Hey, this is Julia Beverley, photojournalists and rap historian. You can catch me on the Bootleg keV podcasts.
It's not the Plan Boutleg cav podcast. We got a special guest in here, Julia Beverley.
I am here.
Welcome, Welcome, a hip hop historian, publisher, photographer, author, what else.
I like it?
Yeah?
Photographer. I really consider myself a photographer, but I have I wear a lot of hats. I do what needs to be done.
I was going to say it's a job done. So you would consider like photography your main like passion would be.
Like yes, Ever since I was probably like ten or eleven, I've just taken a million photos of everything going on in my life, So I kind of carried that over into my once I became a hip hop you know, journalist or whatever, that's still what I love to do.
So you're from er Orlando, Florida, right, I am shout out to the four fun.
Fact I grew up. I spent a couple of years in San Berardino, actually California. Yes for you, so nice?
Was there?
I was like nine years old, rolling the streets in my little bike, you.
Know, dodging meth labs in San Bernardino.
Yeah, I don't think that was a part of my experience back then, but they probably were there.
It's a wild place, man, San Bernardino's wild place.
I've heard that. It's like, you know, going a little downhills.
Yes, but it's hey, we shout out to San Bernardino. Cyrus Is. That's where he represented I went.
I went to school and everything in Orlando, so that's where I came up. Started Ozone Magazine, which is a term for Orlando.
You know, we were trying to be correct or whatever kind of so for people who don't know, because Ozone was kind of I feel like ahead of its time a little. But in a world in which there was so much representation for media outlets on the East Coast, I mean really it was the East Coast driven thing hip hop media as an industry, even though you know, the West Coast didn't really have a I mean, yeah, the West Coast don't really have anything to really represent
them without some sort of East close bias. But Ozone Magazine pops up as a magazine that really championed like a whole new wave that was going on in Southern hip hop. So what was give me kind of the rundown on how ozone was started.
And I'm gonna say it was almost like not an accident. But I never set out to be like, Okay, let me represent you know, Southern rap. I used to read, of course, the Source, double XL all these magazines, and I would see the photos and be like, how do I become that photographer? I was. I was really young, you know, eighteen nineteen, just started got a camera, just
started going to all these events. I remember the first, like one of the very first events I went to was like this radio show John Rules headlining or whatever, and I shot, you know, I'm like broke, like eighteen in Orlando, Yeah, and so shoot the show and go backstage and they had like the whole catering tent and it was like, oh, I can get like free food. That was that was like a big incentive. So I
always joke about that, you know, the industry. Free food in the industry and was like half of the attraction at the time. But so I wanted to shoot for these magazines, so I started like trying to get in contact with them, and you know, being a kid in Orlando and like how do I get in touch with these you know, New York publications. So there was a graphic designer in Orlando called Mert Design is what he
went by. And so he had started this magazine which he actually called it Orlando Source, so he literally just took a little Orlando on the top. And so I had got referred to him for his second issue, and that was he wanted me to come, you know, work with him. The first thing I said was like, I think you probably need a new logo. I don't think take their logo. I think they did actually send a CS and assist at one point, but he changed the logo.
We did that together for about a year, and for me, it was just I had this envisioned in my head that I was gonna, you know, get discovered like Sort or whoever, was gonna be like, oh, this photographer is great, like, let's hire her. And so ultimately what happened like me and him kind of fell out at a certain point or didn't. We weren't seeing eye eye where we wanted to go with it. So I had finished that I
was doing the creative side. He was doing the business side, which is where the conflict came in because he would be like, yeah, they paid. They only paid four hundred for an ad and I would find they paid seven hundred. We were supposed to be splitting the money, you know. Anyway, that's how that all kind of unraveled. But we we had gotten to a point where he said, I'm not going to do this anymore, and I had already finished
the next issue. And so Mercedes was one of our street team people, and she was like, well, why would you stop, Like, why don't you just change the name? I mean, you got you know, everybody, You've got all the advertisers. And so that's kind of where it started from because we did already have a base of like, we had a lot of local companies that would advertise, and so originally, even the early issues of Ozone, it's like Orlando music or Florida Music, which is very heavily
you know, Latino influence. You got a lot of Caribbean influence. So we had a lot of reggae artists, reggae tone like it was kind of everything happening.
Was the first issue. And two who was on the cover Red Dog, Yes.
He's from Orlando, Oh State.
Orlando Hip Hop Encyclopedia goes to uh Caskie what's the guy's name? I will ever with a street Yes, S Miles and South Star. The dude was in jail with the dreasy cut him off. Fuck, I played shit in the club. The song is called pussy n Words.
Wow, that's a new one to me. I mean, like there was there was a lot of groups that had like a couple of records.
Yess in South Star.
Kaya came out of Kaya actually shot her first album cover in our office.
Is Kay from Orlando? She's from Tampa, Okay, That's what I thought. Yeah, yeah, she earned a lot of bridges. Yeah, everybody in Tampa, I know, was just they just have terrible things to say about Kaya, And I'm like Jesus, like I guess.
Well, I put it whoop. I printed all her mugshots in one of our early issues. So she had been arrested like twenty something times, and I just thought it was a great visual. So we printed all the mug shots and I remember, I don't know if it was officially her people, but like somebody ran up on me in the club and was like you know, and then she ended up. I think she put it out as a mixtape cover or something like that.
So you did her favorite that's for sure. Yeah, it's crazy because like, yeah, I mean, she had an iconic record, still was getting sampled and getting Yeah, for sure, I was gonna say, like Florida hip hop in O two oh three, that's like there's really not like right now we think of Florida hip hop and it's just I mean, it's so massive the state has blown up between I mean, we just had like three rappers from Tallahassee alone at the BT Radio.
Well, it just happened to be in the right place at the right time when you had I mean t Pain from Tallahassee, I mean Pibble, Rick Ross floor rider.
Kalid was a.
Big influence when we ultimately ended.
Up doing because he has so much roots in Orlando. Him and Nasty were in Orlando right early on to.
Do or maybe still does. Calid used to do the Temple his birthday bash every year, so every artist you could think of would come out and it would just be like really organic, like you know, Diddy grabs a mic and hands it's you know, kids or whatever, just like this big party. So when we ultimately did the Ozone Awards, I had Cali come do the opening set because that was the like the inspiration was like his his. I was like, just do what you do with your
you know, your birthday back. So we had like Trick Daddy and Pitbull and Ross and uh this is when Ross had the hustling. So I was just there when a lot of them had been bubbling for a while and we're kind of on the precipice of just breaking you know, breaking through. And so when I started interviewing a lot of people, like like a pit Bull would talk about how it was a blessing that he had
never got signed earlier. He was like, well, the New York labels, you know, they ignored me so for so long. It forced me to like build up this fan base. I traveled around, I did all these shows. So, you know, artists today it's almost like it's too easy, Like they could be very young. If they get the right record, then they're.
Immediately they're in the game right away without without a lot of them have.
The history of the struggle traveling, you.
Know, staying in shitty hotels, going to a radio station in the morning to just try to you know, for sure, that's all part of the experience, one hundred percent. So a lot of the.
