In Hip-Hop’s at times theater like atmosphere, there may be no better primetime player than DJ Drama.

DJ Drama has been through more than your average Hip-Hop DJ can stomach in just one year. His arrest for racketeering by the FBI triggered a domino effect that virtually shut down his mixtape game for a short time earlier this year. His long awaited debut, Gangsta Grillz: The Album, pushed back nearly a whole year because of another “DJ Drama” that popped up who felt he had the right to the name. But most recently, his friend and business partner T.I., was arrested on federal gun possession charges in Atlanta. None of this has fazed him. In the world of Hip-Hop few music executives have more influence than DJ Drama. His Gangsta Grillz compilations have helped define this decade’s Southern rap explosion. He has been instrumental in the careers of rappers like Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne , T.I., Saigon and others. Now he is set to take Gangsta Grillz mainstream and break his own artist; Michigan native Willie The Kid. DJ Drama speaks exclusively to AllHipHop.com about his new December 4 release date, rumors that have been circulating in the media and gives us his views on the federal charges against his dear friend. AllHipHop.com: Hi Drama. How’s everything going with the new album?

Drama: Everything’s great. Everything’s great.AllHipHop.com: So what happened with the original release date? The album was supposed to come out almost a year ago? Drama: I had some complications. One was due to the situation with my name… You know how it goes, “More money, more problems.” This guy from Chicago basically popped up out of nowhere and said he had the legal rights to the name DJ Drama so that complicated things for a moment and then Tip’s album [T.I. vs. Tip] was ready to come out and you know how it goes? He is the big powerhouse over at Atlantic, so the label put all their focus onto his project and rightfully so. That’s my big homie, so we focused on getting his album to platinum status real quick. I went back in the studio, put some more work in, got a banging single done and got me a new date right around Thanksgiving so you know everything worked out for the best. We made the best out of the situation. AllHipHop.com: I know you have made the best of the situation but after you put so much work into a project it must be frustrating to be pushed back almost a whole year? Drama: I mean, it is what it is. It just means that there’s more work to do. For me, my fan base and what I represent is real different from a regular artist because I consistently feed the street with product, with my mixtapes. As long as I keep doing what I do, as long as I stay hot on the streets then I’m good. I was never really worried about it; I was never really thinking, “Oh sh*t are people going to forget about me”. I mean, yeah sometimes I would be feeling impatient to come out but I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Now I’ve just dropped the single “5000 Ones” [featuring Nelly, T.I., Willie The Kid, Yung Joc, Young Keezy, Twista and Diddy] which is a very big song and in the long run the new date will work out for my benefit. It’s a fourth quarter release anyway, star-studded, a lot of powerhouses involved so it’s all good. AllHipHop.com: After the RIAA raid; you had a nice little buzz going; the original December/January release date would have kept that buzz at fever point…Drama: I mean in today’s world we all know controversy sells and I was definitely on the tongues of the media for a minute. I garnered a lot of publicity that a lot of people would usually have to pay for. Me and my movement, The Aphilliates, have done a lot and yeah it would have been good to come out around that time, but that’s not the end of my story, that’s not the beginning of my story; it’s just a chapter in my book. That was never going to define me. The album is still banging, nothing changed. I’m still doing my mixtapes, I’m on the radio more days than I was before and I’m still visible. AllHipHop.com: Regarding the raid and the charges against you, whatever happened? Has that all gone away? Drama: It’s still pending. I am yet to be in court. So we shall see but I’m not in jail so that’s a good thing. AllHipHop.com: So we should keep our ‘Free Drama’ t-shirts for a while? Drama: I mean you can hold on to it just for memorabilia purposes but I hope you don’t ever have to put it on again. AllHipHop.com: Due to that whole situation, did anything to do with your business end up being affected negatively? Drama: Nah. It basically just affected my business positively. It put me on a larger scale. I did a lot of travelling, I got booked for a lot of international gigs and you know the mixtape game as a whole slowed down so that was a definite turn of events, but I think that’s slowly, but surely coming back to life because of people like myself and a lot of other people who are putting in a lot of work to bring the game back to life. I’m a firm believer that mixtapes will never die but overall it didn’t affect my business in any negative way. At the end of the day; the stories in the media are always full of half-truths and you’re always going to have up’s and you’re always going to have down’s. You got to take the good with the bad. A prime example would be Puffy. Look how many things Puff has been through.  