ALL STAR 2011 - Ozone Magazine

KONVICT MUSIC ARTIST YA BOY TELLSOZONE HOW HE’S ABLE TO MAINTAIN RELA-TIONSHIPS WITH THE GAME AND AKON ANDSTILL GET HOLLYWOOD LOVE FROM PARISHILTON AND BRITNEY SPEARS.For those who might not be familiar withyou, can you start off by telling us who YB isand where you’re from?YB is short for Ya Boy. I come from the BayArea, San Francisco. I started when I was 17under San Quinn and Done Deal Entertainment.I’ve got two cousins that are pioneers inthe Bay Area rap scene – San Quinn and MessyMarv. I’m just that young wild nigga.Your first record “16’s With Me” was a hit. Howdid it feel to be sitting in the room with allthose DJs as a youngin’ tryin’ to get on andyou played your record and they went wild?It was a good feeling. I really didn’t expect itto blow up how it did. Everything that happensin my life, to me, is a surprise. The resultsalways end up ten times better than expected,and that’s a good thing, because I’m alwayssurprising myself. When I was trying to getmyself heard there were a million other peopletrying to get heard, but the people chose me.I remember when they first played the songon the radio and played it like eight times in arow. Big Von played it back to back and peoplekept calling me saying, “You’re on the radio!”It was the best feeling ever. That was my firsttaste of stardom back then.Today you have one of the hottest songs onPower 106 in Los Angeles, so that has to bea blessing. How does that feel to be gettinglove on Power 106 as a Bay Area artist?That’s huge. It’s so hard to get played and evenget one spin on L.A. radio, so for me to be inheavy rotation and have the number one songon L.A. radio, that’s crazy.song they were upset about, because it’s afeel-good song.Some people want to turn something like thatinto something negative, and it just showstheir ignorance.You’re still running with The Game too, right?Yeah, he’s a busy guy and I’m a busy guy, butit’s respect there. I fuck with him and he fuckswith me. I’ve got my own thing going. I felt likeit helped my career a lot when I started fuckingwith The Game. I was fresh out of the Bayand I had no idea what the industry was like oranything as far as independent. Fucking withhim helped me learn the ropes a little bit. I justsoaked it up and it helped me a lot.What about Kevin Federline? A lot of peoplethought that was crazy when you started beingseen together. How did that come about?I was living in Malibu, and Kevin Federline andBritney Spears were also living in Malibu sowe were like neighbors. Of course I was in thestudio out there tearing shit up, and there’snothing but rich and famous people out there.Everybody that went in the studio was justblown away by my music, and he was oneof them. That’s just my pa’tna, nothing else.Whenever I go fuck with him or we go out toeat or something and Britney was around, thepaparazzi would start snapping away and Iwould be the only little hood nigga in theseUSA Weekly and OK! Magazines...The rest of this interview is featured in OzoneMagazine Issue #85:There was a lot of controversy behind therecord “We Run L.A.” What is it about, fromyour perspective?The song was paying homage to the city ofLos Angeles. I moved out here when I wasyoung. I lived out here for a few years and I seewhere it’s going. It’s a beautiful city. I see a lotof people – models, movie stars, actresses, actors– coming out here trying to make it. It wasbasically just a theme song for them. I was payinghomage to the city sort of like Tupac didwith “To Live And Die In L.A.” A lot of peoplemisunderstood the concept at first.When I heard people talking about you in thestreets I didn’t understand why that was theOZONE MAG // 31