Exclusive New 211 (CTE/USDA) Interview with WestCoastRydaz! [Audio/Text]

West Up. We're back with another exclusive interview, this time with Inglewood representative 211 aka 2Eleven Tha Bizness. We caught up with the CTE/USDA rapper this past week (Tuesday Sept. 29, 2009) for an in-depth phone interview where we discussed the latest from CTE and USDA, Bloods and Crips working together, his relationship with former CTE rapper Roccett, LA's image, skinny jeans and much more!

211 just dropped a new CD called "I Robbed Hip Hop" (download here) earlier this year with DJ Ill Will and DJ RockStar and he also discusses the feedback it's gotten, what's next for him, the Bay Area and many other topics. We have the interview available in both audio and text format for you below, along with a preview commercial.


Listen to the Interview here:

WestCoastRydaz.com Interview with 211 (Audio) [Download/Stream]

Full Text of Interview below:

WestCoastRydaz: Let’s start off with the CTE/USDA stuff, obviously people know you for that. Word had it you might be in the studio with the crew, is that true and what you working on?

211: Man I been working, heavy in the studio 24 hours a day, just going hard trying to finish this USDA mixtape and album and I’m starting on my solo right now. For the last 9 days straight I been out here recording. Me, Boo, the homie JW, he from Fort Lauderdale, we been going in hard on this new USDA album and it’s looking real good ‘Another Cold Summer.’

WestCoastRydaz: And you guys are doing a mixtape as well?

211: Yeah as well. I already got a hard drive full of mixtape songs and stuff that I been sitting on so I’m ready to leak everything. I’m about to dump my whole hard drive out and just go big.

WestCoastRydaz: You guys looking to drop that in 2010 or you don’t know yet?

211: The album should be out in January 2010 and by the time we turn everything in we’ll be dropping about 2 mixtapes to build anticipation for the album.

WestCoastRydaz: Is that album gonna be in stores?

211: Yeah it’s gonna be in stores just like the last ‘Cold Summer’ USDA album. 330,000 copies, almost gold. So we’re trying to do a million now.

WestCoastRydaz: Talk about your relationship with Young Jeezy and the rest of the team and what are the plans on a 211 release?

211: Well me and Jeezy it’s more of a friendship, that’s my homie right there. He respects my grind and everything I’m trying to do so anything I need he gonna look out for me.

WestCoastRydaz: What about the USDA bond? Y’all in the studio together, so you headed out there for a reason right? You didn’t just wanna e-mail tracks, you guys wanted to get a little more of a chemistry going for the album or how does that work?

211: I came out here just to chill with the homies JW and Boo and I been in there for a few days now and we just been clicking left and right. It’s like 12 songs I done did already, we been going in doing like 2 songs a day. It’s a lot easier than a solo project because I got 2 other people, like if I fall off somewhere then I got Boo to pick up where I left off and JW can come in and pick up where he left off at and it all comes together as 1 unit.

WestCoastRydaz: Okay cool. Are you also putting plans together, maybe putting songs aside and formulating a plan for a solo release?

211: Yeah you know I am. Like I said, I got a hard drive full of songs and I been playing them and Jeezy and Kink love the songs that I been sitting on. You know I just dropped ‘I Robbed Hip Hop’ so a lot of people waiting on 211 to drop for the solo. So I should be coming out hard by like spring 2010.

WestCoastRydaz: Okay. Tell us about how you got into rap itself and how you ended up linking up with Jeezy and CTE.

211: This rap shit kinda fell in my lap. I was a street nigga on my grind getting my money when I met Jeezy. So when I came into the game I didn’t really know anything, I dove in headfirst and my first thing was I hopped on the tour bus and seen all these shows. I just been studying for the last 3 years. Soaking game and trying to position myself to where I wanna be at. That’s all I been doing, I’m ready now though, I got the blueprint so I’m ready to go hard.

WestCoastRydaz: Right, you recently dropped the “I Robbed Hip Hop” CD that was everywhere online. Talk to us about the project, what was the feedback like and what made you drop it?

211: Basically [with] ‘I Robbed Hip Hop’ I went in the beginning recording the album, I’m like ‘this is gonna be the album’ so I got real personal on songs, showed another side of me on a few other songs. And then I stayed in my lane that everybody wanna hear – that gangsta shit – so I had like the best of 3 worlds. I got a couple girl records on there that I just put out, I wasn’t even caring. It wasn’t really a mixtape to me it was like a street album because if they ain’t gonna put me out then I’ma put myself out. I’ma just show the world what I’m capable of.

WestCoastRydaz: What was the feedback like?

211: They love it, I’m getting more female feedback so I see the plan now. I see the strategy, if I keep making what certain people want then they gonna keep coming back. The rap game is like the dope game [laughs] so if you got the good product then they gonna come back and fuck with you.

[Interview Continued below Music Video]

WestCoastRydaz: You’re in Atlanta right? Obviously that’s a long way from Inglewood, so talk about the importance of going beyond just Los Angeles as far as looking for publicity and making a name in rap.

