Off Da Glass

Grand Hustle producers Nard & B previewed their new mixtape with DJ Spinz for us yesterday. New music from Yung LA, Big Kuntry, OJ da Juiceman were among some of the tracks they played. Pretty soon y’all are gonna be calling me Jen Exclusive (of course Randy will always be king of exclusiveness.) If you’re in Atlanta, be looking out for the Trench Atlanta mixtape release parties all this week.

In case you happened to miss the hottest topic of the week on the ‘net, Pretty Ricky’s Spectacular issued a “grind challenge” to other male artists in a hilarious striptease video that made the rounds on YouTube and all the blog sites and even landed him on MTV News.

We here at OZONE have been mildly clowning Pretty Ricky ever since they were running around Miami in matching Donald Duck jackets with glitter glued on, so it’s only appropriate that we gently prod (PAUSE) Spectacular for some answers to questions provided by our Twitter followers (@ozonemag and @JuliaBeverly) after viewing the video. We’ve taken the liberty of adding some (PAUSE)s at appropriate moments.

Here’s the audio of the interview (if you’d prefer to read the text version, it’s after the jump)

I’m going to read you some of the questions from Twitter. They went kinda hard on you, (PAUSE) but it’s not coming from me. So don’t get mad at me.
I’m not going to ever get mad because I already know it’s coming from them. I would love for you to ask me their questions because they’re the people.

First off, was this video your way of coming out of the closet? Is that what you were trying to say with the grind video?
Definitely not. What I was trying to say with the video is that when Pretty Ricky came out, everybody wasn’t grinding. Only Pretty Ricky was grinding. Once we started doing then grind thing, everybody else started doing it. So that’s what it was about: to tell everybody that we’re number one and nobody else is gonna beat us. That’s what the ladies wanted to know; they want to see who’s number one. I did the video because some of my fans ask me, “Spec, we want to see you do the dance you do on stage and in the videos.” So I said, alright, cool. You know, just like I know, nobody’s really selling [albums] these days so you’ve got to keep all the fans you’ve got satisfied. That’s what I was doing. I’m all about pleasing my fans. The ladies wanted to see it, so I gave them what they wanted.

After the video came out were there a lot of positive reactions from your female fans?
I mean, it did get a lot of positive reactions. And then I had people that didn’t like it. I mean, you’re never going to find somebody that likes everything you do. Or something everybody’s going to like. Some people ain’t gonna like it and some people are going to like it. I had some people tell me that their aunt liked “Grind On Me,” and that was a top ten single. There were some people that didn’t like [D4L’s] “Laffy Taffy” and that still did [well]. So you’re going to get the good and the bad.

Would it be fair to say the grind video was a publicity stunt?
I definitely knew I was going to get publicity from it, but I ain’t know it was going to go to the extent that it went on the negative part. Any publicity is good publicity, I don’t really care, but it wasn’t for [publicity]. It was for my fans, and I satisfy my fans.

Did any of the artists you named in the video take you up on the grind challenge?
I ain’t see nobody take me up on [the challenge] but really I just named the [male artists] I was thinkin ‘bout at that time. (PAUSE) But really it was for everybody. That’s just who I thought of; that’s why I said “anybody.”

If anybody was to take you up on the grind challenge, what would happen if one of them could out-grind you? What would be the prize?
Then they would be the [grind] champ. But MTV News already crowned me the “King of Grind.” If you want to see that interview you can go to my twitter page twitter.com/iamspectacular and see exactly what they said. On their story they said I’m the “King of Grind,” man, they said I make Shakira jealous. I mean, I’m working for all the ladies out there. That was free for y’all. Y’all ain’t even have to throw no money, that was just free for y’all. If there was a stripper that came and stripped, y’all would’ve had to give some money up. But y’all got that for free.

Where did you get those red underwear?
I model now, so we do underwear shots. (PAUSE) You do your [bathing] suit shots and beach shots, and those were underwear that I use for my modeling thing. I wanted to show off my obliques and my chest. You know, I work out real hard, so I wanna show my physique off. That’s why I chose those underwear.

Who is Lingerie? You shouted him out in the video.
Lingerie is a member of our group [Pretty Ricky]. He’s the one singing on the hook of our new single, “Tipsy In This Club.” I just wanted everybody to know how good he is (PAUSE) so I made sure I gave him a little shout out to let everybody know that’s him on that hook.

