D.A. Smart retraces his foot steps to take everyone on a second tour of the hood. 1997's Walk Wit Me easily takes credit as being the most popular street anthem song ever made in the city of Chicago. Eight years later from creating the classic, he has now written and will record the hit sequel set for a summer release. D.A. breaks down exactly what differentiates Walk Wit Me Part 2 from the original: “The first difference you gon' notice is the beat is updated by The Legendary Traxster. Second is the lyrics is gon' be changed (same flow/vibe still). The chorus gon' be pretty much the same. The North Side gon' be incorporated and its gon' talk about the origin of gangs, where they come from, how they started; stuff like that. Its gon' be deep.” Other notable mentions, D.A. Smart will release a documentary which brings the complete Walk Wit Me-like experience to life. Many people have been curious as to why D.A. has been missing in action. He sheds light on this subject by saying, “D.A. had some legal issues that he had to deal with. I did a little time, now that I'm back on the bricks I'm tryin' to start it back up all over again, you know just like the regular niggas in the hood. All of us go through the same thing.” Furthermore, he recently resurrected a very special and significant release of his. “Right now I got the One In A Million CD out, for the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March,” says D.A. He attended this historical event on October, 16th 1995 selling over 10,000 copies in Washington, D.C. Taking a dive into fresh waters, D.A. now owns his own record label, Terror Records. He will take care of unfinished business by releasing his album Fuck Tha World, which many may have seen originally advertised in 1999's CWAL Ballaz “Work During Tha Drought.” Slowly But Surely D.A. Smart comes back to be your tour guide through the hood, forever chanting Walk Wit Me.
- D.A. Smart: Walk Wit Me Part 2 CD
Production by The Legendary Traxster
Release Date: Summer
- Untitled Documentary
Release Date: Summer
- D.A. Smart: Fuck Tha World CD
Release Date: N/A
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Bad Seed of C.O.G. exposes his tactics of Intimidaten Chicago in 2005. He takes the role of CEO of his new record label Intimidaten Rekords. Bad Seed already has projects in the works after previously releasing his solo effort From Dem Streetz. The busy C.O.G. member explains exactly what he's up to, “I'm workin' in the studio, almost done with my new solo album and we got more projects comin' from other artists on Intimidaten Rekords.” Beyond features from in-house artists from Intimidaten, Bad Seed brings back Cold Hard of Crucial Conflict and adds spice with Shawnna of DTP. He again keeps close family ties by having his brother and 1/3 of C.O.G., Goldiiz handle part of his album's production. Bad Seed was recently in Los Angeles, California and may have plans to visit the East Coast next. He explains, “I might be recordin' with LIl Flip in New York , but it's still not for certain.”
Chilldrin of Da Ghetto originally was on Mack 10's Hoo Bangin' label with Priority Records. Without appearing like a one man show, Bad Seed summarizes the group's past: “Mack 10 fell out with Priority; he got into it with the owner. He got dropped, not C.O.G. He fucked it up and Priority dropped Hoo Bangin' so everybody on the label got left. We (C.O.G.) made Hoo Bangin' what it was. After all that, Mack 10 left to Cash Money.” Now Bad Seed brings everything up-to-date with the group, “We still out here workin'. The C.O.G. album is done and comin' later. Right now we doin' these solo projects and still tryin' to decide if we gon' release it (the group album) major or underground.” Individually working hard and keeping the group alive seems important to Bad Seed. You can't take the ghetto out of these chilldrin, no matter how hard you try.
- Bad Seed: Untitled CD
Featuring Cold Hard of Crucial Conflict, Shawnna
Production by Goldiiz of C.O.G., Andy C., Lil C
Release Date: N/A
- C.O.G.: Untitled CD
Featuring N/A
Production by Goldiiz
Release Date: N/A
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Juice comes freshly squeezed for his new album All Bets Off. After being deemed as a battle rapper for many years, Juice draws a new outlook on his music. “All Bets Off is an ice breaker to the streets” explains Juice. This recent release comes equipped with a geographical street anthem, What Up in which Juice mentions almost every Chicago neighborhood and even stems out to surrounding suburbs as well. He speaks on his new single saying “What Up is a tribute to Chi, inspired by niggas like E.C., cats like Traxster.” He expressed interest in possibly doing a remix with West Coast rapper Snoop Dogg, covering the Los Angeles, California area for the song. Juice was born in Chicago, then moved to L.A., but came back to the windy city in his late teens, staying ever since. Well-traveled, Juice found himself alongside fellow Chi-Town natives Rhymefest and E.C. Illa in Cincinnati, Ohio at 1997's Scribble Jam. E.C. performed at the event, while Juice and Rhymefest fought hard in the freestyle battle tournament. The battle began with 30 MC's and later came down to the final three: Juice, Rhymefest and super star Eminem. Juice freestyled his way to defeat Eminem and became the champion! Rarely mentioned, Em battled again for 2nd place, but got another Chicago beating from Rhymefest. Since the '97 Scribble Jam, rumors have been going around about Eminem dissing Juice on a recent documentary. Not believing the rumors Juice stated, “I never saw the documentary. I can't see Eminem dissing me, there's mutual respect.”
Juice now strictly focuses energy on his new record label, Conglomerate. He added his goals for the company, “Conglomerate is a distribution record label. We try to put people on and help develop projects.” Remember to stick with Juice at the casino with his latest album All Bets Off and be on the look out to collect your prize with his future release Winner Takes All.
- Juice : Winner Takes All CD
Production by N/A
Release Date: July
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