What kinds of things did you learn from the streets that help you in the music business?
Niggaz not gonna fuck over something on me. I’m about my business to the fuckin max, that was my jacket. Bein in them situations to fuck with me like that, then I ain’t never fuck with nobody anyway. I coulda been Cash Money’s second artist way in 1991. After Kilo G, God bless his day, but I didn’t really wanna fuck with it. I didn’t want shit to end up bad. I’m about me. I’m a loyal nigga. I’m representin to the fullest.
Were you going to go with Cash Money at one time?
No, never in a million years. I fucked with ‘em though, let ‘em know what’s happenin. Nigga hit me up with a few million, shit, I’ma switch the game. You know I’m fuckin with my dog Geezy though. BG and me got an album bout to drop. We gonna know this muthafuckin city, the whole world, all the way down.
What does your mom think about you doing music?
At one time, when I used to come home with no money and shit, I probably gave her a lotta shame when I was getting loaded. She found out. I think she knew I used to get loaded. I used to be fuckin up bad, man. All that coke, that was cool back in the game. Coke and heroin, the uncut shit, I used to fuck with all that. I used to fuck with that shit bad. Look at what: if I see a nigga and I ain’t got none, I’m takin it from him. Give me the shit or I’ma fuck over you. That’s how I was rockin. I might be out there and jack this nigga this night and be out there at the concert with the gat in my back pocket rappin on stage. That’s the kinda games I used to play. I used to be trippin. I was beefin at the time. Once it was on it was on.
A lot of people don’t realize how far back you have been rappin.
I been doin this shit like thirteen years. I started rappin when I was thirteen, lil boy, my mama used to come look for me when I’m in clubs. Bounce shit was the cool then, Bounce rappin. Everybody grab the mic, every artist.
What made you go in the direction of music at such a young age?
Shit, I was listenin to what was poppin. If you knew how to rap your shit was real, your name was ringin, but I was a fuck-up when I was rappin. It had to do with the older I got the more wiser I got.
Back when you started were you doing the same style of music that you’re doing now?
I was listenin to that Gangsta shit, ya heard me? I was still with Bounce rappin, I know how to do that, but I’m on some other shit too. I started as Bounce. If you heard me then and hear me now you’d be like, "That nigga was before back in the game." It was a totally different vibe. I was a lil’ kid. KLC produced all that way back. That’s the only producer I ever had, that’s the first person to ever put me behind a real shit with 16 bars and shit. That’s my nigga, my legendary. Eminem got his legendary, I got my legendary: KLC.
I didn’t know that you were working with KLC before you got with No Limit.
That’s what we fuckin with, you already know how we comin. Matter of fact, that’s the nigga who brought me to Percy Miller.
How did that happen?
’98 when I got outta the pen, ya heard me? It was poppin, then No Limit was the shit. I needed a few dollars at the time, so I went and hollered at the nigga. KL brought me down there and I just laced it on up. Didn’t sign a contract or nothin, they gave me like 60 g’s, ya heard me? Master P, weren’t about nothing, he showed a nigga how to play the game, owes a nigga a few dollars too. Know what I’m talkin about? Ain’t ‘bout nothin.
At the time you got signed you were locked up or you were out?
I ain’t never been signed. All this rappin I been doin, that’s how gangsta I am. I just put that album out and went to jail two days before it came out. Listen G, this is how bad my luck is: I got outta jail in 1997, I stayed out like 3 months from that so it’s ’98 now, then I got busted on the lake front with three guns and a vest. And at the same time I’m fightin a whole ‘nother charge in Jefferson Parish where they got C-Murder at. They got my dog, C-Murder. They don’t play over there. They gave me five years. Thirty months, you know how it goes, I laid it down like a gangsta supposed to. Soak it up like an ol’ gangsta. Nigga, if you cryin in that bitch you better stop cryin in there and be a man. That’s why a muthafucka was in there readin the Murder Dog magazine. I’m a G for real.
