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6/7/2006 What's up? I'm feeling good. I'm standing outside in the great A. Hopefully the weather's as good up there as it is here. What's good, HipHopGame? Before we get into your music, how do you want to introduce yourself to everyone just getting familiar with you? I'm from Southwest Atlanta. I'm one of the top-sellers down here in this region. I really just love the music. I'm very lyrical with the content. What I'm doing in Atlanta is the same thing I learned from Chamillionaire and Slim Thug and Mike Jones, how they built up their underground following and got their underground game going. I'm doing that same thing in Georgia with my own little twist to it. How would you say your following is right now? Right now, we're looking at a fan-base anywhere between 60 to 75,000, which is good because I'm not all over BET and places like that. You get your buzz being on a few mixtapes. Once DJ's see you on other tapes, they put you on theirs. That helps when I drop my album, people will recognize. When I'm not in school I'm back in my hood chilling with everybody. Are you happy with how your new album Underground Music came out? Absolutely. I think it's a very different project. I'm freestyling and going off the top of my head on my mixtapes, but on the album, I just wanted to try something different. I just wanted to give everyone the underground insight on the album. I didn't want to be the big gangster or the big drug dealer on the album. I just wanted to bring a different view. I just wanted to show how I hustle and why the streets support me. What are your goals for Underground Music? My goals for the project, surprisingly, I wouldn't say it's to sell a whole bunch of records. I want to sell a lot, but the top goal is to put out a quality project. I want people to be able to relate and be able to understand the southern underground. I would like to believe it exists. We have Magno and the Grit Boys, both top-sellers in Houston. I want to show you the hustle of the underground. I also got the chance to work with some pretty cool producers. I want to get their music out there and see how people respond. I want to see how people feel about the quality and the music of the project. What was your inspiration for the song "Self-Made"? The song is basically stating how I had to do a lot of things myself. It goes back to a time when I was sixteen or seventeen in Washington High School in Atlanta. Ludacris came up to the school when he was DJ'ing. He told me I definitely had skills and what I chose to do with my skills was entirely up to me. He told me I could either rap for my friends or make moves on my own. He told me if I made moves on my own, other people would take notice. That song is about what I had to do and it's talking about the DJ's who supported me. If you keep building a buzz more and more and more, more people will support you. What's been the most important thing you've done to build your buzz? I would say speak the truth. I'm not afraid to say, "Hey, I don't have a lot of money" or "Hey, I'm in school right now." I'm trying to show people you can be where I'm from and go to school and not be afraid to go to school. I'm not afraid to say my car stops on the road sometimes. I'm not going to say I have all the dough in the world. I think when they heard me rapping about regular stuff, they think I'm crazy. They'll be like, "You're crazy talking about your LeSabre breaking down on the interstate." I go to the record stores and talk to the owners and I go to the clubs and talk to everybody. I'm very humble about things and I think that keeps your buzz up and keeps people wanting to work with you. You've made a lot of positive moves in rap. A lot of people probably ask you, "Why bother even going to school?" A lot of people do ask me that. The thing is, honestly, I've been rapping since I was six years-old. I recorded my first song when I was six years-old. I can't remember a time when I wasn't rapping and going to school. The only difference is now I'm getting paid to do it. I really felt like I had an opportunity to go to school. A lot of people in my area don't have that opportunity. I feel like I have a responsibility to myself and to my people to go to school and graduate. It's probably more important for me to do well in school than for me to make it in the rap game. People from my hood like Outkast, T.I., and Ludacris have made it in rap. I want to show people you can do it another way as well. That's why I feel like being in school and doing this is very important to me and my community. There's a lot of pipe dreams out there but only one in a million will make it. You're absolutely right. I try to tell people that. I never tell anybody to not go after your dreams, because that's what life's about, but you have to be prepared for anything that may come along the way. Don't put down one thing and reach for another. The music business is very crazy and very political. It's probably one of the most political things in life. You never know what's going to happen