I’ve used this example before but let’s just say he would have quit after the riot at that basketball game? Then he would never have started Bad Boy Records, let’s say he would have quit after Biggie got killed, let’s say he quit after the trail for the gun charges? You can’t let any type of controversy stop you from doing what you love. AllHipHop.com: Do you feel that Atlantic is really supporting you? Drama: I think in some ways they have yet to see that I have a movement. It’s not something I would say I blame Atlantic for as I do the music industry in general. A lot of labels have got caught up on singles, ringtones and things of that nature. We’ve all seen Shop Boyz with their big song and Sean Kingston and you know I could go on and on, and that’s no disrespect to those guys, but they have these huge singles but they sell no records. Then you have an artist like Common who hasn’t had a lot of video play or radio play out the box and still sold 150 thousand first week because he has a movement, a core fan base and I believe I’m the kind of artist who has a core fan base. People love Gangsta Grillz because of what it represents, it’s not all about spins with me and then again I’ve got my own movement; The Aphilliates Music Group, my own machine so regardless whether I believe the label have done what I believe they should do, I’m going to do what I got to do because that’s all I can do. AllHipHop.com: Does it ever make you ever want to go independent? As far as I can see; you’re doing the work and they’ll make the money. Drama: [Laughs] I mean I’m a team player. You know we may agree to disagree. I may have my opinion. But I’m here to put out a great album, I’m here to make myself money, I’m here to make the Aphilliates money, to make Grand Hustle money and I’m here to make Atlantic money; at the end of the day they gave me the opportunity to do this album and this is business, I know it’s nothing personal. This is my first time out the box so I just want to prove to the people that I have a great album and then do another one and another one and another one. You know what I’m saying? So if it takes me to drop this album and to do most of the promotional work for them to understand what my movement is about, then so be it. AllHipHop.com: Ok let’s go back to your legal issues with your name. What was the outcome? Were you able to keep the name DJ Drama? Drama: Yeah, I’m coming out as Drama. There was an artist on Atlantic a couple of years ago named Drama. He actually was incarcerated and me and him chopped it up, we came to an agreement on a number and he blessed me with the ability to use the name, which I greatly appreciate from him. I was in a situation where I was going to have to change my name because that other DJ Drama guy popped up but then he just disappeared again so he lost out and I won. At the end of the day I’m Drama everyone knows me as DJ Drama; no one else. I’m comfortable with that. When you say the name DJ Dram it’s not going to be a misunderstanding. AllHipHop.com: Glad you sorted it out as DJ Dram just didn’t have the same ring to it… Drama: Yeah. I ‘m not going to lie, I was concerned. Again if my album ended up coming out when it was supposed to come out then it might have come out under DJ Dram when people know me as Drama so everything worked out the way it was supposed to and everything is a blessing. AllHipHop.com: With you original release date; people were kind of making it a battle against you and DJ Khaled… Did you feel that? Drama: [Laughs] Yeah definitely. You know I love Khaled; that’s my boy, my brother. I’m so proud of him for what he’s done for himself and what he’s done for DJ’s in general. He had two of the biggest records out this year; you know what I’m saying? He’s made everybody pay attention. We have a very close relationship and we even talked about it ourselves when we thought we would be dropping on the same day; we knew we had to bring our competitive spirits to it. It makes us work harder, it’s good for the business and I’m just proud that another DJ has got to the level that he’s got too. There are not a lot of artists or DJ’s that can say that they have had pretty much two number one huge hits like he’s had with “We Taking Over” and “I’m So Hood.” I think we need things that bring diversity, competition and dialogue into the culture. I thought the “Hip Hop Is Dead” controversy was great, I thought the 50 vs. Kanye competition was great, I think the South vs. North debate is cool and I think Nas calling his new album “Ni**er” and the debate it’s causing is great. Any time there is a debate in Hip-Hop it’s good. Even with my release date; December the 4th, from what I hear Scarface is coming out, Ghostface is supposed to be coming out, Saigon’s coming out and I hear Birdman might be coming out as well. So you know a lot of people are coming out on that December 4th date which is great because it’s going to be a great week for Hip-Hop. Yeah it’s competitive but at the same time it represents music and I think it’s going back to the time when I came up and it would be exciting to go to the store and cop albums and you’d have a whole load of choices and options and good music. AllHipHop.com: Album sales have gone down, but Atlanta as a community always seems to embrace and support their own… Drama: I hope so. Yeah. There’s a lot of love in the city. I’ve witnessed that first hand for the eleven years that I’ve been here. I definitely have