When that album came out you were already in jail?
Yeah, it came out on a Tuesday, I went the jail the Sunday before. And I was fucked up, G. I’m talkin about it was my first time ever to be heard national. So I was fucked up, but I still hold it down. On my birthday I got them thirty fuckin months, September 9, 1998.
I heard that you were in the pen for five years?
Six if you add it all up. Back to back. That didn’t stop nothing. I still come home and make me a fuckin album. Know what I’m talkin ‘bout? Dedicated, this is what I do.
Now you’re off parole?
Nigga, I’m on parole. Say it three times after you say that, that’s how good you’re gonna make me feel. Yeah, I can’t do a muthafuckin thing right now. I’m fightin with the bitches and everything. Don’t fuck with me, I’m legal. Ain’t no weed, ain’t no guns or nothing. You might smell something, but don’t tell me nothin or I’m gonna whoop ‘em. They fuck with you bad though.
The way you first got with No Limit was through KLC?
P sent some plane tickets in 1995 lookin for artists that he want to blow up in California. I was runnin, druggin and thuggin. I wasn’t lookin to fuck with no Master P. KLC talkin bout the nigga want me to fly out to Cali. KL, I’m down here hustlin. Is he gonna give us some money? That’s how real shit is. All that come from a family. Me, Mystikal, from the KL. KL used to work with all of us way before. It’s a whole fuckin catalog of muthafuckas, that’s how it go. They had a record label called Parkway Pumpin Record. KL stayed in the Parkway, that’s a neighborhood, that’s my lil’ spot too.
Is that close to Magnolia?
No, it’s close to the Calliope, down the street from Magnolia. You gotta get you a long stretch, but I used to walk from there to there, so it’s cool.
I heard you got shot. What happened?
That was back in the game when I was druggin and thuggin. Every nigga, every real gangsta got some muthafuckin gangsta tales to tell. I got a helluva lot of ‘em. I used to be druggin and thuggin back in the game. Jailhouse got me right. I got to be eight years strong, clean and sober. I left that life behind. I’m a helluva muthafucka. I got focused vision. Ain’t no fuckin stuntin. I’m a young nigga with focused vision. They got niggaz 45, ain’t got none. Fuckin people knocked my ass off quick when I was a young nigga, getting busted and murder charges, armed robbery, ya heard me? Check my jacket. Don’t think that I ain’t no gangsta, I’m about my business. I ain’t gotta put on no helluva front. That ain’t me, bro. I’m regular jugular, me, I ain’t trippin. You catch me in the club by myself, my potnas’ there lookin for me. I’m I’m sittin up a jig, man, I’ma go where I want. I ain’t own no paper, so long as I ain’t worried ‘bout nothing.
There are a lot of people rapping about gangsta life, but not too many really lived it.
That’s why I come to clean they shit up. I’m a major nigga, don’t even listen to they shit no more. I’m lookin for the real, what you gonna listen to that for? You know he phony, he ain’t talkin bout nothing. You gonna listen to that? I’m a G!
How old are you now, Slim?
I’ll be 26 on the ninth. September ninth. I was 17-18, on the juvenile tip, holdin me down. I’m about my business.
How was it growing up in Magnolia?
It built a nigga, bro. I can’t say how it was growin up cause it done screwed me up. That’s why I stole, that muthafucka grew me up. That’s why I seen it happen, that’s why I done dirt, that’s why a nigga got locked up. Everything, that’s me. I gotta leave there and get my muthafucka game tight and change right. Lotta niggaz jaw jackin and blasé bla like they from the Magnolia–ya heard me–a muthafucka ain’t never had a muthafuckin address back there, I ain’t gonna get too technical and shit. Magnolia, it’s still the same, ain’t nothing change. If anybody wanna be trippin on the project type shit, that’s me, I’m settrippin. I’m from out the Magnolia, I’m Magnolia Slim. That’s me, I’m holdin that down. I’m a gangsta too, so it could rappin or however it go. You’re the Murder Dog, so you’re gonna put everything in there.
