 Down-South: Where you guys from?
ESG: H-Town. I was born in Louisiana, but I
grew up in H-Town. Once I got outta High school that’s where I learned all of my
street game and the tricks of the trade. Slim Thugger, he’s from H-Town. He’s
from the South side I’m from the North side.
Down-South: Now the South side and the North
side of Houston have traditionally been at odds with each other…
ESG: Yeah, really, from my point of view,
the tension used be you know like anywhere different sets and hoods, they repping where
they from. But the big thing was cats from the south side used to steal their own cars.
Sometimes you might have cats from the North side would steal a car from a cat from the
South side. People from the Southside might get their car stolen from people from the
South side, but they don’t know that because the person from the South side would be
so slick and conniving would strip them and drop them off on the north. That would be
going on all the time back and forth.
But me and Slim Thug met each other ‘bout three or four years ago and we kicked it
and did our first song together on Shinin & Grindin’. So people were kinda like
demanding the album. I left Wreck Shop and Slim left Swisha House so we kinda got together
and Slim came up with the name Boss Hogg Outlaws so we just formed a label and this is our
first project. We’ve already done about 45,000 so hopefully some of the labels will
read this and hear what’s going down and holla at us. If they don’t know I
don’t how they don’t know. We’ve just left Cleveland, Cincinnati and
Louisville.
Down-South: With numbers like that you
should be getting some calls.
ESG: Oh yeah, the calls are starting to come
in. It’s cool. We’re just trying to do what we gotta do. Slim Thug, he has like
a underground cult following. And my independent thing has brought me a cult following. No
matter what we do we’re going to try to do the best music we can. More than likely
we’re gonna sell at least 50,000 when we drop our next projects.
Down-South: Okay you all being two solo artists as well as from different sides of
Texas. How do you all maintain as a unit?
ESG: Well we sorta got like two different
hustles, but we mix ‘em together. He bounce, he do what he need to do and I bounce
and do what I need to do. And now it’s like we’ve learned to play the game. That
was our first project together. It was our first time being CEOs , but ya know we done
learned, we done met some people, we got added to different Radio One stations. And
that’s lotta work for an independent.
Down-South: Slim, what’s up with you?
Slim: What’s the deal this is Slim
Thugger. I’m from the North side of Houston Texas. I’ve been in the game for a
minute now. I started out in the Swisha House with Michael “5000” Watts doing
the little flows over the Swisha House screw tapes. I got my street fame from doing under
ground flows. What else do you want talk about?
Down-South: Both of you come from some pretty strong camps. Your being from the
Swisha House Click and ESG being a member of the legendary Screwed Up Click. How did each
of you join your respective clicks?
Slim: Well, I joined the Swisha House Click
in 98. It used to be a little teenage club over on the North side called Club All Star.
All the High School kids from the North side used to go there every Friday after the games
and shit. Michael Watts used to DJ there. He used to just play an instrumental and let us
rap. I did a show up there once off other people beats and then he got my beeper number
and then one day he called me a told me that he wanted me to get up on one of his CDs and
every since that day we’ve just been rolling like that.
Down-South: ESG how did you get down with the SUC?
ESG: Well my situation was like when I first
started with the Screwed Up Click, it wasn’t really considered the Screwed UP Click
yet. It was in 93 when I met Screw, as far as really meeting and kicking it and talking
with him and shit. There was a lotta cats who use to hang around and freestyle, freestyle,
freestyle. And I used to freestyle –still do it real well. But my thang was we’d
all go over to Screw house and freestyle and it just so happened that a family was born.
The original members of the Screwed Up Click back then was fat Pat, the South Side Playas,
C-Note & the Botany Boys, Big Moe, Lil Keke, Big HAWK (Fat Pat’s brother), Z-Ro,
AL-D, Myself….I know I’m leaving somebody out right now….
Down-South: What about Lil Flip?
ESG: Naw, naw, it’s like that
situation, everywhere I go, different cities or whatever it’s like everywhere I go he
be hatin’ on me. I used to look out for him. He used to come to my crib. I
practically raised him with his rap career. He used to always be around me so he started
making these little mixed tapes. I never called myself the Freestyle King, the people
chose to give me that name. And so outta the blue he started calling himself the Freestyle
King, but his street credibility was never there. Like on the song he said that he wrecked
two tapes. I was on at least 30 screw tapes. Keke was on at least 30 screw tapes. Fat Pat
was on at least 30 Screw tapes. All of the original members were on numerous screw tapes.
But see you have what you called the real Screwed Up Click and the cats that came later.
No disrespect to ‘em. I gotta a lotta love for ‘em. For example Lil O, Lil O
wasn’t around when we first was doing it because he lived on the other side.
Down-South: When did Flip come in?
ESG: He came in later. Like on his last
album you’ll see that he has from the legendary Screwed Up Click because he was one
of the later ones. When he raps about Screw giving him a plaque that says the Freestyle
King that is nowhere near true. And nobody in the Screwed Up Click that's living today
will hold up to that or agree to that. I remember when his CEO hump called me and told me
he had a plaque made for Flip and he was gonna induct him into the Screwed Up Click.
Down-South: I saw him accept a plaque from Screw on a videotape….
ESG: Right at the Club Connection. They
tried to get me to be there to induct him with us, but it was like we never did that
before. You hear a cat rap a couple of times. Nobody was ever like okay, now you’re
in the Screwed Up Click. It was more like the way you were, the way you presented
yourself, how easy you fit into the Click, that’s how you got into the Click.
