Down-South.com: Where are you guys from?

Big Bernard: I’m from Huntsville, Texas better known as Prison City. Huntsville is the place where all the inmates come when they come to get ready to get released. Huntsville is also known for the fact that all of the executions in Texas take place in Huntsville. Anytime somebody in the prison system gets killed by the State it’s in Huntsville.

Dirty Dave: I was born in Avalon, raised in Balance and educated in Houston.

Down-South.com: What was it like growing up for you in Huntsville?

Big Bernard: I grew up on MLK. I grew up around a lot of crack dealers and dope fiends. It wasn’t all that bad but I did grow up in that type of environment.

Down-South.com: How did you get involved in rap music?

Big Bernard: Ah man, my real father he was a DJ. Even though I didn’t grow up close to him I just always looked up to him. I always just loved music period. Then once I got to high school I just started listening to rap music….you know the Afrika Bambaataas and all the old school New York cats. Down here in Texas we mostly listen to the gangsta music which would be the NWAs, the Ice Cubes and Eazy Es and stuff. That what had more influence over me since that was the type of environment I was in.

Dirty Dave: Well in the early years of my life I used to hang out in the clubs. That’s when I met DJ Bull and Bernard and they needed some street presence for their label and that’s how I got into rap. I wasn’t on the music side I came into it from hanging out in the clubs.

My brother DJ Ro was promoting artists in Jackson Mississippi. And I started hanging out in some of the clubs helping him promote Jackson artist out here.

Down-South.com: When did you first come in contact with screw music?

Big Bernard: Ah yeah, that is a good one. Believe it or not at first I hated screw music because the first screw tape I ever heard the quality wasn’t that good. Keep in mind this was when nobody knew who Fat Pat and Lil Keke was; we didn’t know those guys back then. But I had a cousin that died back then that I used to hang with. He used to wake up every morning playing Screw. I used to go man I don’t wanna hear this mess….that’s some BS. But eventually it just grew on me. Then Michael Watts came through with the CDs and the clearer quality and screwing and choppin’ and it started to grow on me then.

Down-South.com: When did you start getting involved with doing screw music?

Big Bernard: I had pledged Phi Beta Sigma in 95 at Sam Houston State University. In 96 I started throwing little high school parties. At that time DJ Bull Stated throwing little high school parties and I said to him, hey Bull I got the connections on getting all the venues and you got the DJ equipment. Let’s go in and throw parties together and we split the profits 50/50. In 98 Bull created the Freestyle Kings so Bull was like well Bernard you do the booking and the talking why don’t you come on and help me out with this. So that’s how I got involved with screw music when I started helping the freestyle Kings out.

Down-South.com: What were you doing with them?

Big Bernard: I started out doing management and booking for them. After a while I decided to just break off and do my own thing.

Down-South.com: Now didn’t you get involve with Slim Thug for a minute/

Big Bernard: Yeah, in 1999 Swisha House was getting a nice Buzz going. So what we and Bull did was book the Swisha House click for $1,500. This was when it was Big Tiger, Slim Thug, Blindside, Ad….al the old Swisha House click –Paul Wall and Chamillionaire was really involved with them Swisha House back then. We booked them on a tour for the summer of 99. We called it the Hot Spot 99. I was pretty much over the booking me and Dirty Dave. What happened was when we threw the shows we took the door and paid Swisha House $1,500. We went out to East Texas including Huntsville. We gave the Swisha House access to venues that they didn’t have access to back in 99.
In 2000 when Slim Thug left the Swisha House we book Slim Thug for his first show at our club the ballroom. I had been dealing with Slim Thug and Swisha House for a long time?

Back then DJ Yella Boy was my partner and I was the one who hooked him up with Ray Face so he could chop and screw all of Slim Thug’s stuff. Plus I was the one who hooked him up with George Lopez of DSR so he could chop and screw their projects.

Down-South.com: Why did you guys leave?

Big Bernard: Well what happened was we had gotten too big for the Freestyle Kings. After the Freestyle Kings had gotten a buzz I couldn’t do the things that I wanted to do with the group. Me and DJ Bull and DJ Yella Boy sat down at the table and Bull gave us his blessings and said that he’d help us out. So we started Street Pharmacy and built that up to what it is today.

Down-South.com: What happened to DJ Yella Boy?

Big Bernard: DJ Yella Boy decided that in the summer of 2005 that he needed to rest from all of this. He no longer wanted to DJ at this time. He had a bunch of extra stress to deal with at this time. So he went into a short retirement. We had to move on without him.

Down-South.com: Who are the current members of Street Pharmacy?

Big Bernard: We have YZ, who is one of the oldest members of Street Pharmacy. We have Little Juan We have Blade. Those are the three rappers that we are really pushing right now. Also we’re working real heavy with Donnie Cross and Roam Baddaddy even though they are not official members of the camp. They’re like extended family.

Down-South.com: Name some of the projects that you all are working on right now?

Big Bernard: Right now we have the Southern Flows Vol. 4 hosted by Magno, which is a mix tape/slash compilation with all original tracks. It’s our first mix tape that will be distributed nation-wide. We also have done mix tapes with ESG, Chingo Bling, PSC, Mr. Pookie and Mr. Lucci.

Down-South.com: What separates you guys from the rest of the screw and chop crews out there?

Big Bernard: The thing that separates us from the rest of the screw and chop guys is that we’re original with ours. Everybody that we have on our CDs we actually network with them. Instead of just throwing their records on a CD and making some money we actually work with them to help break them in this market.

Down-South.com: In addition to having done a syndicated radio show you all have a TV show on Houston Television.

Dirty Dave: Yeah we have a TV show called Mixtape TV here in Houston. It a show designed to promote underground artist.

Down-South.com: And you are the director producer of the show, right?

Dirty Dave: Right. I am the director and producer of Mixtape TV.

Down-South.com: Where can people in Houston watch Mixtape TV?

Dirty Dave: They can see Mixtape TV every Saturday night at 2:30 am on channel 55 WTBE in Houston.

Down-South.com: How many people do you all reach?

Dirty Dave: They say that the station has a potential viewership of 25 million so I figure that we check in at 25% of that which would make us reach 1.5 million viewers.

Down-South.com: Now you also have a DVD line coming out?

Dirty Dave: Yeah, we have a DVD line that we’re developing that we will put out in conjunction with the mix CDs. Plus we have another television show in Jackson Mississippi called 601 Live. It’s on channel 18 WPUE TV.

Down-South.com: What other projects do you have coming up?

Big Bernard: We have the Pure Pain mix CD hosted by Roam Baddaddy and Donnie Cross coming up. We got the old Big Tiger from the Swisha House Click mix tape we’re working on. We got the Extended Pleasures: Sex Tonight hosted by Simply Sonya. We’re working on Southern Flows Vol. 5. Just be look out for Street Pharmacy