J-Banks

G-Unit is definitely 50 Cent's ship, but after taking a look at the newly-expanded roster that includes everyone from vets like Mobb Deep and Mase to newcomers like Hot Rod, there's no question of which member of the crew receives the most respect. After migrating from Juvenile's camp to join G-Unit, Young Buck established himself as more than the group's interim Yayo replacement with standout verses on the group's Beg For Mercy album and a whopper debut album, Straight Outta Cashville. With his smokey Nashville drawl, tough as nails lyrics and slew of cameos alongside the south's elite, Buck stood out from his fellow G-Unit soldiers so much that enemies of the group would attempt to disclude him from their beefs.
While Buck is still riding for 50 and co., he's preparing his own takeover with a star-studded sophomore LP and his own label. In part one of a must-read interview with HHDX, Young Buck talks about naysayers' accusations of G-Unit's downfall, standing out from the rest of the crew and more.

HHDX: Tell me about the new album.
Young Buck: It speaks for itself, well the title do: Buck The World. With this record, I ain't hold nothing back nothin, I ain't got no limits with it, and I worked with key producers to add to that sound. Dr. Dre produced like three of em, Eminem produced something, Hi-Tek produced something, Lil Jon produced something, DJ Pod produced something, Timbaland produced something, everybody. Feature-wise, you gon get records like me, T.I., Young Jeezy and Pimp C on something together; me, Snoop and Trick Daddy together; me, Bun B, 8Ball and MJG together; me and Lyfe. So I've got a lot of features and things, but what I did was put my features together so I could make a lot of room for my own solo work, too. It's one of them records where real honestly, man, I can compare it to Dr. Dre's Chronic, 'cause this shit is one of those albums that's a legendary album, and I feel like this is an album that's going to be here for a minute.

HHDX: How do you think you've changed and developed as an MC since your last album?
Young Buck: I'm a mothafucka that's hands-on with the streets. You take the streets away from the world, and there's no more Young Buck. I'm breeded from this. I keep my fuel going, and make my music advance based off of the reality of life that I go through. I make my music based on reality; that's the only way mothafuckas are going to feel what you're saying through your music is if they can pull something out of these verses you put out, and say, “I'm going through that, I know somebody who's going through that, I don't want to go through it.” All my music is real life shit. It lasts longer; no disrespect to none of the people of the snap era, but dances get old. You aren't going to see anybody doing the MC Hammer typewriter today, but you can find somebody listening to 2Pac's “Keep Ya Head Up” or “Brenda's Got A Baby,” and it's still very relevant for today, and it's 10 or 11 years old. I've always leaned toward that side of the music, more than the party side; even though you get that from me, the majority of what you're going to get is real-life shit. Just being out here, being a part of these streets gives me plenty of shit to write about. Just constantly working, my work ethic is a little bit different from the average nigga. I stay working, so I always grow. I reinvent myself as an artist, but stay myself as a person.

HHDX: Your preference is pretty clear, but you can still pull off party tracks. How difficult is it to make those types of songs for you, when they don't seem like your type of thing?
Young Buck: It's not difficult, because at the end of the day, every record that I do is all me. Even when you get to my party records, if you listen to the lyrical content, it's never on no booty-shaking shit. You may get a party-feeling record just because of the track itself, but when you pay attention to the lyrical content of the record, and it's pretty much not going to be straight dedicated to that shit. I'm the type of person, I change with the music. I know just one wave of music, or that street shit isn't going to reach every audience that I'm trying to get to. I just make my music and keep that same composure as a street nigga, but I'm versatile to make that shit to get it over to the other people who may not really catch that street crowd, but they get a chance to learn about it through Buck by jumping on their level with that type of music. It's a challenge for me to do it like that, 'cause like you say homeboy, my shit is strictly street. But I'm growing as an artist, I don't think nobody wants to continually hear the same type of shit.

HHDX: With G-Unit's last two projects not going platinum, people are saying that the group is beginning its fall. How are you guys ensuring staying power?
Young Buck: At the end of the day, we aren't making nothing to acknowledge that. We're just continuously doing us. The negative energy is what we use to fuel the fire, but we don't pay no attention to it, because all them is downward statements. Speaking on Tony Yayo and Mobb Deep's last projects, people are feeling like, “Oh shit, the Unit may be looking like they're about to fall,” because they're so used to getting success from the Unit, but they forget that a gold album is more success than half of the rap game is seeing itself. Our standards are set so high with the millions that 50 sells and the millions that me and Banks (1st album) sold, so when you have a person come in and do a gold album, you're like, “Oh shit.” But at the end of the day, they're good, and that's money. That gives you enough foundation to be able to put out another record. With Yayo, he came out, and two weeks later 50 dropped, so that's always a conflict. Mobb Deep, I don't really understand why they didn't do the numbers I was expecting them to do, because I feel that that was one of the best albums that Mobb Deep has put together, period.

