People aren’t getting signed nowadays by someone who doesn't wanna own them 100%, and labels don’t really break artists anymore. I don’t think that fits with just about anyone’s formula. I always put up the dough for production and pressing my own records. But I need to hold on to those masters since I mix it down and have it mastered myself out my own pocket. But in terms of a deal, I would need something similar to what Roc-A-Fella got from Def Jam they give 25% and have a large distribution outlet with support from a major. As a Latino with an overwhelmingly strong fan base of Latino people and someone who has plenty of White fans as well as Muslims and Blacks, I have a diversity wherever I move. You’re trying to be funny, but I’ll humor you. What would he have to come at you with to get you to sign a major label deal with G-Unit? A deal, not some piece of paper written in legalese that makes me a slave.ĥ0 Cent seems to be signing everybody these days. I’m looking for what a record deal-or rather, a P&D deal-should be. I’m not starving and broke and willing to sell my soul to them along with the rights to my masters and publishing. I mean, my agent won’t call me unless we’re talking $5,000 to $15,000. I get as much as many major label artists for shows.
I’m putting my sister through school and now medical school. I own three apartments and a house I bought for my grandmother in South America. I’m mostly Peruvian, so I put my money into investments. I got a Third World country work ethic, like the Haitians, Jamaicans, Cubans, Colombians. Even though I’m from Harlem, I’m not really flashy. I don’t need to pretend to be paid for anyone. I mean, before I even had distribution I moved about 10,000 on my own for $8 to $10.
SoundScan might give you some numbers that are lower, but the first 30,000 of Vol.2 I moved on my own and through a series of smaller distributors. As the VP and then the president of Viper, I sold 80,000 copies of Vol.2 and I sold about 35,000 of Vol.1. It’s about principle and about my success rate as the president of my own label. They keep trying to sign me as an artist and throw money at me without realizing that this isn’t about just paper for me. Is signing with a major label something you’ve considered? And I don’t think that our loyalty as a people should be either. I take that snitching shit personally because they didn’t break me or make me talk. I lost everything, in terms of money and my family, but I walked out of that cage and came home to NYC a man in every sense. I didn’t do that for street cred or ’cause I thought it was cool. I spent an extra six months locked up and a month in the hole over saying nothing to the police, even after my co-defendant sang like a fuckin’ canary. We should start a “Start Snitching” campaign for the government to come to terms with what they’ve done to us before we point the finger at another brother.
We need to confront child molesters and rapists, as well as the Church that-without any disrespect to Jesus Christ-could easily fall under that category too. We as a people need to start policing ourselves. The funding of the Taliban by America up to five months before Sept. The circumstances behind the War in Iraq. You want us to snitch? You snitch, muthafucka. Oliver North-who was funneling drug money and weapons to the Contras in Nicaragua-snitch on Reagan? Fuck outta here, nigga.
And what about the government? You heard the FEDs snitch on each other with it resulting in shit? What about the CIA? They kill snitches. We just do that all the time on the highway in Jersey and hope we get lucky. I’ve never heard one of them say, No, we had no reason to stop them. They want Latinos and Blacks to snitch on each other? They want the ’hood to snitch on itself? I’ve never seen an officer take the stand against another one and be like, Yeah, your honor, I saw my partner bash that kid’s head in ’cause he was Black and had an attitude. They want people to take the stand? Maybe they should walk around the blue wall of silence and take the stand themselves. If the police want people to start speaking to authorities, maybe they should start speaking to authorities. I hear a lot of criticism about it it destroys the community, that is creates distrust and prevents crimes from being solved. What do you think about hip-hop’s current love of all things “Stop Snitching”?