| POSTED ON: April 12th, 2009 |
While Day26 were on their tour bus via St-Louis, I caught up with them before the release of their album. Although a couple of the members were in hibernation aka sleeping, I got a glimpse of their thoughts on a few subjects that I touched. Excited about their anticipated sophomore album “Forever In A Day”, Day26 talks about their favorite songs, the influence Diddy has on them, the possibility of doing a show in Toronto Canada, breaking the Making The Band curse and a lot more! Make sure that you go out on Tuesday April 14th & purchase a copy or more of Day26′s sophomore album “Forever In A Day”. Let’s go people!
You can purchase their current single “Imma Put it on Her” featuring Yung Joc & P. Diddy on iTunes by clicking HERE. Make sure you visit their official website: www.day26online.com.
(Press the PLAY button to hear the boys speak & follow through the interview!)
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Willie: Willie’s on the line, Willie’s is on the line and I keep on getting thrown off the line and its disrespectful.
Brian: Brian’s on the line, Brian’s on the line, Brian, Brian, Brian, Brian’s on the line
hustleGRL: Hi guys what’s up?
Day26: How you doing girl?
hustleGRL: I’m good! This is Karla from www.hustleGRL.com. How y’all doing?
Brian: Hey hustleGRL!
hustleGRL: Are you guys excited for the release of your new album?
Brian: Whaaaaaaat?!
Willie: What?! Aw man, we can’t wait. We can’t wait. It’s taking too long man. It’s like everyday we finding out something new. Like yesterday we just seen the first copies of the album and I don’t have one so that really hurts.
Brian: Aaahh
Willie: It’s like you know, it’s crazy man. We’re out doing our thing at shows you know, we shot the video; the video came out. We just shot another the one which will be coming out I guess by the time the album comes out. So it’s like – We working man, we working. We ain’t really noticing a whole lot of stuff. It ain’t like when sometimes when you have like some promotions and you just last for a long time. This right here, everything is just so shotgun right now and it got me amped.
hustleGRL: Word, wow. Well I know that it dropped on MTV: The Leak so like all the fans got a chance to listen to it and everything. What kind of reaction are you guys hoping to get from the fans and do you think that this will be another platinum album like the first one?
Willie: Well you know, we hoping and praying for a better response than the first one, you know what I mean, at the end of the day. The first one came out like a year ago and it did great. It was hand-picked for us by Diddy and Diddy did his thing you know what I’m saying. Big ups to him and then another big ups to him for throwing the ball in our court for the second album and finding out who really Day26 really is you know. So we went in and we wrote on this album, we co-produced on this album, we got in with some of the hottest producers , we got some of the hottest collabos and we did it, you know what I’m saying . So at the end of the day, when he came and when he asked us to come to his crib and let him hear what we had, he couldn’t do nothing but stand up, smile. You know, so we expected him to play his Diddy role and get on the Blackberry but he didn’t. He got up, started dancing, smiling, he was an excited man. From that day on man you know, Day26 and Diddy been pretty good friends.
hustleGRL: That’s good. So what is the positive aspect of working with someone like Diddy?
Willie: Man you know, c’mon man, P.-DI-DDY. You know, that’s –
Brian: Papa Diddy Puff!
Willie: One thing you can learn from this dude is that he is probably one of the hardest working people who enriched in everything and he still hustles. His hustle game is – you can’t beat him. It’s like – and it’s like sometimes I’m online and I’m looking at all the stuff that he’s doing and I’m trying to compete because I’m like: “I can’t let him beat me promoting me”. You know what I’m saying? So it’s like, so he’s on Twitter [so] I said I’m going to have to jump on Twitter. But of course he’s got probably a hundred-and-something thousand more people that I get, but at the of the day I’m working too. You know what I’m saying, then I go online and I see that he has some Live Chats where he just be dancing and singing and moving and talking to his fans. It’s like this dude has – he can chill, like he can lay back, chill-relax, live the rest of his life but he doesn’t. He just – you just got to admire that about the guy. If I can learn anything from this guy, it’s just the grind. He don’t sleep. Like he said, he don’t sleep, he don’t sleep and he’s still partying and then he parties, work hard. It’s like, I don’t know man. Diddy’s a robot.
hustleGRL: Are all the guys on the phone right now?
