CONCRETE Magazine - Nashville #38 by CONCRETE Magazine

6-8 ......................... Jelly Roll 12 ........................ C.O. Cakes 14 ........................Whip Game 18 ..................... DVD Reviews 20 ................... Music Reviews 22 .......................... DJ C-Dub 24 .......... Producer: Ducko McFli 26 ............... Cream Of the Crop 28 ................... Monteon Jones 30 ................ The Nashville 10s

HAPPY HOLIDAYS & BEST WISHES

FOR 2011

Published by: CONCRETE Marketing Ad Executives: Bryan Deese, Capo Art Director: Rex2 Photography: Tavell Brown Editorial Support: Capo Intern: Kinard Agim

CONCRETE Magazine PO Box 239, Madison, TN 37116

615-860-6006

concretebryan@gmail.com ÂŠ CONCRETE Magazine 2010

CONCRETE: How did you link with Lil Wyte and Wyte Music? JellyRoll: We were working on Deal or No Deal Deal. It was a mixtape. We figured we were going to use it to launch the website (jellyrollmusic.com) and stuff. That was earlier this year. I talked to Wyte. I got hooked up with Wyte through Citizen Flip, our DJ out of Jackson (Tenn.). Wyte was like, “I want to cut a song with you. Let’s just do a song.” We cut two records. The second record we cut was “Pop Another Pill.” So that just automatically threw us into it. He knew it was a big record when we cut it. That’s really how we started meshing. (We) got the paper work together. And that was it. CONCRETE: You signed with Wyte Music? JellyRoll: I signed with Wyte Music, but we can say now it’s Wyte Music/Hypnotize Minds. CONCRETE: How did the situation go from just Wyte Music to also include Hypnotize Minds? JellyRoll: Juicy J called Wyte as the “Pop Another Pill” video got big and said, “Hey this Jelly Roll guy, we want to work with him. Let’s work something out and do a partnership.” That was months and months ago, but we could never really figure out how that was going to work. Then Juicy called and said, “Me and Project Pat, under the DBI brand, just signed a kid out of Indianapolis, BPz. Before we work on anyone’s next solo album we want you, Wyte and BPz to do a group album. Project Pat wants to call the group SNO, and me and Paul are going to produce it.” That’s how Hypnotize Minds came in. They wanted to work with me out the gate, but I think that’s what made it make sense for everybody was the group album first. CONCRETE: What’s the details on the SNO album? JellyRoll: Project Pat had an artist out of Indianapolis and of course me and Lil Wyte. The album, let me say first, is fucking crazy. Unbelievable! They brought the guns out. I knew it was serious when I walked in this studio. I figured it would be one of those Paul sent a few tracks, Juicy sent a few tracks, that’s it. But dude, they had a full band in there. Billy Wes was in there playing keys. He’s got guitars, almost live everything. Paul and Juicy produced the whole album. continued on pg 10

Lil Lody, that just produced “The Summer’s Mine” by Rick Ross and the new Bugatti Boyz, Rick Ross and P-Diddy, he was in there. He did a lot of production. It’s just crazy. I don’t know which song they’re going to release first, because the album is just that full. I’m hoping they release a record called “Black on Black” with Lil Reno. Either that or a record called “Come Here White Girl” produced by Lil Lody. That’s what I’m hoping for, but I’m not even sure if those two even made the record. That’s how big the record is. We literally slept on the couch in the studio for five days and cut probably thirty or fourty records. CONCRETE: You’ve been on the solo grind also with a mixtape and DVD coming soon. What are those projects? JellyRoll: That’s what I want to talk about. Gambling on a Whiteboy, Volume 4, I think we have a late January release right before SNO comes out. It’s going to be a full length DVD with a full length soundtrack to it with Project Pat, DJ Paul the whole Hypnotize Minds camp. We got a few other people we’re reaching out to. It’s a big record. It’s got a lot of local production on it. The local producers in Nashville really came out for me on this one. Fate sent a track. Bar None stepped up with some tracks. Wee Wee sent in a beat. Coop has been coming through nightly sending tracks. Cell Sizzle sent in a track. I think it’s going to be big for me and my career. Now that I’m attached to this group, I have to work at still building the Jelly Roll brand. It’s also beautiful to hear the JellyRoll story, that’s in there. All the crazy stuff I’ve been catching on the road, all the fights, all the girls, is on there. It’s just kind of a then ‘til now. I think it’s just cool to get to tell my story. A lot of people have seen it in Nashville. Or a lot of people missed it and heard about it, from the Outer Limits battles and (CONCRETE) interviewing me on Gambling on a White Boy 1 years ago. A lot of things I really wanted to show people was what it has been. There’s been a lot of late nights, a lot of couch sleeping, a lot of prison time through my career. I want to show that. I don’t want to hide from it. I just want to be as open as I can, so we’re doing the DVD to help.

