C-Murder interview from Murderdog

[ABN]

C-Murder interview
By Moke Kelkome

Damn, I didn’t want the next time we spoke to be under these circumstances. How you hold up? What’s going on with your case?

I can’t speak on it in detail, but my case is still the same at the moment. My last appeal was denied, so now we are appealing to the Supreme Court of the State of Louisiana.

Are you presenting any new evidence?

No new evidence, we’re asking for a new trial. We’re pulling out all stops and calling in all favors to get a new trial.

There has been a lot of pressure thrown at No Limit over the years that really hasn’t been addressed.

Basically the folks are trying to get to my brother by using me. There’s a backlash against what we all stood for as far as independence. It’s been going on for a while with different people around us. Mac, Kane and Abel and a few other folks. Maybe we got too big and had too much influence on the world. I don’t know.

Are you ready for another round of court and what the outcome may or may not be?

I’m ready. The time I spend when I’m not going to court is usually filing through more information and meeting with my lawyers. Basically working on getting my freedom. Everyday I start my day off strategizing. I have my media people running around working and my boys handle the music stuff now. My boy Purnell from the Calliope and my boy G-Money from Baton Rouge got that under control.

What are your better days like while being locked up for a crime you didn’t commit?

My better days? Visits from family and friends. My girl will come see me and bring my kids. I like to watch a good movie, and some days I like to shoot dice. Other than that, it’s the same shit different day.

Have you gotten bigger and start hitting the weights?

No weights in here, bruh. We do the water bag to compensate for not having that iron to lift. We take three trash bags and fill them with water. You can do curls to work the biceps or do overhead raises and work those triceps. You can get a nice little work out in besides the push-ups and sit-ups.

What about the food?

Middle school trays with small portions. Just enough.

Now where are they holding you and what is the history behind the institution?

I’m in Jessup Parrish, which is 20 minutes from New Orleans. This is the place where David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader, got his start in politics. So you know what type of system I’m dealing with here.

Have cat’s approached you as C, 50 Dollarz or Corey Miller since you got there?

Both Corey Miller and C-Murder. Niggaz know me from the N.O. so they look up to a nigga or just want to be cool.

Anybody ask you to rap or perform. . .

Yeah, but I had to straighten that out on my first day. I don’t want to hear nobody rap for me and I sure the fuck wasn’t gonna perform no rap for nobody else. I get sentenced for a crime I didn’t do and a nigga want me to rap. Naw bruh, I straightened that shit up right away.

I’m sure you had a an ill disposition when you got there under the circumstances.

My attitude was like, "Fuck this!" I was wildin’ out for the first year. Cursing everybody out and telling people to stay the fuck from around me, ya’ heard me. So, because of my attitude I spent a lot of my first year in isolation on lockdown. 30 Days at a time throughout the year. My attitude was real shitty because I knew I was being locked up and sentenced for some shit I didn’t have anything to do with. The system is fucked up and we [Black people and all Americans] need to do a better job of spreading awareness about the judicial and penal systems of this country.

How long did all this last?

It took a year for me to adjust my attitude and get my mind right. All that time in isolation actually did my some good as far as dealing with the situation as it is now. I’ve been locked in here for three and a half years now. I’m better in how I deal with my attorneys and my family, so a nigga just gonna keep it movin and apply pressure on all fronts to overturn this bullshit situation.

Were you writing rhymes or thinking of songs?

Fuck no! The last thing on my mind was music. I wasn’t writing shit that whole first year. My mind wasn’t able to focus on that at the time. I was too angry and confused on what had taken place in that courtroom throughout the trial. People judging you, the D.A. making me out to be something I’m not, and accusing me of a crime I did not commit. The shit was unreal to a nigga. If it was shit I did, I would just have to accept my punishment and just deal with the outcome of the situation. But this shit here. . . the shit that happened in my case just showed me how much power these folk and this system have over our lives.

What calmed you down or gave you focus during this time?

