Dungeon Family Interview
By Allen S. Gordon
From Murder Dog Vol. 9#
Let me start with a roll call for anyone not familiar with who the Dungeon Family is. Big Boi and Andre 3000 of Outkast. Cee-lo, Khujo, T-Mo and Big Gipp of the Goodie Mob. Cool Breeze originator of the Dirty South. EJ the Witchdoctor. Poet extraordinaire Big Rube. Backbone of Slic Patna. Mr. DJ of Earthtone 3. Finally Patrick “Sleepy” Brown, Rico Wade and the wizard Ray Murray of Organized Noize.
What took so long? You were telling me about doing this project many moons ago.
Rico Wade: I don’t know. I just look at it like we are on God’s time, so when I told you it might not have been time to record the album. The calling was for now. When LA Reid got situated at Arista, he called us after Outkast’s “So Fresh So Clean” came out and it was like "It’s time to strike." Organized Noize produced that single and our name was out there again so we had to come while it was hot.
It’s ironic that this album is coming out while the industry is copying each other. This album is creative and different.
Rico: We had to do something different because we don’t want the music to get too saturated. Like what Nas and Jay Z did, even with the little beef they have, it was like a Hip Hop exercise. Nas came back and did what he had to do, and the Blueprint is an album I love to ride out to. I’m so proud of both of them for standing strong, representing and being creative. So the Dungeon Family record is doing well, but we want to be creative and show unity and teamwork. This Dungeon Family album is also to spin off the other artists on the team as well. Everybody know about Outkast and Goodie Mob, so we have to reintroduce Cool Breeze, Witchdoctor, Big Rube, Backbone and Organized to everybody.
I expected The Dungeon Family album to have songs from each of the previous albums from Cool Breeze, Witchdoctor, Sleepy’s Theme, Outkast, Society of Soul and Goodie Mob. And then a second disk being what you already have.
Rico: That’s a good idea, but I couldn’t get away with that on the first album. I still want to do that because we still have got those cuts. Even on Outkast’s new album, we didn’t pick those greatest hits songs, that was LA Reid and Outkast and they did that for the new fans who haven’t bought the whole Outkast collection. If it was a real greatest hits album we would definitely have “Benz or a Beamer” on there and a few other cuts. Like I said, I think what you brought up is a great idea, but some things are guided by the Lord and if it didn’t happen that way it may not be meant to be at that moment in time.
What have you learned from this business in the last two years that you have found valuable?
Rico: What I’m learning is how to make music better. I’m in the clubs, I’m in the streets and I listen to the radio, so I’m aware of what I’m competing with in terms of grabbing people’s attention: tempo, rhythm, knock. I’m a producer and these are all things I have to be aware of because this music is how we make our living. Dungeon Family makes its living from making music, so all information regarding that is important to us. At the same time I have to be concerned why Witchdoctor or Cool Breeze don’t break and look at the reasons why from a business standpoint. I noticed that some records sell based on appearance. Look at Nelly. He sells based on the fact that he has a look. In fact, nobody looks like him. The other half of his appeal is that he really can rhyme. He can fucking flow and his beats are great. They used the 808 well. There was room for that because nobody in the game was doing that.
So you have to be a critic in a sense?
Rico: That’s my job. I don’t hate on anybody’s work, I just try to figure out why it worked or why it didn’t work. From A to Z I have to analyze why things happen in the recording itself and on the business side. Like with Cool Breeze album, I feel like it was a very good album, but we were missing tempo. In the last five years you can see how music has changed. If the music is not going 100 beats per minute, your music is not really going to get played in the clubs and whatnot. A lot has to do with tempo, but at the same time we have to continue making the songs we make, continue making music and moving forward. That’s what Jay Z did on the Blueprint album. He went back and made an album with slower tempos that was almost like his first album. He used a lot of samples, but it was still quality music driven.
Crossover or just some good catchy music?
