Slim Thugs drops the visuals for his new joint with Curren$y and Dre Day, entitled “Can’t Stop”. The Boss Hogg Outlaw has been doing his whole indie thing for a minute, and shows no signs of letting up now that the trend has shifted away from the major label deal. Curren$y is tapped for a verse on this one, and shows why he’s more than just another Frisco beanie.

The post New Video: Slim Thug – Can’t Stop ft. Curren$y & Dre Day appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

interview by @petermarrack

Le$ is a man of his word. He promises smooth, easy-going ‘3rd Coast’ hip-hop, and that’s exactly what he delivers. The Houston rapper’s most recent mixtape, Settle 4 Le$ Vol. 2, is an ideal testament to that promise. On records like, “Shut It Down”, which made its way around the blogs, Le$ infuses straightforward bars with a kaleidoscope personality that extends beyond just his music. I mean, shit, Le$ is the homie up in the club in candy-colored kicks, swangin with the Boss Hogg Outlawz and making it rain on them bitches… no? Far from it actually. So you shouldn’t feel particularly obliged to exaggerate on the dude’s behalf. Just make sure to acknowledge his progress, as he plans to drop Vintage on January 1st, and spell his goddamn name right. [Le$ is not an acronym you hipster degenerates]

Come to think of it, maybe Le$ does do those things, at least the shoes…

Read the complete interview after the jump.

I downloaded Settle 4 Le$ Vol. 2 last week and I thought it was great.

Oh really, oh really. I appreciate that, homie.

Has “Shut It Down” been getting any radio play out in Houston, or are the Satellite Radio DJs fucking with you at all?

I don’t know about Satellite, but down here we working it. They just doing some transitions down here with the program director and everything, but they’re definitely about to start playing it soon. They’re pushing us for the radio here, 97.9.

That would be great.

Actually, the weird thing is, we were pushing that record, but people are gravitating more towards that “3rd Coastin” record with Killa Kyleon and Paul Wall.

You have the video for it too, right?

Yeah, we did a little viral video for it, and everybody actually gravitated towards that one. That might be the one that ends up getting played.

Yeah, it’s an interesting song. What’s “3rd Coastin” mean? I’m from Canada so I don’t know, right? [laughs]

Well, you know, they always call the South the 3rd Coast. The whole Screw Up Click used to call it the 3rd Coast, and that’s just something we played off of.

I was told you were shooting a video today. Which one?

Yeah, we’re shooting a video for the song called “My Life”, and then two days ago we shot one for “Smoking Exotic”, Slim Thug and I. And last night we shot one for “I’m On It”, so we’re working big.

Oh man.

You got to do that these days.

Some artists are doing videos for every song on their tape.

Yeah, exactly, got to keep up, man.

When I talked to Slim two weeks ago, he said he was introduced to you through his brother, as well as some DJ, because they heard The Beautiful Struggle. Do you remember being introduced to Slim differently, or in more detail? How was it?

That was amazing how that happened, because I was just handing out my CDs, doing the footwork on my own, and they have a DJ out here called DJ Mr. Rogers. He’s the one who actually did my tape. He’s a producer. He’s produced for Curren$y, a few other cats, Slim. He DJs clubs out here and stuff, so I had my CDs and he actually got ahold of one. We ran into each other outside a little store, a little clothing store out here, and he sent me some beats that night, and I sent them right back to him with complete songs. So we started working, and he’s the DJ for Slim’s label, and Slim’s brother, Ray, is the CEO of the label. He runs the label, he and Slim are the CEOs. His brother became familiar with me through the DJ, DJ Mr. Rogers, and they just saw me working real hard. They introduced me to Slim and Slim’s sitting there working and he heard the music, and from thereon we’ve been rocking together.

Was that a long time coming, or was it surprising how quick it came?

