Willie-D
By Matt Sonzala

You were involved in the Houston rap scene from day one and you're one of the people who really brought it to what it is today. Can you tell me how things have changed over the years.

Some things have changed for the better, some for the worse. Case in point, for the better, there's more opportunity for artists to be heard. When we first started you couldn't even get on the radio, let alone a mix show. That was unheard of. Rap, especially local rap, there was no chance period to be heard on the radio. Clubs that played R&B music, no chance. And now rap dominates the R&B scene. It dominates the radio format. Now rappers are looked at like true entertainers, true businessmen. On the flipside of that, for the worse, the love for the music is gone. The love is gone. Everything is about getting over. Everybody want to get paid. Somebody want to get paid to put your record on in the club, to put your record on the radio, to hang your poster in their place of business, everybody got their hand out. So it compromises the integrity of the art form. A lot of people, what they listening to, a lot of what you hearing on the radio or seeing on the television is not really the best of the best. It used to be if you were real good and you had a chance to get your product exposed, you were really listening to the best of the best. Now you're listening to the best of the worst.

What about the artists who aren't willing to pay those sort of things? Do they have a chance? Is there still an underground where they can thrive and make it?

There's always an underground. You have to figure out a way to get the music into the hands of the people who are not that tampered with. And those people are the people who's only investment in the game is the love of the music, so they don't care that you on television or you on the radio. All they care is that it's good.

Do you take any credit for getting this music to the point where it can be played on the radio in this city? Because you weren't only a part of the first group to get airplay but you were also really vocal about speaking against the policies of radio back in those days.

I been so preoccupied with trying to carve my little place in history as far as trying to get my props and get what's due to me, that I haven't even had time to pat myself on the back. I know what I did and it's nice when people remind me from time to time, but it's like I don't get enough credit to even credit myself. It's like people know what I did, but they don't say it enough. There's no accolades to represent that. Even with all of the things I did, I have very little to show for it outside of the artists that I see reaping the benefits of what I did. The artists and the studios and the graphic designers and the djs and the reporters.

Was there ever a time throughout your career where you did feel like you were getting your due?

I felt I was getting my due during the Mind Playin Tricks run. Because up until that point, nobody south of the border was getting props. It was all East Coast, West Coast, period. Miami, Luke made a splash in Miami, but as far as hardcore street credibility nobody had it till the Geto Boys came along. And it was respected everywhere we went. I felt we was getting our props and we had the records sold to show for it. But since then, naw because it hasn't reached that level since. Nobody makes that effort to make sure that history is preserved and the proper credit is passed out. "OK yeah, this cat is hot. Lil Keke is hot, Big Moe is hot. Lil Flip is hot. Big Hawk is hot. But just a reminder, this is who started it all. Don't ever forget that." That's not in place. It's in place in New York, they gonna let you know. Every time you mention Jay Z they gonna tell you Biggie. Every time you mention Biggie they gonna tell you Rakim. Every time you say Rakim they gonna tell you about Kool Herc. They gonna say Melle Mel, they gonna make sure that history is in place, but here it seems to be a major lack of respect. Then a lot of people wonder why we can't get our respect on the national level. Charity starts at home.

Do you think there's a lack of respect for the culture as a whole?

No doubt. No doubt. Everybody's just in it trying to get a quick lick and get out. There's a lot of people getting into music because they see a way to make some quick money. But that's the American way. We in a capitalistic society. You see something and you see an opportunity to make money you go after it. However along the way, the integrity of the music is being compromised. And that is what I see that's gonna contribute mostly to the demise of hip hop.

What's it gonna take to bring that history to the people? What would it take to bring that knowledge to these young people who were born after Mind Playin Tricks On Me?

It's on the people who have the ability to reach the masses more so than anybody. People like you, people like the owners of Murder Dog, Source, XXL, anybody who have an interest in rap music. The radio stations, if you listen to the radio they always have something to say about a beef that's going on between the artists. The magazines are quick to report friction in the pages. Very seldom do you read a four page spread about unity. About artists that's coming together. About that artists’ personal life and what he's contributed to this foundation. You looking at a magazine and thety got Ja Rule on the cover, more than half of that article is gonna be about the beef he has with various artists. If he has some type of charitable organization that he's involved with, how much of that ink do you think is gonna really be used for that purpose? Probably none. We always talk about why can't we all get along but we so quick to promote the negativity. A lot of times the magazines, the radio stations, the television networks, they're throwing rocks and hiding their hands. They're throwing friction rocks and they hiding they hands. And then when a fight breaks out or a shooting break out they want to be the first to report it. "Can't we all get along? Haven't you learned anything from the Biggie and Tupac things? East Coast West Coast." Well I say to all the people that have a direct interest in rap music, haven't you learned something? Hasn't the media learned something? The media is laying the same game now with the Ja Rule 50 Cent thing. I even see the artists not even learning anything from what happened with Tupac and Biggie. It's like the lives are gone, the mourning is over, their place in history is secured, they're great icons in the music world, but they dead. They dead! For a minute everybody was in shock, and everybody was like let’s chill out and let’s all get along. It's like anyone dying from your family. They die in a car wreck and you say know what man I'm gonna stop drinking and driving. Then after the funeral, all of a sudden you riding down the street drinking a 40 without the presence of mind to realize that that's what killed your boy?

I think that some of the artists did learn something from those situations, but that's how you get into the magazines.

