Yonkers’ own Sean Jacobs, better known as Sheek Louch, has always prided himself as being one of the “streetest” MC’s in the game. Though he and his partners from the Lox have yet to sell millions and millions of records, the streets still stand at attention whenever they speak. To some, Platinum in the streets can mean as much as a plaque. But after being in the Rap game for so many years, Sheek’s focus on the business end of it is clearer. He knows that certain moves need to be made in order to ensure further longevity in a rapper’s career.
Things always have a tendency to change after taxes are taken. Checks get smaller, things are more expensive, you might feel like you aren’t making that pocket change that you think you should be making for yourself. Sheek has a new album coming out in September, After Taxes, and he promises that we get a closer look inside the mind of one of D-Block’s head businessmen.
AllHipHop.com breaks the quietest Warlock away from his brothers, to get a stronger sense of his identity. Everything from rhyme-patterns, labels, and fashion codes are discussed. We like to get the beef in the backseat, but for you carnivorous cats…Sheek states whether his issues with 50 will affect his relationship with Havoc.
AllHipHop.com: You are definitely the most low-key member of the Lox… are we going to get more insight into you on this album?
Sheek Louch: Yeah, this time I’m telling you where I’ve been, what I’ve been doing. I think on this album I stepped it up, lyrically. I thought I was on my A-game last album, but on this one I’m killin’ s**t. There are certain things in my life I speak on. I just had a baby boy.
AllHipHop.com: Congratulations…
Sheek Louch: Thank you. There’s a bunch of stuff I reflect on in this album. With these collabos, I really feel like we compliment each other. But I’ve really been behind the scenes with a lot of the business side of it and all. But right now I’m really just tryin to mash ‘em with this new album.
AllHipHop.com: Speaking of collaborations, what’s your favorite in your career?
Sheek Louch: I liked the one with DMX, “N****s Done Started Something.” I like a lot of the mixtape s**t like “Lox Chest to Chest” on DJ Clue back then; stuff like that is more my favorite stuff…more then the album.
AllHipHop.com: Is there anyone out there—living or not—that you haven’t gotten a chance to work with that you would have or would really like to work with?
Sheek Louch: I’ve worked with Big before but I wish I had had the chance to go on stage with him. We’d done a lot of stuff but we’ve never rocked an arena. I definitely wish I’d had the chance to do that, definitely. Who else am I feelin’ right now… it’s no gangsta s**t, but I like John Legend right now, I think he’s original.
AllHipHop.com: There were rumors of a return to Bad Boy, then Roc-A-Fella, what is the state of The Lox?
Sheek Louch: Right now, we’re in negotiations. Right now, Jay-Z’s trying to buy the Lox from Interscope. He’s trying to get the Styles Project, ‘Kiss project, the Lox as a group. My stuff is over at D-Block besides the Lox, so he’s trying to get that. So I think that’s almost in closing, we’re gonna make that happen. So the lineup is my album in September, a D-Block compilation coming for Christmas, J-Hood is coming in February. Once everything is said and done with the Lox deal, that’s when we’ll hit the streets with it. It’s called Live, Suffer, Celebrate, the new Lox album.
AllHipHop.com: What is the glue that holds the three of y’all together?
Sheek Louch: I think out respect for each other. Like when I hear his s**t—how we go about it is like, I could be on a song with Kiss, but I’m tryin’ to finish him. Styles is tryin’ to finish Kiss, he’s tryin’ to finish me. But not in the beef term… we’re all against everybody else. So that’s how we stay on point as far as our lyrics. I pretty much know what they’re writing about without them being there, and somehow, with our different styles, we compliment each other and it works.
AllHipHop.com: So you would call it a friendly competition?
Sheek Louch: Hell yeah.
AllHipHop.com: You say you guys like to finish each other’s lines… I know Jada and Styles like to finish each others’ sentences, they like alternating bars; how did that come about and why don’t you get down on that?
Sheek Louch: They did that back then, that’s some old s**t that just sounded so good I don’t need to get involved with that. Why stretch it out with three people?
AllHipHop.com: I’m saying like once in a while you and Jada, you and Styles…
Sheek Louch: Switch it up you mean?