It’s kind of both. It always seemed like when it happened it happened fast, but it was also a long time coming, because I had been out there working my music for a minute. It was a gradual process, it wasn’t nothing like overnight. Rogers and I linked up, and two or three months passed and I’m still out there grinding, getting my music around. Rogers and I did a whole tape together and he put that out. That took off kind of quick, down here locally and even on the web. I don’t really have any connections on the internet or anything, but 2DopeBoyz and OnSMASH and everybody were still posting my music. I don’t know how they got it, but they got it. At the time, and still, there aren’t many Houston artists on those websites, so it got a lot of attention, especially locally. They were like, “Who’s this guy?” It came quick, but it was still a long time coming.

Even now people are referencing you on blogs, talking about other artists.

It’s crazy. [laughs]

What’s with all the variations of the name? No blog can get it right. Some say Le$, others use the acronym, L.E.$. Is Les your real name?

My real name is Les. It’s crazy. I even told the blog, “I don’t know where ya’ll got the periods from.” Because I think that made it hard for everybody to find the music. There’s no periods in my name, but that’s what everybody puts. When I write it I never put any periods. It’s really just Les or Le$. People here sometimes call me ‘L.E. Dollar’, or ‘Dollar’ for short. I remember Fader Magazine, they posted something about me talking about how hard it was to find me. Even people call me by my Twitter name now. Like the whole Settle 4 Le$ thing, I’ve walked into the club and somebody’s yelled out, “Settle 4 Le$!” It’s pretty weird. [laughs]

I’m glad I got the right one now. You were talking about Mr. Rogers. Is he a big West Coast fan?

Man, really Rogers is a huge music fan. He’s a real DJ. You have a lot of DJs who do it for the money, or do it for the clubs, but he’s a really, really big music fan. Everyday he puts me on to something new. He put me up on Kendrick Lamar, the new cats, Dom Kennedy, but then he’ll put me on to some whole other genre of music. We’re both really big West Coast hip-hop fans, MC Eiht, Ice Cube, we’re actually working on tape right now over a bunch of old West Coast beats. It’s the era we grew up in. I’m 26, so me growing up that was something that was real relevant during our time. Down here in Houston and in the South it seemed like we got more West Coast music than we did East Coast. We were rocking with them when we were younger.

That’s understandable. The same summer vibe.

Exactly. It’s like LA and Houston have the same vibe almost, especially back in the day. We almost just copied what they were doing. [laughs]

Some of the production reminded me of Kush & Orange Juice. You mentioned Rogers produced for Curren$y…

Well, those beats, I got those beats from one of my producers named Cardo. He is Wiz’s producer. He produced a few tracks on Kush & Orange Juice.

That explains it then.

Yeah, that’s Cardo. He has the most beats on my project other than Rogers.

Cardo has that one sound in all his shit, like a bongo drum.

Yeah, it’s called a cowbell. [laughs] That’s what they call it. It’s called a little cowbell. He did “Mezmorized” on Kush & Orange Juice, he did “In The Cut”. He did a few others. He did the one with Wiz and Snoop Dogg.

They’re good tracks. Do you think the laid-back vibe of your music still resonates during a Houston winter. Is anything season-specific?

Down here it doesn’t really get too cold. Just the other day we were shooting a video and we were riding around with the top down on the car. It doesn’t get too cold. We might have a few spots here and there when it gets down to 30, but it’ll be right back up to 65 or 70 two or three days later.

Yeah, well, I actually used to live in The Woodlands.

Oh, okay, yeah, you should know that then. [laughs]

[laughs] I should, shouldn’t I? Sometimes it got a little cold.

Yeah, it gets cold for a month maybe. Because we were getting some Letterman jackets designed the other day. We were like, “Man, we need to hurry up and come on with it because the winter’s going to be over.” [laughs]

You don’t have them yet?

We do, but we’re waiting for everything to get stitched up on them right now. We’re waiting to get them back.

Does the weather in Houston ever influence your music, or maybe the music influences the weather? [laughs]

It’s more of just a lifestyle, what we do everyday, how we be chillin. We do a lot of riding around. There’ll be days when we’re in the car and we just ride all day, between going to the studio and going out, doing shows and all this stuff. We be chillin, you know, hanging out. We get high, ride around. My music really reflects what we do. We really just be chillin, man, trying to enjoy ourselves. The world is crazy at this point in time, but we just do us and enjoy ourselves. That’s what I want for my music, what I want people to get, like, “enjoy yourselves.” I don’t try to be over people’s heads, or a super rapper, I just want people to be able to put it in and listen to it from front to back.