Willie: Uh, naw. Everybody ain’t on the phone but they in the atmosphere though.
hustleGRL: Okay so, I have a question for each one of you so um –
Willie: Okay you just tell me and if I’m close to the person or if Brian’s close to the person, we’ll just go get them.
hustleGRL: I wanted to know what song can you guys relate [to] the most on the album and why?
(Willie decides to get off topic due to something that happened in the background, lol)
Willie: Oh my God. (laughs) Delete and pause. (laughs) I’m leaving the atmosphere now. Naw yo, the tour bus is an amazing place. Owwwww, sorry, okay go on.
Brian: (in the background) Where we at?
Willie: We in St-Louis.
(Now back to the topic)
Willie: Ay babygirl.
hustleGRL: Yes?
Willie: You had a question for who?
hustleGRL: Well I wanted each one of you guys to answer: what song can you relate to on the album and why?
Willie: Okay, I know for Que, unless you want to hear his voice, I know the song he can relate to the most is probably “Perfectly Blind”. You know, that song is real, near and dear to his heart and at a certain point in his life he thought he was perfectly blind. I’m just playing (laughs)
Brian: (in the background) Lord I can’t see! Lord I can’t see!
Qwanell: Hello?
hustleGRL: Hello?
Qwanell: Hiiiiii.
hustleGRL: Hiii Que, what’s up?
Qwanell: How you doing? Yeah um, “Perfectly Blind” is a song me and Dawn wrote, you know what I’m saying. If you watched the show(Making The Band 4), you saw the situation I was going through. You looked at the temper that I was lashing out to everybody but I wrote that song when I was going through that situation; when I felt like nobody really understood where I was coming from. So you know artists, they express themselves through music so I just wrote that song and it came out really really good and everybody liked it. Diddy said it’s his favourite.
hustleGRL: Yeah it’s actually my favourite song on the album too! I was listening to yesterday [and] I was like “Wow, this song is dope”.
Qwanell: Yeah, its really powerful because it’s so true and its so real. That’s like, what the words are saying is exactly what I was going through. That song is so real.
hustleGRL: Okay, thanks. What about for Willie?
Qwanell: Williiiiie, they wanna know your favourite song Willie.
Willie: (sings/raps in the background) Y’hello?
hustleGRL: What song can you relate to the most and why?
Willie: You know um, my favourite song right now, it changes all the time. So today it’s going to be different than it will be tomorrow. So today it has to be “Baby Maker” because I feel like baby making.
Brian: (in the background) Go ahead playboy!
Willie: (sings) I feel like baby making.
Brian: (in the background) After we leave the cluuuub.
Willie: (sings) Booty shaking.
Brian: (in the background) Ooooh
Willie: I’m just playing (laughs) “Baby Maker” is a dope record man, you know what I’m saying. It’s really dope so today it’s “Baby Maker”.
Brian: (in the background) Somebody’s gonna have some babies!
Willie: But tomorrow it might be “So Good” so you know.
hustleGRL: So what about Brian?
Willie: Brian, you on the phone B?
Brian: My favourite song off the album, it would have to be um, hmm; it’s a tie between “Your Heels” and “Truth is a lie”. Because you know, every man likes a woman, loves a woman with sexy legs in heels. You know, there’s something about heels that make women’s legs look so damn good and then “Truth is a lie” because, the truth really is a lie y’all. Don’t nobody tell the truth, no one tells the truth. (laughs) Nah so um, those are my two favourite songs though.
hustleGRL: What about for Big Mike?
Brian: Uh hold on. (yells) Mike, Michael, Michael, Michael. I think Michael fell asleep on us, hold on. I think Michael fell asleep. We might of lost Michael during hibernation.
Willie: Yo.
hustleGRL: Hellooo, Mike?
