By Shamora EvansSM: YOU RECENTLY LEFT "DEF JAM" AS A RESULT OF DELAYED PROGRESS CONCERNING THE RELEASE OF YOUR ALBUM. ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON AN ALBUM OR MIX-TAPE?
9th WARD GUCCI: Yeah, well, I’m finished with the mix-tape. I’m putting it together now, and it’ll be out on Mardi Gras date. We’ve been working with “DJ Hectic”, which is “B.G.” DJ, and the mix-tape is gonna be called “The Code Is In the City”. So, they’ll be able to get that on the date of Mardi Gras.
SM: GREAT! NOW, I KNOW YOU WERE WORKING WITH "NITTI" FOR PRODUCTION ON YOUR ALBUM, BUT HAVE YOU MADE ANY ADDITIONS TO YOUR PRODUCTION TEAM FOR THIS PROJECT?
9th WARD GUCCI: I’m always working with the same producers because, when I came into the game, I met a lot of producers that were fairly new. So, I’m still working with the same people…“Jermaine Dupri”, “Drumma Boy”, my partner “Jo”, and “Sizzle”. And it was supposed to come out already, but with “J.D.” getting dropped, or however it happened, it affected everybody.
SM: WELL, YOUR SONG "SUPERMODEL" FROM THE MIX-TAPE "WHAT THE HOOD MADE ME" IS ON POINT. WHAT WAS YOUR OBJECTIVE FOR THIS SONG?
9th WARD GUCCI: It was supposed to be a single. It was the actual single that was supposed to come out, and it was gonna come out around the same time that “J.D.” got dropped from Def Jam. It came out way before “Walk That Walk” and “Halle Berry” came out from “Hurricane Chris”. Not to knock him, or take anything away from him, but my song came out back in 2007, even though they have the same kind of sound or feel. So, it’s a fairly old song, and “Drumma Boy” did the beat when he was still fairly new to the game. Me and “J.D.” wanted girls to come up with a dance and everything to the song, and it was supposed to come out as a single. But, it was supposed to be a club song that everybody could rock to.
SM: ANOTHER SONG THAT REALLY CAUGHT MY ATTENTION WAS "IT'S SAD" FEATURING "TREY SONGZ" AND "MS. CARTER". I REALLY LIKE THIS SONG BECAUSE I HAVE A LOT OF FRIENDS IN "THA GAME" THAT WOULDN'T BE IN IT IF THEY COULD FIND ANOTHER WAY THAT WORKED SO WELL. WHAT WAS YOUR INSPIRATION FOR THIS SONG?
9th WARD GUCCI: With most of my songs, probably 95-99%, I derive stories from my own background, or whatever I do. So, on that song, I wrote about being a hustla, and I’m not glorifying it, but there’s certain things you want to get as a man. And, like, you may have three or four kids to take care of, but you still want a nice car and stuff like that. So, there’s no excuse for selling drugs, but it’s a way to get by. It was my own testimony from the streets. And, actually, when we did that song, “Trey” wasn’t as huge as he is now. It seems like a lot of people that I’ve worked with got really huge over the last year. But, it’s good because those are the people I worked with, and the people I’ma keep working with.
SM: I FEEL YOU ON THAT...SO, LET'S TALK ABOUT YOUR SONG "ACCENT" FEATURING "GUCCI MANE". NOW, THERE ARE MANY RAPPERS IN THE SOUTH THAT HAVE AN ACCENT THAT YOU COULD'VE CHOSEN FOR THIS TRACK. HOW DID YOU DECIDE ON "GUCCI MANE"?
9th WARD GUCCI: Well, “Nitti” and “Gucci Mane” is super tight, and I wanna say “Nitti” was his number one producer before “Beethoven”. It just so happens that “Gucci” used to come to the studio all the time, and with me moving to Atlanta and all, a lot of people used to say, ‘Oh, I like how you say ‘baby’ and stuff because of my accent. So, I thought it would be hot if he did a rhyme about his accent and I did a song about my accent from New Orleans. And it’s the first time I did a song like this, and when he came in the studio and pretty much just free-styled it, I was kinda mad because I write everything I say. Then, I went in the studio when he was done recording it, and I heard it, and I said, “He free-styled that!” (Laughs) But, it was hot! And, I did my verse, and I wasn’t feeling the song really too much. But, later “DJ Spinz” heard that song, and he was like ‘That song’s crazy!”, and he liked it, and I got like 1.6 million spins on MySpace. Then, I was surprised because I didn’t really like the song, but I just smiled. And “Spinz” put it on his mix-tape and, the fans, they love it. So, I’m like well, whatever; we’ll see how it goes because, at the time, “Gucci” was big, but he was like ‘local’ big.
