Interview with Fiend

By Charlie Braxton

Over the years I have watched you grow both as an artist and a CEO. Teaming up with the Paul and Juicy J for the Headbussas project was a smart move. How did that project come about?

3-6 Mafia and myself got together on a feature for When the Smoke Clears: 6-6-61 back in 99. It went pretty good, I sounded real good over their music. When they came down for a concert my manager was like why don’t you come out and holla at ‘em. They might wanna do another feature. I haven’t heard too much from ‘em in a minute and I hadn’t had nothing out other than Street Life and Can I Burn. I was like let’s do an album together. And they were like yeah, let’s do an album together. They were like come down on a Wednesday. I went down there and Paul had maybe like five beats

ready. I did something on all them thangs. Juicy had maybe like three that day and I did something on all of them. The next day they had a few more beats and we knocked them out. I had brought a song "Hands On Ya" and produced it along with a hook. The project was done like in three days. We took a day off to go out to Nashville, because they had a show in Nashville. To make sure that the project kept going I told them that I’m going with y'all so we can come right back and finish this. So I got on they bus and got out there on stage doing they performance with them, doing back up, just playing around…just happy to be out again. We tripped off that real hard and then came back and done the majority of it and the project was done. It came out on Oct. 15^th.

That record sold a hell of a lot of units for an underground album. Were you surprised at the success of it?

I wasn’t surprise of how well the album did because of all of the energy that was put into it. We were all just wilding, just reckless with it…we just went into the studio ready to work.

I would have liked to have taken it further and made it a gold album. Everybody’s schedule may not permit them to go out there and get behind a record.

It’s amazing at how well all of you work together. It’s like you all have been a group all these years.

Sometimes you just never know what type of chemistry can work by mixing all them toxics in there together. But the big numbers that we pulled was a blessing. I’m very proud of them and hope that I can pull some more numbers with future projects like the Can I Burn 2.

Prior to the Headbussa album we hadn’t heard much from you. What was happening with that?

Trying to get this damn deal straight with Rough Ryder; trying to convince these people that I am the one, that this is my destiny. I guess that from a business standpoint, not from an artist standpoint, that was hard for them to digest that big pill, for whatever reason it is. We all got love for each other. We work with each other real good. Our relationship is real good, it’s just the music they don’t understand.

How long have you been on Rough Ryder?

I think roughly since December of 2000, 2001 so roughly coming up on December of this year it will be three years.

Why haven’t they put out an album on you yet?

I don’t know what the hell is going on. They tell me to go left, I go left. They tell me to go left again and I make two lefts. I toned it down a little bit to make it comprehensible for other listeners…or maybe they listeners. I just think that they really don’t know what to do with a Southern act. That’s what I think. I see that they don’t mind working. I see the reception that they give you to make an artist feel welcomed and appreciated, but they didn’t do that extra leg work in me particular as Fiend the artist. I feel like I went from being treated like a hot Southern commodity to "oh you’re just a white tennis shoes." You’re not a Nike or a Reebok, you’re just decent pair white tennis.

You sold over a million albums collectively, how could they think that?

Maybe they don’t have some more recent information as far as BDS or Soundscan to support them when they’re negotiating with whoever they are negotiating with, whoever it may be that can cause that Fiend album to come out.

How did they react over the success of the Headbussas album?

Swizz Beats had came down to the South and he loved it. He contacted them and told them, man this guy is hot down here again. You’re just sleeping on him. So they flew me out there and they wanted to get the "Get Out My Face" song from the Fiend and 3-6 Mafia album. I asked the 3-6 Mafia about getting the song because they wanted to put it out on a compilation and they said no because they already trying something with it. I went out there trying to do whatever and wasn’t nothing really was shaking. I came back home again. I go out there and try to work, try to go everywhere I could to possibly go to make something happen, but somewhere along the line something doesn’t happen. I put myself in the studio. I have my own studio to make sure that nothing was really bootlegged to be supportive. They didn’t have to worry about me being late with a song or nothing. The songs were produced with cash outta my own pocket. I had cats just waiting on an acknowledgement from my label so that they could start working on some more stuff. Just their word would’ve have made that happen, but sometimes I never could get nobody on the phone. Now mind you I know that they’re busy trying to keep the structure of the label together. I offered to do whatever hooks, beats, verses…even A&R if they valued my opinion. It’s a lotta great people in their staff and organization but a lotta people may have other objectives. And I always used to say if I’m not a priority right now just let me know so I can focus on doing something else that could help and still be involve with the company. But nothing would shake. I’d turn in a song and it’s be a hot song and they’d go that’s a nice song, it’s a hot song and that’s about as far as it go. They just put a song on a compilation called "Ya Make Wanna" produced by KLC, the guy that made "Move Bitch" and "Bout It, Bout It" and all these other hit tracks and nothing happened.

Now you have an album called the Addiction already recorded, is that coming out on Rough Ryder?

I would hope that they would find distribution for a Fiend album, because no matter how patience I may be my fans are tired of waiting. And I just wanna know where we stand. I have offers for them to take my project to Def Jam South, take it to Universal, take it to Jive…take it somewhere please. I just need to figure out some way to make a dollar without them till I get to a point to where I won’t even need them to put the album out. That ain’t the situation that I really wanna be in. It’s like I’d love to be with these cats for the long haul, I’d love to have that imprint and that support behind a Fiend project so that we could break down some buffers in other areas. I hear stories of Alicia Keys waited two or three years to come out. I hear the stories about X waiting to come out. I don’t know if I fall in the line of those great people, but I’m trying. As God is giving me the patience to work with, I’m trying.

What was it like for you to grow up in the Hollygrove area in New Orleans?

