Loon’s back, but not in the manner that he wanted to return. The former Bad Boy, who has sought greener pastures with his own Boss Up Entertainment, was pursuing a career in acting. Then a chance interview with a New York radio station raised the ire of Ma$e, the Harlem entertainer that helped get Loon in the rap game. Now, there’s a new hell brewing up in Harlem, where ministers are murdering again and a rap version of Rev. Jim Jones has a real life, cult-like following. Loon holds court to make sense of it all and airs out his grievances with his former pal Ma$e, who is now apart of Hip-Hop’s most popular clique. Damn, things done changed and Loon lets his personal views known.
AllHipHop.com: Loon, what’s the word?
Loon: I can’t call it.
AllHipHop.com: I heard you had some things to get off your chest.
Loon: I just want the world to know that I am back, that the world never got to know the real Loon before. I had a lot of situations that I was working on that are gonna sent the trend for the new transition. Its not like am going into some different character or something. A lot of people got me boxed up as the ladies man, for the b***hes and “Oh, he don’t do nothing else.” That was like a false representation of myself.
AllHipHop.com: Now, you and Ma$e are now beefing? What’s the deal?
Loon: I wouldn’t even call it a beef. I would call it career suicide on his part. Its reckless endangerment. Right now he’s very confused. It all stems from a radio interview I did. When I did get to talk, I gave my opinion on Ma$e going to G-Unit. I said, “Ma$e is my dude….but, if dude feels that G-Unit can save him from ridicule, good luck.” That’s the way I talk. I don’t know how sensitive people are, but he knows that’s how I talk. Me and my mother converse like that. I just made a harmless comment.
AllHipHop.com: Right, right.
Loon: So dude took it upon himself to use that as fuel to propel his situation with G-Unit, which is definitely reckless. He’s better off going at it with Jim Jones, because y’all from the same struggle. That would be a sufficient battle for him. N***as ain’t cut from my cloth.
AllHipHop.com: What do you mean “from your cloth?”
Loon: Meaning, Ma$e and all them all basically had hoop dreams. They wasn’t making no money in the streets, nothing with no burners, no knives, nothing. That was not in n***as fortay. Jim Jones also – not in a n***as forte. That would have been a sufficient lightweight battle for them two n***as. For a 120-pound n***a to fight a 220 n***a is definitely reckless.
AllHipHop.com: Are you insinuating that they Jim Jones and Ma$e don’t have the street cred they appear to have?
Loon: Nah, I’m saying that Jim Jones and [The Diplomats], they established their own street cred, their own movement and I tip my hat to them. Only thing I’m not with is the gangbanging s**t, because at the end of the day, that’s something that’s scarring New York’s image right now. I moved to L.A. in ’89. I ran with a notorious gang called the Crips. I ain’t gotta say exactly what set, but I didn’t come back to New York to try to instill that in the minds of my peers here. I’ve had over a decade to do that, if I wanted. This is our stomping ground. Why would be want to do that. N***as come here and try to compete with us and take their Khakis off to put on something hot to try to compete with us. That’s the only thing that I disagree with as far as their movement, but as far as them representing Hip-Hip and Harlem and New York Hip-Hop, they represent that…
AllHipHop.com: OK, I see.
Loon: With Ma$e, he is a very confused person.
AllHipHop.com: You know him. You did the Harlem World thing and probably go way back…
Loon: Actually we didn’t [go way back]. That’s the crime. You hear stories of a n***a downtown. That was me and Ma$e relationship before Harlem World. He heard things about me and everything I heard about him, I saw myself, because I went to his basketball games. That’s what he had to offer growing up. N***as ain’t come through the block smoking weed, that wasn’t his aura. In ’97, being that he was the first Harlem n***a to break the barrier, he inherited all the benefits of being a Harlemite. Instead of spreading it out, he ran with it on his own. He became the pinnacle of what that represents. Four people are dead right now, laying in their graves because of Ma$e.
AllHipHop.com: Why do you say that?
