After an exhaustive search, I managed to find Willie D of the world famous Geto Boys. In my July ’04 editorial, I let it be known. If you missed it, please take a moment to reacquaint yourself to my views on the H-Town legend. The D was infamous way before Houston exports like today’s Lil’ Flippers and the such and he laid the groundwork (with many others) for the current Down South Explosion. The man was prominently featured in a documentary on Down South rap music, Dirty States of America, a worthy purchase for any real head. Fortunately, the Geto Boys are on verge of a major comeback and a new generation will get to know D, Bushwick and Scarface. There is a time for all Hip-Hop heroes to get honored. This is Willie D’s day.
Illseed presents Part I of Willie D: FOUND.
AllHipHop.com: You have been quiet. There’s been rumors going around and I wanted to know, are you in Nation of Islam?
Willie: No. I support the Nation though. I’m the kind of dude whereas if there’s another organization that’s saying something that I agree with, I can draw something from that organization. I have a hard time committing to one organization so I help and participate with several organizations. But if the Nation call on me, I will be there.
AllHipHop.com: I was told that you moved to France? Is this true?
Willie: Actually I moved to Baku, Averbaijan.
AllHipHop.com: Baku. Now where is that located?
Willie: Well that’s about two hours east of Bagdad.
AllHipHop.com: What made you move there?
Willie: (Laughs) Business opportunities man. I’m the kind of dude where if there’s business abroad and I can benefit form it, well that’s where I’m going. The world is bigger than the United States. I’m back and forth that’s why I’m here right now, but that’s my base for now.
AllHipHop.com: What kind of business do you have down there?
Willie: Real estate. I have some real estate going on in Houston too. And I’ll say this to my people; find some type of real estate investment because you can’t lose in real estate. You have to be one of the dumbest mother f***ers to lose in real estate. Its way more stable than the music industry. All these young cats that’s jumping in the game using their street money to get the game, 95% of them are going to fail and going to find themselves at square one.
The real estate has a 91% success ratio. All you have to do I know where the comps are in your area. It’s very simple. If you have a three-bedroom house and someone wants 200,000 for it, you check around the other homes in that area with that same amount of square footage. And if those other houses are going for around 180,000, that you already know that you aren’t going to get two-hundred for that house. So you have to know what you profit margin is and know what your profit margin loss is.
AllHipHop.com: So nothing Hip-Hop related made you do that?
Willie: Nah. Absolutely nothing.
AllHipHop.com: What’s the new Geto Boys’ sounding like?
Willie: I’m really not going to let the cat out the bag, but the one thing I could say about the new album is that I’m very satisfied with it. Very satisfied.
AllHipHop.com: Are you guys on good terms? I heard rumors about you guys not getting along. Can you clear that up?
Willie: Man, Geto Boys is a strictly business relationship. There’s no use in me trying to get out and start faking s**t, it’s a business relationship. And the one thing I can’t stand is when mother f***ers be like, “Everything is beautiful, we this and we that and we never going to break up,” and they are lying to protect their image. They already shot a new video with new members and they are sitting here lying to you, telling you that they are still together. But I’ll keep it real when you come at me.
AllHipHop.com: Didn’t it start out like that? You were somewhat of a solo artist and Face came later and the Bushwick was thrown into the thing can you give me a further description into what went on?
Willie: Let me give you a synopsis of what went on. I initially came in as a solo artist. There was a group already out called the Geto Boys but they weren’t selling records. Lil J [J.Prince], the owner came to me and said, “I need you to write some songs for the new Geto Boys record.” I said “Okay,” and I wrote some songs. I wrote s**t like “Do it Like a G.O.,” “Let a Hoe be a Hoe,” and they didn’t like it. They were like it was too graphic. At the time them ni**as had wives and s**t. So I understood where they were coming from, but Lil J gave them an ultimatum; “Either y’all rap this s**t or I would have to move on.” They choose the latter. I then came in as a member of the Geto Boys and J was telling me about this dude he had named Scarface but at the time his name was DJ Akshun, and J was like, “It’s going to be Jukebox, Action and Jukebox.” Jukebox was one of the ones to stay. But Jukebox got a letter from his girlfriend at the time saying that he needed to find a real job because s**t wasn’t working. So he ended up leaving the group.
