 Paul Wall | Gorilla Zoe  |
I tell you one thing: even with the T.I. beef…getting shot, all that…the whole time I’ve been recording.
It’s hard to believe that just five years ago Lil’ Flip was famous. And not famous as in recognizable—with a 6-foot-plus frame littered with tattoos, the rapper born Wesley Weston, 28, will always stand out in a crowd. But famous, as in pop star, with several hit singles, notably “Game Over (Flip),” “Sunshine,” and the David Banner–assisted anthem “Like A Pimp.” He also had a couple of platinum albums, Undaground Legend (Sony, 2002) and U Gotta Feel Me (Sony, 2004), to his credit. Flip was at the forefront of the soon-to-explode Houston scene, where he was known as the legendary Screwed Up Click’s “Freestyle King.” And then everything got screwed up. In the summer of 2004, T.I. hit the streets after a brief stint in the Fulton County Jail determined to make Lil’ Flip public enemy No. 1. T.I.’s strategy, marked by a showstopping snap fest on Flip during Hot 107.9’s ninth annual Birthday Bash concert in Atlanta, a Gangsta Grillz mixtape, DJ Drama & The P$C: Down with the King (2004), that specifically targeted Lil’ Flip, and an altercation on the south side of Houston not too far from where Flip was born and raised, left Flip’s credibility so damaged that his reputation has yet to recover. Couple catching a bad one with T.I. with a series of botched label deals and you find Flip where he is today, continuing to tour and make music far removed from the spotlight he once stood in so brightly.
In May, he dropped the album, Certified, a collaborative album with Young Money artist Gudda Gudda, through Real Talk Ent. Just this month he unveiled the single, “The Kim Kardashian,” a record not unlike Hurricane Chris’ “Halle Berry (She Fine).” In a wide-ranging interview conducted in March, Flip broke down how he ended up here.
VIBE: You’ve been quiet on the national scene for a minute now. The last time we worked with you was in the set up for the I Need Mine album on Sony, but then that never materialized, at least not on Sony. Can you talk a bit about what happened with that whole situation?
Lil’ Flip: Basically with the I Need Mine album, a lot of people got fired. Like when I first signed with Sony, I signed because of Steve Rifkind. And they promised a tour bus and a whole bunch of stuff that was supposed to happen. But as soon we signed with Steve Rifkind and them, they got fired, Loud [Records] turned into Columbia/Sony Urban, and all that shit and they chose artists to keep. Like we had a tour bus and all of that shit in our contract with Steve, that we negotiated with Steve, and when he got fired, they chose to keep us, Three 6, they let Mobb Deep go, they kept Xzibit…but basically, so all these people who I been around promising me this, and listening to them, bro, that shit just kind of fucked up. And so they getting ready to put this fucking album out, and they going through me recording the album, and the situation that had went down with Sucker Free and all of that, so basically, it was like, okay, we’re gonna put the album out. And the people who was supposed to put the album out and do what they say they was going to do, they got fired, too, and it got to a position of, we bumping heads. So when we asked to leave, they got on some outrageous shit, and yeah, I could leave, they wanted $1.9 million and all this type of shit. So to make a long story short, they got mad, we decided to go with Warner, and then after we signed, [Sony] decided to leak the album. Like, I had a hard copy of my album that they had mailed to some fan or some shit…like they had leaked the I Need Mine album, even after the fact. And so that kinda fucked me up. And so, that’s how the Warner situation went through, bro. So now we got this album out on the streets, everybody done got it. [Warner’s] on some, Let’s put the same album out, I’m on some, Man, we can’t put the exact same album out now. We gotta change the artwork…it was just a lot of crazy shit that was going on. So I had to go back in the studio, I got a whole bunch of music anyway, so I went back in the studio, did 12 new songs, revamped it. You know, we got with Warner and I had a whole bunch of promises made to me about how we were gonna go with this album, and I was told the “Ghetto Mind State” video was just going to be a single, just to throw out, on my I Need Mine album on the version we released with Warner. Just something to throw out, and then boom, we come with the second single. Now the streets is loving this record I produced called “Fly Boy.” Anytime I do a show, you can go to the Clover G YouTube shit and you can see me performing it, but man, I got this “Fly Boy.” But the label was like, We like “I Get Money.” So you know how that shit go. If the label tell you, Hey, we going to spend a half a million on promoting this single ’cause we’re behind it, or we can go with yours and not support it, as a businessman, what the fuck? So I had to go with that decision but what happened, I ended up paying for the “I Get Money” video outta my pocket. We had Rick Ross on the record, and it got so last minute, we didn’t know we was gonna do a video, and all that, so we wasn’t able to get him cleared for the video. We wasn’t able to get him cleared, so I put Jim Jones on it. We shot it, but I was under the impression that I was gonna go on a promo run and all this shit, just that type of shit, and I was supposed to go to 106 & Park, the day of, with the brand new video, with me and Jim Jones, all of this is what I’m expecting to happen. Man, I didn’t get my video until four days after… really two weeks after the album came out. I didn’t get to go do a fucking promo run. Really, I was made a whole bunch of promises on this and that, and it was just like, what the fuck? Y’all just threw my shit out, like what the fuck? And the only thing that I’m blessed and I’m not tripping about is that it’s like at 270,000, close to 300,000, so you know when you drop doubles, it count as two, so the best thing… I’m like, well, fuck it, at least it’s gold. So that’s what happened with the last record. So that kinda went sour with me ’cause my trust issues is already… So when I got promised a whole bunch of shit and they threw my shit out and I ain’t go do a promo run, dawg, I was just like, damn, that shit really affected me cause I had just went through the situation with Hump of course.