Outside of that, it's just about hustling whatever material you have. I push, I pray until something happens. And at the end of the day, I don't make my music based on record sales. I make my music just to make good fucking music, 'cause I eat from the streets nigga, straight up. And however you take that—I do the business game in the streets, I've got a couple clothing stores, and other shit. My total focus in fucking with this rap shit is to be the best artist in the game, and I know the money comes with that. My whole focus is just about getting good with what I'm doing, I know the money will come along. Up until then, I'm straight—as long as I keep ten co's down these streets, I'ma be all right regardless. It's these hip-hop mothafuckas that's outside, these industry mothafuckas that twist the game up, because that's all they know, is the industry. If you ask me, striaght up, in the rap industry, the people behind the scenes are the problem more than the people who are involved in the peoples' eyes. Most of the time, they're doing what they're told to do. So if you want to get to the source, you have to go behind the scenes of the rap industry to start fixing shit.

HHDX: G-Unit has artists in different areas now, but you were the first artist to sign to the group that wasn't from NY. How difficult was it for you to establish your own style, while still keeping with the group's general themes?
Young Buck: In the beginning and coming around, people thought I was a fill-in for Yayo, (because) I came around when homeboy's incarceration came about. Mothafuckas didn't understand the struggle that I had been through to get to where I was at, they were pretty much judging on what they had perceived off the time—which I had no problem with, I just knew had to stick to doing me. My natural character of myself is totally different than from whom I was surrounded by, and who I'm still surrounded by. I'm automatically going to stand out. With my whole flow thing, you're going to get the southern slang with me being from (Tennessee), and then the lyrical side; you put that shit together, and I don't even know what the fuck to call it. That's what keeps me going.

Check out part two when Buck talks about beef, how Jay-Z switched up his hustle and G-Unit South....

HHDX: A lot of people have beef with G-Unit, but many of them attempt to exclude you from the beefs, saying you're the realest one out of the group. Where does that respect come from?
Young Buck: [laughs] I hear that all the time. Honestly, I'm out of this one, I don't really know what to tell you. You can see me—I deal with more outside artists than the artists in my camp. You may catch me doing records with Three 6, Lil Scrappy, in a Monica video. I move around more outside of the Unit than the other artists, so other people get a chance to know me and a chance to see me, and they can make their judgment from what they see and know before (assumptions are made).

Bottom line, to get all the way to it, a lot of mothafuckas know the other side that comes along. I'll get left out of that shit, because it's like death. A lot of shit comes along with me outside; when a nigga do beef, my shit's more real life, it's bigger than just jumping on a record and saying, “Fuck Buck.” At the end of the day, I'm a hands-on person. Even with all this shit—this Game shit, this Dre shit, this Fat Joe shit, all that shit—I play a part in it and give my loyalty to my crew and can't let a nigga start my Unit. But even that's outside of my character, because I'm more of a mothafucka who don't even play the game; I'm a mothafucka who sees you on the streets if there's a problem, and we'll handle it from there.

That's why with this record, I didn't even fuck with that old beef shit. That old, “Fuck Game, fuck Jada, fuck Joe,” you aren't going to get none of that shit out of my album. You're just going to get good fuckin' music, some real life real shit. Whatever beef issues that's supposed to be with me or with the Unit, I feel like I might address them on some more up close and personal shit outside of music. ... All our beef shit was based on real situations, from when it popped off with Ja to when it ended when when we was fucking with The Game, to when it got to Fat Joe and all that extra shit. All that shit was real life, but then it gets to the point where everybody starts jumping on this shit, where it's like, “I don't even know this nigga, but fuck Buck, fuck Banks.” Niggas don't even know niggas, you see what I'm saying?

I choose to say fuck that shit, I ain't gonna do it. ... I'ma tell you something that you and I both know: If I'm going back and forth on these records, if you know I've got beef with another nigga, then the police know. I've got to focus on staying away from that gang, because when shit happens as far as people getting taken out of here for good, my name is on the fuckin' list, they come see Buck. I try to stay away from that shit, cuz. Just trying to do it the gangsta way, because hip-hop don't need that shit no more. I keep telling them at the end of the day, they'll see how it's going to be. I'ma pull niggas cards and see if a nigga's real or not, because if I chose to say, “OK, I'm not dissing this nigga and saying nothing to these niggas,” and you're still getting that same different energy from a so-called nigga that's got beef with the unit, I'm sure there would be ways of handling that shit. It just won't be no fuckin' rap shit for me no more. If shit gets out of hand, it's like OK, let's get to this shit for real. If it ain't no beef, let's get to the money. If it is, let's handle this shit outside of this and still get to the money, and play the game the way real street niggas do and keep it in the streets. That's the way it should have been but it got off...I wasn't the controller of it then. But now, it's like, I'ma step my foot in the shit, let you know my point of view the way I feel about it, and it is what it is.

