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8/2/2005 How have you been lately? I've been all right, Mobb Deep signing to G-Unit, Alchemist and Eminem…its crazy! How's the mixtape doing for you? It's doing cool. I'm getting the responses I wanted. People like it. How did you go about putting this tape together? I had never done a mixtape. A lot of these big mixtape dudes were fronting a lot. Al told me to do a mixtape and I did it in two weeks. P came through, Hav came through, Agallah came through, they blessed me. Ag's my boy from back in the days… How is it working with Alchemist? It's hard! He fucks with me, he'll start yelling "do you want to be a rapper, are you ready?!?" I take long in the booth. The IM3 album dropped last year, what have you been up to since then? Since last year, I've been working on my solo album. We did a nice little tour off "Blood's Thicker than Water." That was nice. How's the solo project coming? That's coming good. We got Evidence, Alchemist, Havoc, I'm getting one from Premier right now. It's gonna be hard. It's going to be that shit. What's the difference between you being solo and in IM3? The difference is that I have to put more work in. Instead of just kicking a verse or a hook, now I have to do three verses (laughs). What's Infamous Mobb up to? We're working on our albums. We're working on an IM3 album too. Right now, we're about to be the spokesperson for this videogame that's like the PSP. We're going to be the spokesmen for that, we're going to be on the commercial and all that. I couldn't believe that. They said they wanted underground artists and they chose us. Do you feel like IM3 gets the respect it deserves? Not in the states. If I got the respect here that I get overseas, it'd be crazy. The biggest response I get is overseas. I'm like God out there. I was on a tour with Mobb Deep and Alchemist, and I did a 25-minute set, and their response was crazy. I couldn't believe it. What's IM3's label situation? Right now, we're on hold with everything. We're going to chill right now. We're going to try to put these mixtapes out independently out first. Our peoples is down, so we'll just see what comes out of the different situations. We're just going to keep our name hot in the streets. How has things changed since the Mobb Deep and G-Unit ish? Oh, it's crazy right now. You know how shit gets when you get down with certain people. When Mobb Deep was on Jive and you guys never came out, how did that feel? Their Jive situation was never as good as people say it was. Right now, they have the opportunity of a lifetime to do what they got to do and put us on. We'll sit down and talk about what we're going to do. Is Mobb Deep loyal? Yeah, of course. You never heard us talking about them. I'm with P right now, he's right here, we smoking weed! What's going to happen to Infamous Mobb once Mobb Deep gets popping with G-Unit? We're gonna come out through Infamous. Would that be out through G-Unit Records? Most likely, of course. When the Mobb Deep album comes out on G-Unit, will you be on it? Oh, definitely. That's already done already. Will IM3 have some G-Unit collaborations? Oh yeah, yeah. Probably in the future. How important has DJ Muggs been to your career? He gave me my first check. That's the first time I realized I could make money like that. He gave us 6 G's for "Soul Assassins 2," that's 2 G's apiece. That's when we took it serious. And that led to other things… Hell yeah. Shit. I'm a money person. I like money. Whereever's the money at, I'm at. Speaking of money, what did your experience at Virgin teach you? Oh that…you definitely have to do your research on labels before you sign to them because they may not be ready for your music. They weren't ready for our music. What does the next label have to have for you? Let me do my own music and how I want to do it. And the paper has to be right. It has to be my way or no way, that's the only way we do it. You used to hustle with Littles and Hav, what were those early days like for you? It was all right. I could say it was fun, because I was young and I was hustling. But it was kind of stressful too. Looking back I would definitely change it, I wasted a lot of time being in jail. But you know, I was young and we were making a lot of money. It was all right though. It was definitely fun. And it taught me a lot. It got me on point. How do you apply your other hustle to rap? Well, if you're on the block and there's ten niggas hustling, and you see one crack head coming through and no money's coming in the whole day, you have to literally run over to the crack head. And in the game, you've got to chase the check. It's all the same shit, chasing the bread. How much time did you spend in jail? Three or four years. What did you learn in jail? Shit, don't trust nobody, because niggas is grimy. And shit, I got high like a motherfucker, I smoked weed the whole time. It really taught me how to protect myself. Niggas taught me how to spit out razors…and it taught me not to sell drugs. Looking at your time spent in jail, does it make you mad when rappers glorify jail, especially when they've never been? Oh nah, it doesn't make me mad. But they might be jinxing themselves and end up in jail. What lessons did you learn from your brother? Well, he passed away in '96. That fucked me up for awhile. I had to really, really focus because I was about to flip out…but shit like that happens all the time, I know a lot of my friends went through that shit too. He's my brother and my friend. You've got to move on, some people can't do that. What's a normal day like for you? I live in Jersey City right now. I'll get up in the morning, go to the studio, work for a couple hours, go over to my people's crib, drink and get high for the night, that's my whole day. But I always get up in the morning and work on my music, every single day we do that. How important is your voice as far as making you stand out? I'm going to keep it real. If it wasn't for my voice, I probably wouldn't be rhyming. I ain't the illest rapper, but I can kick some hard shit. That helped me out a lot, that's my whole shit right there. What do you want to say to everyone reading this? Thanks for the support, y'all people that got love for me. And any shorties, holler at me! (laughs) And we're going to bring Queensbridge back. That's what it is.

By Brian Kayser

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