Slim The Mobster Complex Interview

[dubsmith_nz]

http://www.complex.com/music/2011/11/who-is-slim-the-mobster

Copied below so you don't have to go through the annoying Complex slide show thing.

About 5 years ago, Slim The Mobster randomly showed up to Dr. Dre’s Los Angeles studio and left a CD with his math written on a lottery ticket. His choice of stationary couldn’t have been more appropriate, because Slim soon hit the aspiring rapper jackpot. Fast forward to the present day, and dude has one of the most coveted spots in the game as a featured gun-for-hire on Dr. Dre’s long-awaited, highly-anticipated Detox project.

Hailing from the mean streets of South Central, Slim The Mobster is a rare breed in today’s world of studio Gs. A true veteran of the block, he’s managed to hone his rap skills to the point where he can handle this chance of a lifetime. Under the executive production of former G-Unit Records president Sha Money XL, STM’s first official mixtape, War Music (Aftermath, Gang Module), hosted by DJ Whoo Kid, is out today.

After previewing his new street release, we recently had a chance to sit down with the Mobster at a Hollywood studio. We discussed his musical mentors, Dr. Dre and The D.O.C., his plans for the Gang Module label, his Tumblr tastes, and his appreciation for Chris Brown. In true G fashion, STM doesn’t reveal much when it comes to his past—but we learned enough to know what’s really good.

Written by Jeff Sanico

Slim’s Musical Inspiration
Slim The Mobster: "I been around music my whole life, so I can’t really say what actually made me do it. It’s just something that I like. It seemed like fun before it was work. I knew when I was young that I could write music. I used to write dumb raps when I was a kid.

 Anything with Biggie on it, anything with Tupac, all that stuff. My first album that I bought myself was N.W.A. and The D.O.C.
 "I wasn’t really serious about music until like 5 years ago. I guess you can say I was expressing myself. Some of it wasn’t even rhyming.

"I think when I really noticed was in the 6th grade when I had to write a poem for class. It was real good. That’s one of the things that sparked the music.

"My grandmother used to play gospel music, oldies, Marvin Gaye, and things like that. Saturdays when she cleaned up, [there was] no TV on; just the music.

"[I bought] anything with Biggie on it, anything with Tupac, all that stuff. My first album that I bought myself was N.W.A. and The D.O.C. Those were things that were being played. Not in the fact of the time period, but because the music was classic."

The Street Album, War Music
Slim The Mobster: "War Music is my street album. It comes out November 8. [Ed Note: Dr. Dre pushed the release date back to the 9th so he could add one more track at the last minutne—Doctor’s Orders!] What I was really tryna do is make some different music and not something that got to be a dance song. There wasn’t no designated direction.

 I'm not into what people want me to be into. I'm not conforming, and I'm doing everything that I want to do.
 "We just went with the records that we felt were strong and had something to say. [For the mixtape beats] different producers sent records and some producers I’m cool with and I know personally.

"Silkk The Shocker did this one joint called “Fallen Star.” It’s a big record. [Also producing are] Jake One, Nottz—these dudes I know. [DJ] Khalil too, Bink!, and just a lot of producers.

"'Back Against The Wall,' which features Dr. Dre—that’s one of my favorites. Jake One [produced that]. The last records I put out are big to me, and of course 'Fallng Star' [featuring Nikki Grier and Sly]. I would describe my sound as alternative hip-hop.

"Everything has an alternative to it. It’s not really alternative, it’s just different. Being that I'm not into what people want me to be into. I'm not conforming, and I’m doing everything that I want to do. I feel like alternative hip-hop is what it is."

Slim On Meeting Dr. Dre
Slim The Mobster: "I actually went to his studio one day. I just went unannounced. I didn’t even know nobody there. I asked if I could leave my CD. I left my CD, wrote my number on a lottery ticket, and in the process of doing that Dre came while I was leaving my number and the CD. He called me back in minutes. It was actually his assistant. She was like, ‘Dre likes your music and he wants to work with you.’