Willie: Nah Mike is sleeping but however, Mike likes “Bi-Polar” a lot. I know Mike really like the “Bi-Polar”, you know what I mean. He comes on, he moves and everything else so I think he would have to go with “Bi-Polar” and — You know what man, those are really hard questions to ask Day26 seeing that we write, we co-produce a lot of records on our album, you know what I’m saying. It’s like having children, it’s hard to just pick one. You know, so it’s like, this album is so amazing to us. We went in on this album, you know what I’m saying. Like “I’ma Put it on Her”, I think by far [was] the perfect first single for us. It is one of those records — it was nothing like that on our first album but however you feel, get that Day26 feel from it, you know what I mean. So we did that record and then like Brian was saying, “Your Heels” is another record that’s — oh man, that’s going to be something else man. We just want everybody to really go out on April 14th and pick that record up, show the support for Day26 and at the same time enjoy some of the best music you’re probably going to hear this year. We raising the bar.
hustleGRL: Is Robert around?
Willie: Let me see if I can find Rob. He’s hibernating too but I’ma punch him and wake him up. (talks to Robert) Yo Robbie, what’s your favourite song on the album? — He said Bi-Polar. You can write down: “He was hibernating, Will punched him in the leg, asked him what’s his favorite song and in hibernation he said ‘Bi-Polar’, and then turned back around and went back to sleep.”
hustleGRL: (laughs) Okay, I’ll write that. So you guys are touring right now? Did the tour start yet?
Willie: Yeah we on the promo tour now. We really just beating the block up and letting everybody know that “Imma Put It on Her” is the best single in the world.
hustleGRL: Okay and like what has the experience been like so far?
Willie: Man it’s so crazy man. Day26 fans man, we love y’all to death. We — y’all chase us and it’s like, it’s a lot of y’all. We thank God for it, we thank God that it’s a lot of y’all. Man when we say we going to be to places man they be so many people. It’s like there never been a market we went to and there wasn’t a lot of people. It’s like we go to the mall and sign autographs there’s a whole lot of people there. We go to a school there’s a whole lot people there. We go to a club at night, there’s a whole lot of people it’s like there’s a lot of people who follow Day26 man. It’s all blessed because of God man. You know I just want to encourage everybody to just pray that we get out of this recession you know what I mean? We need to get out of this recession man. It’s a lot going on you know what I’m saying in this world and we just need to overcome it you know what I’m saying and prayer works. So let’s just pray, pray that this recession ends and you know and other prayers you know. We just got to pray you know, so we continue to be successful in our lives no matter what it is. Whether it is doing what you guys doing, journalism or is it making music like we do or whatever it is you understand. We got to keep our support up for each other you know.
hustleGRL: Do you guys know if you guys will be coming to Canada for the tour?
Willie: Uh, if you guys request us in Canada.
hustleGRL: Okay I’ll make sure that happens. (laughs)
Willie: Hey you know what? It’s so funny because, see, I was in Detroit and I’m looking right across the water and they told me that was Canada.
hustleGRL: Yeah that’s, um, the other side is Windsor.
Willie: I’m looking, I’m looking out the window of my hotel, like a couple days ago we was in Detroit. I’m looking out my window and I seen like a “Big Caesars” or something right across the water. Is there like a casino or something out there?
hustleGRL: Um I don’t, well I don’t live in Windsor I live in Toronto but I – yeah, but like I haven’t really been there. But like whatever is like on the other side of that bridge or the water that’s Windsor.
Willie: I was like “wow” (laughs) that’s something else to me man because I never been over there and I really want to go.
hustleGRL: Yeah its fun. You guys should come by; you guys should come to Toronto for a show.
Willie: The best thing for you guys to do man, is get us out there, request us out there. Let our label know that y’all want us out there because that’s the only way they’re going to do it.
hustleGRL: Alright for sure (laughs). Um okay, what do you guys do for fun when you’re not in front of the camera? I know you guys have your whole life on TV and everything, but is there anything that you guys do in particular when you’re not in front of the cameras?
Willie: Man we are so big on sports man. Like we are competitive dudes and anything with sports, we will, we will have a spit contest [of] who can spit the farthest. It’s like we’ll play some games, we always in competition. And I think that’s part of why we here together as a group because we came from a competition and it make sense. You know. We’re just all these competitive dudes who just always want to be the best. You have to show them, like I be doing. (laughs)
hustleGRL: So is it difficult to maintain a private life since you’re always on the spot light?
