Luke Interview
By Scott Bejda
From Murder Dog Vol. 10 #4
Last time we talked you were working on your new album “The Don of All Dons”. Is it finished?
It is completed. It is due out in September but I keep moving it back because all these artists wanna appear on it. Every time I get ready to throw it out there people come and want to be on it which is good. We completed it at one time and then Petey Pablo came. After Petey Pablo
came
Trick Daddy, Jackie-O, Dirt Bag, Lil Jon, Pit Bull & all these cats came.
All of them are on there now. This shit is outta control. Then we did “Throw
The D” over with Ludacris. This shit is crazy. It’s good cause it shows that
cats got a lot of respect for me, for what I did for the South and hip hop in
general. People are showing a lot of love. They talked me back into doing songs
because it is needed. I’m happy about that. JT Money is on there. Mr. Mixx the
original producer from 2 Live Crew did a couple of songs on there. The whole
album has a crazy story to it.
Is that the first time that you and Mr. Mixx have worked together since 1995?
That was the first time since 1995. The chemistry was still there. It was like we never even stopped working. I appreciate him more as a producer than I ever did. I have always thought that he was one of the best in the world at what he was doing. At the same time I feel bad for him because he has not got the respect and credibility as well as the business that he should have. He’s a fuckin helluva producer.
He’s one of the inventors of Southern rap period!
He is the inventor of the sound of the South. Nobody wants to acknowledge him for that. He should be up there where Dre is. If you really look at it Dre and Mixx started at the same time. Unfortunately he came South and Dre stayed West. Both of them is from the West. Mixx had a West Coast sound and he modified it and is capable of doing any kind of sound.
Without 2 Live Crew the South wouldn’t be what it is today.
I think it would be totally different. If you ask Lil Jon what he is doing he will tell you that he is doing slowed down Bass ass. He has always been doing Bass also but he was doing r & b Bass. He just kept tweekin and tweekin and messin with it until he found a niche. Which is good.
Does it make you feel good that after all these years people are still doing the music today that you made popular years ago?
It makes me feel good when I go into the club. I’m straight! I feel real good. When I go in there I hear Lil Jon and then I hear my stuff and that is why I will go back into doing records. There are kids that are running to the dance floor jumping up and down like this is some brand new shit. Then when they hear my stuff it’s the same reaction. I’m looking at these videos and they all dancing the same way.
The videos that we see now, 2 Live Crew was doing it almost twenty years ago!
Exactly! People know where it comes from. Cats like yourself quickly let the public know.
I love it when someone tells me that Lil Jon started this. Then I have to give them a history lesson.
We all have to do that. When someone tells you something like that it shows you how long they have been in the game. Even Lil Jon ain’t gonna say no shit like that. I don’t even really get upset when people say stuff like that. It’s like “Where the fuck have you been the last twenty years?”
When you were working with Mr. Mixx was there talk about getting the group back together?
We talk about that all the time. It’s just so much shit going on between Fresh Kid Ice and Lil Joe Records, and Brother Marquis and Lil Joe Records that it seems like it is impossible. I have talked to everybody involved and there is so much shit tied up with this cat. After this album comes out with the throw back songs of “Throw The D” with me, Ludacris and Trick Daddy and “Move Sothim” with me, Jackie-O and Trick, people are gonna hear this shit and they are gonna want the real shit. I always wanted to do a tribute album where a bunch of artists do their favorite 2 Live Crew songs and then come back with a 2 Live Crew album. I think this is the beginning of the tribute album with what I’m doing right now. I would probably have to do about eight more songs with a bunch of other muthafuckaz and we will be straight.
Last time we talked you said you were gonna do a Snoop diss for the way he dissed you on TV. Did you ever record the Snoop diss?
Oh yeah it is on the album. It’s on the level of “Cowards in Compton”. I had a lot of shit to say.
I thought he was cool with you?
