2. I rerecorded everything. A lot of the records I recorded got leaked or gonna end up leaked. I’m sitting on a bunch of songs. I started over because I left Interscope. When you’re working on an indie budget, it’s cheaper than a major budget. So when you’re on a major, you have a better budget to buy big producer’s beats. But when you’re indie your budget ain’t that big so you have to really work off relationships. I still got big producers on my album but it’s from relationships. I still pay for it, but the indie way. Did you have to dig deep into your pockets to pay for Pharrell’s beats even when you were signed to his label? I didn’t have to dig out of my pocket but it still came out of my budget. Of course he had to get paid, it was at a discounted price, wasn’t what he usually charge. But I definitely had to pay. At this point, do you think you will ever do business with a major again? It’s hard to believe. Honestly I’m taking it one day at a time. Right now it’s looking good. I have a distribution deal with Koch, not a label deal. So I’m not stuck. If they take care of business, I’m chilling. I feel more comfortable over here. Over the last couple of years you’ve been putting out the Boss Hogg Outlawz projects, did you have to readjust to being a solo artist for this album? I never stopped. I was always working. Even though you ain’t hear it, the music was still getting made. I got so many songs done, I was still recording. The hardest part was picking what I wanted on the album. That was the hardest part, making it sound good together. With this being your first look in a minute, did you want to come back out as an artist with universal appeal or cater more to your Houston roots? It’s gonna be mostly a Houston [sound]. That’s what the whole outlook is. On this album I wanted to do me like I was doing it before I got a deal. I didn’t have an A&R. I picked the beats. I worked with [producers like] Jim Jonsin so there’s still national songs on there too. “Radio songs” included? Of course. You need that. The more radio play you get, the more records your sell. It goes together. If you’re getting played in a lot of different cities, people know you’ve got an album coming. But if you ain’t got a radio song, it’s harder to get people to recognize that you’re coming out. [“I Run”] is my biggest radio song, but it’s actually a street song. I never thought of this as my radio song. I got another Jim Jonsin song called “Smile.” The radio folks wanted me to go with that, but that song don’t describe me. I wasn’t about to be gone three years and then come back with a song that goes “smile for the camera.” So I had to do this. [“I Run”] was my street record and this song right here has surpassed what Interscope did for me. “3 Kings,” “Like a Boss,” “I Ain’t Heard of That.” None of those songs got as many spins as this one. That goes to show you how this works better for me. Koch got me on 106th & Park and Interscope couldn’t do that for me. Ever since he made his blip on the national rap radar, Slim has always presented himself
as someone cut of the “I’m not a rapper, I’m a hustler” cloth. So hearing him talk about having an interest in jumping into Hollywood or other ventures comes as no surprise. “They said I did good, actually,” says Slim about his brief appearance in the upcoming urban drama Days of Wrath. He plays an accomplice to David Banner’s character in the film. “It wasn’t a big part in the movie. They paid good money; I was surprised. I don’t know what the movie is about. I just did my part and was out that bitch. All I said was ‘Nah, they ain’t picking up G’ and that was it. [laughs] But they gave me $30,000 for that one line.” Even when he was at the age where most kids hear their first rap song and decide that’s what they want to pursue, Slim was about the dollar dollar bill. “I was never the nigga who wanted to be a rapper,” he admits. “I was 12 years old, and my older brother was rapping. I told him to write me a rap and I was gonna memorize that shit. It was something about my bike. I just went around the ‘hood telling everybody the rap. It was just a little joke to me.” He laughs and continues, “I’d freestyle, and that shit started making me some money. I never had a job in my life, never filled out an application. When I was 17 in high school, I was into some street shit. I wasn’t moving birds or no shit like that but I had the 2 for the 5 at the school house going live. I had drank and shit like that. But the tapes were going fast. I was getting $15 a tape. I was making so much money the [school] principal made me stop selling them.” We’ve never heard much about you, outside of rap or before rap. Tell us what it was like for you growing up. It wasn’t like I