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7/19/2007 What’s up?  I’m good, man. I’m feeling real good right now.  You’ve been releasing a lot of tracks recently. What inspired that?    You know, I just love music. I just love rap. I love music, period. I always had a bunch of records just stacked up. I’m sort of what you’d call a workaholic. I just don’t stop. A lot of engineers and producers, they’re like, ‘Damn! I just gave this kid eight, ten beats and he laid all of them down!’ That’s just how I am.  Where does that hunger come from?    It just comes from going through the ghetto, growing up in the ‘hood, growing up in Southside. If you really look at it, a lot of artists that came out of Southside have that same hustle, that same ambition and that same drive. 50’s from my ‘hood. We all grew up in that type of environment where you had to get that hunger because the ‘hood ain’t got nothing else for you. You’re either going to play sports, sell crack or do music. Those are the only three ways out. And one of the ways out ain’t good because you’re going to get locked up. The other one, you have to be physically really nice. The rap, you have to be born with it. There’s three ways, and when you get one of those ways, you take it and you just keep on going.  Will you be the one of the artists that will carry the torch for QB in the future?    Yeah, man. I’m one of those. I’m one of those because Queens has a lot of talented artists that are on the rise right now and a lot of them won’t get a lot of exposure because they’re still stuck in the ‘hood, but they’re very talented. Fortunately for me, I caught a good break. I caught a real good break. I’m here to really be the dude to really show them that I’m coming in the door and you’re coming in with me. You can call me the leader. Yeah. But then again, I’m not the leader because everybody’s just out there. There’s a lot of talent out there. But you know, once I get in the door, I’m going to be taking my peoples with me. The new generation of Queens rap is really, really deadly right now. There’s a lot of talent out there right now. When it comes out, that’s just how it’s going to be. Queens has always been one of those boroughs that always had talent from the beginning. It’s just never going to stop. I’m that new generation of dudes.  How did you first link up with Havoc before signing to Infamous/G-Unit?  Basically, when I started out, I didn’t really have anything else to fall back on. I said, “You know what? I’m going to really go hard with this rap shit because that’s what it is right now.” My cousin took his last little pennies that he had and he said, “I’m putting all of this into you because I believe in you and I know you have this talent.”  We laid mad songs down with the money that we had. We were really grinding. My cousin was doing his networking thing. He met Havoc’s assistant. He was telling him that his cousin had a lot of talent. He told my cousin that we could use their studio to mix down some records. We went over there and we were mixing down some records. We weren’t thinking that Havoc would ever pop up because we were told Havoc was out of town. It turns out he didn’t make it out of town. He heard the song bumping in his studio and he was like, ‘Who’s that?’ They were like, ‘That’s Nyce.’ That’s how it got started.   What have you learned so far from working with Havoc?  Havoc is a genius. He’s a genius. He taught me how to really put together a complete song. When I first hooked up with Havoc, I didn’t really have the full potential to making a song. I could just really rap good. That’s what he liked about me. I could put down records in five or ten minutes. I could write 16s in five or ten minutes and lay it right down. He really liked that about me. But then he taught me how to make songs and how to really map it out and how to really put it together. Hav, he’s a genius for that. Havoc always makes good music. It’s never going to end with him because he’s a musical genius. That’s my dude right there. That’s my brother.  What made you want to sign with Infamous/G-Unit?    Because Infamous/G-Unit was really made for me. I was rocking with the Mobb when I came out of jail. I hooked up with Hav and then we just started doing mad joints together. We were knocking out songs like crazy. Like, we could put out an album right now with how many joints we got. We were just doing a lot of joints. It just so happened that the Mobb got dropped from Jive and they became free agents. Everybody was chasing them and everybody wanted a piece of them, from Puff to Em. I just told them, “I think y’all should go to G-Unit Records. I know Fif from back in the day. He’s a go-getter and he hustles.” When he heard the songs I was doing with the Mobb, he wanted me to fuck with them too. When he heard the songs me and 40 Glocc were doing, he wanted to fuck with us too. He said, “All right, we’ll start with the Mobb. That’s who we started with.” And that’s how Infamous/G-Unit began. And from there, it just took off.  Are you happy with how things are moving so far?    It’s cool. It’s been going real good. A lot of shows came out of it. There’s been a lot of public exposure, as you can see. A lot of people are getting to know me and my whole family. It’s just grind mode right now. There’s a lot of street grinding that you have to put down first before you can put an album out. You have to have a buzz to where the whole world just gravitates towards you and then you drop that album. When you have that hot street buzz, you drop that album right away. That’s how you’re going to kill them. Right now, we’re still doing a lot of shows and doing a lot of traveling and we’re dropping mixtape after mixtape as you can see. Volume 3 of Natural Born Killers is dropping now. We’re just chilling and grinding and doing what we love to do.  You went on the Blood Money tour. How was that for you?    Oh, that was great. That was one of the best experiences in my life. It was really crazy. A lot of people showed me love. People I didn’t even expect to show me love showed me love. When you’re stuck in the ghetto and you go different places, you don’t really expect other people to know who you are. It was just crazy. It was a beautiful thing. I didn’t get to go to Canada because of my legal situation and Havoc and all of them were telling me that when they were out there, the crowd was shouting my name out like, ‘Where’s Nyce?’ That’s crazy right there! Without even putting out an album, I’m getting that kind of love! I really enjoyed it. That was a great experience and we’re going to do it again. We have other tours that we’re going to do and Prodigy and Havoc are dropping their solo joints and there’s going to be a new Mobb album. We’re going to be grinding. There’s a lot of work coming.  