I thought he was cool with me too until after that shit happened on his show. I did the song myself. I did an angry record. It’s a “knock ‘em out the game” type of record it’s more of just give me my respect.
He said you were a washed up rapper, but Snoop never influenced a whole Coast and lay the independent foundation that you did.
That’s what I’m sayin. Don’t put me in the boat with those people. That’s like calling Muhammad Ali a washed up boxer. Nobody says shit like that about Muhammad Ali. Niggaz set the pace for niggaz to get money in the game and I feel like I’m one of them niggaz. I set the pace for cats to get money in this game back when we had to deal with racism with niggaz. When them New York cats didn’t want us in this business. We had to fight every night to get to perform. I had to fight every night. I got all the respect in the world for Russell Simmons, but he was one of the main ones who wasn’t trying to let no other hip hop get in the game.
They didn’t want you doing shows back then?
If you wasn’t from New York you couldn’t get on the stage. You couldn’t get on a tour. Rick Rubin and all them muthafuckaz was part of segregation. That wasn’t no different to me than back in the slavery days. It was when niggaz couldn’t do certain things. That shit runs deep. They wasn’t trying to have no Miami niggaz or no California niggaz in the game. That’s why every now and then you will hear Ice Cube lashing out. Ice Cube is the closest voice to Eazy-E as you can possibly hear. We was in the shit! We was getting locked out when we were selling a million records. So when a nigga like Snoop, being from the West Coast, talking about me like that, I think that’s fucked up. New York locked out both sides. I take that real personal. Don’t joke with me like that. don’t do me like that, dog. Have some muthafuckin respect for a muthafucka who set this shit up for muthafuckaz to get money. Know your history. I thought you knew better than that. I took that shit Snoop said real personal. Already I don’t get the credit I deserve from these muthafuckaz in this business.
You should have won awards for your contribution to the game.
Every time you see these award shows they are giving these niggaz life time achievement awards. I have not got an award yet from nobody. The only award I got was from the new music seminar for independent record company of the year. That was way the fuck back. That was it! You see these BET awards and Source awards and they just go right by a nigga. It’s like “OK, there they go again”. It’s like I ain’t did shit for this game. I have been to the supreme court defending this shit. I have been in front of Tipper Gore to keep this shit here. The whole game had to change because niggaz went in there and said they want their own shit. They had to modify the game because I fucked it all up. I showed people how to put their own shit and their own artists out independently. The whole fuckin game changed. Now you see where the game is right now. They all wanna act like they don’t know where the shit came from. If it was Russell or somebody like that then they would be happy to put their ass on Broadway. It took a lot to get me to go down to the Source awards. If I wasn’t introducing Trina then I would’ve never went to that muthafucka.
When you go to places like that do you feel the hatred?
There don’t be no hatred, it’s just people playin like they don’t know. People are really playin like they don’t know. I don’t go to places where I’m not wanted. I don’t feel like going to these award shows where they don’t recognize not only me, but other people too for the work they have done in this industry to get it where it’s at. They did a 25 year anniversary on hip hop. This is the first time I’m speaking on this. You mean to tell me that 2 Live Crew is not gonna be nowhere in that?
That is crazy!
They did that on BET. I say fuck these muthafuckaz. I’m on strike! I don’t want to see no goddamn BET. They try to feed the people that shit. Let them feel like Lil Jon started hip hop in the South.
How does it make you feel now that NY is all on the South’s dick?
