BLOODRAW INTERVIEWS WITH WORDOFSOUTH.COM

WordofSouth.com: What’s going on?

BloodRaw: Aww man I’m promoting this album man. Just on the road doing things and getting to it.

WordofSouth.com: It’s been a long road for you. How does it feel to finally have your album coming out?

BloodRaw: I mean you know they say hard work pays off and patience is a virtue. I feel comfortable with the situation and also feel good with this setup with the USDA album coming out first and then my solo project coming out. It all makes sense now.

WordofSouth.com: You say that it makes sense now. At a point, did it not make sense?

BloodRaw: To me it always made sense because I always knew my goal and I knew my vision, but to the people and the homies from Florida who seen me come up and witness my grind it didn’t make sense at first. Everybody wondered why I went over to them (CTE). At the end of the day, it’s being shown to why it made sense. I feel like my whole state has been real anxious to get the album.

WordofSouth.com: A lot of people say it isn’t good to sign to a label that’s ran by an artist because they always put their selves first. Has the move always been positive for you?

BloodRaw: It’s always been positive for me. I’ve always had naysayers or people talk about my situation, but at the end of the day I’ve always been the underdog, so I like to show and prove. The better of the situation about Jeezy and me, we aren’t business partners, we’re brothers. It’s totally different than just having a business partner and doing a deal. My situation is totally different, that’s my brother and whatever I wanna do he with it. He will tell me a different scenario if I got an idea and if he don’t think it will work or if he had a bad experience he’ll shed light on what happened with his situation and if I wanna do it I can, but he just letting me know what happened to him.

WordofSouth.com: You also made changed with your management. You parted ways with longtime manager C.Wakeley and joined up with Jimmy Henchmen (Czar Entertainment). Why was that move made?

BloodRaw: Me and C. Wakeley still talk daily and I wanna say that he’s like the father figure role in my life. He’s a real close friend of mine and it was kind of, like when your dad on the sideline is, rooting for you in a football game is different than being business minded. It’s a little more personal to him than business because at the end of the day if people look and don’t understand what goes on with you, so in order for him to separate us from business we should get a new lawyer and work it out. It’s kind of funny and hard for someone to love you and feel like you’ve been doing wrong.

WordofSouth.com: So tell me about the Audio“Louie Bag” single that you got right now.

BloodRaw: Louie! Louie is the last record I recorded for the album. The album has been done for a little bit over two months now. I was on my way back from Miami and actually, Jeezy hit me on the phone saying when I get back in town to go out. I was like cool and when I got back from Miami maybe about 1-2 o’clock in the morning, I stopped by the studio that he was working at. When I came in the door and he was like “I’m a be real with ya’ brah, the album’s done, but the brain ain’t on there.” To make a long story short, we didn’t go out, but it turned out to be a real a nice setup song to present the album. We called in a couple of producers that night and done the song, stayed up all night in the studio and got out like 11-12 that next day. The very next day we started testing the record out in the clubs and started all from there.

WordofSouth.com: Whatever happened with the Audio“26’s” track?

BloodRaw: I done that song for the Greg Street album that’s about to come out. We did a video and everything for it. It’s a Greg Street song and it ain’t even on my album. The songs so crazy I had to go get (Young) Buck again for the album. We made a good team and I felt like I needed him on the album.

WordofSouth.com: What can you tell me about your debut album?

BloodRaw: “My Testimony” is an album that the fans are gonna appreciate. It’s been a minute since I’ve been able to go to the store and just buy a whole album that I can appreciate and say that I’m happy that I spent my money on. We all know that the music industry is kind of funny right now and so is the economy. People are real skeptical about spending their money. I really felt like it was time for somebody to bring back to the table about the struggle man and the trials and tribulations because everybody ain’t balling and riding around in Benz’ and Ferraris. Everybody ain’t really getting to the money like that. I just wanted to bring the streets and everybody back to reality that it ain’t what it seems to be, it’s ok, and that we can get through it. I’m bringing all that to the table and for my fans we gotta deal with our problems first hand and we gotta make better choices and decisions. That’s really what the album is pretty much based on, everyday life situations. This isn’t going to be one record. I’m bringing the world to my album and I’m coming to the world. I’m visiting everybody. Whether you was without a father growing up or your family was on drugs or whatever. We touching on all bases.

