five months pass...
four years pass...
G&W: to me as a rapper you always sounded kinda like ice-t, was he a rappin or vocal influence??
J-ZONE: hell yeah, ice-t is a legend! not really in terms of rappin style but the way he constucted albums and his knack for concepts instead of battle rappin all the time...that was an influence on me for sure. i studied that o.g. album hard man!
G&W: do you consider yourself a punchline mc??
J-ZONE: no...
G&W: why not?
J-ZONE: cuz i dont depend on punchlines to make songs and i do more than that!
G&W: do you really think you could outball p? my boy can play!!
J-ZONE: p is mad nice but if my jumper is on that day i'll roll on him like the no limit tank and make him say uuuuggghhh!
G&W: are you including shaq in this??
J-ZONE: hell the fuck no! that muthafucka is big as shit! thats why i aint mention him in the song. i know better.
G&W: aight if you could trade any 2 players who would it be??
J-ZONE: tim thomas needs to be traded to the wnba, hes trash. i wish kenyon martin went to cleveland. that team would be the illest with him and lebron.
G&W: what do you think about all the underground producers gettin w/ major labels now like hi-tek just signed w/ aftermath, red spyda came up and now hes doin it big... are you lookin out for that too??
J-ZONE: im not dependin on it, but that would be real dope if it happened. it would be a challenge for me.
G&W: that county check pimpin remix was tight, are you into doin more remixes of your own joints??
J-ZONE: thanks, i just remixed 'greater later' from the album for my next single.
G&W: outta all your own beats what is your fave??
J-ZONE: 'heavy metal' off a job aint nuthin but work.
G&W: what beat do you think is your wackest??
J-ZONE: probably 'smurf syndrome' from bottle of whup ass. i hate that fuckin beat!
G&W: was that 'eatadiccup' sample from 'strugglin' off strictly 4 my niggaz??
J-ZONE: yup
G&W: i always tht strictly 4 my was kinda like your shit, on a party tip- whats your fav pac album??
J-ZONE: believe it or not i liked 2pacalypse now the best. that was his first album, 'violent' was my shit! that verse where he beat the shit outta that cop was incredible. 'the lunatic', 'crooked ass nigga', 'young black male', 'trapped', 'words of wisdom'... the list goes on. that album is incredible. strictly for my niggaz had the party joints and r u still down had the unreleased and unheralded joints. i like those a lot too, probably second and third, but 2pacalypse now is my personal favorite and everybody sleeps on that one.
G&W: for real, thats a classic... do you ever wanna do the pac thing and educate ppl? or even do serious pimpin tracks like your joint w/ devin instead of funny pimp shit??
J-ZONE: not really into the education thing. not my style, and theres a lot of people that do it real well that fill that void. not to say i wouldnt or havent done any of those- i had a joint like that on my first album - but its not in my heart to do that at the moment and i just do what i feel at the moment.
G&W: speakin of 'greater later', was that just a one-off or are you doin more shit with rapalot??
J-ZONE: id love to. im not really in their target market, but id love to build working relationships with their artists. rap-a-lot is my favorite rap label ever. devin's homeboy kb, who was on some of his albums, is real dope. i spoke to him a few times and i would like to work with him in the future.
G&W: man how come you still aint put in work with all the other cats you said you wanted to, e40, suga, too short, project pat and all them?
J-ZONE: i cant afford most of them cats!! im not mad though, because if i ever get the money i know i can make it happen. at least they liked what i was doing musically, and that was my major concern. some of those dudes i wanna work with i have no contact for. i was in touch with b-legit a while back, but lost contact. i just gotta get on my grind.
G&W: whats goin on with al-shid?
J-ZONE: hes doin a solo album. i did a beat on it, but hes doin most of his own beats now. hes tryin to get into the production more, hes the illest mc i know.
G&W: howd you hook up with celph titled? are you workin more with him now?
J-ZONE: known him since 1999, he used to work at BUDS distribution. we workin on a joint venture project right now, both of us rappin and producin. check for that in 2005.
G&W: celph is from tampa right, are you gon put him on a booty bass track?
J-ZONE: shit, we both grew up on that 2 live crew and poison clan. that luke shit! we workin on that now man!
G&W: hot, what shit did you do on the copywrite mixtape??
J-ZONE: i did one song, it's called 'happy hour'.
G&W: yeah i heard that, thats like your timbaland soundin joint?
J-ZONE: it has that ring to it cause it sounds middle eastern i guess, but i never thought about it like that. i just make beats and if i like it, i put it on a beat tape. i don't make beats under category, like 'oh this is my club banger, this is my freestyle joint...' i just make whatever and dont think about shit like that.
