thaFormula.com - When you put together your first album man, did you purposely put that album together without big producers all over it?

Young Buck - Yeah, I did that on purpose. I was aware of what a lot of artists ain't aware of, and that's one word called recoup. Straight up and down. So what I did was try to introduce a lot of different producers and the shit was hot too, but I wanted to keep it under my budget being that it was my first solo record, you know? But it was still a gamble 'cause you know you still in a business. I wanted to be able to make money off of my record too and I was able to recoup. Going off into my second album I didn't owe Interscope or G-Unit shit so I was able to work with bigger name producers with this second album seeing that I made a lot of money off of my first album.

thaFormula.com - That's how the South seems to do it man...

Young Buck - Yeah, we come from the hustle out here. See my first hustle with the music started with me by pressing up 1000 CD's for 300 dollars and then sold them for 10 dollars a piece so you do the math. That's what I'm doing right now. I'm out here right now man with a car full of CD's in a Bentley. I'm sitting in a Bentley with the homeboys and a case of CD's that you would think I'm selling dope out this muthafucka with so many people coming to get my new shit cause I just dropped this mix tape today called "The Cleanup Man" hosted by Lebron James and DJ Whoo Kid.

thaFormula.com - How much did the (DJ) Drama situation affect you personally being from the South yourself?

Young Buck - We all feel it in the South period because we love Drama so much and at the end of the day we know it ain't gonna stop Drama and it ain't stopping nothing period cause if anything it made Drama bigger. I think what had happened is they got these divisions in the police department that's just hating, focusing on us artists that's coming up and doing good. They just trying to find any loophole in our shit and they figured out that this could be a possible loophole, but at the end of the day I think they made Drama bigger than ever and I know that. I support Drama 100 percent.

thaFormula.com - Do you feel that more people should have stepped up to support Drama from artists to the labels especially?

Young Buck - I feel that not only artists and people, but the labels should stand behind Drama because you know we signed to the labels and Drama makes money for the labels by getting our material to the streets that way so that's why everybody should support Drama.

thaFormula.com - So after you recouped from the first album and were ready to work with bigger producers, how did you decide to go about putting your album together production wise?

Young Buck - A lot of my lyrics and shit is grown so I looked for the music to match the way I was feeling seeing that I don't pre-write my music. But you know the minute that I had the right track it was just about going in and just putting it to the record. So you know I didn't go about it no certain way. My recording process is pretty much about making Sha Money hand me a CD with the music already on there and if its a (Dr.) Dre track I pick or a Eminem track I pick, more power, but if it ain't and its Little Ricky from Boston or Johnny from South Dakota or Mikey from Alaska than power to you. So I get a chance to pick the music for the music and that's what I did for this record. I didn't hold shit back bro.

thaFormula.com - Being one of the biggest camps out there, how many beats do you guys go through? I mean how many beats does G-unit get submitted to them?

Young Buck - Oh man you couldn't imagine bro. We got a whole division in our office set up with guys that's just there to do that. To extract the music from the CD and the other ways they get them on and just deliver them to the artist. So it's that heavy amongst you know the way people send it. But we appreciate that a lot of producers don't mind giving us their music and sending it to us because they realize that we opened a lot of doors and opportunities for a lot of producers.

thaFormula.com - And for a lot of producers reading this now, what are the chances of them approaching you on the street, handing you a beat CD and you actually using one of them?

Young Buck - 9 out of 10. This is where I live. They might see me on the street and get their music to me quicker then emailing it to me.

thaFormula.com - Have you actually put some of these dudes music that you ran into on the street on your albums yet?

Young Buck - You damn right! My last album "Straight Outta Cashville" was all unknown producers. At the end of the day it's all about the music. As long as you deliver good music, people gonna always love you. That's why I don't have no fear in selling records 'cause I deliver good music. People done caught on to me so I got that 2 Pac following and shit. That shit to where it's embedded in your heart and shit like you will go get my bootleg and run to the store and get my album too. It's just that type of material. I can't tell these other artists the way to get that feeling other then to be real about what you doing and saying.

thaFormula.com - So is this album gonna be different then the first one or are the sounds and feel of the album gonna be similar to the first?

Young Buck - It's the same street shit, but you're gonna get more street shit, you're gonna get more energy. It's more real shit going on so you're getting the political side of buck and every element of life with this record. So it's a lot of different divisions in the world. I'm born in the South but the world is bigger than the South so I cover every element of the world with this record.

thaFormula.com - So did you hook up with Dre this time around for your album?

Young Buck - Damn right man. Dre produced a couple of records on my album, it was only right you know that. Him, Eminem are producing shit, you got Hi-Tek on this record, Jazzy Pha, Polow Da Don, man a lot of different big producers on this album. I can go on for days. It's definitely right. You're gonna get records like me, Snoop Dogg and Trick Daddy together.

thaFormula.com - With record sales going the way they are, what do you realistically hope your album does?