Is that your white car in the “3rd Coastin” video?

Naw, no, heck no, that’s not my car. [laughs] That’s a cool one, but I got a black one. We just used that one for the video. The black one’s actually in the video with Killa [Kyleon], when we’re leaning against the car. But the white one we just used for the old school vibe. It was cool. But when I was driving that car, man, something was wrong with the steering wheel. I don’t know if you can notice it in the video, but there’s a certain moment when I look at the steering wheel funny. I thought it was about to come off. [laughs]

Just snap right off. [laughs]

I was like, “What the hell?”

Music-wise, what do you like to ride to?

Curren$y, that’s the homie. I like his music. I like Slim’s music. I grew up on Slim’s music. That’s why it’s cool that I get to work with him. Bun B, Pimp C, UGK, Jay-Z, Cube, I still listen to Cube, all the CDs. It all depends on how I feel that day.

Any Drake in there?

Drake, yeah, I like his new CD. I like the second half of his CD, the songs without the singing on it are the ones I really like.

Paul Wall has a great verse on your tape. What’s allowed Paul to stay relevant, as far as the mainstream goes, because there are guys like Mike Jones who are struggling?

I really don’t know. Honestly, I’ve never met Mike Jones, which is crazy. I’ve met and dealt with everyone in Houston. You look at my CD and I have all the OGs from the scene out here on my CD. But I’ve never even met Mike Jones, man. I’ve seen him out here before, but I’ve never dealt with him or met him, so I don’t really know about his situation. I just know Paul, and Paul’s a grinder, regardless of his music. Outside of rap he’s always getting to it. Really what I think is enabling him right now is dealing with Slim, because Slim’s doing the weekly releases on Twitter and grinding real hard. It made Paul want to get in there and do the same thing. Slim is just using the resources that are available to him. He’s got Twitter with a certain number of followers so he drops songs on there and everybody’s going to get to hear it. It’s crazy because a lot of those songs that he’s dropping on Twitter, we end up hearing them on the radio. It’s pretty cool, so I’m sure that motivated Paul to get on his grind and do his thing.

Word.

At this point, with any artist, like I said I’m shooting all these videos, you don’t have to wait for a label anymore. A lot of those older artists weren’t used to doing stuff the new way. They’re used to being on labels and having to wait for the go-ahead. That’s why Slim is able to do it so well, because he was always more or less independent. He could always do what he wanted to do, so I think the other guys need to figure that out.

I really like the cover art for Settle 4 Le$ Vol. 2. That’s you, I’m assuming, on the cover.

Yeah. [laughs] That’s me when I was younger.

You have any memories of that photograph.

Honestly, not really. I have no clue. My mom sent me that picture one day and I’m like, “What the hell? Why am I sitting like that when I was younger, like I was cool or something?” [laughs]

Use your imagination. What do you think was going on?

I don’t know. I was probably being bad, mimicking my dad or something. I was a very mischievous kid. I had to be up to something in that picture. I was trying to be extra cool.

You’re scheming something.

[laughs] Yeah.

Looking at your Twitter, you’ve got an impressive camo game.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ve been doing that for a minute, man. A lot of people think that comes from the Wiz Khalifa thing, but a lot of people don’t know. I’m pretty sure Wiz got that from Curren$y, because I’m originally from New Orleans, and that’s something we’ve been doing for a minute. Back in the Master P days we always rocked camouflaged shorts. It was almost out of necessity, because camouflage almost goes with everything. When you grow up a little less fortunate it’s easier to have that to wear, and then as we got older we just kind of stuck with it.

People in Toronto are wearing the camo pants.

Yeah, we definitely got the pants, because it’s getting cold out here. I just bought two pairs of pants like two weeks ago.

What about those shoes on your Twitter with the blue laces, that everyone was calling ugly?

