Post by Adam B on Jul 19, 2005 10:20:04 GMT -5
Mongo Maddness Interview
by Adam Bernard
Mic Profit (front), Mongo & T-Wizzy (back)
It's hard to miss Mongo Maddness walking down the street. The six foot four inch nearly 400 pound head of A Dollar & A Dream can seem imposing at first, but his effusive smile will quickly put anyone at ease. Mongo's been making moves in the Bridgeport area for years now and after recently linking up with Groucho Sparks to create Deviouz Dollarz his artist roster has become gigantic, including the likes of Mic Profit, T-Wizzy, Uncut, Catch 22, Erika, Kenny Henny, Bones, Bricks, Focus and Sonny Seagrams. He's got a third mix CD due out soon in the "Welcome To Connecticut" series, and a DVD due out later this year, as well. With all that in mind The Reality Box wanted to find out more about Mongo Maddness, what his overall goals are, and what really happened that has him upset with the local authorities and newspapers.
Adam Bernard: For people who don't know, break down everything you're involved in.
Mongo Maddness: We do a lot of promotions, club stuff, we have a lot of artists. We're also into producing, we have our own studio. We have our hands in everything.
AB: Everything including a couple local stores, tell me about the clothing store.
MM: DJ and Artist Clothing. Mic Profit and T-Wizzy came up with the name. They had an idea and wanted to run with it. They figured they could give back to the community by starting their own store and making everything affordable.
AB: You also have a barber shop, right? How did you get involved with that?
MM: One Stop Barber Shop. That was actually my man Lou, he gets bored a lot and one day he passed by the building and said "you know, what we need to do a barber shop." It's kinda crazy the luck that we had. Pablo knew another barber shop that was closing so we got all these chairs.
AB: What has A Dollar & A Dream been up to?
MM: Collabos with different artists from all over team. We teamed up with Groucho Sparks because he has Deviouz Records and we were in his studio a lot and he had four artists and I had four artists and we were always going together and I was like "damn we need to put out a mix CD together" and when we met we just clicked. It was like the brother that you always knew you had but you never met him, and you love him unconditionally when you meet him, that was him.
AB: So it's Deviouz Records and A Dollar & A Dream together now.
MM: That's how we came up with the name Deviouz Dollarz.
AB: A Dollar & A Dream has been releasing songs nonstop, the latest is "Bridgeport," talk about how that got put together.
MM: We heard the "New York" song and I really wasn't feelin Ja Rule like from Summer Jam when Nas didn't show up so that's when I started not feelin Ja cuz he was on that lollipop stuff and that's not how he got on, but I happened to hear the beat one day and the hook and I happened to hear what Ja was saying before I heard that TS and Jada was on it. I said yeah Ja's doing his, he doesn't care about 50 anymore he's doing him.
AB: So you were feelin the track, but a lot more came out on "Bridgeport," people were named.
MM: People had something to say about the industry. My man Mic Profit set it off, followed by Uncut then Kenny Henny then Catch 22 just leveled it off and Erika just polished it.
AB: At this point Mic Profit probably has the most buzz out of all your artists, what are your plans for him in the coming year?
MM: I'm just hopin I can blow him up to kick in the doors in the industry so everybody can follow behind him. Whoever opens the door first, they definitely have to be able to hold it down and I feel anybody in this click can hold it down, but like him, Catch 22, Uncut and Erika I feel are the ones who really have the shot and can definitely hold it down and open the doors for everyone else. Mic Profit came a long long way.
AB: Your artists are at a distinct advantage now that you have a studio under the store. Are they sleepin there yet?
MM: We got access to it 24/7 now. Me and Grouch also live together now and we can just go right up in there and knock out a song whenever we want. We were in NY and met The Persuaders, they were tellin us we had to mix Hip-Hop with old school R&B so we took heed to what they said and me and Groucho came up with the idea, "The Thin Line Between Love and Hate," one of my producers, Chop Suey, chopped it up and sped it up a little bit and we blessed it. We're gonna present it to 'em sometime next week.
AB: I heard your team got into an incident at Summer Splash this year, what went down?
MM: They (MegaBass) had a contract sayin no cussin, which I had no problem with, none of the artists had a problem with. We worked out a routine without cussin but it doesn't say in the contract what they had as a cuss word so Erika got to perform and Mic Profit and Uncut did a 45 second song after Erika performed, and Uncut went to go to a 32 bar song and said ass and they ended the whole show.
AB: Just "ass?" That was kind of going overboard.
MM: Very very overboard. They were sayin how kids and the mayor were there and I got footage with the mayor, I've known the mayor for a little bit. They said it was supposed to be a family event but after we got thrown off stage for sayin ass you got half naked models showin up on stage with their whole ass showin and their breasts poppin out. So that was totally crazy, and hypocritical. We were supposed to go on at 12:30pm and we didn't go on till 4 o'clock. They didn't even have cordless mics.
