Exclusive Interview with Young Dro

MP3: How you doing man, you getting amped for the new record? Young Dro: Man, enjoying it. Really working hard for it, though, you know. Congratulations with the single. Seems like it's doing real good for you. Yeah, I appreciate that. I want to get into your background. I know you're from Atlanta. But I think a lot of our readers don't really know your back story. So can you just get into how you got into the game and how you started rhyming and whatnot? Yeah, you know, I come from Atlanta, and the part of Atlanta I come from is the West Side. Bankhead. I'm actually from Bankhead, the projects, you know what I'm saying. I really got into the rap game, as far as like rappin and stuff, that was back in the days, you know, with N.W.A, Ghostface, the purple tape, that Raekwon. That was some hot s***. Yeah, Cuban Linx. I grew up around very inspirational guys in the game man. And I been around ever since the south been on the rise, I was around when they wouldn't let us rise, you know. Now I'm around and we rising anyway. You know what I mean? Right on. I read in your bio that you were friends with Daddy Mack from Kris Kross and—when those guys blew up that that was sort of, you know, inspirational for you to start getting on as well? Yeah, those guys as well. You know, we was like the best friends, though, you know what I'm saying? That was like every day, over his house, over my house, and I was like the only friend that he had that was just from the projects like that you know. Plus it just clicked, it was real nice chemistry, this home boy. It's just as real today. Nice. Now when you were younger, were you making demo tapes, or freestyling with people? You know what I used to do? There was this little radio, and then it had play on one side, other thing on the other side, and then and I used to just—I used to record on that all the time. And I'd have a beat playing over here, and I pressed record over here, and then I'd just sit up against the radio. My neck would be crampin. But I'd get my rap off though, and I let people hear it. I used to do that for years! Did that before I even said I wanted to professionally do it. And by the time I said I wanted to professionally do it, I had already mastered my craft. I knew how to rap then. And plus you know, throughout the years, Kris Kross's album, you know, I was just—I ain't want to just rush into it. I called him and asked him a couple of times, and he was like, "this is real serious." So that made me stay down for a long time. And you had a couple of indie singles a few years ago, right? Yeah. Like "Yes Sir." "Yes Sir." Yeah. That came out. That was hot, for real. All of a sudden, s*** just died down, you know. I guess the machine wasn't behind me. [laughs] You know what I'm saying, the machine is behind me now, man, thank god it is, too. How did you hook up with T.I.? You knew him from back in the day as well, or what? Yeah, we been knowing each other for like 13 years right now. For a long time, we was just coolin, just being homeboys, real close homeboys, you know, just like me and Chris was, me and Tip began to grow to that same relationship. You know, to the point where we was just hanging together every day, eatin the same food, you know, kickin it. Then once we moved from around each other, we started rappin. And that brought us back together when we both started rappin like that. I was doing the "Yes Sir" thing, he was doing the "I'm Serious" thing, with Beenie Man. He had a deal, though, I didn't. You know, but we still connected, we still did our thing, you know what I'm saying, it was love. He'd been trying to get me over here for the longest—he was trying to get me a deal before he got hisself one. [laughs]. Who else have you got on the record in terms of producers and collabos? We got C-Gutta, we got The Matrix. We go Khao, we got Jazze Pha, we got The Runners. Man, we got some nice stuff on there, this ought to be enough for 'em right here. I mean, it ain't too many features, we got Snoop Dogg on here. We got T.I. of course. MacBoney, you know. I don't really want to just flood it with too many people cause I can handle this bro, for real. Obviously you got your own style, but when you were coming up, is there anybody that stands out that was real influential to you? You were talking about the Rae tape and stuff. Yeah that Rae and Ghostface, them niggas were very influential to me, heavily. And I took a likin' to Nas real good. You know, down South, OutKast, stuff like that. I took a liking to them. Goodie Mob, them niggas paved the way for me in my mind. They helped my mind throughout this hip-hop journey that I'm on. You feel me? Sure. They helped my mind, like real, real, real good. And so that's why I'm the artist I am today. And people don't understand that you know, people live off of each other. I can't be who I am without you. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I hear you. So I use my brothers as God use people too. Right on. Now it seems like, you know, these days a lot of cats, everybody wants to rap about, "I sell the most crack" or whatever. Whereas your track, at least the single, seems a more on like a positive, or just sort of a party vibe. Is that representative of the album as a whole, or is it all over the place, topic wise, or what? Yeah, my album is all over the place. You going to never be able to single me out. I'm going to be, I can go to church with my album. I can go to the corner and sell crack with my album. I can go to school with my album. I can cry with my album, I can be happy with my album. I could not talk about nothing at all but cartoons in my album. You know what I'm saying? It's so many levels on this album. I'm in love with my girl on this album to the point where I'm sick. [laughs] You know what I'm saying? Right, so you got a balance. You got to balance that thing. Life is not all on one end, life's evened out. And I think I've evened this album out to the point where you can't ever, it just—it fit all, you know. You've got children? I've got a song for them. You got some old people in there? I got a song for them. Know what I'm saying? Something for everybody. Yeah. I'm living for em, you know. I'm catering, that's what music do – cater to people. What is your goal with the album? Is it just that you want to go Platinum, or do you want… I want to achieve awards with this album. I want to stand up next to the guys--I'm going to stand up next to the guys. What I want to accomplish is to touch the hearts of people that like music because I do too. Right on. That's what I want to do more than anything, I want to touch people's hearts, like, "this guy likes music, and music is back." And I can harmonize and I can do whatever I want to do with the music. You feel me? I'm not just stuck on one level. Cool man. Do you have a second single picked out? Yeah, man, we going with "Rubber Band Banks." Boioioioioing. You know. [laughs] They eating that, they loving it so much too, I can't do nothing but love it for 'em. I love it myself too. So we going to do "Rubber Band Banks" And we have so many choices. I try to do every song like a single. You know. So, when they hear the album, everything is video, you can just see a video out of every last one of my songs. You can picture that, I promise. That sounds good. Are you going to be hitting the road, are you going to be touring this summer? Yeah, I'm busting the road down July the 1st and I ain't stopping til July 30th. And my album come out August 1st. Who are you touring with? I don't know yet who they got on the promo tour with me. I could do it by myself. [laughs] I would pack up and go by myself, everywhere I have to be, on time, trust me. Nice. Well, you got any last words out there for the readers? Yeah, put god first before anything. Master your craft, and when the time comes, which it will, it won't be no doubt, you know what I'm saying. That's my word. That's from Young Dro. Right on man, well thanks for taking the time out to do this, I appreciate it. MP3, man. Cool, take it easy. Peace.