 Rich Boy | Lil Scrappy  |
I’m sitting here putting these quarters in these $10 wrappers. I’m just talking to you doing something, but look, it’s all about the money.
Project Pat doesn’t play. The older brother of Three 6 Mafia co-founder Juicy J, Pat is known on the Southern streets as the Hypnotize Camp MC with the rap sheet to back up his rhymes. Brazen in his criminality, Pat appeared on the cover of his solid 1999 debut Ghetty Green (Hypnotized Minds/Loud) mid stick-up, as seen through the lens of a convenience store security camera, and his impressive Mista Don’t Play: Everythangs Workin (Hypnotized Minds/Loud, 2001), featured such records as “Aggravated Robbery” and “Ski Mask,” in addition to his breakout hit, “Chickenhead.” With such a track record (literally), it came as little surprise when Pat, born Patrick Houston, was sentenced to four years in March 2001 after being found guilty of two counts of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. At the time of his arrest, he had been on parole for aggravated robbery.
After serving time at the United States Penitentiary Beaumont in Beaumont, Texas, Pat, now 37, was released into a halfway house in December 2005 and truly set free in January 2006. But while his brother has been winning an Oscar and filming reality shows for MTV, Pat has been playing it more low key, staying true to the mixtape game and keeping his name alive in the Southern streets. In February, he released his first album through his new deal with Asylum, Real Recognize Real (Hypnotized Minds/Asylum), and to hear Pat tell it, so far, everythang’s workin’.
VIBE: How are things going with you in terms of putting records out, making music and…
Project Pat: Oh I am good. I am super straight. I’m out here, man, it’s all about this underground. I got a new album with Asylum out and I’m fixin’ to work on this new album. I just dropped Real Recognize Real in February. And you know if it be real good I’m fixin’ to work on this new album, I forgot the name of it. I am fixin’ to go out here Monday start working on the new album out here in California with Juice and Paul.
Cool.
Yeah. And I just dropped a mixtape. You know it’s all about the mixtape game, too. I got like 13 mixtapes out. I just dropped… I got one on Trap-A-Holics. Dutty Laundry. Dutty Laundry really put me on straight ham. That’s my dog out in Chattanooga. See and I’m fixin’ to do another one with Dutty Laundry and I got one I’m fixin’ to do with Drama. I got a few out there, though. [And] Right now we got the Keep It Hood Tour going on right now. Keep It Hood Tour consists of me Juicy J and Lil’ Wyte and it’s for a sweet deal. You know, we’ve been trying to let people see the whole camp. We doing it like on a sweet deal. Like, we not charging [a lot]. We not bussing nobody’s head. We been doing a lot of little different cities and stuff and the money been good. I just copped a BMW yesterday so I ain’t complaining.
[Laughs] Which one did you get?
750 Li, bruh. You know I’m a big dude. I can’t get nothing but something big.
I hear you.
I don’t even like cars but I like that BMW ’cause it’s big.
Man, I hear that. That thing’s like a boat.
Man, that thing’s like a ship.
People who haven’t been following your career might not realize how much work you’ve done on the underground, but it’s been good to you it sounds like.
Man, I’m trying to tell you, man. When I got out of jail that’s what they left me, the underground. Cool. I’ll deal with it. ’Cause them majors, man, they be trippin’. I’m so glad I’m on Asylum, man. Wooo.
Really? Why is that? How is it different?
’Cause I can do what I want to do. I can take my money and put it in my project and they gon’ pump it. It would be like going to a plug and the plug is already, it’s limitless. Like the plug got all the work. As long as you got money, we got [it]. I got a plug now to where they ain’t fixin’ to tell me, man, we ain’t selling nothing but ten over here; that’s all you can get is ten. Or we ain’t selling nothing but five over here, that’s all you can get is five at a time, man. Naw. If you want to buy a million… if you want to push your product, however much you want to push your product, then they let you put your own money into it. I’m with that.
Right.
I’m with that. See ’cause you got to be a smart businessman when you dealing with something like that. If you already sold a million records—by the goodness of God, I already sold a million records once before—so I have a fan base. So what I have to do is just come out with the mixtapes. The mixtape game so sweet. You come out with the mixtapes then, man, you know what I’m saying? You won’t make nothing. You could make something off that if you sold them in the street, but I ain’t trippin’ off that. That’s promotion. And so then you turn around and drop an album, you good. Asylum pay. They pay if you stay there.
The underground aside, you’ve had big hits. “Chickenhead,” from Mista Don’t Play…
Yeah, Mista Don’t Play sold a million records. I sold a million records in seven months and I sold a million records when I was in jail like Tupac. And I used to trip off that because I used to be like damn I sold a million records in jail like Tupac. That was crazy. I was tripping off that.
Do you miss those times at all? Being on a major and having records moving off the shelves or are you cool the way things are now, like you said?
Well, I miss the game how it was because it was too easy. I mean, it was too easy. Like right now, I mean I’m thankful for what it’s worth. You know what I’m saying, if anything. You know me. I tell people, man… Like people ask mehow your day going? I call these girls, and [they’re] like, how you doing? How your day going? And I’ll tell them like, yeah, baby, you don’t never have to ask me that ’cause I’m free. Long as I’m free, my day could never be bad. I could never have a bad day out here. Never in life. I know the game. I’m roll with it. This is what I do. You know what I’m saying. I mean, it’s like whatever’s going on, whatever’s selling, that’s what I’m selling. You know what I’m saying? You know, I do like real estate things on the side. Because you to got to have you a back up plan, you know what I’m saying? But I’m blessed out here, man. God is blessing me and taking care of me man. And I’m super straight I. I ain’t complaining and worrying about this. I be tripping off folks. Talking about they got problems. You ain’t got no problems. Go do time in Beaumont. Go to Beaumont, Texas, and do about three years, like I did. You ain’t got no problems.
When did you get out?
I was out of there in ’06 January. I got out December ’05 but I was in the halfway house. So in January ’06 I was free.
Right.
I was still on paper. I just got off paper this past December.
Congratulations.
Yes, man, What? I’m blowing purple weed and everything. I’m good, man. Check this out, dawg. This is real talk, and I ain’t proud of this. This is really sad. I sat back and thought about it, bro. Don’t you know I been on paper since like ’97? I been on papers since I got on that robbery. I ain’t understand it. I caught the pistol charges when I was on parole. Then when I caught the pistol charges when I was out on bond for six months. [That time] was like I was locked up because I had to piss every month. And then after that, I got locked right back up. I been on paper, man, since ’97.
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