Oh, you talking about the Ice Cream’s? Those are the Pharrell joints. It’s just one person who called them ugly. It was my partner, one of the guys who shoots our videos, he’s more of an old school dude. If I put a picture of his shoes, his shoes are horrible. I got a different type of style. I don’t really try to follow anybody. I just do me.

You like the kaleidoscope colors.

Yeah, I got all kinds of colors. I just have fun. I love to be that dude in the club, because we get in all the clubs out here, I love to be the one who doesn’t follow the dress code but you still see me up in there. [laughs]

So what’s next for you?

Well, the tape we’re working on over all the West Coast beats is called Vintage. We’re dropping that on like New Years. The fans probably aren’t expecting a tape that quick, so we’re going to surprise them with that one. [not anymore] Then we have another tape coming out probably in February.

– By @petermarrack

The post Exclusive Interview: Le$ Talks Houston Hip-Hop, Slim Thug, Paul Wall & Camo Shorts appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Yo! Raps Magazine drops this dope interview with Houston mainstay Slim Thug. The Boss Hogg Outlaw reveals new information about past health issues, sippin syrup, his forthcoming book, and a mixtape entitled Houston.

Read the complete interview after the jump.

I was just watching you on YouTube talking about your new book. Looks pretty interesting. When’s that coming out?

December 26th. I got a book and a mixtape coming out the same day, December 26th.

What’s the mixtape called?

The mixtape is called Houston, and I’ve been leaking songs from it. Traditionally everyone does a mixtape and they just put it out. They might drop a mixtape today and they put out three songs out over the internet, and then it’s over. I’m doing this mixtape, every Thursday I leak a song that’s going to be on the mixtape, so people have a week to deal with that one song. December 26th, I have extra songs people never heard before, also the ones that already leaked.

I just listened to “Houston”, with the NFL theme music.

The good thing about the mixtape is that it should be fresh. It’s the freshest music you can get. We usually go Wednesday night, do the record, Thursday morning mix it, then as soon as I get it I send it out. It’s a real fresh process.

I imagine that’s a gruelling process. Do you feel pressure having to put one out every week?

No, not really. It really just falls into place. Everything’s been falling into place, man. I might go to the studio and do that, but also do three extra songs. In the studio we usually average two or three songs every time we go. We just take the best out of that.

Kanye set the bar pretty high with the G.O.O.D Friday weekly releases, but your music is sounding pretty cold too.

Appreciate it. Appreciate it.

I wanted to go back to the book for a second. You said you stay pretty frugal with your expenses. Don’t you think younger artists are already getting better at this? I heard A$AP Rocky, he signs a deal for 3 mil and it’s just sitting in his bank account, gaining interest. Do you think rappers are getting better?

I don’t know, man. I don’t know. I hope so. That’s what I’m really going to try and hand down to them. As a rapper, my opinion is that we do a lot of dumb shit. A lot of shit that’s cool, or is supposed to be cool, is pretty dumb, when it comes to being an investor or thinking about your future. Muthafuckers are dropping thousands on bottles when it only takes one to get you wasted. That’s dumb. It don’t make no sense. You make it rain on a bitch, spend 20 grand on her, and go home with the desert dick. It’s dumb, but it’s cool to everyone else. So I’m trying to let muthafuckers see it from both sides. Really the book was a line I said in I Run, on Boss of All Bosses, you know, How to Survive in a Recession, ‘I’m about to put out a book’, I was just bullshittin’. Then people started asking for it.

You had to live up to it.

Right. Slowly I’d just be writing shit, all along, tips or whatever. And for every tip, I’d break it down, what I mean. It ain’t just all about that though. It’s about different quotes and shit I do on Twitter, some funny shit people might have liked on Twitter. There’s a section on how to make it in the rap game, that type of shit. It’s also got a section telling about my life, and how I got in the game, where I’m coming from. You might hear stories from my mother, from different people around me, close friends. It ain’t like a story, an autobiography or nothing like that, it’s more of a fun book.

You’ve always had side hustles, with the real estate and you owned a record store. How do you balance these things, how do you put yourself in a position that you can juggle multiple responsibilities? Is there a specific recipe?

