Interview by Scott Bejda
What’s behind the title of this new album, Ghetto Bill?
The new album is called The Ghetto Bill Gates, and I’m the best hustler in the game. That is what it’s about! You got so many great rappers and lyricists but can’t none of them out-hustle me. Anybody could get a hit record, but when you are a hustler that is a whole different thing. Even when you can’t sell records no more you could sell something. I could sell my P. Miller Shoes, the clothes, I just got a new deal with Finish Line for my shoes.
Did all this start from when your Grandfather left you that $10,000?
It definitely started from that ten thousand dollars! I went from “The Ghettos Trying To Kill Me” to “The Ghetto Bill Gates”. I’m the first kid out the projects with a television show coming out the hood. Being able to do that you have to be corporate thuggin’! You have to take what you are doing to another level because most people want to live and die in the hood. My whole thing is showing kids how to make it out of the hood. You got to take your mom out the hood, your dad out the hood, your kids out the hood, but never forget where you came from. If there is a bigger picture go after it, and don’t be afraid to be your own boss and make a change.
Your last few albums weren’t as good as some of your previous work, but you still are king hustle!
Scott, what you just said is not a bad thing, because at the time those other two records had to be like that or Romeo wouldn’t have got the TV show. Sometimes you have to sacrifice! One thing you have to realize is I always put out hit records, but any real man is gonna sacrifice for his child. The new movement now is The Black Sopranos because I went from the Soldiers to that, and I got some of the best rappers and producers in the world right now.
Who is on your team now?
I got Pop, The Rich Boys, Romeo, I got the first r & b singer named Ashley. We are ready from every angle, but sometimes timing is everything. Remember when Def Jam was so hot? Sometimes you have to get your shit together, like how Def Jam cooled off and re-vamped and they turned that shit around. That is the same thing with No Limit because we are a corporation and we don’t care if we have the number one record out there. Through out all those years we were always in the top ten, and we were always in the club and that was enough to keep going. Now these boys Drumma Boy, and Mike Diesel are the future of production. They are the next Beats By The Pound! One thing you can say about No Limit is that we always made money off of what we put out, and we didn’t get caught up with who is hot out there. We never jumped on the bandwagon because somebody was hot! We always took it as real hustlers! I’m about inventing new talent, and I ain’t gonna go jump on the record just cause 50 is hot or Ja Rule is hot. If I don’t have no kind of relationship with them dudes then I’m gonna get out there and do me. I ain’t trippin’ on what nobody else is doing because I’m going to get my shit together!
That is real!
Let me tell you something Scott, and this is the real, I’m the nigga that paid for 50’s first tour! I ain’t even did a record with him!
You paid for his first tour?
I paid for his first tour, and I could’ve easily said let’s get on a track.
When was this?
That was the first tour he went out on, and I paid for the tour and didn’t do a record with him. That is how real I am, because business is business.
Did he ever give you props for that?
That man has always been solid with me, but I’m not a band wagon dude. It was about business!
You just do you, and your camp?
That is what I’m saying and when it’s our time to shine it’s our time like right now, because ain’t nothing touching this Ghetto Bill Gates album.
I will tell you that I did feel Good Side/Bad Side!
That was a part of the movement to show you where I’m going! When we sit down and play this new record for you this shit is definitely the next level. I feel like I got two sides to me. I feel like I got the Bay with me and the South with me. By me growing up in the South and then by moving out to Richmond with my mom I was able to see the best of both worlds. I could make music for the West Coast and for the South! I’m gonna tell you something that people have to realize is everything you do in life you can’t please everybody.
A lot of people don’t see that though.
That is good because it makes my hustling skills so incredible. I don’t do no marketing on my clothes and I’m the number one clothing company for the mid tear. With Sean John and a lot of that other stuff kids can’t afford it so that’s on a higher level. I ain’t got to put up a bunch of money to make a bunch of money because I got JC Penny, Kohls, and I got these places locked up. I don’t have to take out ads or none of that! My hustling skills come into play again because it is low investment, low start up money, and the overhead is low. It’s all for a bigger profit!
That sound like the Priority deal?
Just like that!
How did you pull that deal off with Priority?
To be honest with you, Priority used to come at me all of the time in the Bay, and I didn’t know who they was.
