S l i m T h u g new interview

[Elano]

HipHopDX: Growing up in Houston, how did you get your start in rhyming and in the street life?
Slim Thug: I grew up in the streets, man. That just was natural. I’m the youngest of seven with three brothers and three sisters. So, I was around the streets my whole life. I started rapping when I was seventeen and got with Michael Watts. That was at a little party. I did a freestyle. They told me to get on a mixtape. I got on that mixtape, and been getting money ever since.

DX: In one of your songs, you say “money brings you problems, so I got a ton.” What types of problems arose from money and fame for you?
Slim Thug: Hatred. Jealousy. Everything, man. Money is devilish, really. You’ll lose family, friends and all kinds of stuff over money. That’s just how it goes. If you don’t got nothing right now, you don’t see a lot of the snakes that’ll appear if you get some money. Like, if you hit the lotto right now, there’s a whole lot of snakes that you think is your friends right now or your family members who’s really down with you, you’ll find out that that ain’t the truth. So, the more money you get, the more problems you’ll get. Definitely.

DX: How were you able to navigate through all those snakes?
Slim Thug: Right now, you gotta be black-hearted to a lot of stuff. Me, personally, everybody be all, "You selfish! You don’t do nothin’!" Everybody hit me with that, but it’s because I done gave so many people chances. I do people like people do me. When I go get a card, they check my credit. If you want something from me, you borrowed some money from me and you don’t pay it back, your credit is denied. You can’t come at me asking for nothing! That’s how I do. I give people credit, just like everybody else. If you got good credit, I give you something, you give it back, it’s good. But, if you don’t, I ain’t giving you nothing! So everybody be like, "Slim’s selfish!" But, that’s how you gotta deal with them, though. It is what it is.

DX: A few years ago, it seemed like everything coming from the southern part of the United States was platinum plus. Now, it’s hard for a lot of artists to succeed in that manner from every region, not just the South. How did you see Hip Hop change since your last official retail album?
Slim Thug: Man, people ain’t sellin’ like they used to! I ain’t gonna lie, cats like Lil Wayne sell three million, though. But, it’s rare you see an artist that sells that many records, though. There used to be a lot more artists selling a lot more records. We goin’ through the recession right now, though. People are struggling man, everywhere.  Everything is tough right now. You just gotta stay on your grind and stay afloat and hopefully everything will come back up.

DX: In “The interview,” you say, “I do rap cause makin' hits pays my bills.” With the economic meltdown and CD stores shutting down, how will this still be possible? What are some ways to still succeed in these trying economic times?
Slim Thug: Right now, through this recession thing, I ain’t gonna lie, man. I’m a little confused. I’m kind of scared, more than anything, to invest my money in anything. Everything is going bad. Houses, everything. I’m not like no dude that’s 100%…I just got people who’re smarter than me in different areas and that’s how I invest. But, right now, I’m just gonna hold what I got because everything is so risky. I never just depend on one thing to keep my bills paid. I love rap and I’m happy that it do pay my bills but at the end of the day, I don’t depend on that solely. That’s why I can drop an album like three years or four years, or however long it’s been since I put my last album out and still be good. I ain’t starvin’

DX: Let’s talk about this upcoming album. It’s gonna be on an independent label. Can an artist bring the same kind of quality that he puts into a major label release with that budget, to an indie? How? Why don't other artists do it?
Slim Thug: It’s a smaller budget, but at the end of the day, do Timbaland or do Pharrell or do all the big producers, do that make you? Do you gotta have that to shine? That’s what it all boils down to. Or, you can’t tone that down a little bit? Instead of getting four or five or six big producers on the album, can you get some local cats, or  other cats that just hot who probably ain’t been out there as long and ain’t gonna charge you as much? And then get a few of the big names? That’s how it is. You just gotta be able to work it out like that. Me, personally, I don’t want an album with everybody, with every song I got on there is with the big dogs like Timbaland and Dr. Dre, all the big name producers, like Kanye West and you know, a whole album of that. It probably won’t have no substance. I’ll tell you for example, like my favorite Young Jeezy album was the first one (Thug Motivation). He ain’t have no big name producers on there. But, the second one was jammin’, but it just ain’t my favorite, and he had big producers on there. It’s like that. The big name producer don’t make the artist, if the artist is the truth.