WordofSouth.com: So with a track like “Louie Bag,” how will you show people that there’s more to BloodRaw than a song like that?

BloodRaw: Everything is about painting a picture and really, what I’m gonna do is stick to the script. When I tell my life and true testimony, I know that I will have to paint a picture for people to understand me because one thing about life is that nobody believe unless they see. For me to come out with a record talking about Louie people gonna believe that we talking about stuntin’ again. When at the end of the day I’m really not talking about stuntin’, but just saying that after all these years that I’ve been grindin’ and hustling that hard work does pay off. So, never don’t think that you are doing or going through things in vein. It’s pretty much going to be the picture that I show in video. It might give them an idea, but that’s pretty much what going to be the video in a small aspect. In the video me and Jeezy gonna be playing two real street dudes, but at the end of the day we are famous. The chicks that we are kicking it with, we ain’t portraying it to be like that because we wanted to be average dudes, but when I drop them bombs off the Louie bag, it almost blows my cover. The moral to the story is just because you have money, you don’t have to throw it in peoples face. Me as a person want you to accept me before even thinking about accepting my music, but I know that you will hear my music first. Once you hear my music first, hear my story then you can be like he’s a good dude and a good guy right there, and be proud of him.

WordofSouth.com: Who do you have lined up for features and production?

BloodRaw: On the album, I got Slick Pulla, Lyfe Jennings, Trina, and Mannie Fresh, production as well from Mannie Fresh, The Runners, JUSTUS League, Midnight Black, and Drumma Boy. The albums stupid and I can’t really explain it. The albums incredible man.

WordofSouth.com: Being that you’re from Florida and one to have a major release coming out. Do you feel that there is a Florida movement?

BloodRaw: I feel that there’s a Florida movement, but its limited in my eyes. I feel that me coming from North Florida, I’m a open a lot of more doors for artists out of Florida instead of the circle that’s going on in Miami. I’m not saying nothing bad about nobody else, but outside of Miami, nobody ever been given the opportunity past Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm, and Ft. Myers. I don’t know anybody in Central Florida to North Florida other than Smilez & Southstar that’s made some noise.

WordofSouth.com: Why do you think that the Miami area is labels only focus?

BloodRaw: It’s really like any other state. It’s a target market in every state that labels look at. Like Atlanta is the Georgia target and Miami is the Florida target just like Houston is the Texas target. It has nothing to do with the artists in Miami; it’s just the target for the industry. A lot of it has to do with a lot of people going to Miami for events or vacationing.

WordofSouth.com: Has Def Jam come at you with a plan to try and market you like you’re from Miami?

BloodRaw: Actually, I can say that they haven’t. They understand that BloodRaw has to path his own movement. They really believe in my movement and they understand that there’s a bigger picture. Nothing to take away from a lot of artists, but BloodRaw is probably one of the few that’s run through the whole state of Florida. I didn’t just buckle down to one area and say that I am going to make it happen here or even when it comes to reppin’. I represent Florida as a whole. I’ve been from Pensacola to Miami and I’m respected from Pensacola to Miami, like really real.

WordofSouth.com: So how is it making the transition to working with corporate people?

BloodRaw: The transition is crazy because when I came into the game as a CEO, so I always was used to controlling my own destiny. Being on a label on another label is a little different because everything don’t happen when you want it to happen. It’s a waiting game now. I gotta do stuff on my time and when they ready. It was hard for me because I was used to moving where I wanna move and spending whatever money, I wanna spend. You can’t do that with a label, you gotta have patience, and whenever they are ready, they are ready.

WordofSouth.com: The USDA album was the first major project that you’ve been a part of. What are some things that you will take from that to help promote your project?

