The Legendary Traxster: Well I guess they can expect...well first of all, a whole lot of music, (laughs) you know what I’m saying? There’s 23 joints on there, but it’s a lot different then my last album 'All Hell Breaks Loose'. That album was a real dark time in my life, so it’s real personal, but this album is...well I had time to really write the records I wanted to write and cuff the beats I really wanted to cuff. Like this album is really different in a sense, because 'All Hell' I played the beats for people and used the beats they liked instead of writing to the beats that I liked .You know what I’m saying. I think it’s a lot better album its like the shit that I say on the first song called The Return of Gangsta Music I say (Twista's)Adrenaline Rush and (Do or Die's)Picture This rolled in one.

Defsounds: You took a different route this time and took the album right to ITunes. How did that idea come about?

The Legendary Traxster: I felt like first of all definitely I wanted everybody to get it as far as my fans in other places, other cities, other countries, but also a lot of my fans in the hood are a little behind technology wise so I took it as an opportunity to pressure them into getting Itunes , download it figure out how to get music off the internet legally, because I know its a lot easier especially with me traveling now to get music to my fan base, because its a lot easier to get music over the internet then by physical product. You know as long as I stay in that system which is something I want to try to break away from I got to play by those rules meaning distribution, Best Buy, Politics, radio. Internet is freedom so for me I figured I wanted to take that chance on my record because I knew for me it was the biggest project from my company independently and it was the only way to force my fans to get on the new system so we can get rid of the old system.

The Legendary Traxster: The second half of last year I started traveling to take my business in (a) new direction. I went to Houston, went to Kansas City with Tech Nine and ended up in Atlanta. NO I.D is based in Atlanta, because he’s a So So def producer so what happen was he saw me in Chicago when he was here and he was like “why you making it hard on yourself?” Because I was a purist, I didn’t want to venture out beyond what I’ve already been doing so being with NO I.D really opened me up and that is why I went into that, because there are people in all levels of the game that fuck with me so let me start looking around. So I went down to Atlanta and went to NO I.D's studio, we was vibing. He made me feel very comfortable so I got me a place down there. We never really had a chance to kick it when we where in Chicago because he was on one side of town and I was on the other side, but we always had (a) mutual respect. We where always real cordial to each other when we saw each other, so I went down there and there was so much new energy and everybody was real positive, we just saw it was a big thing for us to be working together because of the history that kind of encouraged us; not to mention we had so much information we never shared with each other. The friendship grew really fast from there, so basically it was like lets do some business together, we started No ID vs. Traxster which is a website we started, and we also started a label which we are in the process of figuring out what were going to do, because the Album we come with together got to be the Monster. So basically it came from mutual respect which led to a friendship to lets get some money together.

Defsounds: How do you feel about Kanyes representation of Chicago?

The Legendary Traxster: Well first off all. Kanye’s the little homie. He used to come to the studio when I was doing the Twista records in that era and he always used to forget his ARS10 disc which is a keyboard and I used the same one and he would call me and be like "Ay you got your disc?". So I would see him here and there. Then he started working with an artist I had at one point, so I always been fond of him and knew he was talented and that whole nine. I think that my representation of Chicago and his representation are two different things, because he’s from a different place then where I’m from. The gangbanger in me makes me say throw down the K, throw up the T (laughs) but, as I matured and ventured out and take a look at what he does and me and NO I.D analyzing different things . I always liked him and think that he represents himself more then he represents Chicago, that’s why you cant criticize some of the things he does because he’s representing himself and he's from Chicago. I make it a habit to represent Chicago so I don’t have to feel anyway about how he represents.

The Legendary Traxster: Well I know NO I.D is going to be working with Common on the new Album and I might try and sneak into one of the sessions and set him off like you ain’t never done one of these kind of records. From what I understand I talked to him about it before and he seemed open but I’m not really sure if that fits in his concept of his legacy so we’ll see.

Defsounds: Do you see yourself working with Twista again?