Willie: You know it is because you know even this season they brought my son on and you know its more things to it now. So it’s like they ask you: “Is it cool?”, but you know that at the end of the day you want to let people to know exactly the way you feeling and emotions behind everything. You know like me, one of my main reasons for not even doing making the band was because I have a son back home man. My son wasn’t that old when I first started. So and I had — It was so close to my problems that I made that I was going to be with everyday cause you know that’s my first born, I just want everything for him. So it’s like when I, when they asked me if he can come on, I didn’t have a problem with it because you know what I’m saying it’s part of my life and they feeling my life so hey that’s what it was. So you know we don’t have no privacy though, at all, the privacy is out of the window, you know what I’m saying. Y’all pretty much know everything, y’all don’t know every everything but y’all know exactly who we are. When people come to us they be like “Ay man it’s like we know y’all”. It’s freaky because you do, because we ain’t faking for the camera; it’s who we are you know what I’m saying. Y’all see us and you know, some people get it twisted thought like, one day we at the airport and this girl looked at us and was like “I know y’all ain’t going to walk pass me and not say hi. Not after I’ve been with y’all after all these years”. I’m like yo, I just scratched my head, I looked around I’m like okay, maybe she don’t know that we ain’t watching her when she watching us. She was mad too, like she was just like “I know y’all ain’t just going to walk pass me”. We had to stop and give her a hug and whatever. People just have that feeling that really know us. Like they’ve been watching the show for so long. They seen us when we first, you know, started, when they showed the first thing, the first time “Alright, cool, you go to the next round”. We sung up in front of Diddy with 20 other dudes up there with us.
hustleGRL: Yeah the reason for that is probably because you guys are like, you guys are acting like yourselves on TV so its not like you guys are putting up a front or anything.
Willie: Yeah, yeah we ain’t frontin’ at all. What you see is really what you get. It’s like that but you know what I’m saying of course, they’re not going to show you everything because they got a certain story line they got to go by. It’s like man, okay, you know they got to make it make sense. So they made it make sense and for the most part of it, it is what it is you know what I’m saying? The best part of Day26, the thing I’m proud of the most is that we had a situation and we overcame our situation and we’re standing here strong right now, with the same love, we’re still a family, we’re still brothers, we ain’t going no where, album in stores April 14th Forever in a Day.
hustleGRL: Okay, one last question. The bad boy camp hasn’t had like great success keeping groups together like example would be like Danity Kane, B5, and Dream and etcetera. What are you guys going to do different so that you don’t meet the same fate?
Willie: Well you know what? At the end of the day man, I don’t even know any of those situations. So it’s not, it’s like, it’s hard. Me personally I talk to Slim and Q from 112, you know and they’re good friends of mine, but you know as far as Danity Kane we know they story, but B5 I’ve never met, Dream I’ve never met. You know by the end of the day, I think it’s about your business. You got to come the hardest. This business is 99% business and that 1% is what you — the glist and glamor that everybody else will see you have and you know, you have to have your business task straight. You can’t be around here just doing the work and not understanding where your money [is] coming from, how you’re going to get paid. It all boils down to somebody else getting paid more than you getting paid and you be like: “I ain’t really feeling that no more”. You just got to get up and do your grind. You got to get your grind, you got to make sure you can’t let nobody outwork you. One thing I will not do is I can not let Diddy outwork me trying to sell my product. So it’s like you have to work for yourself. The internet is so powerful right now. It’s like the world is in your living room when you on the web and it’s like you can talk to so many people. That’s why we Twitter, that’s why we YouTube, that’s why we MySpace, that’s why we Facebook. That’s why we try to do everything that we can do in our power that can make our fans feel so connected to us that they feel like an obligation, like it’s like family. Just like they follow me, I follow them. It makes it more of a — not such a ‘I’m up here, you down here’ type thing, you know what I mean. And we’re all equal. It’s my job, I’m making great music, you support me because you love my great music. And the more people you touch like that, you know, the greater your success will be. You know, I just be sitting here brainstorming the majority of the time like: “Man if I can get 3 to 4 million followers”, you know what I’m saying; what would that be like to have that many people following you and wanting to know your every move? At a marketing stand point, that’s so much, you can do so much, you know what I’m saying. You wouldn’t even need, realistically, you wouldn’t even really need a label if you had it like that. If you had so many people who were attached to you, then you can sell a t-shirt. You can probably get 1 million people to buy your t-shirt if you got 4 million followers. So it’s more like a business and I think that’s what Day26 is bringing that a lot of the other groups probably didn’t have in their head. They probably thought it was more so like: “Here, we work for Diddy and he knows what he’s doing and let him do that”. At the end of the day, Diddy is an artist too so Diddy got to do what Diddy has to do for Diddy too, you know what I mean. So I think Day26 is going to be around for a long time because we went and got our business straight. We know exactly where our dollars are going, we pay our taxes, we do what we need to do to hold on to our success.
