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what-the-fuck-the-world · 7 years

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An Interview With Drug Money USA

By Adam Roye Artwork by Matthew Bellosi Photos by AR and DMUSA

*from scumrag #1 (nov. 2016)

Drug (ar)

NAME / AGE / ORIGIN ? If you see me in Atlanta, you're going to hear choruses of people calling me "Drug," but my God given name is Charlie. I'm in my late twenties and I'm from Texas. I miss it there.

WHERE ARE YOU BASED NOW ? I live in St. Louis (for ascetic reasons). I make the Atlanta trip a couple times a month, but I've lived there for longer durations too, like 6 months at a time. For a while, I lived down there in this huge house with Yakki (formerly Yakki Divioshi), who is one of my favorite rappers of all time. Lil Silk was in the building of course too. Lotto Savage. Shout out to Guccio & Yayo Gang in St. Louis. Free Twank Banks. Geek Monster Gang. Keep your eyes peeled for the Mansion documentary shot by me and edited by Silk himself. A very piped up inside look into the life. I was always, always filming, whatever we were doing.

Yakki (dmusa)

HOW’S YOUR DAY GOING ? Man, honestly, it was a stressed out, kinda shitty day. A lot of them are like that it seems, but I'm so, so proud of what I'm doing that I can't help but think it's worth it. I feel like I'm helping ensure that some very singular, important art comes to fruition. And at the end of the day, I couldn't live with myself not doing this. It's really taken over a lot of my life, but I think that this is the role I was supposed to fill.

*note: I'm having a better day as I'm coming back to finish these questions. They aren't all bad. I have to remind myself sometimes.

CARE TO BREIFLY DESCRIBE YOUR HISTORY / INVOLVEMENT WITH MUSIC, BANDS, SHOWS, ETC ? I've definitely been involved in music for a long time. I grew up in the hardcore scene in Houston. I'll always have love for that place and those people. All of my dogs in Austin too, of course. I released the Total Abuse demo on Drug Money Records and I've gone on tour with them almost every time they've ever toured. Rusty and I go way back. I collect records pretty hard, or I used to and now I mostly just enjoy what I have, because I'm so busy with everything else. I was always into rap, which isn't that special of a fact or anything, especially in Houston. My friend Masoud was an OG coach of mine back like way back on Houston rap. You could still buy the tapes from the old Screwed Up Records & Tapes location on Cullen then. I'll never forget that he advised me on picking up Dancin' Candy, P's n Q's, and maybe another one. I wonder where all those tapes went. He also tipped me off on K-Rino way back when. So because of Masoud, I was corresponding with K-Rino in high school. And I should mention too that there was a band from Houston called Eyeagainst and they touted Aquemini super hard. that was probably my first really serious dance with Atlanta rap. I was awed.

HOW DO YOU DEFINE DMUSA... ? ANY LABELS YOU WOULD PLACE ON IT, MAYBE TO DESCRIBE TO SOMEONE WHO IS COMPLETELY CLUELESS ? Good question. I would say that I'm involved with all levels of making rap music. The range of shit I have to do really has no limits. I release singles on my YouTube channel (and some on Soundcloud too), and now I'm releasing mixtapes. I connect the rapper and producer, arrange for the studio time to go down, and help conduct the goings on. I shoot videos and take photos of the process and life in Atlanta constantly. I set shows up in Atlanta and St. Louis when I can, and DJ, and make cassettes of my mixes (titles available from WTFTW and 6/27 Tapes). I get a lot of help from my friends. It's really refreshing to work with my dear friend Brodinski, because he has the same tireless drive to make this shit happen that I have, and really shares my vision more than anyone else I know. We are on the same page to a pretty wild degree. The projects I work on with him bring me great joy and make me feel like I'm not totally losing my mind. He's a true kindred spirit and I really value him. Total master of his craft, too. But yeah, bottom line, I would say Drug Money USA's central mission is making rap happen the right way.

