Nu Jerzey Devil  (March 2009) | Interview By: Jonathan Hay

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Interview was done in March 2009

Questions Asked By: Jonathan Hay

Nu Jerzey Devil Gave Dubcnn.com A Special Shoutout! Check That Here
 

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Dubcnn Exclusive – Nu Jerzey Devil
By: Jonathan Hay
www.myspace.com/jonathanhay ..........................................................................................

Dubcnn: So what is going on in the life of the notorious Nu Jerzey Devil? (laughing)

Nu Jerzey Devil: I am just loving and enjoying life right now. I moved out to Miami with the sun, the weather and beautiful women. I am out here going hard with the SoBe Entertainment team. I am still Black Wall Street, but I am out here pushing myself as a solo artist. I’ve known [SoBe] for a long time and they’ve always shown me a lot of love, so I feel comfortable over here.


Dubcnn: So SoBe [Entertainment] is Scott Storch’s label right?

Nu Jerzey Devil: A lot of people think that, but no, they used to be teamed up with Scott [Storch] for the Brooke Hogan project, but that was just that one particular project. SoBe Entertainment is owned and run by Cecile Barker. Now, I’m like the new addition to the team.


Dubcnn: How long have you been living in Miami?

Nu Jerzey Devil: Well, I’ve been coming out here, back and forth for the last few years, but last year I made the initial move out here. I love it and everything here is great!


Dubcnn: So how did you land your current deal with SoBe – being that it’s a company known for its pop acts and you come from Black Wall Street with the hardcore Gangsta rap background?

Nu Jerzey Devil: It came about a long time ago, because I actually worked with SoBe a while back with Stacks -- who is also the co-CEO of the label. Game and I did a song with him that I actually produced. We always kept in touch, became friends and started hanging out with them more. Then, when I started to dabble with the rapping aspect of my career, they got very interested. I did the song with Lil Wayne [“Different Girls”] and they asked me if I wanted to come and officially be part of the team. Over here, I have a lot of control and say-so, so I am really comfortable with my situation. We are all real good friends and this is the perfect opportunity for me.


Dubcnn: So your song “Different Girls”, featuring Lil Wayne, is the first official single from your solo project, correct?

Nu Jerzey Devil: It is the first single and it has hit the radio airwaves. It is catching a buzz right now and it’s starting to move so I’m looking forward to that.


Dubcnn: Are you doing both the emceeing and the production on the album?

Nu Jerzey Devil: I am not going to produce this whole album by myself, but I will do the majority of it. I got Scott Storch and Cool & Dre on it…and I reached out to Polow Da Don too. Polow did a beat for Game that he didn’t use, so I am inquiring about that as we speak.


Dubcnn: So who produced the Lil Wayne “Different Girls” record?

Nu Jerzey Devil: I produced that one and honestly, I kind of did the song by accident. I was just playing around in the studio and I ended up laying vocals on it and I let Lil Wayne hear it and he jumped on it and helped make it what it is. It was a blessing.


Dubcnn: I know everybody has got to be excited about that single.

Nu Jerzey Devil: Yeah, besides Stack$, I’m the only hip-hop artist over here at SoBe Entertainment; so it’s given me more motivation to be me and concentrate on my own project. It’s all family-orientated over here. It’s a beautiful thing.


Dubcnn: You touched on some of the producers that will be on your album; what about some of the rappers who will also make an appearance?

Nu Jerzey Devil: As you know, we got Lil Wayne. Game is on the album, of course. Raheem Devaughn [Jive Records] is on there and Fat Joe will be on it too. I didn’t really want to put too many features on the album because then no one could really get it from me and get a feel for me. It’s my first album and I didn’t want to saturate it with a bunch of people. Everybody on my album is someone I know and that I deal with on a personal basis, not just because of business. The people that are on my album are on there because I have a personal relationship with them and I ride with them; it’s just not a business situation.


Dubcnn: And honestly, people are tired of that too…buying an artist’s album and it feels more like just a compilation; no individual, personal identity with the artist on the album. Too many features on rap albums…

Nu Jerzey Devil: It’s over-saturated and too many elements going on at one time; and it’s not one solid sound. I agree with you that people are tired of the same thing going on in music today.