Artists were experiencing the same thing I had experienced on the journalism side, because I had tried to I mean, I did some stuff here and there, like for The Source and you know, some little freelance stuff, but they're reached a certain point where I was kind of like, oh, like, we're actually onto something here with this magazine. I don't need to try to go work for a New York magazine.
So a lot of artists like pit Bull or PIPC would talk about the same experience they had where they were trying so long to get accepted by New York and it just never happened. And finally they were like, all right, I'll just I'll just do it my own way, make my own.
Did the traditional magazines at the time were they peyton or they did they embrace you? Because at the time, there's like this weird like I don't know, man, there's like The Source really turned into like a weirdo magazine for a little bit. And then you know, obviously Elliott Wilson was running it up, running circles around him at XXL for a sec and you know, it felt like such a competitive space.
I have some funny stories about that. I mean, and so we're moving a little forward, like by this time, you know, two thousand and five ish, like I'm realizing, like there's really some money in this. And I think what showed me too, Like the early issues I might send I'd send like a box to like Montgomery, Alabama or something, and I'd send like four boxes to Miami,
thinking like, oh, Miami's a bigger market. And people in Miami, I mean, they liked it, but they're kind of like they have you know, three radio stations, and they.
Have Miamis, they have boom and city.
Places to go. Like the artists there don't really need a platform, whereas I would get like one hundred calls from Montgomery, all these DJs, artists, people that want to get down. So I started to see there was a market. And you know, the South is full of Tallahassee, Jacksonville, you know, Birmingham. I mean, there's there's so many like sort of mid level markets that just don't have At
that time, they didn't have social media. So if they're there's an artist they're trying to get on, they don't have YouTube to show people what they look like. So you know, they would advertise in the magazine, so I saw that there was a real market. So Elliott Wilson saw him yesterday a couple days ago, so, I mean, we're cool and stuff. But he's always been one to kind of like take shots at different people. So funny
story about him. Well, I remember at one point I would go to New York and I would like drop off magazines places. So I stopped by Double XL one time just to drop off some magazines and he was like the only person in the office. I think it was like eight o'clock in the evening or whatever, and I just remember him he said, Oh, you're not from around here, are you like it? To me, it was like people in New York kind of I don't know if he meant it to be like like I took
it a certain way. I don't know that he meant it that way. But to me, somebody from if I asked somebody where they're from and they say, like Houston or the Bay or LA, like, I kind of have a sense of like where they're from and what kind of you know, environment they're dealing with. And I felt like New Yorker's had this idea like you're either from New York or you're not, and it's one or the other, you know what I mean. That's that's kind of how
I perceived. It was like, Oh, you're not from here, so you're just I don't really care where you're from. I don't know where you're from.
You're just not from here.
So that's kind of how I took it. But later on, like maybe a couple of years down the road, we had never been able to get a distribution deal. Not that I don't know that I put a whole lot of effort into it, but it was always like a street kind of thing.
You're getting printing done and you're.
Everything, load up the van, drive to you know, yeah, because I would see your guys and stuff at like record stores, like small like independent record stores like I think.
I might have saw it at like Tower Records.
We eventually did get a distribution deal, so I had been trying. There's there's really at that time, there might have been like two or three distributors, but there's really only like one big distributor, which is Curtis, And they did you know, double Excel and Source and all that, and I had.
Thought they were the same distributor, so they were. They were distributing both.
They were distributing like any news stand you go to, you know, pretty much goes through Curtis at least from what I recall. And I had, you know, send them copies of the magazine. They sent us like this standard like rejection letter or whatever, and I hired a consultant to try to harass them and try to get us a distribution deal. But I had something about double Excel in my editorial and Elliott responded like he put a little line or something about ozone or whatever, and so
I copied it and sent it. It was always taking shots at you know, the sauce and like all this stuff, but he said something about like go down South with the ozone or like it was something that could be interpreted as like a dispack to us. So I copied it, sent it to the distributor, and I don't know if that was what did it, or the consultant or whatever,
but we got a distribution deal. And so it kind of felt like, you know, if you're distributing this product and they're like, you know, if you're battling with somebody, they're an equal basically. So but the source, I mean, I started, I met bou Rosario pretty early on. He was a music editor or one of the music editors at the Source, and he did the photo galleries in the back. So I started sending him stuff and I would be super excited if I got, like, you know, my little.
Nare getting sometimes in the back of the sourcetography.
I would send them like hundreds of pictures and they might pick, you know, two or three might make it, but I'd be excited about that. And so I met Kim and you know, shout out to Kim when she was she was an editor at that point, she had come down to Miami, I think to shoot Trina or something, and you know, I would kind of throw it out there, like, you guys should hire me to you know, work this out.
I didn't feel like anyone took that super seriously, but they did start giving me like a little assignment here and there. And that's when they were I think starting to fall apart as far as the yeah, on the on the business side, and then also the eminem thing was going on. It was it was a lot happening.
It was a lot happening.
Ben Zino left me the voicemail.
I don't know if you remember that, but I don't what you know, what there's Listen, my brain is so hip hop Friday at this point. Please catch me up because I'm sure.
Oh gosh, I mean, we're skipping a lot, but we're going to go back, all right. The Benzino voicemail, Oh my gosh. Yeah, So I had been I'd been freelancing for the Source like here and there, and I think they owed me it might have been like eighteen hundred dollars or something like that, which to again like I'm young. Yeah, that's I mean, definitely rent in the cardinal like.
That's you know, sure, that's serious chunk of change back especially back then.
Yeah, And so I think it had been it had been maybe like a year, and you know, I had like email the you know, corporate office. Nobody's responding, and I think I didn't have the concept of what was going on there at the time, like they were kind of falling.
Apart, right the house was burning.
My little eighteen hundred or whatever it was was not really a priority. But I ran into Dave somewhere in Miami, and I mean shout out to Dave. He you know, I respect what he did with the.
Source, And yeah, and he's got a.
He's got a break or break.
Yeah, he bounced back him for sure.
Yeah. I mean I always have respect for for David what he accomplished with the Source. But I do think, you know, there was like some missteps in the in the later years. But on this particular occasion, like I had run into him somewhere in Miami, and I think I was feeling myself a little bit because they let me in the club before him, like we both.
You're in Miami.
Well I was at the time like that was like my Like everybody knew me. The doorman was always like her in, you know, and so they let me in. They let us both in, but they let me.
In first, and I was like, okay, check us out.
Yeah, but and I was trying to be respectful. I was like, you know, hey, is there somebody I can contact corporate? Like I've been trying to get this invoice paid And got back and he was like he was like maybe smoking weed or something. He kind of he just kind of blew me off, like, you know, just didn't really answer me, went inside, and so I kind of I was like feeling some kind of way. And so we did this year end issue that was like the year end awards. I mean, I mean we might
have even took that idea from the source. I don't know, but it was supposed to be like humorous awards we were given to people. So the time, the talk around the industry is about how Benzeno is extorting Dave. You know, Iyane's book and and you know heard I think I don't know if Kim's book was out yet, but you know this, this has been out for a while, Like
people who work there have been talking about this. So I've said something about Ben's you know, extorting Dave, and then trying to be like a proper journalist, I said, you know, disclaimer here. They owe me money. That's why I'm talking shit and send it to print. And when you do a magazine, I mean, you write something and by the time it actually reaches the public, it's six
weeks later at least. So six weeks later, I'm just sitting at home at like midnight, and this number I don't know calls me and is like fuck you hangs up, and I'm like, okay, somebody calls back. So's Dave called me the first time. Second call is Benzino and you know, it took me like a minute honestly to even remember. I'm like what did I like, what is this about?
