bulletwounds Triple J (West Palm Beach, FL) Why do you call yourself Triple J? Those are my initials: Johnathan Jerel Johnson. You were originally signed to Def Jam South, right? How did you hook that up? Yeah, Scarface actually walked me in. I met ‘Face through Tone Capone, in Oakland, CA. He was the producer for the Luniz’ “I Got Five On It” and he did a lot of tracks for Scarface’s album. Me and Tone were working on an album together, so I came across ‘Face. Since we shared producers, he got interested me and we just cliqued up. This was back in ’96. Are you from Florida? Yeah, I was living in California for about a year recording, but I’m originally from Riviera Beach, Florida, in Palm Beach County. So when ‘Face left Def Jam, you left too? Yeah, when ‘Face left, the deal just fell apart. I knew he was leaving way before he actually left. I was with him before he got the deal at Def Jam. They didn’t wanna release me though. They were trying to put me on the shelf. I was stuck at Def Jam for two years. I had to fight my way out of it. Are you bitter because of the Def Jam situation? Oh, I’m definitely bitter. My career was at a standstill, and that forced me to get back in the streets. In the process, I almost lost my life. I wouldn’t have been out there doing what I was doing if Def Jam was doing what they were supposed to be doing. I got plenty of animosity. I don’t care who’s running their shit. Fuck ‘em all. How did you almost lose your life? I got shot about a year and a half ago. I got shot in my main artery, the one that goes through your right thigh. I lost 50% of the blood in my body. Was it rap beef or street beef? It was street beef, but that nigga’s dead now. We gonna leave that where it’s at. You got into an argument and things just got out of control? Naw, it wasn’t an argument. It was a drive-by. What was going through your mind when you got shot? Shit, man. When I first got hit, I didn’t feel the pain. My body was in shock. It was three of us that got hit, me and two of my homeboys. We was checking each other to make sure everybody was okay. It didn’t seem serious at first. It was just a leg wound. We were actually laughing at the shit for a minute. These pussy niggas gonna come through and shoot at us? A real nigga is gonna handle his. A drive-by is girl shit, bullshit. Then I noticed I was starting to get weaker. I didn’t know he had hit that artery. I was losing a lot of blood, and my vision started getting blurry. I couldn’t walk or talk, and I fainted. My voice wouldn’t even come out. I was fucked up. I kept blacking out. I told my homeboy, “Damn, I’m ‘bout to die, man.” My homeboy Johnny Dixon saved my life. I love that nigga. He kept slapping me and shit. He was like, “I ain’t gonna let you go, nigga.” Him and my homeboy Short Dog got me to the hospital. No police, no ambulance, nothing. How long were you in the hospital? When I got to the hospital, I was in there for like two months. Was it a wake-up call? It definitely was a wake-up call. Things didn’t get easier after that, though. My life was in so much chaos. The deeper you dig yourself a hole, the harder it is to get back out. I’m still trying to get back out of that hole, me and Big Scale Entertainment. Big Scale is me and two homeboys I grew up with, Pupp and Tech. We all co-own the company together. We’ve got it split three ways. Are you gonna put out the album indie or try to get a distribution deal? It don’t matter how we do it as long as we get that paper. Of course we’d like to get a big distribution deal. Who wouldn’t want that? But we 50
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know how to live without it. Your new single is “Boy Shorts,” produced by Jim Jonsin? Yeah, that’s what the radio wants to hear. That ain’t my type of shit, but we gonna play ball. It’s kind of a novelty song. I like street shit. To me, that’s my reality. But this is for the radio. I don’t even go to the strip clubs. I can’t even tell you the last time I been to a strip club. It just ain’t my cup of tea. I’ve heard people compare you lyrically to Eminem. Do you think that’s accurate? I don’t think that’s accurate, but I’ll take that as a compliment. To me, Eminem is a lyrical genius, but I don’t compare myself to him. I think we’re coming from two different angles. We can’t relate to each other’s lives. I do like to put humor into my raps, though. I like to put humor in serious situations. No matter how serious something is, you should always be able to find humor in it. Did you find humor in getting shot? Yeah. Me and my homeboys laugh all the time about who had the most bitch in ‘em. We laugh about who was hollerin’ the loudest. When is your album coming out? My mixtape Street Science is coming soon. The album, MLK Boulevard, is coming in early 2006. Look out for that single “What the Lick Read.” That’s basically like saying, “What’s happenin’.” Like I said, I like to put a lot of humor in my shit. The first cut I got on the mixtape is a song where I’m mimicking a lot of rappers’ styles. People tell me I sound just like them. That’s just something I do, but don’t confuse me with a comedian. I just did that to show that I could take nigga’s voices. I mimicked 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Young Jeezy, Pimp C, and a few other cats. Don’t get me wrong, though. I admire all them cats. I like street shit. I respect all gangsta rappers, but most of them just don’t rap as good as me. Anything else you’d like to say? Shout out to Bigga Rankin, I love that nigga to death. That’s the realest DJ doing this shit. Shout out to Big Shife and Papa Duck, two of the hottest producers in Florida, 21 Reese, Frank Luv, and Dawgman Entertainment. If there’s anybody I forgot to mention, they must not be doing the right thing. Also, check out my website www.triplejmusic. com. Log on it, doggone it! For booking call Pupp at 561-718-9682. - Words and photo by Julia Beverly