I feel your vibe from your music. I know that you come real.
Man, you ain’t heard nothing yet. I’ma tell you one thing, the dude 50, I respect his mind. He came with some flows with that real shit. He brought it right back to the streets, ya heard me? So I’m gonna take it from there, like a gangsta supposed to. Can’t slow me down.
With the right promotions you could be as big as 50.
I know that. It’s a process, I ain’t trippin. Catch me next year after this album drop. Next year round this time we gonna be up there and do the same ol’ thing. I’m gonna be on the big Dog cover again, talkin crazy, with a whole ‘nother deal. Ya heard me? We ain’t crazy by a long shot, Cut Throat ain’t crazy. Ant and them, that’s my muthafuckas, they handlin the business with me and we make official like that. That’s how I be doin it.
Do you go by Magnolia Slim or Soulja Slim?
Magnolia, that was my name back in the game. It was Magnolia Slim, but when I left there and dropped the nationwide album, when I was fuckin with P, I just said "Fuck it I’m gonna call myself Soulja Slim because these muthafuckas ain’t respectin that this fuck ‘soldier’ shit was invented and originated by me." Soldier Rebocks and all that shit there, that’s the code I used to live by, and I still do to this day.
Your first album on No Limit, I heard it sold 400,000.
You might as well go ahead and call it certified gold. Fuck it. If I was out there–I stayed in jail the whole while–then I woulda done my thing. Nigga wouldn’ta been playin with me out there. My business woulda been handled, took it to the street like a G. I’m a real nigga, I ain’t look for no contract with you. I’m fuckin with you on loyalty. I’m a friend. I ain’t never did no fuckin contracts with Rap, Rap game like it’s supposed to, from the jailhouse to the street. That nigga P was real at one point in time, I ain’t gonna take nothing from him.
Definitely, No Limit was an incredible movement.
I ain’t talkin ‘bout No Limit, I’m talkin about Master P. And they gonna wanna know where I’m talkin crazy from. Give me my muthafuckin money!
Master P didn’t pay you?
A nigga sold 400-and-somethin-thousand units. Add that up, and a nigga getting like 300,000. Publishing and shit, but a nigga want it all. Fuck that. I feel played like a muthafucka. See, my niggaz, we doin all that ourselves now. Get that publishing down, from producers on down we gonna be laced like no other.
Your second album Streets Made Me, sold close to 200,000 with no promotions at all.
They didn’t promote that at all. Nigga stuck me out there like a sore thumb. But I told the nigga to do that. People was tryin to hold my album. Nah uh, I pushed him to do that. I respect it cause he was tellin me, "Slim it ain’t gonna be no advertising or nothing." But the bitch-ass nigga still owe me a few dollar though. Off that album and the other album. That’s why I’m doin my shit myself and I’m hotter than I ever was when I was fuckin with that nigga’s shit. And let a nigga know I took all the diamonds out the Tank and put it in the Cut Throat piece, like a gangsta.
Who owns the rights to those albums?
That’s him, that’s on that bitch-ass nigga. I let that nigga take that like that. I got some paperwork where I could try to go to war, but I ain’t no nigga go to court. I’d feel like a ol’ pussy-ass nigga takin him to court. You heard me? I get it in blood, nigga.
You left No Limit because you weren’t getting paid?
The nigga ain’t gonna break no fuckin bread. He had his mind focused on some lil’ TV shows and Lil Romeo, which I don’t knock him for that. But this that real shit right here. Look, this shit done took over, this real shit took over. You’re fuckin right! I’m ‘bout to do my thing, baby.
You started your own label?