And then I'm like, oh, yeah, I forgot about that thing I wrote, And so Benzino cussed me out for like it was like a ninety minute call.
Like he just he seems like, yeah, he seems like the kind of guy. He has a short time pow to scream a lot for sure. Yeah, because I've seen seen the way just unravels online rather quickly with people.
So I'm like scrambling running around the house like I'm like, I know, I have a recorder here somewhere, like I got to record this, you know.
He's just yeah, going off. Well.
It was kind of funny because it was like very like if you're going to insult somebody and hurt them, there has to be like a little kernel of truth in it. But it was like very He was like, you're just a fat bitch, and I mean I weighed like one hundred and ten pounds or something else, like we are you talking to?
He's like, you you fat blind bitch.
It was just a lot of really generic like stuff you might throw at a female just you know, I'm gonna send this, you know, like an insult.
Board for women. Yeah, like stuarts at it. It was like you're a whore.
But I remember I was on an AOL instant messenger, like.
You know, everybody would get everybody was on it, ever, And.
So I was on the computer after this call and DJ Quest popped up from from Fort Myers and we were just talking. I was like, you won't believe what just.
Happened to me. He's still there too, right, yeah, shout.
Yeah, shout out to Quest. He was always our our Fort Myers connect. But I was like, you won't believe this call I just got. And he's he's like, oh, I wish you had recorded that. I put it on my mixtape. I'm like, yeah, I know. And so I go to the office like a few days later or whatever and check the voicemail and he had actually called there first and left this voicemail. He called me a slut monkey, which I don't even know what that means.
I'm taking that, but uh monkey. Yeah.
So I sent it to I sent it to a Quest. I'm like, here, you go, put it on your mix. He sends it to Tony Neil, who had the cord Tony sends it to everybody, and next I know, like funk Master Flex is calling me. We got to get you on the air to talk about this because I think they.
Had Yeah, yeah, I think everyone had a situation with Benzino in a certain point in time.
Yeah, so it it. It definitely made the rounds because I remember not too long after that, I went overseas with with Trey Songs and we were in like I want to say, Denmark or Sweden or something, and I would always bring magazines give it to the DJ. So I go up to the DJ moth and give the guy a magazine and he didn't even speak English, and he was like, what the monkey like you he knew?
I was so wow.
It wasn't And we did kind of like squash things at a certain point after that. So yeah, I mean it, but it's a great story though.
I was gonna so okay, So the first issues, what was the guy's name, Red Red Dog?
We had smiles and South Stars.
Shout the smiles and South Stars.
I tried to photoshop them large above the city of Orlando.
Yeah, they had they had some jokes. Those guys are Orlando legends for sure. What was the first issue of the magazine that you realized, well, how about this? Was there like a pivotal issue for you guys that really like changed the trajectory of like, oh we could do this for real and get some real money off of this or I'm sure there was a momentum let up to it, But do you remember what that that issue was.
For a couple, I mean we did, and definitely some of the stuff we did was modeled after like the source or just taking ideas from other I mean, there's nothing under the sun, you know, they were they were imitating Rolling Stone basically, but they would do the Power thirty issue. I don't know if this is where I got the idea, honestly, don't remember. But we did a we did a Florida Power issue which Kalid was on the cover with dog Man, who's a promoter from Orlando.
That hit. Dog Man's a character and he was another one that had he had kind of like given me a lot of street game because I'm like this young white girl. I don't write anything, you know, Like him and my original partner, they're like, you know, they're like street hustler dudes, Like they're not like not like illegal stuff. But they're just they're gonna get money anyway possible. And so I learned a lot like just hanging out with them.
But Kalid was on the cover with with dog Man, the first Florida Power issue, and so it put me in a position where I was traveling all around the state to interview like the thirty most powerful people. So I met all these program directors and DJs.
Orlando Davis make the list.
Yes, oh, Tampa Peedie right, Yeah, yeah, I'm almost certain he was on list.
Yeah. What about Chris John d J Christ John.
I don't know if he was around that baby, he might have come. He might have come on the scene like shortly after. I mean definitely nasty and pro style were like you know, made early days. I remember Kalid had come to do the photo shoot and we didn't have like I think we're gonna have him like lifting a weight or something like Florida Power, and we didn't have one, So he was just like posing with like a broomstick or something like that.
Did you guys photoshop the weight in there?
We did, Yes, I was good with the photoshop back in the day. I was just telling somebody this story that was actually pre pre Ozone. I was doing like graphic design stuff, and this guy brought me a pass. He had a pass for a jay Z party, like it was like a Tracing Brady jay Z party, And he said, can you duplicate this because it was like an old school like red paper. Absolutely, so I made like ten for him and made one for myself.
I feel like, if you were good at like if you were good at photoshop back in the day, that was a fucking career like you nowadays, I feel like everyone.
People I still get paid to this day. People ask me to photoshop stuff for them.
It's just crazy though, because I just feel like it was it was almost like making beats. It was so hard back in the day. So it's like now like I could AI could do do a graphic if I really wanted to, Like, it's a lot easier now.
No, so.
Did you because but you got so pivotal issues.
I mean Florida Florida Power was one. We did an issue early on where it was like the sex issue. I might have took that idea from the source.
Who's who's on the cover of that.
I want to say it was JACKIEO.
Chat to JACKIEO.
I think it was Jackie Slide, but we did. We did a groopy confessions column that I don't remember how. Oh no, I do remember how it got started. I'm not gonna put her on blast though, but I happened to know a lot of like a lot of friends of friends would have like little rapper stories and like, hey, tell me the story anonymously. We put it in the magazine, and we did want about jay Z, And there was always a disclaimer like, hey, I wasn't I.
Don't know if this is true.
I can't guarantee that this actually happened, but it was generally people that I kind of like knew through a friend, right to be like somewhat credible. But I think it was the New York Post had picked it up, and you know, you talk about jay Z's sex life. That's like New York headline news. I thought it was great. I'm like, oh, we got all this press.
I was gonna say, like it could have been a better topic. But we always would hear like back in the day, like the source would take money from labels for like ratings, certain stuff. Did you guys ever get paid to do covers or back covers?
Was always for sale?
So the cover was always I.
Never thought that was controversial until like way after the fact people would say that that was controversial somehow the way that I viewed it, and this was Mertz started that I would have never thought to do that. But honestly, the magazine would have never survived if we had the cover. That's what people were willing to were some of the people paid. But at the same time, everyone pay for a.
Cover, everybody. So if the cover was if somebody was on the cover, they kind of check.
I want to say, there was no one who ever was on the cover without paying for it. There may have been one that I'm forgiving, but it was the same as I mean, it's it's a first of all, we were not a newsstand publication, not primarily it was it was a promotional. We gave these ways about tens of yeah for sure. Yeah, so it was kind of like a label doing I mean.
Remember like hundreds and hundreds of pictures of people just holding up O zone.
