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6/5/2006 What's up? I'm good, man. I'm in the hood right now. We're chilling, about to watch the game. What happened the night you were attacked? Basically some shit jumped off. It was a little beef at the club. Some niggas caught me from behind without my niggas and sneaked me. It's all in the game. I guess that's how it goes nowadays. Were you stabbed? Yeah, I was stabbed. Do you have any serious injuries? No. I got a couple staples in my head. I got stabbed in the head, but it was all good because the niggas who stabbed me, you know how it goes, they're hiding. Other than that, everything else is ok. Is your manager ok? Yeah. He's definitely ok. What have you been working on lately? Right now, we're about to put this mixtape out at Summer Jam and run from there. That's what I'm doing now. It's joints of me and Digga and my new clique 152. Are you still signed to Denaun Porter's label? No. He just does beats for me now because things are getting crazy over there. We're friends. That's how I like to work. If things go wrong in the business, it ain't really based on the business unless it's a business deal. Most of the shit I do is with people I know. What happened at Shady? Shit gets shaky sometimes. You can't put all your nuts in one twat. Let me stop playing. You can't put all your eggs in one basket. Shit was just crazy over there. I'm not really focusing on that one little situation right now, especially when I have my new group I'm trying to come with. Tell us about that. It's the 152 Gang. I'm just trying to give them a chance to get some limelight. They spit fresh. I don't just fuck with any average motherfuckers. What did you learn from the Outsidaz experience you can bring to 152? Everybody there had their own thoughts on how shit should go down. There was no leadership and everybody was running around doing their own thing. Now it's more structured and my dudes are fire. All I can do is give my niggas a chance to make some shit happen. Are you still working with Avalanche? Of course. Av's been chilling. He's been fucking with Wyclef trying to make his own thing happen as well as working with 152. Are you going to drop 152 or the Young Zee album first? I'm trying to get them bubbling. I'll probably drop my album first and let them do their thing on my album first instead of how we put out the Outsidaz first in the past. Do you have any regrets from the Outsidaz situation? No, I don't have any regrets at all. We were friends, we tried to do something, and it got a spark. It was the kind of thing where we all tried to come together on some friends shit and it didn't work out. I hang out with them all the time. They come to my house and get drunk and spend the night and then I get drunk at their house the next day. Right now it's the 152 Gang. That's because we started at 152 Telford Street. Basically everything is good. When I go to bed at night, I'm happy. Rapping is my 18 year-old dream. I'm grown now, but I still love it. I'm still fresh and I can still buy out the bar at any time, but fuck that because nobody's buying me anything to drink. What are you drinking these days? Basically Henny and Coors Light and whatever I feel like drinking at the bar. Rah Digga told me there wasn't much of a chance of an Outsidaz comeback. I don't think there is much of a chance either. I'm focusing on 152. Unless someone comes to me like, "Dude, we want an Outsidaz album! Let's do an Outsidaz deal!" Other than that, I'm not breaking my neck for it. Does that music bring back good memories for you? Yeah. There's no bad memories. The only bad memory we have is it didn't sell twenty-million records. Make no doubt about it, we made a lot of money out of the situation. How can you be mad about that? How's your project with Rah Digga coming? It's good. It'll be out at Summer Jam. If you're at Summer Jam, you can fuck around and get a copy. I'm going to have people in the parking lot passing out the mixtape for free. We don't want a dollar for it. It's free! How do you guys work together? We work together because we sleep together at night. That's my girl. She does her thing and I do my thing. When we finish each of our parts, we get together in the booth. She does her shit and I do my shit or vice versa. Do you guys ever have any creative differences? We basically don't have any creative differences. If we have a beat and the hook comes to her first and she tells me the hook, we're going to do that hook. I'm drunk as hell right now so my words are coming out fucked up, but you know what I'm saying. If I come up with this hook, we're running with it. It's fun. Are you and Redman going to get back together? Yeah. We have a few of them in the cut. We're from the same area and we get our weed from the same place. What will you remember most about Proof? Me and Proof has a lot of fun together. When we were on tour, we would have "Homie Court" where if some person did this wrong, this person tried to push up on this girl, or someone was fighting, we would have Homey Court and we'd clear the air and see who was proven wrong and who was proven right. Proof was like damn-near the judge. A lot of younger Jersey artists always say they're the freshest in Jersey and they never mention you or Digga or Redman. How do you feel about that? If everybody thinks they're the freshest, let them run with that. Nowadays, people aren't going to say what they feel. It's more of a promotional thing. I would probably do the same thing if I was up-and-coming and other niggas' shit was popping and they asked me who was the freshest from Jersey, I would say me. I can't be mad if they think they're fresher than me. They know how I do it. It's not even a game around here. We rhyme. We rhyme. We stuff a lot of rhyming words in every line. Are you the freshest right now? Basically Jersey is my stomping grounds. Me and my group tour Jersey often and we find out who's the freshest. I would say in Jersey, we're the freshest. I don't see anybody who's fresher. If someone reading this interview feels differently, we can set it up. There are probably others who can sell more records, but when it comes to you against me, there's no one better than us. It's like boxing. You might like Zab and I may like Mayweather but Mayweather's trying to go home with all of Zab Judah's fans being his fans. He's not a hater. Will you still get it in on the battle scene? Yeah. That's what we do. We want to keep it that way. We want to keep it a sport. Tell me it's not a sport. They make as much money as niggas dunking and hitting home runs. Why wouldn't it be a sport? Because a lot of dudes don't compete. The freshest pitcher isn't a battler, but if another pitcher says he can throw faster, they'll get the speedometer out. If I feel I'm the best and a younger dude wants to try me, I'll let him try to knock me off. What I have is experience and composure. When it's crunch time, he might fold and I've been through that before. A lot of rappers aren't trying to be embarrassed. That rapper can be making millions of dollars, but he still wants to be the best. If a newcomer comes and embarrasses him, in his heart he knows he was embarrassed. What's your best memory of getting somebody? I got a lot of those. I can't even remember. I can't even get into those with this other shit going on. When should we look for your solo album? Probably in September, somewhere around that area. Are you looking for a major or indie? Whatever comes because I'm not really banking on that. I just do it for fun. It has to be right though. A lot of shit comes, but it has to be right. Is that album overdue? Yeah. I feel like a lot of things are overdue, but it has to happen when it happens. I can't press the issue. When it happens, I have to be ready to take it head-on. What do you want to say to everyone? Everybody just hold on, my shit is coming. I'm not holding it back. It's coming. Download Young Zee music at http://youngzeeonline.com

By Brian Kayser

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