"A few months went by and I met him. We talked and after that I was working. He’s the greatest. We got so many records that we’re still sifting and picking through, tryna make sure it’s as big as all his last records."

Working With Dre And The D.O.C.
Slim The Mobster: "I don’t know how much studio time we got. We got thousands of man-hours in this shit. It was a time where I stayed in the studio everyday. I been with [Dre] for like 5 years. Even with Snoop, when you get past who they are, then you can get to work.

"There’s always a—not intimidation, but you’re gonna cut the grass different when your dad is watching versus what he ain’t watching. If he in the house watching the football game, when you cut the grass you gonna be like ’I’m gonna hurry up!’ When he’s there watching, he’ll be like ‘You missed a spot.’

"[The D.O.C.] is like my uncle. I’ve known him for a long time. When I got into this situation, he didn’t even know who I was until he came into the studio. Dre was like, ‘It’s this dude Slim The Mobster.’ When he seen me he said, ‘You Slim The Mobster?’

"I said yeah, and he was like, ‘Get the fuck outta here!’ [Laughs]. We got the sickest chemistry ever. It’s like Kobe and Phil in their prime. He helps me. I love it. I know every song he has. I fuck him up [mentally] because I be rapping his shit all the time."

Slim On His Solo Debut, The Movie
Slim The Mobster: "It ain’t gonna be so much like my mixtape. I want to make sure that is separated. The music that I make for my mixtape is not the music that I make for my album. There’s a lot of freestyles and those things [on the mixtape], where when you make an album you have to put it together. I want to make sure I put my album together right, from the first song to the last song.

"I’m naming [my debut album] The Movie. Every song is like a scene to the movie. It’s me telling my story. It’s kinda like a movie when you think about a person that can really sit up and say ‘I just showed up to Dre’s studio with a CD like I’m gonna get on,’ and got on. Who does that? Oh, I do. Sorry! [Laughs]."

Slim On His Aspirations
Slim The Mobster: "I’m ready to put a suit on and have a chauffeur and shit. I’m focusing on establishing my label, Gang Module. I’m an artist on my own label. I got a couple of artists that I’m working with that I plan on putting out in the near future. I’m just dealing with my career first before I take on somebody else’s, but that’s my goal.

 My label Gang Module is like redemption because [in prison] Gang Module usually is where you put all the worst people.
 "My artist is Black Friday. That’s my first artist. For me, Gang Module is much deeper than what most people probably even think. When you go fill out an application, they ask some questions that most people I know are not gonna get the job [if they answer].

"Being that we know the circumstances and the situations, we plan on giving jobs to those people who can’t fill out that application. Everybody deserves a chance. That’s what Gang Module is. It’s like redemption because [in prison, the] Gang Module usually is where you put all the worst people. For me, I feel like I can make some good. I can’t make everybody good, but if I can affect one then I did something.

"[I want to get into] movies. I’m really into the movie thing—on screen, writing, directing, all of it. You got to keep adding these slashes to your name. The more slashes you add, the more checks you get. When you’re a director/writer, you get a director’s check and a writer’s check. [If you’re an actor too] you get an actor’s check, so I’m just going to add as much slashes to my name as possible."

Slim On Sha Money XL
Slim The Mobster: "Dr. Dre introduced me to him. I don’t think I got a word for what he is [to my career]. He’s everything. Most of the time when I’m in the studio he’s right there like ‘Yo son! Do that shit over son!’ He sold like 50 million records. That nigga got all kind of experience and shit to tell a nigga! He’s seen it all."

Slim's Family Ties, And How He Got His Name
Slim The Mobster: "XV, the kid with the green backpack, that’s my cousin. My other little cousin is Mic Phenom. He’s really big on the Grind Time Now, rap battle circuit. [The name “Slim The Mobster”] came from an older lady. I used to sell drugs out her house and her name was Slim. After probably like a year, I became Slim.

"Everybody was like, ‘Oh that’s Slim’s son. What up Slim!’ I just added the “mobster” later on. I was a youngster. I’ve known [infamous L.A. kingpinFreeway Ricky Ross] since I was a kid. He helped raise me around the second time he came home and was doing Street Institute and all those things."