211: I’m trying to think out the box right now. Like the West coast, I wouldn’t say it’s easy, but it’s not hard. If I sow my city up then it’s gonna reach Dago, it’s gonna reach the Bay. Now I been buzzing in LA and I got DJs and others rappers from the Bay reaching out to me and now we built a mutual friendship to where I come out to the Bay and they show me love. Same in Dago, Mitchy Slick hold me down anytime I come out there so I would say that I got California sowed up to where my name is ringing bells now. So I’m trying to go to New York and do the same thing, trying to come to Atlanta and do the same thing, you know, Texas, St. Louis, so where I’m national. They know about 211 everywhere, I’m trying to make this a household name and do it real big.

WestCoastRydaz: How do the artists respond to West coast people, as well as the fans out there?

211: They respect it just on the background of LA. The whole Death Row, Snoop Dogg, 2pac. They gonna respect a newcomer coming in, especially a real nigga, they respect it and love it down here. I mean Los Angeles influenced a lot of people to where these niggas is down here gangbanging now. They run up on me like ‘wassup Blood, wassup we been waiting on you to come out here.’ It’s surprising and I be shocked sometimes, but niggas is niggas everywhere in the United States so it really aint no difference. If your shit is hot they gonna fuck with you, if not then aint nobody gonna fuck with you.

WestCoastRydaz: I know you mentioned the whole street background and obviously the Blood affiliation, something that’s been a bit of a mainstream surge for West coast rappers in the past handful of years, especially after Game came out. Do you think that him coming out opened the door for more Blood rappers or do you think that was bound to happen anyway?

211: It was bound to happen but you know it was crazy how it turned around, now everyone wanna be a Blood now. You got niggas that was rapping they whole life and outta nowhere they Bloods now. It’s like a movement, I remember everybody wanting to be a Crip and everybody was Crip walking. Out of towner niggas didn’t even really know what it was about, they seen it on TV and they wanna do it. Now Wayne got his red flag out every show, every time he on TV and it influences other people [to where] everybody wanna be a Blood now. Well this is gangbanging and there’s a thin line between the rap game and the streets so if you saying you bout that then you gotta be bout that because it’s not a game and niggas will test you. So you just gotta be on your Ps and Qs.

WestCoastRydaz: Okay, speaking of gang ties, it’s an image that’s personified LA for a long time, usually on a rivalry tip, but in the past few years, especially with the new rappers, it seems like there’s been a shift toward unity. You got well known Crip rappers like Nipsey Hussle, Roccett, G.Malone etc working with you, Mack 10, Jay Rock. It just seems like there’s a lot more love. Why do you think that is?

211: I could just say it’s money now. Niggas just on money and a lot of niggas that’s really bout that, they put in all they work, got they stripes and did everything they supposed to do. Now they trying to go corporate and get some real legal money so you can’t come in the rap game still gangbanging because you not gonna make it. Like I gotta fuck with Crip niggas to do what im trying to do. I cant limit myself like ‘I’m not gonna fuck with Nipsey Hussle because he from 60s and im from NHP’ nah my nigga, because he poppin and im poppin so we gotta put that together and show niggas that this is what we doing. I fuck with Malone, I fuck with Nipsey, I fuck with a gang of niggas. I got a song with Spider Loc, I just get at niggas and they know it’s 100. Niggas check my background and be like ‘okay he official, he done this, his name be buzzing, okay.’

It’s a big difference when you fuck with a mystery nigga talking about he a Crip and he aint really no Crip. Then niggas gonna be like ‘man, he a real mystery’ [laughs] but when one real nigga fucks with another real nigga then it makes both nigga’s hoods come together and it wont be no problems. Like I function with Roccett on a day to day, like his niggas is my niggas and them niggas is East Coast Crips and I'm from Piru. It’s like a friendship when me and Roccett get together, my niggas is behind me [and] we good, his niggas is behind him and they good and if anything pop off then we together in this. It’s just some real nigga shit, I love it. I done did all my work, niggas know how I am in the streets, or how I was in the streets. But now I got a goal I’m trying to set and I can’t let nothing get in my way, especially a nigga from some other hood telling me about what I got going on. Niggas can’t tell me nothing.

WestCoastRydaz: If that continues do you think it’ll be an important step in helping California get back its place on the map, as far as mainstream success and all that?

211: I think it will be, like I’m on some shit where I support everybody. That whole One West movement, it don’t matter where a nigga from, if they pushing hard and buzzing and got something they trying to do then 211 fucking with them. Let’s do a song, lets do a show, lets do a interview and get on this camera, you know what I’m saying. Let’s do something to make this West bigger because we kinda fell back for a while and let everybody else eat. So we gotta come back and just smash. That’s why I came up with ‘I Robbed Hip Hop’ because we aint taking ‘no’ for an answer, we kicking in doors.