Did you think that video was gay?
I definitely don’t think it’s gay at all and if people think it’s gay then, I mean everybody ain’t going like everything. People are gonna have their own opinion. I had a lot of people say that they loved it and that it was real sexy, and I heard some say they thought it was gay and real feminine. It doesn’t matter to me because at the end of the day I’m not gay and never will be gay. I mean, it doesn’t matter to me. I’m comfortable with my sexuality, so that’s why the [negative reactions] don’t bother me at all. It’s funny to me, actually.

Does the rest of the group Pretty Ricky approve of the grind video challenge and the marketing angle that you took to introduce the new single?
They’re behind me with anything I do. (PAUSE) Anything I want to do in this world, they’re going to be right there on my side and push (PAUSE) for anything I want to do. That’s what I want to do. I told them the fans wanted me to do a video and they said “Go ‘head, do your thing,” and I did my video.

Were you under the influence of any drugs or alcohol when you did this video?
Drugs or alcohol? I was drinking a little bit. We were getting tipsy.

What were you getting tipsy on?
You already know, that Grey Goose. You already know.

About how much Grey Goose did you have?
Man, you funny. But for real, seriously though, I was just doing my thang for the ladies. If you’ve ever been to a Pretty Ricky show we do the same thing at our shows. We’ve been doing that for two albums now and we’ve sold out plenty of arenas, so it ain’t nothin’ to me. Our fans know we throw that dick, straight up. (PAUSE) They come to the club with gloves in their hands because we’re going to throw that dick and they’re going to catch it, straight up.

Do you think you violated any man laws by putting that video out?
I feel like a fella shouldn’t be looking at the video, first of all. I said it was straight for the ladies. If a guy even looks at the screen and sees a guy in some underwear, why would you keep looking at it? I mean, it ain’t for them. It’s for the ladies, point blank, period. We tell people at our shows, “All fellas to the back, all ladies to the front.” If a fella is in the front row, he’s not going to like what he sees. Because it’s for the ladies.

This is a Twitter question. (laughs) Why did you have a rag wrapped around your hand. Was it a jizz wipe?
Actually the rag was around my hand because my hand was swollen from fighting. I wrapped it around my hand so you wouldn’t see that my hand was all puffy. (PAUSE) Somebody got it at the basketball court (PAUSE) for doing something to my brother (PAUSE).

Did anybody in your camp try to stop you from putting the video out?
I mean, why? We do that every time on our shows. Every time you see a Pretty Ricky show we’re grinding on the show. We’re throwing dick on the show. I mean, that’s an everyday thing for Pretty Ricky. That’s all we do, we throw that meat. (PAUSE)

Another Twitter question: Do you have a VIP pass to Bulldogs?
What the hell is Bulldogs?

I would assume it’s a gay club if it’s called Bulldogs.
I have nothing against gays. Gays buy the albums, gays support, but I’m not gay and I wouldn’t go to no gay club if I’m not gay.

Do you think that gay men would enjoy watching your grind video?
I mean, that don’t have nothing to do with me if they would love to see my video or all that. I ain’t even trying to get on that subject of a gay dude watching my video. Pretty Ricky don’t care about no guys. We care about the females.

So you were surprised by the negative reactions to the video?
I wasn’t surprised because I know a lot of people don’t understand Pretty Ricky, especially the fellas. I would be mad if I got a girl at a show and I’m all hugged up with my girl and somebody comes on stage and she runs out of my hand to go to the front of the stage. I would be mad too and as soon as I get a chance I’m going to say, “That nigga’s gay.” That’s how the world is. I don’t care about that stuff. No pressure to me.

Aight. So do you feel like overall this is going to help or hurt your career more?
Any publicity is good publicity so anything is gonna help. I’m on every single major internet site period. Everything. I did 20 interviews just this morning; radio shows and magazines. Everybody wants to talk to me about the video and they wanna know the truth. “Is you gay? Why did you wear the underwear, why did you do the video?” And I told them the answer. No, I’m not gay, and I did the video because of my fans. “Why did you shout out the [other artists]?” Because everybody’s grindin’ like Pretty Ricky now. If you wanna do it, let everybody know who started it; who’s #1. They wanna know why I wore the red underwear. I told ‘em because I wanted to show my body off. I work out hard and I wanna show it off. And that’s the end of the questions.

