Greedy
Interview by Black Dog Bone

What are you working on right now?

I just completed my new one. It’s called Straight From the Hood/Product of the Block. This is my fifth album. I’ve been at it. The first album was Benefits And Revenues; that came out in ’99. Then my second album was Million Dollar Game Plan; that came out in 2000.

How did those old albums sell?

All of them sold real good. The first album was a big shocker because that was my debut. I didn’t really expect it to sell like that. They both did real good. We went through Southwest Wholesale on those. My third album was Millionaire’s Mission; that came out in 2001. Then we came with my fourth album, my group album called Family Cartel. That was a group album consisting of me and my cousins Luichion The Don, Cars Pacoso and DFence.

What made you do a group album?

Everybody can handle their own solo project. We just came up with that group album because they’ve been featuring on all my albums and we wanted to let them know who they was. Plus we was all family.

Which of all your albums were selling really good?

The Game Plan and The Cartel.

Where do you sell most of your records?

First we were going through Southwest Wholesale. Then we went out the trunk, and plus we was selling to the stores ourselves. Right now for this new project, we’re shopping around to see who gonna give us the best deal, like Urban Life, Select-O-Hits, or Sony. Whoever got the good ideas for out marketing plan.

Which of your albums do you like the most?

Our newest one because you get better as you go. I laid off and did a tour for the whole last summer. I did all my writing. I got my beats Fed Exed to me in different states. I was taking my time.

Where did you go on your tour?

It was a promotional tour through ten states and three cities. We was in Cleveland, Ohio: Chicago; Omaha, Nebraska; Denver, Colorado; Colorado Springs. We got to Wichita; St. Paul, Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was a big old Midwest tour. Before I left on that tour, I had finished up on my video. It’s from my new album, Straight From the Hood – Product of the Block. We are getting all our promotions and everything. We wanted it all to come out at the same time.

Where do you sell most of your records?

In the Midwest and the West Coast. The Bay Area.

Do you think the Bay sound is like the Kansas City sound?

I think it’s a different sound but we got the same familiar lifestyle. Everybody is trying to speak on the same subject. That’s how I think about it. I think it’s a different sound but the same way of life. We’re living the same way. I’m from here and I’ve been out there. I’ve seen how they live. It’s the same. When I got out there to the Bay it seems like I’m home. When I go out there it feels like Kansas City, Missouri. Kansas is over the water. Kansas and Missouri are a little different.

What neighborhood are you from?

I’m from 12th and Woodland.

Was there a lot of music around when you grew up?

Yeah. We had a deejay way back, K-Rock, rest in peace to him. He brought a lot of music down our way throwing block parties. It was a lot of break dancing. It was a lot of everything like that. We was really heavy on music. Then when he NWA came out, it was over.

How old were you at that time?

When NWA came out I was probably about fourteen.

Was there a lot of block parties in your neighborhood?

Yeah, K-Rock used to plug his deejay equipment up to the light poles. The light pole had a plug on it. He would plug his turntables up to the light pole and it was on. He was friends with my uncle. Sometimes my grandma would let him plug his equipment up to the backyard. We had high rises and low rises in the projects. It was a lot of people out there. The whole neighborhood comes. It was love. It was real love.

Would people be rapping or would it just come from the deejay?

Back then, you didn’t really have too many people that rapped. You might have one or two people from the neighborhood that rapped back then. It was more getting your money on and having a good time. That what it was mainly on then.

Is it different now?

It’s real different. Right now it’s real big on the music scene. Everybody’s rapping. Before everybody was listening to music and people walking around with radios. My cousins used to all walk around with radios and a duffle bag full of tapes. Now everybody is walking around with their CD’s in their pocket because everybody is making their own music now. The game took a twist, instead of listening now everybody’s making music, because we got to eat.

Is there any block parties happening anymore?

Yeah, you still get some block parties going on. A lot of times it was block parties and plus it was basement parties too. You had some parties in the basement, you know how it goes. It was some of those too.

Do you like the old times or do you like it right now?

I like the old days and that’s pretty much what I’m bringing back in this album. I’m bringing back the old days. I’m not talking about how it is now. I’m talking about how it was. I had to backtrack and put my life back to where it was way back before I could write how I was visioning way back. That’s why it’s called Straight From the Hood/Project of the Block because I’m writing from way back until right now.

Does the song you have in the Murder Dog compilation represent you?

"Travel the Globe"? That represents me right there. I looked at how 40 formed that Click and they hit the road and they did what they done. I kind of did the same thing. I hit that road but I stayed out there. Sleeping in those vans. I wasn’t coming home. That’s why I was ready to move so many units. I put myself out there.

Is the song you put on the compilation basically talking about your tour?

It was talking about the tour. I do a tour every album. I get up and go. A man with feet that don’t move gonna stay in the same spot.
Do you have a lot of fun times doing the tour?

I love doing those tours. There’s a lot of money out there if you are out there doing verses for people. You meet different deejays. You do radio and TV interviews. Everything, the whole nine yards.

Is there a lot of competition in Kansas City these days?