Man, it’s really not that hard. You’re not going to be doing all the work by yourself. Whatever you do, you got to form some kind of team, so I wasn’t working in the record store or nothing like that. I wasn’t always dealing with the real estate we bought or whatever, like I got people around me who I would hire for that. It’s really about having an idea, setting up some sort of plan, executing it, and hiring people to run that for you, and just collect. People don’t understand that shit. It’s not that hard. It’s just getting out there and shooting the dice with it. You got to try it, if you don’t try it- A lot of muthafuckers got ideas that come to them everyday that could make them millionaires, but they don’t act on it. It’s all about acting on it.

It’s better to try and fail, than not to try at all.

Exactly.

Now, is Le$ one of your Boss Hogg Outlawz artists?

Yeah, yeah, he’s one of my artists. He’s got a mix CD dropping November 22nd.

Yeah, Settle 4 Les 2, right?

Yeah, he’s actually in the other room.

I was listening to “Shut Your Hood Down”. Great record!

Yeah, man.

Is that a “Forever” sample buried in that beat?

That’s a what sample?

“Forever“, you know the song with Drake, Kanye, and Wayne?

Oh, yeah yeah yeah. I don’t even know that [laughs].

Is that sample in there? I was going to ask you.

[Shouting to Le$ in the other room] Le$, is that a “Forever” sample in that “Shut Your Hood Down” beat? The one with Drake, “Forever”. Is that sample in there? He says he don’t know. He says it’s a blues sample. It’d probably be the same one.

You know that Sprite commercial with Drake, it was on before the BET Awards?

Where he drinks that in the studio and shit?

Yeah, the song goes ‘duh, duh, duh’ [imitating the “Forever” beat]? It sounds like that.

I’m going to check it out. I’m going to check it out, homie.

How did you become familiar with Le$? What were you doing when you were first introduced to him?

I was actually talking to my brother and my DJ, DJ Mr. Rogers. He was really working with Mr. Rogers first. He put out a mix CD called Beautiful Struggle a while back, and everybody was talking about how it was crazy. People kept talking about it, and the music was real and I liked it. So really he teamed up with us through my brother and my DJ, they brought him to me, and the first music I heard from him was on that mixtape, Beautiful Struggle. We clicked immediately, got in the studio. I like his work ethic. It’s as good as mine. It ain’t got to be no recycled raps. We go in the studio and turn nothing into something. That’s why I like working with him.

You almost went through a makeover last year. You slimmed down, cut off the hair, stopped wearing the do-rags and baggy polos.

[Laughs] For real.

When did all this click? What made you realize you had to make some changes?

I always said for the longest time when I get to 30 I’m cutting my braids off and taking out my grill. Because I thought I’d be entering a different part of my life, and that stuff’s kind of childish. I’ve really been planning it and stuck to it. And then with braid ladies and waiting on them, you’re getting your hair braided and I got to go to the store and get some food, I got to take a cigarette, man… so fuck that. I cut that shit off my head, got a $15 dollar haircut and that shit be over with. I don’t got to wear this fucking do-rag. I don’t got to look dumb for a week when I can’t find this crazy bitch. I hate having people have power over me. And with the grillz shit, I wanted to take that step into manhood where I felt I needed to put that shit up and get grown right quick. With the weight shit, I was going to the doctor and I used to be on 5 mg of blood pressure pills. Then they upped my shit to 10 mg, or maybe higher than that, I don’t remember, they upped my shit and was saying my shit was real high. So I was like, “How do I get off this shit?” I don’t want to take no pills for the rest of my life, and they were like, “Well, you got to lose weight. That might help, and change your diet.” And I did that. It still ain’t fucking helped. I’m still taking the pills but I got used to it, working out, running. We run. I do some shit called Fun Fitness. I invited everyone out to come run three miles. We usually get 30 people out there.

That’s awesome. It seems like you’re taking the steps. They’ll pay off eventually.

I feel good though. I’m straight on the weight side. I’m good. I’m comfortable. I run that shit like it ain’t nothing. I’m alright right now, got a good little system going, keeping this work in the studio going, working out, I feel like I’m moving.

