New Hot Dollar Interview (Discusses Snoop, Game, Guerilla Black etc)

[Old English]

http://www.yoraps.com/features1.php?subaction=showfull&id=1216728424&archive=&start_from=&ucat=3&

"I want to bring something different, I want to bring something where people hear reality rap, I wanna bring reality music back in a privilege state of hip-hop," says Hot Dollar.

Hot Dollar had to face the harsh reality of life within and outside of the music industry before he could proclaim himself the Southwest King. In 2006 he was signed to Jermaine Dupri's So So Def record label after he was introduced to the famous producer by his close friend and manager Pop Gates. Jermaine Dupri made Dollar the first artist on his new Island Urban Music Group and now Hot Dollar is preparing to release his debut album “My Dream, A Day In The Life” this Fall, so the pressure is definitely on...

Hot Dollar's hit single “I Luv Tha Streetz” is what caught West Coast listeners attention and had them fiending for more reality music in search of his “Crackhead” mixtape. The buzz is circulating on the West Coast and is definitely trickling Down South about this artist who has been surrounded by some of hip-hop's most respected names in the game. One of which is his brother Guerilla Black who he claims is one of the realist lyricists in the game.     

"As far as music, he has taught me many things such as counting bars, metaphors, punch-lines, story lines that make sense, and things that really encourages people to look at you as a lyricists and not just a rapper," says Hot Dollar. 

Whether or not Hot Dollar will contribute to the neverending movement of putting the West Coast back on the map, itīs up to the public to determine if he will be able to pick up where The Game left off. 

In your own words who is Hot Dollar?

The Southwest King!

Describe your grind as an independent artists to someone who is now signed to a major record label.

I would have to say dealing with music and dealing with dope is almost in the same retrospect because itīs a strong business. Just like in the dope game you can't trust nobody and in the rap game you can't trust nobody. You don't ever know who's trying to get over, so the more you get involved with it the more you'll understand that itīs more of a struggle than it is a perk because itīs an everyday job. I think people really see the accomplishments and they can't really see the struggle it takes to accomplish certain things. Everybody can come to a club and see somebody come on stage and start rapping, but what that artists had to do to get to that point to have everybody in the club put their hands in the air and what he had to learn and take all his time out to do to figure out how to captivate the people. When you hear about an artist buzz and everybody talking about a specific artists you don't really get in depth with it until you see the artists performing and his crowd. My grind is the grind I think most artists go through in the West Coast and throughout the country. Itīs like a crab in the bucket syndrome, everybody who tries to see you get to the top they trying to pull you down or they don't want to affiliate themselves with you because they wanna be the one. Everybody wanna be the King! Nobody wanna be the Kanye or the Twista. As far as the West Coast everybody wanna bring it back and nobody just wanna be a good artist for the coast and just settle with that and be happy with that. Everybody wanna be the one to bring it back, but one person can't  bring it back because if that was the case Game would have did it. He was one of the most successful artist we had on the West Coast for the last 10 years and it goes the same in the South. No disrespect to T.I., but itīs cats like UGK and Bun B, Three 6 Mafia who have been running around doing their thing for many moons and these are the type of cats that deserve a throne in the South. As far as Snoop Dogg because he done put in so much time he can actually say that because he created such a lane for the new artists to come through and made it a lot easier for them to be successful. So when I say Southwest King I mean it in a sense of itīs a lot people who can naturally come from the South Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, or Georgia and live on the West and grow up in between both places and it would be like Southwest. Either way it makes you a bicoastal person and itīs kind of hard for me to say I'm strictly south when I spent 15 years of my life on the West Coast. I'm probably one of the first artists to come out and be like that.

So, your brother is Guerilla Black?

Yeah.

How is your relationship with him?

He was always a big brother. I started getting into the rap scene before he did as a kid. As we came up together me and him always had a strong bond. I remember coming up when we both started rapping he would be like, "I figured out what it is about rapping that frees people, they wanna hear your life". As far as music, he has taught me many things such as counting bars, metaphors, punch-lines, story lines that make sense, and things that really encourages people to look at you as a lyricists and not just a rapper. 

Did you feel any pressure to fill the shoes of your brother?