Let me tell you my problem in this fuckin business. I’m not no follower! I’m a goddamn trailblazer and a visionary. I sit and think of some shit all day and I’m like four or five years ahead of these muthafuckaz. That’s why everything I always did was original. I told these people a long time ago. I told all these muthafuckaz. Even to this day with Def Jam South and Bad Boy South that ain’t shit. You need to put a record company in the South run by a muthafucka from the South that is capable of running a record company with South a & r people, South everything. It needs to be total South in the South. Not no satellite office that says we are Def Jam South, we signed Ludacris and Scarface runs it in an office that is never open. Don’t play like that with people. We do our shit a totally different way. Those labels don’t have any idea about Southern music, that’s why a lot of them get lost in the shuffle and they have so many one shot artists. They don’t put the same money and same marketing behind a Trina that they would put behind Lil Kim, or Eve. They feel that they could relate more to Lil Kim or Eve because they are from New York. They understand them more. They really still look at us like foreigners. They don’t be about building people’s careers in the South. They just be about reaping the awards and the benefits because the South is hot. Lil Jon should have been signed along time ago. We need a record company down here that is run the same way that I ran Luke Records, but using the machine of a major label. Not only would you put out records, but you would develop talent. Treat them like you treat Lil Kim, or Jay-Z. Create a Puff Daddy for the South. Not only build their record careers, but build them up as artists and individuals. They can’t do that because the guy sitting in New York can’t understand a muthafucka from North Carolina. In the South it’s a whole different language and a whole different vibe.
What about how Master P took over the game, but now they shut him up?
He took over the game. Master P is probably one of the only muthafuckaz that did it like me. The fucked up part about Master P and me was we had to use our own fuckin money. You can’t use your own money and stay in this game that long.
Back when you had your company you were signing artists left and right.
Signing them, developing artists and creating new ways of doing this hip hop shit. I don’t be mad for what they do up in New York cause they know that is where they live at. That’s how they know their shit.
You have done so much through the years. Would you ever want to make a movie about your life?
I told a couple of people that before, but again muthafuckaz don’t see the visual. If you can do a movie about Larry Flynt or Howard Stern then you can do a Luther Campbell movie. Maybe a lot of muthafuckaz don’t want that story to be told. You will see some shit that you ain’t never seen in your muthafuckin life. You will be like “whoa”!
People would open up their eyes if it would come out!
I need to do a documentary to get the real point across. A documentary will really tell a story because there is so much footage that will back up what we are talking about. If you show real footage of niggaz going to the supreme court and interview different muthafuckaz who was on them tours and you show that shit muthafuckaz will bug out. We used to be on the road with Fresh Prince (Will Smith).
You toured with Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff?
All of us is outsiders. If you are from Philly, or Miami then you are outsiders. You weren’t accepted. Fresh Prince through Jazzy Jeff got accepted by him winning the new music seminar battle of the do’s. That one battle right there created Fresh Prince. That one battle got them the respect in New York. It jumped his whole career off to where it is now. He would of never been discovered. When Jeff won that battle he was respected by everybody. You had a lot of other MC’s coming out of Philadelphia that was a lot better than them, but none of them had the baddest do in the world. That was the main thing. We talked and rode on them damn busses to places. We all kew that muthafucka wasn’t just a rapper. Just by sitting there listening to him talking. The man was funny as hell. We knew he wasn’t no muthafuckin rapper and he was something bigger than that. Everybody encouraged him to go do something different. That’s why I like that kid.
You had gold and platinum albums independently without a major. That is unheard of. What’s the deal behind that?
All independently. Even right now we the only muthafuckaz to sell more independent r & b records than anyone in the history of the business. That was with my own goddamn pressing plant. That was with the group H-Town. I felt good when that happened. To know where them cats came from and when they first walked in the house. When I first brought them down here they came to my house and their shoes had holes in the bottom. Then to see them with a platinum album. They blew the fuck up! It was like being a proud father. I was happy for that shit.
How did all the features come about for your new album?
I never did no records with nobody else. This is the first time I did records with outside artists. I only did records with my own artists. This is some new different shit. I feel good about it.
Where do you see yourself at in the future?
I’m getting ready to do adult entertainment. I’m starting this new Luke Adult Entertainment division. That is really where I see myself at for the next ten years. I wanna be the next Larry Flynt or Hugh Hefner of the world. I think that is where I belong at right now. I’m taking it to a whole other level.