I started reading and writing. I spent more time in the library just trying to wrap my mind around different ideas and philosophies to help guide me while I appealed for a new trial. The Autobiography of Malcom X, Soul On Ice by Eldridge Cleaver, any and everything that had to deal with personal struggle or political struggle. Being locked up for something you didn’t have shit to do with will put you in the mind to study these cats and criminal system like never before. I think on the outside, we kind of take that freedom for granted, especially when you making money with a good job. We leave that struggle to poor defenseless people who can’t afford a good lawyer or investigator to go through the details of a case. But the D.A. office have unlimited cash to make a criminal case out of anything or actually solve a real crime, because they use public money. Money from taxpayers pay for the investigators, research and whatnot, so the prosecution is always working at the advantage as far as they fucking resources when chasing a case.

Did you eventually get to writing?

Man, I got notebooks full of songs I’ve done over the last two years.

How did you record the music?

Once I was finished with the songs, I was done. No retakes, no re-edits. Just raw and un-cut.

Wait, so these aren’t old vocals with new producers?

No old vocals at all, bruh. I got fresh new tracks and new vocals. I brought some equipment in here and didn’t do my lyrics over the phone. I recorded my album in my cell. I’ve been getting 20 letters a day, I’m on the internet and doing radio shows in Brooklyn, N.O., L.A. and Rhode Island. I’ve been live on the air with New Orleans Wild Wayne [legendary DJ/air personality] who played tributes to me on the air. I’ve been on mixtapes by DJ Phat Phat, DJ Kay Slay, DJ Smallz and all over the West Coast.

What’s the name of the album?

The Truest Shit I Ever Said is the name of the album. It’s a mixture of feelings. A mixture of thoughts and emotions. I have about four notebooks full of rhymes. I record my shit then ship it home to be mixed and mastered.

Give me some of the highlights.

"Mama How Ya Figure" is one that I wrote right after my last time on lockdown. My attitude was still a little shitty, but it was something that I needed to say. As poor as we were in the Calliope it seemed that a nigga was destined for pain, so I kind of pulled all the bad experiences and mixed them with the lessons that my mom gave us. Everything she told was what we needed to make it to survive, but the world was a cold place and those lessons needed got drowned out by our environment and the way we was living.

Do you have a personal favorite?

Some of my favorites? The "Locked Up" re-mix I did with Akon. That shit is crucial right there. That there is hot off the press. I got a hot song I did with my boy Capone from Queens, NY. He was wearing a free C-Murder T-shirt on TV, so I reached out to him and we recorded a track together. Me and B-Geezy (B.G.) did a song together that KLC of the Medicine Men produced. You know Medicine Men used to be called Beats By The Pound. I got a whole bunch of hard shit on there. This might be my best album considering the situation with a nigga being locked up and all.

How did you and B.G. hook up? I thought that the whole tension between Cash money and. . .

B.G. and Slim (Soulja/Magnolia) was always hanging tight, and me and B.G. was tight, so we kept it all together. Me and Geezy have always kept it gutter with each other. What people didn’t know was that even with the whole No Limit and Cash Money situations, me and Geezy kept our friendship going. We didn’t have time for all that bullshit. We from the same city out here getting this money and making good music. We kept it real and never let the fame interfere with the fact we was cool.

You and KLC stayed cool the whole time.

KLC also did "My Life," which is the single. Carlos of Beats By The Pound did "Mama How Ya Figure." My man Howard from Baton Rouge did a few songs, and that boy right there is crucial. He’s gonna be the next great producer.

You kept your album cameos to a short list of people.

You just can’t do something with everybody. This album is my most . . . it’s just some personal shit, so I reached out to a few people. It took a lot to pull it off, but it got done. It’s the most personal, most heartfelt and historical sharp music I’ve ever done. My fans have never heard me like this before. Pulling pieces of Black social movements into rhymes that are so hard and mix in with that street shit so well. This might be the most crucial work anyone has ever heard from me. And it’s coming to you live from a penetintiary in Jessup Parrish, the central place that David Duke generated political influence.

I don’t want to dwell on the No Limit story, that’s for another time and place. But what do you regret most about how things just seemed to fall apart when things were at full speed?

The way we all just crumbled. That was disappointing to no end. I really don’t spend much time thinking about it, but we had so much talent in our camp and we just didn’t treat the situation like we should have as we got bigger. We had Mia X, Mac, Mystikal, Fiend, Snoop, TRU, my brothers P and Silkk, myself, Serv-on, Skull, and . . . man, we had a roster that was full of talent that was crucial. I think the biggest mistake was when we let our production team, Beats By The Pound, go and leave. Talk about crucial. Man, Beats By The Pound was what kept the camp together. That music was what turned No Limit into a household name. Yeah, as rappers we all had something to do with the album and our appeal, but the music changed Hip Hop. BBTP was the sound of No Limit and we let them get away over some business and then the whole thing crumbled.

