November 27, 2013

Dee-1 - Psalms of David (Mixtape)


In Memory of Soulja Slim (10 Years After Dead)

REST in PEACE Soulja Slim 11/26/03-11/26/13 

Real Name: James Tapp 

Hailing From: Magnolia Projects, New Orleans 

Date of Birth: September 9 1977 

Date of Death: November 26 2003 (New Orleans) 

Cause of Death: Gunned down. Reportedly shot twice in the face and five times in the chest while leaving his car on his way to visit his mum. Murderer Garelle Smith arrested in 2003.

Here is probally the last interview he did with Murder Dog Magazine; 

Is your new album similar to your last or is it something different?
You gotta improve it. The same real shit, the same gutter shit, but it’s on my own. It’s the shit how it would’ve been done if I was doin it instead of havin that muthafucka fuckin with my business.

Give It To ‘Em Raw was your first album and it came out on No Limit?
Yeah and it went gold. That was my first national album. KLC did all the production—that’s Medicine Men now, but it was Beats by the Pound. Me and them still fuck around. We fucks with Soulja Slim around like every day. They doin they thang, we doin our thang, everybody connected.

You also had another album, “The Streets Made Me”?
The bitch-ass nigga let that flop. He been worrying about some other shit, fuckin with my business.


That was also produced by Beats by the Pound?
No, P used some new producers there. It’s some producers that I still fuck with to this day that don’t fuck with No Limit no more. We just makin it hot.

Your new album is coming through Koch?
It’s called Years Later a Few Months After. I had put it out independent myself. I sold a quick like 30-some-thousand units, within 6 months, no promotion, no nothing. Ya feel me? Now I’m ready to make it official.

Who did the production on this one?
I got a few producers that I’m dealin with like Bass Heavy and Dame for Cut Throat Music. I got my own little vibe. Everything is everything, I’m tryin to start something.

I’ve been hearing that you’ve been getting a lot of radio play throughout the South.
They’s lovin it, they’s real. They’re playin “I Paid For It”. They made it happen. I gotta hit ‘em with another one like that. Before we was even fuckin with Koch we was getting like 200 spins in already. That’s what made ‘em holler at us, you know what I’m talkin ‘bout? I’m bout to do it how it supposed to be done. I need a few million, me.

A lot of people don’t realize how far back you have been rappin.
I been doin this shit like thirteen years. I started rappin when I was thirteen, lil boy, my mama used to come look for me when I’m in clubs. Bounce shit was the cool then, Bounce rappin. Everybody grab the mic, every artist. 


What made you go in the direction of music at such a young age?
Shit, I was listenin to what was poppin. If you knew how to rap your shit was real, your name was ringin, but I was a fuck-up when I was rappin. It had to do with the older I got the more wiser I got.

Do you have brothers and sisters doing music?
I got one lil’ sister, but it’s just me doin music.

At that time what were you listening to? What inspired you to want to rap?
I was listenin to that gangsta shit, ya heard me? I was still with Bounce rappin, I know how to do that, but I’m on some other shit too. I started as Bounce. If you heard me then and hear me now you’d be like, “That nigga was before back in the game.” It was a totally different vibe. I was a lil’ kid. KLC produced all that way back. That’s the only producer I ever had, that’s the first person to ever put me behind a real shit with 16 bars and shit. That’s my nigga, my legendary. Eminem got his legendary, I got my legendary: KLC.

I didn’t know that you were working with KLC before you got with No Limit.
That’s what we fuckin with, you already know how we comin. Matter of fact, that’s the nigga who brought me to Percy Miller.

How did that happen?
’98 when I got outta the pen, ya heard me? It was poppin, then No Limit was the shit. I needed a few dollars at the time, so I went and hollered at the nigga. KL brought me down there and I just laced it on up. Didn’t sign a contract or nothin, they gave me like 60 g’s, ya heard me? Master P, weren’t about nothing, he showed a nigga how to play the game, owes a nigga a few dollars too. Know what I’m talkin about? Ain’t ‘bout nothin.

At the time you got signed you were locked up or you were out?
I ain’t never been signed. All this rappin I been doin, that’s how gangsta I am.

When you first connected with No Limit then, you were out?
I had just got out. I was readin the magazines and shit and I knew KLC was doin ‘em for P and that’s my producer. So I was goin where the cheddar was at.

I heard that you were in the pen for five years?
Six if you add it all up. Back to back. That didn’t stop nothing. I still come home and make me a fuckin album. Know what I’m talkin ‘bout? Dedicated, this is what I do.