Would you ever put out a porno magazine on that level?
That is what I want to do. I wanna put out a magazine and websites. I’m getting ready to talk to some people in LA about deals with a video company.
Are they gonna be porn?
Straight porn! Not me, but my company. As far as the urban side and women of color you don’t have a urban Larry Flynt or Hugh Hefner. That is really me!
I have always considered you the Hugh Hef or Larry Flynt of rap anyway!
That’s it! What I need to do is really go ahead and do it now. We are gonna do magazines, a chain of adult night clubs, classy clubs, websites and all that. If I were to do a line of clothes like Rocafella. What would you expect Luke to do? You would expect Luke to do lingerie. Ain’t nobody doing that. Between the clubs, the clothes, the videos and I’m getting ready to talk to Playboy and some other networks about doing a show on there. That’s what I want to do. That is where I’m going at. I’m gonna take the whole hip hop concept and the audience that I created and introduce them to the sex thing. My audience is a real wide audience. Black, White, Latino from 18 to 40! I’m gonna take them on over there to the pornos. I’m gonna do it the way that everybody is happy. We put the girls in the videos. Now the girls in the videos need something new to do. You got “Black Tale” and all of that but you don’t have no Playboy, or Penthouse urban magazine. They wanna see women of color with their clothes off. The only person that I feel can do that shit is me.
What made you go for the sex side when you got into rap? No one was really doing that.
That’s what it was. The reason was because no one else was doing it. I like to do shit that nobody else is doing. When they was all into break dancing in the videos, I said “fuck that, I wanna go on the beach”. I looked at the Budweiser commercials and said that I wanted to go on the beach and do a video with girls in bikinis. So that was what I did. BET said “Ah fuck naw, we ain’t playing this, are you crazy”? Then the video Juke Box came along and they played my shit.
You did this almost 20 years ago, but now all you see is ass in videos on MTV & BET! Everyone knows who started all this, but no one is paying you any kind of homage.
BET got the show “Uncut” on there. Who in the fuck started doing uncut videos? I had to do a clean version and a dirty version. I invented the clean version of an adult song. I invented that shit. I also invented the explicit lyrics sticker that they got on the records. I did that shit! I did that when people called me and said that the PTA in Alabama said that the kids were getting the records. They said to me, “What can you do?” I said I can call up all the records and put a sticker on the records like a movie does. I put parental advisory stickers on there. The IRAA took my shit and went down the road with it talking about that they invented it. Then better yet I said I would make available a clean and a dirty version of the albums. That’s what I did!
They need to recognize all that you have done. You pretty much gave the blue print of making money independently to the world. Now so many people are making good independent money.
They are gonna wait until I’m dead to honor me. I will be rolling around in my grave when they finally say “Oh, what a great muthafucka he is.” Do it while I’m living! This new album is gonna tell it all, man!
You also started the whole chanting thing that is real popular now. Will that be on there too?
You are gonna hear some of that too. I got a chant song on there with the Snoop Dogg shit. It’s goes like this “If you see Snoop in the club, slap that bitch.” That shit is crazy.
Are you gonna do a video for that?
This shit got so big. I was gonna put the album out by myself but I think the best thing will be to do a deal with this shit. It got so big! I’m thinking about shopping a deal for it. It is gonna need a big major machine influence to it. Maybe I will call on Def Jam South or one of them muthafuckaz to do it. Wouldn’t that be some shit if I try to give Def Jam South this album and they didn’t want it?
That would be fucked up!
That would be fucked up! Them cats got deeper pockets than me. If I put it out on my own I will put it out to the extent of where my pockets can go. My pockets ain’t like Sony or one of these muthafuckaz. It makes sense that a big project like this needs to be promoted and marketed on a major label. It’s big, it’s not no joke thing. At first I wanted to do the thing with the boys around here, but now it got too big. Let the world know who the creator of the South is. That is what you are getting in this shit.