Slim On L.A. Rap Life
Slim The Mobster: "When you talk about that, you got to remember we are a territorial place. The gang situation and all those things tend to spill over into the music. You can’t worship two gods, meaning when you become serious about one thing, you gonna be less serious about another. If you feel like you’re serious about both in the same way, then it’s a conflict of interest.

"I feel like that’s somewhat of our problem [in the L.A. rap game]. A lot of the dudes that parade around doing this and doing that, it’s not even them. Anybody that knows me personally knows that.

 A lot of dudes feel like they need to prove themselves, but if your name ain't ringing bells in the street from a few years back, what are you doing? I don't want to be the rapper that goes to jail now that I'm on.
 "I’m not a person that walks around with an ego or a chip on my shoulder. I’m a cool dude until otherwise. A lot of dudes feel like they need to prove themselves, but if your name ain’t ringing bells in the street from a few years back, then what are you doing?

"I don’t want to be the rapper that go to jail now that I’m on. I did that before [the fame]. When I look at rappers that go to jail when they got the opportunities, I look at that like, ‘Damn, I don’t want to be like that.’ I had enough of that.

"I already [been to prison]. I don’t want that to be a part of my career like ‘Oh he’s the rapper that always goes to jail.’ I couldn’t be known as the nigga off of Flavor Of Love or I Love New York. I couldn’t do it. Those type of things I pride myself too much on.

"With the gang thing, I don’t want to talk about it and give it life. People ask me those questions all the time and I tell them the same thing. I don’t want to be known as the dude from this block. When you get my mixtape, sit down and listen to it, you probably gonna hear “crip” one time on the whole entire CD. I feel like music means more to me than gang-banging.

Slim On Guns
Slim The Mobster: "Yes there was some gun imagery [at the party]. But due to the terms of my probation, those were, as I must state again, props [Laughs]! You can take somebody’s life with that thing. I don’t play with that. That ain’t nothing to play with.

"I’ve been to the shooting range before. I’m pretty good. I know how to shoot if i have to, in self defense. You can go to my YouTube channel and check me out shooting an AR-15. Forty yards—all head shots.

 I know how to shoot if I have to. You can go to my YouTube cahnnel and check me out shooting an AR-15. Forty yards—all head shots.
 "Everybody’s different, but this takes care of my kids so I take that a little bit more serious. Gang-banging only took away from my kids because I was in jail. All those things are negative, so I don’t want to give that no life.

"When you listen to the music, it’s self explanatory. It’s telling you everything you want to know,from me growing up young, the gang-banging aspect, and what made me change when my kids came.

"Those are the things that if you listen to my music I tell you. Like i said, I don’t make it into the light of a song that you’re gonna dance to. I want it to be something that you listen to, and then maybe you’ll figure out a dance to it."

Who Is Slim The Mobster?
By Rob Kenner | Nov 9, 2011 | 5:29 pm | Permalink
12 of 17
Slim On His Song “Gun Play”
Slim The Mobster: "When I put out “Gun Play” a lot of shit changed. There’s a particular part in the hook that says,’Niggas don’t want no gun play.’ When I say that, I mean I don’t want no gun play. I don’t want to have to kill anybody and I don’t want nobody to have to kill me.

"There was a point in time where I didn’t give a fuck about that, like ‘OK, I’m ready to die.’ When you got an opportunity and a chance to do something with yourself, then you think different. [The transition out of that lifestyle] is hard. It ain’t easy.

 I live in an all-white neighborhood. My kids be talking to white kids and shit, so I can't say I'm a super gang member.
 "That’s a lifetime struggle, only because I was so involved in my community that they know me for being where I’m from. I don’t want it to be in that light. I ain’t just about where I’m from no more. It ain’t like I live on my block.

"I live in an all-white neighborhood. My kids be talking to white kids and shit, so I can’t say I’m a super gang member or some shit. Hell no, nigga you live in Beverly Hills! Nigga we getting money. Leave that shit alone. We too old for that shit. I got little homies for that.

