THA OUTLAWZ (May 2005) | Interview By:  Yash

      Dubcnn.com sat down with the legendary group The Outlawz for an exclusive interview. We spoke about their new album, Tupac, Kadafi, Their upcoming album with Dead Prez, Suge Knight, Possible solo albums, Their new artist Stormey, they spoke about the fake Tupac lookalike footage, their feelings about the Eminem produced "Loyal To The Game", they had some kind words for Dj Quik and alot more including words for people doing Tupac projects without asking for permission from Tupacs family. This is a raw uncut 30 minute interview with Young Noble, EDI Mean and Kastro. Feel free to send any feedback regarding the interview to: yash@dubcnn.com


Huge thanks to Young Noble, Edi Mean and Kastro for taking time out to answer the questions fans wanted to know! ( Interview was done over the phone on May 1st 2005 )

Questions Asked By : Yash

The Outlawz Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here

Listen to the interview by clicking: Here
 

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Dubcnn: I heared a few songs from the album and I gotto say Im feeling it, the production is better than the last one..

Young Noble: Way better..

Dubcnn: What producers do you have on this album?

We got this dude signed to Aftermath his name is Focus, we got the Legendary Traxter out of Chicago, we got this kid named J mack, we got AB future, this kid named amando on there and thats pretty much it man. oh and Drum majours and Danny Kartell.

Dubcnn: alrite cool who is featured on the album besides TQ?

We got Bun B from UGK, Kool Joe from Goodie Mob, we got our artist on our lable One Nation Entertainment his name is Stormey. We got this kid named Balakuy on there aint got to many features.

Dubcnn: What kind of distribution deal do you have for the album?

We independant man we just got distribution for the States but it ain't in alot of stores. It's basically on how much you ship and we ain't ship a million copies though it ain't in every store we independent man we trying to work our way up and earn our respect in this game.

Dubcnn: So how will a person from Europe or Australia get the album?

Off the internet basically like towerrecords.com or whereever they sell cd's on the internet.

Dubcnn: Are you tired of being mentioned in the same line as Pac like do you feel it's time you stand on your own.

umm you know we come from pac we can never be disassociated from Pac we wouldn't want that you know, he brought us into this game he gave us our names, Outlawz come from Pac you know so hell na it is what it is. You feel me?

Dubcnn: Yea yea but I read somewhere that you wanted to stand on your own...

I mean yeaa that's just as far as people really just trying to compare us to him like just getting it all confused like we don't wanna be him and we can't be him he's the greatest rapper of all time like when you go buy Outlaw album don't expect to hear a Tupac album we're our own individuals and people used to us being on all these songs with Tupac classic shit when we was young but anybody can make some classic shit if they rapping with the greatest rapper of all time you know what I mean.

We trying to establish ourself like we just dont want people to get it confused we're not Pac we're not trying to be Pac we don't wanna be Pac he is a person who taught us that was our brother we trying to add on to the legacy instead of taking from it because you know it's a chapter after Pac and that's the Outlawz what is the history book gonna say about us? So we just trying to establish ourselves.

Alot of people get it confused they listen to us and expect to hear Pac and that's not gonna happen they're just gonna have to accept us for who we are
and what direction we going with this music.

Dubcnn: So what kind of upcoming projects do you have coming after this album?

We got this collaboration album we're doing with Dead Prez it's gone be some serious serious shit you know what I mean I'm not gonna speak awhole lot on it we got another album coming out at the end of this year it's called "Chapter II The Rebirth" that's the second Outlaw album that's coming out this year.

We got Stormey his solo album and we all gonna do solo albums so that's basically it. Dead Prez, Outlawz, Stormey and then I'm doing a solo album Kastro and so is Edi.

Dubcnn: So how far are you in the solo joint right now? How many songs have you recorded?

I didn't record any yet but I know Stormey been recording he probably got 50 solo songs about 50-70 songs already.

Dubcnn: Tell us about Stormey who is that and where did you find him?

He's our artist man he been down for a minute man, he's real tight he been down for a minute he's basically second generation as far as Outlawz right now we passing the torch to him, how Pac passed us the torch we passing it towards Stormey. Once you hear him you gone understand what I'm talking about.

