D-Boyz: Trappin’ With The D-Boyz

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: We are here with Stone of the D-Boyz; start us off by introducing yourself.

Stone: What’s happening? This ya boy Stone, the richest nigga in my hood; that’s how I started off; believe that. The legend, for real. I’m the richest cat in my hood, a legend for real.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: You grew up in the grimy streets of New Orleans. How was life growing up?

Stone: Tough for other people, but it was built for me – that was my palace. Magnolia projects was my mansion, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: Did you ever have any run-ins with the law?

Stone: My whole life been trouble. That’s all I ever did. I been in and out of jail since I was 12 years old, you know?

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: Tell us about that.

Stone: I mean everything from pistols to hustling to slanging, I did time, you know? But so much about the doing time and hustling, that was my way of life, that’s the way I saw life. I don’t glorify it, I wasn’t someone who grew up thinking that’s what’s happening, I wanted to turn to that life. I’m someone who grew up feeling like that was the only life – that was the opportunity. As I got older, I was able to make better decisions. But growing up that was the life I had in front of me; I thought that was life and nothing else.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: So what have you learned from those situations now?

Stone: There’s a lot of ways you can get money besides taking penitentiary chances all day.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: And how has that made you a better person?

Stone: Made me make better decisions, I can live life without looking over my shoulder all day. I done had two crooks in my neck from looking over my shoulder all the time. My shit is all right now.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: At what age did you get into Hip-Hop and when did you begin taking it seriously?

Stone: I got into hip-hop in around 1998; it’s been about ten or eleven years. I started out off… Soulja Slim asked me to look after one of his artists; While I did that, I became an artist myself just by being in the studio. That took me off the block by talking about it instead of being out there all the time. I saw it as re-living my life through music.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: So it was Soulja Slim that gave you that break?

Stone: It wasn’t Slim. Slim had an artist by the name of Trinity. Slim used to tell me to bring Trinity to the studio basically to get his mind right. I saw Trinity too and when I saw him, he was run-down. I picked him up and brought him to the studio and while I had him there, I called myself his manager, and I wanted to get him right. I been in the studio ever since.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: You eventually got hooked up with Cash Money. Tell us about that.

Stone: I had an album I finished while in the studio, an independent album. I let Juve (Juvenile) who’s from the Magnolia too, he heard it, and he was like “You need to let Baby hear this.” This was around the time Juve dropped his “400 Degreez” album. He was like “Baby need to hear this, you got hot shit on here.” He brought me to holler at Baby and I was there ever since, about four years.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: What do you feel went wrong at Cash Money?

Stone: It was there big break; they had a lot of shit going on with them. The money and fame hit them hard. There was a lot of expectations on there end. It was a day-to-day situation. Shit would change as the days went on.

I guess it wasn’t our time. They had a lot of people on the label. They had like twenty artists that people don’t even know that was around Cash Money. It was me; they had Young Buck, Gillie the Kid. Man, I can name so many; TQ is another.

They had a lot of people that was with Cash Money that didn’t get a chance to come out because the Hot Boyz was so strong at that time, that was the first signing that Universal had, so they was running with that. They went to get they money and wanted their own solos. They had a lot of stuff that was already on the plate prior to us getting there. We couldn’t really break through it.

A lot of frustration was building up because that was the business side of it. They also was getting there money and they were still pissed; it was just a lot going on.

Dealing with our situation, I couldn’t sit around any longer. Being around that opportunity was a good look because I took that and learned from it; I got stronger on my business side.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: So when did yourself and Lac break ties with Cash Money?

Stone: Lac left first and I left after that. We had a group called the D-Boyz and Baby was in that group with us. When Lac left, I felt like I had to break away too, so I did pull out.

Lac went back to the studio but I was done with that music shit. Even though I know that was my craft and was what I should be doing, I saw a lot of industry people had a lot of bullshit with them. So even though I wanted to do it, I didn’t want to deal with the industry – but how you gon’ rap and not gon’ want to not deal with the industry? I did what’s best for me; I got money and moved away from it.

