Last week I was able to link up with Willie The Kid for an interview over the phone. Willie was our "Emcee of the Week" last week and has been grindin' hard as of late, promoting himself and his label Aphilliates Music Group with DJ Drama and Don Cannon. He's put out five official mixtapes and one 13 track EP album in the last five years as well as collaborating on numerous mixtapes with his older brother and former Wu-Fam member, La The Darkman.
We spoke for close to an hour regarding his music, the Hip Hop game, his label and his partners in rhyme. Read below to hear what this next generation Hip Hop pioneer had to say regarding this crazy game we call Hip Hop:
MONEY MIZ: What's good Willie? Thanks for takin' the time out to build with me tonight. Let's get right into it though. What's goin' on for you in 2010? What projects you got in the works for this year?
WILLIE THE KID: I'm actually pushin' some joint that's already out. I'm pushin' "The Fly" still, some people don't understand that mixtape was very, very important to givin' the listeners a glimpse of what Willie The Kid is about and what I like to do musically, ya know what I'm sayin'? So we pushin' that project, DJ Drama, Head Dibiase, Willie The Kid, it's called "The Fly" and I got another joint out right now called "The Outkast" I did with DJ Scream. I basically just went in on all of these, um, Outkast/Organized Noize joints ya know what I'm sayin'? That's out right now you can catch that one too. We in the studio right now recordin' a new mixtape called "The Cure" with me and DJ Woogie and, um, it's crazy nah'm sayin' and I'm basically just comin' up with some new and creative shit to build up the resume up. I'm also workin' with my homey Lee Bannon out in California and we're puttin' together a project called "Never A Dull Moment" where we basically goin' back to the grain, Nah'm sayin' on some '90s shit, but current up-to-date. It's kinda from that cloth that niggas probably forgot about ya nah'm sayin' especially rappers. Rap has a totally new, diverse sound right now and I'm totally wit it, but I think this project is a little bit of the new mixed with, I'm not gonna say old, but mixed with that classic sound you know what I'm sayin'? So this is kinda crazy.
MONEY MIZ: Hey yo, I feel you 'cause I really think heads forgot about that classic sound. I mean we can't stay in the '90s for ever but...
WILLIE THE KID: Nah, hell no! I'd never say that.
MONEY MIZ: Word, but I think that classic sound is what I think, you know, Hip Hop is lacking right now.
WILLIE THE KID: Hell yeah!!! I think a lotta people are moving without any regard for who built this shit, nah'mean? About what the music was about, like I'm all wit takin' on new forms and new shapes and new sounds. I'm totally wit that. I wanna be someone who was a leader of a new sound, a leader of a new movement in music, definitely, BUT I don't ever wanna forget where we all came from and why we began listenin' to Hip Hop and pursuing this music thing in the first place. Anyway I can hold onto the true principles of this shit whether it's the lyrics or whether it's the content or if it's just movin' with my crew or any little thing like that like doin' free shows in the hood, anything that reminds me of why the fuck we're here man I can not let go of it. So that's why I'm really happy about them projects man you know what I'm sayin'? We go La The Darkman new album comin' soon, it's crazy, and DJ Drama "Gangsta Grillz 3 The Album" comin' soon so we're just workin' man.
MONEY MIZ: Word, y'all really are puttin' in that work and it's showin' in the music lately. Now that you mention La The Darkman, I know he's your older brother. That must've been crazy groin' up during the time he dropped "Heist of the Century" as part of the Wu-Fam. I mean you really were surrounded by some classic shit back then. You must have good music just runnin' through your genes!
WILLIE THE KID: (Laughing) Yeah, I tell people all the time, like don't be surprised I'm a black belt 'cause I was raised in the dojo ya nah'm sayin'? So like bein' around all that shit bein' young it was natural for me to feel how I feel about this music shit.
MONEY MIZ: Word, and you grew up in Michigan right?
WILLIE THE KID: Absolutely.
MONEY MIZ: So what was it like comin' up in Michigan and then movin' to ATL with DJ Drama? I mean it's kinda like different sounds from different towns basically right? So I feel like you got the midwest style kinda mixed in with the ATL production and it's kinda fused into a whole new sound that's pretty ill.