By Scott Bejda
From Murder Dog Vol. 10 #4
Last time we talked you were working on your new album “The Don of All Dons”. Is it finished?
It is completed. It is due out in September but I keep moving it back because all these artists wanna appear on it. Every time I get ready to throw it out there people come and want to be on it which is good. We completed it at one time and then Petey Pablo came. After Petey Pablo
came
Trick Daddy, Jackie-O, Dirt Bag, Lil Jon, Pit Bull & all these cats came.
All of them are on there now. This shit is outta control. Then we did “Throw
The D” over with Ludacris. This shit is crazy. It’s good cause it shows that
cats got a lot of respect for me, for what I did for the South and hip hop in
general. People are showing a lot of love. They talked me back into doing songs
because it is needed. I’m happy about that. JT Money is on there. Mr. Mixx the
original producer from 2 Live Crew did a couple of songs on there. The whole
album has a crazy story to it.Is that the first time that you and Mr. Mixx have worked together since 1995?
That was the first time since 1995. The chemistry was still there. It was like we never even stopped working. I appreciate him more as a producer than I ever did. I have always thought that he was one of the best in the world at what he was doing. At the same time I feel bad for him because he has not got the respect and credibility as well as the business that he should have. He’s a fuckin helluva producer.
He’s one of the inventors of Southern rap period!
He is the inventor of the sound of the South. Nobody wants to acknowledge him for that. He should be up there where Dre is. If you really look at it Dre and Mixx started at the same time. Unfortunately he came South and Dre stayed West. Both of them is from the West. Mixx had a West Coast sound and he modified it and is capable of doing any kind of sound.
Without 2 Live Crew the South wouldn’t be what it is today.
I think it would be totally different. If you ask Lil Jon what he is doing he will tell you that he is doing slowed down Bass ass. He has always been doing Bass also but he was doing r & b Bass. He just kept tweekin and tweekin and messin with it until he found a niche. Which is good.
Does it make you feel good that after all these years people are still doing the music today that you made popular years ago?
It makes me feel good when I go into the club. I’m straight! I feel real good. When I go in there I hear Lil Jon and then I hear my stuff and that is why I will go back into doing records. There are kids that are running to the dance floor jumping up and down like this is some brand new shit. Then when they hear my stuff it’s the same reaction. I’m looking at these videos and they all dancing the same way.
The videos that we see now, 2 Live Crew was doing it almost twenty years ago!
Exactly! People know where it comes from. Cats like yourself quickly let the public know.
I love it when someone tells me that Lil Jon started this. Then I have to give them a history lesson.
We all have to do that. When someone tells you something like that it shows you how long they have been in the game. Even Lil Jon ain’t gonna say no shit like that. I don’t even really get upset when people say stuff like that. It’s like “Where the fuck have you been the last twenty years?”
When you were working with Mr. Mixx was there talk about getting the group back together?
We talk about that all the time. It’s just so much shit going on between Fresh Kid Ice and Lil Joe Records, and Brother Marquis and Lil Joe Records that it seems like it is impossible. I have talked to everybody involved and there is so much shit tied up with this cat. After this album comes out with the throw back songs of “Throw The D” with me, Ludacris and Trick Daddy and “Move Sothim” with me, Jackie-O and Trick, people are gonna hear this shit and they are gonna want the real shit. I always wanted to do a tribute album where a bunch of artists do their favorite 2 Live Crew songs and then come back with a 2 Live Crew album. I think this is the beginning of the tribute album with what I’m doing right now. I would probably have to do about eight more songs with a bunch of other muthafuckaz and we will be straight.
Last time we talked you said you were gonna do a Snoop diss for the way he dissed you on TV. Did you ever record the Snoop diss?
Oh yeah it is on the album. It’s on the level of “Cowards in Compton”. I had a lot of shit to say.
I thought he was cool with you?
