After months in the studio, Sheek Louch is unleashing his sophomore effort, After Taxes, on September 20th. As the clock winds down, Sheek pow-wows with SOHH.com about his new album, the bidding war for The Lox, the G-Unit beef, and his feelings for Green Lantern, P.Diddy, Jay-Z, and The Notorious B.I.G.
One-third of the infamous group The LOX, Sheek Louch dropped his debut solo album Walk Witt Me back in '03. He admits that it was a 'personal' project, but on his forthcoming After Taxes LP, it's apparent he's reaching out his comfort zone with more guest features. Rolling with the punches, Sheek taught himself some new tricks. He's now under Czar Entertainment frontman, Jimmy Henchmen's management. Also, his new album won't be on Universal Records (as his last was), but on his own imprint, D-Block Records, which will be distributed through Koch. Louch has also entered into daddy-hood with the birth of his now 1-year-old son, Sean Joshua Jacobs. At the end of the day Sheek Louch is about getting his paper and after taxes, when it's all said and done, it's about the bottom line. He's ready to give his fans a taste of a lyrically matured emcee, to take control of his and The Lox's career, and to make sure his family eats --bottom line, punks.
SOHH: What's going on with your new album?
Sheek Louch: It's called After Taxes and I feel that I stepped my game up lyrically. I feel that my whole concept and whole attitude towards everything has grown. The first time I tried to keep it just me, Kiss, Styles and J-Hood on it, this time I got some guests. I have a lot of different producers on it; my man Rocwilder did a couple, Alchemist, Havoc, Red Spyda, DJ Twinz, and Coco Chanel. I got my man Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Redman, Carl Thomas, The Game and my camp all on it. I got one more feature on there, but I can't really speak on it, until he does it.
SOHH: How did you get Game on one of your track?
Sheek Louch: Me and him [Game] got the same management-Jimmy Henchmen. Game's my boy. You know, before the whole 50 beef and before him getting at 50-Game was coming out to Yonkers to our studio, and coming to our hood and all of that.
SOHH: Since you mention the whole 50-Jada beef, is that real beef or just rap beef?
Sheek Louch: It's real beef for me, I mean like there isn't so much one man can say. But they haven't really been responding, we've been mashing on them a lot. Well, I know I have, every chance I get. You know what I mean, he's rich already. He did that with Ja [Rule], but see the whole twist is when he did it with Ja-Ja was this industry ni99a and 50 was the street ni99a. We're still them street ni99as and 50 already knows it. I mean ain't no guns go off yet, hopefully not. You know we're not violent dudes, I mean it is what it is. Yayo is running his mouth more than anybody because he has an album coming out. I mean it's political too. sh!t, I'm gonna do the same thing and hopefully it cracks like that. I got a killer joint on my album getting at them boys; it's called "Maybe If I Sing." Hopefully, it's the last shut down of these dudes. I mean he's always going to get his paper; he's a good business man.
I seen Young Buck not too long ago and he was like more or less like, 'What up'. 50 [Cent] got a lot of his artists going against people they really like and these dudes got in the game wanting to do collabs with certain people and work with certain people. Game told us like yo... 'That ni99a wants us to hate everybody, like he don't want us to do nothing but what's right here.' So you know it's hard for these dudes, you know all them dudes.
SOHH: How did you step your game up lyrically from Walk Witt Me?
Sheek Louch: I liked Walk Witt Me, don't get me wrong it was hot. I mean I wanted a lot more sales, but over at Universal things were different and you caught in the whole system of everybody coming out and all of that. But Walk Witt Me was dope; I can't even sh!t on the album. You could just pop it in and let it play. But just lyrically and there are different concepts on this new album. You know, I had a baby boy, I have a 1-year-old son now, and I bought a new house upstate. There's just certain sh!t going on; going indie, and all the ideas of what I want to do. You can hear everything I want to do on this new album, but still at the same time keeping it gritty to the street.
SOHH: What other business ventures are you into? What about the rumors of Jay-Z trying to sign Jada and The Lox to Def Jam?
