Interview with BG
What kinda flavor can we expect comin from this Checkmate album?
This album
here, musically it's just on a whole 'nother level. Fresh upgraded, but
he kept it BG style. He's got his own sound. And me, lyrically, I went
back to like Chopper City. I went back to '96. Straight ghetto,
straight street, straight hood. Straight u
p
thug shit. It's shit that real niggaz could feel all over the world. I
done my thang. Niggaz can expect street, ghetto, hard, reality, heart-touchin
tales. My shit for real niggaz. The real vibe all over the world. I rap
for the ghetto, the projects. I rap for the thugs, the hustlers, the criminals,
parolees and shit.
Speaking of Chopper City, that was definitely one of the rawest ones you did.
That's why I felt I had to go back to that. I think that's what the people wanna hear from me.
I gotta give you props. That Chopper City In The Ghetto weren't no bullshit neither.
To me I felt like I coulda dug deeper. It was tight--don't get me wrong--but I felt I coulda put a little more gravy in it.
This one you kept it more street..
I covered all areas of the game. I done my street thang. I done my bling bling, get-yo-shine-on shit. And I done my keep-it-real solid hot girl type shit. I done a Hot Boy/Cash Money album.
A lotta niggaz feel like you're the most Gangsta nigga out the clique. Why do you think that you stand out on a more Gangsta level?
All us Gangsta. I can't really answer that. I just be me. Real is just a way that I can't see me no other way keepin it. It's just in my make up. The fame and all this shit ain't changed me or got me no swoll head, cause I know where I come from. The streets is my home, it's all I know.
Give me some song titles off this new album.
I got a song on there called "Runnin With My Chopper". The hook on there is like "I'm runnin with my chopper, you know I'm bout to set it off with my chopper.." It's just hot! Then I got a song on there called "Capitol Offense" talkin about if you get a murder charge of armed robbery of kidnapping, what comes behind it. The time that you get behind a capitol offense, you won't get well from it. That there's just deep. Then I got a song called "Angola" about how they have these niggaz when they on the streets--they be murderers, they be jackers, they be hustlers, pimps--they talkin all this G shit. Then they go to jail and them niggaz turn 'em out. I got a song called "I Been Doin This." My single is called "I Know." I got so many just off the chain, cause I done like 35 songs and they picked 16. I ain't really heard the edit, so I really don't even know what's on there.
What gives you the fuel to chop it up like that? What did you go through in your life that made you spit the kinda shit you spit?
What I rap about, I ain't rappin about no shit on seen on TV. Just from my daddy bein killed. My best friend got killed. Bein shot at. Bein incarcerated. Just hard times.
How old were you when your daddy got killed?
I was like 11-12 years old. I almost was a victim. I had spent the weekend at my daddy's house. It was Sunday and my mama was comin to get me for school, but then we didn't have school that Monday, so I was gonna stay an extra day. I don't know why, I just decided to go home. My mama came and got me about 7, we got home about 7:20. 7:25 a detective's callin our house, my daddy's dead.
That's fucked.
I just wonder what if I had decided to stay up there. I wonder how they woulda played me. They beat the piss outta my dad, tryin to get him to tell 'em where it was at, but he refused.
You missed that scene by only a few minutes. Then when were you in jail?
I caught my first charge when I was 15, and I been on probation ever since. To this day. I was a juvenile with possession of firearms, possession of crack and possession of marijuana. I later been through the trial and I got found guilty on all three charges. Then my lawyer hooked it up and I got probation. So then I violated my probation and they laid me up in a group home for seven months. I was in there like two months, and I was home on a weekend, that's when my best friend got killed. I went back and a coupla days later I just couldn't take it, I went AWOL. I was wanted for like 11-12 months. They pulled me over one day and I went to jail for 30 valiums and 2 ounces of weed. I stayed in jail like 8 months. When I come home, cause I was already wanted on my other probation, I was supposed to get like 36 months, but I end up gettin 8 months and gettin probation on top of that probation. So I had my share. I don't even wanna talk about that shit.
That's all in the past now. We don't have to talk about all that anymore. Now that you all got that national success, is your music still rooted to New Orleans or is it more on a national level?
We elevate the game, everybody elevate their game, but we ain't changed nothing. Even if we didn't have our deal, our shit would still be how it is right now.
What about the features? You got any features on that muthafucka?
