Before The Bars There Were Lyrical Bars
“I’ve been a Hip Hop fan all my whole life. Growing up, I guess the East Coast was the first thing that drew me in because my uncle Bean is the person who patterned my swag behind the stuff he liked. He was a New York Knicks fan, so I was a New York Knicks fan. He liked Public Enemy so I liked Public Enemy. One of his best friends was a guy named Sporty T from New Orleans. He was a rapper. Sporty was like the flyest guy in the neighborhood; he had the wickedest flow, he was a great basketball player and was the best dresser and he was somebody I looked up to. Because of him and my uncle, I started just writing little rhymes just trying to mimic him. And he was always listening to East Coast rappers and that’s what drew me in first."
"In my teen years I started expanding my mind to West Coast rappers like N.W.A, MC Eiht—I used to love Eiht—and once Death Row came along, you already knew that was a whole ‘nother level. You had Snoop, you had Dr. Dre, Tha Dogg Pound but East Coast was always my foundation as a kid. And when I signed with No Limit, it was weird for my friends who I grew up rapping with me because that wasn’t even the type of rap that we listened to. But it was something about Percy and the thing he had going on at the time that made me feel comfortable. Even though I was outside of my musical element to an extent, I was drawn to it and I just tried to separate myself from everything they was doing by keeping that style that I always had."
No Limit Records
The Tank is responsible for over 75 million albums being sold worldwide, which undoubtedly has changed millions of lives. Mac says his fondest memories are simply working on each other’s projects and he spoke in detail of his former label mates that he still keeps in close contact with.
"One of my favorite albums was Unlady Like," Mac says of Mia X's sophomore release. "I kind of felt played, she was spitting so hard. I was like 'woow!'
“Mia actually came to visit in 2012. We had a Black History program and the then ‘The History of Hip Hop.’ So what better than to get some Hip Hop legends to come here and speak. So I got Mia to come, Mystikal came, KLC from Beats by the Pound and they had a blast. The fellas had a blast. They been asking me, ‘When Mia coming again?’ Because she speaks so well. She had a serious message. And we was trying to get her to come back in a couple of weeks for another program we have.
“I’ve been a Hip Hop fan all my whole life. Growing up, I guess the East Coast was the first thing that drew me in because my uncle Bean is the person who patterned my swag behind the stuff he liked. He was a New York Knicks fan, so I was a New York Knicks fan. He liked Public Enemy so I liked Public Enemy. One of his best friends was a guy named Sporty T from New Orleans. He was a rapper. Sporty was like the flyest guy in the neighborhood; he had the wickedest flow, he was a great basketball player and was the best dresser and he was somebody I looked up to. Because of him and my uncle, I started just writing little rhymes just trying to mimic him. And he was always listening to East Coast rappers and that’s what drew me in first."
"In my teen years I started expanding my mind to West Coast rappers like N.W.A, MC Eiht—I used to love Eiht—and once Death Row came along, you already knew that was a whole ‘nother level. You had Snoop, you had Dr. Dre, Tha Dogg Pound but East Coast was always my foundation as a kid. And when I signed with No Limit, it was weird for my friends who I grew up rapping with me because that wasn’t even the type of rap that we listened to. But it was something about Percy and the thing he had going on at the time that made me feel comfortable. Even though I was outside of my musical element to an extent, I was drawn to it and I just tried to separate myself from everything they was doing by keeping that style that I always had."
No Limit Records
The Tank is responsible for over 75 million albums being sold worldwide, which undoubtedly has changed millions of lives. Mac says his fondest memories are simply working on each other’s projects and he spoke in detail of his former label mates that he still keeps in close contact with.
"One of my favorite albums was Unlady Like," Mac says of Mia X's sophomore release. "I kind of felt played, she was spitting so hard. I was like 'woow!'
“Mia actually came to visit in 2012. We had a Black History program and the then ‘The History of Hip Hop.’ So what better than to get some Hip Hop legends to come here and speak. So I got Mia to come, Mystikal came, KLC from Beats by the Pound and they had a blast. The fellas had a blast. They been asking me, ‘When Mia coming again?’ Because she speaks so well. She had a serious message. And we was trying to get her to come back in a couple of weeks for another program we have.