Cut Throat Comitty Records. I started that when I was in jail. I used to be fuckin around talkin about Cut Throat Comitty Records, you know what I’m talkin ‘bout? Fuckin with a nigga, sayin you gonna get 2%. Just fuckin around. I just made it official right now, I’m just tryin to build it. I signed with Koch. I’m hopin that they’ll push this shit and keep this shit real, hold the beat.
Is Koch going to be distributing future releases from Cut Throat?
I’m searchin. Koch ain’t nothin but one album. I’m tryin to see how it works with that one album. If they take care of my business right how it supposed to be. I feel like I could sell more music if I’m prmoted right. I ain’t hatin or nothin, I don’t knock you bro, but…you feel me? I gotta get me.
A lot of people don’t know too much about your history…
Check this out: if they don’t know about me, they better start knowin about me cause guess what? I’m a helluva jig and my presence is known.
You grew up with both your parents?
I grew up with my mom. Stayed in the ‘Nolia. The rent was cheap as a muthafucka. I’m Magnolia to the die, ya heard me? I’ma die with it tatted on me. Magnolia is like Queensbridge with all the rappers we got out that muthafucka. Just one lil’ section, that project. You got 6 Shot, you got Lil Turk, you got Mr. Marcello, you got me, Juvenile, ya dig? All them from the ‘Nolia, anything else is not official, baby, believe what I’m tellin you. Man, I jacked, I snorted dope in the hallway, had a gat in the middle the coldway, that’s what that means.
Do you ever see your dad?
Yeah, my pops is cool. He’s still alive too. Done like 12-15 years in the penitentiary. When he come home I was old as a muthafucka. I’m a big boy, I’m in the street daddy. I got hoes callin me daddy too. Whas up baby? Can’t really say nothin to me too much. I respect you as a man, you respect me as a young man.
How old were you when he got locked up?
I was young, young like a muthafucka. I can’t remember too much. I got some pictures, me and my daddy at the penitentiary standing up by the brick wall. I got a big ol’ bush…
Is Magnolia a big project?
Let me tell you this: they tore it down. My fuckin hood, nigga, I ain’t got nowhere to go. Everybody be bunched up on one side. They got one side pulled down. I don’t know what the fuck they doin. They tore it down, like a nigga ain’t gonna hang no more. The side I’m from they ripped it down. I’m out the Six Court for sho’. That’s where everything popped, right there.
Juvenile and Lil’ Turk grew up around you?
That’s my niggaz. That Turk nigga grew up under me. Juvey left there. He was the nigga that fucked with me with his shit in the beginning. We started around the same time. Some hood shit, ya feel me?
What are some of your earliest memories from your childhood?
Maan, when I left there and tried to flip a muthafuckin dime. That’s what pops up in my head. My nigga Gaylok, he a gangsta, he in the clink right now, but that what was a lil’ G in the game. That was the nigga that left there and took me on a few hustles and all that kinda shit. I got that muthafuckin flip-a-twenty nigga. I was supposed to make twenty dollars off it. I gave ten dollars. It was my first rock I ever sold, young nigga, thirteen or something. Chopped that shit in half like a gangsta, got that broke up all in there. You know I put it into the fuckin plastic, ya heard me. I got a shake bag for me, two dimes, what you want? I left there and sold it, got like eight dollars worth of food stamps, when they had food stamps. So my profit was made in food stamps. That was my first shit.
You were getting paid in food stamps?
Maan, you might as well say fuck the government. The nigga be needin ‘em too. Tell you some real ghetto shit. Nigga hood for real, I just left out the ‘Nolia, nigga. I’m through there 24-7, jewelry, everything. Niggaz know what’s happenin.
Where’s your mom staying now?
I brought my mama out, stepped out somewhere. That’s my number one moms. She been through a lot with me. That’s my backbone. A lotta cats don’t have that. I’m blessed, homey.
She was probably waiting for you while you were locked up all those years?