AB: From what you've seen in CT, what do you feel CT has to do to become a major player in Hip-Hop?
MM: They actually have to start coming together. It's starting because we had a lot of people hatin on each towns, New Haven would hate on Bridgeport, Bridgeport would have on Hartford, and there's talent all over Connecticut. I don't consider us the tri-state I consider us New England. When everyone talks about the tri-state they talk about New York and New Jersey, but Connecticut comes last, but if you check your history books with no Connecticut there would be New York. We fought the revolutionary war over here so they could make New York. The first man to shed blood in the war was a black man in New England, Chrispix Addis.
AB: Damn, you know your CT history. So what's going well in CT now?
MM: We got our own radio stations now. Connecticut's being heard in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and we're like one of the richest states in the US so we really don't need anybody else's money. If we lock it down in New England we can be just like Atlanta or Chicago. If you listen to the radio stations that's all they play, the down south music now.
AB: Now, you're going on a vacation of sorts, do you want to talk about that at all? How it happened, what the plans are while you're gone?
MM: They gave me a real bad write-up in the newspaper, they made it look like I was some big time kingpin and what it was was me and Mic Profit got pulled over and they found a piece of weed, about a gram worth of pot, in my sun visor, they took my keys, went to my house and found a pistol in my night stand. Considering I was a felon from like 10 years ago, I was still a felon. The newspaper writing was ugly. I had to plead guilty cuz the feds was coming to pick it up cuz it was a pistol case. They gave me state time. We had the state beat, cuz it was an illegal search, so they got smart and put the feds on it.
AB: How long will you be gone?
MM: Six to 18 months.
AB: When it comes right down to it, how do you want to be known?
MM: I want to be known as the person who got the ball rolling in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, all of New England, the one person that made it all happen that made everyone come together. Which is what my DVD is about. I used to hate on people because of where they're from and then I really sat down and started lookin, I was beefin with people in my own community. We're all doing the same thing and got the same goals. I can't really hate on the next man that's doing their thing, we gotta do it together. Instead of hatin on 'em I embraced 'em and that's why we get a lot of love, we don't hate on anybody we welcome everybody.
AB: How can people get in contact with you and your team?
MM: The Deviouz Dollarz phone number is 203-727-4753, or people can fax us at 203-416-5351
by Adam Bernard
Mic Profit (front), Mongo & T-Wizzy (back)
It's hard to miss Mongo Maddness walking down the street. The six foot four inch nearly 400 pound head of A Dollar & A Dream can seem imposing at first, but his effusive smile will quickly put anyone at ease. Mongo's been making moves in the Bridgeport area for years now and after recently linking up with Groucho Sparks to create Deviouz Dollarz his artist roster has become gigantic, including the likes of Mic Profit, T-Wizzy, Uncut, Catch 22, Erika, Kenny Henny, Bones, Bricks, Focus and Sonny Seagrams. He's got a third mix CD due out soon in the "Welcome To Connecticut" series, and a DVD due out later this year, as well. With all that in mind The Reality Box wanted to find out more about Mongo Maddness, what his overall goals are, and what really happened that has him upset with the local authorities and newspapers.
Adam Bernard: For people who don't know, break down everything you're involved in.
Mongo Maddness: We do a lot of promotions, club stuff, we have a lot of artists. We're also into producing, we have our own studio. We have our hands in everything.
AB: Everything including a couple local stores, tell me about the clothing store.
MM: DJ and Artist Clothing. Mic Profit and T-Wizzy came up with the name. They had an idea and wanted to run with it. They figured they could give back to the community by starting their own store and making everything affordable.
AB: You also have a barber shop, right? How did you get involved with that?
MM: One Stop Barber Shop. That was actually my man Lou, he gets bored a lot and one day he passed by the building and said "you know, what we need to do a barber shop." It's kinda crazy the luck that we had. Pablo knew another barber shop that was closing so we got all these chairs.
AB: What has A Dollar & A Dream been up to?
MM: Collabos with different artists from all over team. We teamed up with Groucho Sparks because he has Deviouz Records and we were in his studio a lot and he had four artists and I had four artists and we were always going together and I was like "damn we need to put out a mix CD together" and when we met we just clicked. It was like the brother that you always knew you had but you never met him, and you love him unconditionally when you meet him, that was him.
AB: So it's Deviouz Records and A Dollar & A Dream together now.
MM: That's how we came up with the name Deviouz Dollarz.
AB: A Dollar & A Dream has been releasing songs nonstop, the latest is "Bridgeport," talk about how that got put together.
