Before there was music, there was madness. BMF has maintained one of the largest followings in contemporary urban America. However, after Demetrius Flenory, aka Big Meech, was arrested last year and millions in assets were seized by the DEA, Bleu Davinci was left to run BMF Entertainment on his own, finding himself alone to deal with the curiosity of the media and the scrutiny of federal authorities. In the midst of it all, few people bothered to recognize that the California-born entertainer was a rapper, who maintained strong followings in every destination the BMF bus stopped, many of which, Bleu calls home.
Bleu has since taken to concentrating on running the label and preparing his debut album, leaving the media with unanswered questions. Tight lipped when it comes to BMF’s legal problems, Bleu is on a mission to separate his company from the legal mess and make sure that the world learns what BMF Entertainment is really about, all while trying to make the world, as his Koch-distributed compilation says, The World is BMF’s.
AllHipHop.com: How did BMF hook up with Koch?
Bleu Davinci: Me and Meech were just going off of little bets like, “I can’t bet you can’t get this on the radio, I can’t get this or I bet you can’t get that.” And I was just like “I can do anything I put my mind to.” So I went to New York, to see if anyone wanted to put the record out. And a lot of people didn’t want to put the record out because they were scared of my situation, and didn’t understand my situation. We have the big street crew that everybody in the industry has something bad to say about. There are a lot of different things going around about how tough crew we are and the things that we do at the clubs and what not, which is bunch of bulls**t. And that is something that we have to deal with while we’re on the come up. People at the labels just didn’t know what to expect.
AllHipHop.com: What did BMF have to do with Jeezy’s deal and the success that followed?
Bleu Davinci: Meech told me before Lil’ Jon and all of them blew up that Atlanta was going to take over. And he was just giving me a bird’s eye view of how the ball bounces from the East to the West and then to the South, and everybody will get their turn. So I went down there and peeped it. Being who I am, I was looking for who was a hot n***a, the next to blow that was from down here. I wasn’t looking for a major n***a, we were independent ourselves, we weren’t about running up on major n***as and ask for stuff. So Jeezy at the time, he was already putting out records. He was Lil’ J, he just changed his name right after I met him. He had a couple of songs that was on mixtapes that I was hearing. I saw him at Magic City one night and he had like an old school promotional thing going on. I was like, “This young n***a is trying to do his thing,” so I hollered at him. One thing lead to another, and it was cool, and when we saw each other out and we just say what’s up to each other. And he’ll come through and drop a verse on some mixtape tracks, so from there we just got cool.
AllHipHop.com: Did you guys fund Jeezy in any way shape or form?
Bleu Davinci: No, no, no! He already had s**t out before we even knew who he was. I was doing my own s**t, we had s**t in the warehouse. We did a hell of a promotional push with all of them n***as by word of mouth and the whole nine.
AllHipHop.com: Before the mixtapes, how and where was BMF making all that money?
Bleu Davinci: Well we weren’t back then. Meech was giving us the price of Moet that you got in the store. So we could get 10 bottles of it but we still made it look good because the n***as at the club knew Meech. It’s called, “fake it til you make it.”
AllHipHop.com: How were you able to turn over so much paper?
Bleu Davinci: Do you have an exact amount on how much we made? An exact figure? Because the way we worked the system, this right here is all to the game. I’ll give you an example. Right now, Ohio, it’s just me right now, I just did a show down here, and I get a certain amount for the show. Before I leave, I will do couple of verses from some local people for like 3,500 – for the local n***as, I usually charge [10,000]. Back then, I was at like [1,500], and we weren’t getting a lot of features. But then when we started getting the morale and the doors opened and we got the DVD opportunities: the uncuts and all that s**t. And people were slinging it on the black market. I got eight tapes out now. For this new tape I can just go to a city, and then press up 15,000 [CDs] for $7500. And by the time I leave this city, I am ready to press up my next 15,000 from which I’ll probably make back 40-50,000. It’s nothing super, I don’t have millions, and people are just lying. That’s just the telephone game man, people are just talking. The stuff about the million dollar parties, and everyone in my crew gets a Lamborgini. N***as can kiss my ass with all that fairy tale s**t.
AllHipHop.com: What about the DVDs and what not? And all the things you have in the DVDs?
Bleu Davinci: Everywhere I go, I will have cars – that doesn’t mean that they’re under my name you know? N***as ain’t questioning nobody else about that s**t, so why are they questioning me?
AllHipHop.com: So you’re saying that there was no street money funding BMF?