HOW DID DRUG MONEY START, AND HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE EVOLUTION TO NOW (IF ANY) ? Really, I would say that it started off with a man named Stebo, who is a mover and shaker behind the scenes. I debuted a few of his tracks. I debuted a couple serious heaters from him at the beginning that really gave me some momentum. After that, I just started making more and more connections. Early on, I was getting joints from some guys I knew from their music and early affiliation with Young Thug, like Yung Zoo, YL Stunna (one of my favorite rappers of all time, also on Thug's ICFN2), and Justin Hunter (then Raymond Reedy). I'd do all this work for their own songs, so guys like Zoo would float me their songs with Thugger as exclusives too. Free Zoo. Joints from Papertrail 550, who is the fucking man, some of those featuring Casino and Bloody Jay and the Black Migo Gang. I was just connecting the dots between all the music I loved and making lasting friendships along the way. And these songs I was getting were (and remain) among some of my favorite rap music being made, so I was like, I guess I really have to do this, like, all the time. I had been working on this stuff for a couple of years before I started spending real deal time in Atlanta, and I didn't exactly know how it was going to translate when I showed up in person. But I went down there and had a place to lay my head, thanks to Guccio, living with some of the most vibrant talents in Atlanta in Yakki and Silk and company, and I got a call from Bloody Jay the night I arrived in town. We had a talk that brought a tear down my cheek within seconds, I kid you not. That is an incredible man. Free Bloody Jay. He's one of my favorite rappers ever. Of all time. And just an indomitable creative spirit. He's going to rule the world with words when he gets out. We need his voice right now, especially now. But anyway, Jay and I link up that night, which was surreal and a real dream for me (as well as a whole story unto itself), and around 5 AM, I get back to the house, where Yakki teases me for going to sleep because there was still something to be smoked. And that first night set the tone for my time in Atlanta that continues to this day. There's been hard times and losses and frenzied, really stressed out moments, but I've kept my head up the entire time, ever forging ahead. Now I have more songs to release and more work to contend with and more projects to work away on than I could have ever imagined. It really evolved into a scene unto itself. I'm working with all the people I want to work with. I'm helping make the music I would otherwise be clamoring for, so it's really a dream.

YOUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL HAS 40K+ SUBSCRIBERS, ARE YOU SUPER RICH NOW ? I'll go to bat for my people and zealously advocate for the artists I work with, but I'm not so business minded when it comes to my own stake. I never wanted to impede anyone from listening to these new artists or cheapen the experience, especially for the music I was personally presenting. And it just stuck that way. No advertisements. No YouTube monetization. I really like when my friends tell me that they spent a few interrupted hours listening to my uploads. I like that my channel doesn't promote anything but the music and the people behind it. I'm just too invested in that vision to break away from it right now.

WHAT WERE SOME OF THE EARLIER TRACKS YOU HELPED EXPOSE THAT INCREASED YOUR LEGITIMACY/VIEWERSHIP ? I started off with a bang, or a couple of bangs actually, courtesy of the very underrated Young Stebo, who I mentioned before. They were these songs with Young Thug ("Foreign Cash") and Ola Playa ("Started From the Bottom," also featuring YC). Really these very underrated songs that are almost like Killed by Death style Atlanta rap cuts. He has incredible songs by himself as well as as true classics with all of the then-burgeoning stars. Thug, Playa, Bloody Jay, Wicced, Yung Booke, Rich Homie Quan, everybody. His recent music has been incredible too, so stay on the lookout for more from Stebo.

Twice (dmusa)