HHDX: You also have your own label, and you have a role with G-Unit South. What do you do with each?
Young Buck: G-Unit South was a movement. I wanted to name my shit G-Unit South Records, but Interscope still owns the brand G-Unit. So for me taking my company and going to take my deal to Def Jam or Atlantic or Warner Bros. or something like that, it would cause conflict of labels, and I didn't want to go through that. So I started Cashville Records. Cashville Records is my label, I'm the CEO, and G-Unit South is the movement, we have that to get you focused, to get you to pay attention to what I'm doing. My artists are Lil Murda, D-Tay, and a cat by the name of Hi-C—them and myself form the group 615, which is the area code of my city. I'm in negotiations with C-Bo from the West Coast, it's looking like I'm probably going to sign him to my label. So homeboy, I'm moving. I'm in the middle of a bidding war with the labels and shit, trying to figure out which way I'ma go with that, but you can expect to hear some shit from me in the near future on that end.

HHDX: How do you like the executive roles so far?
Young Buck: I feel good in giving mothafuckas opportunity, whether it's from my city or other mothafuckas the opportunity to have a shot to get their talent out to see if the people are really going to like it. I can think of artists who are hot, but just to build a lane and have an opportunity, it feels good to provide that. Coming from the pit, I was always a mothafucka who, in order to be a good ass chief, I was a good ass fuckin' Indian for a long time. So to put the fuckin' feather in my hat, hell yeah it feels good, partna. But at the end of the day, it's a job. I want the best for my artists. I'm not really built for just what money can do, because I come with the hustle myself. I believe in fuckin' with mothafuckas from the heart, not the hand. If they've got their heart involved around you, then they'll work from the heart. They don't work from the hand, that means they're working for the pocket—and the minute the pocket ain't there, they stop working. I like to make a mothafucka feel me first, and then get down with me. I be hands-on with anything that comes around me with my label. If you sign to Cashville Records, you're going to be a part of a family. We won't just be from a business viewpoint. We won't do business like that, because I don't do business like that.

HHDX: I've been reading up, and you've done some charity work lately. In the vein of you giving back, can you remember any instances when you were growing up where you benefitted from those types of situations, or when you met a rapper or celeb that had a notable impact on your life?
Young Buck: Yeah, you're damn right: Jay-Z. I ain't ever had a chance to tell this nigga this shit, but he came through my city years ago, when I was a young nigga and I was putting it down in the streets real, real heavy. They were doing the Roc the Mic tour, the first one, I think...nah, the Hard Knock Life tour. They came to my city, I was in the club, I had a million niggas with “T.I.P Records” on, which stood for Totally Independent Productions. Homeboy didn't know who I was, but I guess he seen how niggas took to a young nigga and shit. He called me over there in the middle of his circle, and he's like, "I started Roc-a-fella by a bunch of my niggas together, my whole crew would wear T-shirts. Just keep doing what you doing, my nigga, and I'ma see you on top.” He would've had no idea that I am who I am today, and I see him to this day, and I done had a chance to be around Jigga like that at certain times, and I just don't say nothin. I don't know if he remembers, I doubt if he would remember, but he played a hell of an impact. I left that day like, “This nigga done pulled me out of all these people and said that.” That was like a little fuel for me, like, this shit can really happen. I was in the streets, trying to independently hustle that shit. At the time, it cost me $300 to press up 1,000 CDs, I sell them shits for $10 a piece. You do the math! I was slowing down from selling dope, from selling myself, and he caught me in that era. That shit was good bro, it gave a nigga more fuel.

Source-hiphopdx

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JBanksblog.com - check it out
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TheCzar

props.......

NEWSKULL

Nice Fucking Read.....

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DAVID BROWN CLOTHING

YoungRome

good read. props

markforlife

real good read ima hit the rep up

Hakaroodi

propz man GET UM BUCK..!!

I didn't know he met Jay like that time back...

QBTrueG

Buck doin' the damn thing! G-UniOn mayne

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[04:56PM] OFFiCiAL JAE ROCK - ima print her pic. off...n when im drivin down there..ima beat off to it multiple times..so i can be ready when i sling her ass to tha ground...n ram my monster insider her butt hole....
[04:56PM] OFFiCiAL JAE ROCK - oh yea nigga...u done fucked up

HarlemzFynest

I Didnt Read It But Propzz Anyway

STooF

didn't knwo Hova had an impact like that on Buck!!!!

gemma

i like that person