CONCRETE: Your new album is titled Cake-A-Nometry. Can you give us an idea of what this album is all about? C.O.Cakes: I dropped Caked Up March (2009) and a lot of people said it sounded like an album. It was a real solid project. It hit every angle. So I got that under my belt. The Cake-A-Nometry is more like a go hard mixtape. You’re going to hear tracks with no hooks, just taking off, going ham. I smashed a couple of the industry tracks. At the same time, it’s got the go hard singles. I got one called “Running to the Money” on some street single shit. “Money to Be Made” featuring Bohagon is an off the wall single. I got one called “Gucci Everything” that’s really my first commercial single that I put together. It’s got ridiculous potential. The Cake-A-Nometry is going to be more go hard, showing my lyrical talent. I’m really raising the bar for these independent artists out here. As far as the catchy hooks and dancing and all that, y’all can have that. But as far as spitting and just coming out the gate hard, I got that. That’s what I’m showing people. I’m separating myself from all these artists down here, and not just my city but the South period. It’s a ridiculous lyrical mixtape. CONCRETE: Your first single “Get Em” is very lyrical. What was the process in writing that? C.O.Cakes: That was one of them that I didn’t sit down and take a lot of time. Writing that was just sitting down and freestyling with a pen. Just taking off, not giving a fuck. It sounded like what it needed to sound like. I knew when I wrote it, it wasn’t going to be a put together single like catchy snap and dance hook. Just sit down with the pen, wrote the whole song in like twenty minutes, then flipped to the next page and worked on the next one. I meant for it to be a lyrical, go hard song like that, but I didn’t expect it to get the buzz that it got off of it. It’s a go hard track, but I really did it like that on purpose. Just sat down and went in on it. CONCRETE: When did you drop that video on World Star? C.O.Cakes: I released it the first week of November. That’s when I actually dropped the video. I uploaded it on my youtube account. I really haven’t had the time to push like we did with “I Got Money” and the “Sounds Good” video to go super-hard and working the copy and pasting. Really everything that it’s got is attention it’s drawn to itself. It was only out four days and World Star contacted me, and was like, “We seen the video. You’re putting on for a major way for Cashville. We like the whole look. Send us the link, give us consent and we’ll put it up.” And I hadn’t even really did nothing with it. Here recently I been hitting it on facebook, cause I just finally got my facebook started. The whole 7,000 views it drew itself and word of mouth.

‘89 Chevy Caprice Classic, 24” Limited Rims, Purple

Ike Atkinson Kingpin: In His Own Words

This documentary is a one-on-one interview with a guy that looks more like your grandfather than the drug kingpin he is. Enter Ike Atkinson, leader of the North Carolina Mob, the largest African American drug ring in U.S. history to that point. He’s the guy that put Frank Lucas (American American Gangster Gangster) on. Ike’s nickname “Sargeant Smack” stemmed from him being the leader of a renegade band of Army soldiers that were shipping kilos of heroin to America from Vietnam/Tialand in dead soldiers’ cofﬁns. During the late ‘60s early ‘70s, the North Carolina Mob brought in over $400 million worth or heroin. Most of the documentary is a current day interview with Ike, but there is also some news footage from the time of his arrest and a lot of old photos that verify his story. A lot of the time Ike disses Frank Lucas, saying he was the informant that brought the organization down. Ike also rebuffs most of Frank’s account as told in American Gangster Gangster, mainly that he was the boss and supplied Lucas. And that it was his connect in Thailand and Frank never met the actual heroin lords of east Asia. Ike was a gambler turned hustler. He was a military man, but ran his crew without violence. Sit down and listen to grandpa tell his tale, it’s a wild trip.

