Age

has never been an issue for Patrick Baril. When he started deejaying at

underage clubs in New Hampshire in his early teens, people around the

way got to know the name of DJ Statik. But after hearing about others

spinning under the same moniker, he got frustrated enough to realize

he needed something to set him apart. It wasn’t until one Friday night

at the age of 17, while doing his weekly DJ spot in a Bronx club, he

heard a promoter grab the mic and utter a phrase that clicked in his

head, and ultimately led to the birth of Statik ‘Selektah.’

Still

a young man at 25, Statik already has the industry schoolings of a veteran,

with a Sirius satellite radio show, his own marketing team and label,

and highbrow mixtapes that will remind listeners how some music is still

worth your money. With his long awaited album about to hit store shelves,

and a gang of other projects in the works, Statik is now in a position

to say whatever the hell he feels, even if he has to hurt some feelings

and break some egos.

Statik candidly breaks down his rise

in the Hip-Hop ranks with longtime pal Termanology, why Lil Wayne cannot

be the best alive, and the obstacles up against a DJ trying to reach

that top-tier position. 

AllHipHop.com: Tell me a bit

about Showoff Records.

Statik: Showoff started in

2003, I started putting out remixes, 12 inches, and I used to throw

the logo on my mixtapes and s###. In 2006 we put out Termanology’s

first album Out The Gate which is a project he did with DC. It’s

not really his first album, it’s more of a side project he’s been

working on but it did pretty good. Also in 2006 we released an album

by Grand Estate who are from New Hampshire and that did pretty good

too. But basically the label is going to get launched with my album,

which has been pushed back so many times, but it’s finally time on

November 6. After my album, Reks’ album is coming out in January.

I’m A&Ring Termanology’s album, and he just got a real big deal

but I can’t say yet. The dude he signed with is a very major player

in the industry who’s responsible for like 30 million sales. You’re

gonna bug out when you hear who. 

AllHipHop.com: So is Term’s

album almost done? 

Statik: Yeah, we’ve been

working on it for like two years, it’s been in the making, but we’re

going to finish it up with [unknown party]. 

AllHipHop.com: How did you

and Termanology first get together, because you played a big role in getting

everything rolling for him right? 

Statik: Yeah, it’s funny

cause me, him and Reks were all born in the same hospital. (Laughs)

He’s from Lawrence originally, I’m from Lawrence originally but

moved to New Hampshire for high school. I used to deejay an under-21 nightclub

the Hampton Beach, and he used to get up and freestyle and say how he’s

better than everybody, and he was like 14 or 15 getting up and telling

everybody he’d battle them. It was cool, cause he’d rip it. So we

started hangin out just as kids off of loving Hip-Hop coming up together.

Then I moved to Boston and he stayed up there and we didn’t talk for

years. There was a time where we didn’t talk at all. Four or five

years later, he started sending me records and they’re real dope so

I started playing them, even though we weren’t even cool like we used

to be. He was consistent, and I admired his consistency cause he was

making good records. 

After a while he started coming

down to New York, and it got to where we record stuff like every single

day. He lives in my old apartment, I moved out of the Bronx to Brooklyn.

Literally he lived upstairs for a while. He’s on tour with Common

and Q-Tip right now, but when he’s in New York we’re working like

every day. We’ll do three records a day.  

AllHipHop.com: It’s been

said by some that rapping a young man’s game, with Lil Wayne being

in throne position in some people’s eyes. But on the other end you’ve

got people who argue Jay or Nas still get the “Best Rapper Alive” title. 

Statik: Yeah, I’m the latter,

I’m with the Jay and Nas people. Wayne’s cool, but c’mon dudes.

The guys that the kids and a lot of the younger people think are really

good nowadays are saying the same s**t that people were saying in like

’82, ’83. I don’t see the originality like there used to be. And

I’m not downing Lil Wayne, I love Lil Wayne and I listen to anything

he puts out. But calling yourself the Best Rapper Alive? I mean it’s

cool, it’s confidence, but people actually call him that. It’s one

thing if he calls himself that, but when you’ve got people literally

in the hood saying Wayne’s better than Nas or Wayne’s better than

any of these dudes, it’s like “Nah, hold up.”

AllHipHop.com:  Do you still kick it with the Smash Squad on a regular

basis? 