"[In regards to entering old hoods and being at risk] I’m even at risk in Kentucky. The ghetto is universal. When they made guns, they went everywhere. Drugs are everywhere. You got to navigate through that and not worry about it.

"Trouble is something that you can’t run from. It’s just about how you handle it and, if it’s a situation, always be smarter than the next man. Sometimes it’s cool to let him think he won. You really win because when you successful, you’re a target.

"A dude will take a black eye for a million dollars. For a couple hundred thousand, he’ll get his ass whipped at the club every week [Laughs]."

Slim’s Kids and his Hobbies
Slim The Mobster: "My hobbies are my kids and motorcycles. I love motorcycles. I’m a motorcycle freak. Dirt bikes, 4-wheelers, motorcyles, all of those things. You can catch me on PCH Sundays. That’s my shit.

"I got 4 boys and 2 girls—13, two 5-year-olds, a 4-year-old, a 3-year-old, and a 2-year-old. Kids don’t take no for an answer. You can’t tell your daughter no when she needs diapers. That takes a different toll on you. I know some dudes with no kids that aren’t aware of the things that go on.

"When you got kids, you pay attention to the smallest shit because you have to in order to know where your kid is going. The thing that I really do love about myself is that no one is bigger to my kids than me. Barney is nothing compared to daddy. That’s big because most fathers don’t even spend time with their kids.

 I know how to out-slick my kids cause I know everything they could possibly think of. I know the signs if you're smoking weed versus a parent that never smoked weed.
 "I bring my kids to the studio because I want them to see that when I say I’m going to work, you know what it is so you’ll have a different respect for that money! When you get to spend it, you’ll be like ‘Daddy really go to work.’ Some people don’t do that. You really got to let your kids see what you do. That way they respect everything that goes on. My kids know certain things and I’m gonna make sure that they know it.

"I know how to out-slick them because I know everything that they could possibly think of. I know the signs if you’re smoking weed versus a parent that never smoked weed. Their son’s gonna be high as fuck and they gonna think little Bobby is crazy or he’s just hungry like, ‘Why is he eating everything?!’

"That’s another thing I try to establish. If you never been through nothing, how can you tell somebody about something? I can’t believe a person that never been a gang member—how you gonna tell me about gang-banging? A doctor can’t tell a technician how to change a motherfucking transmission, and [the technician] can’t tell [the doctor] how to do a heart transplant. It’s two different things. I feel like I’ve been through it all.

"That’s something like when you look at people like Tupac and Biggie. We’re just now getting their message and they been dead 10 or 11 years–longer than that. We’re just now like, ‘Damn, Tupac was really serious when he was saying this dude was a rat and this dude was this’ years later. I don’t expect people to even understand what I’m talking about right now."

Real Talk
Slim The Mobster: "I got this song where I say, ‘I don’t make music for the execs and offices/I do it for the poor and unfortunate/You know, the ones that wasn’t supposed to make it out that orphanage.” That’s who I do my shit for. It’s hard for a rich white person, or a rich person in general, to come and sit down. The places they scared to go is the places I be at.

"I don’t expect them to understand what I’m talking about right now like I said. Later on, they’ll be like ‘Damn, he was really saying something,’ but right now there’s so much other type of music. They want to be in the club with the bottles. That’s cool, but what are you saying though? You could put together the biggest words and they don’t mean shit.

 You could put together the biggest words and they don't mean shit. You gotta be really saying something.
 "You really got to be saying something. I never been to college, so when I hear certain things I’m like, confused. More people don’t graduate compared to people that do graduate. It’s easy to drop out, but it’s hard to stay in. You got to remember those things that everybody’s not meant to be a doctor and everybody’s not meant to be a lawyer. If there wasn’t a patient, then there would be no room for a doctor.

"Being the person that I am, for a person to get it, you have to be somewhat in the loop to know something. You can’t just sit in your office and sit on the computer and say ‘Oh, this is hip-hop.’ That’s not it because for me it’s a lot deeper. This is how I feed my family. When I get into anything that deals with feeding my kids, I take that serious. I feel like some dudes just take music for a party all the time, and it’s really not.

