Atlanta bred rapper Alley Boy has been the talk of Hip-Hop within the last week with the release of his newest mixtape effort Ni**anati. With a fitting dialogue from actor Christopher Walken from the influential movie King Of New York serving as the intro, Alley Boy’s track “I Want In” questions T.I. king of the south reign and Young Jeezy’s street authenticity. While he has previously fielded questions about the intent of the record there is still much to be known about the man behind these gritty street tales.
Alley Boy spoke to HipHopWired.com in a telling interview where he discusses his past, separating the fake from the real in Atlanta’s rap scene, and why he is worthy of your ear.
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HipHopWired.com: Who was Alley Boy before the career in rap?
Alley Boy: Man before the music we were in the streets. I was in prison, I did about 28 months and when I got out we pushed with the music. But before then it was robbing, selling dope, regular street Shyte. I was just trying to get money.
HipHopWired.com: A large portion of your music is targeted at struggles of street life. Why is spotlighting that aspect is so important to you?
Alley Boy: That’s really where we at with it. A lot of us are still out here, my family members are still in the street so it’s real life. I just really be speaking on what’s going on in my circle and what surrounds me and what I see. I always try to stay relevant on what really is going on instead of just lying or saying this or just coming up with Shyte. I really be speaking on what’s going in these streets of Atlanta or really every ghetto in the world basically.
HipHopWired.com: Where do you think speaking on the realities of under developed neighborhoods turns into promoting savagery within Hip-Hop culture?
Alley Boy: I understand what you’re saying but I feel like everyone has to still understand they can’t listen to a song and feel like you want to live that life or look at another person and want to be into what they into. You have to choose your own route and do your own thing. The music does influence because I think people are attracted to what they don’t know so they kind of want to test the waters. For any individual you have to suffer the consequences of your own actions because it’s your choice. If my music influences them to do something they know they ain’t about, that’s their own ignorance. At the end of the day I’m just putting good music out to listen to, not for people to follow. I don’t want to stir nobody into a life they are not really about, that has never been my motive.
“On the other hand being shot at and selling dope doesn’t make you real because there are real dudes in college.”
HipHopWired.com: Gathering from your music it seems you take authenticity in your art form very seriously. When do you think that authenticity started to die out in Hip-Hop?
Alley Boy: Well I feel like it’s always been like that to a certain extent—the best actor will get the check you know? I feel like the music is kind of like that too, it’s just your choice on how you want to do it. Me I stick to the authentic Shyte just because that’s easier for me to do. It’s easier for me to be myself instead of making up stuff. I’m always going through stuff, there are always good times and bad times on the street.
A lot of cats they only become popular until they started doing the music or caught their first song and then they started putting out that persona. Personally I’m comfortable speaking on my past, my future and my as of now. I feel like the life I lived is a lot of dude’s fantasies and I’m not saying that’s a good thing or a dream because that dream could be bad. Some dudes like to make up pain in their life or make up certain stories or whatever but I’ve already been through sh** so it’s easier for me to speak on it. On the other hand being shot at and selling dope doesn’t make you real because there are real dudes in college. It’s all about being real with yourself. At the end of the day it’s all entertainment but it’s really important for me to put out certain things. It’s just me being me.
I targeted those cats in the song but it wasn’t a shot but me just telling the truth.
HipHopWired.com: Recently you released a song “I Want In” off your N*gganati mixtape which is largely viewed as you taking shots at T.I. and Young Jeezy. Can you explain your thought process going into recording a song like that?
Alley Boy: My whole purpose of the song was to separate myself from what’s going on in Atlanta. Yeah I targeted those cats in the song but it wasn’t a shot but me just telling the truth. That isn’t a shot, that’s just me having an opinion. I feel like T.I. is not the king of the south because there are things on his record or things he done did throughout his life I don’t feel a king should be doing. But that’s his opinion amongst himself so I say, “No, you not the king of the south,” and that’s my opinion. As far as Jeezy you saying you doing certain stuff and you keeping it real and this, that and another but I know certain things about them amongst their circle personally so I feel like, “No, you not real like who you claim to be,” so that’s just my opinion.
I feel as far as this street Shyte, dudes talk about how they be in the streets so much I can remember when these same cats where trying to put the standards up so high as far as these crossover records. I felt like they were setting the standard high where street dudes couldn’t come up without records featuring Rihanna or whatever. But when their buzz start dying they come back to the streets and start doing this street Shyte. I took that as offensive like these dudes were just there in a commercial space so just keep going, don’t try to come back down here and hog the lane from us because you feel like your buzz is dying. So I this is what goes on this level, we getting at ni**as on this level.
I feel I can really speak on it because them motherFawkers ain’t really doing that. So I feel like they are tricking everyone outside of Atlanta but in Atlanta ni**as know what it is with Alley Boy, they know what it is with Duct Tape Entertainment. They personally know what it is with me. I know they have millions of fans around the world so they might take it a certain type of way but I’m in a position where I don’t give a Fawk.
