Ca$his Interview Transcription
DJ Booth: What’s going ya’ll? It’s your boy “Z,” doin’ it real big, and joining me inside the DJ Booth is a newcomer who rides with Shady. Readying the release of his EP, County Hound, please welcome my former Chi-town neighbor, Cashis…how ya’ doin’?
Cashis: I’m doin’ real good. I’m still ya’ Chi-town neighbor [though.] I got a crib out there, so we still good.
DJ Booth: Okay. So you live out in Cali’, you have a crib in Chicago—where do you consider home?
Cashis: Chicago, man I’m a Chicago person. Most of my life was spent in Chicago so I’m a Chicago native. Cali’ took me in and embraced me, so I love California, too. My time will be split up a little more evenly though, now that I’m on Shady. I’m good to go back n forth as much as I want.
DJ Booth: Let’s get into your career now. You’ve transitioned from being a member of a group to a solo artist. What has been the hardest part of that transition?
Cashis: Everything has been beautiful. I love being a solo artist. I get to express myself 100%. This is how I feel. If you’re in a group, there are times where certain members haven’t lived the way you do. That forces you to write a record on a group consensus. You have to write where you don’t overpower or overshadow another [member.] Now, with three verses on my own song, I’m just battling’ myself. It’s hard work, but it’s been great.
DJ Booth: Cashis, releasing an EP prior to the drop of an LP worked wonders for Eminem on his debut. Why did you decide to change the name from “County Hound” to “Loose Cannon” though, rather than brand one or the other?
Cashis: Because its somethin’ Em came up with when he said, “Man you crazy. You like a loose cannon. That’s what you should call your album.” I said cool, let’s roll with it, so the “County Hound” became the name of [just] the EP. The [EP] is different from the songs on the LP. None of the songs will appear on both. It’s gonna be like a full-length album first, so we wanted to change it from the start. Every time I come out, we are gonna drop an EP before the LP. It’s a setup where I can keep doin’ the mix tapes, to give people somethin’ that’s more affordable. It’s like every time a Cashis album comes out, you can get an EP with 8 songs for only five or six dollars. Then you will know that the full-length album is gonna be crazy. I just want to give the fans more new music; I have so much I’ve recorded that I want to get out.
DJ Booth: Promotionally, it couldn’t be any smarter. Now, I’ve heard the EP, and when you rap, not only are you good, but it sounds like you enjoy what you do. So often artists are heard saying, “This rap thing works.” Except the problem is that they don’t sound like they enjoy it when they record. What is different with Cashis?
Cashis: I love it. I enjoy music. I put my heart into every record, no matter what. That’s what I have to do. It’s fun because I’m reliving my life throughout the music. I find different ways to say it, so I definitely have fun with the music. When I don’t have fun with it, is when I don’t need to do it. That’s when the fans will realize it.
DJ Booth: Well you’re just starting off your career in the mainstream, so that won’t be coming for a long time…
Cashis: I just signed a life time contract, and I am trying to go as long as Snoop [Dogg.] He’s put out a million plus albums [over his career] and still appealed to the youth at the same time…
DJ Booth: Call him up then and let him know he has a challenger, because no one has come around and told him that for a long time…
Cashis: Exactly! —ha-ha-ha [laughing]
DJ Booth: On the album Eminem Presents: The Re-Up, you were selected to join Em’, 50 Cent and Lloyd Banks on the lead single, “You Don’t Know.” Did Em’ come to you for the feature verse or did you have to convince him to jump on board?
Cashis: Yeah, Em’ hit me up and said, “I got this record, it was supposed to be 50’s new record off his next album, but we’re going to use it for the Re-Up single.” That way we can go ahead and smash sh*t. He talked to Curtis and Banks and played them some of my stuff; materials off the LP. They listened and they were like “yeah-yeah-yeah,” so I came in and wrote three verses in 15 minutes. He was like, “Man, I like each one of these verses. Em didn’t know which one to pick.” We went with one of them, and [we] are gonna use the other verses on another album.
DJ Booth: Being co-signed by Eminem doesn’t hurt your cred, but on the flipside, it hasn’t helped Obie Trice move units on both his Shady releases. What is going to be different with your releases?
Cashis: First of all, this is a limited collector’s edition release. So if I sell to 100-200 thousand copies of the EP, however much we pressed up, then I’ve sold everything that I’ve printed up. It took $50,000 to make this project, which is really really really really cheap, so I’m not going to be in the red for nothing. After its sold out of the stores, you won’t be able to get it no more, and they’ll have to wait until the LP comes out in September or October. We want people to get this, be shocked by it, and then have a hunger for more. Off the strength of the Re-Up, my buzz grew really strong. Now, I wanna show people I can really spit and do a whole different range of records. On the LP, you will really get to hear all of it.
DJ Booth: Okay, so when 300,000 copies get sold out, what are you going to do? Looks like you’d be in a bind… [laughing]
Cashis: Naw. 50 comes out next month, on June 26th. I’m going to be chillin’, tourin’, and doing promo runs. I have shows and in-between will finish my LP, which is about halfway finished being mixed. I like to keep making more songs to make it more difficult. When I make a new batch of songs to be sent to Detorit, Eminem is like ‘damn.’
DJ Booth: He get pissed off at you?
Cashis: Naw, he said that is the best problem to have. He explained how if I only had three good records and the rest were just fillers, he would be nervous. That just shows that everything he said about me is real. What he feels about me is good. It’s honest, and that other people feel the same way.
DJ Booth: The only other Cashis many people know, is of course the greatest boxer of all-time, Muhammad Ali (before his changed his name.) He made famous the quote “Float like a Butterfly, Sting like a Bee.” I want to know from this, Cashis. What motto do you live by?
Cashis: The motto I live by is—
DJ Booth: You can make up one now, if you want to make up one.
Cashis: The motto I live by is “Winners never fail, and losers never trust.”
DJ Booth: And you’re a winner…
Cashis: Yes, I’m a definite winner!
DJ Booth: Well then you have it made in the shade. Cashis go ahead and you’re your website or MySpace page, so they can find out more about you and of course the “County Hound EP,” out in stores now!
Cashis: Sure, it’s www.myspace.com/cashisoc. I got www.cashis227.com and you check me out on the Shady website or Interscope website. We got other sites goin’ up, even as we speak, right now. I’ll be able to tell you a little more information [later.]
DJ Booth: Beautiful! I wish you nothin’ but the best of luck. Rep’ Chi-town to the fullest!
Cashis: You know it. I was born in Cook County Hospital. I will represent Chi-town to the fullest!
DJ Booth: I saw your promo pics’. I love your hat with the Chicago skyline. Where can I get one? [laughing]
Cashis: Thank you man, I appreciate it. That’s what I wanted people to get. When people see that they’ll know I am a Chicago artist.
DJ Booth: Cashis, man—nothin’ but the best of luck.
Cashis: Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks for talkin’ to me man.
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