Interview with Black Wall Street's Juice Part 2 of 2

Yesterday, we brought you part 1 of the interview with The Black Wall Street's self-procalimed "New Breath of the West Coast," Juice. Today, we conclude the interview as Juice speaks on beef, Hot Rod, Arizona, and his mixtape (which, in a new development, has apparently drawn the attention of the RIAA after mom and pop stores and internet retailers pre-ordered over 250,000 copies).

Read on...

SOHH Left Coast: Now as far as a full length studio album, are you currently working on that?

Juice: I’m in the studio currently working on my full length album. That’ll be out in early ‘08. Like I said, it’s gonna be a real big movement for the West Coast and a real big movement for Arizona. I mean, being one of the first to really put our state up on the map, I feel that I got a lot of obligation and a lot of responsibility to represent it right.

As far as the mixtapes, are you just dropping this one to hold people off until the album drops, or are you gonna be dropping a couple more between now and then?

I’m only gonna do two mixtapes before my album does come out. Of course you can hear me on Game’s next mixtape, Nu Jerzey Devil got some s**t comin’ out, and my DJ, DJ Haze got some mixtapes comin’ out. You’ll be able to hear me on a lot of different things, but as far as Juice goes, this mixtape on May 18th, The New Breath of the West Coast, is gonna be something that people can really f**k with. It’s gonna silence all comparisons between me and that other guy and it’s gonna really make me a contender in the industry. Real talk, whenever people start mentioning my name, they’re not gonna put me in the same classification as that other guy, they’re gonna put me in the classification of the greats, like The Game and Nas and Common Sense and Talib Kweli and with Jay and Biggie and Wayne- the people that I respect, you know what I mean? As far as my second mixtape go, I’ma probably drop that later on in the Summer. It’s called My Death Certificate. With my first one, we’re really just touching the surface, but my second one will be the one to really classify me. And when my album drops, that’s when they’ll go ahead and hand over the crown and be like, ‘This dude is for real.’

In regards to the title of the mixtape you have coming out in a minute, there are a lot of people who don’t necessarily associate Arizona with the West Coast, although it is. I mean, I even made the mistake of saying some shit about Arizona that probably wasn’t okay when I first heard Hot Rod...

You was making a comment of how you felt off of his music. Real, real talk, that’s the reason for the mixtape; people haven’t been highlighted to Arizona yet. Nobody has really stood up to the test and really competed with the big names out there. Like I said, that other guy didn’t really do it, realistically speaking. I mean, you got a single with Mary J, my n***a, and you ain’t sellin’ a million records. You dropped the ball ya’self. You wasn’t comenting on Arizona because you was disrespecting, you was commenting off of what you heard.

But with more shit coming from different places, I think the West Coast is gonna be diversified a little bit, because right now, people just associate the West Coast with gangsta rap out of LA.

And again, that’s where I think I’m going to classify that in another realm. Like I said, n***as is real lyricists. I mean, of course we come from gangsta rap music; that’s what the West Coast was born on, that’s what the West Coast was raised on. But we develop with time. You got great rappers in AZ, and you got great rappers in LA, but it’s just our time. But the more SOHH.com does interviews and you get to speak to people like myself and other artists from the West Coast, it makes the world aware that there is some real-ass talent out here, ya dig?

Definitely. And I already know there’s some heads out there, ‘cause the day I made the mistake of saying something baad about Arizona, there was some hip hop board out there that was blasting me and rallying people up to come through here and put me on blast.

Yeah, it was called 602streets.com. I mean, again, a lot of people didn’t fault you for saying that, my dude. I’m not just saying that because you was faulting Hot Rod; more success to him. Hopefully he does sell some units because like I said, that uplifts the city. But you was goin’ off of what you heard. You just felt like, man, if this dude is supposed to be the one to hold down the state, he’s dropping the ball real heavy. That was your opinion; you have the right to say that, but just like I got the right to come into the limelight to be like, you know what, I feel like that dude is not doing it either and I’m gonna go ahead and really stand for what I believe in and put our city on the map. And you know what, you might not feel me and say the same thing about me, but that’s your opinion. And nobody can fault you for that, my dude. It is what it is. Regardless if you say something about me or not, I’ma still represent my city and go on because my n***as believe in me like that, and vice versa.