And I want to make it clear that’s not me being a hater or nothing, that’s me paving the way for the upcoming dudes. You have to pass these torches man and I feel like they don’t want to pass the torch so I feel like I have to take it and by me doing that it exposes a lot of fake Shyte they do. I just don’t want the people to take it in a hating form. This isn’t hate man, it ain’t no hate man it’s the truth.
HipHopWired.com: Your stance on this issue reminds me of what Pimp C was trying to convey before he passed.
Alley Boy: Yeah, totally because not everyone is lying on these cats. Like I’m not being a hater in no way form or fashion I promise because not everybody lying because I’ve been fans of these dudes on the music end. But on the personal Shyte and the Shyte they put out there it’s like, Nah dog, that ain’t that. T.I. got a 1 800 tip hotline telling people to turn in crime and stuff, that isn’t what I think should be the king of the south. Rick Ross, Big Meech, Bleu Davinci, all these different cats is like “this ni**a is fake as Fawk.” First of all he claims Atlanta, you not from Atlanta you from Macon. Why you not repping those people? Why you not putting them on the map? All this Shyte is a façade. The money blinds people you know what I’m saying and it covers up the truth. And this isn’t from a hater’s standpoint because I’m good in my section and I’m getting paper where I’m at so I have no reason to hate on somebody.
HipHopWired.com: Does the recent news of Bleu Davinci questioning Young Jeezy’s character in regards to his support of Meech’s legal woes convince you even more?
Alley Boy: Well you know I’ve done talk to [Big] Meech personally. I’ve done spoken to Meech personally on the phone and I asked him. And this is 100, this ain’t no lie or made up Shyte or gimmick Shyte or nothing. Bleu Davinci walked up on me at Club Crucial the club that everybody think T.I. owns. T.I. don’t own that club, Derrick owns that club, a dude he used to call his uncle. Bleu walked up on me like “the big homey [Big Meech] said call him” and gave me a number to call him. He said “call him tomorrow,” so I called the number and Meech gave me a lot of advice on what I need to be doing and said “leave that street sh**t alone, do your music.”
This is the first time ever talking to him a day in my life, I asked him “bro I ain’t trying to start anything but is [Young Jeezy] dude keeping it 100 with you as whatever whatever” and Meech said “no, it’s more like 50/50”. Then he turned around and said “I wouldn’t even say it’s all that”. And to me that’s some fake A$$ Shyte because at the end of the day these are the folk that made you in Atlanta so out of all people you should be breaking your neck for this man. So that’s a flaw in character.
HipHopWired.com: You’ve worked with Young Jeezy in the past why speak up now?
Alley Boy: It don’t matter that I got a feature with this ni**a. I didn’t ask him for a feature, they asked me to feature on my Shyte. The fans don’t be knowing the inside Shyte to it. So I feel if you can’t be 100 with your people then you sure can’t be 100 with an outsider. But this is never from a hater’s standpoint. It’s just really exposing fake Shyte with these dudes calling themselves the realest.
When I ran into [Yung LA], I caught him and beat his @ss and that’s all it was.
HipHopWired.com: So in actuality he reached out to you do collaborate on music?
Alley Boy: He had people call my phone and was like you know there’s a lot of talk on the street and they want to make it seem like we are affiliated with each other in some form or fashion so he sent me two songs and I sent them two. So it’s whatever, I sent the songs because at the end of the day it’s all about good music. So I didn’t ask for no features or no Shyte like that, I agreed but I wasn’t tripping it wasn’t no big deal. It is what it is.
HipHopWired.com: You put your hands on Yung LA last year over a Duct Tape Entertainment tattoo. Where does that situation stand now? Additionally what became of the rest of the video footage of the altercation?
Alley Boy: Like this will show you I have never been a hater even with this stuff with those other dudes. He put out a lot of bullShyte on the Internet and it seemed to the world like he was talking sh** to me. So when I ran into him, I caught him and beat his @ss and that’s all it was. And the rest of the footage that we blanked out, I ain’t even trying to incriminate myself because it got ugly and I just left it at that and destroyed the rest of it man. It wasn’t no stunt or nothing like that because I had the footage like a month before I put it out because he kept talking Shyte after I whooped his @ss. So I put the snippet out and showed the world what it really is. And mind you this after he covered up the tattoo.
HipHopWired.com: Why should people outside of Atlanta care about Alley Boy and DTE?
Alley Boy: I feel like we’re bringing back what’s missing to this music. I feel like I’m bringing this music up to where you can be yourself again instead like trying to get this big hook from the hottest singer or this big crossover record to get right. I want to work hard with my music and show people you can work hard in being you and still make it. Everyone is not a crossover artist and with that I’m not saying they don’t make good music but I feel the more I win the more people will come to realize they can really be themselves. I am the real.
