Chopper City Boyz Interview Transcription
DJ Booth: What’s goin’ on, everybody? It’s your boy “Z,” doin’ it real big, and joining me inside the DJ Booth are two MC’s who will be sharing their tales of life in the concrete jungle on August the 26th. Please welcome Gar and Snipe of the Chopper City Boyz – fellas, how you doin’?
Snipe: What’s up, what’s up?
DJ Booth: How you doin’ today?
Snipe: How you doin’, Z?
DJ Booth: I’m doin’ fine, I’m doin’ fine. You know, you guys were talkin’ to me in the pre-interview, it’s real hot down in New Orleans. I’m in Chicago right now – we haven’t had that problem; it’s been pretty cool.
Gar: You’re in the Windy City, baby, but believe me, Chopper City out there and the Windy City, too, you know what I mean?
DJ Booth: That’s what’s up, guys. So tell me, what is life like in the concrete jungle?
Snipe: Aw, man, it’s just your everyday thing that go on, you know what I’m sayin’? Murders, hustlin’, crack houses, people gettin’ arrested, you see police rollin’ through the hood – it’s your everyday reality, that’s all it is.
Gar: It’s your everyday hood life, everyday real life, man. We realest down here in New Orleans. Y’all know the situation in New Orleans already, so you know what it is.
DJ Booth: Guys, when people pick up a copy of this album, are they gonna feel like they’re with you, seeing what you see, experiencing what you’ve experienced.
Snipe: Oh, of course. We’ve painted a picture for ‘em, know what I’m sayin’? Takin’ em through the hood, takin’ ‘em to the clubs with us, and the strip clubs, showin’ ‘em how we talk to the ladies, and showin’ ‘em how we rockin’ the streets. That’s basically what we’re talkin’ about.
DJ Booth: Do you feel it was difficult to find a difference between the gritty life that is New Orleans, and the fun that ytou are able to still have?
Snipe: When you get money, man, you do what you want. Where we come from, anybody get money, that draws from the gritty life, the crowd who live the gritty life. In New Orleans, you gotta be a man up front – none of that don’t even matter, it don’t bother nobody. You live a gritty life, you get money, you do what you do.
DJ Booth: To me, Chopper City Boyz have always been about street basngers, so, why did you guys decide to go against the grain and drop the mainstream record Bubblegum as the first single?
Snipe: Against the grain!
Gar: Let me tell you something: Chopper City, you know us – we’re a guaranteed stamp of approval, certified street music. Everything we deliver is nothing but quality street music, but, on the other hand, man, me and Snipe got a swag that you could bag up and tag up, and sell it in the store, so we just wanted to cater to these ladies, ‘cause we know we can do, so we tried so see what we could do on the mic with ‘em, know what I’m sayin’?
Snipe: Chopper City girls, that’s what it’s about.
DJ Booth: Okay, see, that was the explanation that I needed, but, off this question, do you guys feel that the current climate of the record industry is forcing artists to make music that isn’t necessarily their style, just so that they can find a home at radio?
Gar: Check it out, check it out, check it out. Don’t get it twisted – I know Bubblegum is not our style of music, or whatnot, but if you listen at the song, and you listen at the lyrics, that’s what we do. We ain’t gone commercial or nothing, we didn’t try to go mainstream; we’re bringin’ ‘em over here to Chopper City.
DJ Booth: So for all listeners who have followed you guys your whole career, and then heard Lil’ Wayne drop Lollipop and then you guys drop Bubblegum, there’s no coincidence, right?
Gar: No coincidence at all. As a matter of fact, I’m gonna let the cat all the way out of the bag: Bubblegum was recorded way before we even heard of Lollipop. And, no sh*ttin’ on Lollipop, big ups to Lil’ Wayne, sellin’ a million in the first week. The Bubble just been recorded, and it was a coincidence for me to hear Lollipop. I was like, “Wow, look at that!”
DJ Booth: All right, guys, let’s talk about another song off the upcoming album. It’s entitled Never Look Back. Let’s say you guys didn’t follow your own advice. What you’re sayin’ to do is never look back – what is one career move that each ofg you would have liked to make, could you have altered the past?
Gar: One career move, to alter the past?
DJ Booth: Yeah, if you’re lookin’ back, what would you change?
Gar: I’d probably… I wouldn’t change a motherf*ckin’ thing.
Snipe: Exactly. I wouldn’t change nothing, because everything is written, you know what I’m sayin’? It’s bound to happen, whether you try to change it or not.
Gar: I don’t have no regrets; I wouldn’t change nothing.
DJ Booth: Guys, obviously you have the upcoming release, plus I hear there’s whispers you have a follow-up album to this Life in the Concrete Jungle, plus...
Snipe: Right. This [is] just to set us up for our story.