a lot of people on my side; it’s a good feeling from my peers, to supporters on the street to DJ’s all around. I love what I do, I have a passion for it and I think that comes across when I speak and from what I represent. AllHipHop.com: Definitely. So you were nice enough to play me the album in January when you were in the UK. Since then, what has changed on the album? Drama: The Outkast song is still there. Actually pretty much everything is still there. There was a situation with Universal and one of the Lil Wayne songs didn’t get cleared but Wayne’s still on the album. You know we got the new single [“5000 Ones”] with TI, Nelly, Yung Joc, Willie The Kid, Young Jeezy, and Twista produced by Jazze Pha. The skits on the album are crazy. Lil Jon is still on there. Lloyd is still there. Yeah it’s pretty much the same album with a couple of bonuses. AllHipHop.com: The Lil Wayne track that didn’t make it; was that the one where he went at Wendy Williams? Drama: Yeah that didn’t make it. AllHipHop.com: Do you ever get bothered that sometimes people give the artists more credit than they do the DJ with these types of albums? Drama: No, I don’t get bothered about that. My album is not necessarily just about DJ Drama. It’s about Gangsta Grillz and people know the Gangsta Grillz brand. There are a lot of artists on my album and rightfully they deserve credit, if not I’d be rapping on the album my-damn-self [laughs]. I want everybody to get the credit they deserve as a collaborative effort because that’s what it is. It’s like a Chronic. Dr Dre’s face is on the cover but a lot of people put a lot of work into that album. Sometimes people behind the scenes are just as much as part of the project as the face of the movement. I did a lot of work for this project, I’m the face of it but a lot of people put a lot of work in also to make it what it is. I went through so much this year and I hope everyone is proud of being involved in this album. AllHipHop.com: Ok can we talk about T.I.? A lot of rumors are going around that he was set up? Drama: I don’t really know anything as far as if it was a set up or not. My details are very limited right now. Most importantly for me especially in interviews is to show my support to my homie, my comrade, my friend and my partner. I mean you’ve done interviews with Tip before… Anyone who has ever come in contact with him or seen him and spoken to him out in the streets; you know how much of a human being he is, how down to earth he is, how much of a good person he is. Even being the big superstar that he is. He does a lot of good for Hip-Hop, he does a lot of good for the South and he does a lot of good for his community and family. It’s kind of early to know what the future holds with the situation but we’re striving for the best and we’re hoping for the best. We’ve hit a down point but I’m going to do what I do and ride for him in the mean time. I’m riding for my homie. AllHipHop.com: Do you know if the security guard was a part of the Hip-Hop police? Drama: I really don’t know to be honest with you. Tip’s out right now and we’re just happy about that. He’s on house arrest and house arrest is better than being in jail. AllHipHop.com: A lot of rumors are circulating… One being that Grand Hustle’s all female rap duo, Xtaci are asking for donations now to keep afloat because of this situation? Drama: You know how it goes during these kinds of situations? There’s going to be a billion rumors, a million and one people putting their two cents into the situation. All I know is everybody in Grand Hustle is in full support mode. Anything Tip needs on my end or from anyone in Grand Hustle; we got him! AllHipHop.com: Can we address the other rumor that Atlantic feels that bloggers and media outlets are making things worse for T.I.’s case?Drama: It’s a tough one. I mean the media is the media. As public figures that we are, you have to deal with the press; good or bad. They’re not always going to paint you in a good light or make out that you’re a saint. They report as they see fit. The facts will come out in the end. I personally don’t believe that the judge is putting all his eggs into what the media or what the bloggers are saying about T.I. The facts are going to be the facts. That’s what it comes down too.AllHipHop.com: What do you say to the people who are saying that T.I. is a bad role model or that buying 26 guns was excessive and he should go down?Drama: You got to judge him by his whole track record. Don’t judge him by one event. Judge him by overall what he does and who he is. You got to look at his history. I mean the judge knew his history, the judge was aware of the things he does for the community, the kids, the schools, the youth that are in juvenile and detention centers and things of that nature. Don’t just judge him by one event, judge the man as a man overall. What he represents and how he carries himself. What if everyone just decided after the RIAA raid that I was bootlegger and that’s it? You see what I’m saying? I’d be f*cked up out here. I was lucky that people judged me by everything I represent. A lot of people said a lot of bad things about me when I went through my whole mess… “Drama’s doing this, he shouldn’t be doing that. He deserves what he gets.” But at the end of the day when I walk down the street I get respect and hopefully people will do the same for Tip. AllHipHop.com: Have you spoken to T.I.?

