Alley Boy is the main artist off of Atlanta’s newest record label, Duct Tape Entertainment, which is distributed by rap powerhouse, Asylum/Atlantic Records. Alley Boy hails from the Zone 6 section of Atlanta. He was sidelined by some jail time but started fresh in the Hip-Hop game upon his release. Along with Big Bank Black, Alley Boy is making serious noise in the streets of Atlanta and on the mixtape circuit.
Alley Boy: Whats up man
AllHipHop.com: What good with ya man?
Alley Boy: Chillin man, workin
AllHipHop.com: Why don’t you tell me a little bit about that man?
Alley Boy: Well you know, basically like Duct Tape is really family, its more than a movement. It’s really family. Much love to everyone over at Duct Tape. All the way down to, we don’t do security, we got some big homeboys who come with us out of and G dudes that control guns and s**t so we are safe when we are out. Basically we just real loyal, all of us are from Atlanta that’s why we get so much support out here.
AllHipHop.com: One of the questions that I asked Big Bank Black [Duct Tape CEO] that I wanted to ask you was, how did you guys get your movement going with limited radio airplay and a limited internet presence?
Alley Boy: Really man, just going hard in the streets of Atlanta, know what Im saying? We kick it with a lot of the DJ’s or whatever. We got a good relationship with a lot of the DJ’s, know what I’m saying? Really like from the very jump on the grind, we really were just like ‘lets kill the clubs.’ I was doing a lot of open mics or whatever. I already knew what to do, it was so official. I guess I could just say like word of mouth. Atlanta is at the forefront of music and they get a lot of recognition right now, there’s a lot of people, A&Rs or whatever out here calling down here to the radio or whatever like, “Who is Alley Boy? Who is that Duct Tape? Who’s this that and the other? It was like I guess I could say its word of mouth more than anything.
AllHipHop.com: So how did you get into music?
Alley Boy: Well you know, basically I’ve always been a big fan of music first. I’m a big fan of the music so this has always been something I wanted to do from since I was younger. I probably wrote my first rap when I was like 8 or 9. Listening to Jeezy, growing up on 8 Ball and MJG. I really listened to them and studied them, so I started writing by myself. I always thought it was cool to do. You know what I’m saying? I looked up to rappers. Like outside of the street cats that I looked up to, I looked up to rappers. I started standing out from what I was doing with the passion that I had when we was in the streets you know what I’m saying
AllHipHop.com: What would you say that you bring to the game?
Alley Boy: I feel like everything now is a repeat. But I feel like as of now there isn’t much passion in the game. Dudes aint putting up a fight. I rap from my gut. I don’t do punch lines, I don’t do metaphors and all that. That aint my thing because I rap from my gut and I rap my heart. Its all about passion in the s**t that I be saying.
AllHipHop.com: When you were locked up, Black started Duct Tape, what would you say that you learned when you were locked up? What was that experience like for you? Can you talk about that?
Alley Boy: You know, it was basically like for me. I been to prison twice, not to glorify it, but it was basically some of the worst times of my life. Me and my brother had caught drug and gun cases together. They came up in one of our little trap houses and they arrested us or whatever but I already had some s**t over my head. But I was facing more time than he was so. My brother always knew that I had a passion so he just started a label. I was like you already know what it is when I get out. Yea he made sure I was straight when I got out. I was thinking in prison, everything, that glitter aint gold. A lot of the money that we were jeopardizing our lives for out there on the street wasn’t really worth it.
AllHipHop.com: I feel it man. On a more positive note man, can you tell me about some of the mixtape you have coming out and as well some of the collaborations that you are working on.
Alley Boy: Oh man, like this thing, we just been on smash right now. I got a new mixtape coming out, but we pushed it back. It was supposed to release it on the 21st but I pushed it back because got a lot of new s**t that I want to put on there and I had a lot of stuff I wanted to put on there and I had to get it mixed so I pushed it back. Its called the “Definition of f**k s**t” with DJ Holiday on the Empire Mixtapes. My brother just dropped one, “The Birth of Big Bank Black” that he did and I got a lot of collabos on there. I got some s**t with Wacka Flocka, Princess of Crime Mob, got some s**t with Young Dro on there you know what I’m saying? I got a lot of stuff that I got on tuck that I ain’t put out yet. I got few songs with Sean Garrett, Pleasure P. I’ve really just been on overdrive really.