AllHipHop.com: People joke that ballplayers shouldn’t rap ever since Shaq-Fu. What do you say to that critique?
Troy Hudson: First of all Shaq-Fu did two million, [laughs] so that’s pretty successful - but I think in today’s world that Hip-Hop has gone a different direction. I think Hip-Hop still has its street edge, but I also think Hip-Hop is very image driven. I think that Hip-Hop and athletics ties in, whether the athlete himself is rapping or the athlete has a crew of cats who are rapping, because most athletes into professional sports [like] football, basketball or baseball is from the inner city.
In the inner city, one of the main outlets in today’s world is Hip-Hop. Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, either you were a great athlete or you had a great education. You were a lawyer, doctor, baseball player or basketball player; you had a chance to make it. From the late ‘80s into the new millennium now it’s either you have a great education, [you’re a] basketball player, lawyer, doctor, or into Hip-Hop. I believe that now most athletes have crews of guys who really can really rap, whether it’s themselves or their crew. I think you’re gonna be able to see in the near future that Hip-Hop is gonna be driven from an athletic entertainment base. It goes hand in hand.
I can say, for one, Cam’ron had a chance to be a great Division 1 player. He didn’t have the grades or whatever, I don’t know what the actual thing was. He went to one of the number one junior colleges in the country to play basketball. You have a lot of guys who were great at basketball, football or whatever that just didn’t [make it] whatever it was [due to] grades, their attitude or whatever. They didn’t have a chance to make it in the athletic sport world, but they come from the inner city and they find a niche in rap.
I wanna be that guy who really steps forward and really makes the blueprint for athletes on how to do it. Most athletes have the dream and the focus, but they don’t know how to do it. I’ve been doing this for 15 years - even before I got in the NBA - because coming from a small city and a small school I knew I wouldn’t get drafted. I didn’t want to put all of my eggs in one basket. This is something I really attached myself to as like, “This is a way to help my family too, and make it out the hood. I’m gonna jump into this too.” I just never lost track of that.
AllHipHop.com: What do you offer to Hip-Hop that might be missing right now?
T-Hud: I think I offer a well-rounded album. I think I offer a well-rounded sense of Hip-Hop, studying Hip-Hop is a lost art. I think most people don’t study Hip-Hop, I know for me, I studied 2Pac, Biggie, Jay-Z, Nas, Master P’s business savvy. I really studied Hip-Hop. I think a lot of people go with what’s hot today and that’s why you get a lot of one hit wonders. I’m very fortunate and blessed to not have any gimmick records on my album. It was tempting to be like “Man, this banging in the club. I’m a gonna make something just like this.” But when I really checked myself like “Is this really you? If it aint you don’t do it”, I didn’t do it and I’m really blessed to have a album full of me.
AllHipHop.com: How important is it for you to bring people in, give them jobs and teach them how to be independent themselves?
T-Hud: It’s very important, because for me I’m a guy who looks into the African-American community and says, “Hip-Hop is another way.” A lot of people outside of the inner city look at it and say, “Hip-Hop is violent.” My thought on it is, would you rather a rapper being on TV saying this stuff in your home, or would you rather a rapper being in your home doing what he’s saying? For me, Hip-Hop is no more than Hollywood on audio, it’s no more than that. For me it’s an opportunity for young African-Americans, it’s another avenue where we can prosper in life.
I don’t see anything wrong with us really expressing what we’ve been through in life. It’s nothing more than old ritual slave hymns. We just talking about what we’ve been through. I really wanna give guys an opportunity who [are from] the streets, because everybody can do this. It gives people the opportunity to come in and put their creative input into something they really stand for. That can really help our culture.
AllHipHop.com: How do you protect yourself financially, realizing people might latch on to you because of your money?
T-Hud: That’s a tough one, because a lot of times, people count your money. I’ve been burned many times, people look at what I make from basketball. They don’t look at what I make from music. At this point right now, I haven’t made much from music, I made most of my money from basketball, that’s going out there and working every night. I work for what I have right now, so it’s tough. But at the same time you have to teach young guys that when you see those videos on TV that’s not their cars, house, or jewelry. Them guys make 15-cents an album, this is how you could make your money. Stick in there, do what you need to do and one day you can be a boss like me but you have to take the steps. It’s all about teach rather than show.
AllHipHop.com: When you look down the road five years from now, where do you see your label and your music going?
T-Hud: I wanna bring something to the forefront that’s never really been there, and that’s Midwest. When you look at it you never see the Midwest as a whole. You have your soul artists and great producers such as Kanye and R. Kelly in the R&B world, you have Nelly, Coo Coo Cal, Common, Twista, Crucial Conflict, Do or Die. All those guys who are running together individually, but you’ve never had a label. You’ve never had your Def Jam, Roc-A-Fella, Murda Inc., and that’s what I want NuttyBoyz to be.
AllHipHop.com: Tell us about the album and the process behind [putting it together].
T-Hud: I wanted to make a well rounded album, but I also wanted to be me. I studied 2Pac, Biggie, [Three 6] Mafia, UGK, 8Ball and MJG, Snoop Dogg. That gave me south, east, west, a well rounded view of Hip-Hop. That’s how I wanted to make my album. I don’t want to be labeled as a Midwest artist, I’m from the Midwest, but I don’t want people to say “He’s a Midwest artist, a South artist, a East Coast or West Coast artist.” I want people to say “That’s a nice album, I can feel that. I don’t care where I’m at or where I’m from, I like that album.”
AllHipHop.com: In marketing, do you feel it’s important to assert that you’re a ballplayer, or do you want to let the music speak for itself?
T-Hud: I’m gonna take the odds on this, I want everybody to know I’m a ballplayer. I can’t disguise that and that’s one of the challenges I’m accepting because I want people to know it’s a new day and age. Ballplayers is about to put it down in this entertainment business. Not only music, movies [as well]; Baron Davis has a film company. I want people to understand that just because I play basketball don’t mean that I didn’t have dreams of being the next big-time entertainer, on the music level, the film level or whatever.
I’m taking that challenge, I want that challenge. I want people to say “He’s a basketball player and he did it. He drew the blueprint up. He perfected it, put it out there and he was successful in it, he put it out there. He’s the first one to do it.”