How old were you when you went to the prison?
I been in that place so many muthafuckin times. I first went in—I got a 36 DOC number—so that’s in ’95 when you roll in that thing. That’s my DOC number, that’s when I started. From there muthafuckas keep on lockin me up. But I’m all OK now, I’m celebratin every day. I smoke it all. I been fucked up so much I could never go get burned out.

How old are you now, Slim?
I’ll be 26 on the ninth. September ninth. I was 17-18. On the juvenile tip, holdin me down. I’m about my business.

How was it growin up in Magnolia?
It built a nigga, bro. I can’t say how it was growin up cause it done screwed me up. That’s why I stole, that muthafucka grew me up. That’s why I seen it happen, that’s why I done dirt, that’s why a nigga got locked up. Everything, that’s me. I gotta leave there and get my muthafucka game tight and change right. Lotta niggaz be joke-shakin and blazzy blind like they from the Magnolia—ya heard me—a muthafucka ain’t never had a muthafuckin edge rip back then, I ain’t gonna get too technical and shit. Magnolia, it’s still the same, ain’t nothing change. If anybody wanna be trippin on the project type shit, that’s me, I’m settrippin. I’m from out the Magnolia, I’m Magnolia Slim. That’s me, I’m holdin that down. I’m a gangsta too, so it could rappin or however it go. You’re the Murder Dog, so you’re gonna put everything in there.

It’s gonna be good. You’ll be on the cover with a nice photo…
I appreciate that bro. I appreciate that so much. You musta felt my vibe.

I feel your vibe from your music. I know that you come real.
Man, you ain’t heard nothing yet. I’ma tell you one thing, the dude 50, I respect his mind. He came with some flows with that real shit. He brought it right back to the streets, ya heard me? So I’m gonna take it from there, like a gangsta supposed to. Can’t slow me down.

With the right promotions you could be as big as 50.
I know that. It’s a process, I ain’t trippin. Catch me next year after this album drop. Next year round this time we gonna be up there and do the same ol’ thing. I’m gonna be on the big Dog cover again, talkin crazy, with a whole ‘nother deal. Ya heard me? We ain’t crazy by a long shot, Cut Throat ain’t crazy. Ant and them, that’s my muthafuckas, they handlin the business with me and we make official like that. That’s how I be doin it.

Do you go by Magnolia Slim or Soulja Slim?
Magnolia, that was my name back in the game. It was Magnolia Slim, but when I left there and dropped the nationwide album, when I was fuckin with P, I just said “Fuck it I’m gonna call myself Soulja Slim because these muthafuckas ain’t respectin that this fuck ‘soldier’ shit was invented and originated by me.” Soldier Reeboks and all that shit there, that’s the code I used to live by, and I still do to this day.

You were the one wearing camouflage first too.
Man, I put this muthafuckin soldier shit down and I’m trippin if a nigga say I didn’t. If any nigga wanna say I didn’t then he better tell me straight like that. Master P caught onto that image and took it to a national level, but I know you were doing that way back. That nigga probably passed up 4 million tryin to get 10 million on a nigga. Give me the muthafuckin 4 million. Don’t matter if the muthafucka won’t holler at me, typa nigga like that. Tryna get money on top of money, more than what you…if the people want me for 3 million, now let me go on about my business. I’m a real nigga, I ain’t look for no contract with you. I’m fuckin with you on loyalty. I’m a friend. I ain’t never did no fuckin contracts with Rap, Rap game like it’s supposed to, from the jailhouse to the street. The nigga was real at one point in time, I ain’t gonna take nothing from him.

Definitely, No Limit was an incredible movement.
I ain’t talkin ‘bout No Limit, I’m talkin about Master P. And they gonna wanna know where I’m talkin crazy from. Give me my muthafuckin money!

Is that why you left No Limit?
Yeah. The nigga ain’t gonna break no fuckin bread. He had his mind focused on some lil’ TV shows and Lil Romeo, which I don’t knock him for that. But this that real shit right here. Look, this shit done took over, this real shit took over. You’re fuckin right! I’m ‘bout to do my thing, baby


You started your own label?
Cut Throat Committy Records. I started that when I was in jail. I used to be fuckin around talkin about Cut Throat Committy Records, you know what I’m talkin ‘bout? Fuckin with a nigga, sayin you gonna get 2%. Just fuckin around. I just made it official right now, I’m just tryin to build it. I signed with Koch. I’m hopin that they’ll push this shit and keep this shit real, hold the beat.