Mike Jones and Paul Wall have slimmed down too. It’s almost like you guys do everything in a pack. You blew up together, now you’re losing weight together. Is that just a coincidence?

[Laughs] Yeah, that’s a coincidence like a muthafucker. I know Paul had to get the Lypo shit or whatever, but I haven’t even seen Mike, honestly. I don’t know, I can’t even speak for him. I ain’t even really seen him so I don’t know if he works out as much as me or what.

Yeah, and speaking of that movement, the Houston movement from a couple years back, now you have this growing fan base from the East Coast, because you’ve got guys like A$AP Rocky and Drake pushing the Houston sound, and people are revisiting the Houston movement. Is it surreal to think of something like “Still Tippin” as nostalgic, or old, because it wasn’t that long ago?

That’s how I feel. People are calling me OG right now, I’m 31. It gets real crazy, like muthafuckers think I’m older than I really am. I started rapping when I was 17 so I guess that’s what it is, because I’ve been in the game a minute and muthafuckers been hearing my name and shit, so they probably think I’m older than I am. Like muthafuckers like Rick Ross are 34 or 33, muthafuckin Jeezy, all the hot muthafuckers are older than me now, you know what I’m saying? They’re looking at me like I’m OG, and I’m like, “Naw, man.” But with the Houston shit, it seemed Houston was trying to get away from the fucking sound, but everybody else was jumping on it. It seemed like a lot of the Houston artists were like, “Man,” because we’ve been doing that shit, muthafuckers be like, “We don’t want to be talking about shit like candy paint, talking about Houston.” Muthafucker say that. Even different producers, the one who made the “Shut Your Hood Down” beat actually, before we did the fucking song he was like, “Man, don’t be saying this Houston shit, you know, candy paint.” Man, fuck that, that’s who we are. Muthafuckers don’t want me to come out and do an album and sound like Wale. They going to know that ain’t me. They want to hear me do my Houston shit. They know that’s where I’m from. They want me to talk about that shit. They want to see Houston through my music.

It’s your sound, after all.

Right, that’s my sound. That’s what I’m going to stick to, and a lot of muthafuckers probably felt like that, and heard that from different producers, and tried to switch the swag up on it and make others songs and go away from that sound, but now it seems people are running back to it.

Yeah, definitely. I was trying to get a Mike Jones interview, because I thought people would go crazy over that, even more crazy than before when he had the records out.

[Laughs] Yeah, yeah, man. I haven’t talked to that dude in a minute. I heard he lives in Atlanta though.

With all the Houston nostalgia comes the promethazine-codeine epidemic, the whole ‘Everything Purple’ craze. Do you ever regret promoting this kind of lifestyle, because you’ve got the lyrics, “Lean a little smoke a lot”, “Henny with the purple mix it up in a circle”? I know first-hand kids are going to the doctor and they’re trying to score cough syrup. What’s your opinion on this stuff?

Man, let me tell you, I don’t go to kids’ schools and talk to them, and I get a lot of requests, “Come to this middle school and talk to the kids, tell them to.” They acting like I’m tripping, I don’t want to give back. But on the cool, really what it is is that I know who I am, and I know that I’m not perfect. I do a lot of fucked up shit. I’m still trying to find myself in a lot of ways. I don’t want to go talk to kids and be their mentor or anything. Because I’m fucked up, I’d go to the school and say, “Hey, man, don’t do drugs,” and then they see me on Twitter smoking a joint. That’s what I do. It’s kind of confusing. Do you stop being yourself and start living your life for other people, or do you remain who you are and don’t get in the mix with other people who would try to guide kids? Maybe when I get a little older and I feel like, “Fuck that. I ain’t going to do that anymore or whatever, just do this for the kids…”

People forget you’re still young, like you said.