G&W: one of your most classic songs is 'choir practice' with j-ro and king tee, do you think youre carrying on the 90s kinda party rap like the liks or beatnuts??
J-ZONE: sorta, im a little more concept driven than them, but theyre the basic blueprint for what I do and those groups are among my alltime favorites. and definitely in terms of the less serious rap, i grew up on tha liks and beatnuts. just funky beats and talkin plenty of shit, that's my style.
G&W: aight well who are your top 5 hottest rappers out of the west?
J-ZONE: all time:
1) ice cube 2) too $hort 3) ice-t 4) king t 5) eazy-e
current:
1) suga free 2) e-40 3) hittman 4) kurupt (even though technically he from philly) 5) snoop... man, I hope kurupt, snoop and dat nigga daz can squash that beef, dogg pound was the best shit EVER!
G&W: what abt top 5 hottest out the south???
all-time:
1) scarface 2) jt money (poison clan) 3) devin 4) willie d 5) brother marquis (2 live crew)
current:
1)devin 2) project pat 3) lil wayne 4) big tymer$ 5) kb
G&W: what rappers out now are garbage??
J-ZONE: im not really impressed with too many rappers now, but i hardly pay attention to anybody so maybe that's an unfair judgement. im just focused on j-zone and gettin with the cats that i like.
G&W: you always up on all those old film samples, what movies are you feelin this year?
J-ZONE: the most recent movie i seen is barbershop 2, i dont really keep up with movies.
G&W: you dropped a verse on e.c. allstars and did a couple beats for them, what was your relationship there?
J-ZONE: freelance producer. mighty mi would call when cage, tame or eon was back in the studio. i would bring beat cds and that was that. i did the ec all-stars verse and my 'live from pimp palace east' single on ec too. i havent done much work for them recently, but they were cool cause they were the only people who reached out to me for beats up until maybe 2 years ago.
G&W: do you feel like you fit in the underground rap game out now?
J-ZONE: no...
G&W: theres some cats youre down with like copy and celph, anyone else out now in the traditional underground youre feelin?
J-ZONE: copy and celph are both dope, of course al-shid... i like wordsworth & vakill too. i dont check for much underground to be honest. ive worked with all those artists that i just mentioned, so its all good. im tryin to collaborate outside my sub-genre. a lot of underground shit is cool, but there's not a lot off risk taking going on. i like to hear people stretch their thinking beyond the typical underground boom-bap shit. its similar to mainstream shit in where theres formulas and very few people will break that shit out of fear of not being accepted. man, if i could get a suga free or a project pat on a joint that would be ultimate. a lot of underground listeners might hate on it based on names alone, but as long as it sounds dope it don't matter.
G&W: have you deaded the race thing finally? did you ever catch a bad one for sayin niggas becuz peoples thought you were latin or white?
J-ZONE: it was never an issue with me, i know who i am. it was people who kept asking what color i was. im used to that cause i been gettin that my whole life, but it was to a point where they wouldnt even talk about my music. i would get links to message boards e-mailed to me and thats all theyd talk about so i would just be a smart ass about it on record, never caught a bad one though.
G&W: you were down with nice n smooth back in the day, have you thought about reachin out to greg nice again for a track?? any way i can hear that preacher earl joint??
J-ZONE: i havent seen greg in so long, he probably dont even remember my ass! i would work with him for sure though. he didnt even know me as j-zone, he knew me by my real name. i wasnt doing anything but demos back then. as for preacher earl, you gotta find a copy cause i aint playin that shit for nobody! you wouldnt even think i made that beat.
G&W: do you think youre more laid back now??
J-ZONE: musically, no, im goin all out and im gonna make people either love me or hate me. as a person, definitely. im just tryin to have fun and make me some money, so im laid back in that i don't get involved in no politics, rap beefs, etc. i just make records every year and do my own thing.
G&W: aight last question, any words for your peoples out there or shit you wanna hype??
J-ZONE: check for that j-zone and celph titled project next year, probably in the fall. name is tba, but we pretty much know what were gonna call it. i'll wait til next summer to start spillin details, its gonna be that FUNK! a job aint nuthin but work is my new album, out now. check it! big up to gelandweave.blogspot.com for the exposure and all my fans. to the haters too, whuz up, bitches! special shout to jermaine o'neal for knockin out that fat kid during the pacer/pistons brawl! man, i been watchin that tape all week and I made a new dance move that looks like him punchin that dude! this shit is gonna be bigger than the rockaway! peace!
― and what, Saturday, 12 April 2008 22:37 (eighteen years ago)
one month passes...
three months pass...
one month passes...
three weeks pass...
two months pass...
eight years pass...