I thought he was cool with me too until after that shit happened on his show. I did the song myself. I did an angry record. It’s a “knock ‘em out the game” type of record it’s more of just give me my respect.
He said you were a washed up rapper, but Snoop never influenced a whole Coast and lay the independent foundation that you did.
That’s what I’m sayin. Don’t put me in the boat with those people. That’s like calling Muhammad Ali a washed up boxer. Nobody says shit like that about Muhammad Ali. Niggaz set the pace for niggaz to get money in the game and I feel like I’m one of them niggaz. I set the pace for cats to get money in this game back when we had to deal with racism with niggaz. When them New York cats didn’t want us in this business. We had to fight every night to get to perform. I had to fight every night. I got all the respect in the world for Russell Simmons, but he was one of the main ones who wasn’t trying to let no other hip hop get in the game.
They didn’t want you doing shows back then?
If you wasn’t from New York you couldn’t get on the stage. You couldn’t get on a tour. Rick Rubin and all them muthafuckaz was part of segregation. That wasn’t no different to me than back in the slavery days. It was when niggaz couldn’t do certain things. That shit runs deep. They wasn’t trying to have no Miami niggaz or no California niggaz in the game. That’s why every now and then you will hear Ice Cube lashing out. Ice Cube is the closest voice to Eazy-E as you can possibly hear. We was in the shit! We was getting locked out when we were selling a million records. So when a nigga like Snoop, being from the West Coast, talking about me like that, I think that’s fucked up. New York locked out both sides. I take that real personal. Don’t joke with me like that. don’t do me like that, dog. Have some muthafuckin respect for a muthafucka who set this shit up for muthafuckaz to get money. Know your history. I thought you knew better than that. I took that shit Snoop said real personal. Already I don’t get the credit I deserve from these muthafuckaz in this business.
You should have won awards for your contribution to the game.
Every time you see these award shows they are giving these niggaz life time achievement awards. I have not got an award yet from nobody. The only award I got was from the new music seminar for independent record company of the year. That was way the fuck back. That was it! You see these BET awards and Source awards and they just go right by a nigga. It’s like “OK, there they go again”. It’s like I ain’t did shit for this game. I have been to the supreme court defending this shit. I have been in front of Tipper Gore to keep this shit here. The whole game had to change because niggaz went in there and said they want their own shit. They had to modify the game because I fucked it all up. I showed people how to put their own shit and their own artists out independently. The whole fuckin game changed. Now you see where the game is right now. They all wanna act like they don’t know where the shit came from. If it was Russell or somebody like that then they would be happy to put their ass on Broadway. It took a lot to get me to go down to the Source awards. If I wasn’t introducing Trina then I would’ve never went to that muthafucka.
When you go to places like that do you feel the hatred?
There don’t be no hatred, it’s just people playin like they don’t know. People are really playin like they don’t know. I don’t go to places where I’m not wanted. I don’t feel like going to these award shows where they don’t recognize not only me, but other people too for the work they have done in this industry to get it where it’s at. They did a 25 year anniversary on hip hop. This is the first time I’m speaking on this. You mean to tell me that 2 Live Crew is not gonna be nowhere in that?
That is crazy!
They did that on BET. I say fuck these muthafuckaz. I’m on strike! I don’t want to see no goddamn BET. They try to feed the people that shit. Let them feel like Lil Jon started hip hop in the South.
How does it make you feel now that NY is all on the South’s dick?