Sheek Louch: Mainly, first I'm just trying to get this D-Block sh!t of the ground, my album, then we got the D-Block compilation coming for Christmas, then J-Hood finally. He's been real patient just in the cut, jut being loyal. Then we got our DVD thing, and the release of the next LOX album. They're trying to crack this LOX album budget a.s.a.p. To my understanding, Jigga is trying to buy everything; The Lox, Kiss and Styles.
Nah, that's the real deal, but it's not set in stone yet-until he makes it, because he got Diddy trying to cop The Lox too.
SOHH: How do you feel about Southern rap being on the rise right now and How can New York get back to being more unified?
Sheek Louch: NYC used to be tight with the Hip-Hop coming out of it, and I'm going to try and bring it back. I mean the South is doing there thing, you know they're all eating. You know how they do with their indie sh!t. Once Lil Jon did it-them ni99as are eating-nah mean $8 a record... I want in. I'm at Koch right now because I want in and once we get that good money behind us we should be ok. But the South right now is rocking; they got their R&B and rap. The thing is that the South sticks together, that's what ni99as don't know. Ain't none of that ego sh!t down there, but here in NYC is celebrities...and they say if you can make it in NY, you can make it anywhere! In a crowd it's hard to rock if you're not that group that they love. The unity is going to be hard to get back, there are too many egos. The South don't got that, they barely have bootleggers. Out here it's hard to move units because of the bootleggers, down there they're selling sh!t out the trunk and supporting that ni99a selling his sh!t out the trunk. Up here try and sell sh!t out the trunk, first of all people will look at you like what you gonna try to do popping your trunk open, and no one is trying to support it. It's real raw dog here, man. That's why people run to the South and get a lil southern accent and do what they gotta do, knowing that they was born in Queens, NY.
SOHH: What's up, do you have a clothing line coming out? What's the name of it?
Sheek Louch: I got my man Groovy Lou taking some meetings right now as we speak. This is going to be a good year. I can't say really say the name, cause right now we're trying to get the name patented before I throw it out there and somebody else says they got it. We're trying to get a D-Block clothing line though-definitely. My head is totally into getting the D-Block label popping.
I'd like to get into the whole acting thing, I mean I was in Honey. I tried out for the "Sopranos" a few times and mad little scripts, but I'm still waiting for my phone to ring. Holla at ya boy.
SOHH: So you're open to doing another LOX album? Why don't you tell me about your old LOX experience with Diddy? Why did you leave Ruff Ryders? And how did you get to Koch?
Sheek Louch: Hell yea, definitely. That's more in effect than you know. The title is called Live, Suffer, Celebrate.
Well ya'll know our whole history of getting to Diddy through Mary J. and all that. We was doing so much stuff. It was all love when [The Notorious] B.I.G. was there, but after B.I.G. left a lot of sh!t changed. This all goes back to that fly and flashy era, but when B.I.G. was there he had it at a point where it was gritty and fly. Diddy and Mase took it straight to shiny. And I say shiny because everybody knows what I'm talking about when I say it was shiny. Diddy took it to straight singing, and he had this group, The Lox, that was killing the street mixtapes, but he wanted something way bigger. Just the creative control was like, "Ok, I'll wear this sh!t, but I don't want to wear it," nah mean? Every second Diddy would come in and, you know, -I remember we did the lyrics for "The Benjamins" and I remember Missy had got on it. We layed the tracks and then Diddy came in and took the song. Our managers at the time - you know they was street ni99as, they didn't know. Dee and Wah from Ruff Ryders, they was trying to get their label at the time. A lot of sh!t you heard from B.I.G. after his death at the time, we wrote every little thing. We wrote everything and the publishing to this day is still tied up with homie [Diddy]. There's a lot of negotiations going on now and he's willing to let a lot of sh!t go. All kinds of sh!t in the pipe line, I mean he cut a few checks here and there but it just wasn't adding up. I mean there's a lot of hits that ni99as was loving out there from "Victory" and on. Once B.I.G. dies sh!t was so crazy over there, you know, too crazy for The LOX.
Here at Koch, I do whatever I want; I have complete creative control. See at the time with Diddy, we'd write something and he'd be like, "Nah that's not going to be hot in Houston." So we would say, "Ok, I'm going to listen to this ni99a." because we didn't know anything about Houston, but it just wasn't us. Even when we left Diddy and went straight to Ruff Ryders, on the album We Are The Streets, every track was geared at him and we tried to sh!t on him cause we was young boys and we was upset.