On Checkmate? Shit, I ain't about all that. I ain't rollin with them niggaz. I don't shoot marbles with them niggaz. You know I got the Hot Boys and The Big Tymers. I keep it straight family. If I ride, Hot Boys ride, Big Tymers ride. We gotta shine. It's straight up, man.
There's always rumors circulating, like BG's gonna leave the clique, start his own label.
The game twisted dog, ya hear me? I'm Cash Money for life. Baby and Slim is fathers to me. When my daddy got killed they helped my mama raise me. I was here when they was up, I was here when they was down. I got Cash Money logo tattooed on my back. I got Baby's name on one arm, I got Slim's name on the other arm. Personally, with me and Baby and me and Slim and Fresh it's like 80% love and 20% business. For real. Fuck what ya heard. If they didn't have haters and people who start rumors, then the world wouldn't be what it is.
What music have you been listenin to outside of Cash Money shit?
I listen to a lotta shit. I was straight up Pac, man. I'm diggin Jigga. They got a lotta wack shit out there and they got some nice shit. Ain't nothing to brag on, cause there ain't too much noise bin made in the game. Beanie Sigel, he been spittin. That nigga ain't bullshittin. I been banging that nigga's shit. I love that nigga, I ain't no hater at all.
If you had a choice to do a song with any artist outside your clique, who would it be? I know it would be Pac if he was alive..
Most definitely Pac. I shoulda done something with Biggie, he's dead already too. Who else? Beanie Sigel. There's a lotta artists I'd like to work with. If it happens, it happens. If it don't, it don't. If it don't make dollars, it don't make sense.
Do you see any difference in the way you have to deal with people now compared to before you got to this level?
Muthafuckas don't respect a nigga got a life outside this shit. I try not to disrespect, cause I'm solid, I'm real..I mean grown folks need to understand. I be in a restaurant with my lady eatin or something, and there's a grown woman or man, they suddenly run over to ask for a autograph. I'm supposed to stop eatin, grab your pen, your paper, and sign your autograph. I don't know where your pen and paper been through. I'm eatin my fuckin dinner, gotta wash my hands..At least you can come over, check this out, "I know you're eatin, but if you don't mind after you finish could you sign this for me?" It's a way you do things. It's respect. I just wanna be normal! I didn't realize and recognize that. This is the life I chose, it's something I gotta deal with and know how to handle.
And everybody's lookin for a reason to say you're actin funny.
Everybody think you're on something. Muthafuckas who ain't wanna look in your face when you were down and out, now they're lovey dovey and shit. It really pisses me off, but me bein the nigga I am, it's two tears in the bucket.
If you could say whatever you want to these people, people that can't just respect that you have a life and need a little peace sometimes, what would you say to them?
I breath, eat, sleep, shit and came outta pussy just like you, man. We equal. I just might have a few more dollars or a little more status, but we both gotta tie our shoes, we both---maaan, whatcha say bro?
What's behind the name of this album, Checkmate?
It's like this: life is a chess game. You make the wrong moves--checkmate, you got to lay it down. Whether it's on the streets--nigga walk up on a nigga and bang ya up--whether it's in the courthouse, the judge when he sentence you. It's so many different ways to come about it. Life's a chess game. You gotta think the best way to win.
In the Cash Money clique everybody got their vibe. When you hear Baby you can hear the D-game, you hear that game comin out. When you hear Juvey you hear that project vibe. When you hear Lil' Wayne you hear a young nigga just expressin himself. But when you hear BG you hear that straight street Gangsta kinda shit.
Everybody in
our group got their own style, got their own way of doin things, we're
just different. That's where I'm cool at, that's where I span out at,
when it comes to street, ghetto. Cause I been there and done that. I can
flip that there without much effort, cause it's all there.
BG
solid crew
wolf town recordings
narcocorrido
x-ecutioners
spice
swizz beatz
paris
c-bo
nelly
the grind family
dead prez
brotha lynch hung
dayton family
wc
NAS
mike mosley
kottonmouth kings
fat joe
lil jon & the east
side boyz
david banner
insane clown posse
too $hort
dirty
DJ screw
DLT
E-40
eastsidaz
eightball
fredo
ghetto mafia
jt money
st lunataics
mac mall
pastor troy
petey pablo
project pat
rass kass
sammysam
the shinin
shocklee
tech n9ne
the click
xzibit
bg
a-damn-shame
doc
fifty cent
jt the bigga figga
proof
zion
bone
crusher
fiend
freeway
technine
bravehearts
Chingo Bling
Diplomats
Killer Mike
State Property
Willie-D