“It’s a dirty world that we live in Can’t even trust ya own family at times... Nigga will make your whole family cry.” - Lil Boosie “Dirty World”
L
il Boosie isn’t crying, and neither are any of the other people in his midtown Atlanta hotel room. But he sure does look pissed off. In town for the BET Hip Hop Awards, Boosie Bad Azz is apparently having a bad day. Opting to do his interviews from his hotel room instead of coming outside, he isn’t much in the mood for talking. Hell, it almost sounds like he isn’t really in the mood to go to the award show either. After all, he wasn’t nominated for anything. “If this was the Ghetto Hip Hop Awards, I’d win every award,” says Boosie, of his absence from Hip Hop award shows, period. “I guess a lot of ‘Hip Hop’ don’t relate to me. I guess I don’t meet their quota.” “Hip Hop” may not fully embrace Boosie. But in many Southern cities like Jackson, MS, Charleston, SC and Columbus, GA, Boosie is Hip Hop. Though the mainstream may only recognize him from songs like his 2006 club hit “Zoom” and his appearances on Foxx’s “Wipe Me Down” and Webbie’s “Independent,” Boosie has been a walking legend in the South for seven years. Brought into the game by C-Loc (the man also responsible for giving Young Bleed, Max Minelli and CTE’s Boo their first taste of national recognition), Boosie released his first solo album Youngest of Da Camp in 2000. But it wasn’t until he hooked up with the Pimp C-endorsed Trill Entertainment and released 2003’s For My Thugz and two collaborative efforts with labelmate Webbie (Ghetto Stories and Gangsta Muzik) that he grew into one of the most underrated Southern rappers with a diehard fan base.
Superbad just hit the streets and people are saying good things about it. The album did have a lot of features on it, which was odd considering we never saw that from you in the past. Really, I didn’t have a lot of features. I brought ten songs to the album with just me on there. My CEO was trying to blow his son [Lil Phat] up, and put him on my CD. [The only features] I thought were on my album was Webbie, [Young] Jeezy, Trina, and Bobby Valentino. I didn’t tell [Turk] to put [Lil Phat] on there. When I saw Phat on a quarter of my album, that was the CEO trying to blow him up. That’s what made the album look like it had more features. He’s on five songs, and I ain’t like that shit at all. I wasn’t going for a lot of features, I was going for a classic. They weakened it. Have you spoken with your CEO since this happened? We’re not talking right now. I will express it in songs they’ll hear later. I am going to express it though. Every nigga in every city is calling me asking, “Why is [Lil Phat] on so many songs?” No, I turned the album in and the CEO put that nigga on the rest of the songs. [Turk’s response: We don’t talk as often as we used to because we both have legal issues that we are working through, but [we speak] at least once a week. My business manager talks to him four or five times a day, so we are communicating. You see the album out and him working. That’s us getting it done.] If that’s true, we can see why you’re eager to start your own company. That’s why I’m focused on getting my own shit. They’re trying to blow their son up off me. I’m trying to do my thing, so this new album I’m doing, I’m turning it in straight to the people in New York so it ain’t gonna have nobody from Trill on the album but Webbie.
However, Boosie’s buzz failed to reach fire-hot proportions as his next solo, 2006’s Bad Azz, didn’t appear until three years later. In 2009, he dropped Superbad. “Why [do] me and Webbie only put out one album every three years?” he ponders, rhetorically. “Because somebody’s stupid! Me and Webbie are supposed to be ten times bigger than what we are right now. Nobody makes better music than us. That’s how I feel, and that’s the truth.” Musings like these make it apparent that Boosie’s professional relationship with his Trill Entertainment label home is starting to sour, fast. “Just think if I had seven albums out right now,” says Boosie, averaging out the results of him releasing one album for every year he’s been signed to Trill. “Nobody could touch me. I’d be getting $100k a show right now. But I got a stupid ass label. They don’t know what to do with me. So I’ma do something with myself. I can record my own music, shoot my own videos, do my own DVDs; I don’t need nobody for nothing.” Ironically, one of the people he’s angry with agrees with him, to a degree. “I share in those frustrations,” says Marcus “Turk” Roach, co-CEO of Trill Ent. “The easiest way to fix [the problem] is for Boosie to stay in the studio recording. Until recently, he didn’t always have the same work ethic he has now. I guess when you see other artists dropping albums three [times] to your one, it encourages you to get in [the studio] and produce quality music.” He continues, “We have always encouraged Boosie and all our other artists to stand up and be businessmen.” Boosie’s first step towards independence is starting his own company, Bad Azz Entertainment. From this day forth, he says that’s all he’s focusing on. To him, right now, Trill is in his past. Even though Superbad just came out last month, it’s already ancient history.
“You ain’t got be featured on my tape, I don’t need you niggas anyway” - Lil Boosie - “Boosie When You Gonna Drop”
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Why would they do that to you? They might’ve thought I was doing my thing too much and figured since I got one of the biggest albums of the year coming out, let me put my son on there and get him famous. I was disappointed by that. They’re not letting me have say-so on what’s on my album. I wanted a double disc and couldn’t get that. There’s all kinds of fucked-up shit going on with me. I feel like if there was more of me on [Superbad], it would’ve been a classic. Most people fast-forward his shit and rewind my shit; it makes people have to keep fucking with the song. I like for people to let my songs ride. So that was a big-ass mistake, trying to blow your son up on my album. Some people sons have it and others don’t, like his son. [Turk’s response: Our normal practice of doing records is similar to most labels. We have tracks and artist hop on them. The artist with the hottest verse stays on the track. Three of the songs that Phat is featured on, Boosie delivered to us with his verse already on there.] But you don’t have a problem with Lil Phat himself though, right? I ain’t got no problem with lil’ buddy, they ain’t gangsta no way. My thing is, I turn an album in and you put him on all those songs like that. This is my album. They know if they called and asked me [if they could add him], I’ma say, “Shit no!” So don’t do no shit like put him on five songs. You don’t do that to me like that. You got me having listening sessions for people and I’m having to explain my CD?