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5/1/2006 How are you feeling? You know how it is. I'm just hanging in there. Are you recovering ok? Hell yeah. You know how it goes, man. It ain't nothing but hood shit. Take us through the night. There really isn't too much to tell. I went up there to do Flex's show. Shots rang out, and I got hit. I didn't want to go straight to the hospital. I'm a big nigga. I can handle myself. I just felt like I had to do the show. The timeframe when I got hit, I had two hours before I had to rock. I didn't want to blow the gig and tell Hot97 why I couldn't make it and my reason why I couldn't make it. Nobody at Hot97 knew I had been hit so I just went with the program. It's my lifetime chance right now. I can't play with this rap shit right now. You have to go in and do what you have to do. How did everyone find out you had been hit? When I came down, the cops were down there because eleven rounds were fired. I looked shaken up because I was bleeding and was getting woozy. I had a bullet in me for three or four hours. Do you have any idea why it happened? There are a million and one reasons why things can happen. I'm the most controversial new dude out. Somebody always has a problem with me and I don't even know about it. I can't even call it beef because somebody's always got a problem with me from me just doing what I do. I'm just very successful at what I do. That's all it is. Why are you the most controversial new rapper out? Because every time you throw on a DVD, it's "Gravy this, Gravy that." There is always something about Gravy. Always. If you hear all the new rappers on the mixtapes, they're talking about Gravy or Dirty Money. Everybody wants to be in our shoes. There's not a lot of deals out here, so it's crazy. Is getting shot going to change how you move? Yeah. It definitely changes a lot of things. You definitely don't want to be in that position again. I could be shitting in a shitbag. God works things out. It's funny how it happened and the name of my album is "God Willing." It's just like "wow." How do you feel about Hot97 possibly being evicted for this shooting? I don't know about the eviction and all that. All I know is that if you're hard to get at, and they're announcing where a person is at, some haters will get at them, and I'm a hard person to get at, then they're going to know where to go. You don't really see me too much. I don't be out there like that. I'm not at this club or that club every weekend. I'm not out there like that. Will Hot97 stop supporting your music? No. They just played me yesterday. Hot97 has love for me. I have love for them too. Those are my dudes. I've been grinding for a long time. They know I'm positive. I just have a lot of haters out here that don't want to see me make it. That was a big night for me and I wasn't going to give up on that because I had too many people depending on me. I just had to go up there with the bullet. How do you feel about the police blaming the shooting on your crew? You know how the people feel. They think you're too deep. That's not really true. We were just trying to promote Gravy. When you have forty-eight dudes standing outside Hot97 wearing Gravy shirts, I don't see anything wrong with that. But I guess with 50 and the Game and all the other beefs, being too big is not the move anymore. It's not that I have too many dudes and that I just grab dudes and give them a t-shirt to wear. No. I have the largest movement coming out of Brooklyn. I move incredibly deep. This is entertainment. If you only see one or two dudes and you claim you're all that, no one's going to believe you. People don't want to see that. I pull my toys out. I might bring my Ferrari out once in awhile. I don't want you to ever believe that I'm rhyming and lying. That's why a lot of artists hate. They don't have the toys I have, they don't have the voice I have, and they don't have the lyrics I have. There's a lot to hate about. I can't even blame them for hating. If I was on the other side, I'd be hating too. How do you feel about the Police Commissioner calling you Mr. Gravy? That was respectable. I respect Ray Kelly. I don't respect what they're doing, but at the same time, I'm just the victim of this game I'm in. Don't be shocked that it's going down, this is the type of game we're in. I handle my own problems. I'm not a snitch. Can they make you talk? I didn't see anything to make me talk. You can't make a person lie. If I tell you I didn't see anything, I didn't see anything. You're not trying to look and see who's shooting, you're trying to get away from the shots. I got shot, fell, and got back up. I said, "Fuck it, let me go back upstairs and do the show. It's not like the hood's not going to tell me who shot me. Everything will work out. How do you feel about people saying it's a publicity stunt? They can't say that because obviously, the hood talks. The same dudes that put that work in, they're in the hood trying to say, "We handled him. We did what we had to do. Yeah." They know the truth. Ain't nobody handle me. Shots rang out. Whatever. You don't get respect for sneaking up on somebody and hitting them in the ass. You don't get no respect for that. That's like shooting a nigga in the back. You don't get respect for that. Has Warner told you anything since you've been shot? I never looked at the label like that. We don't do the label thing too tough. We at Dirty Money make our own money and do what we do. That's how we got signed. I got a lot of calls that tell me they're going fix this, make that happen, and put some muscle behind it. I'm trying to win. I