ALL STAR 2011 - Ozone Magazine

40 GLOCC, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS BIGBAD 40, TALKS ABOUT CHOOSING BE-TWEEN MONEY AND FAME, HIS UPCOMINGALBUM WITH SPIDER LOC, AND HOW PO-LICE ARE USING HIS MUSIC AGAINST HIM.Often when your name comes up, theretends to be some controversy involved. Areyou intentionally trying to stay in the mixor does it just come naturally to you?I mean, I don’t have problems with nobody. Ithink people pay too much attention to Twitter,for one. Twitter is just a source of entertainmentfor me. But anything else like that,you might call it “staying in the mix” but I callit documenting my life. My life has alwaysbeen like that. There’s always something goingon. I don’t know if I painted the picture ofalways being into something. I think shit justcomes to me. I attract bullshit sometimes.You’re working on a release with SpiderLoc, right?Yeah, we did a joint album called GraveyardShift. It’s real dope. We’ve got Drama on itwith us, MC Eiht, Kurupt, Obie Trice, youknow. It’s an in-store release and I’m droppingit through my label Zoo Life Entertainment.I’m sure you’ve had offers from majorlabels. Do you feel like it’s a better situationfor you financially to drop it yourself?Yeah, the way the terms are right now, if youdrop something on a major label you reallyaren’t seeing any dough. You’ll have to waiton your advance. For me, with the type ofmoney I run through during an average year,it doesn’t even make sense. The [major label]advance money wouldn’t even bail me outof jail. I’ve got houses, you know. I got hellabills. I don’t just have “a crib,” I have “cribs,”you know what I mean? (laughs) I pay billsjust like any regular muthafucker.There are a lot of West Coast artists who sellrecords independently in the region butaren’t really known worldwide. Do you feellike you have to make a choice betweenmaking money or being famous?Yeah, that’s definitely the choice you gottamake: make money or be famous. Peoplethink they want the fame, but after they getthe fame and see what type of situation itis, they don’t like it anymore. They’ll learnthat the fame shit isn’t cool. They’re runningaround like a slave, the label is sending themhere and there, landing in Tokyo, Japan orsomewhere in Wisconsin and they’ve onlygot twenty dollars to their name. But thefans don’t know that, so they’ve still gotto go out there and act like they’ve got itsuper-poppin’. They spent their advancemoney already and this goes on every year,because most of them sign a four-to-sevenyear deal, depending on their success. Soit’s kind fucked up if you’re not that onesuccessful artist. If you don’t get that onelucky record and if you don’t hit right off thebat, you know, it’s hard to make a career foryourself and keep it crackin’, even if you’reon a major label. They’re going to put you onthe shelf, and then all you’ve got is the littlefame they built for you off the relationshipsthey have with the media and tabloids. So it’shella fucked up if you ask me, but that’s whya lot of West Coast artists stay independent.Everybody can sell dope, but that doesn’tmean everybody’s gonna be successful sellingdope, you know what I mean? You’ve gotniggas that know how to sell keys and curbserver niggas – that’s what we call them, theniggas that just gotta be pushin’ stone tostone every day, you know?You were in jail recently, right? What wasthat about?I’ve been going through litigation for the lastthree years. They’re accusing me of doingcertain things because of my music. Theybasically convicted me through my music,but it was a civil suit [not criminal charges]. Iwas telling everybody that this is what [thegovernment] is doing to everybody now.They just started taking it out of [California]to other spots and now they’re doing it overseas.They’ll give out gang injunctions and allthat shit. They’ll go through the communityand label everybody as a gang member.So if you get caught with me, the policewill assume you’re a gang member. That’sbasically how they did me, but they did it tome through my music. They said that I say[gang-related] things in my music. I don’thave any felonies; I haven’t been convicted ofany crimes. So they filed a civil suit and theysued me. When they sue you, it’s punishablethrough the court system. So anything youdo after that can make you a criminal. If I’mjaywalking or I’ve got an open container inthe streets, it’s not a misdemeanor anymore.They add a “gang enhancement.” They makeit a felony. That’s basically why they raisedmy bail up to $100,000, because they found aweapon. There’s a weapons charge and theyadded a gang injunction, which automaticallyboosts everything to a felony.Are you looking at doing some time?I was set up on an attempted murder of a24 // OZONE MAG