40 glocc interview from ballerstatus.net

[Darksider]

40 GLOCC INTERVIEW w/ Ballerstatus.net 8/23

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40 Glocc: Outspoken
Wednesday - August 23, 2006

— by Jorteh Senah


If there was ever a criteria to be a member of G-Unit Records, it would probably read like this: must hail from a notorious neighborhood, must have a healthy appetite for beef, must have a pious devotion and loyalty to your label, and must be willing to work long hours in the mixtape circuit. PS: a fetish for firearms and multiple gun shot wounds is a plus!

In this case, 40 Glocc would be a no-brainer shoo-in. It seems like this underground veteran was born to shout the words "GGGG-Unit!" He has worked the West Coast's indie circuit since the late '90s, releasing two albums, Migrate, Adapt or Die in 1997, and The Jakal in 2003 as part of the Zoo crew. The group named itself after the infamous moniker of their hometown of Colton California aka "The Zoo." 40 would sport another infamous moniker after signing to the Infamous/G-Unit label (pun intended), a deal that was orchestrated by his manager Perfect Storm, who also managed Mobb Deep.

With Mobb Deep's G-Unit affiliation, 40 Glocc has found himself amongst what he calls "the dream team" of artists and producers, and is ready to lay down the work that will define his career. Read on as 40 speaks about his troubled past, his new beginning and how good it feels to be a G-Unit gangsta.

Ballerstatus.net: So what's life been like since you signed with Infamous/G-Unit?

40 Glocc: Life is so easy right now. It's like being on the dream team, like the Lakers or Bulls when they were poppin'. I don't have to worry about booking studio time or running down producers for beats, everything is laid out. It's crazy! They got me touring all out the country with them right now, getting my buzz bigger. Sh--, I can't ask for anything more. I mean, I ain't got my album release date yet, but that's coming. When there's more demand for 40 Glocc, that's when I'll have my release date, but until then, they just buzzing my sh-- up.

Ballerstatus.net: What's the craziest thing you've seen on tour with G-Unit, and I know you've definitely seen some crazy sh-- touring with them dudes?

40 Glocc: Man, I seen the craziest sh-- man. I mean, we done been all over the world. We went Japan and Australia recently, but the craziest sh-- I seen was in Canada. We were doing a show and these bitches just jumped on stage and started taking off all their clothes. They was ass naked in the theater. I told Havoc we bout to get locked up if these bitches don't put they clothes back on. The promoter heard me because I said it on the mic while I was rapping, and he was like, "Nah, it's all good, it's legal in Canada."

Ballerstatus.net: Well big up to Canada for that!

40 Glocc: [Laughs] Yeah, big up to Canada man. I love Canada. We did the whole tour out there it was poppin'.

Ballerstatus.net: I heard you've even been to the highly exotic and highly exclusive land of Monaco.

40 Glocc: Hell yeah! We went to Monte Carlo in Monaco. You got to know Prince Albert to get in there. Yo, let me tell this to these rap ass n----s who think they out there doing something man, if Prince Albert don't let you in Monaco, you ain't getting in motherf---er. I know none of these n----s got his number. Man, it's so poppin'. I'm in New York right now, we just shot the video for Lloyd Banks' "Cake" and "Throw Your Hands Up." The videos was crazy; there were a lot of beautiful females and you know G-Unit, we doing our thing. I got a new mixtape coming out with Whoo Kid called Outspoken: Volume 3, the Infamous/G-Unit edition. It's my first mixtape with G-Unit and it features the whole team, it's off the chain.

Ballerstatus.net: Will your latest street banger, "Where Them Hammers At" be on the Outspoken mixtape?

40 Glocc: Yeah, that's on there. It's looking real good right now; radio stations are picking it up and playing it even though it's a street record. I'm real surprised by that, so it's a great feeling. I've been getting a lot of spins here there and everywhere, from LA to the Bay Area.

Ballerstatus.net: I know you met Mobb Deep because you guys had the same manager, Perfect Storm, but before that, were you a fan of their music?

40 Glocc: F--- yeah!!

Ballerstatus.net: What's your favorite Mobb Deep album or song?

40 Glocc: Sh-- man, they got too many f---ing hits. My favorite song has to be "Shook Ones" though.

Ballerstatus.net: Growing up in California, did you listen to a lot of East Coast rap?