DJ Booth: Okay, so with the set-up, you also have B.G., who’s going to be dropping his new solo project, Too Hood to be Hollywood. With all this stuff goin’ on at the same time, is the aim to just hit everyone over the head with brand new music?
Snipe: Oh, believe that!
Gar: That’s the whole…
Snipe: It’s the blueprint! We gonna give y’all the Chopper City blueprint.
DJ Booth: Has it been difficult on both of you, working with B.G. On this Chopper City Boyz project, and also having to see him work on his solo project?
Gar: Nah… actually, we all [did] studio together when we could, and when B.G. has to be somewhere, we have to be somewhere else, that’s what happens. But, recordin’ this album, Snipe did like 80 percent of this album by himself in the studio, and B.G. just came in and complimented everything that he liked or whatnot.
DJ Booth: Do you guys feel that for the most part, when people associate Chopper City with B.G., you are on the side, you feel left out?
Snipe: No, no, no, not at all.
Gar: No indeed, ‘cause I know when they say, “Chopper City,” I’m a part of Chopper City.
Snipe: Believe that.
Gar: From the bottom to the top, front, and back.
Snipe: When they mention B.G., they mentionin’ me, ‘cause I’m a part of that.
DJ Booth: It seems like you guys got it goin’ on, so there’s no room at all to be feelin’ left out. I like that. I looked on your MySpace page, and I saw that there’s an ad saying that you’re looking for the next Chopper City Boy – did you find one, are you still in search?
Snipe: It’s still up in the air.
Gar: Still searchin’ right now. Everybody who’s been loggin’ on and tryin’ and applyin’, I appreciate y’all.
Snipe: And send your demos to the office.
Gar: Just keep tryin’. It’s still up in the air.
DJ Booth: Fellas, you’re talkin’ about bringin’ the streets to the corporate world, and another group in the industry did just that, with their own reality show, when they wanted to find a new member. I’m talkin’ about the Pussycat Dolls. They got a new TV show when they wanted a new Pussycat; are you guys thinkin’ maybe the Chopper City Boyz need tgheir own reality show, to find the next guy?
Gar: It was bein’ talked about, it was bein’ talked about – as a matter of fact, it’s still bein’ talked about. I mean, who knows? Who knows what the future holds?
Snipe: It wouldn’t hurt. If anything, it’d help.
Gar: The sky’s the limit.
DJ Booth: Okay, so for all of the audience members listening to this interview, hoping to maybe get the chance to be that next Chopper City Boy, what are some of the characteristics and skills that you’re looking for in not only an MC, but also a member of this movement?
Snipe: Pretty much I’m just lookin’ for you to be yourself. But at the same time, I see nowadays how the music comin’ out, you know, where you have to be a great rapper to have a fanbase. Just keep it real with yourself, keep it real with me, and we’ll be all good.
DJ Booth: Let’s get real for a second. Unfortunately, former Chopper City Boy VL Mike was shot and killed this past April. How has his murder affected the group?
Snipe: It affected me, because he was like a brother, man. I mean, he is a brother, due to the fact that he’s gone. And it happened two days after my birthday, so that kinda messed my whole weekend up, to see him in that casket like that, knowin’ that just a year before that, he was with us on the road and stuff – I mean, that’s like losin’ a family member. So you can pretty much understand, it’s self-explanatory
DJ Booth: I actually had the chance to speak with Mike about a week before he was gunned down, and he sounded very upbeat about the position he found himself in with his career, on the solo tip. Were there any hard feelings from his departure from the group?
Snipe: Not at all.
Gar: I mean, when you’re on one team, you’re rootin’ for that one team. When you have a member that goes against the grain, you kinda don’t agree with the move. You know, y’all might not be sharin’ the same vision. I didn’t agree with the move, but, at the end of the day, I know we’re all men, and we got families to feed, so…
DJ Booth: Because violence is such a major issue in your home city of New Orleans, like it is in many metropolitan cities across the country, will the thematic presence of the effects of violence and its overall detriment to its city’s members, be discussed on this album?
Gar: I remember last album, in the magazines, they said all we talk about is murder. But this album, we have no doubt that we have our gangster music on this album, our street music on this album. We workin’ it, man, we workin’ it. It’s a whole new thing, whole new flavor, Chopper City Boyz in the building.
DJ Booth: Well, that’s what’s up. Certainly in the building, and, right now, inside the booth with me. Why don’t you let everybody else know where they can find out more – a website, or a MySpace page?
Snipe: You can hit us up at myspace.com/ccrboyz.
DJ Booth: I appreciate you takin’ the time to join me inside the DJ Booth. Nothin’ but the best of luck.
Snipe: Appreciate you havin’ us, Z.
Gar: I appreciate that, man; same to you. Chopper City in the building!
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