was from the ‘hood where it was more fucked up than anyone else’s. Everyone was selling dope so I was just falling in line. My house was the cook house. Mama watching All My Children, my brother was cooking it up in the kitchen. My mama knew what it was. I was tall but I ain’t play ball because it wasn’t reality to me. That was like hitting the lotto. The work right here, so get the money. I never had big ass dreams. But when I saw rap could make money that’s when I started doing the shit. So how did you actually get into rap? It came by accident. I was at a party and [DJ Michael] Watts was DJing, back in ‘98. I was 17 in high school at a party, before Swisha House existed. Watts heard me freestyle at a party, and told me to come to his house and freestyle on a mixtape. I went over there, did the shit, and it caught on fire. That first mixtape we put out was so big on the North, Swisha ‘98. Niggas was buying tapes from me. We did another one. It got bigger and bigger, fast, in a matter of months. I was getting paid 5G’s to bust on other people beats. I remember I did Juvenile’s “400 Degreez,” Missy’s “Hot Boys,” some R. Kelly beats, “Wanna Be A Baller” all kinda shit. I was getting it doing shows on other people beats. I was in a whole another game. Dudes like ESG were peeping me from jail, he wanted to do a song with me when he got out. We did a song and squashed the Northside/Southside shit with “Braids and Fades.” After that it was a wrap.
What was the first song you did with an original beat? I think the first original beat song I did was a song with Mad Hatta and Yungsta. Then me and ESG did “Braids and Fades.” Then we did “Candy Coated Excursions.” We ended up doing an album together. That was the first. Then I did my Boyz N Blue album. I never did a solo independent album. People don’t understand that I was promoting Already Platinum, but that was gonna be an independent album. I named it that because I was eating like a platinum nigga. “3 Kings” was done before I had a deal. I was gonna put it out independent and it just so happened they came with the money so I was like fuck it. I ain’t mad at anything I did. Interscope didn’t get me on the radio but they put me in the right position to fuck with Beyonce and Gwen Stefani. I got the looks from that and got promo in a major way outside the country. So I’m back independent with a major look. But honestly, Interscope ain’t set those up. Pharrell set me up with Gwen. She liked what I did on one of Pharrell’s beats and wanted me on her song. With Beyonce, we were in Houston at the last Destiny’s Child show and they wanted me to do “Still Tippin’.” The next day the label called wanting me on a song. I got a MTV award for [“Check Up On It”] and it wasn’t through Interscope. Some people love your raps, but others say you only rap about cars, money, etc. Do you find it difficult trying to dispute that notion? Or do you care? It’s still difficult. I still don’t know what to talk about, to this day. I don’t be in the studio like that. To this day, I’m not a real rapper. I know rappers always say that shit, but I don’t live in the studio. Niggas have to drag me into the studio. I write my raps in the car. Give me a beat CD, and I’ll ride around with that shit doing raps. I write my raps in the phone because I’m driving. I write sometimes, when I’m in the studio, but it’s hard being creative in a studio where there ain’t shit but walls and speakers. It don’t do nothing for me. I was never that kind of nigga. I never got shit done in the studio. Sometimes it works but the majority of the time it doesn’t work. That’s how I make most of [my records]. If I’m on a song with another artist I’ll be like, fuck it, I’ll do it [in the studio]. When we interviewed Devin the Dude last year, he mentioned that he’s slightly bothered when artists or producers offer to work with him, but the song themes rarely go beyond sex and weed. As if he can’t rap about anything else. Does it bother you when people come to you for cars and money songs? Yeah, whenever it’s something about bosses they call me. Damn near every beat someone gives me got some shit saying “boss” on there. But I’ll rap to whatever; it don’t matter as long as I like the beat. Niggas always want me to rap about cars and shit. I can rap about anything, really. On this album I do that. But being that I only put out one album, people don’t know who I am. Plus, that album wasn’t even really me. That was an album with a major label and their input. A muthafucka don’t know who Slim Thug is. Hell, I don’t even know, so I know they don’t know. I’m still trying to find myself, I ain’t put out nothing but one album. I can’t say I know what all my shit about, I won’t even lie. //
OZONE MAG // 57