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9/19/2007 What’s up?  I’m appreciative right now! Everything’s fine.  Your single “Who Dat” is doing well for you. Are you happy with how it’s doing so far?    Hell yeah! It’s doing real well.  How did “Who Dat” come about in the first place?    My manager came up with the idea and I wasn’t really sold on it from the jump. The concept of the beat and song, it had a street vibe but I had to make it more from a commercial aspect so that everybody could get with it in the clubs. Where we’re from, it’s not a lot of dudes, but some dudes would rather go off their beeper now when they’re doing whatever they’re doing. That’s where the idea came from. I just had to flip it a little to make it a little more marketable.  How do you balance doing songs like “Who Dat” versus your more serious songs?  Sometimes you just have to look at the bigger picture. Any record, you can still make it a good record. You can have a party record that’s not wack. It doesn’t have to be totally wack for people to want to party to it. It’s really about your lyrics and how you put it down. I used to have a problem doing any light-hearted shit. I used to just want to be all street and all ‘hood. But look at the game now. How are you going to survive doing that?  How’s your album If Not This, Then What? coming?  It’s coming along fine. We’re more than halfway done with it. There are some real serious joints on there. It’s a huge balance on there. It should be able to relate to everybody because it’s a lot of street but it’s still a lot of partying. I’m liking how it’s coming along so far, but we’re not totally done. There are some joints that we haven’t touched on yet that we definitely have to knock out of the park.  What kind of impact can the album have when it drops?  When they’re saying stuff like, ‘Hip-hop is dead,’ I’m just hoping that I can be a guy that just proves them wrong. There’s a way that you can do everything. I know that some of the people don’t like the music that’s out now and a lot of it isn’t good, I’ll be honest with you. But you should be able to find a gray area to where you can still sell records and make good music. That’s what I want to do. I haven’t blown yet like others. My man Bossman has a deal and he’s still grinding, but he hasn’t blown-blown. I would like to be the first person to do that and really knock it out of here.  What’s it going to take for Baltimore to blow up as a hip-hop city?    Really, motherfuckers have to just stop being assholes. I hate to say it, but some of these people at these labels are just looking at the dollar all of the time. We really need our city to support us so that they come out. We’ll be fine. Other cities support each other like Miami and Atlanta. Everybody here has to stick together and the fans have to really mess with it.  How does Baltimore radio treat you?  I don’t want to step on nobody’s toes, but you know how the radio is. It’s not even Baltimore. It’s the radio, period. They’re not showing locals love like they should. In a city with only one radio station, they have their listeners, period, so if they don’t want to play something, they’re not going to play it. Or if you’re not doing exactly what it is that they want you to do, then they’re just not down to ride. It’s not everybody, so you can’t look at it like that. I’m not really stressing the radio just because the radio will come to you when they don’t have a choice.  You’re signed to Stay Gettin’ Entertainment. How did you link up with them?    Back in the day I used to be in N.E.K. with Bossman and Mansin and everybody. But I was trying to do something a little different from what they were doing at the time. A homeboy of mine had a company that he started and my dude Mike Millz was doing engineering and production at the time. He was engineering with us and we just started vibing. I heard their artist Kuntry laying down a demo and I really liked the beats. It took awhile for the situation to transpire because of the Young Leek situation. I guess now is my time to pop.  Young Leek, who’s signed to Def Jam, is also signed to Stay Gettin’. How does that help your situation?    I can just walk right in the building and that’s all on the strength of them. I can meet people that I couldn’t meet before. I was incarcerated when he first got signed. I was coming from nothing anyway. When he first got a deal, it brought me right back up there. I started meeting people that I wouldn’t have been able to meet. I was around people that really could get me somewhere.  What exactly happened between you and N.E.K. that caused you to leave?    At the time they were trying to do something that I wasn’t trying to do. I was in the group and there were five of us. It was hard. I always had the idea for going solo. We came together as a clique and we just decided to do something because a lot of people weren’t being heard. We decided to do a clique joint and an album and I felt like I wasn’t getting heard enough. I felt like I wasn’t really able to get what I wanted to get. And some of the records that we were making, I wasn’t totally on board on. It was a mutual thing. I felt like I would fall back and they could go in the direction that they wanted to go and I could go in my direction and we could meet back up. I just talked to Bossman the other day about doing some new music together and I’m on his new mixtape End of Discussion. I build with them. It was a mutual situation about the split. We still talk and there wasn’t a blow up. We still talk about everything.  What do you have to do from here on out to make sure that you succeed and put Baltimore on the map?    Be real to myself. A lot of people get caught up in that “keep it real” shit. You really have to be real to yourself, especially in this music business. You just have to keep it real with yourself because if you don’t, you might end up on a track that you didn’t originally intend on being on.  It’s also about the content. That’s another thing. Talk about something! I hear a lot of wack rappers. People are doing a lot of rapping, but once you stand back and listen to it, they’re not really saying shit! But it sounds good when there’s a million people on the joint and the way they say it sounds good, but then you’re like, ‘Man, the dude didn’t actually say anything on this joint.’  How important is unity in Baltimore right now?    That’s the biggest thing. Without that, it’s really nothing. I mean, look at everybody. Everybody is going against everybody and with everybody hating on everybody else, it’s hard for anybody to move forward. If we all keep pulling each other back, it’s hard for us to move forward.  How much unity is there in Baltimore today?    I’m not going to say they’re not unified, but everywhere I go and everywhere I do shows at, I get love from everybody, but sometimes it seems as though other people are disgruntled at other people’s situations. A lot of artists get a lot of hate. I’m on the grind and people always respect the dude that’s on the low, but if I got a deal tomorrow, I would probably get a lot of hate.  What’s the next move for Heavy Gold right now?  We just dropped the mixtape. We’re still working on this album. We’re getting ready to shoot my second video. We’re looking at doing bigger and better things. We’re working on a whole bunch of things. We’re still working on these situations with these other labels and something should be locked in by the end of the month. There’s a lot of shit getting ready to go down.  What do you want to say to everybody?    Don’t sleep on Baltimore, really. I’m a big fan of the city and we’re doing a lot of shit. Everybody from Baltimore, everybody is on their grind. Everybody from Baltimore reading this interview, we have to all come together. We have to all support if we want to be the next ATL or Miami. Buy my shit. I’m nice. And if you don’t believe that, you’re crazy.

By Brian Kayser

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