Post by Adam B on Feb 7, 2006 8:34:22 GMT -5
B.G. Interview
By Adam Bernard
For a man who’s only at the age of 25 B.G.’s already led a full life. From the lows of jail and drug abuse to the highs of worldwide fame and, in Bling Bling, creating a phrase used the world over, B.G.’s seemingly done it all. On March 21st, however, B.G. will be adding to his legacy with the release of The Heart Of The Streets Vol. 2 (I Am What I Am) and we at RapReviews.com sat down with him this week to talk about a myriad of topics, including who he’s cool with over at Cash Money and who he’d like to smack upside the head. At the end of the interview B.G. would get a phone call that would prove his loyalties beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Adam Bernard: First off, what are you working on right now?
B.G.: The album’s done turned in, I’m working on The Comeback Kid. The title speak for itself, a lot of people expected, I don’t know what they expected but they didn’t expect me to last as long as I did after I left Cash Money and now Cash Money don’t even much exist no more. You know, who is Cash Money? And then after I drop The Comeback Kid I’ma turn right back around and drop another album called Let The Good Times Roll. I just be linin my sh*t up. I just be workin homey.
AB: So you’re never going to leave the studio ever.
BG: You know, that’s what I do. sh*t, I ain’t no Tupac or nuttin but my work ethic is a motherf**ker.
AB: How did you reunite with Mannie Fresh for the new single?
BG: Me and Fresh relationship always was on point, always was good. I asked Fresh to work on my Life After Cash Money album and he told me he would do it but I had to change the name of my album. With me being the type of nigga I am I couldn’t do that so I told him I’d just wait. The timing just was perfect. It just so happened when I was in the studio doing this album and he called me and asked me was I ready and I was like sh*t am I ready? Where you at? And he was in Houston and I go on to the next flight to Houston and we got into the studio together and it was just like magic.
AB: A handful of years ago you created a phenomenon with the song “Bling Bling,” which is now used everywhere. What are your thoughts on what’s happened to the phrase?
BG: Yeah it’s in the dictionary man that sh*t is crazy. For a nigga like me who comes from nothing, from the hood, and I be going through the airports and sh*t sometimes as a matter of fact a flight attendant the other day said “I like your bling bling” and I just started laughin because sh*t be funny, she ain’t know who I was and I wasn’t gonna tell her who I was, I don’t even wanna be trippin like that, but sh*t is crazy.
AB: Knowing you can have that kind of an impact, how are you looking to influence us all next?
BG: I just do what I do. I rap for the streets and as long as I make the streets happy I’m happy. You know when people be saying about mainstream and crossing over and this and that and that and this, well every time I ever been in the studio or every time I ever recorded or every time I ever did anything I don’t think mainstream or crossover because I really don’t believe in crossin over, I feel like I make the game cross over to me. If I try to go that direction then it ain’t gonna be real to me so I just do what I do and whatever happens happens.
AB: Speaking of the streets, your own streets have a major event happen to them last year in the form of Hurricane Katrina, what’s the word on how the rebuilding process is going?
BG: The word is it’s all good and it’s up and running and it’s this that and the other but I went to see for my motherf**kin self and to be honest with you, I’m a keep it all the way 100, they’re rebuildin but they ain’t rebuildin for me and my people, they ‘re rebuildin for them other folks. When you go downtown to the French Quarter and Bourbon Street and all that sh*t all that sh*t lit up but when you cross Martin Luther King the f**kin lights still off in some areas. The sh*t’s bigger than us, they on some bullsh*t.
AB: What are your feelings on the job the government’s done for the survivors?
BG: I be wantin to speak, I respect the statement that Kanye West made about Bush and sh*t but I feel like I can’t make that statement because I have too many convictions and I owe the IRS some money so I’ma just lay up there and keep my comments to myself about the government, but really and truly, f**k ‘em.
AB: A lot of celebrities have been outspoken about the tragedy, do you feel it’s their place to speak out, or should it really be up to those who are actually from the area?
BG: They see, too. It is what it is, you call it how you see it, that’s how I feel. They had a lot of motherf**kers that made some f**ked up statements and then they had a lot of motherf**kers that kept it real. You know with the BET Comedy Awards when they had Bush getting whooped and sh*t I loved that sh*t because he’s a hoe.
AB: How hard has it been to record through all this?
BG: Honestly my studio was in Metairie and in Metairie they didn’t have all that water and sh*t. I just came to Detroit and built another studio. That just made me want to work even harder. I don’t even like speakin on it no more because I’m tryin to get over it but at the same time I was emotionally destroyed. Physically I’m living and I’ve got my family and my niggas and people close to me around so it shouldn’t be hard to make sh*t happen. At first I was depressed, I was down I was trying to figure out what my next move was gonna be. I was glued to the TV for like a week, I ain’t even leave out the hotel room because I couldn’t move, I was f**ked up, I couldn’t believe that sh*t was happening. I was one of them mothaf**kas that wanted to ride the storm out, I was like that sh*t ain’t gonna hit, f**k that.
AB: You’ve been recording forever, eleven albums deep, what’s left to accomplish for you?