So the album comes out when? Or do you not have a date?
The album is coming soon. Just keep us locked, man. On prettyricky.com you can find out a lot of information, myspace.com/prettyricky too. There’s a lot of stuff we’ve got going on, man. The album, the new single called “Tipsy In This Club,” my jewelry company. You go to SpectacularIce.com and check out some custom jewelry. Big boy ice, lil’ boy. (PAUSE) We’ve got our clothing line Pretty Clothing, we’ve got music productions. [Our company] Blue Star is about to take over this year, so [the haters] are just helping me out. Go ‘head and keep hating. I’m at 1,000 haters right now and I’m trying to get to a million by the end of the month.

Is there anything else you want to say?
We love Julia. We love ya girl, for real. You’re looking sexy too. I don’t know what you did, hit the gym to try to get sexy on us?

A lil something. But I’m not grinding for the cameras yet.
Ahhh!! That’s my job. Before you used to be in your lil jeans and stuff now you done tightened it up and we can see lil curves. Any more questions? You said they were bad. I didn’t really get any bad questions.

I kinda softened them a little bit. Aight, here’s another Twitter one: “What the fuck were you thinking while you waited for that video to upload?”
What was I thinking? I mean, I was just thinking, aight, what are my fans are gonna say about this? I wanna know what their reaction was gonna be. Truthfully, all my fans that I did it for liked it. All the people that don’t get Pretty Ricky or didn’t like Pretty Ricky or are mad cause I named somebody that they like, didn’t like it. I got this Day 26 [fan] that’s just on my neck on Twitter just cause I shouted out Day 26. But I wasn’t directing that at nobody, I just named a couple of names.

So your female fans got wet off this video?
I would hope so. That’s what they were telling me. I hope they ain’t lie to me and said they was wet but they wasn’t. I’m pretty sure when I get in front of ‘em that’s what’ll happen.

What were some of the positive reactions you got?
Some of the positive reactions I got were, “Damn Spec, you working out. I wanna see if you can do that in bed,” and, “Damn Spec, I didn’t know you could move like that. You move better than me.”

And these are females, right?
Yeah, females. Man, it was a bunch. I’d be here all day. And then I had some bad [reactions] like, “Nigga what was you thinking? Really I got a lot of grief about the drawers. They were like, “Baby, you sexy as hell, you were doin’ it, but what were you thinkin’ about that underwear?” It was just funny to me, man.

I told y’all there was more coming. And we’re not done yet. Shout out to OZONE Denver rep & CORE DJ, DJ KTone, for orchestrating this party, and Luda’s DJ Jaycee who’ll be in the mix also.

About time they got a video out for this. It was looking like dude was about to have a couple birthdays go by before a clip dropped.

So, today Jermaine Dupri’s Ocean 7 project hit the internets. The group is supposed to be something like a modern day rat pack made up of JD (The General), singers/songwriters Usher (Delight) & Trey Songz (Songz 00711), four-time Grammy winner Johnta Austin (J. Sinatra), music producer Bryan-Michael Cox (The Texas Ranger), and rappers Nelly (Mo Green) & Tyrone Davis (Intynational).

So far it sounds like a bunch of rich music guys who happened to be in the studio and just said “fugg it.” Hopefully it’ll sound better after while, JD usually puts out decent compilation/collaboration project.

We’re going to give you a taste of the project with this track, “Vegas Baby” featuring Q Da Kid who emphatically says “we are the modern day Juice Crew, minus Marley.” Um? Isn’t that like saying “we’re the ‘96 Bulls, minus Phil Jackson.”

Feel free to check it out via www.global14.com

From the upcoming So Icey Army DVD.

Spotted at Nah Right.

Like the song title says, you guys might not give a f*ck, but Bali is a Patiently Waiting alum that’s signed to the Runners. He teams up with Papa Duck and Ace Hood for this all FLA track.

Props to Mercedes Streets.

Masspike Miles is the new R&B singer on Rick Ross’ label, who’s featured on “Cigar Music.” He used to be the little fat kid in Perfect Gentlemen. You can read more about his story in the next issue of OZONE.

Tay Dizm is T-Pain’s artist on Nappy Boy Ent., and he’s had a song or two that have been pretty cool. I’m thinking people would classify this song as what they call in Florida as “jook” music, but I’d need a Floridian to clarify that for me.