I mean it's like a label doing it. Labels putting together a marketing campaign. They might they might do a gangster rills with drama, they might do a re least party.
Yeah.
Well in our defense too. It wasn't like just anybody could. There's still had to be like yeah, and then when we did the features, it wasn't It was a little different from the way that the future might be presented in other publications. It was kind of we would generally just do.
A Q and A.
So I'm not putting it out there and saying you're like great, I'm not giving you my opinion. This is the greatest rapper ever's this is what Jesus said. Yeah, it was like a Q and A.
Man. If you guys, if YouTube is a thing back then, would have been crazy some of the I'll bet sure you have some. You probably have so much stuff in the archives, right, just I wish I.
Had videotape more you. I don't have a lot of video I have a ton of ton of audio license. Yeah, I do have some audio. I have a ton of photos. I mean, you've probably seen my stuff on like Unsung Behind the Music or Hip Hop Evolution, like a lot of those documentary series I licensed stuff for. I have a lot of early I'm gonna put out another book with my photography.
It's like, is it just a photo book.
It's a photo book with kind of like stories.
Like little stories cliff notes about where what happened. Absolutely, it's crazy because you mentioned pit Bull earlier, and I remember when Pitbull first came out, he was like rapping, like like he had a song.
I still have old pit Bull records.
Well, he had he had a he had a song with nas that never think got dropped. But it was like on Napster called Imagine. It was like sampling like John Lennon. It was so far. But it's so crazy to see, like I'm guessing they couldn't clear that. I'm assuming not right, But like, did you like being around pit Bull so early? Did you have any inclination that like he would end up being such a worldwide superstar, Like when you google pit well, the dog doesn't even
come up when you google pit Bull. That's funny, he comes up first. It's it's just that's like.
At least he spelled it correctly. That's how famous felt, like Ludacris and fabulous. I can't spell the.
World the rapper. How do you spell Ludacris? Don't?
Yeah, I mean Pitbull was he was always just a hustler, like in certain people. You know when you see that work ethic. You're like, they're I mean, they're gonna make it. And I was a fan of the music. Like I remember hearing him. I was driving over the causeway like four o'clock in the morning, leaving the beach, and he was on the radio freestyle or maybe it was recorded, I don't know, but like welcome to Miami, you know, just a little freestyle, and I was like, this is
where can I find this? Like how could I find this rapper? And as soon as I met him, I was like, yeah, he's you know, he's gonna make it because he's I've told this story before. I was supposed to interview another artist who was I want to say he was signed to Jive, another artist. He just got like a big label deal, and it was like all over the radio, like this is the next big thing for Miami and I'm waiting, waiting, waiting for him to
show up. I think he was. It was like the second time and he just didn't show up, and I was on a deadline and I'm like, what am I going to put in this magazine? I have these pages I got to turn in. And Pitt Bull's manager at the time, Big Teach, was like in the our adjoining office. We were all on this like music industry kind of central office in downtown Miami. And I go over and say, hey, teach, like,
how quick could Pittbull get here? I got to get this, you know, turn into the printer and Pitt was like, oh, I'll be there in ten minutes. And we went downstairs, did a photo shoot on the beach, which incidentally that photo is in the Smithsonian now, which is crazy or it's part of the Smithsonian collection.
Wow.
And we did an interview and sign it to press. And so to me, if you're an artist and you're trying to get.
On, like, that's the added that's the attitude of like you gotta be you know, if you.
Need somebody to come drive a free sell.
Like listen, that just happened. I just had Jadakiss at my table and this kid from Phoenix has an amazing rapper, Americam snuck his way into the BADT media room. So he was telling me how much he I was like, who do you like this? Up with companies? I mean, I just like that real rap. So I like I was like, oh, get macas. So he ran over right now. So I had him the mic and he freestyle for Jadakis and killed it. It was it was dope. Now
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Was like they were even like a little more grimier.
Than they were grimy as fuck. Murder Dog was crazy and it was almost like murder Dog.
But I feel like I was trying to make an effort to be like a little more I don't want to say mainstream, but but yeah, when your magazine called the Murder a little more polished, Yes, I was real serious about the editing, like typos and the presentation of it. I wanted, even if the subject matter was like street and like authentic, I wanted to like look a certain way.
What what was the first Ozone Awards like? And what year? And what year was Okay, so this is four years after the magazine launches in Orlando.
Yeah, I just remember that. Honestly, There's so much I don't remember from those weekends because I did literally did not sleep, like the Ozone Awards, definitely in in Orlando, Definitely in Houston. I'm talking like four days without sleep. You start to hallucinate things like when I woke up the morning after, I remember looking up looking around the room and seeing like wrist bands and stuff, and I really thought it had been a dream. I was like
that we didn't actually like that actually happened. Yet that was a crazy day. I mean, I gotta say that David Banner really saved that show because he was the host and I was in like just it was just so much that happened that weekend, because it wasn't just the awards. We did a four day or maybe it was three days at that time. We teamed up with TJ's DJs.
Which was s TJ. Chapman.
Shout out to TJ. And I couldn't have pulled that out without him. I mean, he had a lot more in terms of structure, and he had staff and voluntary I've always been for better or worse, like I do everything myself. I'm not really great at delegating stuff. She did from right, he's from Tallahowsee. Yeah, And that first weekend, like we had basically we had paid for this whole hotel, and they told us back then like, oh, we're going to be doing some renovations or whatever, but it'll be
done by the timer event comes around. They literally brought a bulldozer in the lobby of the hotel three days before the Ozone awards, and it was the whole lobby was gone, like they had took out the escalator. It was dirt. And so I got a call from one of our staff like three days before the awards, I think you should come see the hotel where we're having
our event in three days. It was just so much that it was just so much that went wrong that weekend, to the point where by the time the awards come around, I'm like, how are we gonna pull this off? You know? And I'm like, just it was just so much going on. Back then, I had a BlackBerry, and like you know, the the messages were coming in so fast. I was getting like the next day, I got a message from Ludicrous manager like we're at the airport. Where is the car?
Like I'm getting messages from the day before, Like that's how crazy it was. And I performed the first year literally everybody just every remember being backstage and all the pictures from that Night's funny because I'm in like a white T shirt because I never even had time to like change in anything, and I hadn't slept, so I'm just like all over the place. But I was kind of freaking out backstage. Like then the guy who was supposed to prepare our video packages, like the nominees are.
It's assuring me like, oh yeah, it's great, it's coming along. He just disappeared, so he had no video presentation. So I'm freaking out, Like the day of the event, and Banner was the host, and he kind of like grabbed me and corralled me like in a corner somewhere, and he was just like, you gotta get it together because if if you look like everything's fine, people are gonna think everything's fine. If you look like everything's fucked up, people are gonna be like what am I doing here?
So I, you know, held it together. He hosted it with and Trina as well. David Banner and Trina hosted the first show. So I had asked Kalid to do the opening sets, so Calid brought. I mean everybody you know with frosted hustling actually applies opened the show and nobody in the industry knew who Plies was. But he was like the hottest thing in the streets in Florida, Like it just dropped.
From four Myers, right, he.