WILLIE THE KID: Yeah, I appreciate that man. I just think it's a natural progression for me 'cause my family was from New York originally and then I moved out to Michigan with my mom but a lot of my aunts, uncles and cousins stayed in New York so I was constantly goin' to New York all the time when I was young so I already had that influence in me. We was the kids on the block known as "the kids from New York" in Michigan so we was different in that respect, you know what I'm sayin'? Then I always had family from the south and we was always visiting for family reunions and road trips and shit. I picked up on that early. When Master P and them was jumpin' off, I was in the south when that shit was new, so I was pickin' up on that. I was seein' what made people move right. Watchin' MTV and Rap City and we was on Wu-Tang and Mobb Deep and shit like that and Tribe Called Quest, but then we went down south and there was other types of music and that opened up my eyes a little wider, nah'm sayin'? So havin' exposure to New York, down south, and Michigan where niggas was listenin' to everything from Bone Thugs-N-Harmony to fuckin' Ice-T to whoever and mixin' all that shit together to then ultimately movin' to Atlanta it was like all that shit just came together naturally for me and it comes out in the music.
MONEY MIZ: Yeah, I agree that it really shows in your music. I mean up here in NY mutha fuckas hate on southern Hip Hop and I know I have in some instances, but regardless all regions have some good music. I mean the East hates on the West, North hatin' on South but everybody has some good shit out there. Not everything is good, but the good shit is good, ya feel me?
WILLIE THE KID: Hell yeah, the good shit is good. Yup, the good shit is good. And you can't hate on that. I mean if you look at it the most successful rap artists always branched out and tapped into different markets as far as their sound was concerned. Real musicians. I mean you got Jay-Z who would do "cough up a lung where I'm from, Marcy son" and then turn around and do "Big Pimpin" with UGK. It was like you gotta RESPECT what it is man. You gotta have an ear that goes beyond your neighborhood, nah'mean? For me, I was blessed naturally to get exposure to all those different regions and I didn't have to fake it or do it for marketing purposes.
MONEY MIZ: No doubt. What I personally think separates you from the competition is your flow. You have quite the ability to ride a beat in a calm, cool manner. I'd kinda compare your calm demeanor on the mic to D'Angelo's calm demeanor in the towers from HBO's "The Wire." Your flow is practically effortless where you kinda become another melody to the beat. I first heard you on the joint "When The Money Comes" with La The Darkman and then "Get You A Gun" produced by Don Cannon. I was literally hooked that summer. The way you flowed, it was like you ain't even tryin' my dude!
WILLIE THE KID: (Laughing) Good lookin'. Haha. Yeah Don Cannon was on that beat for sure.
MONEY MIZ: So how did you ever link up with DJ Drama and Don Cannon down in ATL? How'd you get down with the Appilliates and all of that?
WILLIE THE KID: I gotta stress this to people all the time. I didn't link up with the Aphilliates. I built the Aphilliates too, you know what I'm sayin'? Like I was here when it wasn't shit, when niggas was DeeJaying clubs and niggas was rappin' at Drama's crib. We was just plain doin' music nah'm sayin'? Then a couple of things started to pick up as far as the mixtapes concerned and the parties and shit and me rappin' and doin the little circuits in Atlanta and that type of shit. Shit started gainin' momentum, so we just brought it all together. Then we called it the Aphilliates, know what I'm sayin'? So I was always the young kid runnin' around Drama
and them rappin'. I was always been that guy. I didn't meet Drama after the Gangsta Grillz blew up and then I gave him a demo tape, it was nothin' like that. As far as my demo tape, I did the demo tape WITH Drama and Cannon and La and everybody there with me.
MONEY MIZ: How'd you meet Drama and them?
WILLIE THE KID: I met Drama through Cannon, Cannon through his cousin. His cousin had recording equipment and lived a couple doors down from me. He was always bangin' music back then. The equipment though was actually Don Cannon's and I never knew. I talked to his cousin tellin' him I wanted to get on and wanted to record some shit with him if he had some beats. I said I'd rhyme on other niggas beats, it don't matter. I told him I was from Michigan my nigga and this, that and the third. I was like, "I wanna do four songs: a girl song, a radio song, a street song, and a south song." I was ignorant. He said "cool I gotchu, but this ain't my equipment. When my cosuin comes through he'll record you and knock it out." So I used to go through there and freestyle all the time with mad niggas comin' through. One time he recorded us and I didn't know, nah'm sayin'? He told me he did later and said that shit was crazy. He played it for Cannon when he came through to get his equipment. Heads had been tellin' Cannon to check for me, but he didn't really till he heard that tape. He called me to his crib and shit and I spit for like ten minutes straight. Everybody went crazy in the crib. So me and Don just started makin' music. He liked what I was doin', I liked what he was doin'. And I gotta emphasize bro, Don Cannon was not a well known dude at that point. Like nobody knew who he was, you nah'm sayin'? He was some young kid who wanted to make beats. He didn't even have a fuckin' beat board. He was DeeJayin' parties wit Drama and doin' music wit me. So Don brought it together and was like "you come with me and Drama to the parties or whatever and when we do mixtapes, you can jump on the mixtapes. Then La always been there the whole time too.