Statik: Oh yeah, that’s my

crew! Me and Clinton started that with Chubby Chub. Now we’ve got

Scram Jones, Tony Touch, Wild Boy out in DC. We keep it real tight,

and it’s not one of those crews that you’re gonna see like 30 or

40 DJs in. There’s less than 10 of us. 

AllHipHop.com: Was that crew

started as an inspirational thing strictly DJ related, or as something

that developed out of friendship? 

Statik: You know it was both.

Me, Clinton and Chubby have always been cool. I look at Chub as like

my big brother. He’s a legend in New York with mixtapes, and he moved

up to Boston and started doing radio, and he used to let me fill in

for him on Hot 97. That was a big move for me and a major step in the

industry. So I always shout out Chub, I always shout out Clinton, these

guys if anyone are the two that really helped me. And shouts to Primo

too, DJ Premier has been a big part of my drive for a couple years.  

 

AllHipHop.com: What was the

whole deal with your project getting pushed back all those times, and

only now seeing the light of day now? 

Statik: I mean honestly, it

was really just me bullsh***ing. I never really started it until about

two months ago, but I did the whole album in like two months. It’s

been crazy just trying to get all these people in the studio, a lot

of cats will be on the road and they gotta email me the ProTools sessions.

It’s a lot of politics and favors being done. Like I didn’t pay

anybody, it was all favors. Everybody looked out. 

 AllHipHop.com: I think it’s

something a lot of people are going to be checking for, so it must be

a big day for you. What can people expect to hear on it? 

Statik: S**t, I don’t know

where to start. Every record speaks in it’s own way. There’s no

filler records at all, and I’m happy about that. I used to put out

so many mixtapes before I started doing the Nas and G-Unit ones, I had

Spell My Name Right Volumes 1-10. I always tried to hint that there’d

be Spell My Name Right album. (Laughs). But it’s a good feeling, I’m

from Boston and a lot of people know that name from the old mixtapes

and we’re finally putting out the album. As far as collaborations,

the Freeway/Cassidy is real major, cause they’ve never done a song

together. The Q-Tip and Styles P with Termanology is out of this world,

every record on there I love. I think there’s something for everybody. 

AllHipHop.com: Like you were

saying your mixtapes have dropped for a while, and after the year 2000

you started getting production credits doing Intros and Outros, and

even a few tracks. Now you’re production is popping up a lot more,

so how has that developed over the years? 

Statik: It’s been picking

up pretty steady, but now is the time when you’re gonna start seeing

my name on a lot of albums. I produced two songs on Consequence’s

next album, I produced two records on Joell Ortiz’s Aftermath album.

I produced every song on my album, so that’s gonna be like my business

card when I give that to artists. I did “Animal” on AZ’s last

album, a bunch of records for Termanology, and I’m producing Reks’

entire album, and that’s another one I’m really putting a lot of

work into. 

AllHipHop.com: Let’s talk

a little about one of my personal favorite mixtapes, The Bar Exam.

What was the story behind you, Royce and Premier getting together to

work on that project? 

Statik: I had done a CD with

Royce before that called The King is Back, which isn’t out

there as much but we still pressed up like 15,000 copies and that was

back in 2005. Royce was in jail, and Keno his manager had wanted to

do another CD for a while, but Primo kind of put a spark to it and said

“Let’s do it.” He gave me the “Hit ‘Em!” record, and even

the “Ding Ding” record had never been on a real CD in the store,

so we put it on there. Half of it was new freestyles, and half was acapella

freestyles that he gave to me. 

AllHipHop.com: So I guess you

had the idea to put some to old Primo tracks?

Statik: Yeah, a couple. The

“Million Questions” he obviously rapped to that one. But like the

Christina Aguilera one, Primo went and got the DAT and dug for it to

give me that beat. AllHipHop.com: Recently there’s

been talk of Royce possibly signing with Nas’ label, you know anything

about that? 

Statik: Yeah, I mean I’ve

been in between it, because when he started doing that I was doing the

Royce tape trying to get Nas on [The Bar Exam]. But there’s

definitely going to be some kind of Nas/Royce collaboration sometime

soon. I was going back and forth between both their managers trying

to make something happen, but it’s just not always that easy. 

AllHipHop.com: I don’t know

if I missed it or not, but there was talk before a project with Big

Pun material that your were supposed to be working with. Did that ever

materialize? 

