STUDD
(October
2007) | Interview By:Chad Kiser
Dubcnn got the chance to speak with
Big Studd, of Badwayz and $hort Records fame. You may have heard him first
appear on Too $hort’s album Gettin’ It on the song titled “Badwayz”, which
would later become the group name of Studd, Murda One & Joe Riz. Studd gives
us a first-hand account of joining up with $hort and being the first artist on
the $hort Records label, discusses why Jive dropped the ball on all the $hort
Records releases, and tells about his new label and album that’s coming out
soon.
Please note that this interview was conducted by a Dubcnn Community (Dubcc.com)
forum member. He and a team of members have been heavily discussing
and promoting the work of the Dangerous Crew as a whole. Thanks go out to;
Lamont, Raiders, Akcranker, SJ, GP and EazyE for their help and support in
bringing the Dangerous Crew back into relevance. There will be more from the
Dangerous Crew on dubcnn over the coming weeks.
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Interview was done by phone in September, 2007
Questions Asked By:
Chad Kiser(Guest Contributor)
Studd Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That
Here
Dubcnn: What’s up with
you Studd?
Just chillin’ man. About to go up to the studio real quick.
Tell the readers that might not know, who Studd is..
Basically, I’m from South Central, L.A., raised on the east side. I’ve been
rapping for a long time. I love music and I’ve been around music all my life.
I started rapping with $hort in like ’96. I got my own label right now called
Evil Side Rida Records. I got some kid acts and a couple groups coming out. I
just love music and I’ve been trying to stay in the game and keep floatin’.
Dubcnn: You said you’ve been rapping for a long time. How did you know or
when did you decide that this is what you wanted to do?
I used to be just rapping a lot of hip-hop tunes, and I used to change their
raps to my own version, with my won style and words. I started doing that, and
was getting better and better at it, so I just went from there. And then, I
had met $hort through one of my best friends.
Dubcnn: Who were your influences?
Man, as far as when I was a kid I would look up to Rakim, and I just used to
like everybody! When I was coming up there wasn’t no east coast vs. west coast
type of thing. It was just hip-hop was hip-hop; rap was rap. I liked Biz
Markie, Rakim, Ice-T, Ice Cube, and Too $hort of course, Run-DMC, and all of
the old groups like the Fat Boys, and MC Lyte too. I liked everybody, you know
what I’m saying? I was just turned on by music.
Dubcnn: You said you met $hort through a friend of yours. How did that go
down?
The first time I met $hort, my homeboy and best friend Lil E-Baby used to
always say, “$hort’s my cuzzin’, $hort’s my cuzzin!” I just used to brush him
off with that. Then one day, I was getting my car washed on at Florence &
Normandy, and he came around the corner and said “$hort was finna come pick me
up”, cuz he was gonna move to Atlanta with $hort. He was like, “you should
come around the corner and do a little rap for him!” A few cats had rapped for
him, and he said he liked my voice. He was telling E to have me come to
Atlanta cuz he was starting a new label, which was $hort Records. So I managed
to get to Atlanta, and that was like in ’95. I ended staying out there with $hort
for about 6 years. We did the “Badwayz” song in ’96, and that was on the
Gettin’ It album. And then after that, I just started appearing on all his
albums and mixtapes.
Dubcnn: How did the song “Badwayz” come together?
Well, actually, Badwayz was a solo song that I had wrote. Spearhead X, the
producer, had been doing a lot of work with $hort at the time, and he was in
the studio doing the Badwayz beat. I was so hungry and starving at the time,
cuz since I was the first member around when $hort started his new label, I
had already out there for like a year and we hadn’t done anything yet. So I
was like, “X, let me get in the booth and rap on the beat!”, you know, just to
see what it do. After being so starving, and having written so many raps, I
had got into the booth and rapped just one verse.
Originally, I had a song with 3 verses on it, but we had some other cats,
Murda & Joe Riz, and we wasn’t no group yet. But then they came in and got on
it. Murda was so good at freestyling, he came in behind me and freestyled his
verse right behind mine in one take. I did mine in one take, and Murda did his
in one take, and then Joe Riz went in and did his verse. We let $hort hear it
later on that night, and he was like, “Goddamn, that shit is hard as a
muthafucka! I think this song is gonna make my album!” And then he went and
put it on there.
Dubcnn: Did you guys form the Badwayz group off that song then?
What it was, is that he didn’t have no budget for all 3 artists. So he put us
in a group, and since I was from the west coast, and Murda was from Chicago,
and Joe Riz was from Detroit, he thought that that would be good for a group.
And we just named the group Badwayz because we had so much success with the
song on his album. We went on the Cash Money tour and did the song everytime
we went out, and muthafuckaz went crazy. So we just ran with that.
Dubcnn: So is Badwayz still a group, so to speak?
Actually, no. We haven’t really did nothing together. Murda One had started
his own label, and Joe Riz started his, and I started mine. So we all went our
own separate ways.
Dubcnn: Now with you coming in on the Gettin’ It album, which was kind of
on the tail-end of the Dangerous Crew era as we knew it, had you done any work
with any of the Dangerous Crew cats like Goldy, or Shorty B, or Ant Banks or
any of them?
Yeah, man fa sho! All them dudes from the Dangerous Crew is my friends!
Pee-Wee, Shorty B, Goldy, and what happened is that I came in right on the end
of the Dangerous Crew. So I got a chance to meet all them dudes, while Murda
and Joe Riz didn’t really get a chance to meet ALL of them dudes. Cuz you
know, I was the really the first one down when $hort was starting his new
label, and the Dangerous Crew was still kinda like around. So, as a matter of
fact, I got a song with Goldy, and I got 2 tracks that I rapped on from Shorty
B. I did a lot of work with them cats cuz we still had a relationship even
after the Dangerous Crew was no more, you feel me? They was still here and
there helping $hort Records do some little stuff.