MONEY MIZ: Man, that shit came together nicely, 'cause you guys pretty much took over in Atlanta. Did you guys expect that shit to happen or...
WILLIE THE KID: Yeah man, honestly I'm not one of those to say yo "I never thought, I never thought." I always thought this way man, nah'm sayin'. Like even just seein' what La was doin' when I was little. He'd pull up to my grandmother's crib and they'd open the truck with boxes of CDs, fliers and t-shirts and shit. I was a little kid and he let me know we could do this shit for real. I went from bein' a fan of Hip Hop to bein' somebody who thought one day I'd be able to really do this shit from watchin' what he was doin' ya nah'm sayin'?
MONEY MIZ: Well you guys are definitely doin' it for real and doin' it well. Movin' on to your latest project "Outkast Mixtape," my main question is how in the fuck did you pick the beats for that? I mean how difficult was it to narrow down all those ill Outkast beats and ultimately pick the ones that you did for that mixtape?
WILLIE THE KID: (Laughing) It was, um, like the whole tape came from me havin' respect for Organized Noize the producers who do all the Outkast beats. Like I always wanted to work wit them and I never seen them doin' beats for nobody other than Outkast, ya nah'm sayin'. I never stumbled on one of their beat tapes. So the only way I could work with them was to rap on the Outkast instrumentals, you know what I'm sayin'? So I respect, um, the live instrumentation they use and the original melodies and sounds they use. Not the same old keyboard or pianos or the same old 808s off the MPCs. It was all original shit ya know what I'm sayin', so I fucks wit that. As far as pickin' beats, I picked a lotta beats. I had a playlist of like 40 beats and I recorded about almost 30 records for this mixtape and we just used the top 14 or 15 of them, nah'm sayin'? I wrote that whole tape in probably about three days and then recorded it in like two days, nah'm sayin'? Shit was crazy.
MONEY MIZ: Wow. That's some shit right there. As far as bein' able to write that much and that quickly, who would you say is your favorite emcee or the emcee you look to most for inspiration?
WILLIE THE KID: La The Darkman. Yeah, I listen to my brother's shit a lot man. 'Cause I can identify wit everything he's doin' as far as the art to the lyrics to the beats to the everything. I think La is the most... I don't wanna use this word 'cause it's so cliche, but he's the most official rapper I think damn near ever to do it. As far as gettin' on the mic, sayin' some shit and you really mean that and you really can attest to that and it's really about what you're sayin' it's about. I know a lotta guys who done real shit in their life and I don't mean shoot your gun real, I mean like some real life shit, ya nah'm sayin'? A lotta guys say they did it, but I never seen it. I seen HIM do it. I seen it. Rappers talk a lotta shit man. Niggas get paid to say a lotta shit. La don't just talk shit man. His shit more like reflectin' on shit then just talkin' shit. And I don't even mean just street shit my nigga, just real true to life shit nah'm sayin'? His shit is real. La's shit is real. So for me just to watch it, that gets me inspired. That's why I say La's the most inspirational rapper for me. Just 'cause of my relationship wit him I guess.
MONEY MIZ: Yeah yo, I feel you. I've actually read a lot about how La's stories are true to life shit. Speakin' of real shit, I love that track "The Real" you did...
WILLIE THE KID: No doubt my dude. That beat was V12 Da Hitman right there.
MONEY MIZ: I feel like findin' REAL Hip Hop is a lot harder to do right now. A lot of heads say Hip Hop is dead, but I don't think it's necessarily dead, I just think good shit is harder to find because of the media pushin' a lot of trash. What's your opinion on the state of Hip Hop?
WILLIE THE KID: Hip Hop ain't dead man, the Hip Hop
FAN is dead man. Like
THAT'S the problem. Everybody's tryin' to rap or produce or used to do somethin' now they wanna do rap all of a sudden and all the blog sites is what people started to turn to for popular opinions on what is or what ain't instead of sittin' back bein' a fan absorbin' shit and bein' entertained by it. You can't even talk to anybody about music 'cause either they rap or their man raps. You know, there's no more fans. And because there ain't no fans, it's makin' it really hard for people to appreciate the music.
MONEY MIZ: Word!!! It's like mutha fuckas don't wanna hear anything other than themselves no more. And now with the new digital age, anyone can get a program and make beats and shit. It's gettin' fuckin' ridiculous!!!
