Being from Flint, Michigan, y’all kinda close to the East Coast. But still you got that sound that the South and West Coast loves. How did you get that sound?

Bootleg: We really focused on what we see. We ain’t no muthafuckin B.E.T.-ass influenced niggaz. We ain’t worried about what these other muthafuckas doin. We lookin at the muthafuckin way we come up, shit we go through. I don’t give a fuck what’s happenin six blocks over from me. I’m focused on what’s goin on on Dayton Avenue. My people, that’s what I’m worried about. As far as bein close to the East Coast, I don’t respect no coast that can’t respect everybody else. I don’t respect shit that don’t respect me.

How did your first album What’s On My Mind come about?

Bootleg: Me and Shoestring got into a battle situation. After that everyone said that we should hook up and do a song. I was one street-runnin-ass nigga, they had to kidnap me, take me to me studio to do one song. I didn’t even believe in Rap music as a career. I’m jammin to the shit as a hobby, entertaining my niggaz. It wasn’t no muthafuckin thing I was gonna make no money off of. They kidnapped me, took me to the studio, and when I heard my shit on the mic I’m like glued to this bitch. From now on. Especially with all that paper and all that pussy and all that travelin, it was a beautiful thing.

What happened then? How did it take off?

Shoestring: It was like success happened so fast once we hooked up. We had an EP out called "Dope Dayton Avenue." We had a label we was doin and we sold about 14,000. After that the record labels was callin. We ended up signin with Relativity. Shit happened so muthafuckin quick.

After y’all got with Relativity you put out F.B.I. and just killed ‘em. What influenced y’all to move to the F.B.I. standpoint?

Shoestring: There’s another member of the Dayton Family group called Backstabber. He got indicted. At the same time my boy Bootleg, he was goin through his lawsuit. We was young niggaz, we was rappin that shit, Police was fuckin with us and the whole nine. That’s why we was on that F.B.I. situation.

Bootleg: I was in the penitentiary at the release of that album. I recorded that album in 30 days. Then I went to the penitentiary and I had to watch my dudes and them handle it while I was locked down. I never performed the album in public. So when we do this next muthafucka we’re gonna have to come down South. It’ll be the first time in history that the world has seen the Dayton Family perform together as a unit. F.B.I., that was a tension album. All that shit was proof too.

With Bootleg gone, did you get a chance to do any touring for that album?

Shoestring: With me and his brother Ghetto E, yes we did. We done some shows, but we didn’t do that many shows. The album went gold, but it woulda went platinum if we had done more shows. F.B.I. went gold just off word of mouth and bein in the stores, and the hype of the commercials. No videos, nothing. They just put the shit in the stores and that shit just shot the fuck off. If woulda been that much better if my mans wasn’t in jail. Actually my mans was in jail before we done the album. Then he got out for 2-3 weeks–he wrote all his shit in those coupla weeks–and then he had to go back to the joint. And I was just vibin off the shit that he and my boy Matt (Back Stabber) were goin through. We couldn’t even get out ridin. The police fucked with us every day. They’d be chasin my boy every day. We had to open the van door to let my boy Boot out. Police chase him every fuckin time. It didn’t matter what we did the muthafuckas was on us.

What you’re talking about is going on everywhere.

Shoestring: I know it. It’s goin on out there now in Flint too. That’s why so many niggaz adapted to our shit, cause there’s so many niggaz that got indicted. It was like 20-30 major niggaz that got indicted in 2 or 3 months. During the time we was doin F.B.I. it was like the grand jury was down here. There was a lotta niggaz getting locked up, lotta snitches, a lotta shit goin on. So that’s the mind state I was in. My niggaz was goin to the pen over bullshit.

Now y’all moved on over to Overcore, Esham’s label. I know Esham appeared on the last album too.

Bootleg: We all got our solo albums comin out on Overcore. Dayton Family is on Universal. But Overcore is our family, our home. We’re rappin to the fullest out here.