Was this The Ghetto’s Tryin’ To Kill Me days?
Yeah. It was like going to these guys having a bigger vision, and naming your company No Limit. I’m in the street and could’ve named my company Dope Man Records, but I had to think big. I went to Priority and asked for a distribution deal which most people want up front money for, but I don’t need no up front money. I went from that to being Forbes Top Ten, and now I’m in the Guinness Book Of Records for the most records sold in hip hop, which is 75 million.
I don’t see anyone beating that anytime soon!
Ain’t nobody gonna beat that! Right now the value that people don’t understand is when you’re hot you have to keep dumping ’em on them. With your hustling skills you can’t be afraid, but you can’t put up a whole bunch of money brainwashing people. Now there is a bunch of brainwashing! People are spending two or three million dollars for videos, and buying promotion across the country, but by the time the artist gets done he looks good but he don’t have no money. That’s the difference and how ten years later I’m still in the game doing what I got to do! When the haters were out there saying “I’m better than them.” Shit you are better than me, but where are the numbers at? I’m the first muthafucka that took from Universal, and went to Koch because I thought they were spending too much money on records. This shit ain’t easy because you have to get out there and work. This ain’t Universal or Priority! They ain’t spending a bunch of money with records. And this shit wouldn’t work for me if I didn’t already have relationships out there.
How do you keep all this afloat for so long?
I have been doing this for so long and it just comes natural. It’s about the relationships that you have. You can’t do this without relationships with BET, MTV and radio. I just came from KMEL today getting my shit to the DJs! There is a lot of stuff you have to do because there’s so much competition these days. You can’t just send out a good record and the muthafucka will pop!
What was up with the bankruptcy?
When you are in business you learn from Bill Gates and Donald Trump! You have people trying to sue you all of the time. Let me tell you why they call me “Ghetto Bill Gates”! You can never get to this level without having problems whether it is the IRS or having to change a company, and that’s where it comes from. You have to imagine that under those companies I had a lot of people trying to sue when Snoop left or Mystikal left. I’m not paying for lawsuits for someone that’s not with us, so I had to shut those companies down and that is smart business. If I have to do it again I’m gonna do it again!
Break it down some more, this is interesting.
I shut down the old No Limit, and there is nothing but new artists under the New No Limit and I’m not about to be paying for stuff for the old No Limit when it don’t exist. In the corporation you have to think of some way to expose it.
If you ever wrote a “How To” book it would sell like crazy!
Sometimes you can’t look at just what you see! I’m the first one with a Phantom, I’m the first one with a Maybach, I’m the first one to put spinning rims on, and I’m the first one with my own rims right now.
You got your own rims?
I got a rim company now called “P. Miller Wheels”, and that will be in stores when the album comes out. Look out for P. Miller Luxury Wheels!
What do they run?
There is different prices because I got stuff for old school cars, from the Cutlass to the Impalas all the way up to the Phantoms. I will be the Michael Jordan of the rim business!
How did a hardcore rapper like you end up on Nickelodeon?
I just went there with my son and told them I was looking for a TV show with Rome, and they laughed! I said I would put the money up and shoot the pilot and if it works let’s make it happen. For the last three years it has been the number one show in the country.
I bet they are not laughing now?
For me coming from the projects and to be able to do something like that, and now I went to syndication this year so it will be on TV for the next ten to twenty years.
Did you have all these hustling skills from a real young age?
Yeah, I was the king OG the kindergarten class, the most likely to succeed in high school. I was most popular, best dressed, captain of the football team, captain of the baseball team, captain of the basketball team, and captain of the track team. People knew that this kid was going to be something because I was an A student going to school in the projects. I used to have to fight just because I was making good grades in school. I was getting good grades, and whooping ass at the same time!
What was it like when you first moved to Richmond?
I thought it was going to be a change for me because I was living in the projects of New Orleans, and I thought my mom was going to live in a better neighborhood, but I got up there and it was even worse than New Orleans. It was the same shit! I wanted to make a change because I didn’t want to die in one of these ghettos! I wanted to try to do something for myself and put everything into my music and open up a record store. One thing led to another by meeting contacts. The competition was hard because you had Too Short, E-40, JT The Bigga Figga, Spice-1 and all these guys already made their mark. My shit was sounding real country! My shit sounded so different from what they were used to!
