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ometimes people get very close to their dreams, and realize that their current path is not the right one. After opening a show for Pastor Troy and Lil’ Scrappy in 2004, Spark Dawg was allegedly courted by Scrappy’s management. The Atlanta up-and-comers were impressed the rapper from central Texas. The 22 year-old says he was not invited, but simply told that he was the newest member of Scrappy’s G’$ Up Click. However, as Spark watched other like Crime Mob and Bohagon rise through the ranks to BME’s distribution deal with Warner Brothers, the artist felt left out.
Now back in Killeen, Texas, Spark plots his career for a second time. Supported by his childhood friends-turned-rappers, Green City, Sparks, has been featured on over 30 mixtapes. One in particular, “The Streets of the Dirty South Volume 4,” a three-disc effort Spark hosted with DJ Explicit, Magno, and Paul Wall, earned the collective a SEA Award this past year. The once-disillusioned Texan will decide if he’ll beckon to a major’s call as he continues to release street-level albums on Green City Records. As records like “Say U Wanna Squash It” featuring T.I. further circulate, it is Spark’s hope that he’ll be the next crowned lyricist of the South, doing so by his own hand.
AllHipHop.com: How long have you been rapping?
Spark: Pretty much, as long as I can remember. I really started taking it seriously around the time I graduated high school, in 2000. I made that trip to Atlanta to get it poppin’.
AllHipHop.com: Was it there that how you be down with G’$ Up Click?
Spark: It was a situation I was thrown in. It’s not like I ran up on [Lil’] Scrappy and asked to be a part of the group or anything. I had opened up a show, and his manager was feeling me and wanted to take me under his wing. [So then]I looked at it as I was sharing the same manager as Scrappy. A week or two later, I come to Scrap’s crib to kick it, and they showing me the G’$ Up handshake and s**t, saying you a member of G’$ Up and s**t, so I took it for what it was worth. Let it be known there is no beef with Lil’ Scrappy, my problem was with the manager.
AllHipHop.com: What lessons did you learn as a result of that which you can use in your Green City situation?
Spark: The main thing is like don’t just try to join or jump on somebody’s bandwagon ‘cause they got they own buzz. The s**t with me and Green City is realer, because I am from Texas, and I went to school with these cats. We all grew up together: middle school, high school. We been rapping together, I just happened to be the only person to be like, “I am going to sacrifice this time over here to see what I can get poppin’ now.” I came back to pick my click up. It’s definitely a better situation because my name is way more known now that I am not with G’$ Up then I was with the so-called “Prince of Crunk” out there in Atlanta.
AllHipHop.com: Looking at your career, why did you win “Best Mixtape” at the Southern Entertainment Awards?
Spark: I think there were a couple of factors. For one, the CD cover was crazy, it caught a lot of attention. At the time, Texas was just getting hot. We had Paul Wall right in the middle of it. Magno, who used to rap with Mike Jones, he is hot in Texas. Then you had a the newcomer. I think people were picking up because you had two known guys and then the newcomer and was like, “I want to check this dude out!” We all co-hosted it, and people embraced it. It was a hot as tape; it was three discs! S**t ain’t been done like that before.
AllHipHop.com: As the newcomer, what would you say your piece in the puzzle was or is?
Spark: I feel like am a voice of the New South. You can’t just call me a “country-ass rapper,” I got lyrics too. Nowadays, the market likes the country swang, twang, the way we talk. I also bring that lyricism. I feel like I got the perfect blend of both that’s going to keep every culture interested in what I am speaking and rapping about.
AllHipHop.com: Explain the Green City situation, what separates y’all from the rest, especially somebody in the limelight like Scrappy?
Spark: The main thing coming out of Green City is that a lot of times when you go a click, it’s because the first n***a came out was hot, and you just bringing your homeboys in the game because that’s the right thing to do. I think with me and Green City, it just so happened I was the first dude to get all that shine. It’s not like with out me there is no Green City, they’ve been doing it. When I left and went to Atlanta, they maintained that buzz here in Texas, so I had something to come back to. Anybody in Green City can go hard, that’s what separates us from a lot of these groups or clicks coming out.
AllHipHop.com: Some may’ve heard of the crew by way of the death of Big Rowdy. Can you tell us more about the man we saw in the rap obituaries…
Spark: Basically, Rowdy was a well known guy in the Central Texas area, kind of like an urban legend. He was an O.G. to us. He was the financial aspect Green City and without him, a lot of things we did would not have been possible. Promotional van, tour bus, it was all because of him. Studio time, without him, we could not have done have the s**t we did. We are the rappers, but you can’t rap with no money, it takes money to make money. It’s unfortunate that he was murdered the way he was but, in his name, we going to keep it moving. Everything we doing right now, we doing for Rowdy and his family.
AllHipHop.com: Green City is already operating on an indie level. As an artist and businessman, what are your aspirations?
Spark: I want to be known as one of the greats, man. A lot of people looked at T.I. like he was crazy when he said he was the “King of the South,” but you go to think like that. If you don’t believe you are the best at what you do, ain’t nobody going to believe in you. I just wanted to be known as one of the greats that put it down for my state. It’s a lot of greats that came out of here. Fat Pat, Screw, Paul Wall, DSR, Magno. I want to be one of those cats that came from the South, and showed the whole world that we got lyrics too, man.
AllHipHop.com: Where can you be found to show this?
Spark: I am on almost every mixtape in the South, so holler at your local hot DJ, and you will see a Spark track on there. For more information, www.myspace.com/dalonestarkid. That’s what it is.