What happened with former CEO of Sucker Free Records Duane “Humpty Hump” Hobbs?
Basically, I was told I was a CEO and I wasn’t. And on paper, they had like four or five different contracts. I was just really getting screwed outta my money. And that’s what happened with that. I got messed outta my money, told I was a CEO, and they had fake paperwork. He was friends with my dad. So that was another reason why I kinda dove in headfirst ’cause I was like, I know he’s not gonna fuck over me ’cause this is my dad’s friend, but in reality, I was supposed to make more money than him because I was the CEO and the artist. But by him being older, he handled the business, I handled the music, and I’m gonna get exactly what I’m supposed to get, which was more than him. But when you that young, people they’ll give you bird feed, what they want you to have. You might be entitled to a million dollars, but if a person give you $50,000 at the age of 18, you excited just to have $50,000. So it’s really a growing process, but yeah… So that’s what happened with me and him on that situation. I never got in the press and disrespected him, even though I know a lot of shit, ’cause at the end of the day, that’s not the direction I’m going in.
And that was before the Warner Bros. deal?
That was before Warner. So this is like a quadruple, so this is like three times with me. So after the shit with Warner, I kinda shut down. I was like, I’m not doing shit for y’all, don’t ask me to do a motherfucking thing. You know, I just continued to tour and do my mixtapes and for me, I was like, Fuck it, I was done. I was done with that relationship. Because I don’t do music just to do it, I do music ’cause I love this shit, and I’ve been doing music since I was a kid. My whole family, like my grandma played the piano for the church, I played the drums, you know what I’m saying? So I’ve been doing this shit for a while. So that’s why people don’t see me kissing ass or at every red-carpet event ’cause I’m not in it for the fame, you know? It’s cool to me. It’s cool to be at the Grammys, all that’s cool. But I’m not one of the people that’s just gotta be on the scene. I feel like my attitude is more of a Nas type of attitude when it comes to real-life shit ’cause I realize that this industry is not…these people don’t love ya. Basically, you’re gonna get yourself hurt thinking that everybody loves ya, every magazine, every promoter, so I realize that, and I just deal with real-life shit, man. I don’t let this shit go to my head, and I value my family. It just makes me closer to my family, ’cause when you ain’t got no hit on the radio or whatever, no matter what, your family is still gonna be right there.
So what happened with the Warner deal? You negotiated your way out of it, or you were dropped or what?
Basically, Sandy [Lal], he handled the contracts or whatever, and we just decided to part ways. ’Cause, like, I done sold so many records, like, I’m still touring. I stay touring. I be in Europe, Germany, and shit. Like, I just got back. I stay touring. So it’s like, for me to get treated like I’m an artist that didn’t really set the bar for Houston, definitely Houston, after Scarface of course, but at a young age, you know all the people from the Screwed Up Click, and it’s like, I feel like y’all treating me like I ain’t sold no records. But I tell you one thing that shit did, even with the T.I. beef, even with everything I done been through, getting shot, seeing…man, all that shit, the whole time I was going through all that I was going through, I’ve been recording. Like, I’ve got literally over 2,000 songs in my computer, half of them freestyles. So all that did, the whole time all of this was going on, I’ve just been working, working, working; getting back just concentrating on my lyrics and different shit like that. The shit that I’m fixing to release, bro, the mixtape before the album, just anything I’m fixing to put out, they ain’t even gonna think I wrote that shit. I never was the nigga to walk around and say, I feel like I’ve got the best album…I mean, I feel like each album gets better, but you know how some people…but honestly, by me getting to hear all of the competition and see what’s been playing on the radio, all these years, I just really got to hear what everybody else is doing. So I’m way more confident that I’ve ever been in my whole career cause I know what album I’m sitting on. I’m sitting on some shit that’s crazy.
When can people look for that?
I’m going to put the album out probably in June. It’s been a ride. A maturing ride. Just to really know who is who. Now that I know that everybody done showed me their hands and where everybody stands, man, I’m floating on air ’cause I know what I’m dealing with. It’s different when you don’t know.
Can you talk about what happened with the T.I. situation?
I can talk about it. It’s just depending on how the questions get asked, so I’m going to be very particular about how I answer the questions, but depending on what the question is, I ain’t tripping, I can talk about it…
So what happened? How did all of that go down?
Honestly, I really don’t know what happened. Someone told him that I dissed him on stage, which that wasn’t true, so I really don’t know what happened, so you know, it’s all-good. It’s all-good…
I mean, obviously it was a crazy thing in the media, if nothing else…
You know how that shit go. I done had beef with rappers before. So it was like, after seeing what happened, just a lot of shit that just happened after that shit… I had to just tell myself, this ain’t even what I got in this shit to do. Like if I wanted to stay in the streets, then I would have stayed in the streets. So it was more of a maturing thing for me ’cause a lot of shit happened after that. After that. And that shit’s still just kind’a happening. So my whole outlook is, man I’m not even needing no more bullshit, I’m just gonna do what I gotta do and focus on my plan. That’s just the type of shit I’m on.
[ED.: Sony and Warner Bros. were unavailable for comment as of press time.]
Press play to listen to "Kim Kardashian" by Lil Flip
Press play to watch the video for "Ghetto Mindstate" by Lil Flip feat. Lyfe Jennings
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