40 Glocc: Well, I listened to a lot of West Coast sh-- coming from Cali, but I listened to a lot of the East Coast gangsta sh--. I was never really into the backpack rapping n----s, like the n----s that use all the metaphors and all that sh--. I like real sh--, real music, real street; I want to hear something that I'm going through or the person next to me is going trough. I can't listen to all that metaphoric bull sh--. F--- a rapper, I want reality. N----s like 50, Mobb Deep, MOP; them type of n----s that was coming with that real sh--. That's crazy because now everybody who was coming with the sh-- is on G-Unit [laughs].

Ballerstatus.net: Now you were born in Texas, but grew up in Colton, California aka "The Zoo." I know its alias is pretty self-explanatory, but what was life like growing up in Colton?

40 Glocc: It's the sh--, I can't front. I can't lie and say that it's not hard for you, of course it's hard. It's not like it's the suburbs. But, you appreciate it when you come up in it. It makes you appreciate more sh-- in life. Even though you went through the hard times, you don't look back on it like, "Oh f--- that," you want to go back there and inspire by showing the fruits of your labor. It's real hard growing up out there man. It ain't no joke; you got your gang banging politics from your colors or what hood you from. You got to ride around with pistols or risk getting gunned down, it's just that type of sh--.

Ballerstatus.net: Were you involved in gangs?

40 Glocc: Yeah, I was and still am involved. I'm a Colton City Crip, but I'm growing from that and maturing as a person. But, that's where I'm from and I can't ever change that. Nobody can. Through all my trials and tribulations...I done got shot, been shot at, done the shooting. I got shot by the police, just a whole lot of bullsh--. I got way more respect for life now than what I used to.

Ballerstatus.net: Between 50, Banks and Buck, you have twelve battle scars. How do your bullet wounds measure up with the rest of G-Unit?

40 Glocc: [Laughs] I been shot like three times, but the one that really affected me is when I got shot by the police.

Ballerstatus.net: Care to explain your run in with the police?

40 Glocc: I mean, it was really nothing, it's self explanatory. I got into a shootout with the police and I got hit, I went to jail and now I'm out. Good lawyers and good money man [laughs].

Ballerstatus.net: At that point, had you begun to take your rap career seriously yet?

40 Glocc: I mean, I was rapping, doing my thing, but it was a period where I was still learning myself. I was running around making my songs and putting them out on the streets. Even today, I still make my songs and I give them to the streets because I feel like the streets need that type of sh--. It's like there's no more street music out there. N----s making all this commercial bullsh--, dancing and hopping to f--- around. I don't hop around every day, I don't dance every day and every morning. When we wake up, we don't go clubbing and dancing. We wake up, there's bills that got to be paid, your cousin might have got shot last night, just basic reality sh-- man. That's what we missing. I'm gone give that to you in my music. 50 give you that, but he ain't got no album coming out right now. Banks and Buck gone definitely give you that, and basically G-Unit gone give you that raw reality rap. What I'm giving to the game is the side from my coast, really showing you how we think and how we feel.

Ballerstatus.net: That being said, how do you find a balance between being street, but yet sill wanting to sell records? I mean you can look at your man 50, he puts out hardcore records, but still has many radio friendly club songs.

40 Glocc: I mean, that's a business move and that's being versatile. That's being real smart on 50's part, but if you really listen to a lot of the sh-- that people call commercial, them sh--s is still street. He still talks about poppin a n---- and hustling in them songs, so you can't really call it commercial. All I can say is that the people love it and they still give him radio spins from it. The stuff that I really call commercial is some straight up lollypop sh--, like "Laffy Taffy." That was straight up commercial. The stuff the Black Eyed Peas do is commercial. The sh-- that 50 do, you can't really say it's commercial, but that's the way people define it, so it is what it is. To me 50's sh-- is reality and I can relate to it.

Ballerstatus.net: What is the camaraderie like between you and the other members of G-Unit, like Spider Loc, Lloyd Banks etc.?

40 Glocc: Well, you know Spider cool. I knew him before he was on G-Unit and he knew me before my situation. So, we already had a background foundation from which we knew each other, so we hang. G-Unit is not a friendship, it's a marriage and it's the same with Infamous. So, when I say one, I represent the other at the same time. It's like a family up here, everybody eat, sh--, sleep, breathe and get money together. Everybody down here talks to each other every day, we hang out, we got each others back and we'll never watch nobody starve. It's not like your regular record label man, it's way different.

Ballerstatus.net: Have you worked with any of those guys yet?