Is from fours Yeah, And I remember like Pimpsey asking me about him after the show, like yo, you know, I get his mixhaping his number, so we helped him out a lot with that. That was like a big look for him. Wow Supplies performed, Rick Ross Cool and Dre came out, Trick Daddy, Pitbull, t Payne uh and then we had like Young Jock, Pimsey and Bunbee for the first time since Pimpa got out. Geez came out on stage with him. But honestly, Wayne was supposed to
be the headliner. Like Wayne performed last, but people thought it was over after Bunn. They were like, we can't talk. Ludacris performed. I think he was filming. I think it's on his MTV diary.
We had.
I mean I got texts afterwards. I think, uh, well, Bunn was there, but I think I think Little John didn't make the show, but he was texting me afterwards, and like Bunn was texting me like I can't believe you or no. Bun Bun got up and accepted their award and he was like, honestly, I didn't know if I was gonna come to this thing, basically, like I thought it was gonna be just I'm glad. I mean it was. It was hood like it wasn't it wasn't
polished at all. But he was like, you know, this is this is for the South, Like I'm glad we came. And you know, people were texting me like you know you like to get a text from Little John like wow, I heard that what you pulled off was amazing, Like I can't can't really top that. So that was a crazy time.
And how many awards shows did you guys?
Do? Three?
Three of them? And then so kind of take me to what ends up?
I learned that I hated organizing events.
Yeah, live events are tough, especially with so many varia. It's different to do like a concert and there's one guy performing, but the variables that are involved in pulling together travel idea.
That when you know they do the BET Awards and they do the Source of Awards, they have production companies that do this for.
You were the production company.
I was the production company, and I would never put myself through that.
Oh I can imagine it because you're talking all the managers Miami.
I had Wayne on this phone, management arguing with the security didn't want to let him in with his bags or whatever. I had Gezy here with one hundred I need one hundred tickets because he's beefing with PIMPC. It was just.
About the GZ Pimps thing. I remember that.
Wow, Pimpse did not come to the Ozone Awards because of that. Somebody wise talked him out of coming because he was texting me like you're gonna have blood on the floor, and it was. I did write about it in the book, but I'm glad that that. Uh, I'm glad that that was resolved with no no bloodshed. But yes, I had a seven d page book on PIMPC. Does touch on these fun times with the Ozone Awards.
I was gonna ask you what was because we always we know about the legendary Source Award drama and I mean BT Award drama. And was there ever anything that popped off?
Oh yeah, what was not to the not to the Source Awards level. But well, that first year when we had all the Miami artists, all the Florida artists perform, Trick was the final performance, and I think there was something I don't know, something with him and Ross or whatever, but he's so he ended his set like there's you know, I'm the Uh, there's only one mayor in Miami and
all are my protege is or whatever. He threw the mic down, and so that was they had like a little something backstage or whatever.
Ross has had some some something's backstage with a few people. So that was that the worst that it ever got where there was like an altercation because look, when you have everyone under the same roof and it's like you said, you're the production company, so this is not like MTV, and there's like like you're handling everything. So like, well, Houston was the craziest.
We had the fire marshal trying to shut us down and the riot police like they had them wind up outside.
Who was attending at the same time. Where you were most worried about with Houston.
Well, I wasn't. I wouldn't say that I was worried. It was just a lot going on. But Trey and Trey punched Mike Jones. I didn't actually see it and.
Trade the truth punch Mike Jones at this Ozona a warts.
And then Mike's came up. I mean, to his credit, Mike still came up and did whatever presentation he was supposed to do with the little band aid or whatever in his face. So I don't really know what that was about. I'm not sure what they were.
That's a professional.
I'm not sure what the issue was, but I remember respect him for that.
You know, Hey, that was that so, I mean Houston had their their their moment, they had their Swisher House.
It was the right time to do in Houston. Well, we did the Pimpsy tribute too, so we had all these artists come out and do Pimpsy covers at that show.
You know, I got to ask you because obviously you were so close with PIMPC. You obviously wrote his book if like you said, seven hundred pages. If you ever want to know anything about PIMC.
It's in there.
Well, like like how many phones did he have? Because I had always heard this dude was like very into cell phones, like he had like a lot of phones or it was like something like he just like, you know, I don't I.
Don't remember him having more than one. I remember that he I mean, yeah, he really liked he had like the flip phone. Right, Like I did a photo shoot with him when he had first got out of prison. I think he really wanted to. I think his mom talked about this. I remember his mom talking about how he really wanted a razor, like that was the thing. When he was locked up, he wanted a motorola razor.
Yeah yeah, yeah yeah.
So when he got out, they had the motorola for him, and so he wanted to do a photo shoot with it. Actually, well, what happened was I had been corresponding with him. I interviewed him while he was in prison, and so I hear that he's getting out, and I'm like, should I go? You know what I mean? And I didn't really have a I think it's like a week out. So I'm like, I don't really have any way to reach him, and
be like, do you want me to be there? Because you know some artists coming out of prison, I'm like, do they want the media there? They want their family. And so I think I had called Bun and Bun was like very like noncommittal, like didn't really give me an answer one way or the other. So I'm like, I mean, I'm always one. I'm just going to go for it, you know, And I said, well, I'll go and I'll just hang back. If he doesn't want to take pictures, I just wasted a trip. It is what
it is. But he did let me take pictures and but then he kind of called me a few days later and was kind of like, that's not how I want to be presented. You know, he'd just come out of prison. He wants he wants the car and the jewelry and the photo. So he's like, come back to Houston,
we'll do a photo shoot. So he had got the Bentley at that point, he got all the jewelry, he's got the razor, and so he's posing with the phone like every shot he's got the you know, the phone out hanging out the car with the phone in his hand, like so that's a great and this is this is a good story too. This was or I don't know, it's kind of a bad story. I did this whole photo shoot with him at a video shoot in Miami.
It was R Kelly, R Kelly T Pain R Kelly video shoot, and we did this whole shoot with him with the mink and it was supposed to go to Vibe magazine. And I had sent Vibe like one picture like a little small low here's what we got today. Drive to Atlanta, go to the TI release party, leave all my luggage in the car like a rookie, come back out of the club and.
It's everything's gone.
Photo shoots just disappeared. So all I have is the one little picture that I emailed the Vibe. So that's how I had an artist crazy photo shot that would have been amazing.
How sweaty was he in Miami wearing that? Because I had heard that's a great question. I heard a quote that he said that, uh that that uh TV don't got temperature.
Yeah, or maybe it came somewhere else first, but I'm sure he had. He had to have been pretty hot. I don't know.
Yeah, it's crazy because you've obviously, I mean, you know, for you, like, you know, being able to kind of tell like the Pimp Sea story in a way that is very comprehensive, very thorough. Do you kind of look at yourself as like somebody who is like a historian of hip hop at this point because you were there for so much of an era that I think, like
now we look back, I don't you know. I always tell people like, especially in sports, I'm like, you don't realize like what we're watching or what we're a part of, or what we're seeing on TV, Like you don't know about like you're not gonna appreciate Lebron until ten years from now when he's gone, you know, And I feel like that era of Southern hip hop and everybody who came out of that who's still relevant? Who are still I mean you've mentioned Rick Ross and Chezy and all
these people were just still staples of our culture. Like, but you were like in the just front row of the rented, like really the beginning of all of this stuff. So do you kind of like I'm glad I was there?
