Max Minelli: Working For Myself

WordofSouth.com: Last year Koch released "The Remedy" but had no promotion. It seemed like you would do the same numbers as on your own.  What was the cause of them not helping out on the project?

Max Minelli: It really wasn’t an album; it was just really a mix tape. It wasn’t no official album. They basically was happy with it, they just threw it out there with nothing, know what I’m saying. It might be at 3,000 units now; you know I didn’t even have a single playing in Baton Rouge when it dropped. It sound scanned like, 600 something its first week.

WordofSouth.com: What’s your current situation with Koch?

Max Minelli: Yeah, pretty much. Basically, yeah. Them people don’t know what to do with me man. They want one-hit wonder rappers man, and I ain’t no one-hit wonder, I’m an artist. They want me to make ring tones and I’m trying to make history.

WordofSouth.com: Over the past months you’ve had some singles leak on, or some were just songs maybe, but you’ve got some good response to some, some mixed reviews, & some where your fans were completely disappointed.  What type of single are you looking to push?

Max Minelli: That’s on my album, both of them on my album. But “Promises to Keep,” that’s super official to me

WordofSouth.com: With Trill Ent. & Hurricane Chris doing their thing on a national level, Lil Cali’s in the process of prepping his album, & Derty just aired his video on 106 & Park do you think these other major labels will be more willing to try cashing in on a Louisiana movement?

Max Minelli: Basically brah, major labels, need to kill they selves. Straight up, because they don’t have a clue. And that’s how I feel. They need to kill they selves. It seems like; record companies are ran by some of the stupidest fucking people in the world. It seems like it. If you doing something right, let’s say me and you we had a shoe store, and if it’s failing. And it just continues to fail every year, more and more. Evidently we’re not doing something right. Evidently. So, when we keep doing the same thing, like, “Aaah, we not selling these Adidas and lets bring in more Adidas, that makes more sense!” That’s stupid. But if you call it stupid, that’d be crazy. That’s what record labels do. They sit up there and cry, bout we not selling records, but at the end, what you putting out? Straight clown shit man! You steady feeding clowns down everybody’s throat, and wondering why they not buying the shit? And it’s convenient for them to put the finger at everybody else, but you gotta look in the mirror, you and me we gotta come to a point where we gotta look at ourselves and evaluate what we we doing. I done came to the point as an artist, and everybody need to come to the point as a person, period.

WordofSouth.com: Would you ever consider signing with another major?

Max Minelli: It’d have to be all the way right. See me signing with Koch; it killed me in a number of different ways. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not dissing Koch. It was part of they fault, and it was part of my fault because I let it happen. But it killed me, they killed my spirit, they killed my creativity, just my love for this shit. I hated it. And the circumstances were just bad. Like, you sign an artist; you believe in that artist, you believe in what they’re trying to do. When I signed with them, I was under the impression that they saw my vision that they bought into what I was trying to do. What I was trying to do was not make one hit wonder records or not make an album full of club records. I’m not DJ Unk, I’m not BG, and I’m not Boosie and them. All them dudes do what they do and they do it well, but I can’t do what they do because I do something totally different. Basically they trying to turn me into them, and that’s not even how I came over there. You know when I came over there, I had shit like, “Find Me a Freak,” and you know “Fresh 2 Def,” you know what I’m saying. I got albums worth of material. So it was like when I signed with them, all that shit went out the door. Now you want me to “walk it out!” Now you trying to send me to DJ Montay! Nigga, What? I signed with Koch in 2006, over the 2 ½ years I was with them; it was just like the worst time for me. It’s like a battle you can’t win. I cannot get them to see my vision, and I done had singles that was working. Like “I’m So On,” was working, “Fresh 2 Def,” was working. But no matter what I did, they gave an excuse as to why they wasn’t going to get behind it. That’s why a lot of niggas feel like I was falling off. All the mix tapes I put out, I was just putting that out to stay relevant. Koch wasn’t bout to put nothing out on me. So after two and three albums worth of material, and none of its coming out, now I’m just throwing it out. But now that made me realize, people that hear my shit, they expect a whole body of work from me. They don’t expect just some mix tape he just threw together. They expect a higher standard when I come out. So it hurt me, when I was putting that shit out, niggas wasn’t feeling it. That’s why they wasn’t feeling it. Not so much, “Aah, this song wack,” they expect an overall body of work and it wasn’t that, it sounded thrown together.