I’m not living in his shoes, I’m my own person so I don’t feel any pressure from that standpoint. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be a great artists, so I feel like the only person I have to live up to is me. He definitely is one of the best artists that I’ve ever heard. As an artist he went through a lot and had a lot of negative criticism placed on him with the Biggie situation and all that, but I will say at the end of the day the man is who he is and you can’t change that. Like, if you walk up on Black he going to be talking with a deep ass voice and that’s just the way he talk. If he rap, he’s gonna rap something that’s deep and that’s what people remember Biggie as not just a person who just raps to rhyme, but Black rhymes to say something. That’s one of the most influential things that I got from him. So, I mean I think I gained more from him than looking at it to be more pressure by him or by his likeness.

So, can you recall your first experience with hip-hop?

Run DMC and Public Enemy.

Did hearing a record from Public Enemy or Run DMC motivate you to become a rapper?

At the time I was looking at them from a fans stand point. I was watching Big Daddy Kane, LL Cool J and them types of cats. Then came Nas, Jay-Z, and Biggie and around that same time Snoop Dogg, NWA, DJ Quik. What got me into really wanting to rap was  Snoop Dogg, I liked how he was smooth, laid back, he was a Crip, what inspired me more or less about him was his vibe, and everything he went through and that's really who influenced me to rap.

In addition to Snoop, what other artists influenced you the most?

Tupac Shakur.

Why?

He had so many different sides, he was so diverse. One moment he could talk about politics and our surroundings, the next moment he could be talking about  the love for a female, the love for his momma, I mean he was so well rounded as an artist and some of the things that he talked about till this day hasn't been matched. The emotion he put in his records, I would have to say he was the greatest rapper, ever...

Now that was Tupac's style of music, how would you describe your style…

I would describe my style and flow as innovative, inquisitive, smoke weed too, open your mind, smoke weed, drink, and have fun. I'm a well rounded artist. Even though I come from a gangsta background or a street background I'm still a well rounded person. I grew up in the church, so I wasn't always exposed to the streets. I put more of my life, things I feel, things I aspire to have and do in my music and I think that is what sets me apart from other artists.

You said you grew up in the church, at what point did you start to stray away?

I would have to say when I moved to California. When I moved here  with my mother she had just got laid off from a local oil company and we came here basically broke. And then she got turned off to the AFDC and was living in homeless shelters from Long Beach to Compton and thatīs when my life geared in a different direction.

I read in your bio that you had a rough time growing up because you were in and out of homeless shelters and juvenile detention centers. When you were going through all of this were you ever alone? 

No there was never a point where I was by myself running from shelter to shelter. I did go to a detention center at 13 or 14 years old and it was never for a lengthy amount of time, it was like 3 or 4 months. We were just stealing cars, jacking bikes, smoking weed at restaurants while we were suppose to be in school.

What advice would you give young black men who are travelling down that same path?

Really understanding that we take so much for granted and we take our age for granted. Once you turn 18 years old you don't realize at that moment all things you could accomplish by graduating high school. Once you get 21 or 22 and you ain't' t in school you didn't graduate from college then you realize all of the experiences that you missed out on like, being in a frat, going to parties, or just getting all of the education and taking up a trade. The years fly by when your in your twenties and then the next thing you know your 28 and your like I could have been a lot stronger mentally and established in a trade and you know growing up your only role-models are the people who are around you and you don't see them accomplishing anything or having nice things without using the street element so you think thatīs the element that you have to take to make it. My advice to the cats who think like that is, you gotta realize where your path is taking you. Most of the cats you do know or live in the hood with you watching them come up off of drugs and robbing your looking at their time span. If your 15, by the time you turn 18 half of them cats are going to be either dead or in jail. My advice would be, be observant of the time you have because you only get one life.

You said having your daughter kind of made you pursue a career in rapping. Is that true?

Yeah. Having my daughter made me take it as more of a career standpoint rather than a hobby. So, it made me say if this is something I'm really gonna do i have to look at it as a more serious standpoint because now i have daughter to raise and i have to make sure she's financially taking care of and that made me say if I'm going to rap and really try to get a deal I'm going to have to put my all into it.