Yeah, I do consider myself a historian. I mean not honestly, not just for hip hop, but just I'm into history period, right. I really look at not only our time period, but just you know, I have all kinds of weird theories about like even just how we live, like our lifestyles, Like people did not always live this way like we live. I mean, you know, I've been on some other like I'm off adventuring like hiking. It just makes you think about different you know, people didn't always live like this.
We don't really need like these big houses and cars and stuff. Like there's people who have been satisfied.
I dive down so many van life YouTube rabbit holes where I'm just like interested in seeing how people live in a van.
So I live in a van.
Did you know that?
Do you? Yes?
You van life?
I mean half half. I'm like, I'm like fifty percent and sometimes I'm like, Okay, I gotta go to the BT Wars weekend and do the interviews and stuff. But yeah, I just I've just spent a week in Yosemite in my van. Is it a van or it's not a Sprinner, it's a pro Master. It's a cheaper sprinner. Sprinter's out of my bro.
So your van is because okay, I'm into this because I've watched so many YouTube So you have like solar panels.
I thought you brought that up because you knew that I had no idea. So this is what happened. I mean, I've always been in traveling, but like twenty twenty, I had all these trips, but like I had planned.
The whole year out right.
So I went to Cape Town January twenty twenty. You go to Cape Town. I forget where I went in February, somewhere else. March. I go to Argentina, Chili. I was in Chili when COVID happened. I mean it kind of when I flew out of the US. It was like you kind of.
Heard heard about China.
So I'm in the middle of nowhere, like you could only get serviced like once a day. So like every day I'm getting like a few texts and my friends are like, uh, things are getting canceled. You probably should come home.
Yeah, Like I don't know if you're going to get back in.
That's really what happened. So I was on one of the last flights back to Atlanta before they shut everything down. I got back to the airport and the airport is completely empty, and I'm like, what is.
Going Like this is different, the craziest.
Drive on the freeway, like no one's cars. I'm like, so abruptly, I'm like, my whole year is just I got to cancel everything, Like what's what's gonna happen? So I'm just bored watching down this rabbit hole for like two weeks of YouTube videos, and I'm like, you know what I could do that bought a cargo van. I'm like, Okay, now I'm committed. Now I got to build this thing. So I build a camper van.
During So in your van, do you have like the uh little sink and little like you could in there, and.
I learned so much. I mean I could. I feel like I could really build a house. Now maybe I couldn't, but yeah, I have to. I have solar panels, I have a whole desk, I have satellite internet.
Do you have the shower? Do you have this?
Yeah?
Starlink? Yeah, the starlink work.
I'm not really elon fan. Yes, the starlink works. It does not work if there's trees. You have to have a clear, clear, clear view of the horizon.
Wow.
And last year it didn't work past a certain I went to the Arctic Ocean last year and it didn't work past a certain.
How do you get to the Arctic Ocean?
I drove to the Arctic Ocean.
Where is that?
It's at the very top of the continent, so you had to get I sent my brother like Canada thing like, look at where I am.
So it's like the top of Canada. Yes, what it's.
Called tuck twy tuck. There's only one place you can drive to the Architic Ocean, and it's this little Indian well, I don't want to say Indian. They call the first nation in Canada Native American Canadians and it's called a hamlet, so they don't call it a city. But it was very interesting place. I met some like like some little girls came out. We're talking to me.
You have a pet? No, okay, because you know you'll see these guys online they always got a little dog with them.
Now I've considered it. You know, dogs are not really welcome at all the parks because they tend to tear up the ecosystem, is what. They're very destructive to the ecosystem, is what I've been told. So I don't really want.
So you're you're you're a nomad.
Absolutely yes. So it took me a year and a half to build the vand so I mean and by this time, like the world the sort of started to return to people. And now I'm like, now I have liked job. I have to finish. It was a lot of work. I can imagine you watch the YouTube videos and you're like, okay, cool with that.
Those YouTube videos make it seem so easy. Absolutely do Yeah, you'd be like, damn, this guy did this in four hours or something like.
It's a lot of work. But I think probably, I mean, the first one is the hardest because you're like, there's a little curve with everything.
But so you love it. Yeah, so you love it. So you're pretty much for you on a normal basis when like you're in town for BT Awards, right, that just happened right for you.
Though, like now I do not do the van in cities. I will say that I'm not I'm not in the van in l A. I mean, if you're in a van in l A, you are just homeless. If you're in a van, and if you're in a van in scis,
San Francisco, you're homeless, homeless. If you're in now now, if you're in but you're if you're in like the desert in Utah, or if you're at the art Gosan, then you're fucking cool because you I spent the night at the edge of the Arctic Osan watching the northern lights, cook myself dinner and took a shower in the van that I built. That's peak, Like.
That's amazing. I wasn'tnna ask you.
Like doto, So where's wait, where's the.
Where does the van stay?
Her name is Carmen van Diego.
By the way, she's she where does she stay?
She's a nomad, so she like because you're.
Obviously at home base for you used to the south? Is it Atlanta?
Atlanta? Yeah?
So does the van just you got a spot like little.
No, that's a terrible drive to I keep it out anywhere out west.
I found an airport with So do you have do you have an apartment?
But I have a house?
Okay, so you have a house.
I'm not I'm not totally down the rabbit hole.
Wow. Yeah, that's pretty sick. So you've seen some pretty uh.
But you know what, I don't know how much longer I keep it though, because it's it's ten thing to just be like, yeah, let me.
Just well because you could probably sell that thing for a serious amount of change because people people would rather not do what you well, you know, people really aren't.
No, I'm talking about the house. If I was gonna sell anything else, who the house.
I mean, it's not a bad idea. It's not a bad idea. Yeah, I'm intrigued by the van.
No it is. I mean, it is nice to have a a place to go back to that's permanent for sure.
For sure, keep some things, But I think I could do the van life full time.
I really was like dedicated to it.
But you have to have seen some crazy ship though, just traveling the country.
Let me think what I mean, going to the Arctic Ocean was definitely.
Has anyone tried to break in?
Come on, now, don't don't bring that up.
I don't know. I don't know. You're at a truck stop.
It's like I said, I will not go to I won't go to San Francisco, I won't go to l A. I'll leave it somewhere else and fly to the city. I don't. I don't do the big city.
That's pretty cool.
So I mean, so far I've I've I'm not gonna say I haven't had any crazy experiences. But yeah, it's that's the that's so. That's the two questions men asked about the van. Where's your weapon? Have you had sex in the van?
Those?
Those are the two questions.
Do you have a weapon in there?
I'm not going to answer you.
Bet.
I did get it cool. I saw a cool front plate that this guy had that said if the van is rocking, don't come knocking. So I got one just because I thought.
It's a long drive.
It depends on where you're starting from, obviously, but the road, it's it's an eighteen hour dirt washboard road. It's terrible, terrible girl, that's once you. Yeah, you're all the way
in northern Yukon. So the crazy thing is I almost got stuck there, Like, well I did get stuck there, but there's one road, only one way up and down, and so I was driving up and it's it's beautiful, like it's the scenery is amazing, but it's and it's quiet, but it's not quiet to the point where you could just stop your car and get out of the car. And it's also you can't leave the road because it's permafrost.