Let me tell you my problem in this fuckin business. I’m not no follower! I’m a goddamn trailblazer and a visionary. I sit and think of some shit all day and I’m like four or five years ahead of these muthafuckaz. That’s why everything I always did was original. I told these people a long time ago. I told all these muthafuckaz. Even to this day with Def Jam South and Bad Boy South that ain’t shit. You need to put a record company in the South run by a muthafucka from the South that is capable of running a record company with South a & r people, South everything. It needs to be total South in the South. Not no satellite office that says we are Def Jam South, we signed Ludacris and Scarface runs it in an office that is never open. Don’t play like that with people. We do our shit a totally different way. Those labels don’t have any idea about Southern music, that’s why a lot of them get lost in the shuffle and they have so many one shot artists. They don’t put the same money and same marketing behind a Trina that they would put behind Lil Kim, or Eve. They feel that they could relate more to Lil Kim or Eve because they are from New York. They understand them more. They really still look at us like foreigners. They don’t be about building people’s careers in the South. They just be about reaping the awards and the benefits because the South is hot. Lil Jon should have been signed along time ago. We need a record company down here that is run the same way that I ran Luke Records, but using the machine of a major label. Not only would you put out records, but you would develop talent. Treat them like you treat Lil Kim, or Jay-Z. Create a Puff Daddy for the South. Not only build their record careers, but build them up as artists and individuals. They can’t do that because the guy sitting in New York can’t understand a muthafucka from North Carolina. In the South it’s a whole different language and a whole different vibe.
What about how Master P took over the game, but now they shut him up?
He took over the game. Master P is probably one of the only muthafuckaz that did it like me. The fucked up part about Master P and me was we had to use our own fuckin money. You can’t use your own money and stay in this game that long.
Back when you had your company you were signing artists left and right.
Signing them, developing artists and creating new ways of doing this hip hop shit. I don’t be mad for what they do up in New York cause they know that is where they live at. That’s how they know their shit.
You have done so much through the years. Would you ever want to make a movie about your life?
I told a couple of people that before, but again muthafuckaz don’t see the visual. If you can do a movie about Larry Flynt or Howard Stern then you can do a Luther Campbell movie. Maybe a lot of muthafuckaz don’t want that story to be told. You will see some shit that you ain’t never seen in your muthafuckin life. You will be like “whoa”!
People would open up their eyes if it would come out!
I need to do a documentary to get the real point across. A documentary will really tell a story because there is so much footage that will back up what we are talking about. If you show real footage of niggaz going to the supreme court and interview different muthafuckaz who was on them tours and you show that shit muthafuckaz will bug out. We used to be on the road with Fresh Prince (Will Smith).
You toured with Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff?
All of us is outsiders. If you are from Philly, or Miami then you are outsiders. You weren’t accepted. Fresh Prince through Jazzy Jeff got accepted by him winning the new music seminar battle of the do’s. That one battle right there created Fresh Prince. That one battle got them the respect in New York. It jumped his whole career off to where it is now. He would of never been discovered. When Jeff won that battle he was respected by everybody. You had a lot of other MC’s coming out of Philadelphia that was a lot better than them, but none of them had the baddest do in the world. That was the main thing. We talked and rode on them damn busses to places. We all kew that muthafucka wasn’t just a rapper. Just by sitting there listening to him talking. The man was funny as hell. We knew he wasn’t no muthafuckin rapper and he was something bigger than that. Everybody encouraged him to go do something different. That’s why I like that kid.
You had gold and platinum albums independently without a major. That is unheard of. What’s the deal behind that?
All independently. Even right now we the only muthafuckaz to sell more independent r & b records than anyone in the history of the business. That was with my own goddamn pressing plant. That was with the group H-Town. I felt good when that happened. To know where them cats came from and when they first walked in the house. When I first brought them down here they came to my house and their shoes had holes in the bottom. Then to see them with a platinum album. They blew the fuck up! It was like being a proud father. I was happy for that shit.
How did all the features come about for your new album?
I never did no records with nobody else. This is the first time I did records with outside artists. I only did records with my own artists. This is some new different shit. I feel good about it.
Where do you see yourself at in the future?
I’m getting ready to do adult entertainment. I’m starting this new Luke Adult Entertainment division. That is really where I see myself at for the next ten years. I wanna be the next Larry Flynt or Hugh Hefner of the world. I think that is where I belong at right now. I’m taking it to a whole other level.
