Not really. They keep asking me the same questions, man. Ask me something different. A lot of magazines and radio stations and video shows get the same paperwork from the label so they know what they’re supposed to ask you. They’re asking the same questions. Doing thirty interviews in one day, I can’t take that shit.
Originally you didn’t want to do this interview because your name was brought up in our T.I. vs. Lil Flip article. Do you feel like magazines, or media in general, are responsible for a lot of the beef in hip-hop?
Well, I was just fuckin’ with you. But nah, beef is something that muthafuckers were born with. A lot of times it’s about money, or somebody might wanna beef with you to get on your level or compete with you. If you really think about it, the whole music game – to some niggas – is competition. But for me, it’s real life. I ain’t got time to compete with another nigga. It’s like T.I. said in a song: “It’s hard to compete with me when you minding your own business.”
So if you aren’t motivated by other rappers, who are you competing against? Yourself?
I don’t look at it as competition. I look at it as survival, because this is the only thing I can do. Anything else I could imagine doing, they’d send me to the penitentiary. I never looked at it as competition cause I’m not a competitor. One thing I know is this: as long as you keep it real, you ain’t gotta worry about getting caught up in no lies and you ain’t gotta worry about getting caught up in a character. I wake up and go to sleep in character. I am the character.
A lot of artists try to separate their personal lives from their careers.
It’s hard to do that. My music is my personal life. A lot of artists that do that ain’t real artists. I’m real. I say what I mean and I mean what I say. Either I’ve done it or I’ve seen it done. I’m Maurice, but no matter where I go, I’m gonna always be T-Double-D, Trick Daddy. I’m gonna always be rough to my family and in my home, I’m gonna always be the bad guy in the the media, and I’m gonna always be Mr. Freaky Deeky in the eyes of the women. I just stay the same. I gotta watch what I do now, because of the media and the police. And don’t get me wrong, all police ain’t bad. It’s a lot of good police. A good police, to me, is someone that wake up in the morning to go to work. That’s it. Just do your job, nothing extra.
Do you let your kids listen to your albums?
Yeah. My son is three and my daughter is nine, and they already know. They tell me I shouldn’t say certain words. They know when they’re reciting some of the songs, they know when they get to the bad words – don’t even say ‘em. They stop. They know how to adlib. And that’s the problem with a lot of kids growin’ up, and it started with our era. Momma used to be like, “Go in the room, grown folks talkin’.” And that lets the kids know that they doing something they ain’t got no business doing. Now, you’ve got some situations where the momma tells the lil girl, “I don’t want you to go out that way cause I don’t want you to go through the things I’ve been through. I don’t want you to have to do the things I did, cause there’s a lot of things I wish I wouldn’t have did. I had you young.” So now the daughter responds like, “Let me learn on my own,” or, “I ain’t gon’ be like you, you can’t charge me with what you’ve been through.” And unfortunately, the tables keep turning and the daughter ends up going through the same thing the momma went through. It’ll never stop. It’s that cycle that’s gonna keep going and going.
What have you been through that you wouldn’t want your children to repeat?
First of all, I’ve been to prison. And although I look at it as a lesson, man, there’s lessons in books. I coulda went to college, I coulda finished school, I coulda done a lot of things. But naw, I went to prison. Those are years out of my life. Nobody could ever say they gon’ forget. Those years could never be forgotten, and they could never be given back to me. I don’t want my son to have to go to prison. I growed up poor, in the projects. My children ain’t poor. As long as I’ve got $5, my children can get $4 of that $5. And I don’t want them using, selling, or dealing in no type of drugs, whatsoever. But by the time they grown, drugs will be a thing of the past.
Do you think drugs will be legalized?
The government is trying to legalize ecstasy for people that’s on they dying bed. Did you see that on the news? That’s some crazy shit. Ecstasy, isn’t that the same drug y’all were lockin’ everybody up for? Y’all said it was a date rape or addictive drug, and now y’all wanna say it’s okay? But, I think they will eventually legalize drugs some type of way, as long as the government could make money off ‘em. It’s all about politics; it’s all about the government monitoring us. They need to know what you’ve got. It’s the same problem with us warring with other countries. The problem is, we worried more about what other people got more than we worried about ourselves.
What was your reaction after the election?
I honestly believe that this time it was as fair as it’s gonna get. It’s over now, we’re stuck for another four years. We just gotta stick together and not let this become a country where it’s just the poor and the rich. They’re trying to wipe out the middle class. They’ve made it into a country now where even though I look nothing like a terrorist, I have to go to the airport and go through all these extensive searches. It’s crazy, but it’s working in some people’s eyes. It makes us look like a communist country, where you can’t trust nobody. If you see a Muslim or Arab walkin’ by, you lookin’ at ‘em crazy because you don’t know what to think. If all you listen to is the news, you don’t know what’s the truth and what’s the lies. Everybody’s walkin’ around on their tiptoes. It’s just like a country where the women can’t show their faces. Same thing.
How was your Christmas?
My Christmas cost a lot of money. And I never really get nothin’ for Christmas.