Rico: I was working on some music for Method Man’s album and I have to come with that heat. Def Jam don’t want a nice creative album track, they want a single. They want a radio record. I’m a Hip Hopper, that why I think our longevity will win out, because I know how to keep the kick and snare fresh, but at the same time I know how to make commercial records. I’m true to it, so you’re not going to sell out fucking with me. Even on our worst day, all the elements are going to be there and the song will still come out fresh.
Did you plan the DF album to follow a certain format?
Big Boi: Not really, because we always have sessions at the Dungeon. It just depends on what beat folks want to get on. I might have a beat at the house or Dre will come through with a beat and different cats will hear it and want to get on it. We didn’t have a set amount of songs and plan it like, “Khujo and Dre on this song.” Basically, niggas gravitated to the songs they liked the most. So that’s how we recorded the album.
Cool Breeze: Honestly, I wasn’t really on the scene when we were doing the album. Rico was keeping me in touch with what was going on with the project, because I was just off doing my thing with my producers. I didn’t really get to do what I wanted on the Dungeon Family. That’s why I’m kind of glad that people are being teased by Cool. You hear me on the Dungeon album, but not too much. You’ll hear more of me on my album.
Rico: Some of the stuff on the album was thought out, some of it was spontaneous. Originally, if we had put this album out back in the Interscope days, the album would have had Redman on it, Method Man, Jay Z and some other people, but we sat down and thought that this album really needs to be about showcasing us, Dungeon Family: Cool Breeze, Outkast, Goodie Mob, Witchdoctor, Big Rube, Backbone, and Organized Noize. It really wasn’t about making hit records with other folk, it was about making hit records within our own camp. Of course I would have loved to get Cee-lo and Andre together. We didn’t plan on Big Rube and Witchdoctor getting together on “What is Rap?” it just came together like that. I think we had planned it so that no more than four people could get on a song, because we didn’t want too many “Watch For the Hook” type songs. Andre signed up for a majority of the album, and that made me feel good about what we were doing. Outkast was turning in beats, Goodie Mob was turning beats, and Organized Noize turned in beats. So it was lot to go through, but we are going to have more. We need to. It’s cool if we go gold or platinum, I just wanted to keep the majority of the album ghetto.
Give me an example of spontaneous recording?
Rico: The song “6 Minutes,” Ray at his house working on the beat and Big Boi and Sleepy are out there. Big Boi just busted out on the track “Hot tub/Bubbling like hot water…” and then he did the hook, by saying "Just give me six minutes to bust to this." Then Sleepy jumped right on it and created the hook based on the whole six minutes vibe. Gipp was there but he didn’t put it down because he wanted a couple days to write to it. After that everybody kind of jumped in. We changed the order around to make the chemistry work better.
That’s love.
Rico: Love motivates love, and hate motivates hate. We have nothing but love and that is why we keep moving forward with what we do.
Outkast seems to have watched Organized more closely in their early days when it came to making records than Goodie Mob.
Rico: Yeah, they didn’t get a chance early on, whereas Outkast was right up under us when we started working on their album. The Outkast was just kids when we first hooked up. Plus, there were more Goodie Mob members, and at times we would be working on tracks for Goodie Mob and a different member might be there at the start of a session. So when it came time to record a song with all the members at the Dungeon, maybe only one member would have been there during the producing process. So Outkast definitely soaked up more from Organized Noize early on, but now each Goodie Mob member has their own production ideas. T-Mo has got a real legitimate crew down with him. Big Gipp has got a cat from Memphis that does beats and plays live instruments. He used to work on Joi’s music. Cee-lo is producing his own album. Outkast has my cousin Mr. DJ with them in Earthtone 3 to go along with Andre’s production. I’m riding with Bubba Sparxx and all he has in his car is the first Goodie Mob album.
Soul Food is a classic album, and they are some classic MCs.
