The Trackboyz Strike Back in debut of stlhiphop Industry Podcast

Few mutliplatnium producers would take the time to separate fact from fiction or to break the rap game down to it's basics for up & coming artists, especially after signing an exclusive deal with Def Jam, but then again Tackboyz aren't your average multiplatnium producers. Silent until now about everything from the break up to J-Kwon, Tarboy and D-ROCC respond to recent statements by Ebony Eyez, the internal hating in tha Lou and myths St. Louis has about the music industry....beginning with the notion that the Trackboyz don't support artists.

b-gyrl: Did Ebony Eyez's comments in this month's Inbox Magazine come as a surprise to you?

Tarboy: You know what,to be honest with you, it kinda did and it kinda didn't. When somebody ain't as successful as they want to be, they gotta find somebody to blame, that's human nature. They gotta point the finger at somebody, but sometimes they point that finger in the wrong direction.

b-gyrl: Are The Trackboyz scapegoats because you were the big name behind her?

Tarboy: Yeah, easy...take for example how Janet came out on Virgin, when she didn't do well they blamed Jermaine. They're going to blame somebody. When I step into that mode sayin' ok, I'ma sign artists, I open myself up for that. Do I have a grudge against Ebony or something like that? No, I understand...when you're hungry, when you're a hard working artist and things don't go your way, you gonna respond and react in some manner, my main thing with Ebony is that she doesn't understand the business enough to react in that manner.

b-gyrl: That's something I'm noticing with a lot of artists...they don't understand the bizness or the industry side of the game. Who is responsible for that? Artists for not educating themselves? Management?

Tarboy interjects: I don't...(pondering).....you don't blame nobody for a lack of education. If you don't understand what to look for, then how do you go look for it? I don't blame Ebony for not knowing, but what I'm confused about is out of all the talk, she has not once quoted well "he told me this" or "he told me that"...you know what I'm sayin? There are different avenues...a lot of stuff that Ebony is leaving out. If you're gonna tell the story, tell the story, don't half ass tell it.

Tell the truth, don't dance around it, like when I heard her interview, she made her comments as if to throw a jab, you know what I'm sayin', but not really wanting to throw a punch.If I say something I MEAN it, and when I say it, I UNDERSTANDevery level of what I'm saying AND I understand there's gonna be a RESPONSE. Now saying that, am I willing to accept the response that's gonna come with this?

(To b-gyrl) You understand what I'm sayin?

b-gyrl: I fully understand...

Tarboy: For a long period of time...even with me and Joe splitting our ways, me and Ebony, me and Kwon, I never spoke.

You can go through a long list of what people in these basement studios are sayin, but you'll never hear a comment per se from me. All you hear is speculation or what somebody believed happened.

b-gyrl: What prompted you to speak out this time?

Tarboy: With Ebony?

b-gyrl: Yes

Tarboy: Because I realized, you know, a lot of people were coming to me like "Tarboy, they're hating on you". There's something worse than being hated on, you wanna know what's worse than being hated on? Not being hated on.

b-gyrl laughs

Tarboy: Because when you're not being hated on you're not a factor. What made me respond to Ebony...I would have let a sleeping dog lay...but after a while you receive so many punches you're like damn, dog. I'm not finna throw a jab, I'm finna throw a punch

b-gyrl chuckling: A body blow...

Tarboy: Y'all keep jabbin, how about this punch? If we gonna get in the ring, lets dance then, god damn then. Stop bullshitting and lets dance. Everybody puts me on a pedastal: being able to control people's careers, being able to stop a deal, being able to make a deal...all that is bullshit. They gave me power I just didn't have. When you look at Ebony, you're looking at Capital Records, they're a multi billion dollar company overall, HOW THE FUCK AM I RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU FAILING

(To b-gyrl) you laughing b, the shit is funny.

How can Ebony really in her mind say "the reason I'm not successful is because the Trackboyz don't know how to break a artist?" Goddammit, what about that muthafucka with a billion dollars that signed you? My job wasn't to break you, my job was to deliver them a product...and once that product delivered they spent more money on you than Arista spent on J-Kwon.

b-gyrl: If that's the case, where did it go wrong?

Tarboy: Here's the problem...there's nobody to blame. Only 1 out of ever 10 artists signed ever make their money back.

b-gyrl: Ok, that's true, but why is it that artists, specificially St. Louis artists are having a hard time "staying on" and maintaining?

Tarboy: Because St. Louis artists only make music St. Louis likes.

b-gyrl laughs

Tarboy: You're laughing....

b-gyrl interjecting: I'm laughing because that's SO ST. LOUIS.

Tarboy: EXACTLY! I'm So St. Louis, but after a while, I'm like hold up dog, I want to be "So United States" now. I don't want to be So St. Louis for the rest of my life. A ton of people in St. Louis hate on Nelly, and I think thats for the same reason they hate on me and hate on Chingy: a lack of understanding. Nelly does not make St. Louis records. Nelly makes world records...that the world likes. You don't get to 10 million records by selling cds just in U City.

b-gyrl: That's true.

Tarboy: When you look at St. Louis, I think St. Louis tends to feel that it's hating, it's a problem, the drama, all the beef that people have, but the rest of the country gives a fuck, THEY DON'T CARE. They look at us like "damn, who cares if they're fighting and bickering, let them fight and bicker. We're not making no money off this any damn way"

b-gyrl interjecting: True.

Tarboy: So all the shit they're doing is in vain and as long as they want to keep on talking about each other, who's responsible, who flopped, who got static, we're not going to invest any more money in them and let them figure it out themselves.