If you could give your daughter advice on perseverance because you have been through a lot what would you say to her?

Do what makes you happy because itīs not about how much money you get. If your happy being a school teacher and teaching somebody then thatīs what I want you to do, if you like helping somebody when they're sick then be a doctor or a nurse and have your own practice so you can charge what you want to charge. You feel me? I want her to be happy and be happy with her career. I just want to be able to put myself in a position where I could say what she can do instead of saying you can't do this because we can't afford those things. I want there to be options.

You have two famous mixtapes “Rags To Riches” and “Crackhead”. What was the concept behind “Crackhead” mixtape?

Well you know how crackheads are, they fiending  so itīs like people who are fiending for real hip-hop. Itīs like your more than a fiend, your a supporter of it. It goes back to the first Cash Money and No Limit days like the fans are fiends for the music. They really didn't care about the videos or nothing, they knew the album was in stores they would go out and buy it and thatīs how I feel about my mixtapes people fiend for them.

How do you think you've evolved from your first two mixtapes to now?

I guess itīs just more of a lyrical standpoint and me being able to express myself because everybody is going into the dance craze and the retro club type of thing. I really just want to make the people happy, but at the  end of the day I want my faithful followers to be happy with my music.

Talk about your deal with So So Def.

Before I had a deal I was doing a lot of foot work, running around passing out CDs that I autographed myself, and having my friends call up to the radio station to request my records. I ran into DJ Felli Fel who is a good friend of mine and I played my music for him and he said  he liked it. One time I sat down with him and played this record “The Streetz on Lock” and he was like thatīs a crazy record and itīs definitely a record that  you can win with and I was like fo sho! So, he started playing it and he got a real good response from it and the radio started messing with the record. And you know I started getting a buzz throughout the streets and a  friend of mine by the way of Pop Gates came to me and was like he wanted to start shopping around for some deals and reintroduced me to Grand P and Jermaine Dupri came to LA and heard my buzz and he was inquiring about me and it just so happened that my boy was shopping for me a deal and they linked up and thatīs how that came about.

Talk about your latest project. What producers did you work with and are there any featured artists on the album?

I have more production than I do features. I want this album to be about me and I want people to like Hot Dollar for Hot Dollar and not get drowned into others stars. A lot of artists that you see out there use T-Pain as their first single and people aren't really familiar with them as an artist, but more familiar with T-Pain. So, itīs kind of hard for them to make a name for themselves.

How do you feel about being the first artist signed to Jermaine Dupri's label?

I feel a lot of pressure because itīs so much to prove - him giving me the chance to sit back and not try to rush me to put a project out, show me the ropes, and the way different artists go about pushing their careers. Just staying consistent with one formula and if thatīs the formula that made you then you have to stick to that same formula so people can accept you enough to change because I think itīs so easy for that to happen. For instance Plies, everybody who knew him before he blew up knew him as a street artist, but now that he blew up the whole country only respects the songs thatīs aimed toward the females.

How much control and say did you have in this project.

I'm Co-Executive Producer with Jermaine Dupri, so itīs a joint venture thing. He pretty much gave me control over my music and  he kind of overseen it, and told me which songs he thought would be good first singles.

 What should the fans expect from the album?

Exactly what it says, itīs like my aspiration and what I want as far as a dream or what I dream to have or accomplish. Itīs like becoming like a President who runs to every city looking for people to stand behind him or give them reasons to want to vote for him. I expect the people to be like, "Wow, he really pulled off a classic album by himself without using a lot of different cats so that people can respect Hot Dollar for Hot Dollar and not for the names around him."

What are songs off of your album that come to mind when you think of songs that people will feel or understand you as an artist?

I have a song called, “36 Cookies” and itīs a song about the triumph from being a regular cat to being a Cct thatīs respected by many the good, the bad, the old, and being successful throughout his challenges. Then I have another one named “Homegirl” and itīs kind of like being in a relationship with a female, but ya'll ain't  boyfriend and girlfriend, but ya'll doing intimate things that girlfriends and boyfriends do and now itīs becoming an issue because of the emotion surrounding it. Itīs like every time we get into an argument, it always comes down to the fact that we just homies and itīs a real feel good record and I think the ladies are gonna love it. You know what I mean? I just want to be diverse and make songs that everyone can feel! 