Dubcnn: That would be interesting to hear, and I would love to hear those
joints myself if it were possible.
Definitely! I’ma make sure you get copies of all that stuff man! What I got to
do is get to $hort, cuz we did it a few years back and never brought it out.
I’ma get our engineer to pull them songs up, and I’ll give you a copy of them,
as well as some of this new stuff I got coming out, too.
Dubcnn: Aight, that’s what’s up! Keeping with the $hort Records topic, what
happened with all those mixtapes that never came out?
We did a lot of mixtapes! We did $hort Mixtapes Vol. I, the Independence Day
Compilation, Ghetto Pass and a few tight ones that never came out, like one
which was called Up All Nite. When $hort first came up with that name, we had
a compilation album called Up All Nite, like a compilation type of thing that
was real tight that we never even brought out. And I was also supposed to do a
solo album on $hort Records.
Dubcnn: What happened to your solo?
It was like Jive had kinda like hated on us so bad. They just destroyed the
whole little attitude, as far as $hort putting together the label. It’s like
they didn’t want to help us with nothing! We had the Independence Day
compilation that went gold, and then Jive just didn’t want to help us no more!
So by the time the Badwayz was scheduled to come out, they wasn’t no where to
be found. And that album still did like 70,000 units underground!! Just
through word of mouth! Damn near close to a 100,000 units, and Jive just
didn’t want to help us at all.
Dubcnn: Why would Jive, seeing that the compilation had went gold, not want
to push a project that seemed to be money in the bank for them?
I think it was just the relationship that $hort had with them at the time.
Jive just didn’t want to see $hort eat and be successful. They should have
helped him cuz $hort had been fucking with them for a long time! They had ate
off of him for such a long time, and now it’s $hort’s turn to eat, and they
didn’t want to see him eat! They knew that if he had the money to do what he
needed to do, then he wouldn’t need them no more. Just look at the artists on
Jive Records: Krs-One, UGK, R. Kelly and all of them, man. They on there and
can’t go nowhere! They stuck there for damn near forever! $hort just finally
got up out of that contract with Jive. They he finally got their foot up off
his neck.
Dubcnn: What’s your relationship with $hort these days?
My relationship with $hort is still good! I was with him yesterday as a matter
of fact cuz I helped him fix his Harley motorcycle. So it’s real good with $hort.
And he’s basically helping me with my label right now. As a matter fact, we
got a song we just did for my new solo album called “Cocky On My Bike”. It’s a
Harley song, and it’s the shit!
Dubcnn: So tell me about the Evil Side Records, and the projects you have
coming out.
What I been doing with Evil Side is working with my son and my nephew who are
called Dirty South Central, meaning one of them is from Atlanta and one of
them is from California. They 12 years old! I did the beats and production
with one of my other producers for their album. I also got another group
coming out in a couple of months called Diamonds In The Dirt. And then the
newest member of Evil Side Records is my son, who is 4 years old and his name
is Zach. He’s 4 years old, and he’s rapping already! He’s gonna be a
mind-blower to the world! We working on his album right now, and he’s super
tight! He’s saying stuff that you wouldn’t even imagine a 4 year-old would
say. He got in the booth the other night and ripped a freestyle that somebody
would swear I helped him, so the world gonna have to see it to believe it.
Dubcnn: And you also have a new solo album coming out as well, right?
Yeah, man, I got my own solo album coming out as well, the Studd solo album. I
just had to get a studio, go hard, and get with some people that was gonna
work with me, and that’s just what I’ve been doing. Cuz I got South Central
out here on lock! I drop some underground stuff out here, and then I can go do
a show and have any arena filled up on some underground stuff. So, a lot of
people are waiting on my album. And due to the stuff I did with $hort along
the years, I hooked up a lot of fans and I didn’t even really realize how much
of a fanbase I had built up. I had got discouraged for a minute, but then I
dropped some underground stuff recently, and it had done so good out there in
the streets that I went in to do my solo album and I’m gonna see what it does.
I got some features from $hort, and you know I was around all of them dudes
like Lil’ Jon, Jazze Pha when they was nobody so they gonna kinda look out for
me on this album. So you can expect to see a Jazze Pha track on there. I don’t
know if I’m gonna be able to get to Lil’ Jon, but the Eastside Boyz is my
close friends, so they will be on there. The old school Ant Banks will be on
there; I’ma have Goldy on there, so I’m gonna bring back some of the Dangerous
Crew cuz them is my potnas, and it’s no thing to do a couple songs with them.
Dubcnn: Sounds like it’s shaping up to be an explosive album! When should
we expect to see it drop?
It’ll be out in a couple months. I got some stuff on
MySpace, too, so
you can go there and check out some of the stuff I been doing. Dirty South
Central got a song there called “Hey Lil’ Mama”, Diamonds In The Dirt got a
song on there called “Deep Throat”, plus a few others they got on there.
Dubcnn: Well, we will definitely check that out and get the word out there
about Evil Side Rida Records.
Ok, fa sho!
Dubcnn: Studd, I appreciate your time for this interview, and I look
forward to hearing the new album, as well as those unreleased gems you got
hidden away that you promised me a copy of…
I’ma make sure you copies of ALL that stuff, man.
Dubcnn: Ok, well again, thanks so much for your time and let’s keep in
touch..
Ok, we can do that fa sho!
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Studd Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That
Here
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