Boyz N Da Hood: The Movement

[STILLDRE IS THE GODFATHER]

Boyz N Da Hood: The Movement
Wednesday - March 16, 2005
Jacinta Howard
At first glance, Bad Boy South’s latest group, the Atlanta based Boyz N Da Hood looks suspiciously like a gimick. Put together by industry vet, Block (former president of Suave House Records), the group is comprised of Big Gee, Jody Breeze, Duke and Jeezy— all of whom have anticipated solo albums looming in the background (Jeezy’s signed to Def Jam and Jody to Jazzy Pha’s Sho ‘Nuff Records).

They’re even likened to a southern NWA. But listen to their gritty self-titled debut, propelled by the gravelly single “Dem Boyz,” and you’ll see that they’re just four street dudes hungry for their chance to show that there’s more to Atlanta than crunk music.

What gave you the idea to start the group?
Block: From the streets of Houston to Chicago to down in Miami to Memphis to the Bronx and Watts and Compton, everybody as telling me the same thing, they wanted to hear some real gritty type of shit. So I figured that Boyz N Da Hood could be the CNN of the streets like NWA was back in the day.

There aren’t a lot of features on this album.
Block: We have songs with Trick, Juve, Slim Thug, T.I., Scarface, Beanie Sigel— but if you look back in history, everybody that made a name for themselves came on they own. Hot Boyz, NWA, the Geto Boys, they didn’t have no features whatsoever, so I’m thinkin’ I’m just gonna jump on that bandwagon and do the shit ourselves. On that next album I’ll branch out and get some real gritty niggaz on it.

I heard Trick Daddy was originally supposed to be in the group.
Block: Him and T.I. was gonna do the album at first, then T.I., got locked up. Then it was just gonna be Trick, but scheduling and location was a problem because he was working on his album. We ended up finishing about half the album together. But I had to keep it moving.

Groups have a tendency to break up. Do you think the fact that you were put together will hinder your longevity?
Duke: We ain’t a typical group, but over time we’ve developed a bond with people. Me and Gee have been knowin’ each other for 10 years and Jeezy and Jody are like my little brothers.
Big Gee: All of us are real niggaz and we come together when it’s needed. When it’s necessary we form like Voltron and we handle business.

Were you worried about signing to Bad Boy given Puff’s shaky history with rap artists post Mase?
Jody Breeze: I don’t care about Bad Boy and all that shit, as long as he know we real street niggaz and we mean what we talkin’ bout, everything is all good.
Duke: Our music stands on its own, we just needed the machine behind us. All we need is light and we’re gonna shine.

So you’re not concerned about the “Benjamins” vibe?
Big Gee: [laughing] Nah, I’m not worried about that because Puff is a marketing genius. What he’s trying to do with us doesn’t have nuthin to do with shiny suits.

Some people think crunk is ruining southern rap because of its lack of lyricism. Any thoughts about that?
Duke: The south has always been stereotyped for somethin’. During booty shake we were labeled and companies were coming down here lookin’ for gimmicky acts. But [right now labels] are a little more open to the south, period. You still heard T.I. and Killer Mike, we want to be in that era. Not to dis crunk, cuz that’s what gets me movin’. All music has its spot.

All of you all have solo projects that are either finished or are in the works. How much did that interfere with this album, creatively and time wise?
Big Gee: I think it helped in terms of my ideas and what I’m bringing forth. Right now I’m not really even focused on my solo [album] I’m just trying to get Boyz N the Hood off the ground how it’s supposed to be.

Jody Breeze: I say time wise, cuz really I was doing two albums at one time.

Duke: It does affect the creativity a little bit. You can tell the difference when all of us were [in the studio] as opposed to one or two people comin. When we all came together we made classics; we had good concepts and hard verses, we feed off of each other good. Everybody has a certain amount of ego, but it wasn’t a lot of arguing, it was easy.

The group is likened to the southern version of NWA. In NWA Eazy was the mastermind, Dre was the producer, Ren was the lyricist and Cube was the storyteller. Do any of you kind of play those roles in this group?
Big Gee: If I had to say that, I think I play the role of Cube. I think Block, as far as being the mastermind and brining everything to the board, he’d play the Easy role. Duke may play the Ren role but we didn’t try to make this an NWA thing, but since they feel that…

Duke: We’re compared to NWA as far as the impact we think we’re gonna have on the game. But we have our own identity because we all write our own stuff—in NWA, Cube and Ren were the writers. People thought it was an issue being called Boyz N the Hood because we’re from Atlanta and the movie was in LA, but there’s hoods everywhere. It’s a movement. We represent Boyz N the Hood everywhere.

You all talk a lot about “the movement.” What is that exactly?
Big Gee: It’s a revelation. We’re about to start it back up again, we’re trying to go on our 10 year run. We’re not a fad, we’re gonna be here for a while.




they shouldnt even be mentioned next to nwa