FAVORITE PROJECT OR EVENT YOU’VE DONE ? My favorite project I've dropped so far has to be Twice's Zachary: Double It Up 2, which you did the artwork for. I put my everything into that project. Twice and I had already been working together for a while when he caught a case. After that, we really ramped it up and spent his last free days recording in his mom's basement while he was stuck sitting on an ankle monitor. Spaghetti J engineered over mostly Spaghetti J beats and we pumped out some unreal songs down there, with these pretty serious pitbulls looming behind us in the backyard. Big dogs like Tay Slime Ass and YL Stunna dropped by and recorded classics with Twice. Young upstarts Lil Patt and Slimelife Shawty came by and made some magic with Lil Double Up too. There's really no one like Twice, and I mean that. In South Atlanta, this mixtape is seriously a cherished classic. That's the correct school of thought, in my mind. It should be celebrated everywhere. It's really lyrical, thoughtful trap music straight from the heart of the jungle. He's got a real classic on there with Young Thug as well, called "No Wendy's", which you actually did the single artwork for too. Bless you for that. It's over the "Controlla" beat and it's one of my favorite songs of all time. He's not like other rappers his age. His favorite rappers are Drake, Jadakiss, and Fabolous, and he goes in over an Eve beat on "Runnin' Up", but his rap is still distinctly Atlantan. It's the perfect balance. He's an old soul with a serious voice, wise behind his years but prone to mistakes, just like anybody else. I pray for his release. Free Twice. I actually dropped his first songs (with YL Stunna) back in February of 2014, so Zachary was a long time coming for me. I listen to it everyday.I'm really, really excited about Young Slime Season, the upcoming 20 track mixtape featuring all the young Slimes, the young crew, that I'm dropping with Brodinski and Bromance Records a couple of days before Thanksgiving. We've been working on it for a long time. It's a really huge project. It really represents the voice of the youth of Cleveland Ave. The central players on the album are Babysnake, B Slime, Lil Clockk, Maja Got It, No Mask Nuk, Lil Patt, Lil Reek, Slimeball Kelly, Slimelife Shawty, Lil Tay, The Homie Cashyy, Twice, YL G Baby and Zack Slime Fr. But it features contributions from a couple of the big dogs too, like YSL Hitta, YL Zoe, MPA Bukk Bukk too, as well as a couple of tracks featuring Atlanta star B La B, who is an entity all his own. It's really a sprawling journey, running the gamut from these perfectly crafted melodic gems to these very rambunctious songs with like 6 rappers a pop. You can hear the urgency and vitality of the youth on every track. The production is really otherworldly too. I'm dropping YSS with Bromance Records, so the producers on it are either directly from that camp or close affiliates. Peerless music. I have actually been listening to Myd, who produced a few flawless tracks on the project, since 2009, when Air France put his track "Train to Bamako" on an online mix. And now I have tracks with my favorite young rappers today rapping to his music. It's unreal. So it's these very fresh, often unorthodox rappers with this production that also isn't like anything else in rap music either, or any music period. The production is indispensable, and the music just couldn't have come from anyone else, with regard to both the rapping and the production. The producers on there are Amine Edge & DANCE, Bobby Swan, Brodinski himself, Ikaz Boi, Mister Tweeks, Myd, Myth Syzer, and Ryan Hemsworth. It could not sound better. It's such a vital document. I'm like dying, I can't wait for it to drop. I'm so proud of what we made.I'm really proud of The Return of Cheat Code too. My friend Diaz and his big dog James really helmed all the mixing and mastering and a lot of the preparations for that one. Then Bame Cheat Code is his next project, which we will also be releasing. It'll be here in December and it might just happen to feature a certain big snake, if you know what I mean. Welcome home, Cheat. His influence can't be overstated. Just listen to yesteryear's "President Slide Show" with Kwony Cash and Young Thug.

Patt, Slimelife Shawty, Twice (dmusa)

I'm going to present the Black Roses mixtape, the first offering from the YL camp as a unit together, featuring an all-star cast of some big Slimes. It features YL Stunna, YL Zoe, YSL Hitta, Taliban France, and Money Game Boo. I have tapes coming out individually from each of those artists, as well as tapes on the way from B La B, YSL Maybach, Zack Slime Fr, and Lil Patt.

I also have a tape coming out with the Atlanta production duo Spaghetti J that is centered around Cleveland Ave/Jonesboro Rd. Spaghetti J are incredible, and we have been working on music for a couple years now actually, really amassing a library of killer, homegrown music that we are always still adding to. Our first installment is on the horizon though, and it's going to be something serious. We also have single artist projects we'll be releasing together with some of the rappers I listed above. Remember the name Spaghetti J, for real.

I've always shot the documentary footage, but more recently, I've been shooting a lot of music videos that I'm really excited about. The first three I'm dropping are from Tay Slime Ass, Rari Rokket aka Ferrari Smash, and Solid Lil Chris. Free Chris. After that, it's the "Drug Money" anthem from YL Stunna, YL Zoe, and Twice. I filmed it a while back. It's a perfect storm. That one is going to be my opus, I think. Double LP vinyl edition of Ola Playa's Slime Season is almost ready. Years in the making. The interview I did with Playa on my blog, actually, is one of the labors I'm most proud of. I'm also working on a petition for Money Game Boo to sing the National Anthem. Talk about a singular talent. His tape is going to cause earthquakes.

Hitta, Patt (dmusa)

IN ONE SENTENCE, WHY DO YOU DO DMUSA ? Because there has never been anything like this music and I feel uncontrollably compelled to do my part in making it happen.

LINKS • YOUTUBE • SOUNDCLOUD • TWITTER • TUMBLR • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

#long read #drug money #dmusa #atlanta rap

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