AllHipHop.com: Yeah…
Sheek Louch: I got some of that goin’ on, I got some surprises on the album. But that in and out s**t’s some s**t they had and it sounds good to me. I’m in support of it.
AllHipHop.com: Okay, now one of my favorite lines from you is on “Breathe Easy”… “He clappin at you/ you duckin’/makin you dance/ you shoulda spent it on some guns instead of Iceberg pants” I feel like that kind of clarifies your opinion on things; not the guns and the jeans specifically, but about the whole flashy side of Hip-hop. I feel that explains how you feel about it…
Sheek Louch: That’s what I’m saying! On After Taxes… all that look good, but that ain’t the real deal, you know what I mean? We white tee’d out man, white tee, long johns under, jeans, boots… that’s us. Regardless of it we have millions or multimillions or not, that’s our s**t. We ain’t really mink n****s and all that. I think the same person you’re speaking to right now, you meet me later on down the line whether or not I sold 30 milllion records, I’ma be that same dude.
AllHipHop.com: What’s in your tape deck right now?
Sheek Louch: I got the first Redman album [Whut? Thee Album,] I’m a Redman fan. I got some of my new album in there. Listening to it so I can critique it.
AllHipHop.com: The more you listen to it the more you like it?
Sheek Louch: Yeah, the more I listen the more I like it, the more ideas I get and I want to go back and change this and that.
AllHipHop.com: How do you feel about yourself as far as the work you’ve done as a businessman, as a third of such a talented trio, and as a sole artist?
Sheek Louch: I think we’re doin our thing… I’m definitely business-minded. The first thing I did was buy a studio for us to record in, got these meeting to see how things were going at other labels because I really didn’t like the money situation and certain things. Now where I’m at now, we went to the independent thing, which is Koch. And I’m happy getting eight dollars a record now as opposed to 35 cents before like most artists.
AllHipHop.com: I feel like you guys deserve everything you get. Is there anything you’d like to leave me with?
Sheek Louch: Not to sound corny but it sounds like you’ve really been supporting us, thanks for that… go get that After Taxes album, tell the people it’s hot, a lot of energy, I stepped it up lyrically, creatively and G-Unit got nothing on us, you know what I’m saying?
AllHipHop.com: Since you brought it up, let me ask you something, you say you have Havoc on the album; was that all before they signed to G-Unit?
Sheek Louch: Yeah, he did production on it before the G-Unit s**t, but I’m not stupid… as soon as I heard that they were signing and after he signed the deal I called him immediately to make sure that everything was still a go, and he said, “Hell yeah, that has nothing to do with me.” His production is his production, if I had his rapping on my album and I didn’t have him signed and sealed already it would probably have been a problem, but as far as his beats go, that has nothing to do with it. Even Alchemist—I have an Alchemist track on it—and that’s Eminem’s DJ now. Same s**t…
AllHipHop.com: You know how sometimes people try to act like even if it’s really not their beef…
Sheek Louch: They try to get in and act like they’re mad at us now, outta nowhere. That’s some little b*tch s**t man.
AllHipHop.com: So what’s good with a Lox/Nas vs. G-Unit type of battle? I mean, if it’s gonna happen then let’s make it really happen…
Sheek Louch: Yeah, G-Unit got nothin’ on us. Everybody knows they’ve got more money then us and all that, but you know that’s about it. Besides that, the streets know we shuttin’ em down, we killin’ em. They haven’t really responded back. They know that can’t f**k around. If it was somebody else, you know they would have tried to air them out and finish them… The Lox is waiting, go ahead and do it. Everything we put out, we mashed them. The s**t that they be putting out, n****s be like “That was wack, what was that?” People want a little show, give them a show. It probably was good back then if you were gonna use it on him [Ja Rule]. But before, when he was getting’ on Ja, Ja was this industry dude, out there doin’ movies, and 50 was the street n****a. WE them street n****s, 50, you lookin real sensitive and b*tch-like right now… You’re heated at ‘Kiss and Fat Joe cause they did a song biggin’ up New York? They didn’t nothing about you but you’re mad because somebody did something with Ja… get the f**k outta here.