STAT QUO
BILLY DREASE WILLIAMS
LIZA IRIZARRY
ASHLEY
JONATHAN DALYNN
STAT QUO EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
CHAMP MAGAZINE
The Boy Hollywood
CHAMP: What’s goodie man what are you up to at the current moment?
Stat Quo: I’m chilling man. Just taking a little break from the studio for about an hour. I’ve been there all night so right now I’m kickin’ it. The Great Depression’s coming out in June.
CHAMP: Really on your grizzy. You recently just dropped The Invisible Man. It seems like you’ve been dropping mixtapes every month. Is that part of a marketing strategy or is this a bunch of material that we haven’t heard that you’re trying to get out?
Stat Quo: Being that I was signed to Dr.Dre and Eminem, a lot of the time people would tell me my music is good only because of them so I wanted to establish myself. I’m a recording artist. All I do is record. I want people to hear what I do. I don’t want them to hear me on a beat by Dre and Em. I wanted to stop that trend and put myself out here.
CHAMP: We got Smoke and Mirrors which is out right now and there’s the anticipation for Statlanta. Is that still scheduled to drop Fall of the year as well?
Stat Quo: Yeah we gon’ put that out. I’m just waiting on the right time.
CHAMP: Will it have the same material or have you put new material since, because the album was supposed to drop a few years ago?
Stat Quo: It’s gon’ be the stuff that was supposed to come out while I was at Interscope.
CHAMP: Like you were mentioning before on an older tape, I believe it was on Quo City where you dropped the joint “In California” where you were speaking on the situation with you and Aftermath. I mean I can only imagine that you were frustrated as an artist, but at any time did you feel like there was no point in making music anymore since they had you not coming out for so long?
Stat Quo: Nah ‘cause at the end of the day I love hiphop music so I just could never stop doing it. It’s just a part of me but it was definitely frustrating in that situation. I can’t complain. I was happy to be a part of what they had going and to be there at the time everyone was doing their thing but it didn’t work out, but there’s no beef or whatever.
CHAMP: The reason why you had left was because you were basically in a stalemate position but what was the reason that they were giving you in terms of you not coming out?
Stat Quo: In the beginning when I signed Busta Rhymes and The Game had just been added to their projects so obviously they had to get to them first and of course 50 came out again so when it was my turn, the wave that we were riding where we can just put anything out as far as Shady/Aftermath ‘cause people will but it down was dying. At that point it was like we need this smash hit and no one would agree on the records that I was doing. I tried to leak records but nobody really got behind anything that I was doing and they didn’t fully believe. With so many cooks in the kitchen it was hard to make this one dish.
CHAMP: Coming from Atlanta when you hit you can hear the south accent, but you got what people would say is an east flow. I find it as a dope distinct flow. Was your flow different from the Atlanta generic flow from the jump or did that flow gradually develop as you kept recording?
Stat Quo: I think from the beginning my flows been a little bit different on that aspect. I think it has to do with the influence. I was privileged enough to hear rap from all over America from different regions and I never was like “I’m from Atlanta”. It was like, I’ma take all these influences and put them into my style.
CHAMP: Smoke and Mirrors is released through EMI. Is it safe to say you’ve situated yourself over there now?
Stat Quo: I’ve been doing a couple projects with them. I’m not signed to them. It’s just me putting out a couple projects. It’s more like distribution for the project it’s not like I’m signed.
CHAMP: GMM. What’s going on with team and who’s on the official roster?
Stat Quo: As far as me and them, it kinda dissolved after the Shady/Aftermath thing. I just had to sit back and just gotta focus on tryina get myself out here more visible to the people. I can’t be an investor for other people tryina come up in the game. I’m just tryina bring it to another level where I can be that vehicle for the next generation of artist and continue to make good music.
CHAMP: How did you feel about Ron Artest being concerned about you addressing Greg Odens swag?
Stat Quo: Me and Ron are cool. I’ve been knowing Ron for a minute and we good people. He’s a great basketball player and he’s very entertaining. He got those personalities so that didn’t bother me at all. He’s entitled to his opinion. When I made the comment there wasn’t no seriousness. I was playing around and at the end of the day Greg Oden do have a sweet swag on him lol. Seven feet tall and got a school girl swag lol
CHAMP: Lol
Stat Quo: Ain’t nothing wrong with being gay. There’s football players that are gay and there’s rappers that’s gay. I mean there’s gay people of all types of forms or whatever. I might joke about it and say he’s a fag and he taking it up the butt. Some of the greatest...or what people call great men in history were gay! Alexander the Great was a faggot. A lot of them cats from Rome was gay. It was part of the culture. Me personally, I’m a pussy man myself and I might crack a joke but it is what it is and I don’t have nothing against people that’s homosexual. If Greg Oden turns out to be like John Amaechi, that wouldn’t go against him as a basketball player. Regardless of whatever I say or what anyone else say, he making like five million dollars a year. He doesn’t have to play another game.
CHAMP: Although you’re not on the label no more, as a fan of hip hop are you anticipating The Relapse and Detox album as well?
Stat Quo: To be honest with you no man. I think Em is dope and I like the 3 AM song and I think that’s hot but I just hope the music is good. You know when Michael Jordan was on the Wizards and you wanted him to be the old Michael and he wasn’t the old Mike? Like when A.I (Allen Iverson) crossed him over and you just looked at him like ooh it’s time to hang up them high tops. So with them I want them to make the music that I have been accustom to. The time is different. Based on what I’ve heard I don’t think what they’re making fits for what’s going on and I think Em is gon be successful from a record sales stand point and his first week will be phenomenal and I think he will sell records, but I mean you see it. He came out when his album’s out in two weeks. Where’s the buzz on it? Look at it…More people talking ‘bout Drake then they talk about Eminem. More people talk about Lil Wayne then they talk about Eminem. Look at that shit. That’s because time has changed and when you away so long and you ain’t out here…I think Kanye said some shit one time and he was talking ‘bout how he had did a joint with Mase and they did some song and Mase was like how he doing remixes everyday to all these songs and that’s when Mase was coming out again and Kanye was like I put it in some ears and people were like this is different and they want something else. It’s something else that these kids are wanting and me looking at them, I just don’t know. At the end of the day them dudes have done more music that I haven’t even come close to accomplishing so I really can’t say anything but just me stating my opinion. I think Eminem is gonna sell 700,000 records first week. He gon’ do anywhere from 400 to 800,000 the first week and after that depending on how good people receive the album, he’s going to sell units. I think in total as far as sales this gon’ be his worst one. Total worldwide will probably be about 4 million, which is tremendous. It’s still a lot of records but for him I think it’s not what he may have wanted but I think that’s a lot.
CHAMP: You also mentioned we got The Great Depression coming out in a few months. What else can we expect from Stat Quo?
Stat Quo: I got a couple more projects coming out. I’ma get on my grassroots stuff and start working my music in the streets in the A.
DEAR SUMMER - STAT QUO
CHAMP MAGAZINE IS A CANADIAN HIP HOP PUBLICATION FOCUSING ON URBAN CULTURE, HIP HOP,ARTS, MUSIC, AND PRODUCTION