Was it difficult dealing with all the . . .

Different personalities. We got bigger than what we could handle on our own and the egos started coming into it. The thing is, there is no manual on how to operate under that kind of pressure. Where do you go to learn how to deal with half a billion dollars? What class do you take to manage that much money, the personalities of the people you work with, and the mentality to spread your wealth in business while still being a creative muthafucka? At some point everybody stopped listening, and if none of us can take advice or aren’t able to make the best decisions, then what happened to us at No Limit is bound to happen.

Have you seen your nephew doing his thing on Nickleodeon?

Romeo? Yeah, I get to see him on the television. I’m proud of him. It’s strange, when I came in he was still a child, now he’s bigger and three years older. For the last three years I’ve watched my nephew grow up on television.

I can’t imagine the stress, homie.

It’s tough but I’m taking this one day at a time. I’ve been here for three and a half years. My concentration now, whether I get out or not, is to raise awareness about the penal system. I want to focus on recruiting drives for the NAACP and other civic minded organizations. We need to become members and support, so that we can mobilize and help people out who have been wrong and had their civil rights violated. I know it sounds wild coming from me now, and I wish we could have started this at the height of No Limit. Could you imagine how much influence we could have had in doing membership drives at that time? Man, that would have been crucial. But that is where my mind is at: becoming more active in the community and making some real changes in the system for everybody’s benefit.

You used to speak at schools on a few occasions when you weren’t touring in Germany or France.

Yeah, I didn’t really get it at first mainly because nobody big came to speak at my school when I was younger. But the more we kept doing it the more I understood my responsibilities. So any message coming from me the kids will know it’s real. Teaching the basics of life as far as responsibilities and duty to your family and community, that is my calling. I can’t let that slide. That is strictly my mission. I’ve been put in a situation. I was struggling since I was a child. Where I meet problems nowadays, I just deal with it. No point in getting stressed out about some shit you can’t control. I’ve been convicted of some shit I didn’t do and my mentality is to not give up on proving my innocence and be free. I don’t know how to give up. I’m not taking this shit sitting down.

What were you working on prior to this situation that got you jailed?

I’ve got the TRU Dogs project out there and you’ve already seen the Straight From The Projects DVD. I did those before all this bullshit happened. TRU Dogs is another DVD that is more crucial than Straight From The Projects. This one has more elements of what my life is like day to day. Anything goes and can happen is what people will see.

Now that you’ve got your mind right, what does TRU have in store?

We’re gonna start monopolizing TRU Records and making that a brand name for talent and good music. I was moving into more of the business aspect and assuming more of a CEO role before I got locked up. In fact, people don’t know that me and Slim [Soulja/Magnolia] was collaborating on a DVD about our lives and the music of New Orleans. But I got locked up on some bullshit and then Slim was murdered.

But you have a new movie ready.

I have a new DVD/CD that will be out soon called TRU Stories: From the Streets To The Block. It has seven all new songs and an exclusive interviews with me and my people Down South. Later this year I’m putting out three albums by my new artists Lolo [Baton Rouge], Krush [9th Ward New Orleans], and the Cutt Boyz. These are all cats who I met on the tier while I’ve been in here. Straight grimy style cats and they all get out of here in three months, so they’re going from the pen straight to the studio. I’ve also hooked up with the author Kwame Teague [Adventures of Ghetto Sam, Dutch] who is also locked up. We are going to do the soundtrack to a three part movie he’s putting into play based on his books. We want to include all the fans who have read the book into the movie, so anybody who is reading this take a picture of yourself with a copy of Dutch or Dutch 2 and send it tofleetwoodmaq@aol.com or TRU Records 141 Robert E. Lee Blvd, #154, New Orleans, LA 70124.

Anything else to say to the fans?

TRU Records is making big moves this year, and I’m waiting on word from the Supreme Court to get a new trial so I can make my biggest move getting out of here.

C-Murder can be reached at Corey Miller #58815110, P.O. Box 388, Gretna, LA 77054 or www.cuttboyz.com

[GangstaBoogy]

fuck c-murder