WordofSouth.com: You’ve been in the game since 95 with Concentration Camp and have been signed to Priority, Koch, independent. What’s some pros and cons that you’ve seen from the changes from ring tones, fashion, internet, everything?

Max Minelli: I think the internet; I think is good because a nigga in Russia now, he can get your music. And you not on a major label. Because of the internet. Then the bad thing is everybody feel like they on the same level. A dude down the street, he can go to Guitar Center and by him some Fruity Loops and feel like he on the same level as Timbaland. That’s not true. That’s not what the game is meant to be.

WordofSouth.com: Also over the years, with Concentration Camp, they’ve had numerous members, from you and J-Von, Young Bleed, Boo Rossini, Lil Boosie, and now there’s Young Ready and Young Crucial. What’s going on with the Camp now?

Max Minelli: Yeah, definitely, I’d love to do it. Definitely wanna do something with them niggas, whenever.

WordofSouth.com: Ok, speaking of going to other venues, you made a couple of cameos in some movies, how did that come about?

Max Minelli: Yeah, yeah, I mean, at the same time, if I’m going to do it, I want to be good at, I don’t wanna be doing it, just being in a movie because my partners put me in a movie. That’s why I’m just taking lil small scenes, until I get a feel for that. Because it actually feels weird to me. Like everybody’s just looking at you and you just talking… you know what I’m saying, it takes some getting used to. So as I get more comfortable with it, I’ll get more into it.

WordofSouth.com: A year ago, you and Savage yall put out, “The Equation,” mix tape/underground album; do you have any other collaboration projects coming?

Max Minelli: As long as they got some kind of following, like if they got some kind of following in their area, like I got in mine, then yeah that would make sense to me, but if you just some Lil JoJo, that don’t nobody know about, then that wouldn’t really benefit me. But yeah, anybody that just got something going on, that’ll them get exposed in my market and that’ll help me get exposed in their market. That’ll be super tight.

WordofSouth.com: A while ago, you mentioned you got another mix tape similar to “Back Pack Dreams…” called “California Dreams,” what’s going on with that?

Max Minelli: On “Pain Medicine,” of course Happy Perez did about 80% of it. It’s really classic, if I can say anything about this album its real classic Max. Like Happy Perez type shit. If anyone of my albums I can compare it to, it’s more of “I’m All I Got,” put everything, down, I just felt like I put everything that was a strong point about me, it’s grown man shit though. I don’t make music for young niggas, know what I’m saying. It’s for grown people, who’s really living real life. If you like to listen to lies like Plies say, this ain’t for you. Everything about this muthafucka is real. If you a nigga that work at UPS, then you gon know what I’m talking about. If you a nigga that’s in high school, going through whatever he going through, you can relate to the shit I’m talking about on here. I feel like I’m the realest of the people, the real people. I feel like I’m the voice of the majority of the people. But I got off on some whole other shit, as far as production, it’s Happy Perez, I got a beat from my partner, John Doe, he’s an up and coming producer, he did the majority of the EP. I got a beat from Shonta, and I got a beat from a dude named Nasty Nate. And I think that’s it.

WordofSouth.com: About three years ago after I did an interview with Pimp C, you told me you had done some things with Pimp C, but it didn’t work out for whatever reason. What can you say about that?

Max Minelli: What a lot of people don’t know is, me and J-Von (Lay-Lo) was with Turk and Mel (CEO’sof Trill Ent.) before Boosie was. We was with him way back when, we were suppose to do the Lay-Lo album with Trill. We had did a lot of those songs with Pimp C. First they had an artist named Smitty. And Smitty had these songs with Pimp C, they was about six songs, they was already done the beats, the hooks. Then I don’t know what happened with him and Turk, but I guess they parted ways for whatever reason, so that’s when me & Von was fucking with Turk and Mel. And they said man we got these songs with Smitty on em, but since we not fucking with him no more, all yall gotta do is rap on these bitches. So we was like, “That’s what’s up.” So they took us to Atlanta, we stayed at Pimp C’s house for bout, three, four days, we recorded all the songs and shit. Then things was kinda moving in slow motion. So that’s kinda why that didn’t really work out. But anyway, long story short, they ended up giving those same songs to Boosie. So when Boosie came out with the “Where Them Dollars At?,” and them, when he first came out with all the Pimp C songs, them was the songs.