Rico: They are damn sure some great MCs. We are so respected in this game, now it’s time for us to get some of this cheese. I know it’s time for us to be doing a lot more. I want to show people that Atlanta is more talented than what is out there now. I want to put out some female artists, some real soul music. Organized Noize is already considered Hall-of-Fame, we’ve produced classic music. What I look at now is the back of the charts and see that the Neptunes put out twelve songs that were at the top of the charts. That’s what I’m looking at. And we can do it with the talent we have, and not sound cross-over, or where people get tired of it after a while. Puffy’s got the right idea. When he got big enough he had 112, those white girls Dream, Fuzzbubble--he had all the right concepts. I just don’t think he is a genuine music person. He got the look and the concept right, but I don’t think he had the A&R skills to put out a Nirvana type album, a Foo Fighters type album.
Piece the entire history of how the Dungeon Family linked up person by person.
Rico: Before Organized Noize got together, everything started at the skating rink. We had a place called Jellybean’s that was the spot. Pat “Sleepy” Brown was down with a dance crew called Guess, who used to compete with other crews like the Untouchables. Everybody would get fresh. I used to see him all the time, but we actually met up through Tionne (T-Boz) and her best friend Rosa (Cookie). I used to run a beauty supply store in East Point and Sleepy came up there with them and introduced us formally. We hung out a couple of times and I noticed he would always carry his keyboard around. As time went by he asked me to be his manager and to book him studio time. One particular time he went into a studio to check out prices and ended up meeting Ray Murray who was working there. Ray was also rapping back then how Jay Z and DMX rap now. He had so many styles. He would just study music and records. Sleepy came back and told me how gifted Ray was and that I needed to meet him. So we started hanging more and one time a drum machine wasn’t working, so Big Rube, who was my homeboy brought a drum machine for us. I met Rube through Marquez Ethridge, when they were running together. Marquez wrote “Waterfalls”. Big Rube was doing street raps at that time. He used to always play the Above the Law. He would play the hell out of that. From all this, we all kind of just stayed down and got a little studio next to the skating rink.
Ray was rapping? I always thought he was the silent cat.
Rico: With Ray being ahead of himself as an MC, I think that motivated all of us to become greater. It also moved us to work with people who would be great. He had a real eye for shaping talent. The MCs that work with Ray had to willing to be work hard. PA (Parental Advisory) was down back then too. KP, Reece and Mello. They were the first artists we produced as Organized Noize when we made that deal with Pebbles. Ray produced that whole album on Saavy/MCA back in 1992. That relationship ended up being what led to Outkast being signed to La Face. I’m getting ahead of myself. Through Ray, the rest of us met Khujo and Gipp. Ray and Gipp used to be in a group together that was a Black power group like Public Enemy, and Khujo was like a S1W--he was standing there with a gun. Khujo was in another group with T-Mo called the Lumberjacks, and I heard their tape when I was over at Gipp’s house one day. Khujo used to come by the studio all the time too. When Gipp left the group he and Ray were in, he and Cool Breeze were in a group with Chief, OZ and Cap One. I knew Cool Breeze because we went to junior high school together.
So everybody was in some group with another person who would eventually become family?
Rico: Not everybody, just Gipp. Gipp really respects the game and he’s another one who appreciates talent. After the PA deal, we were still looking for a group like Outkast, but not Outkast. Just looking for something great. Then one day at the beauty supply store, this white girl who worked with me was telling me about these two dudes who rap at her high school--Tri Cities High School. She said they wanted to meet me, and they came through the next day. Andre and Big Boi were in tenth grade. They came through the store and rapped for me, and I took them to my house to start recording and it’s been on ever since. We recorded about ten Hip Hop songs before we got to Southernplayalistic. Cee-lo came shortly after Outkast. They brought him by the studio, but he was quiet and didn’t say too much. Sometime later, Marquez brought him by and was trying to get Cee-lo to sing, and we didn’t quite connect. Then one of my partners was at a cookout and Cee-lo was battling some cats and was killing them. Cee-lo and my partner left the picnic, came by the studio and started rapping. After that, I wouldn’t let him go. Cee-lo was so tight, man. When Cee-lo started coming around more, he, Gipp, Khujo and T-Mo just got along real well and started hanging. Gipp merged Cee-lo, Khujo and T-Mo into a group, though they were all solo artists. Backbone was in school then, but he would come by the studio with Khujo. That’s why we first started calling him Slic Patna, because that’s how Khujo introduced him to us, “What’s up ya’ll, this is my slic patna.”
