Remy Ma strolls into New York’s Electric Lady Studios at 9 AM, where a group of reporters and various industry folks have gathered to hear cuts from her upcoming album. “This 9 AM thing was not my idea,” she begins abruptly. Waving a bag of Skittles and a blunt, her “ghetto breakfast,” Remy makes her way to the front of the studio. In an outfit slightly more dressy than usual, Remy is clearly uncomfortable, wiggling out of her heels within five minutes of the session and moaning, “I couldn’t find my Uptowns this morning!” With Remy, what you see is what you get. The only female in the Terror Squad crew, she still acts like one of the dudes. Still, there’s just Something About Remy, which is actually the title of her debut album scheduled for release this summer through SRC/Universal. With stellar beats from the likes of Cool & Dre, DJ Khaled, David Banner, Scott Storch, and other up-and-coming producers, Remy has been blessed with a fiery backdrop for her crisp vocals. Later in the day, Remy is rocking a wifebeater (no bra, of course) and posted up in a hotel suite, visibly bored from doing a string of interviews. OZONE attempts to break up the monotony. Are you sick of doing interviews? I hate telling the “how-I-started” story over, and over, and over, and over again. Haven’t these people read any articles I’ve done in the last six years? God, I hate that question. Aside from interviews, what’s the worst part of being an artist? I hate the fucking schedule. Like, nothing’s on time, but everything’s on time, you know what I mean? Everything has a time, but it’s never on time. It’s just so much shit. How did the attitude within Terror Squad change when Pun passed? For a minute everything was crazy, with Cuban [Link] leaving and then [Triple] Seis leaving. Joe was going through a lot of family issues at the time. I didn’t have a record deal. Tony Sunshine was like, in the middle of a record deal. Everything was real crazy right after Pun passed. I can’t say that it panned out the best way, because I would’ve liked to see everybody stay together. What’s your opinion on some of the accusations that have been leveled at Fat Joe by Cuban Link and other people who’ve left the camp? They say Joe doesn’t want his crew to shine and doesn’t pay them properly. A lot of people just don’t understand that Joe has soooo many people that depend on him. It’s hard when everybody’s depending on you. You can never make everybody happy, so it gets to a point where you just decide, I’m gonna try to make myself happy. Trying to make everybody else happy is not working and I’m not happy either, so at least I’ll be happy this way. I respect that. That’s why I don’t ask nobody for anything free. I don’t expect any handouts. I don’t expect anything to be given to me, because nothing was given to him. He doesn’t owe anybody anything. Sometimes, people are like, “If that was me, I would…” But you’re not in that situation. You don’t know how it is to have everybody
depending on you. he has me, Geddy, Prospect, all the people that work with us, his family, his cousins, his uncles, his brothers and sisters, his wife, his wife’s family. They’re callin’ her because they know that’s her man. Like, it’s crazy. That’s the part people don’t understand. He don’t owe me nothing. Big Pun’s chain is up for an auction on eBay. Is his family really hurting that bad financially? I wouldn’t know. I mean, I know for a fact that I’ve given the kids money on different occasions. Joe has given them money. When Pun passed, though, he had a lot of taxes and bills that weren’t taken care of. It’s so many personal things going on behind the scenes between Joe and Pun’s wife that people don’t know about. It’s a lot of animosity between them. She put out a DVD where she’s totally disrespecting [Pun’s] name. How do you expect the people who loved your husband to do things for you when everything you’re doing is degrading his name and character? That’s not gonna make people want to help you. Me personally, if I was in possession of Pun’s chain, I’d rather be dead broke and starving in the streets than to put his chain on eBay. Maybe a pawn shop as the last straw, because you can still get it back. How you gonna sell it to someone you don’t even know? That’s crazy. That’s totally disrespectful. Are you still cool with Cuban and Seis? I speak to both of them. They have their differences with Joe. It’s a bit of a conflict with me being friends with all of them, but I feel like I shouldn’t be forced to pick. They’re all my friends, and I’ve known all of them for the same amount of time. Neither side has done anything to hurt me. Do you think the timing is right for you to come out as a solo female artist because there really aren’t any females holdin’ it down right now? I feel like the timing is right for me, period, not just because of me being female. It’s not about being a female rapper. I wanna be compared to all other rappers, period. Other guys and other
females. I want people to go to the store and think, Am I going to buy this guy’s album or am I going to buy Remy’s album? It’s easy to choose me when it’s between two girls. I’d feel like I accomplished something more if you chose my album over a guy’s album. Do you think New York rap is in a rut? I think New York needs a comeback right now. But at the same time, I’m not gonna put down the South. I like Young Jeezy, I like Slim Thug. It’s been New York for so many years. It used to be that everybody was trying to sound like they were from New York. Now, everywhere else is getting play, and New Yorkers are trying to flip our style to incorporate it with theirs. We don’t need to hear the same thing all the time. Are you relieved to finally have your first solo project? Yes, yes, yes! And it’s still not even here yet. So I’m about to relieved. All the tension and pressure. I have the first-time jitters. It’s so much pressure, because they expect so much. I’m 100% content with everything on this album, but people are crazy. You never know what they’re gonna think. Consumers be buggin’ sometimes. Why do you think the Terror Squad album didn’t sell well even with “Lean Back”? We didn’t go on tour. We didn’t promote. We didn’t have ads like we were supposed to. Promotion counts for a lot. It wasn’t pushed right. You’re picky with your beat selection? So very picky. Producers hate me. But I have to like it if I’m gonna put my fuckin’ lyrics over it. Your beat can’t be whack in any shape, form, or fashion. If you could steal a beat, what would it be? T.I.’s “A.S.A.P.,” and the “Hate It Or Love It” beat that Cool & Dre did for Game and 50. Cool & Dre are fuckin’ down with Terror Squad, so how did I miss that one?? - Words and photo by Julia Beverly OZONE AUGUST 2005
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