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10/3/2005 How are you doing? Everything's good, everything's going well. Tell the world who 334 Mobb is… 334 Mobb is myself, Big Ken aka Supastar, and my brother Sawed Off. We're in Montgomery, Alabama. 334 is the area code, and 334 the name is like three plus three plus four equals ten, and then the M.O. and then B.B. which is like "Ten More Brothers Buried," which means we're representing for the people that don't have no voice. We have to rep for them. You spell the "Mobb" with two "b's" like Mobb Deep, do you see that being a problem? No. I've heard some people say some little shit, but our music is way different. We're southern. I don't know what their Mobb means, and if there is a problem, so what, fuck it, let's handle it, it's all good. We're hearing your name a lot more now, what do you think got you that buzz? Man. It's just been years of grinding man. We've had that mind-frame that nobody cares about you. We just did a show with David Banner and Bonecrusher. That helps. We've been hitting the streets in the music, because no one's going to push your music like you. We finally realized that. It's about creating awareness for the product you're selling. We got people in New York knowing about us now, we got a song with Loon, it's all good. The ink is still drying on the Def Jam contract, how have things been since signing? Everything is good. Def Jam is running now man. It's all good man. How did the deal go down? They knew your boys been grinding. Atlantic, Sony, and a few other labels wanted to sign us. We did an A&R showcase, Ray Romulus, Tata, everybody was there. We did the songs, "Take a Picture," "Hustler," and "Keep it Pimping," and it was a wrap. We went to L.A. Reid's office because the A&R's were like "we want to sign these motherfuckers. L.A. Reid's got a nice plushed-out office. We went in there, Chaka Zulu was in there, and we performed the same three songs for them and L.A. Reid was like "I don't want them to leave the building until they sign contracts. They don't leave the building until they're Def Jam artists." That's how it went down. They heard about the grind and set up a showcase. I've been after this a long time and God came through. This is a real blessing. I sat down and asked the Lord to bless it because this is something that we needed. I never had a real job, my brother used to do the restaurant thing, but this is a blessing. L.A. Reid is a legend, he signed Outkast, TLC…we're supposed to meet with Jay-Z next. What are your goals for being on Def Jam? Being independent, my whole shit was to get on a major label. Now, I'm not just happy with a mil, I need two mil, three mil, ten mil. It's like what Lloyd Banks said, "Hunger for More," I never understood that until now. We're going to show that Southern cats can spit some shit. We're about to lay down some real controversial shit about George Bush. We're going to have a real diverse album with something on there for everybody. It's going to be a classic album, you can quote that shit. If you don't want to hear the lyrical shit, there'll be some buck shit. People at HipHopGame, they want that hard Hip Hop shit, we got some of that too. I'm going to bring them a classic album. Gold or platinum, that's the next step. Shout out to everybody at Def Jam! You've don't work with David Banner, how was that? We were at the radio station Hot 107.9 in Atlanta, and Banner had heard our song "The Wicked Church," where we're talking about a preacher that's fucked up and sells dope, and he came to us and said "we need to do a track" because he liked that track so much. He's real humble, and we really appreciate that shit. Do you feel like you have to get collaborations to get people to give you an initial listen? I feel like certain DJ's aren't just going to look at a new artist and put them on. It's not really an option. That's why you have to go out and get features. I could be on a bullshit site like doodoo.com or HipHopGame.com. It's a name game. That's why we do collaborations. It's not like we're saying those guys are better than us. Sometimes you have to do that to get the DJ's to accept you and put you on their mixtapes. How have the DJ's been supporting you so far? It's been wonderful. There's been a couple of fuckboys that call themselves DJ's. Other than that, they've been supporting us good. My boy DJ Chuck T from North Carolina, my boy DJ Swan, DJ Wats, DJ Judgemental, DJ Jelly, and DJ Drama. There's a lot of DJ's that dickride after you get hot. I'm like "fuck with me while I'm independent before I become a major artist." It's all about the product. What do you want to give people with your music? We're trying to bring Alabama to the forefront dog. Our whole state has been pushed back. I've never heard an Alabama artist on a Big Mike tape or a lot of motherfucker's tapes. It's time. They're from Alabama, but they're not slow or riding in the back of the bus. All that shit is over. When people say Alabama, they're going to think of 334 Mobb. We're not rapping that old bullshit. We're not saying our name five times in a song. We're saying some real shit. My goal is to let people see the real gutter and let them see what's going on. There's kids that go to HipHopGame.com and just look at the people on there and just feel that they can't never be a part of it. We want to represent that motherfucker that doesn't have that voice. What's up with Alabama? There's a few groups that have been on a label…but my goal is for people like you that say 334 Mobb you think of Alabama. What do you bring to the group? I bring knowledge. I bring real lyrics. I bring beats. I bring singing. We sing, rap, produce, do everything. I bring the business aspect too. There has to be a business aspect too. And Sawed Off brings the life to the group, that high-pitched, fast rapping. That shit is beautiful. We're brothers, so we're bringing the same shit. We're bringing talent, that's what the industry doesn't have right now. What are you guys working on now? We're working on an album right now. We had the mixtape, which is called "Here in the Gutter Volume One." That had David Banner, DJ Drama, Bobby Black, Wally Sparks, Sammy Sam…we sold like 10,000 of them in the streets. Now, we're pretty much done with the album. We're still trying to get a few features. Once we get this major deal locked down we'll get a few more features and we'll be done. What should we watch for that's coming up for 334 Mobb? The Southern Entertainment Awards are coming up, the SEA's, we're nominated for a few categories, and it was just phenomenal to see that shit. We got that, you're going to see a major deal coming up soon. We're pushing that single "Take a Picture." A lot of good things are coming up for 334 Mobb, and I'm going to just keep faith in God to make it happen. What do you want to say to everyone out there? Go to 334mobb.net. There's not a lot of music up there because we had a dumbass web designer that didn't know how to post music. We got a SoundClick page a fan made for us. You can search our name on Google. And there's no one in the South that's really touching what we're about to bring to the game, it's a lot of versatility. There's not going to be songs about trappin' or bitches every song. We bring lyrics. There's finally a group that brings excellence. It's not on just no gritty shit, it's not on no dumb shit, it's everything, it's like gumbo. If you want to call us, hit us up at 1.800.203.2270. This ain't no Mike Jones shit. That's for everybody to hit us up.

By Brian Kayser

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