Published: Friday - October 19, 2007
Words by Melanie J. Cornish
Sam Scarfo (Photo: Gorilla Pimp Records)
He was the first rapper signed to Def Jam under the current president. He was, as he states in this interview, possibly one of the last rappers to be signed to a major label off the strength of a CD that just happened to end up in the hands of Jay Z and L.A. Reid. But yet after his track with Buju Banton, "Who Want It," stirred up enough interest to warrant his label to keep pushing, the engines ground to a halt and now the Plainfield, New Jersey rep finds himself in limbo.
Bad decisions may have played a part as to why Sam Scarfo treads warily in no mans land. Those he can admit. But when people who you thought were down for your cause were possibly only trying to manipulate a situation for their own benefit, you can't help but wonder just why the game we all love to play can be so foul.
Sam Scarfo may have been dealt some low blows, but he knows he has the ability to rise up and past those that have tried to hang him out to dry. Rebuilding his corner, Scarfo is coming back and the internet is going to be his first stop.
Ballerstatus.com: You have obviously been having issues with your label?
Sam Scarfo: Yeah I have been going through a lot of things. You know at my label, Guerilla Pimp, there was a lot of people that were arrested and I was watched really strong where we were under a serious investigation. Now it is at the point that there is only just me left. Me against the world is the sort of attitude I have now.
Ballerstatus.com: But what is going on at Def Jam? You had that joint with Buju Banton that was getting some serious love and building up your buzz. What happened?
Sam Scarfo: Man I don't know what is going on at Def Jam. I think Def Jam dropped the ball and they didn't really know what they were doing. They didn't know how to market a rapper from New Jersey. They tried to put me with some other n----s and make me some flunky on someone else's team. They didn't know how to brand a New Jersey artist. In their defense, the North east region is not really popular right now; it is not popping in the North. You just gotta start working. If you want to invest a million dollars like they did with Sam Scarfo, you should be doing something to break them.
Ballerstatus.com: But it wasn't like you came to Def Jam unprepared. You had your team in place and were ready to go really.
Sam Scarfo: I had my whole team, but when I came to Def Jam, I was an unknown. I am probably one of the last artists that got signed from a CD that got passed to Jay-Z and L.A. Reid and that was how I got signed. So they would have had to work to break me and I guess no one knew what they were doing.
Ballerstatus.com: How does your situation stand right now, you trying to get out of it?
Sam Scarfo: Yeah, as of right now, I am trying to get off the label.
Ballerstatus.com: We see artists go through this and have to sit around for years waiting until the labels let you go?
Sam Scarfo: Oh it is looking good right now. It is looking promising.
Ballerstatus.com: So without your own crew behind you and then facing all this at Def Jam, how hard has this been?
Sam Scarfo: A lot of times nowadays, in 2007-2008, artists have to be your own machine and unfortunately it was someone within my organization that was doing something that they had no good in doing. He got under investigation and had a lot of others caught up, so that was real crazy for me just trying to do this alone. But I am back and I am here rebuilding my team and I still think I am the freshest dude coming out.
Ballerstatus.com: Taking back steps as opposed to forward steps can't be easy.
Sam Scarfo: I have definitely taken a back step. But I think back steps in the sense that I should have been out already. But I have the new free mixtape coming out online and I have the Scarlito's Way mixtape and DVD coming soon.
Ballerstatus.com: What's the deal with you and Mobb Deep?
Sam Scarfo: I haven't really spoken to the Mobb. I saw some things happened to them on YouTube.com.
Ballerstatus.com: The Saigon thing?
Sam Scarfo: Yeah, but as far as me speaking to the Mobb, I haven't spoken to them. I am cool with both sides though. You know, I am cool with Saigon.
Ballerstatus.com: Yeah I was going to say, how do you feel about that?
Sam Scarfo: Personally I think that was a man trying to get something off his chest with another man. These guys are over 25; there wasn't no guns drawn. There was some punches thrown and I don't think a grown man should watch someone take some punches for him.
Ballerstatus.com: Do you think it has been blown out of proportion?
Sam Scarfo: Hmmm not really, that is what it is. It is just hip-hop. This is reality TV. You want to be up there talking the way you talk, you have to be able to walk the walk.
Ballerstatus.com: There have been rumors that it was a publicity stunt to try and sell records for Havoc.
Sam Scarfo: [Laughing] You know how it goes. I think if anything it has probably affected Havoc in a worse way if it was for publicity.
Ballerstatus.com: You were on the plane with Mobb when it nearly went down.
Sam Scarfo: Yeah I was with them. I mean, I was never signed to Mobb Deep. My music is too big to be a Mobb Deep soldier and I am too big to be a Mobb Deep soldier. If there is one thing I should have listened to, it was a little birdie that told me in my ear that I should have gone my own way. That is not to say anything against Mobb Deep, but I can't be on a team where I am not getting paid. I have got to pay my rent, I have kids and I have all that.
Ballerstatus.com: Your album was supposed to be the reunion of Prodigy and Jay-Z wasn't it? Both were exec producing on the album?
