Title: Founder and President of Wreckshop Records and Wreckshop Nation.
What made you want to come back to the music industry?
I never really left but I did take a step back to focus on my other businesses. I’ve always been involved behind the scenes because my background stems from being a music guy. I still get excited when I see the development of a great artist. That alone is what motivated me to start my new movement, Wreckshop Nation. Wreckshop Nation is a multi-media entertainment company, delivering to its nation of followers the ultimate interaction.
It’s sole base foundation is built off the brand of Wreckshop Records but we will be infusing the new age of entertainment by putting forth efforts on the digital side.
Tell me about the SLAB Concert and why you chose that title?
SLAB describes our culture. The only other more powerful word is SCREW. If you start trying to come up with adjectives to describe our music, our sound, our lingo, and our style, I think SLAB is a good acronym for it. It doesn’t just stand for a fully customized car that’s “Slow, Loud And Banging”, it’s more to it than that. It’s our lifestyle. When you hear SLAB, you automatically associate it with the Houston culture.
The Salute to the Slab Music tour is an effort to re-unite, re-invigorate and re-ignite the Houston music scene. It is also an opportunity to commemorate the central figure in the Houston hip-hop community DJ Screw who was the creator of the “Chopped and Screwed” technique. November 16th will mark the 15th anniversary of DJ Screws passing so on November 1, 2015 at 7 p.m. we will celebrate in his memory. This concert will salute him and the city of Houston as some of the pioneers, Slim Thug, Paul Wall, Lil Keke and ZRo will kick off the introductory concert, launching the Salute to the SLAB Music tour with our sponsor 93.7 The Beat. We plan to expand and hit the road early next year!
What are your plans for the city of Houston in reference to the tour?
Between 2004-2005, Houston stood out as far as our rap style and artists. We can all agree that though artist like Drake, Erykah Badu and Justin Beiber are using our style, our talents are not getting the same recognition. Its time for Houston talent to shine again and that will only happen if we pull together. I have a problem with people not trying to let our music evolve or trying to distinguish a difference between the old and the new. You don’t hear people running around and saying the old New York versus the new New York. When you give an artist an opportunity to tour and promote their project in different cities you give them more leverage. The original goal is to make this tour interchangeable so that other artists can participate as it grows into other markets. We want to do something great for Houston by offering a more professional approach than what has been done in the past. I plan to infuse more energy in turns of hiring better people to assist in the production of the show. Artists in LA, ATL and NYC have more advantages than we have here. We have to create those opportunities for ourselves and it’s up to us to create that if we expect our music to get on that National level. In turns of us fighting for our music scene we are taking the veterans who have a solid fan base and pairing them with the emerging artists who have a growing fan base and radio play. I don’t want to come off like we aren’t doing anything for the up and coming artists because eventually we will but right now it’s just about the emerging artists and the veterans. We have some great artists coming up and the style is evolving.
With the commercialization of Houston music do you feel that you will have a hard time revitalizing the music scene in the city?
There’s some good and some negative when it comes to the commercialization of Houston music. The good is that during our slow spell we had rappers like Drake on the outside who gave us buzz when we didn’t have it. On the other hand I do have issues with not having someone from Houston to maximize and exploit the situation. I feel like it’s our culture and it’s our sound so it’s only right that an artist from here should be able to capitalize off of it. My biggest issue is that the industry will shun a certain sound when it comes from a Houston artist but green light it when it comes from an artist outside of this region. How can a sound be old or irrelevant if it’s Slim or Paul but if its Drake or Rick Ross it’s cool? There’s a lot of music politics that does not sit well with me. From the early 90s we built our music scene even though we were always getting over looked or unrecognized. Our hustle is what made our music scene and that’s what’s going to bring it back. Most of the media outlets are not from here so how can a deejay in NYC or LA sit around and really give a good opinion on a culture that they know nothing about. We can’t walk down the street and get the same opportunities as they can in other markets but the people down here support our music and they are true to it. We have been fortunate that we can sale more records independently than any other region because we have been able to overcome our obstacles and I’m excited to see us do that again. We just have to get back to our independent mentality and stop thinking that radio is going to dictate our future. I think we get caught up in thinking about the artists! We have to focus on the music scene because if you have a thriving music scene then the odds of you making it just went up. I understand that we have to compete with each other but we also have to realize that we are all on the same team.
What advice would you give an artist trying to get into today’s industry?
The truth is that there are more rappers than there are rap fans right now. It all stems from the infatuation of what they see on TV. Everybody can’t be Jay Z and I would hate to lose the person that’s supposed to cure cancer or HIV because he was too busy cutting a mixtape. There’s a lot of people doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. I believe that God has a purpose for everyone and we all have a specific talent but you have to figure out which one is yours. If it’s your talent and you have what it takes then put in the work.