Your new mixtape is Natural Born Killers Vol. 3. Are you happy with how that came out?  Yeah. That’s like the beginning right there for my team, the NBK. That’s an opening for my family and team. It consists of a lot of people. There’s a lot of young, fiery, talented artists like myself. That’s why they’re under me, because they got so much talent and a lot of people just don’t know how to deal with them. So they roll with me. It’s just to get them exposure and to get them out there and to get people to know what NBK is all about. They’re coming and it’s going to be crazy. There are a lot of hot joints on there. There’s a lot of features on there. I got my man David Banner on there along with Akon and Free, who used to be on 106 & Park. She’s my girl. Termanolgy is on there. There’s just a lot of people on there. Mazaradi Fox and the Mobb of course are on there. It’s a real big break for me. We’re letting people know what we’re about.  How did the first two volumes of Natural Born Killers do for you?    The first two did real good. They did real great. The first one, I didn’t even really want to put that one out because I was on the road when we did most of those tracks right there. All of those tracks on Volume 1 were just tracks that we were doing on the road. We would come off a show and I would lay down a 16 and then 40 Glocc would lay down a 16. It wasn’t really well put-together but my dude, DJ Scarface out in Canada, he wanted something so bad from me so I told him to take that and to release that out in Canada. He called me when I was in New York five days later and he told me that joint was doing real good and he asked me if I had anything more. I was like, ‘Nah, I’m out!’ The first one did real good.  The second one did real good too. That was put out by DJ Diggz. That one was like, ‘All right, I haven’t put out a mixtape in awhile. Let me just put this one out.’ That was to promote the projects I was doing, like the David Banner project that I’m doing and to promote things I have coming up in the future, like my album. Volume 2 has stuff that didn’t make the album. I just put it together and gave it to Diggz like, ‘You can put it out, and then it came back and people were showing a lot of love. Both of those mixtapes were just really about me and how I was feeling at that time. But this one is better put-together. It’s time to sit down, get focused for real and let the people know that this is what’s coming. Volume 3 is really, really crazy with it right now.  You have a lot of different styles that you’ve shown on your mixtapes. How important is that diversity to you?    At the end of the day, it’s very important because it’s entertainment. The listeners want to be entertained. For example, every movie can not come out being the same one. Every movie can not come out and be like the same movie. They have to switch it up for the audience to be entertained. If the audience keeps looking at that same movie, they’re going to be like, ‘Show me something else! The first three times it was hot, but c’mon, I’m not going to watch that all the time.’ So you have to switch it up and come with something different. It’s the same thing with music. Somebody doesn’t want to hear everybody coming the same way and rapping the same way. That’s why a lot of rappers, particularly in New York, are having a problem with sales. It’s not because they’re not talented. Dudes can really rap out here. They spit out here crazy. The problem is that they’re trying to rap the same way on every single track. The fans want to hear you flip it this way and flip it that way and switch it up to keep the listeners interested. It’s like a movie. You have to keep the listeners into you and entertained with what you’re doing, otherwise there’s going to be a void.  How’s your album coming?    My album is just about done. My album is so crazy. It’s really crazy. I’ve done so many joints for it. I did over 150 songs for my album and this is just real crazy songs. Like the sounds…Havoc got so creative as far as the beats go. Some of the beats, when you hear it, you won’t think it’s Havoc. We really put it together. It’s not finished yet, but it’s almost done. I’m a really picky dude when it comes to albums. I don’t just do songs and say, “That’s going on the album.” We have to all sit down and think, ‘Did this come out right? Does the hook sound right?’ It’s really well put-together so far. The songs that didn’t make it, I’m putting out a pre-album just to show the people how I really do and how creative I can get. I’m putting out an album on iTunes that’s coming up in a couple of months. That has joints right there that were supposed to go on the album but I didn’t put them on my official album so they’re going on this album. This project is like album cuts that didn’t make the album because they didn’t completely satisfy me. That album will be out in a couple of months and I have other projects coming too.  What do you have to do to succeed as an artist in 2007?  You just have to keep grinding and putting out hits. It’s all about the people. At the end of the day, a rapper can make 1,000 tracks and him and his homies can feel like they’re the hottest dudes in the world. They can feel like no rappers can fuck with them, but when they’re putting them out to the public and they don’t have those same feelings, then it doesn’t matter what they think. You have to make people become fans of you and enjoy your music. Once you do that, you’re unstoppable. That’s my goal right there, just to make sure that every kid and every dude and every block and every ‘hood plays my music and that they appreciate it.  What are your plans for the rest of the summer?    Letting everybody hear Volume 3 and letting everybody know about my album on iTunes and my mixtape with Hot Rod and Tony Yayo is coming out and my album with David Banner is coming out soon. That’s what my focus is on right now. I want everybody to hear those joints that are coming from the kid right now. There are a lot of things coming right now. It’s going to be a real hot summer.  What do you want to say to everybody?  I just appreciate everybody who loves and supports me. Really, just look out for the kid and really pay attention to the lyrics. Pay attention to the music that I’m putting out right now. Don’t just jump on it or just hate on it because of whatever. Just sit down and take your time and really listen to what I’m saying. Really listen to the music and then you’ll see what time it is with the kid. It’s not a game! I’m about to really heat it up. I’m about to really heat up the streets right now. It’s bon voyage. Just roll with me. Just flow with me.

By Brian Kayser

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