New Glasses Malone Interview

[Laconic]

http://www.ballerstatus.com/article/features/2008/01/3922/


G. Malone: Persevere Through It All
Published: Monday - January 21, 2008
Words by Jay Casteel


Watts, California rapper G. Malone (a.k.a. Glasses Malone) is one of the hardest working musicians on the West Coast. Despite gaining a buzz across the internet over the last two year, following his reported $1.7 million deal with Sony Urban, Malone had to fall back a little bit in early 2007 when the label folded. Since then though, he's bounced back. He was able to get a release from his contract, with the help of Mack 10, who in turn signed the rapper to a new deal through his Hoo Bangin' imprint via Cash Money Records.

Now, with a hit single -- in "Certifed" featuring Akon -- taking over the airwaves in Los Angeles, G. Malone looks to have things back on track and 2008 looks promising. So, as preps his debut album, titled Beach Cruiser, G. Malone is making necessary preparations for his first album to come out strong, hopefully resulting in a long fruitful career.

So with his ducks all lined up, G. Malone caught up with BallerStatus.com to explain how the deal with Mack 10 and Cash Money went down, why Mack 10 was the right choice for him despite having deals on the table from the likes of Akon and others, and the factors that continue to hold the West Coast back.

With realistic goals and a plan in place, G. Malone is definitely one of the artists we feel fans should keep their eye out for in 2008. Read on to find out why.

BallerStatus.com: What's good with your debut, Beach Cruiser?

G. Malone: We pushed it back. They giving me a lot of input on it. I need more of a setup for it, so I pushed it back.

BallerStatus.com: Ok, before we get into the album a little more. You had the deal with the Sony Urban, but that fell through last year. Now, you're with Mack 10 under Hoo Bangin'/Cash Money. Tell us how that deal came about.

G. Malone: Once I got out of the Sony thing, it wasn't settled. They wasn't letting go really. There was three people in particular that kind of helped get me out of that situation because they really wasn't letting me go. That was Chilly, Lupe Fiasco's man who helped him start 1st & 15th [Entertainment]; my man from the Drama Family; and Mack 10.

When I was out [of the contract], I had a half-done record, seven songs that was already crazy and amazing. So, I had three different situations I could of jumped in. One was with Akon, another one was with Warner Bros. and the other was with Mack 10.

Mack 10 was just real quick and he had a situation over there at Universal. That was just gonna be a real smooth transition, so why not?

BallerStatus.com: Those were some nice options you had, why Mack 10 over the other two?

G. Malone: Well, Akon just be so busy. That's my man and everything, but Mack is more in my lane. He knows exactly what I'm doing, and he knows exactly who I am as an artist and a person.

BallerStatus.com: So, Mack can relate to you easier being that you are a West Coast artist and also because he doesn't have as much on his plate as Akon right?

G. Malone: Yea, Mack 10 is just more personally involved than the average person would be. He just made it his business to make sure that I'm gonna win. He's got a point to prove and I got a point to prove. Two n----s with a point to prove together? Whoooo...

BallerStatus.com: Mack 10 though, he's had his label for a minute and he's not exactly had the best track record with putting out artists. Are you concerned with that at all?

G. Malone: Nah. I mean, one thing about me as an artist, I never depended on nobody else to make it crack for me anyway. So anytime anybody else do something for me, it's a plus. All I need is for somebody to put me in the position where my record comes out and I'm gonna do what I gotta do to grind it. So with Mack 10 helping, and Baby, Wayne and Slim helping, that's all pluses to me because I didn't expect sh-- from them. I'm just an L.A. n---- coming up. We don't expect anybody to give us anything, so when they actually give us even the smallest thing, it's like a mile for us.

BallerStatus.com: You're single with Akon, "Certified," is getting crazy spins in L.A. It's pretty much you're biggest single to date, so how does it feel to have a single like that?

G. Malone: There's so much more work to do. I can't really celebrate. I'm blessed and thankful that God even let me get to this position, but there's so much more work. So, there's no celebration until it cracks the top 10.

BallerStatus.com: The Beach Cruiser album, the last time we spoke it was pretty much done, but you guys were working on setting it up. Where are you at now?

G. Malone: Yea, we've been going in, doing more tracks. I'm always working. I went in, cut some cuts, laid some new joints and all that. Beach Cruiser is like a movie, so it's like I went and redid scenes that I had more money to shoot. The scenes are always gonna get better every time, so now the scenes I got are just incredible. I had all the same features I always had, but now, I got a record with Lil Wayne and a record with Mack 10. It's just better and better.

BallerStatus.com: Man, I've seen you since the beginning. And being from L.A. has got to be a struggle, but you've managed to really come a long way. So tell me a little about that struggle.

G. Malone: Being from this West Coast, you just don't get a lot of pushes from... you know, like these dudes from certain areas where you get a [Young] Dro who comes off of T.I., or like Slip-N-Slide who will put out Rick Ross, or you got Block Entertainment who will drop everything through Bad Boy. You don't have that out here. Dudes who have record labels out here, people who been selling records, the avenues that you do have are real small independents that don't really put money to market you and sell your records. Like Ice Cube, the last records he put out were from a Mack 10 or WC, so there's not a lot of avenues out West for new artists. That's what makes it hard. It's not the fact that they can't make the avenues happen.

Say like a situation with me, Bishop and Crooked I, Lil Eazy, there's no reason why one these dudes wouldn't immediately try to attach theyselves to the situation. I don't think nobody would refuse it because the money would be bigger and the look would be bigger if a Snoop Dogg would walk in and be like, "Hey I wanna champion this dude's situation, put it through Doggystyle." I couldn't tell you why that's not happening. That's definitely the main problem on the West Coast.