Yeah, but she don’t even know how a lotta these muthafuckas was fuckin with me, man. I was gone to jail back to back to back to back. I’m talkin bout like three times in one year. I’m tellin you, I just got out that muthafucka in February, police pull me over on Canal Street, I got 40 days left on parole now, I’m comin back from getting my jewelry and I got a concert this night. These two muthafuckin stupid-ass dick suckers–that’s what we call ‘em down here, the police–so these stupid-ass dick suckers, fuckin with me. I got a Cadillac 2002, I’m an old gangsta like–ya feel me–they seen a young Black nigga so they wanna stop a nigga, but they wanna stop me and pull out big guns when they stop me, that’s how they do it down here. Don’t fuck with the police, them vicious. But look what they did to me: they put me in the police car, and I see something in the car sittin on the floor, but I had no idea. I know these muthafuckas wanna take me to jail, I’m on parole–I got 30 months on parole and only 2 more months till I’m finished–I was straight. They had a fuckin weed pipe back. Man, I don’t smoke out no weed pipe, I’m a fuckin gangsta, I smoke and keep movin.
So what happened? You got locked up again?
Yeah, I got locked up. I had like 40 days. I had my people handlin my business. G it up and do it how it supposed to be done.
You did this whole album after you got out?
Look nigga, I hooked this muthafucka up just on the strength and the love. I hooked it up. A producer from France made the hit single, his name is Zoherr. The single, "I’ll Pay Fa It", he did that there. And Dani, that’s my super producer, and I got KL. So it’s official. This album, I put my all in it.
What was school like for you? Were you going to school?
I went to school. I stopped goin to school at tenth grade. I left there when I got into it with a nigga. I went to Booker T, in the 3rd Ward, right by the Calliope. You wasn’t no gangsta you ain’t went to the T, that’s all. I went to Booker T Washington, my mama went there, her ma. I’m from out the 3rd Ward, I’m ‘bout that hood shit.
What opened the door for you with your music? What was your big break?
I ain’t gonna say it happened over night, but let me tell you something about Bounce music: if you have anybody get up on the fuckin mic and have two "Trigga Man"s on the turntable, a vinyl "Trigga Man" and a break. T. Tucker invented that shit. I’m fuckin with him, that’s my nigga. It’s like everybody was doin it, but a nigga don’t know how to do it right. I say, "Let me do that."
Who was influencing you to do music when you were in the Magnolia?
Shit, I was psyching myself up. I was listenin to Scarface, NWA, I like all old shit. You catch me goin to the record store down here, anywhere, I’m buyin all old shit. I’m talkin bout like Gangsta shit. Spice 1. Spice used to run some hellafied Gangsta shit to me. Scarface, that’s my muthafuckin nigga. You gotta give it up.
Were you listening to people like Cube and NWA?
Yeah, fuckin real, I’m fuckin with that. I’m a Dirty South nigga, I listen to all types of music. But I’m tryin to build something, me. I’m not tryin to knock no other kinda music. I’m comin up with my own thing. It’s called Cut Throat music, baby. I got a compilation album ‘bout to drop. You know how many albums I got man? I’m just locked and cocked. I got like two artists I’m gonna make stars out of too.
Are they new artists?
LilRealOne, lil’ eighteen years old. The police tried to pin him with a murder charge, he was in there on armed robbery, but he got off all that.That nigga ran up to me one time, man this nigga remind me of ol’ Magnolia Slim. That’s me! I’m talkin ‘bout I ain’t never met no nigga like that. That lil’ nigga was spittin! Yep, bout to drop his album right after me. Fuck everything else.
In New Orleans it used to be straight Bounce. When did the music change to Bounce Gangsta?
Shit, it just went with the flow. From ’91, ’94, if you wasn’t makin no Bounce shit you ain’t doin nothin down here far as a nigga was rappin. God blessed me, I knew how to do both of ‘em. Man I got a fuckin song Juvenile did on my album, that’s the definition of Bounce. Real Gangsta Bounce shit. Just like that.