Statik: (Laughs) That’s kind

of ill that you heard that. It’s gonna happen, we just haven’t started

it yet but it’s gonna happen. There’s a lot of politics with that

too, it’s like we’ve got to deal with Fat Joe the right way, and

if we really decided to put it out there in the right way, I’d want

to break off his wife or whatever. I don’t really know, it’s kind

of a touchy subject. Big Pun is Term’s favorite of all time, so he

really wants to do it and it was really his idea. But if we do it, it’s

gonna be crazy. It’s really just an idea, but we’re gonna do it. 

AllHipHop.com: One of the problems

with doing a project like that is a lot of people say, “Let the man

rest in peace with the work that he did.” 

Statik: But those dudes are

corny though. I’ve done parties where I’ve done a 20 minute Biggie

set and people come up like “Yo, play some new s###. Let Biggie rest

in peace.” And it’s like “What? C’mon man. I’m showing respect

to one of the best who ever lived.” In no way is it disrespectful

to him. I mean, it’s one thing if I take a Biggie acapella like “Hypnotize,”

put it over a new beat and push it like it’s some great remix. That’s

corny. But as far as doing a whole CD of a dead artist like Big L, Pun

or Pac, or anybody… if you do it right and it sounds good? F**k it

then, do it. There’s no reason not to keep that legacy alive. All

of the dead rappers were some of the best that ever did it, why not

keep their s### alive? You just gotta be original with it. Everybody’s

put a Biggie verse over a Jay-Z beat, but who’s gonna bring it to

that next level? 

AllHipHop.com: So what’s

that next level? 

Statik: I don’t know, we’ll

have to see. (Laughs) I got a lot of Biggie acapellas, I might have

to do something. I mean doing something like Biggie did with the Duets,

it’s an original idea, but I don’t know if it was done the way it

should have been, but something like that is cool because people get

to see collabos that you never saw. 

AllHipHop.com: But you’ve

got to wonder if Biggie would have actually been doing collaborations

with certain artists. 

Statik: See that’s what I’m

talking about, you’ve got to do it the right way. Personally, my opinion

is that Pac wouldn’t necessarily be working with Eminem. I love Eminem

and I love Tupac, but when you put them two together on a song, that’s

when it’s questionable. Like “What’s really going on here?”

It’s really an Interscope thing. But as far as Biggie and Redman,

something like that, that s**t makes sense.