What about EJ, the Witchdoctor?
Rico: We met Witchdoctor when we started working on Goodie Mob’s first album while we rented out Curtom Studios. Curtom was Curtis Mayfield’s label and studio. We rented out the place for about six months. We were cutting songs like “Snappin,” “Hold On,” “Way Back” and "Blood," most didn’t make the album. Witchdoctor let me hear some songs he had on an album that he was selling. I thought he was dope. Our crew was based on Native Tongues and Hit Squad back when Tribe Called Quest/EPMD was the thing. We were already a crew, but that just solidified what we would be doing from then on. We didn’t get together because of them, but because we were looking at them. That’s what we were doing when we began Outkast’s album, then we changed it with the Goodie Mob album. We changed the tone, but kept the beats solid. That was always important, because we didn’t want New York to think we were just rhyming over R&B, so we made our own brand of Hip Hop using music as a base, not just older records.
So the goal now is to get everybody in the crew in the spotlight?
Rico: We just want to capitalize on the momentum of “So Fresh So Clean.” We know we can come with the best writing, the best compositions, the best arrangements--now it’s just to spread the music and push the levels. If we don’t push those levels, music might fall off.
What happened with the ONP deal with Interscope? Where did that fall apart?
Rico: We were dealing with Elektra, Sony, La Face and a few other labels, but we settled for Interscope. I had been talking to Jimmy Iovine a year before we did our deal, and he was still interested a year later which showed me he was really sincere about where he wanted to see our music go.
I remember Jimmy saying he had the best producers of Black music in his stable with Organized Production, Dr Dre, Teddy Riley and Erick Sermon.
Rico: He was really on his way, we just weren’t fully developed at that time. We knew how to make music, but there were other aspects to this business we hadn’t mastered then. I wasn’t really responsible enough to handle certain things music business wise. The marketing and promotion of our projects, I had the authority to step in and control, but I didn’t quite know how to handle it so I left it to the label. Now I know. That’s why our split with Interscope was amicable, Jimmy understood. I didn’t really know how to do the right things. I hired a staff in Atlanta to do what Interscope did, when I probably shouldn’t have hired anybody at all and just produced music. It should have been no staff and no office, just Pat, Ray and me doing music. It wasn’t a headache having the office, it was a headache having to pay money to maintain everything when we really didn’t need it, because Interscope would be handling the same functions.
Did you think that the Outkast and Dungeon Family would come this far?
Andre 3000: Really, when we first met Ray I didn’t think we would be doing music or anything like that. I didn’t ask him to show me anything. He didn’t even think that I did music, so I think it was kind of exciting for him to show me all the records that Dr. Dre had sampled and other records that different artists’ used to make Hip Hop songs. But it wasn’t until four years after, that me and Big Boi were able to buy equipment after our first album came out. We didn’t start producing until we went on tour for Southernplayalistc.
Are you surprised at the level of talent within the Dungeon Family?
Andre 3000: Yeah man. It’s kind of overwhelming, especially considering where we came from. We were just a bunch of dudes wanting to do music. We never knew who was going to be producing music, or who was going to be doping whatever. It’s been amazing and we know that something grand is going on with us, and we are just happy to be along from the ride.
Big Boi: Man, we have been down for years and years, and our crew hasn’t been getting its just due.
Big Gipp: The depth of talent in the Dungeon family speaks for itself. From the first Outkast album to the Goodie Mob albums to this Dungeon family album, people are really getting to see how diverse we are as a crew. We all can sing, rap, produce and arrange music. I still believe that we are the only crew around that haven’t buckled to give people music from the latest trend. I don’t care what anybody says, sometimes it can’t be all about the money. It should always be about the music, because that is what people are buying. It’s a very hard task to pull off, but I think if we are able to survive doing this, we’ll be okay.