could have easily left the show, but I respect the business end. That's why I'm back in business. That's my new slogan, "back in business." I'm not going to fail like this. They're going to have to kill me. Will the shooting help your buzz? I don't look at it like that. I'm not in it for a publicity stunt. I already had a buzz about three times. Y'all know. I've been hot, I've been cool, I've been hot, I've been cool, and now I'm hot again. I'm not playing with it this time. This time it's for the money. You've been quiet the past couple of months. What have you been up to? I've just been working on the album. I was in LA recording first, then I went back to Miami, then I went back to LA. I'm not trying to make a regular album, I'm trying to make a classic. And I haven't been too quiet. We've been doing the mixtapes and DVD's clearing a lot of people out of our lane. I'm the only rapper on everybody's tape. I make Big Mike, Cutmaster C, Whoo Kid, Clue…Certain rappers can't make all these tapes. I have a bigger outlet so I can afford to, every now and then, chill and focus on my album where others can't because they don't have the outlets. The DVD's keep us hot. I'm the promo king. I got promos everywhere. I invented the promo game. At one time, I had every promo spinning on Power105. It's about keeping relationships. I have Chubby Chubb and Craig G in Connecticut, I got Khaled in Miami, I got Flex, I got Clue, so I have a lot of power in and out of this region. I have a lot of things that are going to take place so maybe this is for the better. I'm also dropping that HipHopGame mixtape. That's going to get some crazy feedback because I haven't done a mixtape lately. We're so far finished with the album so we're going to get back on the mixtapes. The comments on "40/40" were crazy. They were like, "He's back." I never left, but if I always did mixtape tracks, I'd be making a street album. New York is only one place. You have to go all over to feel about what you're rhyming about. If you talk about a Maybach and you've never sat in one, that's going to come through. If you don't own one, don't talk about it. That's the difference between me and everybody else. The reality is I'm the best out and I'm going to continue being the best, no matter who feels someone else's buzz is better. At the end of the day, no matter what kind of big deals someone else gets, in a year and a half, I gave the streets over $200,000 worth of freestyles. I gave you freestyles with Juvenile, Fat Joe, Puff, Mase, SP, Sheek, TI, I gave you Weezy, I gave you Gravy and Lil' Flip. I gave you Gravy and every nigga that was popping. Gravy and Dipset. Gravy and somebody else that you can't even expect. You already know that I've did that already. Wait until you see the features on my album. I'm going to do me. I've given the streets too many features right now. Are you happy with the respect you're getting? I still feel like I'm the underdog. I'm not going to feel another way until I see my first-week sales. The streets tell it all. If the first week is two or three and change, I'm going to be like, "Wow, we put a dent in the game." I'll be the man regardless with one or two platinum albums. Not a lot of new artists drop and do big numbers. It hasn't been happening. How's your album God Willing coming? The momentum is crazy. I just have to get it a little more crazier. I've just been relaxed. I've been working, but I haven't been out and about. I didn't want to be out in the street all the time. You don't have to see me until the time is right. Right now, the time is right. When is God Willing dropping? Hopefully in July or August. It's all about momentum. The streets have to decide if you're hot or not. Don't take it upon you because you have a million yes-men telling you you're hot. You're going to brick. Take your time with it. When the time is right, you'll know. What's your focus right now? I'm about to kill mixtapes right now. I'm about to drop at least two CD's. I'm going to drop the HipHopGame mixtape first because I need y'all more than anything else. You are the streets. My first CD is going to be with y'all and everyone else comes after it. I'd be a fool not to drop y'all CD first and not get my exposure on HipHopGame. I just have to know who's popping and what to do and when to do it. You have to know who you need more than others. No disrespect to other mixtape DJ's out, but at the end of the day, I need y'all because y'all can really make artists pop without a label, and that's what it's coming down to. There's cell phones with the videos in it and all that. The label game is about to be wack because I can just download a video instead of waiting for BET. You just have to do your research and know what you're doing. You have to get on the internet and know what you're doing and just build. I watched y'all and I remember when you had Maino and Papoose up there crazy. You give everybody a fair chance. I know I got it now. Right now, everybody wants to know what's my story, and they're getting it. The haters don't want me to live, and that's it. What do you want to say to all your fans out there? I feel like this: I'm on the radar. I'm on the radar for real. If you're a fan of mine, love is love. If you're a hater, I can't do anything, keep hating. Just know that when you hate and you approach me with the hate, I'm going to approach you back with the same hate you give me. I'm getting ready to go Spirit tonight for the NFL Draft party. We're going to pop a few bottles and fuck a few models. It ain't nothing.

By Brian Kayser

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