NEW D.S.R(INTERVIEW)WITH WHITEDAWG A.K.A. MR.CHEVY BOY
1 DSR: So how long have you been in the rap game White Dawg?
WHITE DAWG: I've been in the game since 1991.
2 DSR: How did u get started?
WHITE DAWG: Well I actually got started from Djn and making mix tapes back in
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I always wanted to get into to Djn, but I didn't
know what equipment to buy or how to go about it. I ran into this kid back in
school who had his own equipment and was making mix tapes on a real small level
for just his friends on the block. I came over to his crib after school with
him and we made a tape together. We weren't any good at all back then, but we
thought we were Kid Capri. We used to do alot of mic checkin' which is cutting
in between the words or a song and replacing them with your own shit. We would
yell out all the gangs in our neighborhood, because back then the gangs were
really at war. I'd always make sure that we yelled out the most popular kids in
school so they would be playing our tapes. People would come up trying to pay
me to say their name on my next tape. I still remember how I made 5 copies of
the first tape we did and sold them the next day at school for $5.00 a piece.
That was alot for me back then being a sophmore and never having a job. I
thought I was ballin'!!! I knew right away there was money in this game if the
hustle was right. I was always the one thinking about making money off the game.
My partner was really just into making tapes as a hobby, but i wanted to take
the shit to the next level. We grew up around the guy named Mike G who was in
Jam Pony Express. We really looked up to him. We used to get everyone of his
tapes and try to copy every word he said, we wanted to be in Jam Pony so bad,
but we weren't really good enough. I used to be in Mike's shadow, every party
I would go to they would say you sound just like Mike G. He would bust
freestyles over Planet Rock or Set it Off back then so we started doing the same
thing. He eventually graduated two years ahead of us. I saved up my money , got my
own equipment over the next year, and spent all my time practicing . I used
to write raps all day in class so my grades really started slipping, but I
didn't care. I wanted to be the famous with this music thing. We started doing
every party around along with the school dances. It wasn't long before they had
forgot about Mike G and I was it. I took my tapes out to the Oakland Park Flea
Market where Jam Pony had originally got their start. There's a store in there
called Kotam Stereo. They used to sell all mix tapes and speakers for the
rides. You really had to be known to get your tapes in their store. The first
time I went in there they said they wouldn't take my tape without even listening
to it. I went back 7 weeks in a row and they finally said that they would
listen to it. So they put in my tape and listened for about 30 seconds and still
said no. So the next week I got a hold or a real hot record that no one had
yet, called "Loose my Money". I Mixed it with the planet rock instrumental and
then kicked a 16 bar rap over it at the end yelling out "You can buy my tapes at
Kotam Stereo" all on the song. I went back to Kotam and told them to pop it
in , there was about 15 people in the store. As soon as they heard the rap they
came up wanting to buy it from them. So Kotam took my tape from me for free
to see how I would sell. They told me if I sold alot they would buy the next
one. It turned out to be their best seller for the next two weeks and they
bought from me from then on. That really put me on the map down south.
3 DSR: How did u come up with the name White Dawg?
WHITE DAWG: I kinda was given that name. When I started off I went by the
name of M.C. B. Mc Brains came out and started saying Mc. B on all his records so
I wanted to switch. When I first started selling my tapes at Kotam Stereo, at
first no one knew my name they just heard I was white. That would say "let me
get that new White Dawg tape". I was the only white guy that worked out
there....so everyone just kinda called me that.
4 DSR: Who influenced you the most or helped you the most back then to get on
track?
WHITE DAWG: Well I ended up getting a job working at Kotam Stereo a year or
so later. I was their music buyer. They figured I knew what was hot, so they
wanted me to buy all the music for the store when other djs came in with their
mix tapes. I met alot of djs and finally met up with Big Ace from Jam Pony. He
kind of took me under his wing and showed me the game and how to take it to
the next level. He was alot older than me at the time, so he had alot of
experience he shared with me, he taught me the hustle part and how to take my music
up out of Ft. Lauderdale into other cities to get money. He gave me alot of
history too on how Mic Checkin' originated and how Jam Pony got started. He used
to come by every week and make tapes with me and show me tricks. He took the
tapes we made up the road with him and my name started getting hot in other
places. He showed me alot of love and gave me the Jam Pony stamp of approval.