It’s a lot of competition, but to me I don’t really call it competition, I call it "now, everybody can eat." You got to drop and release your album, and do what you got to do to promote it and go on and get your winners on. It’s like, everybody eatin’ now.

If everyone is making CD’s, who is buying it?

Everybody. You still got consumers because a lot of people aren’t making music. People is trying to get on but they really ain’t going at it full speed. The ones going at it full speed, them the ones that eating right now.

A lot of people in Kansas have a little Bay sound, but now Kansas City artists are coming up with a different sound. Where would you fit in?

I have more of a Midwest. I’m more of a Midwest. I talk about the hustle and the struggle. That’s what I speak on. My beats is Midwest. I’m Midwest. I’m like that laid back sound.

Who made your beats?

The Twins, rest in peace to them. Fresh and Kev. They did most of my album and everything. I still had beats from them. And Don Juan made some. Fatso, Big Butch. I went through seven different producers on this album. I got some guys down in Denver, Colorado, Dragon, he hooked me up real nice. Big Butch, Dragon, Don Juan, Fatso, Twins.

Do you think the sound in Kansas is slowly changing to a different sound?

It’s becoming more of us instead of it being like a West Coast or a Bay Area sound, I think it’s becoming more of a Kansas City sound. Not even a Midwest sound, just more of a Kansas City sound. We got our own stand. It’s changing but straight to us though. You can hear it and tell it’s from Kansas City.

What I heard in the compilation sounded different from the older stuff, and I thought Kansas City is getting their own sound.

That’s what I think. We just getting our own sound.

What other outside artists are hot in the Kansas City neighborhoods and streets?

Luni Coleone is hot here. Messy is hot here. C-Bo is hot here, B-Legit. Forty. The whole Click clan. Keak Da Sneak cool. He’s hot up here too. Mobb Figgas. C-Bo. And AP9, he comes through. All of them is hot like that.

Who is hot on the radio level?

On the radio it’s more like Lil Flip, Kanye West, Twista, whatever is on the Top Ten or Forty. Jay-Z, 50 Cent, all them.

Is it different in the hoods?

Yeah, because when you get into where it is, you get more into the game, when you get off that radio version. That’s what cats like to ride to and listen to. It’s a little rough up this way.

Did the Twins have a major role in shaping the Kansas City sound?

I have to start that off by saying, rest in peace, because like you said they did everybody’s projects from Missouri to Kansas. They was like back to back bungles with it too. They would turn you a beat out in fifteen to twenty minutes and it would be what you want. I think the radio stations and a lot of them record stores should have pictures of them guys because they helped a lot of artists out this way.

We have dedicated Murder Dog compilation CD to them.

That’s what I’m talking about right there. That’s a blessing right there. They deserve that. The Twins did that for Kansas City. They was the main guys in Kansas City.

Both of them died all of a sudden?

One died and then a year later another one died at the same time. I was looking at them laying on their bed like that and it wasn’t cool at all.

Were they sick for a long time?

Yeah, they had Sickle Cell. They would get sick all the time when we were in the studio. But this one night we was at the end of our album, The Family Cartel, and Fresh was just sitting there all night. He came in with a whole bunch of records, and he was listening to records all day. While we was in there, Kev was engineering the session. Fresh was in their listening to records and then he came inside to where we was in the lounge room. He laid on the couch and said his stomach was hurting. He took his shoes off and he was laying on the couch while we was finishing up the session. The next day Kev called me and said Fresh was in the hospital. We went to the hospital the next day and he was sick to where he really ain’t moving. I had just seen him the day before clapping his hands and snapping his fingers to the music. Then the next day he’s sick where he’s not moving. Three days later he passed. That right there put a real damper on the game up here, with them two twins gone like that.

After the Twins were gone did you have some new producers start doing it?

You always had other producers but them was the main points around here. Them and Don Juan. You can’t leave out Juan. Don Juan and the Twins is what you really heard. Now there’s a whole lot of producers out here. There’s a lot good producers too but to start the game off, it was the Twins and Don Juan.

After Fresh died, how did Kev die?

It was the same way. After Fresh died, Kev would still come to the studio. He had tried to still do his job but he was missing that other half. It was really eating him up. It just drove him that way to where he just started moping real bad. And when he started moping real bad he started getting sicker and sicker to where they put him on bed rest. After he went on bed rest he started coming back out, just wanting to get into the studio, but he really couldn’t do it. We used to tell him to go on back home because he wasn’t ready. He was still sick. He would sit up and a few days after that Kev was in the hospital. His mom called and told us Kev was in the hospital. Kev was in the hospital for more like a week. It was around the same time of the year that Fresh had died, Kev went to the hospital and passed too.

Were they twins?

They were identical twins. They looked just alike. That really hurt me right there.

Did they producer most of your albums?

They pretty much produced all my albums. They did everything. They created me. I was writing it but they was telling me which way to come. When you got them engineers and producers you’ve been working with for years and years to where they make a beat and call you up to tell you they got one for you, this is you. They already know your sound and what you want. They just make it without you being there.

Where did they have their studio?

Back then, everybody would go to West End. That was over at the Plaza. I still go there, but it ain’t that same feeling. That was a studio for everybody. Either there at West End or at Chatnas. That’s pretty much where everybody was recording at back then.