"You really have to be saying something. It was a time when rappers were really saying something. The Jay-Z’s say something—not even for the punchline factor. Jay-Z said, ‘I want to rhyme like Common Sense/Since I sold 5 mill I ain’t rhyme like Common since.’ You got to be really what you say you are."

Slim On Chris Brown and Kendrick Lamar
Slim The Mobster: "I like Chris Brown, Jazmine Sullivan, and C.J. Hilton. I rap all day. I don’t want to hear that shit when I get home. I like [Chris Brown] because he got naked pictures of Rihanna in his phone. Hi Rihanna [Laughs]!"

"I see [Kendrick Lamar] from time to time but we don’t hang out like that. We know each other. We cool. We kick it, but it’s not on a day-to-day basis. When I see him it’s love. I’m a loner. The more niggas, the more witnesses. I don’t need no witnesses. Y’all ain’t gonna tell on me!"

Ethics
Slim The Mobster: "If you turned 20-something and you start gang-banging, you are a fucking idiot. You ain’t got no list of goals prior to this shit? This shit, for me, is not what it used to be. I’ve seen dudes tell on dudes. I’ve seen all the things that’s not supposed to happen, happening right now. Like, the snitches are cool? Like it’s cool to tell on a nigga now because you get a Get Out Of Jail Free card? Nah, fuck that. That’s crazy.

 Like snitches are cool? Like it's cool to tell on a nigga now because you get a Get Out Of Jail Free card? Nah, fuck that. That's crazy.
/ "When those things come into play, it makes those dudes look cool because “shmucks” are on. They’ll be like, ‘We’re gonna overlook that he told on so-and-so.’ Nah, you can’t do that. That’s how you know that these dudes are frauds.

"If I know somebody is the police, I’m not gonna be around them. I’m not a cop. I got some friends that work as sheriffs and things of that nature, but I can’t at all talk to them like I talk to one of my homies in the street. He still is what he is. He has a job to do. These are dudes that I’ve grew up with and known for years. I seen them when I was in jail and they’re like, ‘What the hell you doing in here?’ Our relationship ain’t gonna go past that. I respect them as an officer.

"It’s crazy because people let those things go and overlook it like, ‘Oh he told on who? Oh, I didn’t like him.’ I don’t give a fuck if I didn’t like him. He told! You can’t fabricate paperwork to a certain extent. I seen some paperwork on dudes and it had “.gov” on it. That means something homie! You can say someone took the time to put that on the bottom? Nah homie, that’s real life [documentation]."

Slim On Tumblr
Slim The Mobster: "I got a Tumblr. My Tumblr crazy too. It’s going up right now. [I’ve got] so much ass on that damn thing. I got the illest Tumblr. Some super bad ones on it. I answer [fan] questions. I ain’t hiding from nobody. I’m out here man.

"Take a picture, shake hands, bring your baby, and I’ll sign an autograph too. I’m on that thing everyday! [I reblog] whatever turns me on or whatever I like. A big-ass booty [catches my attention]. I like girls with big booties. Not super or too much booty, like a fat girl [Laughs]."

[Dre-Day]

lol slim is so immature.

he says he moved out the hood and that he doesn't want to go to jail again, but recently he also bragged about that he did what he talks about on songs

[TRG]

"Silkk The Shocker did this one joint called “Fallen Star.” It’s a big record.

ahh... DJ Silk? lol

cool interview, im looking forward to his album, when ever it may drop.

[Dre-Day]

"Silkk The Shocker did this one joint called “Fallen Star.” It’s a big record.

ahh... DJ Silk? lol

cool interview, im looking forward to his album, when ever it may drop.

haha

[dubsmith_nz]

It sounds like from that interview DOC had nothing to do with him getting signed

[Lunatic]

Lol at Silkk. It was DJ Silk & Chocolate of course (known as The Ginuwin Draftz)

[Nima - Dubcnn.com]

Lol at Silkk. It was DJ Silk & Chocolate of course (known as The Ginuwin Draftz)

lmao at Silkk The Shocker.