WordofSouth.com: Anything else you wanna say?

Max Minelli: Jay-Z, his new shit to me, just solidified him. I feel him when he said, “I’m a multi millionaire, so why is it I’m the hardest nigga here,” that’s the truest shit I heard him say, because I see him trying to give the torch to niggas, but niggas ain’t running with it, they still on the bullshit. I think Jeezy one of the niggas holding it down. Of course I think Boosie one of the niggas holding it down. But man it’s lot of niggas rappers out here that’s just…, man that’s just my opinion. Like the niggas we was raised with, you can’t get away with a lot of shit these niggas getting away with. Then the thing about these days is, they justify anything a nigga do with, “the nigga making money.” No matter what he do, they gon say, “Aah shit, that nigga making money.” But at the end of the day, where your integrity at? So if a nigga start doing gay porn and make $1,000,000, you gonna vouch for that? Naw you can’t cut for that. All I’m saying is hold on to your integrity don’t sell yourself short for a few dollars. That ain’t gonna last.

WordofSouth.com: Then I gotta mention, on your Face Book, about a week ago, on your status you put, “Ask any of these young niggas if they rap, and I bet you 8 out of 10 of will say, ‘YEAH, HOW YOU KNOW?’”

Max Minelli: Rap is like buying a lottery ticket man. They don’t wanna pay no dues in this game, they think they can just go into the Guitar Center and buy a lottery ticket (laughs), buy you some equipment, buy you some pro-tools and in six months they very well could really be the hottest nigga in the game. But anything that requires a real talent, niggas don’t wanna do that. I know I can’t be the next Michael Jordan, because I’m not that good at basketball. But the rap shit, it’s a really gray area, because they think they can do it, but they can’t. They don’t understand the mechanics to it. Long as major labels keep signing these niggas, they gonna keep thinking they can do it. That’s why I say major labels need to kill they selves. It’s not no big conspiracy why niggas don’t sell records. They don’t sell records because they not talking about nothing. Who are you man? Niggas love Max because they love what Max stand for. What do any of these new dudes that you see on BET stand for? You don’t even know. Another thing is, back in the day you couldn’t be like anybody else. Niggas would drive the shit out you if you biting another man’s style. Man now niggas wanna dress like other niggas, niggas wanna sound like other niggas, niggas just wanna do the exact same thing another niggas doing. Do what you the best at. That’s what I had to figure out. I learn something new every day. I’m not saying I’m immune to it. You gotta do what you the best at. If you good at cooking spaghetti KJ, but you the best at making gumbo, and niggas come to your house, what should you cook? GUMBO! Why you gonna cook spaghetti, but everybody want you to make gumbo.

WordofSouth.com: Going off of what Jay-Z was saying with D.O.A., before the auto-tune hit, before T-Pain, you had the thing with Max Pain, kind of like your alter-ego. It wasn’t an auto-tune though, it was more of something like with a screwed voice, but not slowed down. You ever thought about bring thing back?

Max Minelli: I hadn’t really thought about it. I just like to go with what’s natural. I’m not saying I wouldn’t, but it’ll have to just be natural.

WordofSouth.com: Well any closing words?

Max Minelli: “Pain Medicine” coming… it’s finished, it’s mastered, it’s done. “Pre-Med,” the EP, it’s coming in like two weeks or so. And me and Big Jay (Pyrex Radio) we did a mixtape called Maxavelli- “The Realest Shit I Ever Wrote,” that’s coming the same day. That’s basically all my best songs on all my albums, just the real nigga shit that I be talking, that’s all of them in one mix tape. So “Pain Medicine,” is coming, then “California Dreams,” coming after that. But I appreciate ya my boy.

– INTERVIEW BY: KJ Armour