yearfour A Look Back At The Last Year In OZONE History So youâre new to the OZONE fan club, huh? Well, the last year has been an exciting one. Come along for the ride as we give you a quick recap of our favorite issues from the past year (visit www.ozonemag.com for complete back issues): MAY 2005 Our three year anniversary edition was a classic, featuring in-depth cover interviews with Pimp C, Bun B, and Baby. Paul Wall broke down racial stereotypes in an entertaining questionnaire, and we featured interviews galore (Michael Watts, Bohagon, Tigger, Pretty Ricky, Young Jeezy, and more). The always-controversial DJ Chuck T gave the finger to the haters and the RIAA, and Jacki-O and Foxy Brown faced off in the Flipside section. The continuation of Groupie Confessions kept everybody talking, and C-Murderâs Prison Diary consisted of a handwritten letter blasting the Louisiana state prison system. In Patiently Waiting, we highlighted some unknown rapper/singer with dreads named T-Pain, and David Bannerâs endless obsession with Napoleon Dynamite inspired his own Movie Reviews column. - Julia Beverly AUGUST 2005 OZONEâs August 2005 issue truly showed why we are THE voice of Southern hip-hop. Instead of pussy-footing around and doing cute featurettes on artists that deserved big-time coverage, we went on ahead and did the damn thing. On one cover, David Banner opened up for one of his most candid interviews ever printed. He even shared clippings from his alma materâs newspaper where he was elected SGA president, showing that heâs always had power to reach people (and that he loves being on the microphone). He even had his own comic book and DJ Drama Gangsta Grillz CD insert! With the other cover, we pledged a real allegiance to the âHouston Takeoverâ and gave Paul Wall (with help from his grill) some much deserved shine. We also had some excellent features on artists like Killer Mike, Chamillionare and Lil Wayne. Mind you, we did these interviews because we know these guys are hot and that our readers would love to hear for them, not because they had albums about to drop. If that wasnât enough, this issue was the first magazine - no, the only media outlet, period - that revealed to the world that Mannie Fresh had âofficiallyâ departed Cash Money and Lil Jon was no longer recording for TVT Records. We even penetrated the penitentiary walls and brought you words from correspondent C-Murder, er, C-Miller, and former Hot Boy Turk. Speaking of which, did we mention that we got all three out of four Hot Boys to speak on a possible reunion in this issue? - Maurice G. Garland SEPTEMBER 2005 Our third annual âpatiently waitingâ edition hit the presses in the midst of Hurricane Katrina wreaking havoc on the Gulf Coast. Although we donât own bulldozers, housing complexes, or truckloads of bottled water, we at OZONE tried to do our part, throwing together a hasty spread with rapperâs reactions to the devastation. A distraught 5th Ward Weebie called my phone at 1 AM with conspiracies galore, and I sat through endless âDue to the hurricane, your call can not be completedâ messages trying to obtain other rappersâ quotes. In the patiently waiting segment we profiled some rising stars like Chingo Bling and T-Pain; if you have any doubts about our star-finding potential, check the resume: Bohagon, Chamillionaire, Jacki-O, Jody Breeze, Lil Scrappy, Mike Jones, Paul Wall, Pitbull, Pretty Ricky, Slim Thug, Trillville, Webbie, and Young Jeezy are just a few of the artists that were âpatiently waitingâ in OZONE before their record deals. We also got plenty of hate mail for reppinâ NYC in a small segment devoted to up-and-coming East coast rappers like Juelz Santana, Saigon, Jae Millz, Tru Life, and Maino. - Julia Beverly NOVEMBER 2005 We should have called our November mag the âChanges Issue.â The Bun B cover not only gave you powerful images, but powerful words as well. Bun spoke to our trusty Houston correspondent MattSonzalaSoReal less than 24 hours after seeing his hometown of Port Arthur, Texas take a heavy beating from Hurricane Rita (yeah the other storm, please donât forget about them either), and it was truly the ârealest interview ever.â What was supposed to be a regular olâ Q&A with Jody Breeze turned into a little batch of controversy when he said that his ex-Boy N Da Hood Young Jeezy âwanted that lightâ (See our December 2005 ish for Jeezyâs response). We went against the grain and interviewed North Carolinaâs Little Brother, who showed that the South is more diverse than people give us credit for. They also received a five-blunt rating for their album The Minstrel Show. We also used this issue to throw out the old and bring in the new. We changed the entire format of the magazine with no warning and started our more user-friendly Patiently Waiting format. We also introduced Killer Mikeâs Throwback Review section and our Entrepreneur Profile, highlighting Tampa Tony and his invention Da Splitter. And what do you know? Jim Jones and Damien Marley are smoking on their feature photos, go figure. The issue was rounded out with a grown-up Youngbloodz interview and Lil Troy calling Scarface a snitch. And oh yeah, when Rolling Stone decided to do a piece on Pall Wall, he took a picture reading this issue. Yeah, weâre kind of a big deal! - Maurice G. Garland DECEMBER 2005 Sex sells, right? Our annual sex edition is always a favorite with our readers. But this issue was a favorite of mine for personal reasons. This is the issue where I revealed to the readers that I was one of the millions of people living day-to-day with genital herpes. The overwhelmingly positive response to that article let me know that writing that piece was the right thing to do, and that OZONE was the perfect platform for me to share my story. Aside from that, the feature story that followed the day in the life of a real life pimp was really intriguing. It was certainly interesting learning how the seemingly simple relationship between a pimp and hoe is actually more complex than it seems. On the flip side of things, if you felt like being entertained rather than being educated, there were plenty of groupie confessions and explicit interviews (Webbie took dirty talk to a whole new level) to keep you satisfied until next yearâs sex issue comes. - Wally Sparks MARCH 2006 This is one of my favorite issues, for obvious reasons. Iâm a DJ, and this issue was dedicated to the DJ: the often misunderstood, mistreated, and misrepresented part of our culture. It was great reading all the opinions of my peers and seeing that we all shared some of the same viewpoints on issues like payola, shady club promoters, and radio DJs vs. club DJs. Seeing everyoneâs top club bangers was fun to read also. Aside from the DJ segment, we were ahead of the game with a feature on the newly freed Pimp C. - Wally Sparks
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