The Fast Life Yungstaz took the time to put together an instructional video to correctly show everyone how to “swag surf.” According to them, there is no wrong way to do the dance. You just need swag, and a left to right movement. Thanks, F.L.Y., I was confused about this.

BOB did a live performance at Footlocker in his hometown Decatur, GA today. I’ve never seen someone rock a stage in a shoe store - it was creative. Footlocker is sponsoring BOB now, they even have a big billboard in Atlanta with BOB on it. Check out this accapella freestyle & BOB performing the crowd-favorite “Haters.” Click Here to view photos gallery.

Lil Kee

Keeping jook music alive, artist Lil Kee accompanied by Strizzo, and newly signed Universal artist Javon Blak, all performed at Pandora’s Box for Sunday’s Hip Hip night. A fatal car accident took the life of 41 Boyz group member Rob D right before releasing his last mixtape. After doing 9 years in prison, Mississippi native Foreva Asa has made his home in the Sun Coast while working on his freshman album at AMV studio. His first single “Big Gyrls” is getting alot of buzz. - Hollywood Red (era9880@yahoo.com)

Young Capone

Capone and Bohagon hook up for some fresh checking.

Bola (from the Grand Hustle group Xtaci) is obviously working (I’m not sure about her group member, Sunshine, though).

Shouts out to Streetz & Robin for sending this over.

Previously: Bola feat. Yung L.A. - “Everyday Boss”

The Atlanta Journal Constitution is the city newspaper in ATL. It’s good to see them featuring Atlanta Hip Hop artists. Picture Zoe dancing at the skating rink (now that’s funny).

Like father, like son, Rawse and Mr. 17. 5. It’s the remix baaaaaby.

This is the first of many posts to come.. I have been busy planning my birthday tour around the country for the month of June. My first birthday party is on Friday June 5th in Anchorage, AK with Gorilla Zoe (yes, there is a rap scene in Alaska) and on Saturday June 13th I’m headed to Jacksonville, FL with Bigga Rankin & the Cool Runnings crew and of course all the Duval All Stars will be in the building. Come through if you’re in the area.

Grand Hustle’s young proteges the Rich Kids perform their two hits at Club Mariachi during Battleground Mondays. For those of you that have been sleeping, the Rich Kids are wussup in Atlanta. More of that “futuristic swag” stuff.

This is what’s hot in Atlanta right now, you heard it hear first. Ms GoHam is a member of Arrogant Music & Lavish Life Ent., who can be found at Club Mariachi most Monday nights. Ms GoHam is not yet signed, but I hear Mr. Collipark is looking at her closely. Bow bow.

Lil Scrappy previews a new banger he just recorded at S-Line Studios in Atl while Diamond & DJ Smallz cook up some Southern Smoke in the other studio. I’m not sure if Scrappy is up on his Twitter game yet, but other Tweeters in the studio included: @droccc @djsmallz @diamondatl @msrivercity @sparkdawgmusic

Young Buck opens up and lets us know its been rough for him over the last year or so. But he wants you to know that he is a survivor. Support him and download his new mixtape with DJ Scream and DJ Smallz.

DOWNLOAD: Young Buck x DJ Scream x DJ Smallz-Back On My Buck Shit

In this exclusive interview with OZONE Magazine, Pleasure P explains the concept behind “Boyfriend 2″ and talks about working on his solo album The Introduction of Marcus Cooper. As far as the Spec video that’s grossing everybody out on the internet, P said off camera that the video doesn’t have nothing to do with him, but he’s not gonna let anyone talk bad about Spec either out of respect.

More medicine from Pill’s upcoming mixtape 4075: The Refill.

Quik went to work on that Tony, Toni, Tone “Anniversary” beat. From their BlaQKout that hits stores June 9th.

Nitti talks with DJ Smallz about his relationship with Yung Joc. Props to Smallz and Southern Smoke TV.

I’m glad someone is attempting to retire the word “swag.” I’m not sure if “mojo” is any better, but it’s a start.

This is another exclusive from the DJ Smallz and DJ Neptune Southern Smoke TV, Vol. 2 mixtape (I just didn’t feel like posting the mixtape cover again).

A Mike Rob cartoon parody featuring Lil Wayne, Birdman, Play N Skillz, Chamillionaire, Lil Flip, and 50 Cent. This is a little random, but some of you may find this entertaining.

Shouts out to Pookie from Urban South, for sending this over.

Another Southern Smoke TV exclusive from DJ Smallz and DJ Neptune.