Dubcnn: I saw something last month that kind of shocked me on this website they had footage of some Tupac lookalike they were saying like Pac is alive did you see that? It was fucked up the way they were doing it like a april joke.

yea..

Dubcnn: did you see that?

no I didn't see it honestly I didn't really wanna see it I'm not interested in that type of shit . That's all that was see that was the greatest rapper of all time so people gone come and say and do all this type of shit they can do you know what I mean. Like that's really out of our control man..

*Noble greets a couple of friends and continues*

Yea so that's really out of our control man we payed attention to all that type of shit that shit is all crazy we know what Pac meant to us and what he still mean to us so that's really all that counts all that extra media shit we don't really pay that no mind.

Dubcnn: alrite why do you think people always mention Suge Knight as somehow being connected to the murder of Pac and Biggie?

I mean I'm not even gonna get into that question you know what I mean...

Dubcnn: yea because me and Nuttso was talking about it and we were like the government wanted it to look like that.

Yea ofcourse that's what they do...

Dubcnn: So bro can you tell me like what's the nicest thing Pac ever done for yall?

*thinks for a moment* Basically man he gave me a chance man Pac did nice things for us everyday man. I mean he took care of us man we lived with him mansions and shit, rolled all types of cars everything he did for us was lovely...

giving me a chance man that's the greatest thing Pac did for me man believing in me and giving me inspiration and giving me lessons in life that's gone stick with me forever you know caringa bout me and giving me a shot in life and taking care of my family and shit im still holding on to it and won't never let go.

Dubcnn: So what happened to that album you were gonna do with Bone Thugs?

I don't know man alot of shit man We definetly wanted to do it and already started on it probably did like 5 songs but you know it just be alot of shit in the game them dudes you know they got their own issues they dealing with their my brothers whenever they ready to do it we with it though.

Their my Thug Brothers we already started on the shit so when they ready we just go back in the lab and knock it out but you know they dealing with their own issues right now. Life is just bigger than the rap shit people got they own stuff they dealing with you know what I mean?

Dubcnn: Yea I feel you. How was it working with Dead Prez than seems like you been connecting real well with them.

Yea man they soldiers man they on the same mission we on just tryin to better ourselves and you know our peoples man..People might think they're a little more extreme than us but we really saying the same shit at the end of the day.

Dubcnn: Since you guys been in the game for so long can you tell me what you think of todays hiphop culture?

I mean it's really the same shit going on right now it needs more diversity in the game it's either everybody super tough or doing the club songs it's not really alot of substance there's a few dudes trying to bring that back it just needs to be diverse like back in the day.

You can have a Rakim and The Jungle Brothers, Queen Latifah and Mc Lyte you know what I mean Digital Underground, Too short you know how diverse that is but now it's basically the same ole shit. But the game is cool muthafuckaz are making alot more money nowadays...

Everybody gotto do what they gotto do man I know it's alot of brothers getting alot of money and that's definetly a good thang. Muthafuckaz is getting way more money now than ever before. Everybody feeding their family and their kinfolk doing what they can you can't be mad at that.

Dubcnn: The first single is with TQ... How did you hookup and why did you choose that as the first single?

Really I don't even know man we chose that single but TQ was in Atlanta I ain't talk to him in a minute but we been doin songs with TQ he was on "Ride with Us or Collide With Us" so he got my nr from somebody and called me sayin he in Atlanta so I'm like holla at me thats my homie and shit you know he came down and we did a song for him he got a little studio on his bus...

Dubcnn: Yea I was with him this summer riding around in his bus..

Oh yea?

Dubcnn: Yea he was a real cool guy.

He asked me to do the song on the bus but we had our own studio so he came to that spot and when he got there he just layed the hook down and the homies heared it and they was loving it. I mean it's a hit single but there's alot of other ones on there it's like 3 or 4 other ones on there that's serious.

Dubcnn: I heared Big Syke talking about ThugLaw Volume 3..Is that dropping anytime soon?

I don't even know man Syke's the homie man we support whatever Syke do. He putting the ThugLawz when they hit the streets that be Syke.

He be putting his motion behind that you know what I mean Whatever the OG is doing we support that. He's like I need a couple joints and thats done that's our folks right there..

EDI Mean: Yea yea what it do?