So production-wise, are there people out in Arizona that you f**k with?

Oh yeah, hands down. I mean of course I got the major hitters- I’m gettin’ some production from JR Rotem of course, I reached out to Kanye, Swizz, The Justus League, Nu Jerzey Devil -but as far as Arizona goes, I’m workin’ with a crew called Planet X, there’s another crew called The Track Slayerz. There’s another dude out there, his name is Rock; he got a production company called Rock House. So there is a couple heavy hitters in Arizona right now that the industry really needs to come check up on.

Now for the people that may have never heard you or aren’t familiar with what you’re gonna be gettin’ into on the album, is it gonna be on some real life s**t or some gangsta s**t or are you gonna try to cover a little bit of everything?

I don’t really need to go out there and really display my type of gangsterism. I’m on some real grown man s**t, you know what I’m sayin’? I’m on some real life type s**t. I’m a man, I’m father, I’m a leader, so I’m gonna express to the world my life and my story live and direct, you know what I mean? One thing about me that The Game really respects is that we’re two totally different individuals. Of course I done did the whole gangbangin’ thing, I done did the slangin’ dope type thing, but when you get to the position to where you at right now where you got a son, you have a family and you overcame those obstacles, it’s time for me to tell my story to the world, but do it in the right way. I’m gonna be touching on some real life issues, of course I’m gonna be talking about some street issues, but overall it’s gonna be something that the average person can feel, ya dig?

That’s dope though, because you’re talking about being father and this sounds like it might be something your kid can grow up and listen to and it’ll be sort of a legacy as opposed to it being just an album full of negativity.

Exactly. Like I said, a lot of the s**t that’s going on in the industry, I really don’t f**k with too much. Everybody’s always asking me about the whole G-Unit beef and The Game this, Game that, but I tell you man, Game is a father as well, and that n***a’s a true boss. I knew coming into this situation the beef that he had and I knew that it would eventually fall over to me, and I gotta admit, at times I’d be like, ‘Game, let me hop on this track and go to war with you,’ but he’d be like, ‘Nah my dude. This beef is for me, let me handle this. You worry about focusing on your album, making a classic album, and taking over this whole West Coast movement.’

With that said, there’s something I gotta ask you about real quick because I’d be remiss not to ask it. I’ll keep it limited to this one question because this is an interview about you and not him, but there’s been some s**t about Hot Rod, as far as him being another dude who’s coming Arizona, and it sounds like you feel that he’s been misrepresenting the state.

Hands down.

Is that based on you being with BWS and him being in G-Unit, or does it run deeper than that?

I mean, at the end of the night my dude, I really don’t meddle in business that don’t concern me. Like I said, I really won’t say anything about nobody else unless somebody says something about me- before I’m a rapper, I’m a man. And again, I don’t really like to get into ol’ dude’s situation, but if you come to Arizona and see what it is and who people f**k with and who people don’t f**k wit’, I’m not gonna even jump between this whole argument and say like, ‘Hot Rod is pissy.’ I’ma let the people judge. And at the end of the night, my state and my city know what I do for our state and our city, you know what I’m sayin’? Everything I do is for the upliftment of our movement, and if you ask me right now, ‘Is Hot Rod better than Juice?’, I’ll tell you: no. And the fans’ll tell you the same thing, you know what I’m sayin’? I’m not a gimmick, homie. I’m the real deal. The industry didn’t align me with people, people f**k wit’ me ‘cause I keep it one hunnid. I’m out in the city politicin’, I’m out in the streets networkin’, y’know what I’m sayin’? From the block to the corporate office. So the difference between me and Hot Rod? My dude, it’s like I said- he got signed, he gets his money, he does what he does, but if you come to Arizona n***as’ll tell you who they really support and who they really behind, and real, real talk it’s ya boy Juice.