How do you make sure your kids have everything they need without spoiling them?
Beat they ass. Learn to tell ‘em no. Don’t let ‘em cry. No child should have to cry.
They don’t get everything they want?
No. That’s not a reason to cry. Send ‘em to they room. Give ‘em a nice room, let ‘em have they nice little toys and video games in they room. But back in the day, our teachers used to paddle us. It used to be that the school could beat us, but now they’ve got laws protecting kids to cover up some dumb shit that some dumb parents did. But now it’s hard for us to raise our kids. You’ve got to get their respect. It’s not about having your child fear you, it’s all about respect. Respect go way further than fear.
Sometimes the kids need to be beat?
Definitely. The average kid needs at least ten ass-whuppings before they grown, before they eighteen.
Do you have any New Year’s resolutions?
I’m gonna get money. I’m gonna start my label. I pray God will keep me healthy and keep me safe in these streets. I don’t need enemies this year. I’m gonna leave all my enemies in 2004. I wanna have a better relationship with my momma, my kids, my wife, and my family. I’m gonna take it to that level where a nigga can’t have no choice but to respect me.
When you performed at Khaled’s birthday party, you made a comment dissing the Miami Awards.
They ain’t give me a Miami Award. I mean, come on, man. I want you to do me a favor, and I want you to write this shit, too. Whenever you hear a song that I’m on and you feel like I bullshitted, you put in your magazine and you let them know: “I think Trick coulda did better.” Cause I don’t do that. Whenever you hear one of my songs, or if I’m on a song on somebody else’s album, that’s the song that everybody playin’. Cause I’m gonna represent mine. There’s some collabos I was supposed to do that never came through, but that’s because of some paperwork or some company problems. I don’t have problems.
When artists talk about “putting Miami on the map,” don’t you feel like you’ve already done that? Are you offended?
Nah, I don’t get offended. Last time I got offended was two years ago, and I almost went to prison. You can’t let stuff offend you. I hang with white boys and I call them “my niggas” and they call me “nigga.” That don’t offend me. Nah, I want them to put Miami on the map.
There was a lot of controversy last year because Benzino put out some tapes where Eminem had used the word “nigga.”
That Benzino and Eminem thing, that’s deeper than Nino Brown. I stay out of shit I don’t know nothing about. To me, the word “cracka” or “pig” means the police, or a snitch. “Nigga” means with a dick, just like “hoe” means with a pussy. I don’t care nothing about that. As long as they respect me, man, a white person could call me a “nigga” or a “cracka” and I wouldn’t get offended.
Are you still affiliated with Slip-N-Slide?
That’s who I got my deal through, Slip-N-Slide. But I also have my own label, Dunk Ryders Entertainment, and I plan to be the biggest artist that could open up doors for other artists. I also plan to have my label where it’s zero tolerance. My employees will get paid, the artists will get paid. Every time we successful, we all successful. I will never Nino Brown my label. So, any good artists that’s looking for work – I ain’t talkin’ about niggas and hoes who think they could rap – get me that one record, and I’ll help you do the rest. Everybody say, “Oh, you got a label? Put me down, my nigga!” Nah, it don’t go like that. I been doing this shit for almost ten years. I worked, so you’ve got to work too, my nigga. Ain’t nothing handed to you. Once the New Year kick in, I’m gonna start working on getting a [distribution] deal for my label. See, I don’t wanna go to the man until I’m ready.
How do you feel about Atlantic’s “Joint Chiefs” campaign, promoting you along with T.I., Fabolous, Fat Joe, Twista, and Juvenile?
I don’t mind, because I respect all them niggas. If it was somebody who I didn’t respect or didn’t respect me, then it’d be a problem. But all those niggas been grindin’, they deserve to get they money. It’s their time to shine, so let’s do it together. And anybody tryin’ to get a clique of muthafuckers together against us don’t stand a chance. That would be the shit if we did a Joint Chiefs album, a collabo.
Have you seen a dramatic change in the way Atlantic operates since they’ve merged and brought in new executives like Lyor Cohen?
Definitely. Before, I just knew names, I didn’t know faces. A lot of people are signed to a label and they don’t even know who owns the label. Now, I know what part everybody plays, so if something goes wrong I can go right to the source and get the problem taken care of.
So there’s more interaction now.
Yeah. It’s always drama dealing with the people who deal with radio and video, cause they have the hardest job. If some TV show gets a no-show, they’ll call Atlantic cause they know somebody that know somebody, and they’re like, “We need such-and-such to fill in today, we heard he’s in New York, can he come here right now?” Atlantic wants everybody to be Superman. I’m not used to that. I don’t know who’s Superman, but I’m not. I can’t operate like that.
You’ve been performing lately with a live band. Is that a lot more difficult than performing over a track?
You ain’t gonna believe this, but I never practice with the band. They know what they’re doing and I know what I’m doing, so we just go out there and it’s natural. I use signals to tell ‘em when to break or when to end that song. Sometimes, when you vibin’ on the stage, you might even drag that song out an extra minute without the people knowing it.
You used to rhyme about “smokin’ dirty,” weed laced with cocaine. You gave that up?