The Legendary Traxster: It’s funny because I’ve read a few interviews with Twista when he feels like its to his advantage he’ll say I’m going to get back in with Trax. Like he makes statements that are just not true, like in one interview he says something about me hatin’. I hate too much, but the truth of the matter is if you look at my behavior and you look at his behavior he’s far more of a hater.(laughs) At the end of the day this is what it is with Twista. Look man our fans want us to work together, my accountant wants us to work together, but I don’t give a fuck if we work together or not. I’m really moving past all of that. Moving into something new, I’m finding new artists, making new music. So me and him working depends on his ability to accept that he will never put me in a position where I’m submissive. This is a real deep situation. I’m not one of them dudes that’s around him. I don’t bow down. I’m a Boss, so if you want to work come holla at me. I’ll make some beats and you can rap, but watch what you say because I hear everything and I take things personally and I’m not a weak dude. I’m strong and I’m aggressive so that set aside I don’t care either way. I know we made an album that people love and considered a classic so I’m not gonna be the one to say that I’ll never work with that guy again . My fans would be disappointed, but at the same time I’m a man and I’m not gonna keep playing these games with you. None of this I’m gonna get back in the studio with you next interview he say where not talking, I see him on the street where talking like what’s up lets do something then I see a youtube video and they talking slick. One day things are gonna change and I’m going to Timberland Genuine him...Twista who? We gonna see each other somewhere and there’s gonna be resentment and animosity and we gonna deal with that. As far as Twista his fans should tell him he should work with me and he won’t get any resistance from me.

The Legendary Traxster: Let’s keep it real it sucked and it was flattering. He was emulating something I did 10 years ago, a decade. From the skits to the beats, I’m saying to myself that’s flattering. I’m not sure if he thought I was going to be pissed off, but just for the record y’all can print it’s flattering. I’m like wow y’all tried real hard to do what I do naturally

Defsounds: What about Lupe, you good with him?

The Legendary Traxster: I haven’t met Lupe, but he gave me a shout-out on one of the mixtapes and I thought that was dope so if he ever needs something he can come holla at me.

Defsounds: You won a Grammy working with Mariah Carey on her album The Emancipation of Mimi. How did it come about you working with her?

The Legendary Traxster: I always did production with artists I came in the game with Do or Die, Twista all those cats I never really did beat CD’s before. The game changed on the production side people wanted to use technology, email me CD’s, Pro Tools, etc… so my first beat CD I had a new production manager. He got it into the hands of a radio personality and he got it in the hands of Mariah’s manager you know she was on her comeback at that time so she was trying a new thing and she was familiar with my work and I think she wanted to do a song with Twista and who better to produce a Twista track then me? Basically it wasn’t a big strategy thing, just God’s grace.

Defsounds: What artists are you presently working with now?

The Legendary Traxster: I’m working with a lot of the cats down in Atlanta. I’m working with the CTE cats and working on some of the stuff So So Def is doing but mostly right now I’m working on new production. I got my own artists so I’m still doing that heavy other then that just doing beats, running into people. It’s not really that I'm working on a specific project other then my Traxster Inc. stuff. Just is that I’m a producer I submit tracks, we play tracks. I got a lot of song writers down in Atlanta. We’re expanding into a little more Pop & R&B. I'm down in Atlanta just really trying to see what’s poppin and how I can expand my business.

Defsounds: What was the deal you had with Rap-A-Lot records when all your CWAL artists mainly Do or Die ended up getting signed to Rap-A-Lot?

The Legendary Traxster: What it was, you got to understand my relationship with them artists started off as a producer. Then CWAL came about we formed that company and what happened was they didn’t have the facility or the money. Let me just put it butt naked they didn’t want to keep paying for things. So they worked out deals that we would put out records together that they wouldn’t have to pay anymore and it would be released on CWAL. Well some of them deals where handshake deals between one of my partners and them. I was always a paperwork dude, but we all from the street so we go off are word then you come to find out certain people aren’t of their word so those are the types of things that transpired but for the most part when it came down to it we owned to records so we always positioned ourselves to make money. We made great money even though some of them other acts went to Rap-A-Lot and different labels, but I still did production on them and if you where in my camp and then you go to another camp and they need me to create the sound for them that’s gonna multiply the expenses of me doing it for them(laughs) so it all worked out fine in the end.