BG: That’s just my solo albums, that’s not even including the four or five HotBoy albums so it’s really about fifteen but at the same time what’s left for me? I ain’t gonna be finished before I get that Jay-Z money, Eminem money, you know, that’s when I’ma be content. So I’m 25 right now, I plan on having like 20 albums by the time I’m 30 and I’ma pass the game down to my little brother and my click and just play CEO and by the time I’m 35 I wanna be shakin hands with Donald Trump and sh*t. So I’ve got my goals and my sh*t already mapped out how I want to do it and what I want to do because you’ve got to have a plan, a blueprint.
AB: So you really have it all mapped out.
BG: Till 35. Don’t get me wrong I don’t knock rappers and sh*t but they got a lot of over-aged rappers. I don’t want to be doing this sh*t that long, I already feel like I’m 40. I’m 25 and I done walked in the shoes of a 40 year old man.
AB: So you feel the game’s aged you?
BG: The streets aged me most definitely. When you’re from where I’m from and you grew up where I grew up, cuz my daddy got killed when I was 12 years old so when my daddy got killed my momma was spent raising two boys by herself so it was like the streets adopted me after that.
AB: Damn, that’s rough all around. Last question, and this one’s kinda fun, if you could smack some sense into any one artist or producer who would it be?
BG: Lil’ Wayne. You must have been reading my mind cuz when I kiss him I’ma smack the piss out him. I’ve reading some articles and sh*t, some interviews that he’s been doing lately that I ain’t been too fine with cuz I know he ain’t built like that and he’s talking all that gangsta sh*t talking all this that and the other so it ain’t no beef or nuttin, it ain’t gonna be no trigger play or nuttin, but I’ma smack the piss out him.
AB: So while you might be workin with Mannie it’s pretty clear that you’re still not friends with Wayne.
BG: Yeah man, me and Fresh cool. Juvy cool, we see eye to eye. Turk my nigga, I talk to him damn near everyday. I’m the only one from that camp that been to see him since he’s been locked up. Baby’s a hoe and Wayne’s a hoe and that’s my relationship with everybody. It is what it is, real niggas do real things.
AB: Is there anything else you’d like to say, that you haven’t addressed yet, that you’d like to?
BG: I think we pretty much covered everything, you know the names of the next two albums and I ain’t never told nobody that but I just was loose this morning. Matter fact this Turk calling me on my other phone, I’ma let you be a living witness.
<BG on phone with Turk>
“I just was talking bout you in an interview. He was tryin to figure out what my relationship was with everybody and I just letting him know that you my nigga and I’m really the only that be like, you know.”
<BG back with me>
See, I don’t play no games man, ya heard me.
By Adam Bernard
For a man who’s only at the age of 25 B.G.’s already led a full life. From the lows of jail and drug abuse to the highs of worldwide fame and, in Bling Bling, creating a phrase used the world over, B.G.’s seemingly done it all. On March 21st, however, B.G. will be adding to his legacy with the release of The Heart Of The Streets Vol. 2 (I Am What I Am) and we at RapReviews.com sat down with him this week to talk about a myriad of topics, including who he’s cool with over at Cash Money and who he’d like to smack upside the head. At the end of the interview B.G. would get a phone call that would prove his loyalties beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Adam Bernard: First off, what are you working on right now?
B.G.: The album’s done turned in, I’m working on The Comeback Kid. The title speak for itself, a lot of people expected, I don’t know what they expected but they didn’t expect me to last as long as I did after I left Cash Money and now Cash Money don’t even much exist no more. You know, who is Cash Money? And then after I drop The Comeback Kid I’ma turn right back around and drop another album called Let The Good Times Roll. I just be linin my sh*t up. I just be workin homey.
AB: So you’re never going to leave the studio ever.
BG: You know, that’s what I do. sh*t, I ain’t no Tupac or nuttin but my work ethic is a motherf**ker.
AB: How did you reunite with Mannie Fresh for the new single?
BG: Me and Fresh relationship always was on point, always was good. I asked Fresh to work on my Life After Cash Money album and he told me he would do it but I had to change the name of my album. With me being the type of nigga I am I couldn’t do that so I told him I’d just wait. The timing just was perfect. It just so happened when I was in the studio doing this album and he called me and asked me was I ready and I was like sh*t am I ready? Where you at? And he was in Houston and I go on to the next flight to Houston and we got into the studio together and it was just like magic.
AB: A handful of years ago you created a phenomenon with the song “Bling Bling,” which is now used everywhere. What are your thoughts on what’s happened to the phrase?
BG: Yeah it’s in the dictionary man that sh*t is crazy. For a nigga like me who comes from nothing, from the hood, and I be going through the airports and sh*t sometimes as a matter of fact a flight attendant the other day said “I like your bling bling” and I just started laughin because sh*t be funny, she ain’t know who I was and I wasn’t gonna tell her who I was, I don’t even wanna be trippin like that, but sh*t is crazy.
AB: Knowing you can have that kind of an impact, how are you looking to influence us all next?
