Hot Rod (G-Unit) Interview
October 2006
MVRemix: How are you dealing with all the pressure that comes with being an artist on G-Unit?
Hot Rod: Of course it's going to be pressure. Pressure from me having the whole state (Arizona) on my back. Pressure from being on the west coast and being on G-Unit. It's a lot of haters out there. A lot of G-Unit hate. I got on with a demo and of course there's a lot of hate with that. I'm dealing with it. I'm not up thinking of it and crying every night. I'm not waking up in a cold sweat. I'm in a real major situation. I had to really get focused.
MVRemix: I watched you on the XXL Magazine DVD, and it was crazy to see all the people react to 50 Cent as he was riding around. Are you ready to deal with that as well?
Hot Rod: Yeah, I need that. It's definitely something to look forward to. It's all love. What I'm doing is making other people happy. I'm definitely enjoying it. I'm experiencing it now on a small level with people asking for autographs and to take pictures.
MVRemix: You often refer to 50 Cent as your big brother. How is he helping to guide you?
Hot Rod: He's holding me down. He's teaching me a lot of things as far as business wise. How to hustle. What he's really teaching me is real beneficial in the whole situation. You've got to work hard. He's the hardest working in the rap game. We'll be in the studio until 4am. I'll go to sleep and wake up, and he's still in the studio before me even though he left after me.
MVRemix: There's supposedly a beef between you, and another rapper from Arizona named Juice that's signed to The Game's label. You care to elaborate on that situation?
Hot Rod: Juice, he's from Arizona and lot of people told me what he was doing with the whole G-Unot thing. Me and Juice had a little encounter at the barbershop and we had some words. I don't want to go into detail. It's cool now. There's no beef. There was a lot of he-say/she-say that started all of this. I didn't even know this man. I never heard of him until after I got my deal. Then The Game comes out and sign him. People hitting me up saying "He did a song over your beat." We ran into him in the barbershop now everything is cool.
MVRemix: Do you think that this beef makes Arizona look a certain way to the rest of the hip-hop world, being as though ya'll are the only two known artists right now?
Hot Rod: It's cool. When people look at is, they look at it as Hot Rod. There really is no Hot Rod versus Juice. It's none of that. People are more looking at it as 50 versus Game because of who we're with. I don't wanna shine light on the whole Juice thing. We both coming from the same state and trying to get our money. We don't want to promote the state [with the beef]. We don't wanna divide it like that. We want the state to behind both of us. That's pretty much the words that we had for Juice and see where he's coming from and get it cleared up. I got my deal first, and there is a lot of stories going on saying stuff like he turned down a mil from 50. 50 had never heard of this dude. Game comes out [to Arizona] and finds him a rapper, he signs him, and a couple of months later he using him as a soldier to say "Fuck Hot Rod!" I was gonna respond to it, but then that brings him up to my level. I'm coming out with an album, and he's not coming out anytime soon. Black Wall Street doesn't even have any distribution. After I come up, then he comes up. There is no Juice/Hot Rod situation.
MVRemix: Tell us about the album. When is it dropping? Who's on it?
Hot Rod: The album is called Fast Lane. It's gonna drop top of the year. I'm gonna let all these big cats drop in the 4th quarter. Jay, Nas, Banks, Buck drops. I need all the smoke to clear. I'm still in the booth trying to knock out some more records. I'm working with the Unit, 50, Olivia, Banks, Buck, of course Mary J. Blige. My cats from Arizona. There could be some last minute additions. The spotlight is really on me at this point. I don't wanna flood the album with guest appearances. It's my time to shine. I just wanna establish myself and stand on my own two feet.
MVRemix: The word going around is that when 50 Cent signed you, you were doing work as a mortgage broker.
Hot Rod: It's funny man, I don't even know where that came from. The true term is that I was a telemarketer for a mortgage company. I was only there for four days. I got cats coming up to me like "You was a mortgage broker!" Naw, I don't know the first thing about that. I was in training as a telemarketer. I'm trying to clear up the whole situation. It wasn't even like that. I don't want people to look at me like that, not that it's anything wrong with. But that's not what I did.
MVRemix: Back to the album. What producers have you worked with?
Hot Rod: I worked with Dre, Eminem, Jake One, Dangerous LLC. They did "Window Shopper" and "Disco Inferno." I got a lot of new cats. M. Rell, Madox. He's from Houston. Real hot. Some other cats called Sound Squad. They got the title track. They're seventeen. It's real hot man. With G-Unit, we just don't go straight for the big names. We just go through beat CDs from producers. I have a lot of no names on the album, but they're all actually hot.
MVRemix: Anything else you want to get out to the people?
Hot Rod: I wanna shout out Man Up Squad. The label 150 Entertainment coming out. My official website, Younghotrod.com. My MySpace page, MySpace.com/RodT. I actually check that out.
MVRemix: So it's really you and not someone paid to go on there and send out generic messages to people?
Hot Rod: [laughs] It's not an intern up on their checking my messages. I was on there heavy before I got signed.
MVRemix: Yeah, me too. I call it Crack Space because it's so addicting.
Hot Rod: [laughs] I was about to say the same words! I call it Crack Space. That's that internet cocaine. It's crazy man. Shout out to my boys J. Trees, Mr Meez, Cinque, Willy Northpole, and Carnegie. The last three are all my artists.
MVRemix: Thanks a lot for your time.
Hot Rod: Let me say, I did a lot of interviews today. This is probably the most fun I've ever had.
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