40 Glocc: Yeah, Spider Loc worked with me on my new mixtape with Whoo Kid. This mixtape gone be crazy man. I'm a shock a lot of motherf---ers. It's called Outspoken, and the reason it's called that is because I speak whatever is on my mind. So, it's like when you watch TV and you see something you don't like and you speak about it, like that's not dissing somebody, it's just speaking your mind. On this mixtape, I'm speaking my mind on a lot of these n----s, so they can take it as a diss if they want to, or just take it as me expressing my thoughts on the bullsh-- they doing.

Ballerstatus.net: When would we be able to find that at our local bootlegger?

40 Glocc: Probably sometime in August.

Ballerstatus.net: A lot of rappers refer to particular instances in their life which lead them to leave the street life. Like 50 references the birth of his son and his brush with death as the incidents that lead to his moment of clarity. What was yours?

40 Glocc: Man, through all my drive-bys, walk-bys and set trippin, that honestly never crossed my mind. I really don't know, I guess I just got to a point where I was like, "Damn 40, what is you doing?" I was always a hustler and I was always making money, so it wasn't that. I was doing that sh-- and making money, just young and trippin', but I would have to say it was my manager Storm that made me change. He's always been like a brother to me and telling me I need to chill. I was in and out of jail and he would always bail me out; and he just convinced me and I was like, "Ok, I'll give it a try." Till this day, he still tells me to chill [laughs]. My kids probably had something to do with it as well.

Ballerstatus.net: How many kids do you have?

40 Glocc: I got two, a boy and a girl. My little son his name is Ero. As a matter of fact, he call himself Little E. He's nine-years-old and he be rapping and sh-- [laughs].

Ballerstatus.net: He wants to be just like his pops huh?

40 Glocc: Yeah he learns from his pops, as a matter of fact, he's on my Myspace page right now and he got his own Myspace page. He's on my top eight [laughs].

Ballerstatus.net: He's in training at a young age. Would you ever consider putting him out as an artist?

40 Glocc: Yeah maybe, but right now, I'm working with my little homies called the Zoo Babies. They real dope and they just turning eighteen. You'll be hearing them on my new mixtape. They got that fire straight out the West Coast.

Ballerstatus.net: What lessons did the streets teach you that prepared you for the music industry?

40 Glocc: What the streets taught me is that you got to treat this music sh-- like the streets. Like in the streets, you can't let anybody run over you or you'll be labeled as a punk. In this industry, you can't let people run over you or you'll never succeed. They will block you out from getting what you want and all that. There's definitely some industry politics that you got to deal with. You got to know who to sock and when to sock them at the right time. You just can't walk into a label and sock a motherf---er in the mouth, you got to think bigger on certain sh--.

Ballerstatus.net: A lot of people might have just heard of you since you signed to Infamous/G-Unit. They may think you popped out of nowhere and you're an overnight success, but you've been grinding in LA's underground for a while right?

40 Glocc: Yeah that's what a lot of these fools don't know, 40 Glocc wasn't spoon fed like a lot of these motherf---ers in this rap sh--. When I say spoon fed, I mean, they just hopped in the game and got a deal, and me I been in this. I always had to do my own mixtapes, I always had to do my own sh-- and I was always independent. Don't ever get it twisted and think that 40 Glocc just came out of nowhere like that a--hole Game. That n---- is spoon fed, that's why he don't respect nothing. When you just get handed something that you didn't have to work hard for, that's the way you act. He ain't got no loyalty or no respect, he was a buster before he even got spoon fed, so that just added up to the way he is now.

Ballerstatus.net: Seems like your willing to take on all challengers coming G-Unit's way.

40 Glocc: Like I said before G-Unit is a marriage and when you violate a family, it's only right for family to stand up. I look at it like this, if you got a home base and only one person is protecting home base, then everybody could get to that one person and your empire could crumble. Somebody got to be out there protecting home and I will stand out in front of that bitch with a tech cuz. That's how G-Unit is; everybody stands out and protects home base.
http://www.ballerstatus.net/features/read/id/17337195/
 

[maudizzle]

If there was ever a criteria to be a member of G-Unit Records, it would probably read like this: must hail from a notorious neighborhood, must have a healthy appetite for beef, must have a pious devotion and loyalty to your label, and must be willing to work long hours in the mixtape circuit. PS: a fetish for firearms and multiple gun shot wounds is a plus!

In this case, 40 Glocc would be a no-brainer shoo-in.

LMAO


good read though, props