Since you have become a producer, has listening to records become more technical than for pleasure? Can you enjoy a record or do you just pick them apart?
Andre 3000: Growing up I just listened to records to move to them. My dad had certain Funkadelic, Tower of Power records, and my mom was about Top-40 radio. So I had both sides, but I didn’t pay attention to any dynamic of the music, I just enjoyed the sounds. I never thought about music the way I do now, matter of fact, I didn’t write my first rap until I was in eighth grade. But once you start producing, you start paying attention to records in a different way. Like Bootsy Collins started off in James Brown’s band, then moved to Parliament, Parliament started using James Brown’s horn section. Just paying attention to the lineage of music and putting the pieces of the puzzle together and figuring out ‘Who did this?’ How was it done, and what was the end product? I just got into looking at records when I was twenty-two and I’m twenty-six now. I wish I would have started when I was younger.
Were you skeptical at all doing your own production, trying to keep up with classic material that Organized Noize had done for you?
Andre 3000: Honestly, we never thought about it. If we had, we would have been in trouble. We just do our thing and crunk it up. There were certain songs that Organized Noize would do, like a certain bass line or whatever, and I would catch myself listening to certain sounds that they were doing before and after the final recording. So I started listening closer and it became like school, learning how to put stuff together. Ray, that’s one thing I love about Organized Noize and the whole crew, they never tried to hide anything. They actually encouraged us, pushed us to do it. I'm still learning. I’m learning how to make my drum sounds tight now.
Have you mastered playing the bass yet? I remember you were taking lessons.
Andre 3000: I’m a jack of all trades. I’ll learn the bass one year, pick up the rhythm guitar the next, then move to the keyboards, etc. I kind of skip around and make up my own little songs. I learn enough to play out the melody
What do you lay down first drums, guitar, rhythm?
Andre 3000: First, you have to get your sound, your actual sonic sound, like how you want your kick to sound. Then you pick your snares to go with your kick, then you start to create your actual rhythm. I guess by doing production, you get bored with starting on a 1-2 count, so I try to move around and flex it out. I need to find a rhythm that moves me, because after you have been rapping for a while it’s hard to write to certain songs when the music doesn’t inspire you. You need an exciting rhythm to inspire you, like "B.O.B.
Is this why you don’t do a lot of guest appearances outside the crew?
Andre 3000: That’s a part of it, the bigger part though, is that I like how some people sound how they come. I don’t like albums with a bunch of guest appearances. I like that artist just for them, because most guest appearances don’t have anything to do with chemistry or making a good song. It’s more about marketing or trying to sell a record on name value as opposed to talent. As far as me doing guest appearances, it’s whatever the feeling is. It’s not a sign of disrespect. A person like Janet Jackson can call and say she wants to do a remix, we’ll be like "Cool send some music." If I can feel it, cool we can make it happen. I won’t just jump on a beat and rhyme because of who the person is. I just can’t do it. I try, but I just can’t do it. Sometimes the track might be jamming, but your head might be somewhere on another level.
The Dungeon Family album is really good, but I was expecting something more dynamic like each members’ solo or group albums.
Andre 3000: I think the album was cool, but I felt we could have pushed the boundaries a little more. Some new innovations. I like what’s going on, but I want to do some new 2002 music. Push the envelope more. The Dungeon Family is extremely talented and I thought we could have taken more time to push it more. But it’s the first of series of albums we will be doing. That is what the Dungeon Family album is about and now all the different members will be taking their respective talents to let the world know. It’s not just Outkast. Goodie Mob is working on a new album, Cool Breeze, Witchdoctor, ya know. Cee-lo got a solo album, Big Gipp got an album, Khujo and T-Mo got albums, Sleepy got an album, Big Rube got an album coming. The whole crew is moving on a plan that is so grand, it’s hard to find words to explain it, but the music will tell the story. Sleepy’s album will be coming out through Aquemini Records which is our label--me Big Boi and Mr DJ.