hustleGRL: Alright that’s great, thank you.
Willie: Sorry the answer was so long, I just had so much to say.
hustleGRL: It’s all good.
Photo credits: Day-26.com
| POSTED ON: April 11th, 2009 |
On Wednesday, I caught up with Nickelus F on the phone right after he got home from work. He just released his album Heathen so an interview was due in my part. Blessed with a crazy rhyming pattern, flow & delivery, Nickelus F is pleased to cater to hip hop heads. In this interview he talks about his new album, his experience on 106 & Park’s Freestyle Friday, his music relations with Toronto’s own Drake, his soon-to-be twin baby girls and more.
Make sure you visit www.NickelusF.com for more on Nick!
If you want, you can follow the text with this audio below.
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hustleGRL: So how’s everything?
Nickelus F: Life is good yo, life is good. You know, I’ve got kids on the way, twins on the way. I just put out this new project [and] it’s getting a lot of positive feedback. Uh, I don’t know, things are good.
hustleGRL: So you just dropped your album “Heathen” and for me it’s like one of the best releases thus far this year. It’s really dope and I was just wondering how long did it take for you to put it all together?
Nickelus F: Truthfully really, it took about 2 years in total. That idea just dropped on my head one day. Look, I inspire to be somebody that people, you know what I’m saying, [can] look up to. I want to be a role model. So I’m sitting here for a second and I’m like: “Yo, how can I get myself across?” So one day I was driving out of town and it kind of got drawn in my head. I was like: “You know what? I’m going to make this project and I’m going to call it ‘Heathen’“. I kind of just put the word out to the producers that I work with they started hitting me and stuff and it just started coming together.
hustleGRL: Okay, so production is a really important factor and I find that it makes the listeners get in the zone. So while I was listening to your album, I [had] seen that you had an outstanding set of production. Which producers did you use for the songs on your album?
Nickelus F: Well I used – - the entitled track is done by Sneaka Freak. She’s dope. I’ve known her for a while; she’s a female producer and she’s just crazy. She has such a gutter, raw, heavy, you know, type of sound. So uh, she hit me with the joint [and] as soon as she hit me with the actual “Heathen” instrumental, I was like ‘wow‘. So I called her up immediately and I was like: “Yo, that’s going out; you got to let me have this. Let me get this in the cut“. Then I kind of just sat on the beat for a while. But anyways, then um Conrizzle who I’ve been working with for a long long time; me and Con go way back. Then Ivory; Ivory did a whole lot of it. It was cool working with him on it because he was like a really involved producer. He liked the whole concept and idea. He would hit me and we’d talk about what’s going on, you know what I’m saying and how, you know what I mean. He would hit me with a beat and we’d sit there and talk about it. You know what I’m saying, so then, then The Epics, those are my people from Virginia Beach. [It's] a band that I’ve been working with for years. That’s everybody that’s on the project pretty much. I’ve been working with them for a very long time and we’ve all grown together. Then also I have uh Lab Ox on there and he has a lot of good things going on in his career and all, and a lot of good records with major artists. So it was good to have him on that. Um, who else did I have on there? (Editor’s note: Up & coming producer M.Rell also took part of the project. He produced the Demon Talk beat) Then I had this guy Big Drew; he was just a person who just hit me up out the blue in my email address. He was like: “Yo, you should have this beat” and it was like out the blue and I had the beat for mad long. I always got some ideas I’d write to it and then this [song] came together. He did the last song, the “Hold You Down” record. Um, I’m making sure I’m not forgetting nobody. I think that’s pretty much all right now.
hustleGRL: It sounds like a lot of people took part in the project. You rap about a lot of pretty deep issues and situations; what was the hardest song to write?