Which is sad, but like once again, who holds the key to the magazine? The editors. That's why they call it editors cause they can edit the shit that they want in and cut the shit they want to leave out. The TV networks can say, "I'm sick of this bullshit, I'm sick of this shit. If you got some bullshit you want to get off your chest about another artist and all that shit, you want to squabble and talk about killing each other? You can save that shit for your own magazine that you want to think about founding someday in your basement somewhere. Save that shit cause it ain't never ever reaching our pages." Read the fan mail in these magazines and what do you see? Bullshit all day. Fuck this motherfucker, fuck that motherfucker. It's like a big ass negative cycle. And the magazines have the latitude to either push the positive letters or the negative, you read the letters it's unbalanced. And the negative shit gets people pumped up and is more interesting. They fueling the fire.

How much control did the Geto Boys really have over their last couple of albums?

The last album, to be honest, we didn't have a lot of control over it. I basically went in and did the album. Basically what I did was if I heard a song I liked then I jumped on it. If I didn't like it I didn't get on it. I was not in agreement with all of the guest appearances, and I conveyed that to J. But what people have to understand is that even though I'm a member of the Geto Boys, that's J's baby. J owns the Geto Boys. He owns the name Geto Boys. That was back before I even came to Rap A Lot. What he asked me to do was come in and help him with the Geto Boys. That's what I do. So regardless of what you hear happening with the Geto Boys, they always going to be J's group, period. That's why you see that some members come in and come out.

There are rumors now that there's a whole new group forming.

That's just rumors, cause if you really wanna kill a group, switch out its members. If you had a group that's successful switch its members out and watch what happens. Could you imagine Public Enemy without Chuck D and Flavor Flav? It ain't gonna ever work. My thang to is why would anybody even want to be mentioned with replacing another group? Why not get your own shit? Personally I wouldn't even feel comfortable stepping in trying to be a member of NWA. I don't care how you try to fix it up. NWA is gonna always be Ice Cube, Ren, Yella, Eazy, and Dr. Dre. Period. I don't give a fuck who you go get. I don't care if you go get Snoop Dogg, Nas, I don't care who you go get. Because when the fans purchase a record they not just purchasing the songs. They're purchasing the images that goes along with those songs, that reflects those songs. They buy the songs because they like the image too.

Is there a chance that Willie D, Scarface, and Bushwick Bill could do another album?

Man we finna do another album.

With Rap A Lot?

Yeah! That's the only way to do another Geto Boy album is with Rap A Lot period. Cause it goes back to the image. It don't even sound right to do a Geto Boys album on Def Jam. Geto Boys—Rap A Lot. It might be Rap A Lot via Def Jam, Universal, or Virgin, but Rap A Lot gonna be there somewhere cause that's what it is.

How do you feel coming out independently after all these years being on a major?

I need some damn help! I'm gonna tell you straight up. It's hard. I don't want to be independent. But I had to in order to get my due in this game. First of all I still have a whole lot to offer the game. I got music. Great music. I got timeless songs. I got a bunch of great songs. But now it’s time for me to go to that next level in terms of getting my just financially out of this game. There's no reason for someone who's put in the kind of work that I've put into this game to retire with a mediocre standard of living. So I'm out to get it all now.

Do you still see publishing money off Mind Playin' Tricks on Me?

I cashed a check a couple weeks ago. That's important cause how can my son or daughter respect me when I'm trying to teach them how to take care of their money 15 years from now, when they listening to "Mind Playin Tricks" on the radio, and they thinking, "This chump ass motherfucker trying to tell me how to handle my money, he got fucked over, he broke than a motherfucker. He ain't done shit with his and he had one of the biggest songs ever. Broke than a motherfucker…." It's an old saying, you lead by example. That's what I try to do.

You've got a song on your record called "Little People With Burdens". Can you talk about that one a bit?

That's all about how, when you deal with children, you have to understand that the word or the phrase the children are our future is not just some fucking words. It is a reality. It's one of the biggest truths to ever be told. Ain't no way to deny it. It's like more people pay more attention to raising a garden than they do children. You know if you go around stepping on the flowers in your garden, you know them motherfuckers gonna die. If you don't nourish them with rain, they gonna die. Then how do you figure that you're not supposed to help develop a child’s mind and that that child’s supposed to be able to grow up and be a productive member of society. How can you beat a child and you the main one supposed to be protecting a child? How is that child supposed to feel when his mother and his father, who's supposed to be his protector, he fears them more than anybody in the world cause they beat his ass constantly? How can the kid feel safe in their own home? "I don't feel safe so how about if I just go up here and lay up with this man? He say he love me and I feel safe around him. And even if he do kick my ass he don't kick my ass as much as you do." Or, "How bout I just go join this gang. Now I feel a little independence. I feel a brotherhood. Cause they don't kick my ass. We go ride together. We kill together. We steal together. We smoke together. We drink together. And they love me man and they ain't never just bust me in my eye. And they don't let me go hungry." What I'm saying is kids have burdens that people don't even imagine. You look at these kids walking around with all these burdens. And people think they supposed to just be able to go to school and be productive, make good grades, not get in trouble and not be a nuisance to their neighborhoods. If you got somebody that's hurting, they gotta find a way to release that anger or they gonna explode. And when they explode they gonna explode on whatever is nearest to them.

Contact Willie-D (281) 416-7500, www.williedonline.com, PO Box 2388, Stafford, TX 77497

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