Dubcnn: What’s going on right now with your relationship with Black Wall Street, Game and whatnot?

Nu Jerzey Devil: Everything is still running. I just came off tour with Game from overseas. I was the opening act for Game, so there is a lot of love. He’s my dude and I will always be Black Wall Street. My situation now is really just another venture out of Black Wall Street and I’m just building up my own name. It’s just me venturing out, becoming a man and standing on my own two feet.


Dubcnn: Looking back, was Game your first introduction into the business?

Nu Jerzey Devil: Actually, Rodney “Darkchild” Jenkins had signed me as a producer; he gave me my first break on the Honey soundtrack, and I scored My Baby’s Daddy, the Miramax film. [Darkchild] actually moved me to LA, and that’s how I got with Game, and from there we just clicked. My contract ended with Darkchild and I felt like I could grow more with Game and what he was doing and it was more my type of sound. So, here I am.


Dubcnn: I never knew you were affiliated with Darkchild; how did you manage to get hooked up with him?

Nu Jerzey Devil: We are both from South Jersey. I had my own studio in Atlantic City and I was doing beats for local artists and I happened to come across one of his artists he was working with at the time. The artist took the track I produced back to Darkchild and he ended up flying me out to Miami and we clicked from there and I became Darkchild. He ended up moving me to LA and that’s when everything popped off from there.


Dubcnn: Turned a good opportunity into another great opportunity…

Nu Jerzey Devil: Exactly.


Dubcnn: Being that you’re from Jersey, and even having a name like “Nu Jerzey Devil” is ironic because the major movement you actually helped start on the West Coast. And, honestly, a lot of people think of you as more of a West Coast Artist/Producer/DJ.

Nu Jerzey Devil: I get that a lot and it is because my big break came in LA with Game. My career took off from LA and people to this day still confuse me as being from Compton; but I am from Jersey. I lived out there for three years; I took a big career risk when I moved out to LA. I got so much love for the West Coast and I will always show my love to them. My music and production has a West Coast influence on it and I will cater to both coasts, as I still go back and forth all the time.


Dubcnn: When you got with Game and you started releasing all the Black Wall Street mixtapes nonstop, shit, you all like killed the whole mixtape game; just the whole branding aspect of what you did behind the mixtapes was incredible!

Nu Jerzey Devil: Yeah, we mangled the mixtape game. We f--king bodied it! There was a point in time when the mixtape game was at its peak and a dope mixtape was really something special. Now, it is really watered-down and everybody is doing it. It’s too easy to do a mixtape now and nobody is doing it like I was doing it with Black Wall Street. We did it the way it is supposed to be done and we took it very serious and everything was catered to the mixtape. We treated it like an actual album, not just a mixtape. We put a lot of man-hours into that and that is why we came out on top.


Dubcnn: It was crazy, man, I mean, the mixtapes you all did actually came out in retail stores and were available everywhere.

Nu Jerzey Devil: We took it to a whole other level and, like I said, we looked at them as not only mixtapes, but as albums. The time and quality of music we put into them was crazy! We bodied the mixtape game.


Dubcnn: Do you think the mixtape game is dead right now?

Nu Jerzey Devil: I won’t say it is dead, but it is definitely way too over-saturated right now. It’s too many DJs out there; which isn’t really a bad thing ‘cause more DJs is always better for the artists. There is too much competition and too many mixtapes are dropping all the time. When you drop a mixtape now, it doesn’t hold its weight like it used too. So if you drop a fresh mixtape now, it’s only good for about a week.


Dubcnn: Which goes back to what we were saying earlier: you all killed the mixtape game! (Laughing)

Nu Jerzey Devil: We had so much anticipation for all those mixtapes we did. It was a crazy point in Game’s career and he was really at his peak as far as breaking through. The whole beef with 50 Cent and G-unit had a big part to do with it. Everybody wanted to see what Game had to say after he got kicked out of G-Unit. We came out on top and killed the streets with that s--t!