Nickelus F: Um really, none of them were really that hard to write. [It's] kind of like the way I create [music]. I would kind of create in time; as things were going on, I would write about it. So there would be songs that I’d [write] the first verse, then I’d come up with the second verse for like 2 months later. Then I may come up with the third verse you know, 4 weeks before the album drops. You know what I’m saying, there were stuff like that, you know what I mean. I was pretty much comfortable with everything that I talked about. You know what I’m saying, because I know of everything that I talk about so none of the songs were actually difficult to write.
hustleGRL: That’s wassup. So has [being] an MC always been your passion or did you just wake up one day and say “I’m going to be an MC”. How did this all begin? You’ve been in the game for a long time; what really made you start?
Nickelus F: Oh my gosh, I’ve been rapping since I was [at] a very very young age. Its hard for me to remember exactly who the first rapper I heard was or any of that but I remember the time I was at a summer camp. It had to be like 4th grade [when] Kriss Kross was hot. So I was at the summer camp and we had to write a song; and a lot of the kids changed up the words to normal songs like “Mary had a Little Lamb” and all of that stuff. So we’d use the same pattern but just change up the words. So for some reason I decided to write a rap, you know what I mean. But this was young and I was writing little raps. But then I started reciting lyrics from then and on. Then I’m remember 6th grade and I officially picked it up; and I rapped on the LL Cool J beat…uh, I can’t remember what it is but it’s– oh yeah, its “Hey Lover”. I would write my first official song then at least. So it was a long time ago.
hustleGRL: At least you’re not like one of those other rappers that decided to rap because everyone else is doing it.
Nickelus F: Nah, at first — I mean it was just like a true love form. There’s a purpose behind it.
hustleGRL: That’s good. So I remember seeing you on 106 & Park for the Freestyle Friday and I know that you won all 7 rounds and got the hall of fame belt and everything. How that whole experience benefit your rap career? Did you get any record labels looking at you?
Nickelus F: 106 & Park was benefiting me like in the eye of people. But really for real, it didn’t really do much, you know what I’m saying. And I don’t mean it in a bad way but its like you know, I got some contacts out of it for real. That’s what it ended up like; I got some contacts. It was fun, it was a good experience. A lot of things didn’t get carried around much after this. You know, it was more or less an experience and I got a few contacts.
hustleGRL: Cool. Speaking of contacts, Drake is a big artist in Toronto and you happen to have a lot of collabos with him. Are we going to hear more new material from the two of you? Cause its been a minute since there’s been new songs featuring Drake.
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(Editor’s note: Listen to Drake ft. Nickelus F – A Scorpio’s mind)
Nickelus F: Truthfully, I’m not necessarily sure when we’ll hear some new Drake. He’s a very busy man at this point of time and we’re both trying to work to get to a better place. So, when time will come, you know what I mean? He shows mad love and I got nothing but love for him yo. He’s my nigga yo.
hustleGRL: Fosho. We’re gonna go back and talk a bit more about your album. On the song “A New Day” featuring Ivory, you mention a situation with [who] I believe is your current girlfriend, saying she got pregnant and she showed you her pregnancy test. Can you go deeper [in talks] with that situation about everything that happened?
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(Editor’s note: Listen to Nickelus F – A New Day)
Nickelus F: Yeah, I mean, it was a big eye opener for me, you know. But I can’t say that I didn’t see it coming either. I wasn’t necessarily surprised but that joint hit me. I was funny about it at first like anybody would be because I was nervous, but now, you know, it’s just an exciting thing, very exciting.
hustleGRL: So you’re having twins?
Nickelus F: Yeah, Twin girls. We’re still trying to settle on the names but we can’t agree on much. I want celebrity names, you know what I’m saying, I want some celebrity names. I got some creative things but everybody else is like: “ah, I don’t know F, you ain’t there yet”.
hustleGRL: Well, I’m a female listener of your music, I love your music. Do you find that you have an active female fan base?
Nickelus F: Do I feel I have a what? An active female fan base?
hustleGRL: Yeah like, do you find that a lot of females listen to your music? Would you know?