Devil’s Candy

This is the tangled story of Corey, Devil (played by Scarface) and Rock. By the time the movie ends your head is spinning and there’s very little resolution, just a lot of dead people. Corey is a sandwich delivery guy who meets the drug boss Devil on a food run. From that chance encounter Corey becomes a dealer in Devil’s organization. Devil has an enforcer named Rock, who owes some Italians serious money. Eventually Rock betrays Devil and takes a contract to kill him. During the hit Corey was with Devil and was also shot but not killed. After his near death experience Corey decides to leave the game, and turn informant on Rock. And that’s when it really gets crazy. Crooked cops, severed arms, electrocution, shootings, robbings and more take place. It’s a crazy cocktail of guns and greed. Ultimately the guy with the chopped off arm takes over! This is a locally produced ﬁlm, and is worthy of the city’s support.

Fluid Outrage - H2O=> H2O=>^LIFE

Fluid Outrage is back with another street classic. H2O=>^Life is ﬁlled with strong sample tracks that Fluid Outrage delivers his life story over. The song “Crabs In A Bucket “ talks on the haters Fluid faces on a daily bases from snitches,cops to jack boys Flu paints a vivid picture over a raw beat. “Show you how to Trap” Is a hand book on how to start getting your paper and how to stay getting your paper. “Live Fast Die Young” Fluid Outrage gives you a classic record with a motivational hook that anybody hustling trying to get by battling the struggles of everyday life can relate to.This is us a must have underground album with this one.

Best of Cashville Rap: The Mixtape

Bestcashvillerap.com has put together a three disc mixtape that features some of the hottest artist the city has to offer. With songs from Young Buck, JellyRoll, Lil Murder, BlackCatﬁsh , Stix Izza, Bezzeled Gang, Chad Armes, Finesse Da Boss, Fate Eastwood, Young Struggle, C.O. Cakes and Rehab just to name a few. The three discs cover everything from R&B to Trap music and even a few club bangers. If you want to hear what the Nashville urban underground music scene sounds like than you need to check it out.

Vonex - Still Do Me, Vol. 1

This young cat representing Inglewood goes hard on his sophomore mix. He teams with DJ Don Cannon who always brings a hype attitude. Vonex glides across the beats like he’s snow skiing. His nonchalant ﬂow is apparent on the tracks “Still Do Me,” “Get Dat Dough,” “Been Had Swag” and “How I Stunt.” Vonex has something for the shorties on “Alright Wit Me.” He really shows out on the banger “What It Do” produced by DJ Dev. And, your boy makes his own tracks. That includes the sample driven gem “Blue Is My World” an ode to his favorite color (No, he ain’t crippin’). You need some Vonex in your life.

Mouchee Deeki - Fa True

Welcome back to the future. Mouchee Deeki’s abstract delivery is a throwback to the ‘90s (think Aceyalone/Freestyle Fellowship), as are the pro-Black and non-violence messages that permeate throughout. Still, he spits it all with a Southern accent and dialect. He brings a modern approach to conscious rap. Most beats are minimal, with hypnotic synth sounds. “DWB” (Driving While Black) featuring Aphropik, is a raw look at the racial proﬁling tactics used by police. “What’s the Problem” featuring Rashad the Poet is a ‘grown man conversation’ aimed at young, black men. While “Second Line” is an homage to and celebration of Louisiana and its rich traditions. It’s obvious rap is a labor of love for Mouchee Deeki.

Young Chris Da Captin - Complex Occupation

Young Chris Tha Captain delivers on his newest project Complex Occupation. Starting the mixtape off with “Mango Tango” a up tempo track where Young Chris gets the party started. “Body Art” is a catchy track talking bout being tatted up from head to toe. “All Out” shows Young Chris’ versatility. With his slick delivery and dope boy lyrics, Complex Occupation is twenty-two songs worth checking out.