With RR, I saw the bigger picture. I said, "Damn man, they're working with Styles and Kiss," and at the time I wasn't even thinking about doing a solo project. But I started doing some freestyles and sh!t started popping off and ni99as was calling my name talking about I need you to get on this. So I thought as far as my solo project, "Should I sign with RR? I don't really want to be here for my solo career. I'll do the LOX here." But I was on that, "How about we get our own sh!t going? And let's sign to our own sh!t and get some sort of distribution deal," and that's what we did. D-Block started jumping off and signed to Universal. Then we got there and Kedar and them, they didn't understand. We was like, "This is the sh!t... 'Everywhere we go...' And they was like, "Nah man, that ain't it. Listen to this Nelly sh!t." They only got on when it started popping on the radio. That's how we got over here [at Koch Records]. We was like, "How can we get some real bread instead of $.35 off each album. How can we get $8.00 off of each joint and see some real money at the end of the day." And that's how it went down.
SOHH: Speaking about "Everywhere We Go," what's your relationship like with Green Lantern these days?
Sheek Louch: (chuckles) Green is my ni99a, that's my word! Green, what up. I mean I know all of the sh!t that's going on with him and Jada. Jada told him, "My bad for not letting you know that we was taping at the time. I should've told you." Honestly though, my opinion is straight up. They [Shady/G-Unit camp] been was probably watching your ass, because that's too easy to just say I ain't never f-king with you again, nah mean. He didn't really sh!t on Emimen, he ain't sh!t on 50. I mean you'd be surprised who else is calling saying, "Yo kid, ya'll are killing them ni99as. Ya'll ni99as are airing them ni99as out right now." My relationship with Green is dope. He don't really play too much of our sh!t these days, but that's my dog. And you know if I see him, I'm gonna say what up. Holla at your boy.
The day he found out that the DVD was out; I spoke to him mad times after that. He was really hurt. I mean I didn't condone it and Kiss knows and said, "Damn, I should've told him I was taping." Kiss also said, 'I didn't know that homie was going to straight out say some of the sh!t he did.' Kiss didn't know that he was going to yell that sh!t out man -This person sucks, when are you going to finish them?...and all of that sh!t. Green, we fam though, holla at me or I'll holla at you. And to think he would have been in that bus that rolled over instead of Alchemist (well I hope he's alright). Yea, it would've been Green. See this all happened for a reason baby that he wasn't on that bus.
SOHH: Jada put out "Why" and Styles put out "I'm Black". Do you have conscious songs like that on your album?
Sheek Louch: Nah, I ain't got that. I mean I have a joint called "Pressure" which talks about why some of us are in jail off and on. "I'm Black" is dope don't get me wrong, and I think it was a good move for Black History Month and all that and just respecting that you black... that's real sh!t. And "Why" definitely was the consciousness of letting you know that I know Bush did that sh!t...nah mean. Sheek is just in the club, I mean I got some dope conscious, but nothing on those levels.
SOHH: What song on your album do you connect to the most?
Sheek Louch: Definitely "Pressure." I think more of my collabs with the different people and the chemistry and how it came out. I tried that route this time, because my last album was just so personal.
SOHH: Also, do ya'll have a first lady of D-Block?
Sheek Louch: We don't have a first lady rapping-wise. We got an R&B chick, she's more like a Janice Joplin. Her name is Stephanie Lynn, we got some sh!t. Female rappers are hard to deal with, man. We're open to all of that, but mostly dudes come to us and try to spit.
SOHH: How did the Jimmy Henchmen situation come about? When did you get with Henchmen? What's Super Mario's role right now? Do you still consider yourself to be a Ruff Ryder?
Sheek Louch: Jimmy Henchmen, that's my dude. I had seen him in Puerto Rico at the DJ convention, so he holla'd at me and I holla'd at him. I was looking for a manager and he's a real dude, a good businessman. All my life I had managers that were real street ni99as, but Jimmy's just a good dude business-wise, and he's in power right now and can make some things happen. I got with Jimmy like four months ago.