When thinking about Preparing Legal Assets for Years from A to Z, don’t forget your duffle bags. At least that’s what Tity Boi and Dolla Boy claim they’re faithful to every day of the year. In this respect they formed Playaz Circle, with the said acronym representing just those terms. The two hail from the A, and are enjoying the success of their smash hit “Duffle Bag Boy” featuring Lil Wayne, which places the focus on their debut album, Supply and Demand, slated for an October 30, 2007. As members of Ludacris’ D.T.P. (Disturbing Tha Peace) camp, the duo have shared obstacles along the way but still managed to stick together. During a stay in New York City, they experienced the notorious city traffic and talked about their plans of heading to “1-2-5” in Harlem to get a pair of uptowns.  While they apparently showed appreciation for NY style, they discussed how they are trendsetters in their own right.AllHipHop.com: Before joining DTP, what was your vision of how your music career would be? Dolla Boy: Before we got with Disturbing Tha Peace, we put out an independent album called United We Stand, United We Fall. A guy from our neighborhood who was a little older than us [and] doing the music thing, he kinda got us into it. So we did that, we made a lot of noise in the South Eastern region. Everybody kept tellin’ us, “Ya’ll are the future, ya’ll sound real good, what’s next, what’s next?” That whole career start[ed] buildin’, so things were lookin’ bright from the beginnin’ and then we met Luda afterwards. Tity Boi: We put together this compilation to clean up some money. The whole Playaz Circle, originally was an acronym. It stood for Preparing Legal Assets for Years from A to Z. Where we came from, being a product of our environment, we were just naturally born hustlas. It wasn’t like we tried to do this, it was our environment. We always had the mindset and the education to try to clean it up and just do something positive with what we were doing. We did the compilation [and] the feedback was tremendous. Everybody was sayin’ “Ya’ll need to do this.” I remember for me it was like my first two times I ever recorded, at this time Chris was on the radio. Luda was going by Chris Luva Luva, so he was like a channel that we could use to get our music played and heard. He stayed in our neighborhood on the Southside of College Park. That’s how our relationship was built, it started back then. A couple of trials and tribulations came through but right now we’re here. We’re like seasoned rookies.AllHipHop.com: How did the collaboration with Lil Wayne on “Duffle Bag Boy” come about?Tity Boi: Our relationship with Young Money and Cash Money, first of all I have to give a shout out to Slim and Baby, [our relationship] is behind the scenes. People don’t realize we’re like family with Cash Money and Wayne…we built our rapport years ago, like prior to The Carter II. Just reaching out to him wasn’t hard at all. He in Miami now, we always go to Miami to promote and see our producers. We sittin’ down with him lettin’ him hear the Playaz Circle mixtape and some of the Playaz Circle album and he felt like we were a great group to be reckoned with. He felt like we should be in the game. When we got hold of this beat I thought it would be cool, [I said] let me just get Wayne to see what he can do on the hook. Of course Wayne wanted to rap, he goin’ bananas on the mic right now. He did the hook and we held up our end of the bargain. We here now—55,000 ringtones a week, number three on 106 & Park, we here!AllHipHop.com: What brand of duffle bag do you have now that you’re gettin’ paid? Tity Boi: Dolla got his black Gucci bag with him right now. I got my brown Gucci bag. This was a vision we had prior to the song blowin’ up. The idea came out and we put it out there as far as [the] visual. It just started comin’ together. Basically, we been rockin’ with the designer bags, the Louis, the Prada, we do this.AllHipHop.com: So what do you pack into your duffle bag? Tity Boi: Right now, right now I got our album, I can’t go home without this. I got all three of my cell phones. I seen this commercial, I probably need to get just one phone. Dolla Boy:  I got nothin’ in my bag but some cigars and some kush.AllHipHop.com: You’ve said that “Duffle Bag Boy” is your wild side.  What is thewildest thing you’ve ever done?Dolla Boy: We from the street, so you can say anything from robberies to shootouts.Tity Boi: Whatever you can think of I’m sure we done, done it ‘cause we been out here this long. Since we got so much time we on the road always grindin’. They were drivin’ around, me and Dolla was just at the club and we a little intoxicated and we just talkin’ and reminiscin’ and the dudes in the car were like “Ya need to do a movie.” We were just talkin’ free and reminicin’ about how we came up but he said we need to get up with a director or a producer to try to put this up on the screen. ‘Cause the things that we done, ‘aint nothin’ to brag or boast about, but we did it and we lived through it; we on the other side of it now.  