three movie soundtrack songs with Lions Gate Films. 2010 finna be real “Fooly.” //