Supa Mario is the president of D-Block, he runs the day-to-day functions. He makes all the calls, and locks stuff in. He connects with Henchmen's office, and he also gets what's needed for Styles and Sheek. They're (Styles and Kiss) playing their part beautifully right now, as far as CEOs. I'm also the CEO of D-Block and a rapper under the label.
You know Kiss and Styles, they're still Interscope/ Ruff Ryders, still standing strong. I just did "106 & Park" with them talking about the new compilation, The Redemption. I mean that's fam, that's not going anywhere, whether we have creative differences or not. At the end of the day, I'll tell Dee, "Yo come over. Let's go get something to eat." I'm Double R, you know what I'm saying? But I'm D-Block before I'm anything else, -before Koch, before Universal, before Bad Boy. D-Block is more important than any project I'm doing right now, whether my project or whatever else we got going. That's how you see more money. I'm trying to see millions man.
SOHH: The next solo project that Kiss and Stlyes put out...is it going to be on Def Jam Records?
Sheek Louch: (chuckles) I mean it's not, it's not... I can't say man... that's a real tricky question. If everything is right, as far as the terms...as far as, you know, "Ya'll can still rock as D-Block. I'm not going to stop anything that ya'll are doing." I just need this new LOX album, its important. Jigga's rocking right now, man. I'm definitely with that. There's no beef, I don't want any beef. I just want to eat and get this money. Jay-Z, if the terms are right and everything, let's roll man. Let's get this paper.
SOHH: With all that sh!t that 50 said on "I Run NY", is there any truth in there about publishing, and Puff still owing you publishing? What was your greatest memory working with B.I.G. or just being around him?
Sheek Louch: 50 is wack! Yea, Diddy got publishing, he still has our sh!t tied up. He doesn't have all of our sh!t, and we're in negotiations right now. But I respect Diddy because he did his thing with us. The world knows us because of Diddy and being able to rock with B.I.G. and all of that; but Diddy got some publishing. Word up, let that sh!t go Diddy, and let us keep moving on man.
B.I.G. was more of a clown than people know, I mean he joked around in the studio and what not. And he opened arms to us. Like if we had problems with Puff, B.I.G. would tell Diddy, "I got them, I'm going to take care of them." He would tell Diddy to put on certain projects and stuff; he really held us down. R.I.P B.I.G.
Sheek Louch gives you the real deal on September 20th when he drops his sophomore banger, After Taxes.
sohh.com
One-third of the infamous group The LOX, Sheek Louch dropped his debut solo album Walk Witt Me back in '03. He admits that it was a 'personal' project, but on his forthcoming After Taxes LP, it's apparent he's reaching out his comfort zone with more guest features. Rolling with the punches, Sheek taught himself some new tricks. He's now under Czar Entertainment frontman, Jimmy Henchmen's management. Also, his new album won't be on Universal Records (as his last was), but on his own imprint, D-Block Records, which will be distributed through Koch. Louch has also entered into daddy-hood with the birth of his now 1-year-old son, Sean Joshua Jacobs. At the end of the day Sheek Louch is about getting his paper and after taxes, when it's all said and done, it's about the bottom line. He's ready to give his fans a taste of a lyrically matured emcee, to take control of his and The Lox's career, and to make sure his family eats --bottom line, punks.
SOHH: What's going on with your new album?
Sheek Louch: It's called After Taxes and I feel that I stepped my game up lyrically. I feel that my whole concept and whole attitude towards everything has grown. The first time I tried to keep it just me, Kiss, Styles and J-Hood on it, this time I got some guests. I have a lot of different producers on it; my man Rocwilder did a couple, Alchemist, Havoc, Red Spyda, DJ Twinz, and Coco Chanel. I got my man Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Redman, Carl Thomas, The Game and my camp all on it. I got one more feature on there, but I can't really speak on it, until he does it.
SOHH: How did you get Game on one of your track?
Sheek Louch: Me and him [Game] got the same management-Jimmy Henchmen. Game's my boy. You know, before the whole 50 beef and before him getting at 50-Game was coming out to Yonkers to our studio, and coming to our hood and all of that.
SOHH: Since you mention the whole 50-Jada beef, is that real beef or just rap beef?