Lac called me one day from the studio and I went to record a song. Lac was like “we just got to do this D-Boyz group, Baby ain’t here, fuck it, we doing are thing” and we decided to start our label, D-Boyz Entertainment. We’re self-titled after the label.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: We’re going to get into all that, just a few more questions regarding the past. Are their any ill feelings towards Baby? Any frustration?

Stone: It has never been any frustration, I never been mad with them. I call Baby right now, I bet he answer the phone. We just did a DVD; I called him back and he got on it. We went to the House of Blues for a little show/party, Baby hopped right on the DVD in every way.

Then (Lil) Wayne come right back and jump on the single; everybody still holler, I guess when it’s time to do business again, the business is straight up now. There is a personal thing and then there’s business; what I learned about this business is that you have to separate those two.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: Do yourself and Lac still receive royalty checks from your time on the label?

Stone: You know what? I didn’t have my publishing shit together. One thing about Lac is he had his together. He still getting checks from BMI right now.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: So you didn’t have your publishing deal together?

Stone: Right, I didn’t have my publishing together.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: Moving on, how did the D-Boyz secure a joint venture deal between D-Boyz Entertainment and 404 Music Group?

Stone: We had a project we had completed; we had two projects already completed. I was just looking for someone to distribute it. We have our money to put it out and market; we had the money to do everything we had to do. We can do everything as far as putting out the album but I know you need a distributor. I can’t go to talk to anybody at Wal-Mart, Target and all the places you try to get your music at. So we needed somebody who could ship it. If I had myself, I was determined to put it out there however; I was going to have to do it; that’s that hunger I had.

I signed up for a convention that had a conference out in Chicago. I flew out there and a lot of artists were out there such as 50 Cent and R. Kelly and Mia. That was the only artists there; the rest was president of labels; President of Sony, president of Universal and just a lot of distributors and retailers. I met with all them and I had to pick the best situation that I saw fit that would get our music to the shelf.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: And was Lac also in attendance at these conferences?

Stone: Lac didn’t go to that conference but he did a few conferences; he didn’t come to that particular one.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: What made you decide to roll with 404 Music?

Stone: Once I met Nina Easton and I saw all the experience she had. She was easy to talk to. She’s been in business about twenty-five years. Talking to her, she understands that there’s a combination of artists and what you’re going to be creating with your own project. She gave us the creativity to do what we had to do. She sat back and let us do us. She comes in for the business side as far as getting it to the shelves but as for the music, we had the freedom to do what we wanted.

It went from being just a distributor to a joint venture. She said she could start our label up because she had a label she wanted to re-start. It was hear idea to do a joint venture and release the album like that.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: Well it is that deal that is allowing yourself and Lac to release “Life of a D-Boy.” Tell us about the motivation behind the title.

Stone: We D-Boyz; let’s talk about ourselves. In order for people to know what a D-Boy is, we’re going to shoot a documentary and say this is the life of a D-Boy. We’re going to put it on footage. As we do songs, we’re going to paint a picture with our words. Everybody is hearing about a D-Boy, that’s a universal name. Every city you go to, you’ll hear somebody calling themselves a D-Boy, they a dope boy; they on the block, they get money. A lot of people in hip-hop don’t know what a D-Boy is. We’re D-Boys and we represent all the other D-Boys across the country; we the voice for a lot of the d-boys. That’s why myself and Lac named the album “Life of a D-Boy.” It describes who we are, where we came from, and where we’re going.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: And when is the album set to drop?

Stone: It dropped online July 8. The shipment got shipped out late because of the Fourth of July weekend. It should be in stores this Tuesday (July 15).

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: Who is on the album in terms of guest appearances and producers?