Drama: Yeah I have. Tip is in great spirits. He’s spending some quality time with his family, he was playing with his sons today when I spoke to him. He’s happy to be out and is ready to get back to making some music. He’s real excited about my project too. Tip’s always been 100% supportive of my movement. So yeah, we’re definitely keeping our hopes and spirits up. AllHipHop.com: Ok, so let’s end this interview on a positive note. How are things going with Willie The Kid? Drama: It’s going great. He’s got like 60 songs done on deck. He’s got a song out right now called “Cha Ching” that’s creating a little buzz; Don Cannon produced. Our set up is inspired by The Chronic and Doggystyle. He’s all over my album; on like six or seven tracks. I really think he’s going to be a problem. What he’s going to bring to the game is much needed right now. People are going to think I’m biased but in a year or two I’m going to be able to say, “I told you so”. Watch out. Gangsta Grillz: The Album, December 4th. Make sure you go cop it. I have to give a huge thanks to Sense and La the Darkman; who both co-executive produced this project. They put in a huge amount of work and I couldn’t have done it without them. Of course a huge thanks too; The Aphilliates, Grand Hustle, Atlantic and everyone who is involved with this project. AllHipHop.com: So you’re in a good place right now? Mentally and physically?

Drama: I’m loving life. I’m consistently getting challenged by my peers and by my company. We’ve got the album coming out. My mixtape game is back on and popping. I’m on radio consistently. Yeah I feel good about where I am today. You know after the raid, I started working out every day and I dropped 35 pounds, that situation made me say to myself, “Come on Dram, get yourself in shape. Let’s get it together”. So yeah, I’m happy mentally and physically. Life is great. Everything’s great.

CATCH UP…Prepping to release the G-Unit collective’s sophomore salvo, Shoot To Kill, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo reveal some of their targets. AllHipHop.com: Let’s address the rumors about the whole G-Unit camp. A

couple of months ago, it seemed like 50 Cent had some issues. There was some

controversy about all y’all doin you and the whole G-Unit had a conference

call. From that meeting what came from that?

Tony Yayo: I feel like any ni**a that get money, [50] just felt like he

needed more support from [us] to be around. That’s anybody. It’s hard

being an artist cause you got a lot of stuff you gotta worry about. He

gotta worry about himself and he got a label he gotta worry about. So,

sometimes 50 is crazy and he goes through his things, but him and Banks

is like family. We from the same hood, so there’s a difference. I don’t

care if ni**as stop talking for a year and a half… it’s business.  And

after the business that’s where the friendship comes in. You know when

I’m with 50 and I’m around him, it’s hard when your friend is your

boss. But you gotta deal with it. You don’t use ’em, cause everybody

want him. I feel like people try to use me, cause I got money now.  He

feels like people try to use him. 50 feels like people try to use him

for certain things.  But right now we back together like a family

supposed to be. Cause me and Banks always talked, but he went through

his thing, like I said. The heart attacks with [Banks’] mother, his

father just passed away, it’s a lot to deal with. Outside media look at

it like they don’t know what’s going on. But get in our personal life

and see how we live. Hip-Hop Police following us. Like right now, I’m

out on bail, baby on the way,  Hip-Hop Police follow us everywhere we

go…our lives are movies. If you had a reality show on us there would

be millions of people that would want to watch to see what we got going

on, and why we ride around in bullet-proof vehicles and why we got

bodyguards. You know why I got a bodyguard? So, I won’t have to pay

someone $50,000 for punching them in the g**d*** head. Cause that

happened before. Other rappers don’t get lawsuits because they don’t

have lawsuit-money.

 Lloyd Banks: Other artists advances are like $250,000. That’s what I

pay in lawyers fees, between me, my ni**as funerals. That sh*t ain’t

expected. They are all things that a lot of people ain’t dealin with

and we are. That’s why when you make a lot of money and he got 20

people with him, it’s important. From brothers, to sisters, to cousins,

to third-cousins, to aunts that never said nothing to you… There’s a

lot going on. It’s the lifestyle that brings on…like, B.I.G. said, ‘Mo’

Money, mo’ problems’. I wouldn’t have expected it. I didn’t understand.

When I used to see like [the] whole cast of Different Strokes in jail

your like, “What’s wrong with these ni**as? They famous.” You don’t

understand until you in that limelight. A lot goes on. The music, don’t

get it twisted, we could go into the studio today and a monster can

come out with 5 or 6 records so, that’s never been a problem, it’s just

like there was an off switch and now it’s on.

AllHipHop.com: So Banks, what’s the next move? The streets haven’t heard from you in a minute.

Lloyd Banks: I’m always in the studio, the main reason they haven’t

heard me for a minute, and I stress it all the time, is rap is not rap

all the time. My clock move 12 hours a day. My sh*t go by like that and

with your average person it’s 24 hours a day. While I’m jumping from

Japan to Germany, Germany to Switzerland, Switzerland to back here..

real sh*t is still going on. And that doesn’t get addressed to the

public all the time. Some sh*t has to be your Life. And the fact of the

matter is I was going through a lot of stuff. My father passed around

this time last year…like weeks after my album came out. I’m not going

to lie to you, that’s not something you prepare for. If your ni**a

pass, you runnin the block with him everyday…you know the consequences.

The most it would be shocking, but you can deal with it. My pops was 45

years old…still in that life and died at a time when I wasn’t prepared

for it. A ni**a dies you like, ’Damn, well, he was wildin’ out…” Pops

dies its like, “S###, I been running around. I never even had the time

to actually have that relationship.” So, sh*t f*cked me up. Had me

feelin like…with all the politics, the game turned from actual business

and talent to being to the politics sh*t. And I was wasn’t feelin’

that. I was like, “F*ck all this sh*t! I don’t care about none of this

shi*t!” I went through that mode, for a while. It might have hurt my

record sales. Most definitely, cause I wasn’t there to promote the

album. My mother was back and forth to the hospital, [she] had two

heart attacks. My brother crashed my cars, damn near killed himself. I

had a lot of sh*t going on at that time, man. To be honest with you, I

love music, but I really wasn’t thinking about it at that time. Now

that I’m back where I need to be, it’s a problem. Cause I’m not sparing

nobody. Motherf*cker say something about me,  your addressed tomorrow.