DX: Speaking of big producers. You were rumored to have recorded a song with Dr. Dre. Whatever happened to that track?
Slim Thug: I’m not on Interscope [anymore], so it stays over there. But, really, it wasn’t gonna be able to get cleared anyway. They ain’t clearing nothing until Detox gets out. They ain’t clearing nothin’ for nobody. It is what it is. But, I was just honored to have that. I did that, put that out there, and everybody heard it. I did do another version of ["I'm Back"], so it’s gonna be on the album with Devin the Dude. It’s definitely gonna be on the album.

DX: With or without the Dre beat?
Slim Thug: Nah, it’s not the Dre beat, but it’s another beat but the same song. 

DX: You were talking about them not clearing the song and labels…Label issues seem to bother careers, or curtail them. How have label problems affected your career?
Slim Thug: Man, labels…They tried to take me out the game, man. I was over there on Interscope and when I signed the deal or whatever, put the first album [Already Platinum] out, I was trying to get off the major label deal for the longest. That’s what took me so long to drop another album. So, labels can kill your career. That’s what they plan is to do. If you ain’t working with them, then they tryin’ to do that. At the end of the day, they try to hold you up and tell you that you not hot no more or something like that. I was definitely lucky to get out of my situation. I thank Interscope/Geffen for letting me get out of the situation. I had to spend money. I had to pay ‘em money off of [Boss of All Bosses] , also but for me to be able to do my own thing, instead of being stuck over there for four more albums, I’m blessed to do that. I hate dealing with labels, man, because I’m not an industry dude and it make you not want to rap, man. Real talk.

DX: About when did you feel like giving up on rap?
Slim Thug: Just dealing with the major labels. It’s so much bullshit when you work with major labels, man. It’s ridiculous, dog.  When you really a boss, and you gotta sit in the meetings and it ain’t your manager, it ain’t your CEO handling all the bullshit. When you actually in there, it takes away the art. Some people need to just be artists and that way, they can stay lovin’ it and stay on that side of the game. But when you deal with the bullshit side of it, it could make you sour about the industry.   

DX: So, were there any pluses to being on a major?
Slim Thug: Yeah! It wasn’t all bad. Interscope did a whole lot for me. They brought me everywhere. They gave me a visual that was out of this world. Everybody, not just in America, but in a lot of other countries, they knew who Slim Thug was, thanks to Interscope, you know what I’m saying, Interscope/Geffen. They’re a great company. I think they’re probably the best. I just couldn’t get on the same page with them.

DX: Was it that you couldn’t see eye-to-eye?
Slim Thug: You know what? I’ll tell you what the whole issue was. I signed to a certain A&R. I signed to a president over there at Geffen and all these people, the whole staff. Actually, the marketing staff and everything, man…and it was perfect! I had no problem. They was all good. They took care of me to the fullest. Then, they ended up changing staff on me! After I dropped Already Platinum, later, they changed staff on the whole company. That’s just what labels do sometimes. They changed up they staff. So, when they got rid of that staff, a new staff came through and I just never got on the same page with them.

DX: You talk about moving glocks instead of rocks in a song, what kind of regrets do you have from that time period, if any?
Slim Thug: What you mean, like from the street life to the rap life?

DX: Yeah. Any regrets in general?
Slim Thug: I mean, I don’t regret nothing, really. At the end of the day, everything I been through made me what I am. I ain’t mad about it. I ain’t mad about nothin’, man. I ain’t do nothin’ that’s too gruesome where I feel like I need to take it back. I feel like I’m a straight dude. I don’t fuck with nobody if they don’t fuck with me. So, it’s all good.

DX: It’s all part of being a boss?
Slim Thug: Yeah, man. It’s all part of being a boss. It’s all part of living life.

DX: For you, what does being a boss mean? I know it’s always been a real theme for you. So, what does it mean to be a boss to you?
Slim Thug: Runnin’ everything you got, man. Runnin’ everything! If you’re the boss, you in control of everything. When it comes to your money, and everything else, you call the shots. You the one tellin’ motherfuckers what to do. You ain’t the one on the sidelines taking orders.