Showing posts with label No Limit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label No Limit. Show all posts
April 28, 2015
January 14, 2015
New Investigation Reveals Mac May Be Innocent Of Manslaughter
A shot in the dark can launch a music career. In the case of an up-and-coming rapper, it ended one. In February 2000, McKinley Phipps Jr., a rising star in New Orleans’ rap scene, attended an open-mic night at Club Mercedes in Slidell, La. A fight broke out. Someone shot and killed 19-year-old Barron Victor Jr. Phipps, there to sign autographs and meet fans, didn’t have a criminal record. But he was learning to play the part as a gangsta rapper nicknamed “Mac the Camouflage Assassin,” signed to Master P’s No Limit Records.
Deputies quickly zeroed in on Phipps after witnesses said they saw him with a gun. He was arrested hours after the shooting. The next year, he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 30 years in prison, abruptly ending his career at 24. He has maintained his innocence throughout. A three-month investigation by The Medill Justice Project, in partnership with The Lens and Louisiana State University, has revealed some evidence that supports Phipps’ claim:
- Two people at the club that night later questioned whether the key eyewitness who testified against Phipps saw the shooting.
Deputies quickly zeroed in on Phipps after witnesses said they saw him with a gun. He was arrested hours after the shooting. The next year, he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 30 years in prison, abruptly ending his career at 24. He has maintained his innocence throughout. A three-month investigation by The Medill Justice Project, in partnership with The Lens and Louisiana State University, has revealed some evidence that supports Phipps’ claim:
- Two people at the club that night later questioned whether the key eyewitness who testified against Phipps saw the shooting.
- The only other eyewitness to testify against Phipps backed off her claim of seeing him fire his gun. She said she had gone back to the St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office to recant her statement, but the prosecutor said during the trial he had no knowledge of her doing so. Last year, she signed an affidavit saying she had been coerced into accusing Phipps.
- Other witnesses gave conflicting accounts to authorities. Some said Phipps didn’t fire a shot.
- Someone else confessed to the shooting, but investigators didn’t believe him.
- Someone else confessed to the shooting, but investigators didn’t believe him.
Russell Baker said he was standing next to Phipps when the shots were fired. “I know he didn’t do it,” Baker told The Medill Justice Project earlier this year, sitting at a table in a coffee shop. “As close as I am to this table is where I was with him that night.” Baker wasn’t called to testify at Phipps’ trial. New Orleans private investigator Miguel Nunez has been looking into the case at no cost because he believes Phipps is innocent. Phipps’ case, he said, is a “classic example of … things are not what they always appear.”
Phipps, whose parents organized the open-mic event that Sunday through their production company, went to see the performers from Slidell and New Orleans and to meet fans. His father collected money at the door. Patrons were searched for weapons as they entered, although performers and some of their friends came in the back.
The bar was crowded, smoky and dark, witnesses said. After midnight, a large fight broke out near the stage. Witnesses told investigators they couldn’t make out who exactly was involved.
Accounts differ on whether Phipps was involved in the fight. One or two shots rang out — accounts vary — and people scattered. Victor ran to the front of the club and collapsed near the door.
“From the time the shots went off, everybody started screaming, ‘Mac shot him, Mac shot him,’” Yulon James testified at the trial, referring to Phipps.
Phipps was arrested at his home in Baton Rouge at about 4 a.m., just hours after the shooting.
Later that day, a woman who was at the club that night came forward to say that deputies had arrested the wrong person. She and two friends, none of whom knew Phipps personally, said they were standing near the fight. They told authorities they saw a man matching Phipps’ description wave a gun and ask who was shooting as he ran out of the club.
One of them, James Barney, said he saw Phipps pull the gun out as people ran from the shooting.
November 27, 2013
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.
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.
March 11, 2013
March 6, 2013
Rest In Peace Mr. Magic from No Limit
Many have taken to Twitter to morn the rapper who made his No Limit debut in 1998 with Sky’s The Limit but left the label after 5 years, releasing two more albums in the process. He then joined with Jones Jr. & fellow New Orleans rapper and No Limit member Choppa to form Body Head Bangerz and put out one album, Body Head Bangerz Vol. 1 in 2004. His most noted appearances came on C-Murder’s “Down With My Niggas” and Jones Jr.’s “I Smoke, I Drank” remix featuring YoungBloodz.
March 18, 2011
Mystikal Signed to NL Forever Records!!
NO LIMIT FOREVER ROSTER 2011Master P, Silkk The Shocker, Romeo, Black Don, Valentino, Mystikal, Miss Chee, Oak Tree, Suni Blac, Co Ruff, T-Bo, Bengie B, Gangsta, Playa, Kay-1, South Down, Eastwood, Ace, T. Miles, G5-J, Lil D, Fonzo, Jigga City Suave. Ms. Tonka Da Tank, K-Smith.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)