I was waiting for the Slimm Calhoun album, but then it came out like five months after the original date.
Andre 3000: That was a problem with Slimm’s album, the dates kept changing. The singles didn’t jump off like we thought they were going to jump off. Once again, it was a learning situation. He’s in the studio working on another album, and Killer Mike is going to be the next album coming out on our label.
You just put out another album, but Charlie Braxton said you don’t like calling it a greatest hits album.
Andre 3000: I got used to saying that because that’s what everyone calls it. The thing is, we kept running into people who thought Aquemini or Stankonia was our first album, so we just wanted to give something to those fans to let them know about the Outkast experience.
Will L.A. Reid be pushing all kinds of commercial pressure on Outkast and have you on Jay Leno and Craig Kilborn now that you have sold four million albums?
Andre 3000: It’s not really a push, because when you sell a certain amount of records those people call. We kind of know this is the finest line we can walk. On the real, this is the hardest point in our career right now, because once the public loves you, they eat you up with love. One wrong career move in the face of that love, they will turn sour and look towards the new nigga. That’s just how it is. We are just trying to stay afloat and continue to do what we do.
Digital Underground said they didn’t want to make another “Humpty Dance,” and they have never put out a bad album, and people turned their backs.
Andre 3000: Yeah, I can understand that man. Niggas get mad when you want to change clothes. Shock G is incredible. Digital Underground needs to have an album out now.
Talk about the lovely ladies who have added to the Dungeon Family legend. Joi and Myrna “Whild Peach” Crenshaw.
Andre 3000: Joi and Peach are real pivotal to the sound of every Dungeon Family member recording. Debra Killing too, you forgot to mention her. They have all done background vocals and contributed ideas to songs. We call Joi and Peach angels, because they always come by to bless a song and add their angelic touch to whatever we are doing. Debra Killings has the sweetest voice in the world. It sounds pretty, like wind blowing.
What did you want to bring to the DF album specifically?
Big Boi: As far as me. I just want to represent on an MC level. I love lyrics and whatever track I get on I just want to kill it. I just want to represent where I’m from and show these young cats. We don’t have the advantage of being from New York, so they automatically assume because you are from the South you don’t have skills. We broke that barrier down a long time ago, but we still trying to hold it down.
Big Gipp: I don’t really rap to impress nobody, I rap to let folk know what’s really going on. So if you looking for a single that is mind-blowing in pop, it will be mind blowing in another manner.
How have you managed to become so popular despite NY’s tendency to downplay the brilliance of the Outkast and non-NY rap?
Big Boi: It’s almost like rap racism. Niggas think all the West Coast know how to do is boogie, when you got niggas like Ras Kass and Xzibit that can rhyme. My thing is, we know the whole culture had its origins in New York with Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and the cats from that era. Look at the fashions and sounds of that time were more electronic than kick snare. So when we do music, if it’s jamming that should be the only thing that matters. It’s all about the feeling. It’s like the song “One Mic” on Nas new album- I felt that. I don’t give a damn if you are from Acapulco, you can feel that song.
It ain’t about catering to the world or selling out, it’s about making good music. And if people can get with that then it’s all good. The type of music we make is not just for the time, it’s for the millennium. Just like that good Luther Vandross, you can play that from now until forever. That’s what we are trying to do.
Big Gipp: People think Hip Hop is what the latest trend is. I think it’s more about what is different and new. In Atlanta it used to be great to turn on the radio and hear a T LaRock, Kool Moe Dee, LL Cool J, Eazy E and--it was all different and nothing sounded the same. Now it all sounds the same. People say the same things and have the same producers passing out the same beats. If you ain’t rapping to no girl then you are killing and you are the biggest dope dealer. Where is the depth of the music now? It might be popular today, but who will be playing those albums years from now? I still play the original Chronic and that came out almost ten years ago. Same thing with the Soul Food album we put out in 1995. To chase the gold wasn’t the point we wanted to plant the seed for something to grow. Cee-lo is about to drop his solo album and folks are about to see how cold that dude really is. We are going to drop another Goodie Mob album, then I got my album, T-Mo and Khujo got albums. We are just trying to put it out there.
