INTERVIEW: Cadillac Don & J Money - The Southern Twosome

[Damien J.]

by Yo! Raps Magazine - www.yoraps.com



The history of Southern Hip Hop is replete with duos that have made an indelible mark on rap music and popular culture. Over the years, legendary artists such as UGK, Outkast and 8Ball & MJG have moved crowds and millions of units while, at the same time, helping to set the foundation for the current explosion of Southern Hip Hop.

Born in the Northern Mississippi town of Crawford Mississippi, a small country town where everybody knows everybody, both Cadillac Don (born Donald Sharp) and J. Money (born Tiyon Rogers) grew up poor in single parent homes. Music like blues and R&B took center stage in their lives, but as the two childhood friends grew older, they gravitated toward Hip Hop.

Cadillac Don & J-Money are the next hot Southern twosome to arrive with their debut album, Look At Me, due for release November 7 on 35-35 Entertainment and Asylum Records. With the praise they are receiving, Cadillac Don & J-Money are more than confident that they will be major force in music in coming years.

What made you guys come up with a song about “Peanut Butter & Jelly”?

Well being that we are from the South we deal with a lot of old cars out there. The Chevy is a real popular car in the South where we from. The peanut butter means the inside of the car the leather seats and all that. And the jelly is the outside of the car which used to be called candy but we switched it to jelly. So it’s inside peanut butter outside...

Is there going to be some kind of dance to help the record sell?

No we just going to let the people judge and dance how they want to dance to it.

Do both of you have Chevy’s? “All white Chevy’s with the wheels chromed out”? Or it’s just something you put in the song?

I had one but now I got a Cadillac.

What has been you response from your single?

It’s been lovely we doing big things all over the nation all the DJ’s playing it and all the fans is requesting it so you know it´s love. We getting mad love from rappers and different artist we meet on the road so everybody feeling it. We have the ring tones and that’s also doing big things. Everywhere we go we hear someone with our ring tone so we have been getting a great response.

As a group what you would say you have to offer to the entertainment industry?

The fans is going to get really good music from a group that going to be around a long time. We work hard and dedicated to give the fans real good music and try to make the best for everybody really.

Who is your audience for the records you are making?

We making music for everybody and trying to have everybody relate to what we saying in our songs. This music is for the children all the way to the grown up you know. We try to not leave anybody out too.

What was your thinking behind the song on your album “Fuck Dat Bitch”?

[Laughing] You know like what I said we making music for everybody so it´s like every time you in the club you walk by and you hear someone say “man fuck that bitch man”. You hear that everywhere you go so for the people who actually like that we got a song for you. The ladies are saying the same thing about men “fuck that bitch”. I mean everybody say that at one point whether it somebody that screwed you over or something else. More ladies like that song than the dudes.

So that song is for both male and females?

Right, see the males use it for the females and the females use it for the males so it´s vice versa.

How long did it take to record the album?

Well we been off and on we would record a song or two then go to the big city to promote. It’s kind of hard to say exactly how long it took because we were just off and on.

How many tracks were recorded in total during the time you were preparing to release this album?

Well we came up with a number of songs at least about 30 for this album. We had some old song and some new ones we had recorded as well. We just used the ones that would appeal to everybody and used them for the album.

Who made the decision on the final cuts?

35/35 Entertainment’s CEO named Clarence Weatherspoon

Is there anything from this album that you think you may do differently on the next one?

Well we are still in the process of seeing how everyone reacts to this one so then from there we can make that decision you know. Because if they loving it we are going to keep bringing the heat to them. We got some tracks that inspirational on there; we got something for the club life. We got something you could just ride to you know and something for the ladies.

Will you be doing any performances for your hit single “Peanut Butter & Jelly”?

We will be in the Dominican Republic, Phoenix Arizona, Alabama, Florida and Columbia South Carolina so we got a lot of stuff coming up.

Are there any other artist touring with the group?

No not right now I’m not too sure about the Dominican Republic they may be several artist over there.

How was it working with the producer “Big Fruit” that you used for this album?

He’s cool. He’s like one of us. Big Fruit is one of our homeboys so we just starting working together on this album.

Do you have a website?

Yeah we have a MySpace page: www.myspace.com/CadillacDon and the 35/35 Entertainment website is still under construction.

- By Larysa Gittens