>From then on out all the djs started giving me respect and wanting to do tapes
with me. I owe alot to Big Ace, may he R.I.P.
5 DSR: So when did u start recording your own songs?
WHITE DAWG: I graduated from high school and decided to go to the Art
Institute of Ft. Lauderdale. I majored in Music Business. The school had it's own
recording studio, although the students didn't get to use it much. I learned from
them that music is also a business. I got a little introduction to the
business side and into contracts. I met this guy one day at Kotam who came in and
said he rapped. He told me had a studio, but didn't know how to use any of the
equipment he had just bought. He just wanted to write lyrics and rap. He told
me he would give me free run of the studio if I made him beats once I learned
the equipment. I was really in heaven back then. He had a brand new MPC 60 II,
the best drum machine out at that time. He didn't have any manuals for the
equipment, so I had to learn everything from trial and error. This was a pain in
the ass, but really helped in the long run. I got to know the equipment in and
out. I started cutting my own songs late night and learing how to sample and
structure songs. Being a dj really helped.
6 DSR: When did u put out your first album?
WHITE DAWG: I released my first self titled album back in 1995-1996. I was
really explicit back then. We used to get on the mic and just cuss out women and
diss other djs and rappers. I didn't understand anything about raido play
back then so I didn't even make a clean song. The south didn't really have it's
own sound back then. You either was trying to be from New York, West Coast, or
you made Booty music like Luke and 2live crew. I was really into gangster west
coast music. Too Short, Dr. Dre, Mac Mall, and a little bit of booty music
mixed in. I pressed up the album with my boy Dozia. We sold them out of the
trunk at car shows and the clubs we spun at. We sold about 2,000 of them on our
own. We made enough just to stay in the game and put back into our own
equipment. We had put two girls making out on the cover, so people really use to talk
about our cd. It gave us a hot buzz on the street.
7 DSR: How did you end up with Paper Chasers Entertainment?
WHITE DAWG: I met Jimbo back in 1997. He used to rap himself and I always
looked up to him. He had sold alot of records on Pan Disc back in the days with
bass music. He was signed to Joey Boy Records when I met him and was working on
an album for over seas. He was trying meet a deadline and need some help
producing to fininsh the album on time. He had heard of me from my first album, so
he asked me to come stay at his crib and finish the album with him. He
promised to walk me into Joey Boy Records with my own music once we finished his
album. Joey Boy ended up dropping Jimbo before the album was done. He was kind of
down and out for a few days. I told him that we didn't need Joey Boy and that
we could put out our own music. He said he knew an investor that would give
us major money to do whatever we needed. So we started Paper Chasers. Jimbo
wanted to get out of the artist side and stick more to producing and running a
label. I had already started working on my next album Thug Ride. We planned on
releasing it in April of 1999.
8 DSR: How did Thug Ride end up doing?
WHITE DAWG: We ended up selling around 30,000 units. We were really
inexperienced on the business side. We had ran up alot of expenses, so the album and
the company was in the red big time. My single "Restless" ended up hitting #18
on the BILLBOARD Rap Singles Chart. We ran ads in SOURCE,MURDER DOG, and XXL
thinking that that was all there was too it. I did get alot of exposure off that
album. It just wasn't my time yet.
9 DSR: So what eventually happened between you and Paper Chasers?
WHITE DAWG: We just all fell out. We all had different ideas on how the
company should have been ran, who should be in charge of what, and what direction
that we really wanted to go. We just couldn't all agree on anything. I started
getting burned out on music, that's when I knew I needed a change.
10 DSR: Do you still hold hard feelings against Paper Chasers?
WHITE DAWG: Not at all. Half the mistakes that were being made were made by
me. I just wasn't ready back then artistically and business wise. I learned
alot from that experience and had alot of good times back then. That was my music
industry boot camp. I wouldn't change it for the world. I wish them all the
best of luck.