Dubcnn: Wussup Edi Mean how you doin?

Edi Mean: Whats happenin man??

Dubcnn: Im just chillin let's go into the other questions man...
Alot of fans ain't happy with Pac's old songs getting their beats changed and having Eminem and interscope ruin the original songs what do you think about the way their handling Pac's music?

I mean from my point of view it's an unfortunate situation because my homeboy ain't here to do his own music and call his own shots like he normally would when his music was at it's peak at the same time its a doubled ??? because you know money gotto be made moms gotto be fed so we gotto do something

Pac didn't want his music just sitting around or not making no money he would rather be feeding his family than to see his family back in the getto trying to make sure that never happened again so it's a business and that's how I'm looking at the shit.

I don't call no shots as far as his music is concerned but I'ma definetly make sure the integraty is still there and that it still sounds right you know what I mean "Loyal To The Game" definetly wasn't the best of Pac's release...

Dubcnn: Yea alot of people been complaining about the production and everything..

Nodoubt they got the right to complain because I wasn't happy with it 100% I felt like the last 4 songs on the album done by Quik, Raphael Sadique and Red Spyda and QUik them basically saved the album.

Dubcnn: Yea that's what people been saying let Johnny J, Quik and Daz handle most of the production even QDIII...

Yea but at the same time alot of people dont know because they ain't involved with the everyday business it's not that simple.

Alot of cats they want this they want that when they find out it's a Pac project muthafuckaz start going crazy one thing I respect about Eminem he came in and did it for free and just wanted to get involved with the shit and then he got at Pac's mother on some real shit he sat down with her and talked to her face to face.

Alot of cats be trying to do some under handed shit so I got more respect for him the way he handled his business. No I wasn't crazy about the whole project but I definetly respect the way he got down instead of taking songs and doing his own thing with them which alot of niggaz do.

Dubcnn: There's a rumour going around that this next album is gonna be his last one. And Quik will be doing some productiong on there and you guys will be on that. Is there any truth to the rumours?

yea definetly it's some truth to that I don't know how much Quik is gonna be involved but if I got anything to do with it if I got any say so Quik will definetly be involved because his chemistry is crazy with Pac and you can't beat the chemistry that Johnny J had with Pac or QDIII all them cats right there do Pac music and they do it with heart do it with the love involved.

So I definetly will always wanna keep them involved in some capacity if they wanna be involved it's really up to them.

Dubcnn: Do you guys still talk to Fatal? Wussup with him?

Yea we still holla at Fatal every now and then it's all love man it's Outlawz for life so even if we ain't in the same room 24 hours a day it's still all love nothing but respect and love whatever we do.

Dubcnn: What did you think when Napoleon wanted to leave Outlawz? What happened?

umm it was really just Napoleon making some changes in his life and wanted to go on another direction than we was going and I really felt good about it I supported it. That's my nigga regardless what ever he wanna do I support him and if he needs me I'm always down so it's nothing but love Napoleon doing his thing big ups to him.

You know it's never gonna be no hate coming from The Outlawz it ain't gone be nothing but love until niggaz turn it into something else.

Dubcnn: You know Assassin I heared he was doing a Tupac remix album people were wondering if you guys are involved in it?

Assassin??? Who is Assassin?

Dubcnn: Some Mexican guy out in the Bayarea.

I ain't heared of nothing like that man it's all kind of different things that go down and cats do unauthorized shit..I never heared about that Assassin project but do your thang homie.

Dubcnn: Is Kastro there?

Well I just wanna let everybody know man whatever yall doing with Pac's music holler at The Lawz if you can't get at his mother then get at his niggaz. Let's handle it the right way let's get this money but all that underhanded shit don't got my support.

Dubcnn: alrite man is Kastro there?

Yea man hold on...

Kastro: Hello?

Dubcnn: Wussup Kastro this is Yash from Dubcnn how you doin?

Ey what's going on man?

Dubcnn: Ait bro I'm just gonna continue the interview.. Will you guys be on any upcoming albums that we should look out for?

Nope except for our shit.

Dubcnn: Alrite where you guys present at the Westcoast Summit that Snoop held with Game?