Bleu Davinci: None whatsoever, except for the mixtape money. Everything we make comes from the street, we don’t have any major distribution. We’re popping up at the clubs and stores and radio stations, and convincing them to buy the tapes that I got. I don’t have any Universals or Sony or Atlantics and such to put my s**t out there. This is just me out there on the streets, doing hand to hand combat with receipt books.
AllHipHop.com: A lot of the skepticism goes to how most indie labels don’t have things like buses and whatnot…
Bleu Davinci: That’s because a lot of indie labels don’t know their grind, they spend their money on other s**t. You have to know what you’re doing to be able to do s**t. A lot of people don’t know they need a bus. They’re stuck in their own cities. Their indie labels are local, my indie label is nationwide. This isn’t your average indie label with your average people running it. And for that reason alone, we are who we are.
I say f**k all of what the tabloids say and s**t, like you think that if I really had 300 million, I would give a f**k about a rap? If I had 300 million, I’m good! I’d go underground or something, and just smoke all day. N***as be killing me when they say that. Go on MySpace, see how many people come up like they’re apart of BMF. You can’t be crediting everything anyone does to my company. When y’all say my first and last name or Bleu Davinci, y’all don’t even talk about the music, who I work with, the artists, or “Yo, you had a track with Trick Daddy,” or “You did this,” or “You wanted to work with Scott Storch.” This is the s**t that needs to come out. I get blasted with all this bulls**t that it really overshadows the s**t that we’re doing over here. I can’t even get the n***as at magazines to talk about my music or the s**t we’re up to, because they’re busy talking about s**t other people’s names are mixed up in.
AllHipHop.com: How did the DEA raid affect your situation?
Bleu Davinci: By me having to keep going through and explaining to people what I’m explaining to you right now, that’s all, it just takes time away from what I need to really get across and what people really need to know about BMG Entertainment. This s**t is a catch 22. With me, I just gotta do what I’m here to do and continue to do what I’m doing which is making that the record comes out, that we have the distribution for the record. I sell more records on the street than through distribution. They don’t know how to sell the records like I do. They ain’t on the bus and meeting with all the people at the shows like I do, they just put that s**t on the shelves hoping people will buy it. When you on the street and you run into my crew, then that’s when you gonna respect the movement. We sell this s**t like crack.
AllHipHop.com: So exactly what ventures are BMF Entertainment involved in? Are you promoting clubs?
Bleu Davinci: Right now, I’m not promoting any clubs, but last year from January to June, we promoted Crobar in Miami and we turned that club from having f**king three people in it and filled it up. We were just able to work something with the owner and in two months we had that motherf**ker to where we had people lining up around the corners. We promoted the hell out of that club, we had time to just sit back and promote. As far as right now, we got club gigs, we’re rolling around selling this tape, I’m getting my walkthrough money, and I’m getting my performance money. We also got our t-shirts, DVDs, glow lights, and a lot of promotional material to build up BMF. It’s cool though because I stay afloat, the streets feed me.
AllHipHop.com: Tell us about the loss of your brother…
Bleu Davinci: I was on the road, I was promoting. I was originally supposed to be dropping my debut album and we had the streets on lock with the Fabolous, Young Jeezy, Jadakiss, and Akon tracks all ready. I was on the bus and doing big promo. My brother was going through a case in Atlanta and he had to go back to meet his mom and attorney, and an incident happened at the club and it resulted in his death by gunshot wound to the chest. That s**t killed me on the road and I was on a 60 tour date run and I was almost halfway through, and that s**t killed me. I did no more radio, no more in-stores. I went to Miami and met with Jeezy, and s**t went crazy, and he went to jail. I went back home and just sat back. All my preorders dropped, my radio spins dropped, and I just needed some time to get myself together. I was like, “Let me just put a compilation out and resubmit my album.” I just look up to the sky and find out what my next move gonna be.
AllHipHop.com: What about the Hip-Hop Police. Do you feel like you’re being watched?
Bleu Davinci: Hell, yeah! Them motherf**kers locked me up. I’m a good boy, man, I ain’t done nothing, man. I ain’t no threat to society. These motherf**kers came up and grabbed me for some fake ID I had, and some s**t I had in another state and these Hip-Hop Police picked me up in New York. I know who they are. They be tired as a motherf**ker when we go to the studio and then perform and then go the hotel. Then we come back and do the same s**t. They be like “Damn, these motherf**kers ain’t doing s**t,” that’s prolly what makes them mad. Them motherf**kers look at you funny, so you know who they is.