Juvenile is featured on this album?
Juvenile and BG is the only two artists featured on that thing. Then I got a remix, a hidden track on that thang, featuring Mystikal. It’s crucial, we done it big. I got BG on there, Juvenile, and Mystikal. It’s official. And I got the Cut Throat Comitty on there. They gonna let their presence be know on the whole album. LilRealOne, Kayatoc the Kid, and 12 o’Clock, that’s my artists right there.
Are you going to stay as Soulja Slim or Magnolia?
When you know it’s gonna be exposed that Soulja Slim is Magnolia, then I’m gonna drop an album like that. I got big plans. You don’t never know what to expect from a nigga like me. And I’m always be efficient. I’m fuckin with all kinda music though, man. East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, Down South. You heard me? That’s where I’m at.
You listen to a lot of music now?
Yeah, you fuckin right. But right now I’m up on the Slim, I ain’t lyin, I been on that muthafucka ever since it got mixed and mastered. I’m rockin, baby. I gotta put myself in the position like I’m that other nigga listenin to my shit.
What do you think of the music that’s coming out right now?
50, I burnt that shit out. And David Banner, I ain’t really had a chance to listen to him, but he from down here so I’m fuckin with him. And the Young Bloods, Killer Mike, I fuck with them niggaz too, ATL niggaz. Lil Jon and them, they doin they thang. Cut Throat Comitty, we doin our thang too. Man, Koch gotta do they thing. I could get me some platinum status right fast, give them some status too at the same time. This album here could go double platinum if they push it. They got to.
Are you touring to promote your album?
I been hittin these lil’ country towns down here like a muthafucka. Goin to Houston, Atlanta, makin it happen myself. I been doin it. Koch ain’t nothing but a boost for me, for the big money, big dog status. I laid back in the penitentiary and mapped out all this.
When does this album drop on Koch?
It’s droppin August the 26th. I tried to drop it on September the ninth, my birthday, it woulda been a sweet thang, but it was some ol’ flim flam type shit. Business is business.
Running the label and being an artist, do you feel a lot of pressure in your life?
Look homey, I been locked up so long this shit don’t even be feelin like nothing to me. I don’t be stuntin or nothin. Right now, homey, I’m still hood like a muthafucka. Third world Magnolia like a muthafucka. I’m way outta my boundaries right now talkin to you. I’m fuckin with you, baby.
Is your new album similar to your last or is it something different?
Man, this muthafucka’s different. I want you to listen to it and label this muthafucka yourself. When I came out of jail I took care of my business, it don’t take me nothin but a few seconds to make an album, nigga. And it’s hot! When you got it you got it. I better use it up while it’s good. I ain’t tryin to fall off, like a bad bag of dope. Like these niggaz done fell off like a bad bag of dope.
The album that’s coming out on Koch is a re-release of the one you put out independently?
It’s called Years Later a Few Months After. When I had put it out independent myself I sold a quick like 30-some-thousand units, within 6 months, no promotion, no nothing. Ya feel me? Now I’m ready to make it official. The album Years Later, I redone it all over again, called it Years Later a Few Months After. "I’ll Pay Fa It" was on the one that sold 30,000, the one that got me the deal with Koch. Everything is different. I spent like 7-8 g’s getting my shit done like a big dog. Man, this muthafucka’s done how it’s supposed to be. That’s why it’s it Years Later a Few Months After. I got Koch behind me hopefully 100% to get this fuckin money.
I heard that you’ve been getting a lot of radio play throughout the South.
They’s lovin it, they’s real. They’re playin "I’ll Pay Fa It". They made it happen. I gotta hit ‘em with another one like that. Before we was even fuckin with Koch we was getting like 200 spins in already. That’s what made ‘em holler at us, you know what I’m talkin ‘bout? I’m bout to do it how it supposed to be done. I need a few million, me.
BY BLACK DOG BONE