That’s the real truth about it. There’s nobody in the Screwed Up Click that ever
seen a plaque that say you are the Freestyle King. That’s why when we did the
interview when DJ Screw passed and he made that statement everyone in the room looked like
what is this guy talking about?
Now all of a sudden it’s I got birds, I do this, I do that, but he had a curfew the
whole time he was hanging with me. Not nothing that I ever hear him rap about is the
truth.
The truth is he was a
good lil’ kid that played basketball. He met me at the corner store by my house and
told me that I was his best rapper ever and that was the truth. He said that he really
wanted to work with me. I did two songs for him on his first album for $3,000 dollars.
They get all on they underground tapes saying that they paid me work to do them songs.
That’s bullshit!
Everything that I’m telling you is the truth. Everywhere we go he’s been on
these underground mix tapes hating on me so, what I did, I went to all the markets that he
just left and I did exclusive freestyles. Everybody be like oh, it ain’t no
competition between you and him.
Down-South: You still do freestyles for mix tapes?
ESG: Hell yeah, we puts it down over here.
Oh, and I got to put this out there Flip’s been on a underground tape saying that I
stole a rap from him. And it's like when people who know me hear that statement they
really look at me come on man what the hell is he really talking about? I’ll explain
to the world exactly what he’s talking about. He’s talking about one of the time
when he was hanging at my crib and he had his notebook and I helped write a rap to put on
a song we was supposed to do for somebody. The guy tell me that he don’t want Lil
Flip on the song because Lil Flip wasn’t known then. I was just trying to get Flip to
do it outta the love, but the guy tells me he wants me to do a solo song. So I immediately
call Hump right then and tell him to tell Flip that I’m just used the verses that I
wrote in this song. Since he wasn’t gonna be on the song I was gonna waste my lines.
He rapped that he made us buy the car, buy the house.
Down-South: Slim why did you leave Swisha House?
Slim Thug: The reason why I left Swisha
House because it was just simply to many people over there. It was just too many people
over there. And I started getting more of the fame in the click or whatever and when they
saw that a couple of the guys over there didn’t like that. When I’d do a show
we’d do it’d be like Slim Thug and the Swisha House Click. It wasn’t like I
had planned it or nothing like that. It was just something the promoters would do I guess
to pump up the show or whatever. And there used to be a lotta tension going on whenever
we’d do a show. And, then at the same time, it was like Ten or thirteen dudes that
was in the Swisha House Click and you know that really cut down on a nigga money. So I was
like, fuck it, I’m gonna do it myself. I went out on my own faith and did the Boss
Hogg Outlaws and started doing the underground thing and started the Boss Hog Outlaws and
selling my underground CDs to survive and to this day I’ve been doing good every
since.
Down-South: Okay there’s a rumor that the Swisha House Click is split up, is
that true?
Slim Thug: I ain’t lying it ain’t
over. Watts’ still doing his thing. He still got Magnificent and Mike Jones. He still
got Swisha House and he still holding it down.
Down-South: What about OG Ron C?
Slim Thug: Ron C is not in Swisha House no
more. He’s doing his own thing. He’s putting out underground CD on his label I
think its called Wrecking Yard.
Down-South: Why did you leave Wreckshop?
ESG: I knew that was coming. The reason why
I left Wreckshop is simply this. I don’t know what a lotta other rappers look at and
how they go about feeding their families, but I wouldn’t care if I was in a contract
with the biggest major label in the world if they are screwing me, if they are not paying
me my money, if they’re keeping my show deposits on the slick, anything like that
regardless if it’s in black and white on paper. I will not abide by the contract. And
I don’t care what you say or what you wanna do because I got to feed my son and my
family. If I would have been paid what was owed to me maybe I would’ve stayed and
made them another album.
No disrespect when I say but when Fat Pat, RIP to his soul, I went over there with heart
of a champion. Yeah, I still had devilish ways as far as being in these streets a lil more
back then. I kinda learned. You know as I started growing up and doing what I gotta do to
help sell records, I started to see a little bit more money missing. You know it’s
like when you with some people instead of them helping you they would rather just let you
party all night so you won’t have your mind on what’s really going on. So once
my mind clicked and I started seeing all these different little things that happened that
wouldn’t normally happened I was like to hell with it. I don’t care if I do owe
you another album or whatever if it is like that I’m not doing it I’m gone.
Down-South: What can we expect from the two of you in the future?
ESG: We both got solo albums coming. The ESG
& Slim Thug is just the first entry to some major shit that’s going to come, the
Boss Hogg Outlaws. The list is a legendary list of rappers from down South. We got Big
HAWK, Lil Keke, Z-Ro that rounds out the Screwed Up Click. Then we have Sir Daily and
Doolie, which is from the Boss Hogg camp. We got Bun B, who one of the most under-rated
rappers in the game. And then we got my solo album called All American Gangsta and then
Slim is going to backdoor me with his first official solo album ever called Already
Platinum. He’s probably going to do about 50 or 60 thousand because everybody is
waiting on him. So we gonna be competing with everybody else.
Down-South: Any final words?
Slim Thug: Yeah, yall just pick up that Slim
Thug solo album Already Platinum and that ESG All American Gangsta when it drops.
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