Who would have thought that years later you had the whole world listening to the South!
That is believing in yourself, and the man up above. It is a struggle! I know there’s a lot of rappers just starting out and they can’t get a shot! I was the record company, the rep and the artist! I kept going about it until one day it all popped.
Weren’t you the first cat from the South to be on In-A-Minute Records?
Yeah. I was buying music from them! They were a distributor and they had a little record company so that was how we built a relationship. At first ain’t nobody really felt my music, it was different!
I always wondered how you got Snoop from Death Row?
When sometimes when you buy a car that old car you had looks used and old, but to somebody that never had that car they would like to get it and fix it up. I always believed in Snoop’s career! At that time when Suge went to jail I reached out to them guys at Death Row and said “What y’all want for Snoop?” They said what they wanted and the next day I sent the money to them.
Can you say how much it was for?
Naw, I ain’t really gonna say that. Like they say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure! I might see some shit that you are overlooking! When you look at these new artists that I have, I have some of the best artists in the world. I went from the Soldiers to The Black Sopranos! I got an artist named Pop that could be the next Ludacris or Mystikal! All my artists are 19 or 21 years old and they are ready for the next generation. I also have a group with Romeo called the Rich Boys, which is the next teenage group to pop off. Everybody that I have, their image is right and their attitude is right. I got the next Neptunes or Beats By the Pound on the production side. When you hear this new album you will know. Also I just signed the new Queen of R & B named Ashley. The whole clique is ready now!
Do you think you can blow up again?
Oh yeah! I did it once, but you never seen nobody do it twice.
How is C-Murder doing?
When you’re in a situation like this you have to stay focused. C had an opportunity to be something that nobody could’ve been—to escape the ghetto and take care of your family—but sometimes some of us get caught up. I could easily be out in the clubs every night getting caught up, or hanging in the hood, but you have to understand who you are out of life.
Is he going to get a new trial?
They’re trying for it right now, but you know when the system wants you, the system wants you! You know how the game goes.
He told me he has a lot of evidence pointing to their wrong doings?
Do you think them judges want to make themselves look bad, or them police? That is the hardest shit ever, being an innocent man when the system wants you.
Hopefully he will get out of that muthafucka?
We are definitely praying for him, and it would be nothing but a blessing to get C home and take this to the next level.
Do you have any other kids that are going to be superstars soon?
I got my other son in the group The Rich Boys with Romeo. His name is Young V! Him and Romeo started a group with two of their cousins, and them boys is hard!
How old is Romeo now?
15.
How does it make you feel to see your boys doing all of this?
It makes me feel good! I come from the ghetto, and to start his life off that way where he could be a role model is incredible and makes me smile all of the time.
Tell me the deal with the gun charges?
You know how it is when you’re out and trying to survive! Right now they just had a shooting in LA that killed seven people random on the freeway. My life is different from Bill Gates, that’s why I’m the ghetto Bill Gates. When people in the hood see me they know that I have money, so you have to survive out here. It is a whole different world and I got ghetto problems to deal with. I got people in my family that has problems, I got people going to jail, I got people getting killed, I got friends doing this and relatives doing that. I got to know how to survive. I have to protect me and my family. At that time they just blew that up trying to sell papers. At that time I didn’t even have a gun, but the gun that was in the car was registered but they never put that in the paper.
So everything was legal?
To be honest with you, they didn’t get nothing else on me. You know they have to do something else. If you see four Black guys in the car with a White guy they’re gonna think he’s a gang banger. I ain’t mad because that’s the way life goes, but at least put both sides in there. “…The next day we found out the gun was registered and P had nothing to do with it…” Then that would be real. That’s why I’m the ghetto Bill Gates! I’m a target by everything! Right now seven guys got killed on the freeway on random shootings on the 405. Who is going to say something to those people’s families? Jalen Rose and his friend got shot, and he’s a basketball player.
The baseball player Gary Sheffield got shot a few years back too!
Yeah, so what am I suppose to do? I got a Benz or Phantom rolling up the street and I can’t even ride it as hard as I worked for it! I got to have something to protect myself because ain’t nothing changed! We made it out the hood, but we are still stuck to the hood! They know what is legal and what is not, but people have to sell papers and stories. I wasn’t shooting at nobody or doing nothing wrong.