MM: We heard the "New York" song and I really wasn't feelin Ja Rule like from Summer Jam when Nas didn't show up so that's when I started not feelin Ja cuz he was on that lollipop stuff and that's not how he got on, but I happened to hear the beat one day and the hook and I happened to hear what Ja was saying before I heard that TS and Jada was on it. I said yeah Ja's doing his, he doesn't care about 50 anymore he's doing him.
AB: So you were feelin the track, but a lot more came out on "Bridgeport," people were named.
MM: People had something to say about the industry. My man Mic Profit set it off, followed by Uncut then Kenny Henny then Catch 22 just leveled it off and Erika just polished it.
AB: At this point Mic Profit probably has the most buzz out of all your artists, what are your plans for him in the coming year?
MM: I'm just hopin I can blow him up to kick in the doors in the industry so everybody can follow behind him. Whoever opens the door first, they definitely have to be able to hold it down and I feel anybody in this click can hold it down, but like him, Catch 22, Uncut and Erika I feel are the ones who really have the shot and can definitely hold it down and open the doors for everyone else. Mic Profit came a long long way.
AB: Your artists are at a distinct advantage now that you have a studio under the store. Are they sleepin there yet?
MM: We got access to it 24/7 now. Me and Grouch also live together now and we can just go right up in there and knock out a song whenever we want. We were in NY and met The Persuaders, they were tellin us we had to mix Hip-Hop with old school R&B so we took heed to what they said and me and Groucho came up with the idea, "The Thin Line Between Love and Hate," one of my producers, Chop Suey, chopped it up and sped it up a little bit and we blessed it. We're gonna present it to 'em sometime next week.
AB: I heard your team got into an incident at Summer Splash this year, what went down?
MM: They (MegaBass) had a contract sayin no cussin, which I had no problem with, none of the artists had a problem with. We worked out a routine without cussin but it doesn't say in the contract what they had as a cuss word so Erika got to perform and Mic Profit and Uncut did a 45 second song after Erika performed, and Uncut went to go to a 32 bar song and said ass and they ended the whole show.
AB: Just "ass?" That was kind of going overboard.
MM: Very very overboard. They were sayin how kids and the mayor were there and I got footage with the mayor, I've known the mayor for a little bit. They said it was supposed to be a family event but after we got thrown off stage for sayin ass you got half naked models showin up on stage with their whole ass showin and their breasts poppin out. So that was totally crazy, and hypocritical. We were supposed to go on at 12:30pm and we didn't go on till 4 o'clock. They didn't even have cordless mics.
AB: From what you've seen in CT, what do you feel CT has to do to become a major player in Hip-Hop?
MM: They actually have to start coming together. It's starting because we had a lot of people hatin on each towns, New Haven would hate on Bridgeport, Bridgeport would have on Hartford, and there's talent all over Connecticut. I don't consider us the tri-state I consider us New England. When everyone talks about the tri-state they talk about New York and New Jersey, but Connecticut comes last, but if you check your history books with no Connecticut there would be New York. We fought the revolutionary war over here so they could make New York. The first man to shed blood in the war was a black man in New England, Chrispix Addis.
AB: Damn, you know your CT history. So what's going well in CT now?
MM: We got our own radio stations now. Connecticut's being heard in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and we're like one of the richest states in the US so we really don't need anybody else's money. If we lock it down in New England we can be just like Atlanta or Chicago. If you listen to the radio stations that's all they play, the down south music now.
AB: Now, you're going on a vacation of sorts, do you want to talk about that at all? How it happened, what the plans are while you're gone?
MM: They gave me a real bad write-up in the newspaper, they made it look like I was some big time kingpin and what it was was me and Mic Profit got pulled over and they found a piece of weed, about a gram worth of pot, in my sun visor, they took my keys, went to my house and found a pistol in my night stand. Considering I was a felon from like 10 years ago, I was still a felon. The newspaper writing was ugly. I had to plead guilty cuz the feds was coming to pick it up cuz it was a pistol case. They gave me state time. We had the state beat, cuz it was an illegal search, so they got smart and put the feds on it.
AB: How long will you be gone?
MM: Six to 18 months.
AB: When it comes right down to it, how do you want to be known?
MM: I want to be known as the person who got the ball rolling in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, all of New England, the one person that made it all happen that made everyone come together. Which is what my DVD is about. I used to hate on people because of where they're from and then I really sat down and started lookin, I was beefin with people in my own community. We're all doing the same thing and got the same goals. I can't really hate on the next man that's doing their thing, we gotta do it together. Instead of hatin on 'em I embraced 'em and that's why we get a lot of love, we don't hate on anybody we welcome everybody.
AB: How can people get in contact with you and your team?
MM: The Deviouz Dollarz phone number is 203-727-4753, or people can fax us at 203-416-5351