Sheek Louch: It's real beef for me, I mean like there isn't so much one man can say. But they haven't really been responding, we've been mashing on them a lot. Well, I know I have, every chance I get. You know what I mean, he's rich already. He did that with Ja [Rule], but see the whole twist is when he did it with Ja-Ja was this industry ni99a and 50 was the street ni99a. We're still them street ni99as and 50 already knows it. I mean ain't no guns go off yet, hopefully not. You know we're not violent dudes, I mean it is what it is. Yayo is running his mouth more than anybody because he has an album coming out. I mean it's political too. sh!t, I'm gonna do the same thing and hopefully it cracks like that. I got a killer joint on my album getting at them boys; it's called "Maybe If I Sing." Hopefully, it's the last shut down of these dudes. I mean he's always going to get his paper; he's a good business man.
I seen Young Buck not too long ago and he was like more or less like, 'What up'. 50 [Cent] got a lot of his artists going against people they really like and these dudes got in the game wanting to do collabs with certain people and work with certain people. Game told us like yo... 'That ni99a wants us to hate everybody, like he don't want us to do nothing but what's right here.' So you know it's hard for these dudes, you know all them dudes.
SOHH: How did you step your game up lyrically from Walk Witt Me?
Sheek Louch: I liked Walk Witt Me, don't get me wrong it was hot. I mean I wanted a lot more sales, but over at Universal things were different and you caught in the whole system of everybody coming out and all of that. But Walk Witt Me was dope; I can't even sh!t on the album. You could just pop it in and let it play. But just lyrically and there are different concepts on this new album. You know, I had a baby boy, I have a 1-year-old son now, and I bought a new house upstate. There's just certain sh!t going on; going indie, and all the ideas of what I want to do. You can hear everything I want to do on this new album, but still at the same time keeping it gritty to the street.
SOHH: What other business ventures are you into? What about the rumors of Jay-Z trying to sign Jada and The Lox to Def Jam?
Sheek Louch: Mainly, first I'm just trying to get this D-Block sh!t of the ground, my album, then we got the D-Block compilation coming for Christmas, then J-Hood finally. He's been real patient just in the cut, jut being loyal. Then we got our DVD thing, and the release of the next LOX album. They're trying to crack this LOX album budget a.s.a.p. To my understanding, Jigga is trying to buy everything; The Lox, Kiss and Styles.
Nah, that's the real deal, but it's not set in stone yet-until he makes it, because he got Diddy trying to cop The Lox too.
SOHH: How do you feel about Southern rap being on the rise right now and How can New York get back to being more unified?
Sheek Louch: NYC used to be tight with the Hip-Hop coming out of it, and I'm going to try and bring it back. I mean the South is doing there thing, you know they're all eating. You know how they do with their indie sh!t. Once Lil Jon did it-them ni99as are eating-nah mean $8 a record... I want in. I'm at Koch right now because I want in and once we get that good money behind us we should be ok. But the South right now is rocking; they got their R&B and rap. The thing is that the South sticks together, that's what ni99as don't know. Ain't none of that ego sh!t down there, but here in NYC is celebrities...and they say if you can make it in NY, you can make it anywhere! In a crowd it's hard to rock if you're not that group that they love. The unity is going to be hard to get back, there are too many egos. The South don't got that, they barely have bootleggers. Out here it's hard to move units because of the bootleggers, down there they're selling sh!t out the trunk and supporting that ni99a selling his sh!t out the trunk. Up here try and sell sh!t out the trunk, first of all people will look at you like what you gonna try to do popping your trunk open, and no one is trying to support it. It's real raw dog here, man. That's why people run to the South and get a lil southern accent and do what they gotta do, knowing that they was born in Queens, NY.
SOHH: What's up, do you have a clothing line coming out? What's the name of it?
Sheek Louch: I got my man Groovy Lou taking some meetings right now as we speak. This is going to be a good year. I can't say really say the name, cause right now we're trying to get the name patented before I throw it out there and somebody else says they got it. We're trying to get a D-Block clothing line though-definitely. My head is totally into getting the D-Block label popping.
I'd like to get into the whole acting thing, I mean I was in Honey. I tried out for the "Sopranos" a few times and mad little scripts, but I'm still waiting for my phone to ring. Holla at ya boy.
SOHH: So you're open to doing another LOX album? Why don't you tell me about your old LOX experience with Diddy? Why did you leave Ruff Ryders? And how did you get to Koch?