Whether it be AllHipHop.com or whatever. Because at this point, I

really don’t care. The music is what feeds me, my family, so I’m going

hard.  They can expect new material from me, group material, as well as

Green Gang Records, what I’m doing next. I’m looking for artists right

now, so if you’re hot, holla at me, make sure you get your music to me.

That’s the next move.

AllHiphop.com: So, Green Gang Records that’s your next move? Do you have distribution?

Lloyd Banks: Green Gang. Nah, not yet. I got artists that I’m f*cking with now. No more games.

Tony Yayo: My next album is done. It’s actually called, I Am 50’s Tax

Write-off. Pick it up if you want to. Basically, I’m back to having

fun. I don’t got Interscope to pick my single…I’m basically having

fun. I was watching something on TV, I think it was Hanna Montana.. You

know I got kids, so I’m watching the Disney Channel and [Hanna’s]

father said, Once you stop having fun with this sh*t then you need to

stop. It went from us in the beginning to having fun cause we didn’t

have nothing, we didn’t have sh*t, then it got to a level where it

stopped [being] fun because  ni**as was selling so many f*cking records

that we felt like we had to hit a certain bar.  I went gold on house

arrest and that’s good as a motherf*cker. But in my mind, I was saying,

“Damn, I ain’t that platinum artist. I let it bother me a little bit.

It f*cked me like, “Damn, everybody from G-Unit go platinum.” But then

I thought about it and, Hey, I went gold. I was in a cell. I used to be

a bum-ass ni**a in Southside Jamaica on the corner pitchin rocks to the

fiends. And the same ni**as I did it with are still on the corner,

doing the same thing. So, what the f*ck am I mad about a gold album

for?

AllHipHop.com: Do you want to comment on the T.I. situation at all?

Lloyd Banks: It’s bad for Hip-Hop, man. It’s gonna hurt him, it’s gonna

hurt Hip-Hop even more. There’s a lack of good artists out there.

Tony Yayo: I just hope he’ll be alright. Cause I been in situations.

Been in the FEDs, I been in the State and it seems like when you try to

do good… We targets, man. Believe it or not, young, black men, period.

That’s why when I see people say, “Stop the violence in Hip-Hop.”

Hip-Hop is feeding families to get off the streets. Y’all want us back

on the corner.  That’s what it seems like to me. The ni**a got set-up ,

man.  Grom a b*tch-@ss ni**a. That’s all it come down to. Another ni**a

doin good and another ni**a set him up. That’s why I don’t f### with

everybody, because there’s a catch-22 to everything. I read between the

lines, b*tch-@ss n*ggas set him up. You know what I mean?

Lloyd Banks: Keep your circle small. Sh*t is crazy right now.

Tony Yayo: For what reason, I don’t know. I just know I would never do

business with a bodyguard like that anyway. But to him, all I can say

is, “Hold your head up and I hope you aight. Hope you can get the least

time possible.” That’s it.

AllHipHop.com: Let’s talk about the tour. It’s a 50 Cent tour, but is all G-Unit going?

Tony Yayo: Yea, of course.

Lloyd Banks: We start off in the UK, everywhere in the UK and then

India and  I believe Africa…and everywhere. We going to about 50 days

straight. That’s why when you look at it, people calling us [50’s]

shadows and sh*t.. I don’t understand that sh*t because a lot of the

opportunities that have come to be is based off my affiliation. My

first tour was a 50 city tour, like everywhere. So, that was a lot to

put on a new artist. I just was blessed for that. And I feel blessed

right now to still be able to be relevant and have people hear what I

want to say.

AllHipHop.com: With the digital age, how has that changed Hip-Hop in the last couple years?

Lloyd Banks: It got to the point in the last couple years, that I could

[now] bring my little cousin in here and he’d like, “Yo, where the

Soundscan at?” Like 5 years ago, a hood ni**a wasn’t getting his hand

on a Soundscan. [Laughs] He didn’t really care. Now it’s to the point

where that’s moving and you’re going to have to find a new way to rate

an artist. How you would consider to rate an artist now is different,

because the same way tape decks are out, soon you not going to have a

CD deck either.

Tony Yayo: Yea, they gonna find a new way to figure out how record

labels can get money. I mean, you seeing a lot of record labels now,

signing dudes who have deals through downloads.

Lloyd Banks: Straight through ringtones.