No I really didn't hear about it until afterwards. You know like I said we heard about it after it was done regardless of what it was I think it was a good thing I think that was a nice thing for niggaz to come together and try to do something positive so it turned out however it turned out but it was cool just to try to take that extra step to do anything positive so the kids could see it because honestly the kids need to see that type of shit because it's too much ruckas going on right now.

Dubcnn: Can you tell us about the new artist Stormey?

Yea he was born in Chicago and raised between Chicago and Atlanta and he got a Revolutionary background.

He got a nigga mind you know a good nigga mind you know he trying to apply that to everything he do that's why I love him so much he don't trying to do nothing he can't do he good and he do it good.

Dubcnn: Do you guys have a DVD coming out?

Yea we working on it right now!

Dubcnn: Can you tell us about that project?

Well actually it's really in the begining stages so it's not really to much to talk about but it's gonna be indepth so people can see what we really about. We put that last DVD out you couldn't really see what we was about it was just alot of talk and shit this shit gone go deep into what we about, what we come from and things like that.

How we come together like foreal foreal you know what I mean so people can understand what we really about. It's gone take minute for us to finnish it because shit we gotto go back and bring it back to the front and go back to the back again but it's gone be a beautiful thing once we put it together.

Dubcnn: Why didn't you guys get beats from all the people that you used to work with like Johnny J and them?

Well them not the people we used to work with them the people Pac used to work with I mean however the chips fell that's how they fell. However it went down.

At this point of time in our career we trying to do what we do I mean we don't wanna go back we wanna go forward. People want us to do alot of things Pac did and we can't do that we gotto be stepping on our own toes. So we just trying to do what we do and hopefully people will embrace it if not they come around later if not then fuck em!

Dubcnn: Don't get me wrong though the new album is bangin' they're just wondering.

You ain't heared nothing yet though my nigga that album I like it too but that shit was just a teaser my nigga and we set it up like that we got awhole nother album sitting ready to drop that shit is just a teaser.

But it's to let niggaz know we still here but it's really nothing.

Dubcnn: Will we catch the whole Outlaw family together on an album any time soon? Like Fatal and everybody.

Man hopefully but at this point of time everybody doing what they do we trying to do what we can do for ourselves, they trying to do individually or collectively what they can do for themselves you know whenever we can get together and do it we gone do it specially if it's profitable if it's not profitable it really don't mean no thang you know what I mean.

It's not like we sit around eachother all day long the love is still there but we ain't gonna do it just to do it. Because it's really not the same.

Dubcnn: Alrite bro I got 3 more questions that the fans sent in.. They wanna know if you guys are involved in the Makaveli Branded clothing?

No we're not but we support it but we're not involved in it at all.

Dubcnn: The second one is Will you guys put out a Kadafi album or any song dedicated to him?

I just actually did one on our new album not actually dedicated to Kadafi but dedicated to the whole thing... Which answers alot of questions of what's going on with Kadafi, Pac and everything I just did one by myself on the new album called "Think About You".

Maybe it's not really dedicated to the question everybody asking but that's as close as we gone come for now to a tribute song to anybody. We never really did any tribute songs for anybody not even Pac or anybody else like we always felt like the love is there.

We ain't got nothing to prove like alot of times it seems like people do tribute songs to prove that they loved somebody you know alot of people do them type of songs but don't really got no love for them so I felt like it wasn't really neccesary for us to do it.

Because it's there because we automatic two tears fuckit like yea that's why we never did no tribute song because it's really unneccesary maybe we'll do one in the future. It's not like it mean nothing to us that's just a song when we can do more things to show our dedication to Pac and Kadafi.

Dubcnn: Does he (Kadafi) have unreleased songs that you gone put out?

Actually I don't think so his mother is really in control of the songs that she got it can't be really that many being that he passed early in the game it's not really that much stuff to really do a Kadafi album from what I understand.

I don't know everything but from what I know. It can't be that many because he wasn't doing solo songs and the songs that he did came out it may be a couple of verses left. God willing they will come to use the way their suppose to be used.

Dubcnn: Last question is what happened to Storm? That lady who was rapping with you guys?

Man to be honest with you I really don't even know man I just know we kinda like fell apart just like kind of separated some way however Guides life the travels that come with it and how it go about that's how I go about I don't know how it went down whatever we just kind of went our way and she went her way.