What is your work schedule like as far as touring to make money?
Big Boi: We toured 210 days out of 365 in the year 2001. That’s a work ethic that me and Dre have had since high school. You have to work this music business like you work your job. You just have to love what you are doing. You can’t just have an album out have a million sit in the bank and sit up watching Johnny Carson. Once you do that you are in trouble, because there is some young MC in a basement preparing to take your spot. Niggas have to do shows and go meet their fans, and that is the fun part of the business. A lot of artists who haven’t treated this music business as a job are going to be in for some trouble.
What about a new Goodie Mob album?
Big Gipp: It’s really like vibing. We are being very meticulous about what we are doing. Right now Cee-lo has a song on his album call “Solitude Sunshine” and you will hear the Goodie Mob on that song, so even without an album out we are still here. The first Goodie Mob album came out during the Gulf War, and with what is going on in the world today, the atmosphere for Goodie Mob to come back is setting itself up. We can’t rush what isn’t meant to be at that time. We have all been communicating while exploring production and other aspects of this business for our individual ventures.
So you all have been nurturing your talents.
Big Gipp: That’s why sometimes you have to sit back and wait until the people are starved for something new or different. The next time we come we have to sell over a million or two million records period. For me, I have to succeed like Public Enemy succeeded. It took two albums and heavy touring around the world before they got to sell two million albums. The same thing happened with NWA. I think that is the same road map for Goodie Mob. I think our next record is going to be that, and the same goes for the rest of the Dungeon Family.
Are we going to see another Cool Breeze album soon, or do we have to keep playing the Dungeon Family album and all your guest appearances?
Cool Breeze: Cool Is The Word is the name of the new album. We are just about to hit ‘em in the head again. We are just waiting for the Dungeon Family album to do its thing, and then we will get ready for Cool Breeze. Me and Rico are back on this one. We have about three albums' worth of material finished. Since we lost the deal with Interscope, I’ve just been stacking songs. I got my own production company and team now, Cool People Music. They don’t want to nothing but beats for Cool. They got some fire, man. Kenny Connors is the name to watch for.
I remember you once joking that you should have trademarked the title Dirty South, what about now since it has become a part of the Hip Hop vocabulary?
Cool Breeze: Not really, because I like the way it’s going down. If I had the copyright on the name and people had to pay me, then nobody would say it. Plus, I’m a Cool Creator. I’ve been doing that since I was little. I got my own thing. If I’m really that creative then I just keep coming with it and if people repeat it that’s cool. I love that shit. I got some new shit, you’ll hear on the album. Lyrically, my album is just outta here. I just do it. Write and stack, and then I just go through and figure how it all works for each album. I’m just trying to get Cool right, because I ain’t going to retire being a rapper.
What do you have planned for this new launch?
Cool Breeze: My main thing is to get all the ingredients right for this album. I just want Rico to deal with the business and I’ll concentrate on the music. That way all bases are covered. We could easily do a whole Cool Breeze album produced by Organized Noize, but we got niggas sweating making the beats. We need the other aspects of this to happen. Cool got to be on point with the marketing.
Will we still see an album by the Calhouns?
Cool Breeze: Glad you asked me that. We got fourteen songs for that album. We’re ready--Me, Paulie, Lucky and Slimm, all the Calhouns. When the single for my album is ready, that’s when we’ll put out the single for the Calhouns. Then each member of the Calhouns has their own thing going on.
What do you want to see for the members of the Dungeon Family?
Cool Breeze: I want to see everybody successful and to be able to feed their families. That’s what this is all about.