Tony Yayo: A lot of rappers you see, no disresect, the game has

changed. Like icons we looked at coming up, like Biggie, Tupac, Big L,

Pun, Common, NWA, these are dudes that I wanted to be like. But now,

you got Ringtone Rappers, and it’s not like I’m trying to hate or

nothing. You got dudes like Soulja Boy, who’s a Ringtone Rapper. His

record got downloaded on Myspace and he had two million hits and that

was like one of the biggest hits on Myspace. That’s what got the

interest of Jimmy Iovine and everybody at [Interscope Records], right?

Lloyd Banks: Mmm-hmm.

Tony Yayo: Because before you had to give the streets at least two or three records or, four or five records or a mixtape.

Lloyd Banks: New York artists can’t just get signed to any label and

come with, “This is the new single,” they like, “Oh, where’s the old

single?” You know what I’m sayin? We had to grind.  We had to really go

hard, to the point where they started saying Banks and Yayo as a

separate. But like [Yayo] said, it’s that Ringtone Rapper sh*t.

Tony Yayo: It went from us being on a song. and they just saying, “50

Cent and G-Unit,” to us being on a song and them saying, “50 Cent,

Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo of G-Unit.”

Lloyd Banks: At the end of the day, every other crew, name a crew in

New York City right now, that don’t have tension, right now, between

each other that didn’t actually show signs of not having loyalty

towards each other. Like being unloyal. Name a group. You can’t.  No

one is intact but The Unit. That sh*t gotta count for something. So,

while you was yelling D-Block or you was yelling Dipset or you was

yelling Terror Squad. You’ve seen friction from every one of those

groups.

Tony Yayo: Half these ni**as ain’t been through half the s### me and

[Banks] or 50 been through. Through our struggles, what made us to

where we have. But they compare themselves to us now. It’s like right

now, they’re calling Lil’ Wayne, The Greatest Rapper Alive. What

happened to Jay-Z? What happened to Nas? What happened to f*cking 50?

What happened to Eminem? To me, when we talk about Hip-Hop and we talk

about rap and music, let’s talk about the business aspect of it too. I

have respect for Jay-Z. I have respect for 50 Cent and I have respect

for Eminem, as businessmen and as artists, and Dre too. Lil’ Wayne

hasn’t  gotten to where they have, as artists, lyrically or  money-wise

or business-wise or anything. I’m not a hater. The kid make good music.

But to me, I never got at a Jay-Z or a Nas or an Eminem, unless they

had something to say against me. And I would think twice getting at

Eminem. Matter of fact, I would think four times before I tried to

battle Eminem, cause I wouldn’t. Jay-Z, come’on, man. You talking about

the big dogs of rap.

Lloyd Banks: These ni**as don’t stand behind the things they say in a record. They just good when it comes to apologies.

AllHipHop.com: Are rappers basically entertainers now?

Lloyd Banks: I mean, you tell me. When you start telling me that a

ni**a could put a butterfly on his eye or a ni**a could claim to be a

gang member and [not] really be, or a ni**a could kiss another ni**a in the

mouth and it be okay, then yeah, it’s turned into entertainment. But

that’s why we don’t fit into that bracket.

Tony Yayo: It’s WWF, man. It’s wrestling.

Lloyd Banks: That s### ain’t supposed to be cool or ok. If that sh*t

happened ten years ago, man, listen, it wouldn’t have happened. I know

because the rappers I looked up to, they was from the street like we

are, period. From Slick Rick to Kane to everybody. .That sh*t, wouldn’t

have existed, period. That sh*t gotta count for something. You can’t

just be the nicest rapper.

Tony Yayo: A rapper has to be somebody. You can’t just have a record.

Lloyd Banks: If you got a little brother, right, if he got a picture on

the wall, it’s gonna be a ni**a that got all those things. He’s

talented, he’s credible too, at the same time. Cause you want to be

like him, he from the street too. Let’s not get it twisted, the music

comes from here and happens to reach the outside and out of the

country. But it comes from our neighborhood. That’s where it started. A

kid ain’t gonna have a picture up of nobody that’s gonna come and go

next year. He wants something he can believe in. If your character

don’t even exist how can he…

Tony Yayo: Do you know how it feels to go through the hood? Like, we

just did a show in Philly, some of the roughest, that’s where people

get this sh*t from, man. What we rhyme about the aggression you can go

to some spots in Philly, we can go to Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, we can go to

Soundview in the Bronx, what the f*ck do you see?

Lloyd Banks: There’s certain sh*t that has to happen. Same way they

gotta wear suits in the NBA, [laughs] you got to be real in the rap

game.

Tony Yayo: This is where we from. The aggression is always there. Streets of Baltimore, streets of D.C, everywhere.