[Bushwick] Bill was in the studio hanging out rapping some Public Enemy songs. You know how Chuck [D] rap, a thousand miles per hour, no breath and I was looking at him and I a light bulb went off in my head. I introduced the idea of Bill joining the group. Nobody was really feeling it. I was like we got some dope s**t and a gimmick wont hurt. So if people saw a midget rapping, they would trip the f**k out, I know I would. Especially a midget talking about kicking somebody ass. So I was like, “Let me write him a song.” If he could rap, he could be in the group. So I asked Bill some size related questions and I came back in an hour with “Size ain’t S**t,” and three days later he was in then studio recording. That’s how Bushwick Bill joined the group. Even though I didn’t like Bill.
AllHipHop.com: Why?
Willie: We had an altercation before.
AllHipHop.com: You were about to fight a midget man? (Laughs)
Willie: S**t, I’ll fight anybody…I’ll fight a motherf***ing first grader if he step out of line (Laughs) But the Bushwick thing was a business move and I thought it was a good idea. And that’s how you got the Geto Boys that you know today.
AllHipHop.com: Will the album be out through Rap-A-Lot?
Willie: Yes, Rap-A-Lot.
AllHipHop.com: Did you know that Rap-A-Lot will grow to be so big?
Willie D: My thinking was this: If enough people brought our s**t, then I felt that we were powerful to take over the whole fu**ing world. I knew that if they brought our s**t, if our s**t got heard, the fans will have an alternative. New York told us the stories of the subway stations and the projects and their life. So even to hear our voices, especially mine because of my southern drawl was powerful – because people in New York never heard a voice like that before. It made people pay attention.
AllHipHop.com: Speaking on that, the climate in music is crazy right now. People are making a big deal over Jadakiss who made the one liner “Why did Bush knock the towers?” Now you guys were surrounded be a whirlwind of controversy but people loved it. Can you tell us about the controversy and how it has changed in regards to Hip-Hop and censorship?
Willie D: You know, I can’t really be mad at dudes who be like “I’m not going to cross that that line I’m not going to go there,” because they don’t have the option of going underground and being successful like we do. The days where you can have no airplay, but have a monstrous album and sell a million copies are over. Just to get it in stores, like I said, they want to charge you to get it on the shelves. You have to pay to get it into a mix-show. You have to pay to get your poster on the wall at the f***ing barbershop now. When you walk in the neighborhood and be like, “Yo, put this poster up on the wall” they be like, “Well, that’s gonna charge you fifty dollars, and that other spot on the wall is gonna charge you $200.” Everybody is pimping and exploiting the game. Its okay to get paid off what somebody is doing, but if abuse it and wear that muthaf***a out, it’s not good no more and you don’t care because it’s a new mothef***a right around the corner.
Even the retailers are stealing from the artists. The ‘mom & pops’ panic. They have to pay a premium price to get the product in their stores. So instead of the ‘mom & pops’ joining forces sop they can compete with the big boys to buy low and sell high, they decided to go for their selves. They call the record company like, “Can you give us a sampler?” and they sell the samplers in the stores. Now the artists don’t even want to come to the ‘mom & pop’ stores, because when I was coming up, we knew that the ‘mom and pops’ were for the hood and they were holding the hood together sop that made us get a major kick out of going to the stores. We knew al the ‘mom and pop’ stores owners too. Everything was so much simpler back then. It had so much integrity, people who wanted to sell music because they had a passion for it. People who made music, made it because they had a passion for it. People who criticize the music because they had a passion for it. Everybody that was involved because they had a passion. These other guys only saw the money aspect of it. They said “I’m finna put this money into the Rap game. That’s how the game got so f***ed up. I’m not saying “Don’t keep your eye on your paper,” I’m saying that there should be some type of medium.
AllHipHop.com: Do you think the money creates a situation where the rappers don’t take any risks?
Willie D: Of course, but that’s human nature though. You get in a comfort zone and be like, “This is how I’ma make my money, and I ain’t going to jeopardize that for nobody.” You have people like that that work at Wal-Mart and you have people like that at the board and shelf.
AllHipHop.com: Geto Boys had a song called “F*** a War” and that was in the during the 90’s war with the Middle East. What are your thoughts on this one?
Willie D: I think even though there were no weapons of mass destruction found, I really think that the war was necessary.
AllHipHop.com: Oh, really?
Willie D: I’ma tell you why: When you got motherf***er running around chopping people heads off and shooting innocent citizens in the head, at some point something got to be done. I’m not saying he [George W. Bush] didn’t have ulterior motives, but that’s something that should have been dealt with a long time ago. But at the same time [in America], you have motherf***ers who contributed to the genocide and murder of our people. And those people still haven’t been held accountable for that yet.