Nickelus F: Yeah, I actually do know and it surprises me. A lot of the times, I — it’s kind of hard for me to cater necessarily to the female audience. Its not necessarily that its hard but I do what I feel, you know and its based on how I’m feeling. So, you know, I keep it real organic. I try, I do other things and that’s going to come with time. In fact, in fact yo, I got something that the females will love coming later on in the year; about around summer time. In a few months, I will be putting out a project that I feel the females will love.
hustleGRL: Yeah, because I notice [that] you don’t do a lot of “female love songs” and stuff.
Nickelus F: Yeah, I mean for real, its not about that with me. Like I said, it’s all about a message or a point I’m trying to get across and I realize like one thing — okay here’s one thing after 106 & Park. It also let me realize that I had a big influence on certain people, like other individuals that do a lot of rap. There are rappers that are trying to reach goals and what not. They look up to me in certain ways so I had to — I realized my force, and I wanted to be positive with it. [That] is basically what I’m saying.
hustleGRL: What can we look forward to in the next 6 months? Do you have any other mixtapes that you’re gonna drop? Are going to be touring? Any shows? Any music videos?
Nickelus F: Yeah we got a — I got 2 more projects lined up coming up. One of the projects’s called “RARE”, that’s another thinker. Then I have a project coming up in the summer time called “The Silverust”. That’s gonna be crazy. We got a nice band and it’s produced by my man Kid Icarus from VA Beach and it’s fun music, its just fun. It’s a whole other side of me. I’ll let you know me in one way then in a few months, I’ll show you a whole other side of me and a whole other light of me. So I have those projects coming out. I have lots of shows lined up, with the band actually. We have a lot of shows lined up. We have a video coming. I got plenty of videos coming for the Heathen, for the freestyles. I’m just trying to stay as active as I possibly can.
hustleGRL: Okay, that’s wassup. This is one of the few last questions: where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
Nickelus F: 5 years? Truthfully, just to tell you the truth, in 5 years I see myself in my prime. I see myself happy and I see myself, I don’t know. I feel like I’m on the verge of something. I wake up everyday anxious because I feel like this is a big year for me, you know. I’ve got a lot of positive energy right now.
hustleGRL: I’m going to end it here, do you have any last words? Any shout outs?
Nickelus F: I wanna shout out all the blogs that have been showing support. That has been key this year, I really appreciate that, all the websites. I wanna thank all of the fans, shout them out because they reach out and they talk to me. That’s the good thing about my fan base, they’re very interactive, they hit me up, they talk. I want to shout out Rayni Day, my man Radio B, Hijynx, shout to VA as a whole, I wanna shout out my man Drizzy Drake and uh, I think that’ll be all. That’ll be all the shout outs.
I really appreciate it. I’ve been getting a lot of love lately. Thank you for everything. I appreciate the love. I guess that I’ll hit you up on the Twitter in the AM. I saw that you hit me. Alright another thing, if I — Oh! Thank you for one! Yo, thank you! I gotta thank you! Ah I should of thanked you in the interview. Put it in there, put it there. I want to thank you because, you saved me. I did not realize that I had posted my number on the Twitter jawn. I did not realize. I thought I had sent a direct message and I didn’t know yo. I’m so glad you saved me yo because I guess it was still early [in the morning] so I didn’t get any weird calls.
| POSTED ON: March 29th, 2009 |
Not long ago I got to interview New York Rapper MIMS. His Sophmore album is due on April 7th and touches base with me about it. He also speaks on the comparisons with Gillie Da Kid, his favourite MCs, and more. Be sure to cop his album when it drops and request the song “Move” on your local radio station.
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hustleGRL: You just dropped your new single “Move”, it’s fire! It has been a while since you released new material, what have you been up to? You’re working on a new album right?
MIMS: Yeah, Thanks for the love. Album drops April 7th and it’s called Guilt. Man I’ve basically just been grinding getting the album together and touring. The label I’m signed to went through a transitional period right after Music Is My savior so I chose to lay low and wait until the time was right to come out with another album.
hustleGRL: Why did you name your album Guilt? What’s the story behind it?
