L.E.P. - Ozone Magazine

R
ight now Shawty Lo is blatantly
breaking the law. He’s a block
away from his beloved Bankhead
Highway, on an abandoned street, home to
dope fiends and hood urchins—-and he is
standing on about 40,000 bricks. His everpresent
army of white-tee clad soldiers are
all paranoid that the police are on their way,
but Lo doesn’t muster an ounce of concern.
“Man, calm down! The police ain’t worried
about us!” yells a defiant Shawty Lo,
motioning the photographer to continue
with the photo shoot from the remains of
a recently bulldozed building. Lo’s voiced
disregard doesn’t ease the anxiety of his
nervous crew (seconds earlier, the owner of
the demolished building threatened to call
the police for trespassing on private property),
but when Shawty Lo gives an order,
his generals follow, so they remain quiet.
“They just wanna be around they king,” Lo
later says about his loyal laborers.
And right now, Shawty Lo certainly feels like
a king. It’s late afternoon on the west side
of Atlanta and even though the sun is hiding
beneath the overcast sky, Carlos “Shawty
Lo” Walker is basking in the bright lights of
a flashing camera. It’s no secret that Carlos
Walker was a once prominent drug lord who
served time in prison for his dealings, but
now he’s paid his dues, and done his time.
He and his “generals” have been moving
units in this city since 1993, and today is no
different.
Lo’s Units In The City still come packaged
in plastic, but now they’re distributed
through Asylum and peddled by pushers
such as Best Buy and Sam Goody. Shawty
Lo maintains that he never intended to be a
rapper, but that’s exactly what he’s become.
Like it or not, his hit single “Dey Know,”
which samples the classic 1970 Edwin Starr
hit, “War,” has undoubtedly become one of
the hottest songs in the South, and if you
add that to his growing resume including
tracks such as “Dunn Dunn” and 2005’s “I’m
Da Man,” it becomes apparent that Shawty
Lo is quickly becoming a staple of the ATL
music scene.
Hollowell Parkway. The official name was
recently changed, but is still referred to by
natives as “Bankhead Highway.”
“I don’t need no security guards or nothing
out here,” says Lo. Even amidst his
growing fame and success, he refuses
to relocate his D4L studios and bounce
from Bankhead. “All you see is me and my
homeboys.” The Bowen Home hero adds,
“No matter what kinda money I get, I’ll still
be right here.”
Minutes after his photo shoot in the
demolished building, Shawty Lo sits in
the backseat of his chauffeured Cadillac
Escalade outside of his Bankhead studio.
He has a fresh order of Chinese chicken
wings and a lingering hangover from the
night before (Rocko’s album release party),
but for Shawty Lo, life doesn’t get much
better than this. He is making his mark on
the world from the very same street he grew
up on, surrounded by lifelong friends and a
comfortable setting. Shawty Lo is in his element,
and there’s Lo Limit is sight.
You get a lot of love in the streets. How
were you able to acquire so much respect
around the hood
Look around you. We’re right here on my
street, Bankhead...
For the full interview, log on to ozonemag.
com or pick up the April issue of OZONE
Magazine featuring double covers with
Shawty Lo and B.o.B.!
Lo’s life is essentially similar to many of his
predecessors who transitioned from trapper
to rapper, but one element that makes
Shawty Lo truly unique is that if you want
him, you really can find him in the A. He’ll
be on the west side, more specifically, right
in front of his studio at 2610 Donald Lee
OZONE | 15