Hollygrove was the shit. I can’t even front. I had a great life back there. I still have a wonderful relationship with people back there. I grew up on 827 Edenborough Street right across the street from Morris Lounge. My Daddy was a mixologist over there. He was the bartender and owner of the bar so music has always been in my life. My aunt had a house that was on top of the barroom so when I slept on the floor with all of my little cousins I could still hear the music coming out the juke box. Hollygrove was beautiful. I mean you got your harsh realities there, but I remember more good times than bad.

When did you first come in contact with Hip Hop music?

The Fat Boys, RunDMC those were the people I was jamming to. My cousin and my brother put me up on them and a few others. That’s how I came in contact with it.

How did you start rapping?

I started when I was 13, but a 15 was when it kinda got perfected. My rhythm was off at 13, but I was still reckless. Before my brother passed he hooked me up with a guy named Devious and told to show his little brother the ropes. He could have reached me a bag of this and told me get out here and get it how the fuck you live, but he didn’t and I love that nigga for that to this day.

Then how did you get put on?

This lil’ dude Devious use to have a whole bunch of shows and I used to do his back ups. I was learning my way around the studio, working on my rhythm and how to write to bars. Before that I used to write 24 bar songs. I had to learn to write in shorter bars. And picture, how I developed my style of raising my voice like you hear me. Devious used to drown me out, whenever I’d try to rap he’d turned the radio up and I’d simply raise my voice until he had no choice but to hear. I remember one day when he did that and I raised my voice until I was just as loud, or louder than his radio and when I finished he was like damn man you done got colder. I was tripping because I didn’t even know what the fuck was happening.

How did you get with Big Boy Record, the label that released your first record Da Baddest Muthsfucka Alive?

J-Dawg from Black Menace hooked it up. I did an intro for Wild Wayne, a local DJ who on Que 93 in New Orleans, and he played it. Devious had done the beat for it and it was hard. They heard it at Big Boy and wwe met. Next we went into the studio and recorded a single.

How did you start working with No Limit Records?

Mia X got me and Mac in. She was like you all would fit into the program so well over here. I already knew KLC through Devious. Kane & Abel was already over there and we were friends. They all got at P and he eventually signed me.

You played an important role in No Limit. What would you say you contribute to the No Limit sound?

Hooks was my shit. I did the hook on that song on Ghetto D that went "if ya want me come get, how fuck ya gone take me, I got my true niggas with." I did "I don’t wanna be here if I don’t gotta" from Silkk’s Charge it to the Game album. I did the hook for "Just Trying to Do Something" on Ghetto D with P, me and Mac on it. I did the hook on "20 Ozs to my Name" on Snopp Dogg’s album Welcome to My World. If you heard me on the hook nine times outta ten, I wrote it.

What can we expect from your new album Can I Burn II?

Can I Burn II is going to be the official lift off for my label FE…the non-fuckery label, the fuck shit label, the no fine print label that I own. I got Snoop Dogg on there. I got a track from Jazze Pha on there. David Banner has got two beats on there. Mo B Dick AKA Ruh of the Medicine Men has got two beats on there. I’ve got his group TDKS, Eightball and my artist J-Boy on there. Lil Jon & the Eastside Boys on there. It’s a real big project. We’re expecting real big numbers on this one…real big numbers.

There was a Can I Burn that came out before this one, but it was hard for some people to get a hold of. What happened to that project?

It was difficult for people to find because Master P hated on my fucking project. He made his calls to all whoever kiss his fucking ass and was fucking scared of him to make the project disappear. Maybe I could’ve been young and misunderstood something. The cat told me as long as you don’t use my logo print on there, I have no problem with you putting an independent album together. So I set it up, do all I gotta do. I get Ms. Wendy Day to help me get a situation going with Southwest Wholesale. I got some great people to help me: Twista, Legit Ballas, Speedknot Mobstaz, David Banner, Big Ed and Ward Block formerly Prime Suspects. Al of them dropped by to help me out on that first album. I also did a lotta production on there. I introduced my production to the world on that album. A lotta cats didn’t know that I’ve been doing beats for a minute. And that’s not just on some hustle shit, ya know how a muthafucka do niggas by trying to sell them some shit that ain’t really there. I try to give niggas hits without somebody trying to lie to them.

Who have you done production for thus far?

Jadakiss, Eightball, myself, and a whole lotta independent cats.

You were among the exodus of artists leaving No Limit, why?

I feel like the money wasn’t right and P didn’t understand what I was going through at the time. Regardless to how much of a loyal person I could be that didn’t have anything to do with my household. And if somebody wasn’t going to do anything about it, I’m gonna have to do something about it. And that’s just how I looked at it. I had to go. I had people who cared about me that advised me that it was just gonna get worse. Like I don’t have no nasty taste in my mouth about P. I feel like he helped me out at a time when I needed it and I appreciate that. I really do. But, at the same time, I feel like don’t play with and jeopardize or fuck with my career and I ain’t gonna fuck with yours. If you can’t help me then leave me the fuck alone, if I can’t help you I’m gonna leave you alone because evidently you can do good without me and I can do good without you. I learned a whole lot dealing with Percy Miller. I learn a whole lot dealing with Percy Miller, Vashaun Miller and Cory Miller, which is also known as TRU. I learned a great deal from them and I respect them dudes to this day. But I just don’t appreciate destroying a legacy over egotistical misguidance.

Speaking of legacies what’s going on with FE for upcoming year?

Can I Burn II will be out shortly. J-Boy, my first artist outta Baton Rouge, Ass Whooping Anthems, Street Customs: the Album. Can I Burn II: the Documentary DVD and a few other movies are planned for the future. We’re also thinking about putting out the new Black Menace album. And I’ve got more projects in negotiations right now.

Any final words?

I got beats and I got hooks. Don’t short change yourself, there ain’t a muthafucka alive out there that can do what I do now.