1 DSR: So how long have you been in the rap game White Dawg?
WHITE DAWG: I've been in the game since 1991.
2 DSR: How did u get started?
WHITE DAWG: Well I actually got started from Djn and making mix tapes back in
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I always wanted to get into to Djn, but I didn't
know what equipment to buy or how to go about it. I ran into this kid back in
school who had his own equipment and was making mix tapes on a real small level
for just his friends on the block. I came over to his crib after school with
him and we made a tape together. We weren't any good at all back then, but we
thought we were Kid Capri. We used to do alot of mic checkin' which is cutting
in between the words or a song and replacing them with your own shit. We would
yell out all the gangs in our neighborhood, because back then the gangs were
really at war. I'd always make sure that we yelled out the most popular kids in
school so they would be playing our tapes. People would come up trying to pay
me to say their name on my next tape. I still remember how I made 5 copies of
the first tape we did and sold them the next day at school for $5.00 a piece.
That was alot for me back then being a sophmore and never having a job. I
thought I was ballin'!!! I knew right away there was money in this game if the
hustle was right. I was always the one thinking about making money off the game.
My partner was really just into making tapes as a hobby, but i wanted to take
the shit to the next level. We grew up around the guy named Mike G who was in
Jam Pony Express. We really looked up to him. We used to get everyone of his
tapes and try to copy every word he said, we wanted to be in Jam Pony so bad,
but we weren't really good enough. I used to be in Mike's shadow, every party
I would go to they would say you sound just like Mike G. He would bust
freestyles over Planet Rock or Set it Off back then so we started doing the same
thing. He eventually graduated two years ahead of us. I saved up my money , got my
own equipment over the next year, and spent all my time practicing . I used
to write raps all day in class so my grades really started slipping, but I
didn't care. I wanted to be the famous with this music thing. We started doing
every party around along with the school dances. It wasn't long before they had
forgot about Mike G and I was it. I took my tapes out to the Oakland Park Flea
Market where Jam Pony had originally got their start. There's a store in there
called Kotam Stereo. They used to sell all mix tapes and speakers for the
rides. You really had to be known to get your tapes in their store. The first
time I went in there they said they wouldn't take my tape without even listening
to it. I went back 7 weeks in a row and they finally said that they would
listen to it. So they put in my tape and listened for about 30 seconds and still
said no. So the next week I got a hold or a real hot record that no one had
yet, called "Loose my Money". I Mixed it with the planet rock instrumental and
then kicked a 16 bar rap over it at the end yelling out "You can buy my tapes at
Kotam Stereo" all on the song. I went back to Kotam and told them to pop it
in , there was about 15 people in the store. As soon as they heard the rap they
came up wanting to buy it from them. So Kotam took my tape from me for free
to see how I would sell. They told me if I sold alot they would buy the next
one. It turned out to be their best seller for the next two weeks and they
bought from me from then on. That really put me on the map down south.
3 DSR: How did u come up with the name White Dawg?
WHITE DAWG: I kinda was given that name. When I started off I went by the
name of M.C. B. Mc Brains came out and started saying Mc. B on all his records so
I wanted to switch. When I first started selling my tapes at Kotam Stereo, at
first no one knew my name they just heard I was white. That would say "let me
get that new White Dawg tape". I was the only white guy that worked out
there....so everyone just kinda called me that.
4 DSR: Who influenced you the most or helped you the most back then to get on
track?
WHITE DAWG: Well I ended up getting a job working at Kotam Stereo a year or
so later. I was their music buyer. They figured I knew what was hot, so they
wanted me to buy all the music for the store when other djs came in with their
mix tapes. I met alot of djs and finally met up with Big Ace from Jam Pony. He
kind of took me under his wing and showed me the game and how to take it to
the next level. He was alot older than me at the time, so he had alot of
experience he shared with me, he taught me the hustle part and how to take my music
up out of Ft. Lauderdale into other cities to get money. He gave me alot of
history too on how Mic Checkin' originated and how Jam Pony got started. He used
to come by every week and make tapes with me and show me tricks. He took the
tapes we made up the road with him and my name started getting hot in other
places. He showed me alot of love and gave me the Jam Pony stamp of approval.