A lotta people are talkin about the Midwest bein the next to come up. But niggaz like y’all and TA (Top Authority), MC Breed and Esham, y’all been puttin it down for years.

Shoestring: The way I see it is it ain’t too much goin on here as far as video stations and all that. You gotta work two times harder to get outta Michigan. I feel like we had to come twice as tight as any other group to make ourselves heard.

Where did you get your sound? Your shit, the production and everything, sounds like something niggaz would do Down South.

Shoestring: We had been doin this shit for a long time. We was influenced by muthafuckas like N.W.A., Geto Boys, muthafuckas like Run DMC, Whodini, muthafuckas like that. Temptations, we was fuckin with the pioneers of the game. When I was younger my moms was always on that Temptations. Then when I got older to lead my own thoughts and buy my own tapes it was Run DMC, N.W.A., Geto Boys. That’s what the fuck had me jumpin up outta my seat. I was already rappin, been rappin for a long time. Always somebody was influenced by somebody, and I always give it up to the Geto Boys. I gotta give it up to the South. A lotta shit came from the South. South some bad muthafuckas.

Tell me a little about the new Dayton Family album.

Bootleg: What I like about it so far, we all had a chance to do our solo shit, we had a chance to experience different shit and we’re bringin it collectively together. And plus we brought Steve Pitts back, the dude who produced What’s On My Mind and the F.B.I.. Steve Pitt’s back on the beats. So when everybody hears this new Dayton Family they’re gonna say, That’s that shit that we ain’t been getting from these wack-ass niggaz that’s droppin this commercial/radio/soft-ass shit. When we bring you a muthafuckin album we don’t give a fuck if we don’t get no radio play. We’re gonna give you a street muthafuckin album. We’re gonna talk about the shit niggaz be doin every day, the shit niggaz seein. Fuck that other bullshit. We’re gonna give niggaz what the fuck they wanna hear.

Steve Pitts didn’t do anything on the solo projects?

Bootleg: No. We stepped totally away, that’s why it didn’t even feel like Dayton Family shit. Now we’re bringin it back. This shit’s gonna be so muthafuckin Gangsta I’m guaranteeing that every muthafuckin track is gonna be hard. Just let that bitch ride when you take the paper off of it, till it flip over and let it ride.

How has it been for you working with Overcore?

Bootleg: This has been the perfect spot. My man Scott keep a nigga right. We come up here, get fucked up. It’s an in-house studio. Muthafuckas sit back, kick it, it’s real nice. Plenty of women be rollin through, so a nigga keep his mind right. Ain’t nothing like workin with people hands on, without dealin with all the politics and shit in the middle. This is the perfect home.

What kind of role does Esham play?

Bootleg: That’s our people. Esham comes through and he’s good for us. We just hopped on his new album tonight. We did a joint with him tonight. And he hopped on our shit. It’s just a support thing and a different view. Esham’s experienced in this game. I like fuckin with the talented but underrated.

That nigga been havin heat and been goin against the grain for a long time.

Bootleg: Exactly. And if he was from New York he woulda been celebrity status. That’s why I’m sayin fuck it, it’s worth the struggle. Brothas in the struggle struggle. I’m with the struggle. I know it’s gonna pay off. Weak muthafuckas water down easily and they become see-through. But solid muthafuckas, you can never see through. We’re gonna stay solid.

Did you ever work with Top Authority? Do you know them?

Bootleg: We grew up together, same hood. We’d be together every day. That’s family. I was just fuckin with Diablo two days ago. We get fucked up together every day. And we’re tryin to put something together where we can come out collectively. We’re tryin to fuck with TA. They’re my people. We grew up together. You’re talkin about elementary.

Flint got a reputation even before Detroit. A lot of amazing Rap came out of Flint.