So the road is like specially designed so if you if you pull this heavy van off the road, you're gonna just sink into the ground because it's it's permafrost, So you can't leave the road. You can't really get out of the car. So I'm like this whole eighteen hours, I'm like I wish I could. I haven't got my camera. I drone. I'm like, this is fucking beautiful, Like I.
Can't even get out.
Yeah, so I get up there. It was it was amazing when I I sixty degrees a swim in the Arctic Ocean, like I said, like, how was that? It really wasn't as cold as you would think as I thought it would be. I just swam in it just to.
Be like I did. I came all this way, I might as well get in.
Spent the night, saw the northern lights. It's incredible of there because you're so far north, they're.
Like above you, right.
So I just was like this all night, just watching the lights or whatever. So next day I started driving back down and there's there's also like ferry crossings. It's something about they can't support the bridges because of the permafrost or whatever, so you have to say ferries at certain points. So I'm on the ferry and the guy in the ferry is like, hey, did you hear the bridges closed? And I'm like no, He's like, yeah, the
bridge is closed. So there's a bridge halfway. So it's like a mile or hour nine of this eighteen hour journey, and I guess there was a construction happening. This guy had his boom up on the construction truck and he hit the bridge. So the Canadian government or whatever puts out this alert. That's like and you don't have service up there because the starlink didn't didn't work up there
at that point. I think it does now, but there's there was like one spot where I could get a signal, and so I, you know, get to this one spot that's like a higher point or whatever and check online and it says bridges closed for thirty days and I'm like, uh yeah, I kind of can't really hang out in the I'm above the Arctic circle like it's and it's like September, so I'm like it turns, you know, really fast, it gets cold, and so I'm like freaking out, like.
Definitely freaked out.
There was like twenty maybe like twenty of us in RVs and stuff that were above the art circle, so it was interesting. It was like a throwback to like the old days where you didn't have social media and stuff like that. So you if you see anyone driving like, hey,
have you heard anything? Like, because it's it's there is a small town, so it's not like you're just totally but you know, they get their supplies from down there too, so they're like, how are we gonna get Yeah, how are we going to get food?
That's crazy.
So it ended up being so three days later they had to have like engineers come up from the big city and you know, white Horse or whatever, and they analyzed like safe. So we ended up getting to cross three days later. They had all these engineers out there and they're like one at a time and they did all these calculations on the bridge was you know, sturdy or not. So for three days it was Labor Day weekend, actually, so Labor Day weekend, and it finally dawned. I mean,
I'm like, this is my fucking dream. Like what I'm mad about this? Like, I get this whole area to myself.
Right, No, it's yeah.
So I got the drone out. I'm like driving everywhere.
That's fine.
I know it makes me sound like a nerd because most people will be like not into this, but I thought it was fucking awesome. So I got to spend my Labor Day weekend driving around the Arctic with my cameras and my drone took all these cool pictures and then they were like, go ahead, you can go home.
I like that.
That was probably my best van life adventure yet.
You obviously have a very close relationship with Jay Prince, who is you know, you know, listen, he's a pioneer. We talk about Pioneers. He kind of kicked off so much for so much of just everything we see now we think about wrap a lot records, and he kind of laid the blueprint on how to do this label thing for a lot of people. You helped him with his book, Like, how did you and him end up becoming a point to where he could kind of confide in you and trust to kind of help help with his story.
I mean, I've known Jay for a long time. I mean definitely like two thousand and five ish when I started going out to Houston pretty heavy. This is when you know PIMPC was coming out of prison and he was doing a lot I think rap a lot was through asylum at that point.
Yeah, yeah, because that's.
Asylum would send us a lot of work because they had.
They had all the Southern Ship.
Yeah, they had a lot of Texas artists were really having their moment, and that was one thing I kind of went into the history of that in the book. This ended up being just more more than just PIMPC was kind of Southern rap in general. Actually, what happened was that south West Wholesale, which they started distributing rap because of UGK, was like the first album that they
actually distributed. It wasn't something they did before, and it showed them this could be a really profitable business model. So for all that time between I want to say early nineties and two thousand and five, all these Texas artists had access to Southwest Wholesale, which was selling like hundreds of thousands of units without them being signed to
a major. So you know, the slim thugs, you know, all these guys had access to a distribution outlet where they can make a lot of money and not have to go through a major. Certain things transpired, and honestly, it's been eight years since I wrote this, so I don't remember all the specifics, but it's in the book as far as on the business end, how Southwest fell apart, they went out of business or I think they just
went bankrupt. And so at that point, that's why all the Houston artists started to get signed around two thousand and five, because now they didn't have a distribute, so they had to go get deals, and that's why you saw this explosion.
Of art Star Trek and then right right, everybody, I feel like asylum really.
Yeah yeah, but yeah, so I got to spend a lot of time with Jay around that time, just being in Houston. I mean, if you're in Houston, like you kind of have to you know, he's he's a part of everything out there. So but to his uh, to his credit definitely, I mean he would always kind of take me under his wing and just you know, not he's not someone who's gonna, you know, I want to say, give you like a lot of instruction, but it's more like he'll just kind of let you watch the way
that he handles situations. And I'm that's how I like to learn anyway, like just just I just like to observe. So he would allow me to kind of be around for a lot of business type situations and just kind of observe how he handles it. And so I learned a lot that way. And I don't know for a fact, you know, if this was a factor in him putting out his book. But I did a chapter on j Prince in Books and it's I probably went like a
little left field with it. I mean I definitely put a lot of extra context, but I just felt like it was a great story and it also helps you understand what was happening at the time when Pimpsey got arrested. It was I believe it was nine days earlier. There was a congressional hearing, or maybe it was the Senate. I don't remember. There were large government hearings about rap a lot because there was a huge, like de a investigation.
They were determined to find and they couldn't find anything, and.
They were following them. And I mean, I remember he told he told a pretty crazy story that Joe Rogan. I was just like, yeah, it's pretty crazy.
Yeah, yeah. The Senate is part of Congress, right, I should know this clear.
No Congress, Congress of the Senate are different. That's a part. They're the part of the judicial branch.
But yeah, you're right, the Senate hearing would be it was a congressional Senate hearing. I think I'm saying that there's there's like a three hundred I don't know, it's like a three four hundred page transcript of that hearing is like the craziest thing I have ever found on the internet. And I read it all like this is fucking amazing. I have to make this a chapter. But when you understand, you know Pimpsy at that time, he's beefing with master P. He's running around talking a lot
of shit. He's wearing a rap a lot peace. And the DEA has been investing, like they spent who knows how much money. They had all these agents on full time payroll for like a whole summer trying to find something on. So they're investing a lot of money, the federal government, the Houston Police, they're investing a lot into
trying to find something on this company. And so Pimpsy is representing this company well, and he and so he got in an altercation with a woman at a mall and all he did was allegedly like flashed a pistol at her because she's she said something about master P. Oh, I don't fuck with you, I fuck with Master P. And he showed her he had a pistol. In Texas, that's aggravated assault.
Really, he never touched her.
She wasn't injured.
It feels like she was a booster. It feels like a not a non Texas thing to be aggrevated. I feel like in Texas, you know what I mean, I feel like, you know, I feel like in Texas day they'll they'll give you a tax break if you flash your Yeah. Well, now it is that back then. It wasn't for sure.