Yeah, I don’t smoke dirty no more. I only smoke crip. I got off dirty a long time ago, like two years ago. My system was just bailing on me. You don’t wanna eat, you don’t wanna do nothing but smoke. You wake up, smoke, go to sleep, smoke. I quit, I just said, Fuck it. You’ve gotta have a strong mind, though. A lot of people just let the drugs take over them and then when it’s over, all they can say is, “Sorry,” or pray and go to God. God gave you the signs already.
Why did you record a song with Khia instead of your labelmate Trina for Thug Matrimony?
There’s a path I’ve got to follow, moves I’ve got to make. I tell Trina to come on, but she don’t listen. So whenever she starts back listening, they’ll get the Trick and Trina song.
Do you consider your music to be “real hip-hop,” Southern music, or both?
I don’t know what hip-hop music is. I just thought hip-hop meant “black.” Personally, I believe that anybody from across the world who listens to my music will respect me as a man. There’s all kinds of music out there that sells. You’ve got pop, rock, and R&B. And some rap music is twisted up with R&B, and that’s some shit we started doing in the South: taking the old songs and remaking them. They’re doing a lot of sampling now, and that’s working. Times done changed. But, my music will never be considered as just hip-hop. I’ve got hip-hop songs on my album, if that’s what they want to call it, and I’ve also got some blues on there. Blues is just talkin’ about problems.
Do you feel like the Miami radio stations are supportive enough of their own artists?
I think they are. They’ve supported me, Trina, Pitbull, Jacki-O, Dirtbag, Luke, and Do-Wrong. Some people forgot that it’s niggas like Luke and Disco Rick that first started selling platinum records in Miami. Luke got long money. They could say whatever they want about Luke, that he broke or whatever, but Luke did some touring for years. Touring is where the money at. I never did touring. My money ain’t shit compared to the money Luke and Disco Rick got, and look at the doors they opened for me and other muthafuckers around here.
Why don’t you tour? You don’t like being on the road?
Nah, they just don’t be wanting to pay me.
Your new album is more commercial than your previous albums. Is that the label’s decision?
I gave them 27 songs, and them the songs they selected. I mean, I’m pleased with the album. As long as my loyal fans are listening and they feel like their money was well spent, it’s good. Other than that, they can always take it back.
Are there any particular songs on this album that are meaningful or personal to you?
All the songs are personal. I like the children’s song, the one with me and Ron Isley, “Jump on the Dick,” “4Eva,” “Let’s Go,” all that shit. All my shit is personal.
Since you’ve worked with so many artists, is there one collabo you enjoyed the most?
I liked working with Mystikal, and me and JT [Money] made a lot of good hits in our days. Me and Luke got a lot of good memories together. I worked with Baby, and I did songs with Pac. That song with me and T.I. and Lil’ Wayne was gangsta. It’s a lot of people I enjoyed workin’ with, from Trina to Pit. I can’t even name ‘em all. I would like to get a Neptunes track, I’d like to work with Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop, Daz, and Kurupt, all them niggas represent the West coast. Kanye West, Twista, Nelly & the St. Lunatics representing the Midwest. Juvenile and his clique – all those people I named, I would like to work with them if I haven’t already. These are the people I’m feelin’ right now that got hot albums out: me, of course, Lil Wayne, T.I., and I love the B.G. album. I wanna get B.G. signed to my label. I’ll probably go back and get Mia X, too. Da Brat did her thing and I listened to MC Lyte back in the days, but other than that, between Mia X and Foxy, I don’t think no hoes ever came across on a record that strong.
All of the Southern artists you just mentioned are pretty lyrical. Being from the South, do you think they’re respected as MCs?
I always think about that. If they don’t get their respect now, they will, because me and other niggas are gonna continue to hold it down. Not only that, but everybody reppin’ all over the world need to be stronger artists. There can’t be no sixth man rappin’. I’m tired of these one-hit wonders. We need solid shit. I can’t wait to hear the Geto Boys back together, I’m waitin’ on that album to come out. ‘Face is the original G, the first one I heard putting the South on the map. I feel like I known him since he was a baby, and I wasn’t even born yet. Feel me?
Anything else you want to say?
Niggas’ main problem is that they don’t know who they are. If you don’t know who you are and where you come from, how the hell are you gonna know where you going? I know what I am and what I represent: all the real niggas. Fuck niggas always gon’ be fuck niggas, they have been all my life. If you don’t know me, just know this: I’m ‘bout a lot of things, but I ain’t ‘bout that bullshit. I been everywhere but the electric chair and seen everything but the wind. I’m a diehard Miami Dolphins fan. Fuck Ricky Williams. My Miami Heat, we’ll see y’all in the muthafuckin’ championship. The Hurricanes are a lil’ shaky this year with some soft-ass linebackers, but we’ll make it. And always remember: I’m the muthafuckin’ Dade County major, the don dada of the Dunk Ryders, bitch!
What do you think of OZONE?
I think you gonna make some money this year.
We’re done. How did you like the interview?
It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was gonna be. You must have written those questions especially for me.
