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By TQ
Thank God…
My name is TQ. I'm a veteran. This is what I wake up saying in the morning. Every morning. In 2008 you gotta have something to lean on. That's what I lean on... The fact that I know what I’m doing now…
A lot of people don't know me, but for the ones that do, they know what I’m talking about. I dropped my first album in 1998. I been around the world since then, and I seen a lot of shit that most people don't get to see. At least the people I know...
I was raised in Compton, California. Nothing came easy. It teaches you how to be an animal about your hustle though. That's the part I love, because you gotta be an animal in my business. A wild animal... A survivor.
Yeah that's me - a Survivor.
Thanks to AllHipHop, for the next six weeks I'm gonna tell y’all how we survive. There's an epidemic of us selling our souls to put out records and something needs to be done about it. Something needs to be said. Homie, it ain’t that serious... This column is here for the sole purpose of making you understand that.
I'm 15 years in this game, and I've done a lotta dumb sh**. That qualifies me to tell you how not to. I get a lot of mail about the business as a whole, and I've picked out a couple to touch on each week... Hopefully you get some good food for thought that keeps you from f**kin' up....
I got an album, Paradise coming out April 29th. My label, The HUB Muzic LLC, Gracie Productions, and EMI Distribution have a little joint venture going on, and we gonna see if we can sell some records. I mean, for all the places I've been and all the people I've touched, with all the mail that I get, I'm thinking some people want to buy some records. Let's do it...
I'm what you call “Independent.” My records belong to me. From that point, I go about finding people to help me put them out. Nobody makes my decisions. Men and women come together at a table and try to agree on a plan. But if the plan is f**ked up or if it just doesn’t work, it’s on me. I can't blame anybody... I'm Independent.
I'm only gonna get out what I put in so I'm going hard. Hard in the paint... Some cats watch TV and wanna be what they see. You can't blame them, but this sh*t takes a lot of work. Most cats don't understand that. Man I'm always doing something... I got picked up from the studio to go to Prom, Graduation, and a lotta times, school period! Ever since then, I probably spent as much time outta this country as I have in... It’s all for my hustle.
I write songs on people that I've never heard of in countries that I’ve never gone to, in languages that I don't speak. My discography looks like the f**kin' UN Security Council. You want a song, I'll write it. Period. Any shape, form, or fashion, I'll make it happen. Hustle Simmons Esquire at your service, daddy-o! That's how I get down. These days you better show some versatility... Ni**as don't buy records, ya dig?
Anyway, I see people in the streets and they're like, "Man where the hell you been?I used to bump yo shit back in the day! I was wondering what happened to you??" I laugh to myself when I think about it. It has been a long ass time, but I'm still here... That's saying a lot. I'm not really hurting for sh*t. That says even more... I got my right mind and my soul is in tact. That's damn near a miracle!
This is a cold game. Some cats have the talent, but they ain't built for it. You gotta be built for it. When I first started, I didn't’ have a f**kin' clue, and I got jerked. My silly a** gave somebody 50% of my copyrights for a measly a** 40k a year. Shit I was a kid! I shoulda been in college or something... I thought I was ballin'! Not knowing that they were making hundreds of thousands off my a** and I was doing all the work... classic example of cummin' too quick….
I had a bullshit lawyer and manager and they hopped right in the jerk line. Come to find out all three of us got an advance from the company! But I still had to pay commissions and lawyer fees!!! Them two ni**as was crooks. Can't blame them. Regardless of how young I was, I shoulda been on my shit. I wasn't too young to f**kin' read right?
After about two years of that bullsh*t, I finally wised up and shook them ni**as off. What I couldn't shake off was that punk a** deal they had me signed to... I had to sell some records. I had to place some songs. I had to do something...
Stay tuned… I got some game for you.
Come check me out next week. We’re gonna take this up a notch. We’re gonna talk about “They Never Saw Me Coming” LOL! That should be very interesting…
TQ - S.E.X.Y. from the upcoming album Paradise
Feel free to holla at ya boy on myspace. That’s www.myspace,com/TQOfficialSite or on my website www.thugpoetry.com Ask me questions about the column and anything else you might come up with! I’ll holla…
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