Back then, well, he just had he had really terrible timing. When you look at you know, what was happening in the criminal justice system, mass incarceration. The DA is investigating rap a Lot, So it helps you understand how he ended up in prison over this relatively you know, minor situation. But I say all that to say, you know, my book came out and then Jay, I believe, had done a draft of his book with Jasmine Waters, and so I think it it may have prompted him. You know, hey, if I don't tell.
My story, you know it's somebody else. Somebody else is going to tell it and tell your own story. Yeah, you got to control your narrative.
So when I talk to him, I mean the whole you know, rap a Lot from the beginning has always been about doing an independent same as Ozone. So he obviously he in a position where he could get a publishing deal and you know, get a check to just put it out through somebody else. And I said, well, you know that doesn't really fit your you know, the
rap a Lot spirit, that's the way. So I had learned a lot about the distribution side doing my own book, nobody wanted to give me a publishing deal for pimp C. Everybody in New York publishers are like, who what pimp? So I put it out myself, learned a lot, and so I basically helped him create a publishing arm book Publishing Arm of rap a lot to put out the book independently. So yeah, that was a great. Uh. We had a great run doing doing promo and stuff for that. We came and did your show.
Yep, yep. I was gonna say, is it because because I.
Think when it did the Daily Show that was the highlight for me.
I was wanted to go to Trevor. Was it John Stewart? Yeah, shout out to Trevor. I love Trevor. Noah, I don't know who's gonna do it now.
Actually it was BT Awards weekend. We that was a crazy weekend.
We did twentiesen T Awards.
After party eighteen twenty eighteen. Yeah, I think that was the year I climbed over the fence to get to Jamie Fox's house. Might have been the year. Maybe it was a year. Yeah, I had to get into the after party. Any means, I'm gonna hop this fence over and then went to the airport to fly to New York to do the Daily Show.
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get a month's supply for free. Let's get back to the interviews with Like, So now we see J Prince, he'll get on social media now, right, I.
Gotta say that was he didn't want to have an Instagram. I set up his Instagram, so you.
Said him up, he's into it, because now he's into it. Now he'll be on there.
He'll be he'll be I don't know if that's I don't know if that's him personally, but he'll.
Be by the pool, he'll be. You know, I love when J. Prince throws his like you know, he'll he'll put his little like he'd be wise if you you stood down, you can read in his voice, right, like
what he just said about the NBA young boy. I was like, I just hear it, hear him speaking like I'll read the caption in his voice, as I say, what would in your opinion be or not even in your opinion, but as you know him, something that you think is the biggest misconception about J Prince Because I feel like when I met him, he just seemed like such a nice guy. And I feel like when we think of J. Prince, we think of this like figure that you got to go to Texas, you got to
check out with J Prince or his son. But I feel like there's a whole side of him that not a lot of people probably see.
That's a good question. I mean, I mean, he's he's a very smart, you know, really really smart guy, knows how to maneuver, and yeah, I don't he's not a big you know, boogeyman or anything to me. I mean, I guess if you listen to internet commenters, that might be the that might be the perception.
But I mean he he also was I mean, I want to say, one of Floyd Mayweather's first managers. So he's like, yeah, he's he's he's got got.
His hands in a lot a lot of stuff. Definitely very savvy businessman and uh yeah he's been good to me.
Shot to J Prince, what ended up leading to Ozone magazine ending.
The recession?
Uh so like eight o nine?
Was we stopped in twenty ten? And yeah, I mean it was it was really just budget label budgets not really being what they were making sense anymore? Right, Yeah, people, a lot of labels otis money. And I think I for me personally, I think I probably was over it a while before that. I mean for me to have I did it for eight plus years, For me to do anything for eight years is like a lot a lot. Yeah, I tend to want to just get on to the next.
What was the last issue? And was it was it? Was it marketed as the last issue?
No, I want to say it was ross, but.
You didn't did you know it was going to be the last issue? Or was it?
Like?
No, yeah, all that guys, that's it guys.
I was pushing to keep it going. But yeah, I mean there was there was a certain point where definitely, like the label budgets just kind of dried.
Up, right, And that was kind of such a lifeline for your business?
Was I think I was? I was intending, I mean I tried to do like some TV stuff, and I was intending to kind of spin it into something else. As far as the brand and then that At that point I started traveling a lot overseas. I went on tour with flow Rider. We went to like every continent you know.
For me, yeah, it energy bags.
I was telling somebody recently about like one of the places we went, like Malaysia. Like you'd go to some country you've never heard of before and they would have like five police escorts lined up to take us to the hotel and there'd be like the hotel staff I'll be there with like warm rags and champagne to welcome you,
like a line. It was like next level stuff, and I think for me it really showed me like at that point I was probably still trying to like keep the magazine alive, but it was like I can't really to produce a whole magazine every month, Like you are married to that, Like that.
Is right, and you want to see the world, you want to have life experiences. Yeah, I want to go. You know.
We went swimming in the Great Barrier Reef Australian, So it kind of opened up for me. It opened up a lot more like, oh, I can actually have time to like do stuff besides just editing twenty four to seven. So yeah, I feel like social media for me, it allows me to do a lot of the things I was doing with Ozone without having to pay a printer every month. You know, I always wanted my work to be seen like photography and just kind of have a voice.
So it was good times. It served its purpose then, and then also social media came along, and I think once artists could put their own platform, have a platform to like express themselves the way they wanted to. You know, that's kind of the purpose that.
Of a magazine. Hey, I want to go do this interview because I need to. I need to really need us correct. Yeah, correct the narrative and yeah, now they can just they're like overexposed now they use they're overexposed for sure. Have you considered doing like a podcast or anything like that in terms of like, as you know, you have so many stories you could tell, You have so much you could talk about, you have so many relationships.
A lot of things that I'm working. I am doing a podcast, not about myself necessarily.
But they told us a little bit about that.
Scripted podcast series. I can't can't quite that put out there just yet, but coming soon I will have a photography book out at some point, tell some of my good hip hop stories.
I love it.
I do have some good stories. You've got some good stuff out of me. Yeah, you felt like I've done a van Life podcast Van Life. I know, we do tour from there.
Do a YouTube channel, the Van Life thing. There's I mean, listen, I know there's a lot of Van Life YouTube channels, but that ship is interesting.
You would have time.
It's just I just like, oh, fan life Van Life.
Department has been suggested before you.
I saw some guy turned a coup and some guy I'm just like my algorithm on YouTube is like lived in a corvette for thirty days. And there's like a guy who put a sink in the passenger seat of his corvette and like lives in the back seat. No, it's not even a Corvette, it's Camaro. And then like the trunk, the back seats I cut out, so he like lays half his body in the truck.
It's I mean, I've been working on the podcast in the you know, in the van. I love that I could like I could go, you know, hype some mountain in the morning and then actually get some work.
Done, yeah, and not have to Yeah, and you're kind of not distracted. You can focus. I love it. Well, Look, Julia Beverly, we appreciate you coming through. Thanks for having me look forward to the book and everything else you're working on. Thank you for coming boom. He appreciate y'all watching another interview brought to you by our good folks
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If you're watching this, you're at the end of the interview. Though, much love