BloodRaw: Me as a person, I like to get involved because like I told you man, it’s a bigger picture for me with the music. With that said, when I go to a city, I just don’t do the radio. I try to go to the schools, Boyz & Girls Clubs, the barbershops, the hoods, and wherever there is to go, I try to go and reach as many people as possible. People fail to realize that us as entertainers have to make to people love us. In order to make them love you, you have to be around and be seen and be touched. That’s a big part of doing what we are doing. A lot of people don’t do that and I don’t understand for what reason, but they don’t go everywhere that I feel you should go. That’s the difference with me, I do the unexpected. I want people to say that they never expected me to be there.

WordofSouth.com: So you mention that it’s much more than music, so do you go into the community to help others that’s misguided with life?

BloodRaw: That’s part of my whole everything and campaign, the streets love BloodRaw. With that said, I have to go and talk positive and let people know. That’s what the album is really like. I’m letting people know the consequences. Everyone in music makes it seem like it’s ok to tot choppers and to sell drugs and all that. I know we’ve done that with life, but it’s not ok to that because at the end of the day you’re telling people that you’re giving them a one-way path to either death or behind bars. At the end of the day, I cannot tell you not what to do, but these are the consequences of doing this. I don’t feel like there’s nothing that these rap cats talk about that BloodRaw hasn’t done or been through. With that said, I am the best example for anything they’re talking about. Most of them talking about it don’t even have a misdemeanor, so how you gonna talk about you running around with choppers and you’ve sold 50 blocks? It’s not realistic man.

WordofSouth.com: In this day and age, it’s so easy to pick up a mic and became the biggest drug dealer and gangsta ever. When you hear these personas on tracks, do you take it as disrespect at all?

BloodRaw: It’s a slap in the face to me because I’ve actually been through that. I’ve actually went in and faced these types of charges. To face this time and have you talk about it like you’ve actually done it when I know firsthand that you wouldn’t be able to stand being in a crowd facing a life sentence or being in a car getting shot at and all this gangsta stuff that these cats be talking about. Ain’t no way that if they had the guts to do all that, that they would be the person that they are today. It just don’t happen like that homie.

WordofSouth.com: So in your lyrics, do you glorify the drug life at all?

BloodRaw: In my lyrics, I talk about the things I’ve done. When I even talk about drugs or anything that I’ve done, I talk about it in a way that I’m showing you that I’ve overcome that. I also give you the consequences and tell you them things to lead you away from that. If I talk about anything dealing with drugs, at the end of the rap, I’m telling you that I went to prison for it or I got robbed or whatever the situation was, I told you about the consequences. I never just say I did it for years, got rich, and got 20 block and it is what it is. That ain’t me, I gotta keep it real with the streets and at the end of the day, and it’s up to you to make that choice. Like I said I can’t tell nobody what to do, but I can give you that example and tell you about the consequences.

WordofSouth.com: Back to helping the community. What other things are you doing?

BloodRaw: I got a foundation that’s helping career criminals and convicted felons giving them the opportunity for when they get out of jail to do something positive and get back on the right track instead of applying at McDonalds or Burger King. Give them an opportunity to make some real money, so we got the trucking company and a couple of different things to where they can be comfortable and not do negative things anymore.

WordofSouth.com: How is that going?

BloodRaw: Its going real good man, we just getting up and about and working it out. We working the kinks out and trying to make sure everyone really has an opportunity for those who really deserve it.

WordofSouth.com: A member on my forum wanted me to ask you where your head was at when you created the track “On My Shit.”

BloodRaw: Really man, it was a song where I felt that I had been working so hard and really, I was not caring about what nobody had to say. Whoever said what they wanted to say was gonna do what they wanted to do. At the end of the day I knew what I was doing, what I was doing was effective, and it was touching people. Really man I’m gonna be on my shit and not worry about what anyone else is talking about and just do BloodRaw.

WordofSouth.com: Anything else that you want to mention?

BloodRaw: The album coming JUNE 17th man.