Young Buck - I'll be blessed with just being successful period. I don't want to throw no number out there because I want to shock myself with it as far as the success. People feel that I deserve more then I have gotten as far as with G-Unit and Interscope and everything, so I think people are almost waiting on the minute my album drops so they can run to the shelf and get that muthafucka off of the shelf just to show the support of them understanding my whole situation. It was a struggle for Buck, my album was bootlegged 30 days before it came out and I still had the number one rap album in the country and I would have had the number one album in the country if it wasn't for country ass Tim McGraw. He had number one, R Kelly had number two and I had the number three album in the country but the number one rap album in the country for 2 weeks straight and it was bootlegged 30 days.

thaFormula.com - Honestly man, you don't seem like the beefin' type in person or even on your albums, be real man, how do you honestly see these beefs that G-Unit gets involved with man?

Young Buck - I think its bullshit right now so I don't really push that line with that shit at this point right now.

thaFormula.com - Why is it that the Southern artists are more united man and not really into the whole beefin' shit?

Young Buck - Yeah in the South we don't say shit on records that we don't mean and we don't do, so when I see what's going on with our situation, they're fake you know what I mean? As far as a lot of the situations when I say the beef ain't real, I just smoked a muthafuckin' blunt with Jadakiss and did it big. Me and Jada we did the damn thing, wasn't no problem, we squared up, seen shit eye to eye, smoked a blunt and kept it moving. So I'm realizing that a lot of this shit is a lot of hype that's produced out there from the energy of the situation. Even with Game, you know I had the chance to run across him in Vegas and you know a lot of people are getting the story twisted. What I did was hit the stage to see, you know it's been 2 years with that situation so you know here is the first time we ever even had eye contact so at this point what's it gonna be? So I chose to play his single, go to the stage and let him know, look I'm here man, so how we gonna do it? You know either way, and he started to make his way to the stage but you know security at the club kind of cut him off and shit. So I didn't know how it was gonna be but at this point I ain't trippin' off nobody because it's like this shit is a bunch of bullshit. I'd rather get to the money anyways, but if its some real shit then I'm getting to it. Even with Camron, Jim Jones reached out to me and said "you know Buck, I ain't really with that one." I feel like that shit ain't even gonna last that long and I was like "you know what me too." So you know shit like that will give me room to say "you know what fuck it." But when it gets gangsta, you know your still gonna hear from me.

thaFormula.com - It seemed from what I saw man that you were trying to make peace with the situation…

Young Buck - Yeah it was just pretty much, look man, 2 years of this shit. I wasn't just coming to make peace, I was coming to make it whatever it was gonna be. Whether it was gonna be peace, then so be it or whether it was gonna be drama, then you know lets try and handle from that end to. It was just like "here it is man, let's do whatever we gonna do now."

thaFormula.com - As one of the biggest camps in the industry, I have to ask you how important is a manager to an artist?

Young Buck - A manager is real important, but you can make it without one too. I mean you can make it up to a certain point I think and then you have to kind of like have somebody that is able to be in your corner to at least oversee some of these deals and be able to go work some of these deals, and you know oversee you and what you're doing period. So I think that's only right period, but you don't have to have a manager to get out and make your career. You can get out on your own, get your career together and then look forward to establishing yourself with a manager.

thaFormula.com - Now many artists are signed to labels and eventually become tax write-offs, when should an artist start thinking that he might be one of those artists?

Young Buck - When he basically isn't involved in things and his career ain't really moving at this point and he's just there. They just become a write-off.

thaFormula.com - How many doors were slammed in your face before you made it to this position?

Young Buck - I can't count them man. If I could count them muthafuckas I would go blow up all of them muthafuckas. I mean it took me probably 14 to 15 years to get here. I'm 25 years old and I started rapping and doing my shit in the street since I was 13. I've always been known in my own city since I was a child for getting on a stage and grabbing a mic. I was always known for getting down out here in these streets too. Being in the streets at an early age and getting down for real allowed me to be able to have an avenue to be able to jump on the stage with the big boys because I don't think if I wasn't putting it down in the streets at that young of an age I would have been treated like any other child, but they look at me as a grown man. From day one I never understood what childhood was because I've always been out here on the turf man trying to get it because of the cards I was dealt.

thaFormula.com - What is the number one rule to live by in this industry?

Young Buck - Respect man. To stay respected man because the respect allows you to be able to always get money, period. Don't cut no corners, be even with everybody and don't burn no bridges 'cause you never know when you got to cross those muthafuckas again.

thaFormula.com - For you what has been your biggest disappointment in the industry?

Young Buck - Being that I grew up on a lot of these artists music and lived my life influenced by their words and being able to come into their presence and seeing that they lives and some of the things they rap about ain't what I thought is the biggest disappointment I have had.

thaFormula.com - If the sales keep dwindling and dwindling down, where do you see an artist having to go to make his money?

Young Buck - Whatever he do best. I think in that sense what you have to do is apply your hustle outside of music. You know 50 (Cent) was always good in letting us know that you've got to have commas. Your name needs commas behind it. Like you do this, this, this, this, and this. You know get into that world and then you know, you start getting into the money!

thaFormula.com - So when is the album dropping man?

Young Buck - March 20th man, "Buck the World." "Get Buck" is the single out right now and I just dropped the video too. It's produced by Polow Da Don and its killing everything in the streets. It's the number one record in the South at this point. I'm really, really doing it big.

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