HHDX: First, for the fans that don’t know what Loon, been doing lately?
Loon: Actually I’ve been traveling the world, not saying on some “I’m rich, I can just go anywhere I want”. Actually what I’ve been doing is my promotions process kind of backwards. Normally you promote an American or U.S. artists in the states with hopes to be able to promote overseas. What I’ve been doing the past couple of years was promoting myself overseas, being that I was received there as a stronger magnitude than in the states. I kind of like catered to that audience and that fanship within the past couple of years. You already know, in the states one hot record you back in the game, it’s kind of like some real groupie shit going on in the states. Overseas you still got fans, you still got people that cherish your poster, you got kids over there in the school system that have pictures of Loon.
HHDX: So are you still signed to Bad Boy:
Loon: Nah, I’m not signed with Bad Boy I left Bad Boy two years ago. It’s real, we (Loon and Diddy) left on amicable terms. I don’t wanna create no bullshit, we did leave on amicable terms, we wasn’t seeing eye to eye in our fourth year of doing business together. It got to a point where me as an artist, I felt I contributed more than enough to Bad Boy, you know what I’m saying, for the past four years, putting out hit after hit after hit. It kind of refurbished and restored Puff‘s whole swagger. When it came down to do my solo project it was like the magic just drained or disappeared, the whole motivation, the work ethic, everything just kind of like dissolved. So I thought at that point “Man… if I gotta continue to move this weight as an independent company, I mine as well be an independent company”.
HHDX: So what’s ya thoughts when people be saying Puffy be burning people?
Loon: I don’t think Puff burn people, I think Puff burn himself and it look like the artists got burned you know what I’m saying? Because only god will allow a person to have so many blessings at once. The dude had Mase, Biggie, The Lox, Carl Thomas, like he had the ultimate squad, for them not to be around I don’t think it’s an artists issue. I think that dude just enjoy shooting himself in the foot and running away talented artists.
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HHDX: What it was like working with him on a business tip?
Loon: A lot of people would look at how Puff talk to niggas on “Making the Band” and assume I getting the same treatment…hell no! Me and dude seen eye to eye, we always seen eye to eye. I came to Bad Boy when he was in the time of need, his credibility was going down the drain cause the hood ain’t like the way he did Shyne. His whole swagger was being challenged when J-Lo left him in front of the whole world. So it’s like I came in the time of need and I feel like I got my contributions not only for myself as an artists, but it worked for Puff and propelled him, not only back into the artists seat, but into the CEO seat, the fashion seat, the TV/reality show seat, he even got a mohawk ran a marathon, like all that shit came from my work ethic and it’s just so sad that it got overshadowed. Working with him I never had a problem cause I did all the work, all I did was sit around and wait for his opinion.
HHDX: So tell me about your label you signed to?
Loon: I’m signed to my own label Boss Up Entertainment.
HHDX: Now the hood wants to know, what’s good with that beef with Jim Jones or some shit?
Loon: First of all I just wanna clear up everything, “I dont have no beef with Mase“. I think people in the music industry and the readers and stuff need to define the true definiton of what beef is. Beef is when niggas can’t share the same space you know what I’m saying? Me and Mase live in Atlanta, ain’t nobody shot at him or did nothing crazy to him and he damn sure ain’t have nobody do nothing to me. So that’s just a publicity stunt that went wrong on Mase behalf. Now on Jim Jones– he got away with a publicity stunt, like people really believe he ran Mase out of Harlem, he been running with that whole vibe his whole career, you know what I’m saying?
HHDX: Shit, I thought he did?
Loon: I know you thought he probably did, he ain’t ran shit out of Harlem. Right now currently he can’t even come to Harlem, it’s no way possible that you can run a man out of a town you can’t come to.
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HHDX: How that shit started anyway?
Loon: I mean it really just start from niggas feeling themself, and that’s not just with the artists coming out of Harlem, just New York in general. We don’t have no real consisent unity. We don’t have no real genuine unity. It’s like when you got a circle of hot artists they wanna work together, Busta hot right now, Mary hot right now, okay they working together, cause they both hot. Ain’t none of them artists try to reach down and pull a nigga up. I’m not tryna discredit Mary or Busta, don’t get my statement wrong, it’s just that you watch this shit everyday in Atlanta, you watch this shit everyday. A new artists come out in Atlanta they easily can get an Outkast cameo, they easily can get the YoungBloodz to pop-up, they easily can get Usher to do the moon walk in they video, you know what I mean, easy. First time artists, first time being heard and seen they have a collective A-lists presence around him.
HHDX: Cause everybody was saying he came at ya neck, so I wanna know if� you was gonna come at his neck like he came at yours?