Would you ever put out a porno magazine on that level?
That is what I want to do. I wanna put out a magazine and websites. I’m getting ready to talk to some people in LA about deals with a video company.
Are they gonna be porn?
Straight porn! Not me, but my company. As far as the urban side and women of color you don’t have a urban Larry Flynt or Hugh Hefner. That is really me!
I have always considered you the Hugh Hef or Larry Flynt of rap anyway!
That’s it! What I need to do is really go ahead and do it now. We are gonna do magazines, a chain of adult night clubs, classy clubs, websites and all that. If I were to do a line of clothes like Rocafella. What would you expect Luke to do? You would expect Luke to do lingerie. Ain’t nobody doing that. Between the clubs, the clothes, the videos and I’m getting ready to talk to Playboy and some other networks about doing a show on there. That’s what I want to do. That is where I’m going at. I’m gonna take the whole hip hop concept and the audience that I created and introduce them to the sex thing. My audience is a real wide audience. Black, White, Latino from 18 to 40! I’m gonna take them on over there to the pornos. I’m gonna do it the way that everybody is happy. We put the girls in the videos. Now the girls in the videos need something new to do. You got “Black Tale” and all of that but you don’t have no Playboy, or Penthouse urban magazine. They wanna see women of color with their clothes off. The only person that I feel can do that shit is me.
What made you go for the sex side when you got into rap? No one was really doing that.
That’s what it was. The reason was because no one else was doing it. I like to do shit that nobody else is doing. When they was all into break dancing in the videos, I said “fuck that, I wanna go on the beach”. I looked at the Budweiser commercials and said that I wanted to go on the beach and do a video with girls in bikinis. So that was what I did. BET said “Ah fuck naw, we ain’t playing this, are you crazy”? Then the video Juke Box came along and they played my shit.
You did this almost 20 years ago, but now all you see is ass in videos on MTV & BET! Everyone knows who started all this, but no one is paying you any kind of homage.
BET got the show “Uncut” on there. Who in the fuck started doing uncut videos? I had to do a clean version and a dirty version. I invented the clean version of an adult song. I invented that shit. I also invented the explicit lyrics sticker that they got on the records. I did that shit! I did that when people called me and said that the PTA in Alabama said that the kids were getting the records. They said to me, “What can you do?” I said I can call up all the records and put a sticker on the records like a movie does. I put parental advisory stickers on there. The IRAA took my shit and went down the road with it talking about that they invented it. Then better yet I said I would make available a clean and a dirty version of the albums. That’s what I did!
They need to recognize all that you have done. You pretty much gave the blue print of making money independently to the world. Now so many people are making good independent money.
They are gonna wait until I’m dead to honor me. I will be rolling around in my grave when they finally say “Oh, what a great muthafucka he is.” Do it while I’m living! This new album is gonna tell it all, man!
You also started the whole chanting thing that is real popular now. Will that be on there too?
You are gonna hear some of that too. I got a chant song on there with the Snoop Dogg shit. It’s goes like this “If you see Snoop in the club, slap that bitch.” That shit is crazy.
Are you gonna do a video for that?
This shit got so big. I was gonna put the album out by myself but I think the best thing will be to do a deal with this shit. It got so big! I’m thinking about shopping a deal for it. It is gonna need a big major machine influence to it. Maybe I will call on Def Jam South or one of them muthafuckaz to do it. Wouldn’t that be some shit if I try to give Def Jam South this album and they didn’t want it?
That would be fucked up!
That would be fucked up! Them cats got deeper pockets than me. If I put it out on my own I will put it out to the extent of where my pockets can go. My pockets ain’t like Sony or one of these muthafuckaz. It makes sense that a big project like this needs to be promoted and marketed on a major label. It’s big, it’s not no joke thing. At first I wanted to do the thing with the boys around here, but now it got too big. Let the world know who the creator of the South is. That is what you are getting in this shit.