Sheek Louch: Hell yea, definitely. That's more in effect than you know. The title is called Live, Suffer, Celebrate.
Well ya'll know our whole history of getting to Diddy through Mary J. and all that. We was doing so much stuff. It was all love when [The Notorious] B.I.G. was there, but after B.I.G. left a lot of sh!t changed. This all goes back to that fly and flashy era, but when B.I.G. was there he had it at a point where it was gritty and fly. Diddy and Mase took it straight to shiny. And I say shiny because everybody knows what I'm talking about when I say it was shiny. Diddy took it to straight singing, and he had this group, The Lox, that was killing the street mixtapes, but he wanted something way bigger. Just the creative control was like, "Ok, I'll wear this sh!t, but I don't want to wear it," nah mean? Every second Diddy would come in and, you know, -I remember we did the lyrics for "The Benjamins" and I remember Missy had got on it. We layed the tracks and then Diddy came in and took the song. Our managers at the time - you know they was street ni99as, they didn't know. Dee and Wah from Ruff Ryders, they was trying to get their label at the time. A lot of sh!t you heard from B.I.G. after his death at the time, we wrote every little thing. We wrote everything and the publishing to this day is still tied up with homie [Diddy]. There's a lot of negotiations going on now and he's willing to let a lot of sh!t go. All kinds of sh!t in the pipe line, I mean he cut a few checks here and there but it just wasn't adding up. I mean there's a lot of hits that ni99as was loving out there from "Victory" and on. Once B.I.G. dies sh!t was so crazy over there, you know, too crazy for The LOX.
Here at Koch, I do whatever I want; I have complete creative control. See at the time with Diddy, we'd write something and he'd be like, "Nah that's not going to be hot in Houston." So we would say, "Ok, I'm going to listen to this ni99a." because we didn't know anything about Houston, but it just wasn't us. Even when we left Diddy and went straight to Ruff Ryders, on the album We Are The Streets, every track was geared at him and we tried to sh!t on him cause we was young boys and we was upset.
With RR, I saw the bigger picture. I said, "Damn man, they're working with Styles and Kiss," and at the time I wasn't even thinking about doing a solo project. But I started doing some freestyles and sh!t started popping off and ni99as was calling my name talking about I need you to get on this. So I thought as far as my solo project, "Should I sign with RR? I don't really want to be here for my solo career. I'll do the LOX here." But I was on that, "How about we get our own sh!t going? And let's sign to our own sh!t and get some sort of distribution deal," and that's what we did. D-Block started jumping off and signed to Universal. Then we got there and Kedar and them, they didn't understand. We was like, "This is the sh!t... 'Everywhere we go...' And they was like, "Nah man, that ain't it. Listen to this Nelly sh!t." They only got on when it started popping on the radio. That's how we got over here [at Koch Records]. We was like, "How can we get some real bread instead of $.35 off each album. How can we get $8.00 off of each joint and see some real money at the end of the day." And that's how it went down.
SOHH: Speaking about "Everywhere We Go," what's your relationship like with Green Lantern these days?
Sheek Louch: (chuckles) Green is my ni99a, that's my word! Green, what up. I mean I know all of the sh!t that's going on with him and Jada. Jada told him, "My bad for not letting you know that we was taping at the time. I should've told you." Honestly though, my opinion is straight up. They [Shady/G-Unit camp] been was probably watching your ass, because that's too easy to just say I ain't never f-king with you again, nah mean. He didn't really sh!t on Emimen, he ain't sh!t on 50. I mean you'd be surprised who else is calling saying, "Yo kid, ya'll are killing them ni99as. Ya'll ni99as are airing them ni99as out right now." My relationship with Green is dope. He don't really play too much of our sh!t these days, but that's my dog. And you know if I see him, I'm gonna say what up. Holla at your boy.
The day he found out that the DVD was out; I spoke to him mad times after that. He was really hurt. I mean I didn't condone it and Kiss knows and said, "Damn, I should've told him I was taping." Kiss also said, 'I didn't know that homie was going to straight out say some of the sh!t he did.' Kiss didn't know that he was going to yell that sh!t out man -This person sucks, when are you going to finish them?...and all of that sh!t. Green, we fam though, holla at me or I'll holla at you. And to think he would have been in that bus that rolled over instead of Alchemist (well I hope he's alright). Yea, it would've been Green. See this all happened for a reason baby that he wasn't on that bus.
