After smashing last year’s charts with “She Got It,” 2 Pistols released his introductory album under J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League/Universal Republic. Now that everything has died down, his distribution situation has dissolved, and the smoke has settled, 2P is seeing what it really takes to make a significant impact in the game. His current free agent status isn’t deterring him one bit though. He recently linked up with Slim of 112 for a second female-targeted song, a record 2P hopes will show the world he’s still got what it takes for another go around. I know you’re working on your sophomore album Arrogant. When are you planning to release it? I don’t have a set release date for it. I’m trying to see who’s gon’ do distribution on it. I’m no longer with J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, they got released from Universal Republic. There’s stories going around that I got dropped and they wasn’t trying to rock with me, but by them being released from Universal Republic, it automatically releases me. So I can technically go do my own situation with whoever I want. I don’t have a date or distribution but it’s gonna come out under my company Blood Money Unit Entertainment. So will you still be working with J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League at all? I tried to move forward and get some records with J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, but I think they have different things in mind. I don’t know what they’re gonna do, but for me, I got the single “My Gurl” featuring Slim of 112. I also got a street record called “Ain’t Gotta Talk.” I got this one record titled “Lights Down Low” featuring my R&B artist Young Joe. Do you have any other artists on BMU? BMU Entertainment is just me. I had a couple rap artists in the beginning, but I don’t have any right now. The only person I’ve been working with is my R&B artist. For ’09 I’m going many different routes – I hired new management, I hired some attorneys, I got out of my production situation, and I’m doing things the way I wanna do them. What are some things you are hoping to change for this next go around? I really felt that the sales, and things albumwise, not digitally, didn’t go the way I wanted
them to. My project was slept on ‘cause I think cats looked at me as fast food. They just looked at me as a quick situation to get money, a quick buck. Why did you go with the Slim collaboration as a first single and not the song with your own artist? The first record was produced by Oddz N Endz, and the “Lights Down Low” record was produced by myself. I actually liked the “Lights Down Low” record more, but the “My Gurl” record with Slim got leaked. The people was swinging to that one so I rolled with it. I like the situation with Slim because we can do a bunch of shows together, verses me doing a record with T-Pain last year. It was the number one record in the country, but I didn’t have an opportunity to perform with him. People don’t understand that sometimes people have different visions with what they’re trying to do. Slim is out here grinding and has an independent situation through Asylum. We can probably do more together as far as shows and traveling, verses doing a video with someone and not seeing ‘em no more. So would you consider doing another T-Pain record even though he’s not available to perform with you? I won’t say I wouldn’t do another record with T-Pain being that I had a lot of success with “She Got It,” I just don’t think things went the way they were supposed to. All his success was coming to him right then, and I don’t think anybody looked at it like I added anything to the record. Everybody thought that it was his record and I just happened to be a guest on it. He took all the juice out of it. It’s not that he overshadowed me, but his situation was just becoming bigger at that time. I’m trying to get with someone on my level that can pop off with me at the same time. You said they looked at you as the fast food of rap, how are you trying to overcome that and gain respect? I never really had a foundation. I tried to build a foundation by doing mixtapes or whatever, but I had the game twisted when I came in it. A lot of things I expected the label to take care of or was told they would take care of, they didn’t get taken care of. I would have even come out of my pocket for different things. I would have shot some videos and released some stuff on my own. But every time I reached in my pocket to do something, they was like, “Nah, don’t do this, don’t do that.” When I had the incident at the awards, it was really other people controlling that. I ain’t really get to voice my opinion about anything. When I came up in the streets, I didn’t answer to nobody. I spent OZONE MAG // 15