CONCRETE: Your on the radio. How do people tune in? C-Dub: I’m on 92Q which is the contemporary urban, ac channel, with old school and r&b. You can go to 92QNashville.com and click on “On Air Personnel” and you’ll see DJ C-Dub on there. CONCRETE: When are you on air? C-Dub: I do a mixshow that’s on the radio every Monday from 12-1pm, Central Time. CONCRETE: Do you have a regular club gig? C-Dub: I just locked down Bentley’s House of Soul. I’ll be doing happy hour there on Fridays. I try not to keep a consistent thing going, because I try to be versatile. Whether I’m doing something for the kids, or doing something for the grown folks, for the grown and sexy, for the college crowd, birthday parties, personal parties, house parties, etc. that makes me a better overall, all around DJ. CONCRETE: Do you have any new mixtapes? C-Dub: Yes. I call myself DJ C-Dub The Knockout King. The series and different volumes I have I call “Rounds” to go along with the boxing thing. I’m currently working on T.K.O. Round 10. I’m going to get Young Buck to host that. He just dropped his mixtape called Back on My Buck Sh*t, Part 2. We’re going to throw some tracks on there, help him get his new music out there to the city and U.S. Just blast it and go hard with it. CONCRETE: What new marketing ideas do you have for 2011? C-Dub: I started with the stickers, and everyone was like, “C-Dub, I see your stickers.” Then when they hear me on the radio they can get the connection. I have the website, djcdub.com,there’s photos, bio, everything about me. My new amrketing thing is “Who’s the D.J.?” The idea behind that is, you go to the club, you have a good time. You just want to know ‘who’s the DJ?’ The DJ has an input on the reaction of the crowd, and how people have a good time. If you don’t know who the DJ is, how can you follow them to different venues? A lot of people here in Nashville just go to the venue, because of the name, whether it be Out Of Bounds or La Paz, but they don’t go to enjoy the music. You should go for the name of the DJ and who’s providing the entertainment. Or you can go to a venue and the DJ may be wack. And you say to yourself, ‘whenever I see his name on a ﬂier I’m not going. I’m not spending $40-50 to get in here and not know who the DJ is.” I just got tired of people coming up to me like, “Hey DJ. Can you play my song.” “No. What is my name?” Who is the DJ? I want you to know. I am DJ C-Dub.

CONCRETE: You just signed a production deal. Can you tell us about it? Ducko: Earlier this year, me and my partner Syk Sense entered in a beat battle competition that Coko and Old Head were throwing called the Soundtrack Beat Battle. We got through placing that and went to the championship round. The judges there were Bryan Michael Cox, Boi-1-Da, and Street Symphony. I been a fan of Boi-1-Da for a minute. I had been a fan since his recent emergence. I didn’t even realize ha had done beats for Kardinal Official, 50 Cent and Dre called “Set It Off.” When that came out that was my joint. We were just excited to get to play beats for those type of people. So we did the beat battle. Unfortunately we lost in the last round. But Boi-1-Da was one of the judges who really took to us after the battle, talked to us a little bit. We gave him contacts and everything. He actually hit us up that night. He was like, “Hey can y’all send me some beats? Y’all got a good reputation.” So I talked to him for like a week or so. Just sent things back and forth. He was like, “I want to sign y’all. I think y’all can do some good stuff. I like y’all a lot.” He opened it all up with, one of the beats we had played in the beat battle we had sent in the very first thing, some how got in the hands of Akon. He’s supposedly writing to it right now. That’s kind of what kicked the whole deal off. He wasn’t going to let that kind of money go by without scooping us up first. It’s just exciting. CONCRETE: How did you and Syk Sense link up? Ducko: I’ve known him for a good six years. I met him right before his son was born around when mine was born. Back when I was full time rapping and kind of making beats, one of his cousins was like, “Man, my cousin makes these dope ass beats. Y’all should hook up.” We got together and just started making beats and hanging out and stuff.He ended up being up one the people that’s gone through all the stages with me. CONCRETE: Any last words for our readers? Ducko: Shout out to my partner Syk Sense. That’s really the source of my whole thing. If you ask me why I’m so diverse and why I do what I do, everything I do stems from what he does. That dude is a beast. Twitter, Facebook, everything in the world /duckomcfli. Search me on twitter, facebook, g-mail, if you want to work with me, I’m real open. Chancelor Warhol. Please print this, Levi Harris, who supported 98% of my music last year, and really helped me. I don’t think I’d be where I’m at right now if it wasn’t for him. I’ve had a lot of management, a lot of people that supported me, but he was the first dude to really support ME the artist and not my talent and try to change it into what he wanted. He was actually there for what we went through. Levi Harris is the biggest shout-out.

