WordofSouth.com: It’s good to hear that you could take something so negative and turn into positive energy. Moving on and speaking of positive, congratulations on the Asylum deal.
Pill: Appreciate it bro.
WordofSouth.com: How did that come about?
Pill: 45 minutes after I dropped the “Trap Goin’ Ham” video, they contacted me. They were trying to give me a deal back then but I wasn’t interested in signing a deal yet. I wanted to keep doing what I was doing and make things bigger. I wanted to get the people hooked on Pill. I wanted the people to be more open to my music and to establish a strong foundation with my music where I can put out whatever and they will understand that it was from the heart and this is what I love. Asylum respected that. They kept going hard while all the other offers came in. no matter what offers came in; Asylum said they could do better than that.
Damn near every label in the game offered me a deal. Asylum always upped the deal or changed the terms of the deal; they did whatever they had to do to make sure they got me on the roster. I respect them for that because they went hard from day one. They were the first label to even contact me. I kept grinding, mashing, recording, doing my shows, doing my interviews and everything else to keep going hard and make people aware of who Pill is as a person and as an artist. They respected my grind and they also implemented all of the terms that I requested and all of the monetary value I felt I was worth. I respect them for that and I want to shout out Joey IE and Todd Moscowitz for that. They stayed down with me from day one.
WordofSouth.com: You showed a lot of confidence in yourself by not jumping at the first offer they put on the table. Most independents are signed as soon as that first deal comes in, they jump all over it. You understood the grind or buzz wasn’t as strong as it could be; you waited it out. I like that.
Pill: I appreciate it. I just wanted the label to respect me as a business man. I wanted them to understand that I’ve had good money before. The money they were offering, I was like damn, I was blowing that at the mall when I was trapping. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen that dollar amount before. A lot of independent artists haven’t seen any money. They see that dollar amount and ho jump right on it. The first thing they think is they may not see an offer like that again, I mines will go jump on it. Me personally, I had seen that kind of money for years; I’ve blown it on cars, clothes and hoes. I did that, I’ve lived that life. I had the fast life, the money came and I spent it. I was like this little shit is nothing to me – this right here is club money, tennis shoes money and strip club money. I believed in myself and I kept grinding. I knew for a fact that I could keep making quality music so I didn’t give up or give into the first offer. I think they respected that as well.
WordofSouth.com: And by not giving into the first offer, you were able to build a larger buzz. What steps did you lay out for yourself to build such a strong buzz, and to catch the attention of the majors in the first place?
Pill: I made sure I did a lot of shows and I made sure the music was available for free download. I even had some physical copies available for the free download. I made sure I was humble to the people whenever I was out there. I kicked it with whomever and hit blunts with n****s and I don’t even really smoke like that. I still hit weed with n****s, drink with n****s and get f**ked up. I showed them how real this sh*t is. People would understand that and when they would see me out, they would approach me and tell me that my shit was real. They told me they haven’t heard real shit like this in a long time. They could hear it in my voice that this shit is real. I wanted the people to understand that. The real always overpowers the fake. I think people buy into a real product and enjoy real music.
I just made sure I kept it real. I implemented all of the things that were instilled to me as a youngster. You have to go after what you want in life. I made sure that I stayed down with whatever I believed in. the buzz grew larger thanks to my hard work and thanks to the hard work of my manager Derek, Chris Bone, Jazzy B, Shawn, Ryan, Maurice Garland who was behind me since day one, Rap Radar, the magazines, a lot of the blog spots like DJ Burn One’s site, they showed so much love. All of those people showed me in love. I’m very appreciative of the people that gravitate towards me and understand that this is a real testimony. It wasn’t something that was prescribed from prior events of stuff on TV or a story or something.
Read the full interview here:
Down of South - Pill Interview
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