August 20, 2007 @ 3:10 pm

Young Dro: The Word Chef

Chris Yuscavage

Shark meat? Snails? Tilapia? It wasn't hard for us to figure out why last year T.I. selected Young Dro as his heir apparent. His protege's impressive Best Thang Smokin' (Grand Hustle/Atlantic), featuring the ubiquitous "Shoulder Lean" and a cornucopia of exotic food references, was literally one of the year's hungriest debuts. "If you put a table of food out there, people will eat it. If you put bright colors out there, everybody will look," Dro says about his more personal upcoming album, Young and the Restless (Grand Hustle/Atlantic). "But if you put your heart out there, who will feel you?" We will, Dro. We will. NAME: D'Juan Hart - Young Dro
AGE: 28
BORN: Atlanta, GA
RESIDES: Atlanta, GA

PERSONAL MOTTO:
"You can lose a lot of money chasing women, but you can never lose a lot of women chasing money. And that's just that. I live by that everyday." SOMETHING I DO EVERY DAY FOR SANITY:
"I watch Lean On Me in my truck. [laughs] That's my favorite movie. It's wild because people be like, 'He always keep saying that!' But that movie brings me back to gravity. My cartoons keep me sane." PLACE WHERE I'M MOST PRODUCTIVE:
" In the bed with my chick… No, I'm just kidding. [laughs] Nah, the place where I'm most productive would be in the studio doing my thing on a track. Music is my passion. I'm always productive behind the microphone and on the stage. Recently we did Summer Jam with Puff Daddy and I felt myself just . . . I didn't even need the crowd. I just felt so productive myself and just feeling myself. So I feel more productive behind that mic, man." FAVORITE ARTICLE OF CLOTHING/GOOD LUCK CHARM:
"Oh yeah. Ralph Lauren, man…. I like the Andrew pant, the classic fit. It might look like I play tennis one day, like the golf pant, the golf shirt, stuff like that. Really, it's a classical look for me, the Ralph Lauren look." MOST FRUSTRATING MOMENT:
"I think getting this sophomore album off the ground is very frustrating. Topping "Shoulder Lean" is very frustrating. It's some sort of anxiety or something like that. It's very frustrating to the point where you're successful, you made a lot of money, you're out spending it and your work ethics are different now. You want to do this, you want to do that and then, all of a sudden, boom, you have to top yourself from the last thing. So it becomes frustrating. Now I'm in here pacing the floor back and forth like, 'This sounds good, that doesn't,' so it's very frustrating for the sophomore album. But I got it though. I got it on lock."
PERSON I ADMIRE MOST :
"My mom. My mom, she's very strong, she been standing like a brick through the years and she's very sweet and caring and just got open arms to whatever. Her name is Hydee Thomas."
PERSON WHO TAUGHT ME HOW TO HAVE JUICE :
"Well, T.I. stay in my ear. Right to this day, he stay in my eat yelling out, 'A la bamba.' He always in my ear telling me to get it together. And also Jadakiss. Jadakiss, he stays in my ear. He told me that "Shoulder Lean" was a big uppercut and I got to come around with another left to knock them all out. And he told me to keep two hits in their ear. And that's the juice. When you hear that, that juices you up like, 'Okay, you got cats like Jadakiss and T.I. telling you stuff like that.'"
5 YEARS AGO, MY GOAL WAS:
"Five years ago, my goal was to be exactly who I am today. This is exactly who I wanted to be. So without that juice I couldn't be here. Five years ago, I wouldn't be who I am and I'm proud of that. I'm thankful for all my fans bringing me here and I got a song that I made strictly for them and I appreciate it."
5 YEARS FROM NOW, MY GOAL IS:
" Five years from now is to triple this, triple this success that I have now. I'm looking forward to being an actor. Acting has been my passion along with rapping. I've never just taken one and said, 'This is what I'm going to do.' Everybody think I'm a comedian and I'm so funny and it just shows. It's nothing that I say. It just shows. And they're like, 'Why don't you do comedy? Why don't you do TV?' So, really, it's going to be triple this. It's going to be a lot.
I can basically do anything. I'm real dramatic. I'm real funny, too, but I can get so serious that I can make you pay attention to me. Like, you know, there's nothing like I have any boundaries. There's no boundaries or limitations to the way I can act. So the world better get ready for me. If I catch the right move at the right time, it's going to be a blowout. I guarantee you."
BIGGEST PROBLEM FACING OUR GENERATION:
" Biggest problem? Jealousy, man. When God gives a blessing, he gives a blessing to all. It's just who wants to accept it. And there's just a lot of lazy motherfuckers that don't want to work. What you put in is what you get out. If you're lazy and you sleep, then that's what's going to be happening. If we don't wake up soon, you know the outcome."
FAVORITE BOOK, AND WHY:
" My favorite book is by Kashiff. It's called Learning About The Industry. It teaches you about the industry itself, people and how they will come at you, what you need and what you don't need. And I've been reading it and I don't just read straight through books and be like, 'Yeah, I read that.' I'll read a page and then I'll think about that page. If it takes me a week or something because I comprehend very slow and take my time because little words can mean a lot. So I read this book and then I'm seeing stuff that's unfolding within my life and I learn about the industry. So that's my favorite book."
FAVORITE MOVIE, AND WHY:
"[laughs] Yeah, I love Lean On Me, but I could give you this—300. That's my recently favorite movie. It teaches you about who you are and what you stand for and nobody can take that from you. And we will conquer and we will fight, you know? And this battle here is worth dying for. A real solder goes to war, he knows he might not make it back. But what he's fighting for, that's what matters the most. Like, what are you fighting for? And if you're fighting for your respect and the truth, I would die for that. 300 is like, 'You ain't gonna come over here and mess with nobody and we'll kill a million. There's only 300 of us.' I look up to that movie, that's my word."
FIVE SONGS YOU'RE LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW IN YOUR CAR :
"We got Rick Ross and "The Prayer." We got "Big Shit Poppin'" by T.I. I'm listening to Fergie and "Glamorous." And I'm listening to Augustana Boston. And I'm listening to Nelly Furtado and Justin and Timbaland."

Article tags: Young, Dro, Word, Chef 

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