CONCRETE: Where are you guys from originally? B-Op: I’m from Baltimore, Maryland. K-Rush: Oak Grove,Kentucky. 2-7-0. Karect: Same here, Oak Grove, Kentucky baby. 2-7-0, you already know what it is. CONCRETE: How did you guys link up? K-Rush: This (points to B-Op) is my cousin and this (points to Karect) is my brother. Fam all the way. CONCRETE: What was the moment when you decided, this is the moment in time to link up and go for it? K-Rush: I got out of the Navy in 2009. I came here to just stay in Nashville. Our parents live up here. They were in Western Kentucky. So they were in Bowling Green, but (B-Op) went to Baltimore. So I ﬂew him back down here. I been around the world. We been doing shows everywhere, Japan, Mississippi, all that. I was like, ‘I’m ready to get the team back together,’ and just go strong. Cause I’ve been out there and I’ve seen who we going up against and they missing something out there. They need this out there. We got together in 2010, and just went hard, strong. We dropped the ﬁrst mixtape, We Goin’ In. The single “Celly” came out which we shot the video for the beginning of 2010. P. Noble came down from Chicago and directed the video. We had Clint Campbell on the hook. He’s from here. He’s a guitar player. CONCRETE: Did you perform music from your mixtape at the U.M.C.? K-Rush: No not at all. We Goin’ In was a mixtape. We just threw some stuff on there. U.M.C. we did original. Mixtapes for us is beats we sample and put something on there.

“Celly” was on the mixtape, but that was just promoting the single. “My Angel” and “Fairy Tale Lover” are two songs that are not even out yet that are original songs. They’re r&b songs which we have Donell on the hook. Karect: Shout out to the “Fairy Tell Lover” our producer. K-Rush: We got K.D. on there from North Carolina. He did his thing on that. We came with the r&b songs this time. It was all new material. They had never really heard it before.

CONCRETE: Did you write the script for Devil’s Candy Candy? M. Jones: Yes, I wrote the script. The script got rewritten. Originally it was written by me and my two brothers. That was like 2007. It didn’t got that well, so I just rewrote the script,got the shots and put it together. CONCRETE: How did you get Scarface involved in the film? M. Jones: I made the connection, cause he’s a person like anyone. He was actually happy the movie, cause he felt that people had passed him over on films. He was seeing a lot of the younger rappers in films. So he told me personally, ‘Scarface, I’m a legend.’ That’s the attitude he had, but a humble guy. So he was thrilled about it. CONCRETE: When did you shoot the movie? M. Jones: It took a while. It took longer than expected, because I was going through some trials in my life. So I stopped and started the project. I’d say about four years ago I was shooting on this movie and then I stopped. Then I started back. So I was just now getting it finished back in March. I started it four years ago, but I finished it up two years later. CONCRETE: This is an independent film, so what were all your titles? M. Jones: Well the producer is my brother Danny Dunlap. I directed, wrote it, did the cinematography, along with color correction, sound. I did everything else associated with the film except for act and produce. There’s so many different names for grips, etc. I bypassed all that. That’s why it took me so long. I got the attitude of just do it. CONCRETE: You got major distribution. How did you get distribution? M. Jones: The distribution came from a friend. My first film (On The Grind) I went through the same distributor that Boosie and Webbie Grind went through to get their deal. (My contact) ended up going to another company, and just by me knowing him I hooked up with him. He solicited it to Trans-World, which is the company that solicits to FYE, Best Buy and different stores like that. You can’t go as an individual to these places without doing like a million dollars a year. So now you can go to BestBuy.com, FYE.com and buy it. You can get it everywhere except Wal-Mart. And I’m working on Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart, see they’ll sell Arnorld Schwarzenegger all day. But me being independent, they wouldn’t even want to put that on the shelf with the gun. As long as it’s a major (studio) then it’s no problem. CONCRETE: Any last words for our readers? M. Jones: Keep your head up. You can make a 360˚ like me. You can turn around.

728

photo by Tavell Brown - Brown Photography, make-up by Sherry “FancyFace” Waller