next. You have to have something going at the other end so you don't just fall flat on your face. What would you do if rapping didn't work out? If I'm not rapping five years from now for whatever reason, I see so much stuff. I could be an A&R for a label, I could do marketing for a label, I could be a mixshow specialist for a record label, I could work for a record label, I could be a teacher, I could be a coach, or I could be writing for HipHopGame. I've positioned myself to just have all the options in the world just in case the music doesn't work. I'll still be able to drop independent albums at the same time. You seem to have a lot of options right now. What do you want to do in the rap game right now? Right now, things are looking better than ever. I've benefited from being in Atlanta. You catch a lot of majors' attention. I've worked with some major artists. With the Underground album, some sales, and some radio play, I and the people around me have positioned ourselves to get a good major deal. There are certain things we look for in a deal. You want a lot of things brought to the table so you can be sure you will be successful. You don't want to just jump into a situation. You want to make sure you can be successful in the situation. I think our hard work is paying off and we're looking at our options. Are you in a hurry to sign? I was before. I didn't want to just be an underground rapper. The one thing I've always refused to do is a demo or a talent show. I'll do a show and send you a CD, but I'm not sending you my demo. I will not do talent shows. I'll do shows, but no talent shows. The reason I say that is because at this point, if you're the number-one seller in Atlanta, and you go to a talent show, what do you really have to gain. If I do not win a freestyle or talent show, I just hurt everything I just worked for. You could go to a place where a guy has all his friends there and he could win. If I win a talent show or freestyle battle, they'll say, "That's Lil Weavah, he has a song with T.I." Sometimes you have to look at a situation and see what you can gain from it. Right now, I'm not in a rush. Being in the music industry, you see people sign deals and you see, "Wow, that might not be the best deal." Anybody from Wendy Day to Chris Young who used to be at Jive or Jason Jeter who manages T.I., has given me a lot of insight in the industry and how things happen. I wouldn't say I'm rushing right now, but I'm trying to get myself in a position to get what I want. A lot of artists from Paul Wall to Young Dro support you. How did you make that happen? It all started with the mixtapes. When people see the streets support you, more artists are willing to work with you. They'll see you have a buzz and people like your music. If they like your music, it's easy to make that happen. You've won Best Freestyle Award at the Southern Entertainment Awards. How did that feel? That's cool. It means a lot of people are taking notice to what you're doing. I'm proud of that. I didn't go promoting it. I have a hard time promoting myself for awards. I didn't send out one email about it. People told me they would vote for me and I said, "Thank you." I really do appreciate the streets supporting me, but I find it hard sending out email blasts asking people to vote for me. I just want the listener to get something out of the music. Sektuwa Shakur, 2Pac's sister, was your mentor in high school. What did you learn from her? She's very humble. Of course anytime she talks, you listen because that's 2Pac's sister. She just has the knowledge of just going through a lot of different things. She had a program called Kings on the Rise. We would talk about everyday situations and how to respond to adversities in life. Working with her was very good for me growing up. What's the next move for Lil Weavah? These next two months, this is when it gets very hectic. We have this album dropping June 13. I have a mixtape The Streets 4 dropping early July. Then I have the fifth volume dropping soon. I'm working on a New York Mobb mixtape. That will get a lot of play up north. I'm also working on a radio campaign for my single "Cuzz We Poe." That's starting to get a lot of spins down here. I think with the album being out there and the buzz in the streets and the album being nationwide, because people can order it off CDUniverse or Amazon, right now I'm just working on the radio. You have the mixtapes, the album, and now the radio campaign. Hopefully that expands in the next few weeks. What do you want to say to everyone? I appreciate everyone supporting me. I really do. It really starts with y'all. If y'all didn't like the music, then I wouldn't be able to have the success I've had. I'm not a gangster, I'm not going to try to play a gangster. I'm going to tell you about my life whether it's good or bad. We have a buzz in the streets and we're going to keep it in the streets and take it worldwide. And I really appreciate this interview. http://lilweavah.com http://myspace.com/lilweavah

By Brian Kayser

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