Bootleg: Flint–to speak highly of it–is the music headquarters of Michigan to me. You got Top Authority, Dayton Family, Jake The Flake, you got Ready for the World, you got MC Breed. Flint is a little muthafucka, but it’s worth recognizing. If it was a metropolitan city it woulda been on fire, blew up. What’s fuckin me up about Flint right now, we got 12 murders in three weeks. Man, they cuttin ‘em down. And muthafuckas is out there killin niggaz for stupid shit. Fuckin a bitch or just lookin at a nigga or havin 20’s on your shit or something. And muthafuckas that’s workin up there like us, we gotta watch the muthafuckas that’s workin to work us. Flint is a muthafucka.

How is the club scene in Flint?

Bootleg: The club scene’s off the chain. But if you a peaceful typa dude I wouldn’t advise you to go out in Flint. But if you don’t mind hittin a nigga in the chest with an elbow or two, Flint is where you need to go. They party until 2, then after that they party from 2 till 6 in the after-hours joints. You can bring your own liquor in that bitch and drink all muthafuckin night and party, fuck on the dance floor….it’s like that.

Let’s hear a little something about Dayton Avenue.

Bootleg: Dayton Avenue. Every nigga that ever had over 6 digits sold dope on Dayton at some point in time. And every nigga that came up outta there, got legitimate businesses or whatever, come offa Dayton. In Flint, if you ain’t stopped at Dayton at some point, you ain’t got no money. That’s the best way I could describe it–you have to stop through there if you wanna get some real money.

How would you describe the Flint sound?

Shoestring: Flint got their own style, but if I had to describe it I’d say it’s a little bit of the South and a little of the West. It definitely ain’t like the East. I’m not knockin the East, but that’s the last thing that I’m on. I always been up on the West Coast and the South shit. If you look at the game, if you look at Jay Z and all them muthafuckas, the East Coast own everything. It’s easy for them. They own B.E.T., they own everything. But when you come to the South it gotta be game. You got muthafuckas like the Hot Boys that took street game and made shit happen. When you look at Master P, he weren’t no rapper, he took street game and he made shit happen. I gotta give it up to niggaz like that. In the South the muthafuckas pimp the game. Them niggaz pimp the game, flat out. We ain’t got nothing but respect for that. Much love comin from this muthafucka.

Bootleg: The Flint sound is original as a muthafucka to me. I think a lotta people is settin themselves after that sound. I can name a lotta groups that’s double platinum now that was fuckin with us back when we was out and they wasn’t. A lotta people followin the sound. I’m close friends with a lotta people, like Three 6 Mafia, them my dudes. Master P’s first album that went gold, we were the lead song on it. It’s a whole lotta others out there ballin that–you know. That’s why we’re really comin with something this time. One thing to our advantage, the labels we fuck with, they know what they’re getting. Like the Universal deal we doin, they know what they’re getting. That bitch is talkin about tootin cocaine, rapin bitches, beatin hoes, whatever the fuck we wanna talk about, they know what they got comin. Other groups get watered down by the majors and they can’t talk about what they wanna talk about. We’re gonna give all on the album. It’s gonna be 100% Dayton Family. It ain’t gonna be none of that ol’ soft shit.

How did the Universal deal come about?

Bootleg: After they heard our music. We did five songs on our own, and we submitted ‘em out there. And we got five proposals out there on the table tomorrow. All the New York companies jumpin on it, cause the shit is the shit that muthafuckas ain’t doin. It ain’t that Pop Grammy Awards shit. It’s some shit that you gotta get down on.

Who are you gonna be workin with on the album?

Shoestring: So far it’s just me and Boot straight down the middle. We gonna do the features last. We really wanna get some big names on that album, that’s something we never did. We wanna get big names like Scarface or Kurupt or UGK, Three 6 Mafia, muthafuckas like that. If we do shit with Scarface the world gonna shake. Trust me, baby. Scarface so hard to me, but when he hook up with the Dayton Family he gonna go back to his old murderous shit. We’re gonna go back to the old old Scarface!

Do you know the title of the new album yet?

Shoestring: The title of the new joint is Bring It Back To Murder. That’s the title. That’s something my boy Bootleg thought of and that shit’s perfect. Bring It Back To Murder. And that new Dayton Family is gonna shake y’all dome. If you like the solos, maaan you’re gonna love this.