MIMS: Since I’ve come into the game I’ve been nothing but successful; my music, financially, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.
I’ve been successful and at a time where the economy is unstable and people are dealing with financial burden, foreclosure, and unemployment.
So when I look back and I try to help people and then the next day I’m at the dealership picking’ up a $80,000 vehicle, at some point you have to feel guilty. It’s not to say that I feel like I don’t deserve the things I have.
I just feel like you have to make a decision at many times in life whether or not you’re gonna be happy for yourself or you’re gonna help other people out and be happy, but you can’t help everybody and that’s the key to it.
hustleGRL: In the song for “Move”, you say: “they can call it one-hit wonder, but I guess that means I’m one-up”. What are your views on people calling you one-hit wonder? Do you feel your album will prove these people wrong and if so, how?
MIMS: I think the biggest thing for me to do when it comes to Guilt is just create a great album. I think when you go into making’ an album and you worry about what everybody’s saying’ about you, then you just get – you have a single mind state.
Basically your mind state, you’re on a one track the whole time and the album’s gonna basically sound the same from track 1 to track 15.
For me I think I get in the studio and I create records. I make music. So when it comes to getting’ in the studio, I make a song. That’s how I take onto my album. I make sure that I address the situations that people wanna hear and that’s why I’m calling’ the album Guilt ‘cause it’s a album for the people.
hustleGRL: What kind of production & features have you summed up thus far for your upcoming album?
MIMS: From a production standpoint I’ve worked with the Blackout Movement, the same people who produced This is Why I’m Hot. I also started working’ with some new cats out of Atlanta called Kaliphat. Also worked with Jim Johnson who produced Lollipop for Lil’ Wayne and then I introduced a new production crew into the game called Da Internz. So that’s my production squad.
As far as artists are concerned I got a record on the album with Latoya Luckett. I got a record with J. Holiday. I also have a record with Nice and Smooth, as well as Ky-Mani Marley.
hustleGRL: Well, I’m excited to see the outcome of it! Now let’s switch up subjects, how do you feel about comparisons between you and Gillie Da Kid?
MIMS: I don’t think there’s really much to compare. Gillie does what he does and he’s great at what he does and I do what I do. So I think people are always gonna compare something to someone else at some point. Jay-Z was compared to Big Daddy Kane. Snoop Dogg was compared to Slick Rick.
I did this record Move and now they comparing’ it to a record that Gillie did and I respect that. If that’s what his fans think and that’s what his fans are saying’ then I respect that, but for me I’m just gonna continue to make good music.
(Editor’s note: Listen to Move remix ft. Gillie Da Kid)
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For all those people who think there beef or animosity between us there isn’t we actually have a song out now the Move remix.
hustleGRL: Who would you say inspired you to start rapping and who are your current top 5 MCs in the game?
MIMS: The first person I could remember listening to was Slick Rick, like really just falling in love with his style and the choice of music and the sound was Slick Rick, but I got a lot of influence from many a artists.. There’s a million people that inspired me till this day- Biggie, Tupac, Jay-Z, Nas, and Outkast just to name a few.
Top five MCs? Probably the same list I mentioned, but I don’t think I could name just five. I’ll mention a few in no particular order; Jay-Z, Biggie, Nas, Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Outkast, Dr. Dre. NWA. There’s a few others, but those are some of the few that I accredit as major inspirations to me.
hustleGRL: Music has evolved in so many ways now-a-days, well hip-hop in general. How do you feel about the music industry today and what are your key elements to be successful in 2009?
MIMS: I think the music industry is 90 percent business, 10 percent talent. I also believe that in order to survive in this industry in 2009, you gotta understand technology and stay ahead of the curve. There’s a lot of things that artists have to do these days to even gain a buzz in this let alone survive. So I think that as long as you’re knowledgeable about where technology is headed you should be okay in this industry.
hustleGRL: Now, I’m born in Germany but I was raised in Toronto, Canada; are you feeling any artists north of the border, mainly in Toronto? Would you consider working with that/those artist(s)?
MIMS: There’s an artist in Toronto by the name of OB. I love his music and I’m actually somewhat interested in signing’ him, working’ out a deal with working’ with him. So hopefully we can work that out. But OB is someone to watch.
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