SM: COOL...SO, I NOTICED ON YOUR MYSPACE PAGE THAT YOU WEREN'T SERIOUS ABOUT RAPPING AT FIRST, EVEN THOUGH YOU WERE PRODDED BY YOUR BEST FRIENDS. WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO "GO FOR IT"?
9th WARD GUCCI: I wanna say that “Hurricane Katrina” was what made me go in. “Katrina” had a strong effect on a lot of New Orleans rappers. So, until that, I was really just messin’ around with some things, and then I started passing out some CDs. And, one day, I was watching BET and “Nitti” said, “I’m getting ready to sign this dude named ‘9th Ward Gucci’. So, I sat up, and I said, “I’m the only 9th Ward Gucci, that I know of…”, but at the time, I didn’t even know who “Nitti” was. But, this girl I knew was like she knew somebody who could get me signed. And one day I knocked on his door, and he was like ‘What you doin’ here?’, and I said, “I’m here because I heard you wanted to sign me.” (Laughs) Then, he put me up in a hotel, and I started going to the studio with him and seeing “Jermaine Dupri” and all the other artists, and they were riding up in Rolls Royces. And I was like, ‘Yo, I ain’t seeing no niggas in the ‘hood riding in cars like this from hustling. So, I’m about to take this thing serious.’ ‘Cause there’s a difference between seeing it, you know cars and all that, on TV and then seeing people riding around in these cars every day, and living that lifestyle, in real life…So after that, I started taking it serious.
SM: OKAY, NOW YOU'RE A SURVIVOR OF "HURRICANE KATRINA", AND YOU MENTIONED THAT YOU HAD NOTHING LEFT AFTER THE STORM EXCEPT YOUR STUDIO EQUIPMENT AND "FAITH". ONCE YOU RELOCATED TO ATLANTA AFTER "KATRINA", WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE YOU FACED WHILE SHOPPING YOUR MUSIC?
9th WARD GUCCI: I don’t think there was a challenge. I think the only challenge I really had was in New Orleans because there ain’t no ‘open mics’ out here. In Atlanta, there’s all kinds of open mics out there. And I didn’t really go there to get signed, but I was there to let people hear my music. But, there was a time after “Katrina” when we were able to go back to New Orleans to get things that belonged to us that were salvageable, and I was able to get my studio equipment from the building that I had out there to bring back with me to Atlanta. So, there wasn’t really a challenge because I didn’t come out to Atlanta to get signed. It was more just to let people hear my music. And, what I tell other artists that are trying to get signed is that they shouldn’t worry about getting signed. They should worry about getting their music heard by a lot of people, and then getting signed is easy.
SM: WOW...ALRIGHT. LET'S CHAT A BIT MORE ABOUT YOUR UPCOMING PROJECT. IS THERE A SONG THAT YOU'VE ALREADY DECIDED WILL BE THE FIRST SINGLE AND, IF SO, WHY?
9th WARD GUCCI: Well, “It’s So Groovy” is the song that we’re pushing right now, and it’s a song that we like. But, ‘Groovy’ is the song that we just shot a video for, and we’re feeling it for a possiblefirst single. It’s a lot of people in the south right now that’s on that ‘swag music’ movement, so I did that song to be a part of that movement, but I put my “N.O.” swag to it.
SM: ARE THERE ANY OTHER ARTISTS IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY RIGHT NOW THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO COLLAB WITH THAT YOU HAVEN'T WORKED WITH ALREADY? IF SO, WHO WOULD YOU LIKE TO GO IN THE STUDIO WITH?
9th WARD GUCCI: Uh…Maybe “T-Pain”, probably. I don’t know where he’s been at lately, but he normally comes out with a hit, so I’d like to work with him. It’s mainly the R&B acts that I would like to go in the studio with, like “R. Kelly”, “The Dream”, and people like that because I like to write a lot of R&B hooks. Maybe I’d worked with females like “Keyshia Cole”, “Mary J. Blige”, and “Missy Elliott”…I would love to go in the studio with “Missy”.
SM: DO YOU HAVE ANY UPCOMING PERFORMANCES THAT YOUR FANS CAN ATTEND TO WATCH YOU LIVE? AND, HOW CAN THEY BUY COPIES OF YOUR MIX-TAPES, ALBUMS, ETC.?
9th WARD GUCCI: I don’t know the whole itinerary, but I have a performance at “The Precinct” on Friday [December 12th]. And, you can go to Datpiff.com because, most of the time, when I finish my mix-tapes I just put them on there. So, you can just go on there and download the songs, and you can get them for free. You can buy singles like “Supermodel”, “Hypnotize”, and other songs like that on iTunes. But, you don’t really have to buy it because you can get them kind of songs on Datpiff.com for free ‘cause the money don’t go to me anyway, so…(Chuckles)