Defsounds: What happened to the recent Do or Die Project?

The Legendary Traxster: What it was I did a deal with Legion Records to take over their catalog. We sat on it for a while and tried to figure out what we where going to do. Nobody was doing anything so I decided they where going to be the first Itunes record where I was gonna start going hard on the whole internet marketing that whole thing but I didn’t need to have any conversations with the group especially since Belo’s in Jail right now and me and AK really don’t get along so I just stopped making my moves and just to cut to the chase Chicago is a city of haters so if you see me making a move you know just to let me know that you’re in protest you might start doing shit that’s counter productive to getting money, counter protective to getting a record out so at the end of the day they appealed and tried to get a distribution deal. I was like y’all haven’t gotten a deal yet you’ve been sitting on it for a year, but people aren’t great businessmen so I was asked to consider what they wanted to do and with that consideration I had to stop my promotion and everything I was planning, because of that I decided I’m not even going to deal with that, because my time is to valuable and my energy is to valuable, so basically after they pulled that move, that protest. I was already almost on the brink of saying I’m not dealing with that stuff anymore because of the rocky history that kept getting worse and that Belo went to jail. After that they released some record that sounded like a south record “My Caddy” and that with me now and my new thing forward is I don’t want to be apart of nothing wack , so I’ll leave that at that statement.

The Legendary Traxster: You know I announced that the entire album would be produced by me. Then they have another plan. You know I felt like nigga’s just go ahead and put out that record. I just put out; you put out one right after that. Now y’all are doubling up. This interview is going to get deep when I start going here my experience is when you start caring about things that are worthless like control. Letting someone know that you are in control, letting someone know you can mess something up. I’m not a kid. That stuff you cant play with my toys I’m taking my ball and going home. The way I feel about it is Chicago has a problem with understanding. It’s better to let things happen that’s outside of your control and success comes instead of having control just for the sake to say you control everything. Those kinds of people I don’t even want to be in business with or even deal with. The whole Do or Die thing to sum it up was basically I don’t know what I’m going to do, I don’t have no way to do anything, but I don’t want you to do it. To me that’s just silly, like c’mon man if I give you a record and you go out and sell it and make a bunch of money. I’m not going to look at it like you shouldn’t have sold my record. I’m going to look at it like now its time for you to chop that money up.

Defsounds: What artists in the game right now are you a fan of; that you've been recently listening to?

The Legendary Traxster: Surprisingly, I listen to 50 a lot and of course Jay. Everybody else other them those two, well obviously Dr Dre too but he hasn’t put out any music in a while. But other then them two I listen to artists in spurts, and if you noticed the two people I mentioned are two of the best business men in the game(laughs) so my opinion might be biased, because I’m studying and watching everybody’s maneuvers and that’s what kind of makes me listen to their music. Right now I take my time and go back and listen to more classics, Hip Hop, as well as R&B, Funk, 70’s, 80’s to kind of refamilarize myself with my music education. I’m into that a lot right now.

Defsounds: To switch it up a bit and close it up. Who you got- Barack or Hilary?

The Legendary Traxster: I definitely want Barack. I think its inspiring that he doesn’t seem like a part of the system I seen my whole life in a sense that its either been a Clinton or a Bush wither in the presidency or vice presidency most my life. So I definitely want him to win. That’s who I’ll vote for that’s who I’m supporting, because of that but if he doesn’t win and I’ll go on record and say I’m not going to believe in the whole system after that he’s raised the most money, he’s ahead in delegates, popular vote, etc… If he’s not the candidate going into the convention I’m gonna feel like all conspiracy theories are true and the whole thing is bullshit

The Legendary Traxster: I just want to say thank you for your support and a lot of records that I put out I do for my fans even if it means I take a financial loss, because its real important to me. You hear people say I love my fans, I love my fans a bunch of cornball shit, but for real the expression of love for me is sacrifice and I sacrificed for years for people who told me we want this type of music you know what I’m saying Chicago sound. If that’s not my expression of love for the fans I don’t know what else I can do. I just want them to know how much I love them by sacrificing my own fortune to make music that they love.