No matter what dirt they dig they can’t deny what you have done!
I’m always reinventing myself. Like right now it was supposed to have been over for me, but I’m getting younger while they are getting older. That’s where the basketball comes at. I’ve been playing basketball all of my life, and it keeps me rejuvenated. I got kids listening to my music right now when their parents are saying “I used to listen to Master P, is he still around?” That lets you know that you are still handling your business.
Do you feel just as strong now as you did in ’97?
I feel stronger! I’m gonna start smaller. I ain’t starting out spending a whole bunch of money, so I’m gonna create these different stars! I’m about to make a career change in a minute and I want to be the president of the next film company! I think the music is about to go visual, and you will be able to play music on your phone with the video. Everything will have to be about a video or a movie! I want to conquer that market right now and set the technology to take this visual thing higher. I’m the first one to put out a DVD to sell 500,000, which was unheard of. My goal is to put out 100 movies whether it’s street movies, family movies, scary movies, drama, or love. I’m going to build a library of 100 HD movies this year.
How are you gonna do that?
You are about to see! I’m telling you and letting you know what I’m about to do. Also I’m about to be the president of one of these film companies. Also I’m about to create about five new stars in this business!
Whatever happened with you signing with the expansion team in New Orleans?
I was committed to Sacramento Kings so I’m going to play with them this summer. I also play in the ABA with Utah, and we won the ABA National Championship.
Do you think you have a shot for the NBA?
I have a shot, and I’m going to be playing with the Sacramento Kings this summer.
What do you see yourself doing in about five years?
I see myself doing this movie stuff because I think with this music everybody has a DVD in their car, and it’s going to the cell phones. I really wanna take this music stuff to pictures! I’m gonna be a part of it with the content that I’m about to put out right now. There is nobody that can do 100 movies but me!
What happened with Beats By The Pound?
Sometimes you grow past people, and some people want it all at one time. Some people think they can do their own thing and they don’t need a coach. Sometimes having a good coach is better than making an extra $20,000 over here. Just like you said “What happened to them?” They ain’t doing nothing!
How the hell did you meet Myke Diesel?
Wait until you hear him and Drumma Boy because they are so strong together. It took time to get them to the level where they are at, but I ain’t at no rush. I could’ve got beats from all these hot producers, but that won’t build the dynasty that I need to build. That won’t create the movement! Now we have created careers!
What about Mac and other former NL Soldiers? Will you work with some of them again?
Mac is in jail right now, but if he gets out I will definitely work with him. A lot of the others left and wanted to do their own things so I think there is no reason. A lot of them got signed to other labels, so it’s time to create these new kids and forget about that stuff from the past. A lot of these guys didn’t even keep up with the times anyway, so they don’t even have careers no more.
I thought Silk’s last album was his best. Why didn’t it get the attention it deserved?
Timing is everything right now. A lot of these other guys are hot and these kids only hear what they want to hear. You can’t break through that cycle until it is your time. All you have to do is keep coming with that real and sooner or later you will get your shine. At first they were listening to Too Short and 2Pac but they weren’t trying to hear me. I was putting out records, but I had to keep on moving with it until my time came. Right now there’s a gap where they are gonna have to listen to us when we bring that real. When the Game came out and popped, now all of a sudden all of his old records people had to go out and buy. Sometimes it’s about respect, and a lot of these kids don’t respect where you came from or what you did. Like I said in my new song, “It took a nigga from Compton to scream my name when I have been laying it down since the Ice Cream Man.” It’s about respect, and the real hustlers are gonna respect the real!
You have the track record!
If Jay-Z is hot, 50 Cent, Ja Rule, Snoop, or whatever, go do your thing! When Mystikal’s contract was up he wanted to move on and I said go do you homey. That is what they can respect about me. Me, Snoop, and all of those guys kept a good relationship! Some feel when shit gets cold that you are holding their career back, but you ain’t. If they ain’t checking for you then what? Like the Silk record, me and you both know that was one of his best records, but the timing was bad. You can’t make a muthafucka buy your record!
You could always create a fake beef?
Yeah, and we ain’t gonna never do that. If I got a problem with somebody when I see them I’m gonna address it because I don’t have to fake a beef with somebody to sell records. That ain’t me.
