“I didn’t have to tell Hopsin didn’t work hard a second and third time,” former Funk Volume CEO Damien “Dame” Ritter openly admits in part two of his exclusive HipHopDX interview. An interview that should serve as the final nail in the coffin for the once prominent rap label, Funk Volume.
In part one of our exclusive Damien Ritter interview, the former Funk Volume CEO revealed it was one comment that caused the explosive lyricist to erupt in person and subsequently on social media, forcing the label into a state of cardiac arrest it would never recover on.
While Ritter has admitted his ego got involved in the conversation where he was initially being attacked, he has since moved on — with a budding new imprint named Still Movin to exact. In this final segment with HipHopDX, he reveals the plans for the new operation and where he stands with all the remain rap stars on the planet that once was Funk Volume.
Dizzy, Jarren & SwizZz
On “Still Movin” With Dizzy Wright
I think Dizzy was really the only one [to fight for saving Funk Volume]. You know Dizzy was always the team player. That’s my guy. He’s always trying to think about the squad — what can we do – because it was always fixable, even in my eyes. and it was such a simple thing, like it was you know maybe Hop just need time to calm down. If it was money, that wouldn’t have been an issue, too. Like Hop, if you just wanted more of a bigger percentage … from … whatever it was. Emotions just got involved when I told him he didn’t work hard.
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Keeping Communication Open With Jarren Benton
Yeah Jarren, was just like, “Man these cats is going through it, I’m gonna let them sort it out.” I talked to Jarren recently though and that’s one of the things he said he regrets that he should have said more at the time. Because I think that now Jarren’s kind of moved on, he working with other people, he understands better the infrastructure that we had and how we supported what he was doing, and he kind of misses that.
SwizZz’s Return To Rap
My brother didn’t really say anything because he felt like because he hadn’t really been working for the past three or four years, that he didn’t feel comfortable that he had as
much of a say. And I’ll I guess I would argue have that, I’d be like, “Look, man. You helped start this thing, you could you could talk whenever you want to talk.” But maybe other guys feel different — I don’t know. So he just didn’t feel that comfortable so he kind of stayed silent. I put too many timelines on I’m on my brother; I would never do that again. Just whenever he’s comfortable because there’s a lot of people that are waiting for him to make music. There’s a lot of people that love and support the stuff that he does, so I just hope that he’s able to get in the right space to be able to fully commit himself to making music.
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Will Still Movin Be Reminiscent Of Funk Volume?
“The original idea for Funk Volume, before we had the infrastructure that we built and the relationships that we had, the idea was for like Funk Volume to be a stepping stone for artists. Kind of like an Island Def Jam where you come to Funk Volume, you get a boost and some momentum; you get the cross-promotion across all our platforms and then you see what’s next. It’s not really a home. It can be if an artist feels like they want to stay with Funk Volume forever.
I mean it can be if an artist feels like they want to stay with Funk Volume forever and it’s and it fits the goals of that artist and we can fully support it, then that’s awesome. But if we kind of give them a boost and somebody else takes hold of them, say they want to sign to a major or bigger independent, then there’s opportunities for that and at that point, you know Funk Volume could have still managed them or they just couldn’t cut our ties like “thanks.” Thanks for the boost and you know go on and do whatever they wanted to do next I feel like Still Movin maybe is that! It’s a platform for artists to create dope music the way they want to create, just like it was at Funk Volume. We still have a lot of resources that can help up-and-coming artists.
And maybe it makes sense to stay with Still Movin and keep putting out projects through Still Movin or maybe it makes sense for that artist to go to RCA or Warner or whatever. I think every artist depending on your individual goals depending on you know the music that they create, can have you know that they’re different opportunities that makes sense for each artist. So maybe we structure Still Movin kind of like that.
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Will Damien Ritter Ever Work With Hopsin Again?
I doubt it. Man, it would be tough. I can forgive anybody that has done anything to me but to put myself in that situation? To work with him? That would be tough now, that would be really tough. I wouldn’t completely close the door on it but it will be tough for sure.