Lloyd Banks: Put it like this, if it’s certain entertainment and you

ask, “What the game been missing, right now?” G-Unit. It’s missing real

ni**as from the hood, who happen to be talented and that’s it. Cause

everything else out there is not that. It’s forming allegiances.

Tony Yayo: Don’t say this record or all the stuff you hear about in the

newspapers and sh*t made us sell records it’s not that. It’s, “On

Fire”, it’s…

Lloyd Banks: 50 Cent Is The Future, Beg For Mercy.

Tony Yayo: If you go look at that mixtape plaque out there, you can see

how much work we put in. We damn-near started the mixtape game. I mean,

mixtapes was always there, but the way we did it. Rapping over Raphael

Sadiq and like old L.L records, sh*t ni**as thought we wouldn’t rhyme

to, we just brung something different.

Lloyd Banks: Rest In Peace Just-O too. That sh*t made me who I am now.

Tony Yayo: First mixtape award…

Lloyd Banks: That plaque is the most important plaque I got. You know

what I’m sayin? More than a Grammy or whatever the f*ck. I’ve been

nominated for all that sh*t and I really don’t care. I won it with the

street. If I didn’t deserve it, they would have booed. That’s something

you can’t take back from a ni**a. You can’t say G-Unit didn’t change

the game, in every form or fashion, from the mixtapes to the

mainstream. I just don’t want the people to get confused. Not the fans,

cause the fans know. The people from the outside looking in that think

that this just happened. Nah, before it happened like this we were

sitting on the block, talking about, “When I get this car…” I can’t

even say Bentleys, because at that time it was probably a Benz.

Tony Yayo: You know a house where sprinklers come out your lawn.. we

got Bentleys and sh*t like that now. Things that we never had. That’s

why me, I’m one of the most humblest ni**as. You could catch me in

Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx. I’m one of the humblest n*ggas there is,

when it comes to my fans, because I remember not having a fan. So, when

we go through hoods like Philly and little kids is screaming at us… We

ain’t superheroes, not even they mom or they dad, sh*t makes me feel

good. That they bought  the G-Unit video game, or the Lloyd Banks

album, or the Tony Yayo album,  or the Curtis album, we always gonna

have our fans that stay by our side.

Lloyd Banks: We always gonna be making music. Outside of all that rap

sh*t, man, leave me alone, don’t say nothing. These [other rappers] are

good apologizers. That’s it.