Sam Scarfo: Yeah and that was a publicity stunt. I look at it like it was a publicity stunt because I don't have any records with anybody. I don't think it was about bringing Prodigy and Jay-Z together. Jay was who executive produced my album; the album that is sitting on Def Jam right now. They put that album together.
Ballerstatus.com: So what are you going to do with that album, which is finished?
Sam Scarfo: Right now I am going through the "getting my album" campaign. Jay-Z went on Hot 97 and said I was the next big thing off my album.
Ballerstatus.com: How you feel about Jay dropping another album when you are sitting on the shelf at the same label?
Sam Scarfo: To me, he is an aggressive artist. He is the President and he is an aggressive artist. He is the best and I will never say anything bad about Jay. No matter what happens to me at Def Jam, I am never going to have anything bad to say about Jay-Z.
Ballerstatus.com: But some people at the label don't think they are priorities there and the only priority at Def Jam is Roc-A-Fella.
Sam Scarfo: I wouldn't say that the Roc-A-Fella camp is priority as no one is coming out over there either. It is really about who is their own machine, who is working the hardest, who is doing their job for them the most and that is who they have to run with and that's what happens. My only thing is, I played the game, and you know it got me like that. I was locked up, came home from jail, did a few things in the studio where they kept me like a little lab rat. Benny Boom's team had me making records, made the CD, gave it to Jay-Z and he wanted to see me perform. Then boom, I was signed. I didn't come from selling a million mixtapes. Artists like me and other artists that need artist development; they need to figure out how to get those guys off the ground. That is why you see artists come out off these short runways they are coming out off, because it is only what the artist put together themselves and they are just providing an engine for the plane.
Sam Scarfo: Well my game plan now is because a lot of people might have heard of me, they haven't really heard a lot of music. So now, I am doing this free music. I am not trying to sell this; I just want to do the free download online to get things moving and allow people to hear what I am doing. Try and go from there, so I can attack the streets. If I say I am the best and I am coming, I am going to go out there and prove it.
Ballerstatus.com: What have you learned so far?
Sam Scarfo: I have learned that this is a hard game. You have to go out there and play and if you are not made for it, you have to go out and play something else.
Ballerstatus.com: Taking it back to the Mobb Deep situation, a lot of people have the misconception that you need a co-sign nowadays?
Sam Scarfo: Yes that is a big misconception and that comes from people not knowing how to brand artists. To me -- nothing against Mobb Deep and I am not dissing Mobb Deep -- but to me the situation there was more about Mobb Deep, it wasn't about Sam Scarfo. It was about them putting out about their relationship with Jay-Z, which is still f---ed up.
Ballerstatus.com: Especially when you see it hasn't done anything for you.
Sam Scarfo: Yeah and Jay-Z has never made a comment saying he squashed the beef. There were only comments made by Mobb Deep. I just feel that Mobb Deep and Jay-Z thing was more about Mobb Deep. Me being smarter and me being smart to the game, I know more now and I can recognize it.
Ballerstatus.com: Did you think that at the time when it was all going on?
Sam Scarfo: It was me being trustworthy to my team and me trusting my management.
Ballerstatus.com: Well you were managed by the same team.
Sam Scarfo: Yeah, but maybe the manager wasn't looking out for everyone's best interest. There were things promised that never happened. At the end of the day, when you do that and nothing happens, what you supposed to think.
Ballerstatus.com: Being that you are no longer managed by the same crew as Mobb Deep and the beef has not been officially squashed between Jay and Prodigy, but somehow you got caught up in this whole situation, this could be why you are sitting on the shelf at Def Jam?
Sam Scarfo: It is possible. I am not going to say that it's not possible, nor am I going to say it is the reason. I look at it from all angles. I know when the engine stopped and that was my team and my team should have helped me keep pushing it. The team that I chose to roll with didn't help; they would rather watch me walk to death.
Ballerstatus.com: Do you feel like you were made a scapegoat?
Sam Scarfo: Not really, I am chilling. I am good in situations. I think it was more about me making my decisions and me having to live with them.
Ballerstatus.com: A grown man's attitude...
Sam Scarfo: Yeah and that is what it is. I know what I can do and I know what I am capable of doing and I know what records I have. I definitely know what all the people were talking about and I still have that.
Ballerstatus.com: Isn't it frustrating knowing that people were speaking so highly of you and waiting on you to come out?
Sam Scarfo: Yeah I mean it really is frustrating, but you just got to play the game. You get knocked down the stairs, you just have to get back up the stairs and keep on doing what you were doing. No one can say they robbed Sam Scarfo, no one can say they punched Sam Scarfo in the face at the club. I am still a man and still walking through. Any beef I have had in Hip-Hop I have been round dudes by myself and walked out of places untouched. At the end of the day I am still me.
Features Slim (of 112): Hi Haters What else do you want from Slim? His prolific group 112 has sold over 20 million records worldwide, and with a bevy ... full story
Beyond Hip-Hop Game Review: Far Cry 2 Gone are Jack Carver, his Hawaiian shirt, and the trigens from the first installment of "Far Cry," but in comes spine ... full story
Digg It
Del.icio.us