Loon: I mean I already beat the shit out of 40 Cal probably about two or three days ago (Read: 40 Cal responds CLICK HERE), that’s gonna be big news on the street in a minute and the same gonna happen to anyone of them niggas when I see them and that’s just real talk. It’s bigger than music with me and Jim Jones. Mase‘s fame came and went, I spit a couple of joints at him, he spit a couple joints at me. Obviously I came at the nigga a little harder and it just kind of gradually pushed me back into my element, which is hard music. I’m Loon, I’m Lil Valentino, people read between the lines, Loon is short for Loony. It’s just so crazy how people perception of the game is ridicolous. Jim Jones is pussy, he ain’t gonna hurt nothing, he ain’t gonna let nothing die, he’s a coward, Dipset niggas they whole shit is just over, niggas had enough of that shit.
HHDX: Cause the streets do be saying he a G, you know what I’m saying?
Loon: Yeah, cause niggas is yearning to know what a G is. The nigga is not a G and I’m just gonna keep it real, the nigga is just not an G! When time presents itself I will prove to everybody the nigga is not a G. They probably thought 40 Cal was tough cause he named after a hand-gun and all that shit, that nigga was eating a shovel in the barbershop, it will get out there, barber clippers and all that.
HHDX: So hold-up what happen with this fight with 40 Cal, ya’ll just went at it or something?
Loon: It wasn’t no fight, I just beat the shit out of 40 Cal. The hood know that about me. Sometimes ya’ll journalists gotta go a little deeper and stop taking these niggas stories and running with it, get a camera and ya mic and go to the nigga hood where he said he from. Don’t take my word for it neither, come to Harlem.
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HHDX: So what’s good with a new album that’s dropping?
Loon: The new album is called No Friends August 28th, definitely me doing a 180 on niggas. Don’t get me wrong, I have not forgot about the females. The females is the reason why I can pay my mortgage on time, my car notes, feed my family, things of that nature, so ladies I’m more than grateful for the contributions in my career. I have not left ya’ll out, but this time around I feel I owe niggas and I’m a pay them in full.
HHDX: So whose featured on this album?
Loon: No features No Friends that’s I why I gave it that title. It’s not no dieing ethic to get at every MC, it’s not no rep your city shit, it’s basically me saying “I put this whole project together with the help of no friends” and people are aware that I have all those resources. I didn’t want to come back like Puff did right now on his new album. I mean he got Christina Aguilera, everybody in the industry on his album, that’s cool for Puff, but me I’m an artist, I’m a songwriter and I need to take this opportunity to show that I can do that. I want this to be a straight independent from the ground to the motherfuckin sky record and I’m working as hard as I need to, to make that a reality.
HHDX: Let me ask you this, what you hate most about the music industry?
Loon: Right now what I’m hating most about the music industry is the lack of unity, cause what the artists don’t understand is money is gonna get short when everybody start sitting around counting they own shit and not considering the fact that somebody else across town is being hurt. That’s why this game is gonna end-up just like the street game. It’s gonna come to a rough hault, because niggas is not being feed. It’s millions and millions of dollars being made and not one rapper can even say he got even close to a million. 75% of these niggas say they got a million dollars, that’s what’s so sad, whose getting all this got damn money. Why everybody be bragging about getting a 5% cut of what the industry gross and that’s what saddens me about this game, niggas is getting little cars and shit feeling accomplished, niggas like Jay-Z and other people are looking at the big picture. We can get endorsements just like athletes. Niggas should get signed and a Reebok sneaker with the deal. Why we can’t live like that? Nobody’s tryna make a collective effort to make that a reality for all artists, niggas is just soaking it up for themselves and they team, it’s sad.
HHDX: If you could change anything about the industry what would it be?
Loon: I would bring order to the game. I would punch a lot of punks in the face. I would expose everything that’s fake and I would uplift everybody that’s real. I would give unlimited resources to those that wanna to work, those that have some creative juices flowing and all that I would feed them. I would feed that hunger. I would cater to that thirst, that right there is to grow and have hungry creative artists coming in the game changing the pace like every three months like computers. I would also let some of these old niggas go the fuck on somewhere, step aside and let some of these young kids shine, ya’ll you old niggas tryna put on big-ass hats tryna fit in with the youth, the shit is nasty dog, the shit is nasty.
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HHDX: Good looking Loon, any shout-outs to give or anything to say to the readers of hiphopdx.com?
Loon: To everybody living a real life yo and that includes men, women, and children. All you niggas out there that’s confused about who you are, stay awake, anybody that know who they are in life and who they tryna be in life, come see me, I wanna be around bosses.