SOHH: Jada put out "Why" and Styles put out "I'm Black". Do you have conscious songs like that on your album?
Sheek Louch: Nah, I ain't got that. I mean I have a joint called "Pressure" which talks about why some of us are in jail off and on. "I'm Black" is dope don't get me wrong, and I think it was a good move for Black History Month and all that and just respecting that you black... that's real sh!t. And "Why" definitely was the consciousness of letting you know that I know Bush did that sh!t...nah mean. Sheek is just in the club, I mean I got some dope conscious, but nothing on those levels.
SOHH: What song on your album do you connect to the most?
Sheek Louch: Definitely "Pressure." I think more of my collabs with the different people and the chemistry and how it came out. I tried that route this time, because my last album was just so personal.
SOHH: Also, do ya'll have a first lady of D-Block?
Sheek Louch: We don't have a first lady rapping-wise. We got an R&B chick, she's more like a Janice Joplin. Her name is Stephanie Lynn, we got some sh!t. Female rappers are hard to deal with, man. We're open to all of that, but mostly dudes come to us and try to spit.
SOHH: How did the Jimmy Henchmen situation come about? When did you get with Henchmen? What's Super Mario's role right now? Do you still consider yourself to be a Ruff Ryder?
Sheek Louch: Jimmy Henchmen, that's my dude. I had seen him in Puerto Rico at the DJ convention, so he holla'd at me and I holla'd at him. I was looking for a manager and he's a real dude, a good businessman. All my life I had managers that were real street ni99as, but Jimmy's just a good dude business-wise, and he's in power right now and can make some things happen. I got with Jimmy like four months ago.
Supa Mario is the president of D-Block, he runs the day-to-day functions. He makes all the calls, and locks stuff in. He connects with Henchmen's office, and he also gets what's needed for Styles and Sheek. They're (Styles and Kiss) playing their part beautifully right now, as far as CEOs. I'm also the CEO of D-Block and a rapper under the label.
You know Kiss and Styles, they're still Interscope/ Ruff Ryders, still standing strong. I just did "106 & Park" with them talking about the new compilation, The Redemption. I mean that's fam, that's not going anywhere, whether we have creative differences or not. At the end of the day, I'll tell Dee, "Yo come over. Let's go get something to eat." I'm Double R, you know what I'm saying? But I'm D-Block before I'm anything else, -before Koch, before Universal, before Bad Boy. D-Block is more important than any project I'm doing right now, whether my project or whatever else we got going. That's how you see more money. I'm trying to see millions man.
SOHH: The next solo project that Kiss and Stlyes put out...is it going to be on Def Jam Records?
Sheek Louch: (chuckles) I mean it's not, it's not... I can't say man... that's a real tricky question. If everything is right, as far as the terms...as far as, you know, "Ya'll can still rock as D-Block. I'm not going to stop anything that ya'll are doing." I just need this new LOX album, its important. Jigga's rocking right now, man. I'm definitely with that. There's no beef, I don't want any beef. I just want to eat and get this money. Jay-Z, if the terms are right and everything, let's roll man. Let's get this paper.
SOHH: With all that sh!t that 50 said on "I Run NY", is there any truth in there about publishing, and Puff still owing you publishing? What was your greatest memory working with B.I.G. or just being around him?
Sheek Louch: 50 is wack! Yea, Diddy got publishing, he still has our sh!t tied up. He doesn't have all of our sh!t, and we're in negotiations right now. But I respect Diddy because he did his thing with us. The world knows us because of Diddy and being able to rock with B.I.G. and all of that; but Diddy got some publishing. Word up, let that sh!t go Diddy, and let us keep moving on man.
B.I.G. was more of a clown than people know, I mean he joked around in the studio and what not. And he opened arms to us. Like if we had problems with Puff, B.I.G. would tell Diddy, "I got them, I'm going to take care of them." He would tell Diddy to put on certain projects and stuff; he really held us down. R.I.P B.I.G.
Sheek Louch gives you the real deal on September 20th when he drops his sophomore banger, After Taxes.
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