by Alex Shtaerman
Catapulting to stardom alongside fellow Hot Boys, Juvenile, Lil’ Wayne and Young Turk, B.G. is widely regarded as one of the original building blocks in the Ca$h Money Records empire. It was B.G.’s initial success as an independent artist that helped pave the way for Ca$h Money’s landmark deal with Universal Records in the ‘90’s. In 1999 B.Gizzle’s fifth LP Chopper City In The Ghetto debuted at number one on Billboard’s Top 200 as the album’s anthem Bling Bling sent the Ca$h Money movement into the Hip-Hop stratosphere.
Walking away from Ca$h Money after dropping his sixth album, Checkmate, B.G. would regroup to head up his own imprint, Chopper City Records, and release 2003’s Livin’ Legend and its follow-ups, Life After Ca$h Money and The Heart of Tha Streetz Vol 1. Set to drop his tenth album The Heart of Tha Streetz Vol 2 on March 21st, B.G. reunites with former Ca$h Money mentor Mannie Fresh on the first single Move Around. With rumors still swirling about a possible move to G-Unit, we got a chance to catch up with New Orleans’ original Hot Boy and see what the future might hold.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Southern rap music is building into a second generation of big stars now, how do you see it?
B.G: History be repeating itself. I mean, it really ain’t too much different. A lot of people got they own style and a lot of people got other people’s styles. But I take my hat off to anybody who doing they thing. I ain’t no hater.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Your first single off the new record is Move Around with Mannie Fresh; what was it like working with Mannie again?
B.G: Mannie Fresh was the first producer that I ever worked with in my life; he like really raised me in the studio, until, you know, I decided to leave Ca$h Money. When we got together man, it was just love, it was magic. It was a beautiful thing. He know me and I know him. I know his work ethics and he knows [mine]. I already know what to expect from him and he already know what to expect from me. So when we got in the studio we just made it do what it do.
RIOTSOUND.COM: You recently returned to New Orleans to perform at the first Hip-Hop show hosted by the House of Blues since Hurricane Katrina hit, what did that mean to you?
B.G: That show, it meant a lot to me, just being home. I already knew the city had nothing but love for me but just the love they gave me and the love I got and the love I gave them back with the energy of my show. I already have energy every show I do but that show was just special to me. It was like one big family reunion.
RIOTSOUND.COM: A lot of people have obviously talked about the impact of Katrina on New Orleans. However, there’s been relatively little said about the state of the city prior to the hurricane. You grew up in the uptown section of New Orleans, a poverty stricken neighborhood; what was it like for you growing up there and what are some of the lessons you took with you from uptown New Orleans that you carry with you today?
B.G: Aww shit [laughs], I mean, I ain’t lying but one of the lessons I took with me got me going back and forth to court right now in Detroit and that’s stay strapped, you heard me. I mean, it’s a whole lot of things; I speak on it in my raps and all my albums. I love where I’m from and I wouldn’t choose nowhere else to grow up at. But that’s for anybody, ain’t no place like home when that’s all you know. Now I see another side of life and it’s good and it’s cool and I’m fortunate enough to live in the suburbs and shit like that but my heart is still in the streets.
RIOTSOUND.COM: You started rhyming at a very young age and you were already dropping albums when you were in your early teens. Being that you were so young, how did you view the whole experience at the time; were you thinking about it as a career or were you just doing it for the fun of it?
B.G: I was doing it for the fun of it. I woulda never thought in a million years it woulda ended up how it ended up. When I started I ain’t know all the shit I know now about money and publishing and this and that and contracts. I just was doing it because I saw it was something I knew how to do. It started off in elementary school just beating on a desk and freestyling. Then at lunchtime I would get damn near the whole first lunch period around me beating on the wall and just listening. And then I just started writing and it just went on and on from there. But it started off just as being fun. I used to be standing on the block and have like ten or twelve niggas around me just rooting for me. And then every time they see me or every time I walk around the corner or go in the corner store somebody be telling me to rap for them. I just went from there, I just took it and ran with it.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Looking back, do you now wish you could have been more aware in those earlier years as far as the business side of things?
B.G: I thought I had somebody around that had my best interests at heart. I thought Baby and Slim had my best interests at heart. They sold me a dream, they brainwashed me at a young age. It is what it is. It’s cool and I ain’t trippin’. You can say that you’re good but the best keep on ticking.
RIOTSOUND.COM: In the past you’ve been able to cross into the mainstream and have enormous success, is that something you would like to do again?
B.G: It is what it is. When people speak of mainstream and this and that and that and this, I mean, I do what I do from the heart, I rap for the streets. As long as I make the streets happy, I’m happy. I don’t believe in crossing over, I just do what I do and make the game cross over to me.
RIOTSOUND.COM: Where does the situation with G-Unit currently stand and are you entertaining any other label deals at this time?
B.G: We talking, our lawyers is doing what they doing and trying to make sure everything is everything. I’m talking to Sony, they got a deal on the table. I’m talking to Atlantic, they also got a deal on the table. But at the end of the day I’m going to make the best decision as far what’s best for me and my label as a whole.
RIOTSOUND.COM: What are you looking forward to for the rest of 2006 and what should the fans expect?
B.G: I got my album coming out March 21st and I got my Chopper City Boyz album coming out for the summer. I also got the Life After Ca$h Money: The Heart of Tha Streetz DVD coming out. A lot of people when I do interviews or when I talk to them, they still implicate me with Ca$h Money and still question me about them and I thought I straightened all that out on the Life After Ca$h Money album. So evidently that wasn’t good enough so now I have to come with the visuals ‘cause the audio wasn’t enough. I got the DVD that I did and it’s like a mini-movie, a documentary. I still watch it every day because it’s so real and so true and it ain’t just me talking. It’s the streets talking on my behalf. Then I got my Chopper City Boyz, all of them is solo artists and they in the studio doing they albums right now. So you could expect anything from me.
For more B.G. news and info stay tuned to www.ChopperCityMusic.com
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