How did you get the name "Greedy?"

That Greedy name was handed out to me. I was down there in the ‘jects. I’m from the projects. The gutter. The slums. That’s pretty much Greedy. I was out there, man. I was scrambling. Everything that came through, I had to have. If it was a dollar fifty, I was on it. It didn’t matter if they had a VCR, to a juke box. If they was coming through with it, I was at it. That’s how that "Greedy" came.

Did you have that name before rap?

I had that name before rap. I got that name like when I was around sixteen. It just stuck. There were a lot of older people down in the projects. They knew my parents and all of my uncles and aunties. They watched me out there scrambling and they gave me that name.

When you were growing up what music were listening to?

When I was growing up we were still on that NWA. And that LL Cool J. We was on that Run DMC, Fat Boys, Slick Rick, Ice T, Too Short. You gotta have some Ice Tea and Too Short back then.

Was Spice One there at that time?

That’s when we got into that ’92 era, then we started being on that Forty. We was on that click. That’s when that car was rocking. Then you had B-Legit The Savage. Then you had that Mac Dre, Spice One, Celly Cell, MC8, Mac Mall. That’s when it changed then. That’s when it was really yall. It was like that for us back then.

Which side of Kansas City has the bigger population?

Missouri is the big side. Most of the rap is coming from the Missouri side. I’m from the Missouri side. The other side is big but all the music is really coming from the Missouri side. You got a handful over on the Kansas side. But over in the Missouri side you got your whole gumbo pot full. It’s like everybody. It don’t matter who it is, everybody’s rapping. Other than the Bay Area, Kansas City has the next to the most independent labels. Everybody’s in it. And everybody’s good too. It ain’t just no peanuts running around here. People got game.

When we were compiling the Murder Dog Presents Kansas City CD there was so much good music we ended up doing a double CD.

It’s a lot of artists and a lot of game out this way. The distributors got to come out this way and really campaign for real.

It’s just that the only artists from Kansas selling a lot of units outside of Kansas is Tech N9ne.

That’s pretty much true because Tech is out there. Tech is the biggest artist we got up here.

His shows out here get sold out. People are outside trying to get tickets. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t think that he was so big.

Tech’s big. Tech was one of the pioneers of Kansas City. Tech’s been out there since ’88, ’89 or something like that. He was rapping way back before I could have even imagined thinking about rapping.

Who would you say are the main pioneers in Kansas?

Around the time of Tech? Koolaid Krew. It really wasn’t too many people. Vell Bakardy, Tech N9ne, Tutu, Swell L. Rich the Factor too. All them.

Now in Kansas City do you have a lot of new artists coming up?

There’s a whole lot of artists out here now. It was kind of building on from all around that same era. Everybody had their won clicks up under each other but certain people stuck out. You got one person whose name is out there but you have a whole other roster that’s rapping.

Is it pretty exciting time in Kansas with so many artists coming from there?

It’s a lot of good music coming from out this way. Only thing that’s lacking is the distributors up this way. If there was the distributors out here like there is in the Bay Area and the West Coast, there could be a lot of business. If all them distributors had an office up here, it’s so much music. Like out there the distributors is right there for them. They can take thirty minutes or an hour to go up in the office. Because it’s music coming out of here everyday. They haven’t got the avenues to get their product out there. If they do the avenues then they be moving twenty, thirty, or forty thousand units off one album. That’s really a lack on the distributors. That’s more money to them. It ain’t nothing to rent a suite out up here and start another base out here.

Do you have some good record stores there?

It’s a lot of good record stores. The number one spot is Seventh Heaven, though. You got your Sam Goody’s and your Warehouse Music and your FYE’s. But Seventh Heaven is the store.

Everyone talks about it. Is that where you sell a lot of independent stuff?

Seventh Heaven is big. They got like three other stores in Kansas. You got a lot of other little Mom and Pop stores like Gold Rush Records. You got a lot of those too. You got Music and More, Keepin’ It Real Records, and you got all the liquor stores.

Do you sell a lot of CD’s out of the trunk in the neighborhood?

That’s big. I did it all over everywhere. That’s why I got the song "Travel the Globe." I was out the trunk with it moving units. I seen how they did it and I went out there out the trunk. Back then when I was out the trunk like that, I was eating. It’s like a promotional deal. You’re promoting it and you’re selling it at the same time. You’re only paying like ninety-nine cent to eighty-nine cent a CD. You might as well sell it for five. If you sell a thousand units on the road in one state for five dollars a piece. That’s five grand for you and you probably only spent a G on them anyway. So you are getting your promotion out there and you getting something in your pocket.

Once you get a van wrapped you just hit the streets?

We done had two vans and everything. We done sold those vans and we have a tour bus now. We got all our ducks in a row. We got our tour bus. We getting that done up on the inside. We about to get that wrapped up. Then we got the Northside video that we did down in the projects. Then me and Luni we got this new single called "O 4 Boys in the Hood." We about to be shot. We did one video for it but we about to do another video today for "O 4 Boys in the Hood" with me and Coleone."