So, when is the  album set to be released?

Middle September. 

Are you touring now?

Mainly I’ve been rocking down the West Coast doing the home tour, going to all the clubs some paid, some not rocking the house and rocking my new single. I can't put myself on a pedestal until I'm actually there, you gotta crawl before you walk. I realized my place, I realized I'm an artist with a deal and at the end of the day itīs a lot of artists that get deals and get dropped before they even drop an album. Itīs a lot of artists that drop an album and canīt never drop an album again because they was ruined by bad promotion by a label. I want everything to be right for my project and not just come out just to come out  and make a power move and be an artist thatīs around for not only one year, but many years.

How could you prevent being a one hit wonder?

Consistency. I think consistency is a larger part and having people around you that really want to see you at the top of your game. There are a lot of Jordan's that will never be seen in the hood and I think it has a lot to do with their team. Itīs about me just having my team right and them just wanting to see me win from the  label to my independent company Dollar Figga and just stay on the grind and stay humble.

If you could collaborate with any artists or producers who would it be?

As far as production Kanye. Features T-Pain, but it would have to be something that isn't single driven. I would also like to work with Keyshia Cole because she comes from a struggle. You know when you go to church and you hear someone singing you can hear that they were mad because they couldn't pay their bills or just got into an argument with their husband, you can feel the pain through the music because they let it go. I feel like Keyshia just lets it go.

Out of all of the artists you worked with who did you enjoy working with the most?

I can't really answer that question, but if I had to I would say Rick Ross and Gucci Mane.

Why?

Rick Ross is a lyricists and he has a lot energy and swagger. Oh, I'm really feeling The-Dream too.

What do you think your bringing to the game that its missing?

Me! [Laughs] I want to bring a mixture of hot ass melody hooks and something that a n*gga can sing and he wonīt be embarrassed to sing it, I want to be able to create songs that make people be inspired by going through the bad and the good from living in the hood. I want to inspire people to wanna go outside of the hood and see the other shit thatīs out there. Go outside of they state and see what the next state has to offer, go outside of the country and see what it feels like to be in Paris or London. I want to bring something different, I want to bring something where people hear reality rap, I wanna bring reality music back in a privilege state of hip-hop. I don't think hip-hop is missing so much, but itīs missing my element. I'm a gansgta, but I can step into some fly shit, I'm a gangsta, but  I can go to the hood and hang out with everybody and feel common. A lot of cats only got one option, they can only go one way. 

- By Nakia Hill

[Black Gloves]

Props but Rick Ross a lyricist

[Mackin]

Thanks!
Honestly i prefer G.Black to Hot Dollar, i'm not into his kinda Songs!

[Old English]

Props but Rick Ross a lyricist

lol yeah Ross got swag but def not no lyrics lmao

[Black Gloves]

Props but Rick Ross a lyricist

lol yeah Ross got swag but def not no lyrics lmao

yeah..hes the best rappin C.O. thus far

[Old English]

Props but Rick Ross a lyricist

lol yeah Ross got swag but def not no lyrics lmao

yeah..hes the best rappin C.O. thus far

dont be too sure....its a lot of rappin ass cops! lol

[RHustle]

propz on the info...good to get some more info on Peso Caliente LOL

[AnybodyKilla]

What did he say about Game?

[Black Gloves]

What did he say about Game?

Basically nothin...

"As far as the West Coast everybody wanna bring it back and nobody just wanna be a good artist for the coast and just settle with that and be happy with that. Everybody wanna be the one to bring it back, but one person can't  bring it back because if that was the case Game would have did it. He was one of the most successful artist we had on the West Coast for the last 10 years and it goes the same in the South. No disrespect to T.I., but itīs cats like UGK and Bun B, Three 6 Mafia who have been running around doing their thing for many moons and these are the type of cats that deserve a throne in the South"

[SwissThaBizness]

I like Hot Dollars Music. I don't know him, but from this interview he seems like a real kool dude.

[h2k4]

Thanks for the interview.  Hopefully the September date will stick.