BallerStatus.com: You've also been so adamant at collaborating and supporting everyone on the West Coast, new and old. Why is that so important? To have that unity?

G. Malone: All we got is us. People don't f--- with you until they see you f--- with yourself. Like when we go to these award shows, we don't get no respect. They don't respect the West Coast man. They don't show us sh--. They respect maybe a few singers from here, but they don't respect the West Coast as a whole. The line I'm pushing is I want them to respect us as a coast.

When you go Down South, you respect them motherf---ers. Even when you go to New York, you respect them because they move. That's something we never had out here. You never looked at an award show and at the red carpet you seen Snoop, Cube and them dudes on the red carpet, you feel me? You never see that. That compared to maybe in Atlanta, you'll see T.I., Jermaine and Jeezy.

I just wanna be about the West Coast. I wanna be that artist that's about the West Coast. I don't wanna worry about "Oh, what do the Midwest think about my record?" or "What does New York think of my record?" I wanna worry about what L.A. thinks of my record. I think that, at the end of the day, people are gonna respect.

How am I gonna make a record for the n----s in New York? I don't know how to make it specifically for them; I never lived there. All I know how to do is make that real grimy Watts sh--. That real thought out Watts sh--. But when I do make it, come to find out, them n----s respect it because they real street n----s just like us.

BallerStatus.com: Right, and street music is where it starts.

G. Malone: Yea man, you have to stay relevant in the streets. At the end of the day, that's how you empower the movement. You get the streets on your side. A lot of rappers out here don't have the streets on they side because they don't make it their business to worry about what the streets think. That's what I wanna do. That's the type of star I wanna be.

I wanna be like Eazy-E and sh--. That n---- that pulls up in that $300,000 car right in your hood by yourself. That's who I am as a person. Like, right now, you don't catch me in the VIP at a club, I'm right out there with everyone. I don't separate myself from the people. People see me in the projects in a Bentley or in they hood in the Bentley. Them n----s be like "Damn, this n---- right here." It just make you feel like "Damn, this n---- is just like me." That's the type of effect I'm trying to make with music.

BallerStatus.com: You dropped that new mixtape with DJ Skee, The Electric Chair, which is reminiscent of 90s Death Row type music. What prompted you to put out a project like that?

G. Malone: It was for the people who really appreciate Suge Knight and what he did for the coast during his time. Dogg Pound, Snoop, Dre... I remember that movement. That was the most relevant West Coast movement we ever had. A lot of those dudes built their blueprint off of Death Row. A lot of these Grand Hustles, the CTEs, they built their movement off of that movement. [Suge] sold 60 million records through Death Row. That's crazy. There's not labels doing that, unless you're talking a label of Def Jam's stature.

So, with my movement, Blu Division, why not pay tribute to that movement? At the same time, showcase what we can do, by doing that? That's all we did. Use it as an outlet.

BallerStatus.com: So realistically, where are you looking at for the debut?

G. Malone: I think I just gotta focus my attack, trying to get all these stations on the West Coast playing this "Certified" single. You can go Gold right here. I'mma keep smashing right here where we at, and let Cash Money do what they do Down South, and hopefully New York will f--- with me by theyself without trying to suck up to n----s and sh--. We gonna keep it hood. The hood n----s gonna love me anyway.

I just want everything in my career to be solid man. When you hear my music, it's always gonna be solid. When my album drop, I wanna do solid numbers. I'm working toward a Gold plaque on my first album, that's my goal. Like, we just setting up the proper plan to make sure we sell so many records the first week, what the next single's gonna be, the video, the tour, etc. etc. We doing our research.

I'm signed to Cash Money for four albums. I'mma make sure that each record I sell more records than the last one. 500,000, then 750,000 the next one, then maybe 1 million the third one, and then the last one maybe a million and a quarter or a million and a half. That's my modest expectations, so I can focus on my music and not just cater to the masses.

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[Dodgers#1]

propz

[Cali_Raized]

I'm signed to Cash Money for four albums. I'mma make sure that each record I sell more records than the last one. 500,000, then 750,000 the next one, then maybe 1 million the third one, and then the last one maybe a million and a quarter or a million and a half. That's my modest expectations, so I can focus on my music and not just cater to the masses.

Dope read...more artist need to have this mentality, and not think that they are gonna come out right away n go ?x platinum right away he sounds like he got his head right...

[Debix]

G. Malone is the truth! He's lookin at the game from the outside in, which is realistic. His outlook & way of thinking excites me for the future of westcoast hiphop. He seems like a real down to earth kinda dude.

[AnybodyKilla]

I'm signed to Cash Money for four albums. I'mma make sure that each record I sell more records than the last one. 500,000, then 750,000 the next one, then maybe 1 million the third one, and then the last one maybe a million and a quarter or a million and a half. That's my modest expectations, so I can focus on my music and not just cater to the masses.

Dope read...more artist need to have this mentality, and not think that they are gonna come out right away n go ?x platinum right away he sounds like he got his head right...

[bgko1]

propz

[BOX5 the best poster on this site yell]

damn was having this convo with my brother earlier today,and saying how glasses is doing it,got good people on his team,plus he got the mentality you need to make it, i wish that equal the best in his career yell

[firingsquad_pooh]

good read

[smegma]

I hope the deal with CMR works out and he blows up

[Teddy Roosevelt]

I can't beilieve a song like Certified is getting so much spin in L.A. Sure it has the Akon factor, but it is not your typical radio single that is distributed to the mainstream music listerners. I hope Malone can capitalize off of this. It's been over 2 years since he's signed his first deal.

[1234]

Good read. Malone's album should be one of the biggest this year.