Dubcnn: You were with Black Wall Street from the beginning so, when that whole situation happened with Game and Dr. Dre, you were right there. In retrospective, what was that really like and what actually happened with the Game / Dr. Dre situation?

Nu Jerzey Devil: I saw the whole situation unfold from the beginning. I saw it happen…and I saw it end. I saw Dre come to the hood, and when he came back to Compton for the first time in ten years, I was there. I was in the studio with Dre when Game was in the studio working on The Documentary. The whole Aftermath situation was over 50 Cent; and I guess Dre couldn’t choose sides…and it’s a business at the end of the day. If artists aren’t cooperating with you or listening, at some point, you just got to fall back until somebody wises up.


Dubcnn: But honestly, it seems like Dre did choose sides because he has done stuff with 50 Cent since then, and not Game.

Nu Jerzey Devil: I’d love to see Dre and Game get back together, because the music they made together on that first album was incredible. I think they have such a crazy chemistry that they should do something again. I also think that Game needs to be on Detox. I don’t even think it would be right without Game on Detox. Hopefully they can work everything out, get right, get back in the studio again and make that good music!


Dubcnn: Do you think Detox will actually see the light of day this year?

Nu Jerzey Devil: It’s hard to say because every time I think it is going to come out, it doesn’t, and it gets pushed back again. In this day and age, and with the whole music environment we are in right now, and with the sound of music now, I just don’t think it is a “Dr. Dre time”. I still think he needs to wait it out a little bit, because the South still has it in a chokehold. We got the West Coast artists adapting over here to the South, and everyone is catering to the South. Dre still has loyal fans and he will still do good numbers whenever he drops, but I think he needs to hold back for a little bit longer and wait until that sound comes back around.


Dubcnn: It’s coming back around, though. You can see the momentum starting to shift back here to the West Coast.

Nu Jerzey Devil: It is going back slowly, but it is happening. People are getting tired of the same sound and they are looking for new things to come out.


Dubcnn: Now, as far as your sound, what can people expect to hear different with your debut album?

Nu Jerzey Devil: I am catering to everybody from LA to Jersey, to Miami, where I am now. My sound is like a gumbo of everything. It’s not really one type of sound with me; I got club songs, of course, gangsta songs, songs for the ladies. The funny thing is, Game told me, “Women love you, so that would be the best bet for you: to cater to the women a little bit.” So I am going to take his advice, you know, over ten-million albums sold; so I feel like he knows what he is talking about. But I will still keep it gutter and I will have my hood-tracks on there. I have a lot of personal songs on the album with real issues in my life.


Dubcnn: What advise can you give to the new artists who are trying to break through today in the music business?

Nu Jerzey Devil: It’s an internet world now; you’ve got to have the internet presence. If you don’t build that online presence now, you won’t make it, and you will be dead out here in the streets.


Dubcnn: Before internet presence was really protocol in the music industry you all at Black Wall Street had that locked too; with the publicity, the online music, the viral and digital marketing etc.

Nu Jerzey Devil: We had seen it early in the stages, so we took advantage of it. We went hard with it, especially in the beginning to set the foundation. Now we got the formula, so now when we want to drop something or put it out, it’s not hard to do. We can get it out and around the world in an hour now, literally. We can drop it online, send a bulletin on MySpace and, just like that, the whole world has our music!


Dubcnn: And with the click of your keypad -- it is just like that!

Nu Jerzey Devil: It really is. I love it. It’s so much easier now then, back in day when you had to go out in the streets to all the radio stations; have the physical product. Now it’s not like that. Like I said, it’s an internet world. I’m a product of the future; I love technology and I am all for it!


Dubcnn: What’s your online site where people can find you?

Nu Jerzey Devil: www.myspace.com/nujerzeydevil or www.jerzmusic.com


Dubcnn: Thanks for your time, man, and keep enjoying that good Miami weather!

Nu Jerzey Devil: No Doubt!



Nu Jerzey Devil Gave Dubcnn.com A Special Shoutout! Check That Here