Loon: Ma$e did some real nasty s**t to one certain individual that stirred up some rage between four individuals. Three individuals killed their self off – they are no longer here. Ma$e had a sexual relationship with his goddaughter’s mother. The dude that was her man was a real n***a, that gets down, awesome gun game, heart of a lion and Ma$e knew when he stepped into that situation that he was in over his head. He did it anyway and ran. There was this dude that was trying to [get revenge] on Ma$e by doing things connected to Ma$e – like robbing individuals that might be next to Ma$e. For instance, they robbed Blinky Blink and I had to get his chain back. They robbed Cardan and I had to get his chain back. It was a whole bunch of bulls**t that started to stiff up, because this dude doing something that was totally unnecessary. I respect Jim Jones and them, they made a valiant effort to cut him off at the pass the last time he tried to come back and “dimple” his way back in the game.
I respect Jim Jones for that even though n***as ain’t have nothing to do with what was going down, wasn’t even around, affiliated or have any connection to what was going down. It was still a valiant effort, because he was in a position to do that. I respect him for that. I don’t want anybody to ever get my relationship to Jim Jones wrong, I just talk how I talk. N***as can take it how they want to take it. At the end of the day, there are things that took place in the hood that the world and White America, those fans that love Ma$e will never know or understand. It was a carnage man. N***as was tearing each other up over some real bulls**t and nobody benefited but Ma$e.
AllHipHop.com: There are rumors as to why Ma$e left Harlem? He even said in a song, “Ain’t nobody make me leave.
Loon: Ma$e is a frontin’ a** n***a. At the end of the day, Ma$e ran his own self out of Harlem. And, he ran at the right time. That’s what God does. He needed to give that man [Ma$e] a second chance [but] not for him to go back and do the same thing. You stirring up some bulls**t with Loon now, now that’s a problem. “You know me better than that.” Dude is just reckless.
AllHipHop.com: Do you ever worry about beef with G-Unit? They have been known to ruin careers here and there.
Loon: Same situation… The only reason G-Unit was able to destroy anybody’s career was because of personal relationships that they had with the individuals they were beefing with. They don’t know me. I’ve known 50 Cent since ’95, I met him in ’95 and we’ve always been cool. We actually had the chance to work before he got big with an artist down with Track Masters. I met Yayo in Detroit, him and Lloyd Banks for the first time. When Yayo was locked up, it was n***as from my hood that was holding him down. It’s always been love. Sha Money has always been on his grind – we always rocked. I’m not tripping off nobody. For any man that don’t know me to get in some s**t that they don’t know about, that’s reckless on their part also.
AllHipHop.com: Right, right.
Loon: I’m my own man. N***as just gotta wake up, man. We run this s**t. F**k who got more or who got less. We run this s**t. N***as can’t run it by themselves.
I lived in Beverly Hills, my n***a. I went to school with Angelina Jolie, Monica Lewinsky – big named people. Out of those experiences – my mother f***ed with Nicky Barnes [notorious Harlem drug kingpin], my pops being in the Black Mafia on the front page of the Amsterdam News [Harlem newspaper] in ’77 – All my history, I never let that s**t steer my path.
AllHipHop.com: When do you intend to put out more music?
Loon: Actually, I’m in the process of recording. I’m going to put out a mixtape immediately. It’s going to be called “No Friends.” That’s basically how I feel. There are no such things as friends right now. Friends are something that can just linger, business partners – that lasts as long as the business – and then the business goes away. But, a friend, that’s just a lot of n***as that’s lingering around. I got love for n***as, don’t get it wrong.
AllHipHop.com: What about a crew? That’s a standard accessory in Hip-Hop,
Loon: A crew? I done ran around with hundreds of thousands in jewelry, that’s on my kid’s life and ain’t nobody has ever tried to take nothing from me by gunpoint, verbally, none of that. When I see other artists out, you can see the streets in they eye. That’s why they have 20-30 n***as with them, so they feel they are in their element, so they are confident. I don’t need that. I’ll post up on anybody’s block. I’m me. I been to jail, I been behind the walls. When you been through certain things, you overcome all those teenage fears.
AllHipHop.com: Speaking on prison, how did you get out of that situation out in Cali, where you supposedly stabbed somebody?
Loon: I’m going to say what I am supposed to say. It is what it is – wrong place wrong time. I was standing with individuals that people might never have remembered and here I am and n***as charge me a million to get out. I’ve done about 26 of those Hip-Hop summits I’m trying to do something positive. I heard somebody say, “I’ll stab a n***a like Loon.” What the f**k are you talking about? I stay off the radar. Real n***as do real things. I’m not here to play with real life – I’m an entertainer. My challenge is being an entertainer…my challenge is never being Loon.