Interview with Juice from Black Wall Street: Part 1 of 2

Although it is unclear just how involved the only other rapper in The Game's Black Wall Street stable of talent (Bay Area heavyweight Ya Boy) will be in the camp's future, Phoenix Arizona's Juice has made it clear that he has taken the reigns as the "heir to to the BWS dynasty". With the release of a promising mixtape and a DVD on the horizon, a rep in his home state and a steadily-growing buzz throughout the rest of the country, and a full length in the works, things have never looked better.

Last week, this rising star took a moment to catch up with SOHH Left Coast and get everybody up to speed on what he's got going on right now and more importantly, to anser the question... who is Juice?

SOHH: So first off, what are you up to right now?

Juice: Right now, man, I’m just putting these finishing touches on my mixtape The New Breath Of The West Coast that’ll be reaching everybody May 18th, ya dig. If you don’t know about it, learn about it.

So May 18th is the magic day, huh?

Yeah, you know the business. It’s the magic day.

Who are some of the guests you got on there?

Of course I got the homie Juelz Santana, I got 334 Mobb, I got Game, I got a record with Wayne on there. I got a couple features, man. Real real talk, I’m really trying to not do the whole feature thing right now ‘cause I want the world to know me for me and let n****s know how real it is.

So as far as the ratio of features to non-features, there’s a lot of just you on there.

Exactly, exactly.

That’s something you don’t see a lot on mixtapes these days. It seems like people are just trying to ride the strength of everybody else.

With me comin’ from Arizona and havin’ that classification of a couple of the artists who got signed and came out and they didn’t really live up to the expectation of the other cities and other states, so I really feel like I want the world to know me and know ya boy Juice is a real lyricist, ya know what I’m sayin’? He really is the real deal with Phoenix, and I’m gonna do what I gotta do to put my state and city on the map, by all means.

Now I obviously don’t know Arizona as well as you do so I could be wrong, but it seems like as far as making connections to get some people as guests on the mixtape, it would be harder place to poly than in California or New York or some places in the South.

I mean, Arizona’s been overlooked for a long time. LA been running it for so long, New York been running it for so long, Atlanta had their time... Now, it’s time for the new West Coast to begin. Real talk, if people ain’t been to Arizona, this mixtape is really gonna show them, yo, Phoenix is the real deal. We got the same s**t goin’ on that the next city got, man; we got hoods, we got ghettos, we got white collar cats, we got million dollar s**t goin’ on. Everything that the next city and next hood got, we got too. It’s just about time for a person like myself who got the quality and skills to really highlight our state and city.

So as far as other people that are reppin’ Phoenix, who else do you feel is representing the city properly?

I mean, I really can’t fake... it’s just me right now. Like I said, there’s really only two signed artists from Arizona- there’s that other guy from that other crew, and there’s me. And at the end of the night, we’re two totally different artists who represent two totally different things. I ain’t gonna sit there and hate on dude ‘cause I ain’t got time to do that, you know what I’m sayin’? I’m worrying about myself and my situation on my label that I run with, but as far as Arizona go man, I got my whole city behind me and it shows. If you go to my myspace page you can hear a couple of tracks, but on top of that I got a theatrical trailer to my dvd that’s comin’ out called The New Breath of the West Coast.

What’s the DVD gonna be all about?

I mean, basically it just takes you through Phoenix and lets people know how real I got it out here. With me, man, I’m not all fake and slanted, you know what I’m sayin’? N****s don’t write my music. I was the dude who was out here in the streets slangin’ my mixtapes that the city respect, that the city uplifted. But I got Amare Stoudemire on there from the Phoenix Suns; I’m doin’ his Nike commercial. I got GLC and Good Music. When people come to the city, they holla at me, you know what I mean? And I just make sure everything is good; set ‘em up and do the right thing, man. People really f**k with Phoenix, I just gotta be the one to highlight it and put us on the map like that.

As far as people rolling through Phoenix and getting a hold of you, is that kind of how you linked up the features that you do have on the mixtape?

Not really. The reason I got those particular features is just cats really respect my hustle, respect my grind and really respect the way I spit. One thing about myself is, I’m a West Coast dude mixed with a East Coast swagger, you know what I’m sayin’? So I kinda got the best of both worlds, you feel me? So it’s kinda like when people come out here, they just respect the way a n***a move, man. I’m not tryin’ to be something I’m not. I’m not out here disrespecting websites and this and that. At the end of the night my dude, I’m trying to build a positive relationship, get money and break bread between everybody so we all can eat.

You kind of touched on it earlier for a second, but as far as you being a lyricist... There seems to be a major lack of lyricism in the game right now- I think that goes without saying. So you obviously tried to do what you do and make that shine on the mixtape, right?

One thing about me is, I want the world to see that ya boy is a lyricist- Juice is a solid lyricist at the end of the night. I think that a lot of rappers and up and coming cats feel like they gotta bang out an album in 2 months and don’t wanna put that real effort and time behind it, you know what I mean? And real real talk, I think that’s effecting hip hop in a strong way, and it’s starting to show in sales, and in the level of music that’s being put out. I totally agree with you about the whole lyricist thing. I think that a lot of cats right now aren’t really taking the time to master their craft.

As far as major label artists that are doing high volumes of sales, you signed with a camp that’s one of the more lyrical camps out there. Was that kind of a conscious decision as far as you signing with them, or how did that all come along?

I was going through a time in my life where I felt like I was at the bottom. A lot of people was overlooking Arizona, a lot of people really wasn’t checkin’ for what we had goin’ on out here as far as this whole lyrics situation. So of course, I put a mixtape together and Game was out here with Swizz Beatz working on his album- they was recording a track called “Scream On ‘Em” -and Swizz Beatz owns a club out here called CBNC where they had an afterparty. I was lightweight tipsy, but I felt like if Game at least got my mixtape he would listen to it and understand my hustle, my strive and what I’m tryin’ to do. I went to the club and the security dude came up to me; I asked him could I get through to the VIP, he told me no, but he would take my mixtape. And I told him, like everybody know, man, I’m not gonna give my mixtape to nobody but the person it’s intended to go to, because if you give it to a manager or give it to a security guard, man, that shit ends up in the trash- I been there. So long story short, I see Game get up and walk through the VIP area, and I kinda just swing by the security guard, he grabbed my arm- the magazine (XXL) made it seem like I caused this big ol’ fiasco, but I didn’t man. I did it out of pure reaction; he grabbed my arm, I swung on him. Everything started getting crazy- Game kinda got in fight-back mode and I told him, ‘Look, my dude, it’s no disrespect. I’m not here trying to get an autograph, I’m not back here trying to just hang wit’ you. I just wanna at least give you my mixtape and if you throw it away, you throw it away but at the end of the night I know it got to you.’ He took it and two days later I got a phone call and a plane ticket to go to LA and it’s been Black Wall Street ever since.

Tune in tomorrow for part 2...