Exactly, like I said, I still fuck up. Last thing I want to do though is promote it and have some kids doing that shit. Because really I don’t sip syrup at all no more, just for health reasons. I’m a hustler and I don’t like looking dumb all day. I can move and work on weed, but when I’m on drank I just sit there and look dumb, and my day is over. The minute I’m done with a cup or two my day is over, I’m sitting and relaxing and chillin’ and watching TV and doing some dumb shit. So I can’t sip as much as I really would want to. I don’t promote it. I say over and over again the bad shit, like one of the NFL players you’ve probably seen on ESPN if you’re a sports fan. Just the other day he got six years because he sipped syrup. He got caught with it more than once though. His name’s Johnny Jolly. Just think about that though. He’s losing millions because he wanted to sip some syrup out of a fucking cup. He lost not only the millions he was going to get paid by the NFL, but he was on the Green Bay Packers. He missed the ring last year, and now they’re undefeated right now. All because he wanted to get high. I’d rather just smoke weed and go to jail for the two grams in my joint and be out of that bitch, like it ain’t that serious. But if I’m out with my partners and we’re out partying, then I’ll pour up if they’re pouring up, you know, and I’ll sip with them, but I ain’t just be sippin’ in my car every day.

Yeah, are you still living in Houston?

Yeah, downtown Houston.

You get in trouble smoking a joint in public there? Is it pretty strict?

Right, yeah, yeah, you’d probably go to jail. A lot of times I’m cool with the police so they pull me over and I smell like a pound, but really I don’t even ride like that with weed. I ride with two joints, nothing too crazy. I don’t smoke as much as muthafuckers think I do. I might smoke three joints a day at the most. That’s joints, that’s not big cigars or nothing like that.

Yeah, I wondered if it had changed at all in Houston. I used to live in The Woodlands, Lake Conroe.

Yeah, it ain’t changed. They’ll lock you up.

I moved back to Toronto though. It’s my understanding they’re more lenient here.

[Laughs] Yeah.

Keeping with the weed, I think a lot of artists smoke weed these days to stay awake. There’s so much over-saturation in music, that I hear artists like Rick Ross, he had the seizures, and he’s smoking to stay awake and make more music. How do you combat this constant demand for new, free music? It is worth it to take drugs to stay awake?

I don’t really take drugs to stay awake, but when I do get in the studio, this is me personally, I don’t know how other rappers are, but when you’re smoking… I don’t know. Muthafuckers say weed makes you think a lot, but I don’t really get on that shit too much. Maybe it gives you good ideas and shit, but when I smoke it just makes me say, “Fuck it.” I’m in the studio and I do whatever I want to do and I won’t be worried about anything, like, “Hey, man, I can’t sing.” That’s a perfect example. I put out a singing song knowing I can’t sing, called “Come Here Bitch”, and muthafuckers and girls is loving this shit around here. It’s crazy. But I never would have done that sober. Only because I was so fucking high and acting a fool in the studio and joking at this dude at the front door, like “Come here, bitch, hurry up,” that that happened. That’s the thing I like about smoking weed.

On another note, what’s with the naked photos on Twitter? Some of those are pretty freaky, man.

[Laughs] Hey, I never post pictures out of my own phone, like rarely do I post a naked picture. I might have posted a couple of them, but most of the time, like 90 percent of the time with naked pictures, it’s all coming from muthafuckers sending it to me. Different people who follow me might send me a crazy picture, I retweet it and put a crazy face on there. All that shit comes from other muthafuckers. Do you get crazy when you retweet a muthafucker for a picture? I don’t think so. [Laughs]

Why are they all showing up now?

It’s always been like that. They always send me nasty shit and sometimes I might want to do that shit, or sometimes I might chill, like if I’m with a girl in a relationship, she’d be in my ear so fucking much I might not retweet naked pictures as much. But I’ll still do it. I’ve even lost relationships behind Twitter because I’m so reckless on there. I feel like I got to be me, man. If I’m going to be with somebody, they’re going to be with me as I am. They ain’t going to be changing me to no square or no shit. I ain’t going to change and not be me. If you can’t adapt to that, fuck it.

I definitely agree with that.

But on Twitter, man, I have fun. I don’t give a fuck. I do what I want to do. I say what I want to say and it is what it is, man. At this point in my life, I’m just so comfortable with who I am that I don’t give a fuck.

– By Peter Marrack

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