If you’ve followed Hip-Hop music for the past 20 years , you would know that the once strictly art form has quickly transformed into a multi-billion dollar industry.  When money enters any equation, what was once considered art, is now officially business.  Fifteen years ago Wendy Day recognized the need to help artist become more educated about the business aspect of Hip-Hop music.  As the music form gained more notoriety, and began to garner more attention from major record labels and various corporations, she also noticed her favorite artists and producers getting the short end of the stick.  She felt a strong urge to help those artists who were making little to no money from their current deals.  This “urge” led Wendy to form Rap Coalition in 1992.  Rap Coalition is a not- for – profit organization dedicated to educating and empowering rappers, Djs, and producers, to recognize a poor record deal and provide the necessary information to negotiate a better one.  In Part one of this two part series, Wendy discusses  how new producers can break into the industry, why producers should not give away free beats, and how to structure a deal so you can get paid exactly what your production is worth.  Producers take notes…AllHipHop.com:  You have a lot of information on your website.  How did you go about learning all of that information.Wendy Day:  Actually, mostly trial and error. I’m very fortunate that as a human being I have no trouble walking up to somebody and starting a conversation with them, and asking them almost personal questions.  When I first started doing deals in this business I asked E-40, “How’d you get your deal?” I was able to ask a lot of people intimate details about what they had done and I learned from their knowledge and their experience.  AllHipHop.com:  How can a producer use your website and benefit from the information in it?Wendy Day:  www.Rapcoalition.org has a lot of industry articles that will benefit the producer side of the industry.  I just found a designer who is going to re-design it.  It’s going to be broken into sections for producers, for rappers, and for DJs.  There will be separate sections where people can go to get information that will be pertinent to them.  But, for a producer who wants to be independent, the best thing a producer in a smaller area can do it to align themselves with an independent artist that’s doing it.  You know somebody who’s making noise. Because as that artist blows up, so will that producer.AllHipHop.com:  You started in the industry in 1992 and the climate has somewhat changed since then.  There are producers everywhere now with the advancements in technology. What would be the best first steps to break out as a new producer in an over-saturated market?Wendy Day:  I think the most important thing is to make good music. I probably meet 30 producers a day. But of those 30 producers, probably one is really talented. I mean yes there’s a lot of competition, yes there is a lot of over-saturation, but there’s not a lot of over-saturation in terms of talent.  It’s almost like the rap game is the new drug game. It’s like everyone wants to get into it, but not everyone is qualified. Not everyone has the ability or the skill set necessary.  Yes you can set up a cheap studio in your home but that doesn’t mean that everybody should be doing it.  The most important thing is to make good music.  The second most important thing is to learn the business. I think Kanye [West] is a great example of that because if you listen to his interviews he talks about how he feels so taken advantage of by Jay-Z and Rocafella [Records]. But, if he would have taken some time to learn how the industry really works, that would have never happened to him.AllHipHop.com:  Do you think a manager is necessary for a producer?Wendy Day: No.  I think the most important thing again is it comes back to having hot tracks.  I think the one thing that producers have the ability to do that rappers don’t, is they have the ability to build a bigger network.  They can work with many different rappers and they have the ability to get their tracks out there. So as a rapper is on the street selling his own Cds, or sitting in an office in New York trying to get a record deal, that producer’s sound is being heard.  And it’s a production driven industry which means if I’m a producer, and I’m based in Memphis Tennessee, just to pick and arbitrary small town, by working with as many different rappers as possible from that area, I’m able to get my beats all over the place.  I think that’s something that a producer has, that a rapper doesn’t necessarily have. The bottom line is  it’s a producer driven industry.  When somebody hears a song, they hear the beat first.  There are times when I’ll listen to a song like 20 times and then say, “Ok now let’s see what the rappers saying.”  I’ll hear the beat first, the beat is what sucks me in. AllHipHop.com: What’s your opinion on giving beats away for free or for very low cost?Wendy Day:  I’m glad you asked me that.  I’m somebody that’s done a lot of s**t in this industry for free.  So I can tell you from personal experience that when something is free, it has no value, and that’s not good. Whatever you do you need to have some sort of price on it because everything we do in business has value attached to it.  The way that a producer can protect themselves financially, as well as being able to work with as many people as possible, is to structure the deals [differently].  Let’s say I’m a producer and I live in Memphis Tennessee. I want to do beats for as many rappers in my area as possible, but these guys don’t have 5,000 a track, or 2,500 dollars a track to pay me. But my value, in my opinion as a producer is that I should be making somewhere between 2,500 and 5,000 a track.  So I’m going to structure my deals with these artists [differently]. So maybe you pay me 500 dollars now, you get to use my beat for a certain amount of time for maybe six months to a year.  If you go and you get a deal or you put out your record, and my beat is on there, I’m going to want the rest of the money that I feel I deserve.  So you can pay me 500 dollars today, and if you go get signed by Def Jam, you owe me 2,000 dollars for that beat.  That’s a way that you can do it where you still get your full value, but you’re still able to work with as many people as possible.AllHipHop.com:  Yeah, people have different opinions about that, some feel that you should do whatever to get in the industry.Wendy Day:  I’ve done so much s**t in this industry for free, I mean I’ve done deals for free.  I just don’t feel that free has value. I think free is saying to somebody , ” I don’t attach a value to what I do, so take it from me.”  You know it’s one thing if you and I do something together, and only 500 dollars is generated, that’s a different scenario than if we do something together and five million dollars is generated. If I have gotten paid nothing, and you make that whole five million, I have a problem with that.  So I think we should structure and agreement where if money is made, we share in that money.  AllHipHop.com:  So should a producer still have a contractual agreement with an underground rapper or one that doesn’t have a lot of money?  I know a lot of guys just take the money and that’s it.Wendy Day:  You have to have an agreement because there are so many questions that occur in the music industry. Our deals all have back-ends.  Whether you choose to get paid on the back-end or not is up to you.  So let’s say I’m that producer from Memphis, and I sell you a beat for 500 dollars, and I take my money on Paypal.  Let’s say you go and get a deal with Universal and they say “We want to use the album exactly the way you put it together. Give us all your paperwork.”   Now you’re looking stupid because you have no paperwork from that producer from Memphis. You paid him already, but you have no paperwork to say that he’s been paid or that there is no back-end. So now Universal is either going to not use that track, which sucks for everybody, or they will have to go back to that producer. He may be in a worse financial situation and he hears Universal is involved, he may want ten grand for that track, even though you paid 500 bucks. So yeah you have to have the paperwork.  AllHipHop.com:  Explain what that means to get paid on the “Back-end.”Wendy Day: In the music business,  at the time that you’re selling the beat, the Cds aren’t in the stores selling yet.  That means there is going to be future revenue coming. Because you’re selling artwork that has the ability to sell in the future, you need to work an agreement of what you’re going to get paid in the future, and that’s called a royalty.  As a producer, I would want to make sure that whatever I get upfront now in a cash figure, I [also] want to make sure that I get three points, which means three percent of the retail selling price.  It’s a mathematical formula based on the number of songs on that album. I want to make sure that I get paid for every Cd that gets sold.  So I’m asking for three points in addition to that 5,000 dollar payment that I’m getting.  Stay Tuned for  part two on Wednesday Check out Wendy speaking at a Music Conference in Mississippi