You have always stayed true to that. I have never really heard you come at anyone before.
I ain’t got no time for that. I’m trying to do something positive! I don’t have time to waste on someone to let them know I’m thinking about them. Every time someone dissed me in a record that let me know that they were thinking about me so I appreciate that. It makes me work harder. I could go anywhere I want and a lot of these guys are looking over their shoulder because they are creating a gimmick. We sold 75 million records just making good music representing the hood. Right now most of these guys is bootlegging everything, and if you don’t have no music in the club you ain’t gonna make nothing anyway.
I interviewed Lil Jon recently and he said he was influenced by you and Three 6 Mafia. How does that make you feel to hear stuff like that?
It makes me feel good knowing that people respect the real. Lil’ Jon used to hang around Beats By the Pound, and that’s where he gets his sound from.
Can you say something about Soulja Slim?
Whatever you do in life, you can’t make music and still try to live that life in the street. It really don’t mix! The sad thing about it is a shame to people start loving people’s music when they are not here. I don’t want people to play my music when I ain’t here. When Slim was around ain’t nobody playing his music! He wasn’t represented and it is sad. They same music dude has out now he had it when he was around and nobody wasn’t giving him no interviews or playing his music. Even his last album, they weren’t buying his records and they should have been when he was here.
What was it like to put out your first record Get Away Clean back in 1990?
I felt like a major accomplishment just to be able to put something together. I felt proud!
When was the last time you even listened to that old stuff from the In-A-Minute days?
Man, it has been years. I’m gonna tell you right now, this new album is gonna kill ’em, and this Black Sopranos is the new movement.
How many tracks?
Twenty, and this blows everything out the water because of the knowledge that I am giving them. On the intro it is called “The Best Hustler In The Game”, and it speaks for itself. This is that real! “Let Me See It” will be the biggest strip club song in the world!
How can you go from making songs about strip clubs to being on Nickelodeon?
That’s why I am the Ghetto Bill Gates, and I got a good side and a bad side. That is the way I live. I’m not gonna let somebody step over me just because I’m doing something positive. Real thugs don’t forget, and ain’t nothing wrong with changing your life. It ain’t about trying to be no preacher but it is about getting money. If you could get money from Nickelodeon, Walt Disney, or any theme park then go get it homey. You have to feed your family!
You will feed for family for generations.
I’m doing for generations, and we have made history to come from where I came form to do business with these type of people. Don’t never say never! That was an accomplishment for me because I had to go in front of their board and explain to them and say I changed my life. I told them I had nothing to hide from them, but give me an opportunity. I said I could make them a good television show, and I did because it is the number one show in the country for the last there years. My son got “Best Male Actor” on TV this year over Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher.
What about the Oval Office?
I probably could never get in there because my record is too bad. I can’t even bullshit, but my past haunts me. That was the same reason why I couldn’t get into the army. I really wanted to go in the army and fight for the country. I passed all the tests but my record was so bad.
When was this?
We had that war thing over there in Lebanon. I wouldn’t even be making music because that is where I was supposed to be at, but sometimes things happen for a reason.
I never knew that about you?
That’s where No Limit came in because I started my own army. Right now I know that ain’t paying no money because most of the guys come back and don’t get any benefits so I’m glad I did start my own Army.
Are you gonna turn the business over to your boys some day?
Oh yeah, that is what it is about man!
Are you still with Sonya-C?
Yeah! We have been together for a long time! We have been together for 15 years.
She put out an album Married To The Mob. Why didn’t she ever want to do any more rappin’?
We ended up having a family, and somebody had to end up sacrificing. She was the one to take care of the kids, and I had to go out doing stuff.
A lot of people can’t stay together for 15 years. What is your secret?
Our secret is being true to the person that you love. You go through ups and downs but it is real ghetto love. We know we was the people for each other, and everything I did I did for my wife and kids. If I’m out there hustling on the block I’m out there hustling for them so we can have something better. We used to live in the back of the store together. We had to make sacrifices to get the big mansion and all the cars. When you struggle together you ball together if you got somebody that you believe in.
It sounds like ya’ll have a real strong unit over there?
That is what it’s all about. That is what the Black Sopranos is all about. It’s a movement!
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