[Interview Continued below Music Video]

WestCoastRydaz: I heard you mention Roccett for a minute and the relationship you guys have. When he first was reported to sign with CTE there were a few rumors that maybe you guys were going to be a group. I know you guys have collaborated, but recently Roccett has said he’s a free agent. So is that a relationship you gonna continue with him, even if he’s not with CTE no more?

211: Yeah that’s my nigga. The business that he got with Jeezy was a separate business, he knew Jeezy already before I met him. Jeezy introduced me to Roccett, know what I’m saying? So as the years passed I came to find out that I know his niggas and his niggas know me. He come to my studio, I go to where they at so that’s my nigga like that, regardless of what they got going on it’s official with me and him. You’ll see new songs popping up with 211 and Roccett and we supposed to put a mixtape together. We still trying to gather up all these songs, we got enough material to go hard though.

WestCoastRydaz: Switching the focus back to you, looking at your history you’ve been through your fair share of ups and downs in life, how do you feel like that’s affected you musically?

211: I don’t know I just put it all down on the track. That’s what rap is, it gives you an outlet to express your feelings. So if I’m going in the studio and it’s been a bad day and I’m short and my momma need some money and shit just aint going good then I’ma bring up a dramatic beat and put my day on there and my hard times on a track. Then the next day I can be up a 100 racks and I’ma talk about it, so that’s all rap is, an outlet to express how your day been going or however you feeling at the time. So that’s how I go at it, however I’m feeling in the booth.

WestCoastRydaz: You obviously got a West Coast style to you, but it’s 2009 and Cali has changed a lot since the 90’s, how would you describe your sound and the West sound in general?

211: I got a universal sound. I been around, I used to live in New York, I lived in Atlanta, Vegas, California, so I can relate to niggas in all different regions. So if I’m rapping about what I go through, like I said, niggas go through the same shit everywhere nationwide, I don’t’ care if it’s UK, London whatever. So that’s how I go about it.

WestCoastRydaz: With West coast cats like you and all the other people coming up that are more diverse, do you think that’s gonna help push a new image forward?

211: yeah I think so. Right about now I would say niggas is not really into the Chucks, I mean I’m a fly nigga, I’m sitting by the pool right now with some YSL pajamas on. I’m a cool nigga, I aint with the khakis and chucks and white tees and beanies no more, that’s some old shit, I’m a real fly nigga. And now with this skinny jeans movement coming in it’s a whole other look for LA. I mean gangsta music aint dead, we still out here, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a whole other movement. So if niggas really on that gangsta rap then you gotta flip it, because the industry scared of LA.

The industry scared of everything that LA gonna put out unless it’s some skinny jeans or backpack music. And I’m not knocking them, that’s them, that’s the new young nigga shit. There’s more space because when I was coming up there wasn’t none of that shit, you wear shit like that they gonna beat your ass. You gonna get clowned and they really not gonna let you in the industry, but now it’s a whole other look, a whole other movement and that’s what the industry accepts from the West coast because they tired of niggas getting they chain snatched, tired of niggas getting killed, tired of niggas being scared of LA. So if you still on that gangsta shit you gotta find a slick way to slide that shit in and still do you and still do what they wanna do. I’m not saying change for the industry but if you trying to get in then you gotta strategize, you gotta go in there and give them what they want and still be you at the same time.

WestCoastRydaz: You mentioned that people been reaching out to you from the Bay and San Diego and you mentioned the love you get down there. Is that something that we can look forward to? You mentioned One West as well, so in the future might we see some 211 & Bay Area or 211 and San Diego collabs?

211: Yeah I got a mixtape with the Demolition Men. I just took 2 trips to the Bay, the first time I was there for like 5 days and did like 12 songs. Mistah FAB, J.Stalin, Beeda Weeda, I was supposed to get something in with Tha Jacka but I didn’t get a chance too because there was too many shows. I got songs with Traxamillion, Shady Nate, the whole Livewire squad, the Bay really embraced me on my first time going in so I got love for them niggas for real, for real. So look out for that Demolition Men/211. I’m going to Dago ima do this "2Slick" album with me and Mitchy Slick. That’s one of my right hand niggas, he look out for me on this rap shit and this One West shit.

WestCoastRydaz: Okay, let everybody know what to look forward to from you.

211: I’m really going hard right now for this USDA album, so look forward to that. You can look forward to this 211 coming in fall 2010. I’m just working man, go get ‘I Robbed Hip Hop’ download that [on] Westcoastrydaz dot muthafuckin com. Go back and check all my old mixtapes ‘Product of the Block’ ‘Money Over Everything’ ‘Cold Young Ryda.’ I’m all over the place, I’m going hard.

WestCoastRydaz: Plug all your spots, Twitter, Myspace.

211: Myspace.com/211thabizness, you can hit me on twitter @2eleven. Follow me, I might follow you and check me out on Westcoastrydaz.com. We goin hard man, One West movement.

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Chuuch.

-BIGWILL