AllHipHop.com: What do you think was the determining factor in Ludacris’ and Chaka’sdecision to sign Playaz Circle to their label?Dolla Boy: Before we signed with Chaka Zulu, a lot of n****s was tryin’ to get at us. When Def Jam South first started out they tried to get at us. Cash Money was tryin’ to get us signed. We for real, we major – just haven’t been put out on a major level. We’re respected by our peers, our community, everybody. Folks out of our area really just don’t know about us. We run this s**t man.AllHipHop.com: When was the turning point when you felt like, “Yeah we got this?”Tity Boi:  When you are able to wake up and go to a job that you enjoy doing and get paid for it, that’s when you make up your mind like this is what I wanna do. A lot of people have to deal with customer service or restaurants and it’s something that maybe they have to do to take care of their family, but they don’t wanna do it. This job right here, it came to us. Comin’ up together in the apartments doin’ what we be doin’ we used to rap, we used to be in the basketball courts, on the block, rappin’, shootin’ dice whatever you wanna call it. We never knew we were gonna take it to this level. We started to put out our mixtapes and freestyles; gettin’ on other tracks with people and gettin’ that respect through the rap community. We were so respected with our peers it’s ridiculous. I don’t think people know, when they come to the A, they gotta holla at Tity [and] Dolla. Everybody in the game right now, when they come to the A, they hollerin’ at us for one reason or another. We came up with Luda and Chaka and all them. They saw somethin’ but they got a hold of it before anybody else. The whole climate of Hip-Hop right now it’s just waiting for us to get in. AllHipHop.com: At one point, Luda thought Tity Boi would be recording a solo album.What do you feel both of you bring together to Playaz Circle that you wouldn’t be able to achieve alone? Tity Boi: It’s the strength in numbers baby. We both individuals, we both have different concepts, we both came from the same area but we have different experiences in life. When we put that together you can expect a listening pleasure. We both are solo artists in our own right.We both recording, we both listen to different music sometimes. But when we come together we’re a force to be reckoned with. AllHipHop.com: This question is for Dolla. After your incarceration, was it difficult to come back to music?Dolla Boy:  Nah, it definitely wasn’t difficult to come back to music. Before I went in, everybody was at the same level, nobody had really made it. When I was locked up I was lookin’ at  BET one day and I had seen Ludacris’ “What’s Your Fantasy” video. We always said, whichever jump off, Playaz Circle or DTP, the other one was gonna come back and look out for the other one. Shout out to Luda, ‘cause he did that, made sure he came back and got us. I knew there was a lot of stuff I was gonna have to change. I had to take rap 100 [percent] serious now. Before I might just go like one or two times but now I go in there like five or six days out the week. Of course Tity Boi always had so much ambition, he’s always been so hungry it was ridiculous. With those two elements we was gonna make it. We always had faith that we would. AllHipHop.com: How is the music on your debut album Supply and Demand different and/or the same from music on previous independent albums/mixtapes?Dolla Boy: We got some new heat on there. We got a lot of anthems on there like “Duffle Bag Boy”, it’s doing what it do, we got “Number One Trap Pick”…Tity Boi: WoooDolla Boy: We working, basically, takin’ the same route as “Duffle Bag Boy.” The streets taking to it first, like everybody’s requesting it. We got another jam on there with the dude from Little Brother. Tity Boi: PhonteDolla: Phonte, that’s gonna be a ring tone, number one ring tone. We got a lot of good stuff on the album. I think a lot of people are gonna be surprised at how good we are, how seasoned we are being that this is our first time out on a major level. AllHipHop.com: Has being famous worked against you or got you in a situation that you don’t want to be in? Tity Boi: Nah, just all our friend and street partners want jobs now, that’s all it is. We ‘aint really in no situation man. We ‘aint got no beef at home. Like he said, we runnin’ town, we from the A, born and raised. We did elementary, all the way above. We go places and we’ve had people go to us with the whole idea like “Man, ya’ll crazy, want me to be your security guard, body guard?” I can’t say that we won’t need that but it’s just so much love. When people bum rush the stage with us, they ain’t tryin’ to steal our jewelry, they want the mic, they want to perform. We just did a show somewhere and they got to the front, hell, me and Dolla gave them the mic, we let them do our show.AllHipHop.com: Do you think you’re starting a new trend?Dolla Boy: Yeah, we do this. We create new styles man. We been doin’ that since like elementary, junior high, high school. A lot of folks have adapted to what we do, they like what we do. They go cop the shoes we wear; they find the gear that we wear. We always just had that flavor about ourselves since we was little. I think we owe that to our moms and our dads.Tity Boi: Comin’ up, I used to be around a bunch of these rap heads. I was always behind the scenes, I knew other people in the industry. As a kid I’d wear some Gucci shoes, I’d wear on my hoody and some baggy pants and these n****s they wearin’ it on TV. These n****s come out and wear the style on TV so I’m like they’re bitin’ our trend, they bitin’ our swag they’re bitin’ our lingo. We damn sure gonna do some trend settin’ s**t. So it’s whatever you want it to be, you can call it a man purse if you want, you better look inside of it and be like ‘mmm hmm’.AllHipHop.com: If for any reason the music doesn’t work out, what do you see yourself doing to prepare legal assets for years from A to Z?Dolla Boy: We straight with or without rap, we just love it so much. If it don’t jump off the way that we want it you will still hear stuff from me and T## because we been doin’ it for the love. We’ve been doing this since like ’96, ’97. We ‘aint get any money out of rap yet, real talk. Even if it don’t jump off you’ll still hear mixtapes, you’re still gonna see us at all the events. But it’s gonna pop off and we’re gonna be here, probably gonna do more interviews baby.AllHipHop.com: Was there ever a time when you felt like giving up? How did you bounce back?Tity Boi: Naaa mannn.Dolla Boy: We ‘aint never feel like that. When things get down on us we take it out on the beats, we take it out on the microphone, we take it out on the studio. When things don’t go right that push us to go even harder.