>From then on out all the djs started giving me respect and wanting to do tapes
with me. I owe alot to Big Ace, may he R.I.P.
5 DSR: So when did u start recording your own songs?
WHITE DAWG: I graduated from high school and decided to go to the Art
Institute of Ft. Lauderdale. I majored in Music Business. The school had it's own
recording studio, although the students didn't get to use it much. I learned from
them that music is also a business. I got a little introduction to the
business side and into contracts. I met this guy one day at Kotam who came in and
said he rapped. He told me had a studio, but didn't know how to use any of the
equipment he had just bought. He just wanted to write lyrics and rap. He told
me he would give me free run of the studio if I made him beats once I learned
the equipment. I was really in heaven back then. He had a brand new MPC 60 II,
the best drum machine out at that time. He didn't have any manuals for the
equipment, so I had to learn everything from trial and error. This was a pain in
the ass, but really helped in the long run. I got to know the equipment in and
out. I started cutting my own songs late night and learing how to sample and
structure songs. Being a dj really helped.
6 DSR: When did u put out your first album?
WHITE DAWG: I released my first self titled album back in 1995-1996. I was
really explicit back then. We used to get on the mic and just cuss out women and
diss other djs and rappers. I didn't understand anything about raido play
back then so I didn't even make a clean song. The south didn't really have it's
own sound back then. You either was trying to be from New York, West Coast, or
you made Booty music like Luke and 2live crew. I was really into gangster west
coast music. Too Short, Dr. Dre, Mac Mall, and a little bit of booty music
mixed in. I pressed up the album with my boy Dozia. We sold them out of the
trunk at car shows and the clubs we spun at. We sold about 2,000 of them on our
own. We made enough just to stay in the game and put back into our own
equipment. We had put two girls making out on the cover, so people really use to talk
about our cd. It gave us a hot buzz on the street.
7 DSR: How did you end up with Paper Chasers Entertainment?
WHITE DAWG: I met Jimbo back in 1997. He used to rap himself and I always
looked up to him. He had sold alot of records on Pan Disc back in the days with
bass music. He was signed to Joey Boy Records when I met him and was working on
an album for over seas. He was trying meet a deadline and need some help
producing to fininsh the album on time. He had heard of me from my first album, so
he asked me to come stay at his crib and finish the album with him. He
promised to walk me into Joey Boy Records with my own music once we finished his
album. Joey Boy ended up dropping Jimbo before the album was done. He was kind of
down and out for a few days. I told him that we didn't need Joey Boy and that
we could put out our own music. He said he knew an investor that would give
us major money to do whatever we needed. So we started Paper Chasers. Jimbo
wanted to get out of the artist side and stick more to producing and running a
label. I had already started working on my next album Thug Ride. We planned on
releasing it in April of 1999.
8 DSR: How did Thug Ride end up doing?
WHITE DAWG: We ended up selling around 30,000 units. We were really
inexperienced on the business side. We had ran up alot of expenses, so the album and
the company was in the red big time. My single "Restless" ended up hitting #18
on the BILLBOARD Rap Singles Chart. We ran ads in SOURCE,MURDER DOG, and XXL
thinking that that was all there was too it. I did get alot of exposure off that
album. It just wasn't my time yet.
9 DSR: So what eventually happened between you and Paper Chasers?
WHITE DAWG: We just all fell out. We all had different ideas on how the
company should have been ran, who should be in charge of what, and what direction
that we really wanted to go. We just couldn't all agree on anything. I started
getting burned out on music, that's when I knew I needed a change.
10 DSR: Do you still hold hard feelings against Paper Chasers?
WHITE DAWG: Not at all. Half the mistakes that were being made were made by
me. I just wasn't ready back then artistically and business wise. I learned
alot from that experience and had alot of good times back then. That was my music
industry boot camp. I wouldn't change it for the world. I wish them all the
best of luck.
