Skip to the Lou: 305 to 314 - Q & A w Trick Daddy

b-gyrl: I'm in the midwest, in St. Louis, in listening to you describe Miami, it's a little bit like St. Louis in the sense that really, nobody was looking out for St. Louis, for real...before the Rams, Nelly...

Trick Daddy: I remember Nelly's first cd, I tried to give it to Ted Lucas and they were like "what is this?!"

b-gyrl: (laughing) I bet they wish they jumped on it now, huh?

Trick Daddy: (laughing) I wish I knew what to do with it

b-gyrl: We have a lot of artists comin' out of St. Louis, we're trying to come up, trying to be a lil Miami, a lil Atlanta, whatever we can be in this game, it's really hard and I know you can empathise, when "people" aren't looking at you, so how do you break in when the industry really isn't looking for you

Trick Daddy: How you break in? First you gotta stand and support your own city...you have to support yourself. Everybody in that city has to realize that everybody outside that city is against y'all.

The bottom line is...I remember one time when the Miami Dolphins were playing inside the Orange Bowl right...now I go to the mall and and the stores are selling NY Yankee hats, I'm like "Damn, I can't even find a Dolphin hat". They were like we got hats, and I was like y'all ain't got no hats. I ain't wearing no damn Yankee hat. You uderstand what I'm sayin?

b-gyrl: I feel ya...

Trick Daddy: There are a lotta NY Jets fans living in Miami, there's a lotta Dallas Cowboy fans living in Miami, my thing is, if you're from St. Louis, you LIKE the Cardinals and you LIKE the Rams...and nothing else.

b-gyrl: I feel that, and I'ma tell you something...

It's like that here, when it comes to sports...it's very rare that you'll catch St. Louis cats sporting anything that isn't the Cards, Rams or Blues...but when it comes to the rap game, it's a whole different story.

That's a big part of our problem, that's why I asked you that question, I don't want them to take my word for it, I want them to hear it from somebody who's been through it, comin' up in a city that's quite similar (in mentality) to St. Louis.

I feel what you're saying, 100%, we have to support our own...here in St. Louis, in the rap game and with Black people in general.

Trick Daddy: That's true and I'ma tell you something else that's fucking St. Louis up, Nelly came out and opened doors that were unprecidented for rap, not just y'all city alone, what Nelly did was what niggaz couldn't do over the whole world...,when it comes to that...then Chingy came out and all of a sudden now, Chingy and Nelly goin' through something.

HOLD ON, Chingy, how do you even put yourself in a situation where you can feed into somebody having something to say about you or trying to turn you and Nelly against each other...you're supposed to be the biggest Nelly fan.

People always ask me how I feel about Rick Ross coming out of Miami...how the fuck am I supposed to feel? I'm happy for him.

b-gyrl: See, that's the difference, man...it's a mindset

Trick Daddy: That's why Chingy went from 3 million to 70,000

b-gyrl: OUCH!...that's a big drop, man...

Trick Daddy: Check out his first numbers and check out his new numbers. Don't get out your element, keep it real man. If you dont' stand for something, you'll fall for anything.

Bottom line, niggaz gotta support each other. Fuck that.

Without radio, a record is never a hit. Without buyers, we wouldn't need sellers.

b-gyrl: This is some for real stuff and I definately appreciate you speaking out on St. Louis, like I said, we're trying to come up in the game and we have to turn to people who've been where we're trying to go.

Trick Daddy: I remember doin' shows in St. Louis when there wasn't nowhere to do a concert...when y'all had to do all y'all stuff at carshows.

b-gyrl cracks up: oh yeah, we're still doin' car shows don't get it twisted, we just had Dub Magazine Car Show here a coupla weeks ago.

I'm not going to hold you up, I know you gotta run, but before you go, can we please get some love...

Trick Daddy: "Yo, this your boy Trick Daddy Dollaz, all the way from the MIA, hangin' out in the STL (and it's) hip hop.com, from the STL, fool!"