A lot of people don’t know too much about your history…

Check this out: if they don’t know about me, they better start knowin about me cause guess what? I’m a helluva jig and my presence is known.

November 2, 2013

Mr Marcelo - OG Luv That OG (Official Mixtape)

Nola Hip Hop Awards 2013 Winners


Key Tracks: Mannie Fresh on Juvenile’s “Ha”


It’s fair to say that Juvenile was one of the main rappers responsible for the rise of the South in the late ’90s. Alongside his Cash Money cohorts, he took what had previously been a regional concern to national attention. There had been isolated cases, sure, but Juvenile and others signaled the beginning of what would become one of the most popular sounds in late ’90s and early ’00s rap. In this excerpt from a lecture at the Red Bull Music Academy in 2011, producer Mannie Fresh describes the recording of “Ha,” Juvenile’s breakout hit from the 1998 album 400 Degreez.

I knew that Juvenile was gonna be that thing because the way his voice sounded, his delivery, the way the beats were. It was just a different thing from what hip hop had heard at that time. When I saw Juvenile [for the first time though] he didn’t have that raspy voice, that New Orleans drawl like he’s got now. But it was all on the streets – this kid named Juvenile was rocking every block party he went to. The city already knew ‘cause he was going from spot to spot: bars, schools, whatever… Ku Klux Klan rallies, he was there. [laughs] I saw him at a hole-in-the-wall bar. He was probably like 15 at the time. He had no business being there, but he was rocking with the DJ and everybody knew the songs. One of them was “Back That Azz Up.” He was performing it to the “Paid In Full” loop. It was just a DJ spinning the loop back and forth, he was doing that song to that. Everybody in the city already knew the song, the verses, the hook, it was just phenomenal.

The thing about it was, when we got into the studio, he knew all those songs, so that made it so much better. When “Ha” came out, everyone was like, “This is so nuts, the way his rhyme schemes are going, everything he’s saying.” Everyone was, “Never heard anybody rap like that.” But it was already a key song in New Orleans. It was already jumping off, it was already hot.

When I started putting beats to them, I said, “I’m gonna strip these songs, we’re gonna take the bounce element out of a lot of these songs and make it mainstream in our own New Orleans way.” I remember when we were doing this record Juvenile was like, “You’re gonna leave the beat the way it was, the way I do it.” He wanted a bounce beat behind it. I was, “Nah, man, I’m gonna change the drums and put a little music or something behind it.” To them, it was a sad day for Roland 808. But I said, “Trust me, it’s gonna all work out. I’m gonna change it to something I know will go mainstream. Let me do what I do.” He was trying these songs out in different spots, the worst-of-the-worst places you could find. I’m like, “If you can rock that crowd, I know the world is gonna accept it.”


“Ha” was the last song we added to his album. We went out to eat and came back and were like, “It’s one more song, do the ‘Ha’ song.” When I programmed it – and he already had the rap – it was one of those songs that came together in like 30 minutes. It was, “Hurry up, do this, this is flowing so good.” When he did the raps, the first take he did wasn’t very energetic ‘cause he wasn’t really feeling it. Our first argument ever. I was, “Dude, come on, put some energy to the song.” He was like, “I don’t know dude, I kind of like the beat the way…” “Just try it, when it breaks down and the drums change on the hook, this is gonna be so crazy.” He came back and did it again and I was, “That’s the single, that’s the one.” “You really think so?” “That’s the single, I think so.”


One day Baby called me at home and he was like, “Jay-Z wants to get on the remix to ‘Ha.’” I was, “Man, stop playing me, you’re lying.” “No, they already sent him the track. They should get it two weeks from now in the mail.” At that time there was no emailing anybody. So we get it back and we must have played that song back 15 times. We were like, “That’s him. Play it again.” And he had this line in the song where he’s, “Jay-Z and Cash Money.” So I was, “I’m gonna sample that and move it to the front.” “Do you think we should call him?” “No! Just take that and move it to the front of the song.” [laughs]

When Jay-Z called – “I wanna get on the remix to ‘Ha’” – I knew I’d arrived. That was unheard of at the time. For anybody from New York to even pay attention to what we were doing down South... They were, “They’re alright, they’ve got their little thing going. We ain’t really paying attention. To get respect, y’all gonna earn it.” That catapulted Cash Money even further, when that song hit the airwaves, people were like, “Damn, Jay-Z is on that song and he’s doing the ‘Ha’ thing.”

Mannie Fresh Updates His Projects (Interview with Vibe Mag)