WILLIE THE KID: YEAH, YEAH, YEAH MAN!!! I remember bein' young and niggas who played basketball, played basketball. Niggas who was in the street, was in the street. The niggas who chased the girls, chased the girls. Nigga who had a job, had a job and the nigga who rapped, was the nigga that rapped. All them other people, they went to him to listen to some real music, you know what I'm sayin'? Now everybody else, you got the jock, the street nigga, you got the popular cats or whatever and they
ALL WANNA RAP. So the problem is that we're not performin' and creatin' music for a fan base anymore. We doin' it for niggas that think they just like us. So it eats away at the whole vessel, the whole pipeline for a fan base. People keep sayin' Hip Hop is dead 'cause there ain't nobody listenin'. Everybody think they an executive. For instance, you go to the barber shop and ask if they heard so and so's album and they like, "It ain't sell in the first week!!!" It's like
DAMN, we're talkin' about the
MUSIC not about the sales. I'm talkin about a nigga who work at FedEx, he's on some "It ain't sell the first week." You work at FedEx dog!!! You supposed to be a
FAN, not some fuckin' record executive.
MONEY MIZ: Word!!! Most people don't realize, back in the '90s "Only Built 4 Cuban Linx" didn't go platinum in its first week. It took a lot of time to get that plaque.
WILLIE THE KID: EXACTLY!!! But even to add on to that my brother, nobody ever says "how was the music?" "I like track number 4 who did that beat?" Or "I like the way he put song number 12 together." First thing they say out they mouth is "it ain't sell the first week." Like damn, what happened to the Hip Hop fan??? The nigga who's like "I like the artwork inside the cover" or "I like the fact that he put such and such on this track." That's why they say Hip Hop is dead, 'cause everybody wants to be a fuckin' record exec or a rapper and nobody has time to be a fan no more.
MONEY MIZ: So considering all of this situation, I know you're workin' on your own solo debut album right now. What are your plans for this album and how are you tryin' to make your own classic? Do you have a set time frame on its release or will you let it just come naturally?
WILLIE THE KID: I'ma let it come natural. Let it be what it be. I could put an album out, but actually I'm in no rush to do that shit right now. I think the best thing right now for rappers is to not focus on commercial releases and commercial success. It's very hard to achieve success as a new artist the way the game is set up right now. It's not a bad thing, it's just a true thing. The way it is now, you just gotta be somebody who's just loved by your fan base. As long as you do a show and they come see you perform, when you put out a mixtape they download it and tell their friends to check you out,
THAT'S number 1 now. Get a deal and put an album out is not the way it is anymore. Look at Gucci Mane. He is not profitable for his label, but he makes a killing on the road for himself and his management team because he's got a loyal fan base that reps for him at his live shows. And to me, to me, I think that's better. We takin' back control of our music, business, art work and all of that. Why should I let some suit take profits from all the shit that I put together?
MONEY MIZ: I feel you. Look at a dude like Saigon who had a crazy buzz and announced an album years ago and still hasn't dropped it. All he did was piss off his fan base instead of just making good music and putting out good music.
WILLIE THE KID: Yeah, yeah. I'ma add on to that right there. What is this whole shit about?
It's about making good music for the fans. It don't matter if I'm puttin' it out the trunk of my car. As long as the fans get good music. I'm not sayin' gettin' a deal is a bad thing. It's the ultimate goal, but you gotta arrive at a point in your career where it's the right time to do that shit. A lot of times, based on the level you on, it's better to do it yourself than go to a label. You probably could make more money just bein' who you are doin' what you do your own independent self. A Kanye West or Lil Wayne should have a deal. But a kid from Grand Rapids Michigan should do for himself right now, ya feel me?
MONEY MIZ: Word. That shit is simple mathematics. A dude who sells 20,000 copies by himself gets the majority of the profits. A dude who sells 100,000 copies on a label is considered a flop and makes no fuckin' money!!!
WILLIE THE KID: EXACTLY!!! Now what type of shit is that, nah'm sayin'? People gotta get a better idea about this "I got a deal" shit.
MONEY MIZ: You got any plans on doin' an album wit La The Darkman?
WILLIE THE KID: Yeah, yeah. We always stay workin' together. We definitely doin' an album together in the future.
MONEY MIZ: On a side note, I'm a big sneaker head. What's your favorite kicks of all time?
WILLIE THE KID: I like old school joints. I like the Ewing's from the "Just To Get A Rep" video. I like the Mutumbo's. The black ones that Rae had on, on 36 Chambers. Them shits. I can't find 'em nowhere. Yeah, them shits is tough.
MONEY MIZ: Aight to rap up here just tell all the fans about where they can find you and your music online.
WILLIE THE KID: Word.
Yeah you can find me on Twitter at:
www.Twitter.com/TheWillieTheKid
You can see my MySpace at:
www.MySpace.com/TheWillieTheKid
Also,
www.gangstagrillz.com for our label.
Really man, you can catch me in the streets. I come through, I'll be in your city. Peace fam.
Posts
