Ozone Mag SXSW 2007 special edition

Page 50

You’ve gone through a lot of events in your life. I heard there are people trying to make a movie out of your life story. Yeah, we’re trying to put together an autobiographical movie about myself, starring myself. Basically it is just going through everything; from my childhood to me becoming a rapper, and now the beginning of me launching my career. To be honest, I never thought about [doing a movie] because I didn’t think I was on that level yet, but my label and all the people behind me just pushed it. As they got to know me better and learned about my story, they thought the movie was a good idea.

look at myself or the fans knowing I’m rapping about something I don’t really know about.

You have a pretty interesting life story. You turned your life around after a drug deal that didn’t go as planned? Yeah, I was about twenty and my son had just been born. He was actually about one and I was still involved in a little bit of drug dealing. I mean, I used to have normal jobs, but I always wanted more for myself and for my family so [drug dealing] is what I turned to in order to get more money. In one of the instances things just didn’t go right and I almost lost my life because of it. That’s when I started to open my eyes and realize that I had to do something better with myself. I always had real people in the street, people that were a lot deeper in the game, telling me that this wasn’t the kind of life that I wanted to lead. I wouldn’t consider myself a thug. Some people talk about the street for their image. I did a lot of stuff, but I was just trying to take care of my family.

Your mixtape has been selling well in Texas. Yeah, it’s a three disc set called The Rob G Campaign. It’s got the regular album, with a screwed and chopped version for all of my screw heads, and a DVD hosted by Crisco Kid showing my career up until now. It’s got about 47 tracks on it with a few of them getting big on the streets. I got a song on there called “Freaks of the Industry (tha La Raza Remix)” that talks about the immigration debate.

How do you fit in with the image of the Houston rap scene? I’m a huge advocate of where I’m from and I rep Houston to the fullest, but I don’t fit into the rap scene here. I kind of chose not to follow the mold of the normal H-town artist. I didn’t want to just stand in line, follow what everyone else is doing and wait for my time to shine. I decided to step to the left and start my own line. It’s kind of like a double edge sword because I don’t know if it will turn people on or turn people off of me. So far I think it’s working because it has separated me from everyone else. Plus now I’m starting to see that there are more Houston artists that see music the way that I do. Not that there is anything wrong with any of the Houston artists. It’s just not my cup of tea to rap about candy paint, chrome wheels, and jewelry. I can’t rap about any of that stuff because I never lived it. I had a lot of drama going on trying to raise a family and all so that’s what I have to rap about. I felt more comfortable rapping about the stuff that I know because at the end of the day I have to look at myself in the mirror. I can’t

Are we going to hear that Houston sound on your album or hear from any Houston artists? You’re definitely going to hear that Houston sound but it’s not going to be so dominant on the album. My song that’s out right now is called “Reppin’ my Block” and it features Lil’ Keke and Slim Thug. Those guys showed me a lot of love so I got to send a shout out to them. That record has a Houston feel to it but I think my album, overall, doesn’t sound like a Houston album.

Do you feel that Hip Hop in general need to have more songs that talk about current events and political issues such as the immigration debate? That’s a good question. I can’t call it. As a musical person I’ll admit that I don’t want to be hit with a lot of political issues. But I would like to see more artists express themselves. I didn’t do the song because I’ve always had a problem with how immigration is handled. I just had an opinion on the issue and expressed it through my music. It’s something that really hit home for me so I decided to express myself. I don’t think we necessarily need more political rap; we just need more artists out there to express themselves. When is the album is supposed to come out? It’s tentatively scheduled to be released in the spring or summer of ‘07. I don’t have a title for it yet but I feel like it’s going to be a big thing for Hip Hop and Latin rap. Do you feel as though people are more open to Latin rappers? I feel like we have a lot of groundwork to put down but I do feel like people are more accepting. The reggaeton movement was huge for us. I still think we have a lot of groundwork to do. I just don’t feel like we have the respect of being able to hang with anyone lyrically. I want to do what Eminem did when he came out and get to a point where people aren’t even concerned with my race. // OZONE

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