BG: I just do what I do. I rap for the streets and as long as I make the streets happy I’m happy. You know when people be saying about mainstream and crossing over and this and that and that and this, well every time I ever been in the studio or every time I ever recorded or every time I ever did anything I don’t think mainstream or crossover because I really don’t believe in crossin over, I feel like I make the game cross over to me. If I try to go that direction then it ain’t gonna be real to me so I just do what I do and whatever happens happens.
AB: Speaking of the streets, your own streets have a major event happen to them last year in the form of Hurricane Katrina, what’s the word on how the rebuilding process is going?
BG: The word is it’s all good and it’s up and running and it’s this that and the other but I went to see for my motherf**kin self and to be honest with you, I’m a keep it all the way 100, they’re rebuildin but they ain’t rebuildin for me and my people, they ‘re rebuildin for them other folks. When you go downtown to the French Quarter and Bourbon Street and all that sh*t all that sh*t lit up but when you cross Martin Luther King the f**kin lights still off in some areas. The sh*t’s bigger than us, they on some bullsh*t.
AB: What are your feelings on the job the government’s done for the survivors?
BG: I be wantin to speak, I respect the statement that Kanye West made about Bush and sh*t but I feel like I can’t make that statement because I have too many convictions and I owe the IRS some money so I’ma just lay up there and keep my comments to myself about the government, but really and truly, f**k ‘em.
AB: A lot of celebrities have been outspoken about the tragedy, do you feel it’s their place to speak out, or should it really be up to those who are actually from the area?
BG: They see, too. It is what it is, you call it how you see it, that’s how I feel. They had a lot of motherf**kers that made some f**ked up statements and then they had a lot of motherf**kers that kept it real. You know with the BET Comedy Awards when they had Bush getting whooped and sh*t I loved that sh*t because he’s a hoe.
AB: How hard has it been to record through all this?
BG: Honestly my studio was in Metairie and in Metairie they didn’t have all that water and sh*t. I just came to Detroit and built another studio. That just made me want to work even harder. I don’t even like speakin on it no more because I’m tryin to get over it but at the same time I was emotionally destroyed. Physically I’m living and I’ve got my family and my niggas and people close to me around so it shouldn’t be hard to make sh*t happen. At first I was depressed, I was down I was trying to figure out what my next move was gonna be. I was glued to the TV for like a week, I ain’t even leave out the hotel room because I couldn’t move, I was f**ked up, I couldn’t believe that sh*t was happening. I was one of them mothaf**kas that wanted to ride the storm out, I was like that sh*t ain’t gonna hit, f**k that.
AB: You’ve been recording forever, eleven albums deep, what’s left to accomplish for you?
BG: That’s just my solo albums, that’s not even including the four or five HotBoy albums so it’s really about fifteen but at the same time what’s left for me? I ain’t gonna be finished before I get that Jay-Z money, Eminem money, you know, that’s when I’ma be content. So I’m 25 right now, I plan on having like 20 albums by the time I’m 30 and I’ma pass the game down to my little brother and my click and just play CEO and by the time I’m 35 I wanna be shakin hands with Donald Trump and sh*t. So I’ve got my goals and my sh*t already mapped out how I want to do it and what I want to do because you’ve got to have a plan, a blueprint.
AB: So you really have it all mapped out.
BG: Till 35. Don’t get me wrong I don’t knock rappers and sh*t but they got a lot of over-aged rappers. I don’t want to be doing this sh*t that long, I already feel like I’m 40. I’m 25 and I done walked in the shoes of a 40 year old man.
AB: So you feel the game’s aged you?
BG: The streets aged me most definitely. When you’re from where I’m from and you grew up where I grew up, cuz my daddy got killed when I was 12 years old so when my daddy got killed my momma was spent raising two boys by herself so it was like the streets adopted me after that.
AB: Damn, that’s rough all around. Last question, and this one’s kinda fun, if you could smack some sense into any one artist or producer who would it be?
BG: Lil’ Wayne. You must have been reading my mind cuz when I kiss him I’ma smack the piss out him. I’ve reading some articles and sh*t, some interviews that he’s been doing lately that I ain’t been too fine with cuz I know he ain’t built like that and he’s talking all that gangsta sh*t talking all this that and the other so it ain’t no beef or nuttin, it ain’t gonna be no trigger play or nuttin, but I’ma smack the piss out him.
AB: So while you might be workin with Mannie it’s pretty clear that you’re still not friends with Wayne.
BG: Yeah man, me and Fresh cool. Juvy cool, we see eye to eye. Turk my nigga, I talk to him damn near everyday. I’m the only one from that camp that been to see him since he’s been locked up. Baby’s a hoe and Wayne’s a hoe and that’s my relationship with everybody. It is what it is, real niggas do real things.
AB: Is there anything else you’d like to say, that you haven’t addressed yet, that you’d like to?
BG: I think we pretty much covered everything, you know the names of the next two albums and I ain’t never told nobody that but I just was loose this morning. Matter fact this Turk calling me on my other phone, I’ma let you be a living witness.
<BG on phone with Turk>
“I just was talking bout you in an interview. He was tryin to figure out what my relationship was with everybody and I just letting him know that you my nigga and I’m really the only that be like, you know.”
<BG back with me>
See, I don’t play no games man, ya heard me.