Stone: We got Mannie Fresh producing. We have Diesel; Diesel is working with Lil Wayne. He builds the beats for Wayne. Anything you hear from Carter I, II or III, Diesel is behind it. He been around for a minute but he getting his props right now; big ups to my dog. We got Jazze Pha on it, he didn’t do any production, but he featured on the album. He did Intro’s, Outro’s and got on two-three songs, but we only used one. Mannie Fresh did a few beats for us but we only used one of the tracks he did that he also raps on.

We got Jazze Pha, Mannie Fresh, and Diesel as far as production wise. Artists wise, we got Juvenile, B.G., and TQ.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: That’s a hot lineup.

Stone: We got Wacko and Skip who did “Nolia Clap.” We have a local artist from New Orleans named Kangol.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: Tell us about the lead single, “It’s Yo Money.”

Stone: That’s the radio version; the street version is called “It’s Just Dope Money.” We did that song and kept working with it and went in the studio when Lil Wayne was working on his album. I played it for him and he was like “Why I ain’t on this?” I didn’t even have to ask to get on it; he did some ad-libs for it.

I went to Lac and told him “shorty came and fucked with us on the single” and Diesel did that beat. Wayne came and ad-libbed it. We also shot some footage from that for the DVD.

When Lac heard it he was like “why ain’t that nigga give us a verse?” that’s our partner so we talk like that, “why ain’t shorty give us a verse?”

I come back the next day and Wayne was like “What did Lac say?” I told him Lac say you ain’t give a verse? Wayne was like “shit he ain’t saying nothing, Im’a do a verse for the street version and radio version” and we knocked it out right quick.

We went with that because it had something for the clubs, it’s catchy. We let the people pick, we have so many songs on the album, everybody is going to pick the single they want, and I’ll just follow the heat.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: Is the version of “It’s Just Dope Money” on the album the one with the Lil Wayne verse?

Stone: Actually, the ad-lib version is on the album, not the whole verse. The one with the Wayne verse is like the remix. The ad-lib version was already done; it was pressed up to go.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: Makes sense. What the fans expect to get out of this album?

Stone: They are going to get them a reality and it’s like music with a picture to it; something they can ride to – something they can pop in their tape deck and jam to it at the same time.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: There is a DVD packaged with the album. Tell us about the content of the DVD and tell us what fans can look forward to learning about the group after viewing it?

Stone: They can look forward to seeing some real things; they will learn that life is for real, where we come from. We didn’t do any scripts; people do a scene and put it together, nah, it was like turn the camera on and follow us and see our day-to-day lifestyle, like this us. We wanted to give the people reality, so it ain’t a gimmick. We wanted to show people who we are, this is our life. If we talked about walking through our hood, this is us going through our hood. If we talked about getting money, big cars and living a certain way – this is us for real. Turns the cameras’s on and follow us.

The fans are going to get introduced to the D-Boyz and when you see that, it provides an understanding of the struggle and you’ll feel it better. A lot of times you hear people rap and your like “they just talking, anybody can rap and say this” but when you see a person and you see there struggle, you understand it and it’s going to make them respect the D-Boyz more. They will see and feel the struggle. If you see one side, us talking about “ya we gangsta, we got a gun, we bout our business” that’s just one-track vibe. That makes you cocky and arrogant and you get that side. If you put it all together, you get a better understanding instead of just hearing one side – I think it paints a bigger picture. I felt that to wrap up the full effort, we needed to give the fans the complete side of the D-Boyz so they can get a better understanding, it’s not just lob-sided.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: And that’s packaged with the album?

Stone: Correct.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: What does the future hold for Stone & Lac?

Stone: There ain’t a limit. We work hard, we’re studio rats. We got a lot of hustle. We got a lot to offer the industry. We’re looking for movies, any type of endorsement, anywhere the money at, we chasing it.

WORDOFSOUTH.COM: Do you have any last words for the fans?

Stone: Go cop five albums because someone gon’ still the one you got – you gon’ love it.

- INTERVIEW BY: Justin Melo