Murda Mook: Where Has Murda Been?

That seems to be the question for many kids who are used to seeing the rhyme-slaying Harlemite grace the notorious "SMACK DVD" every summer.

While Mook has taken his time off from battle rap as well as "SMACK," he has not lost any time in the studio. According to Mook, he has been traveling. With trips between NYC and Atlanta becoming a regular thing, Mook has been fattening his roster of friends. Garnering support from Bow Wow (who was rumored to be one of the main beneficiaries of Moo'ks lyrical talents), T.I., Gorilla Zoe and Young Jeezy, Mook may finally be ready to drop the battle rapper stereotype.

BallerStatus.com was able to catch up with the SMACK champion to discuss his disappearance from the battle scene, his upcoming album and why you never saw him on "106 & Park."

BallerStatus.com: So what's going on with you?

Murda Mook: I just released an independent album titled Murda He Wrote. I released that on my own at stores like F.Y.E and Amazon.com and other things like that. I released that in November and it's still doing good numbers, so right now I'm just promoting that. But in music you always have to think about what's next, so I got an album coming out with Oun-P (winner of "106 & Park" Freestyle Fridays) called Stereotypes. The album's basically about stereotypes and breaking down the stereotype that battle rappers don't make good records. We got about 18 joints, so were just trying to put that stereotype to bed because a lot of people have made it bad for battle rap. It's all original songs, a couple freestyles too.

BallerStatus.com: You haven't been in the battle scene for a while, what's the reason for that?

Murda Mook: It's not going to do me any good anymore. I'm basically trying to get away from it. It's kind of like basketball. When you were in high school that's when basketball was fun -- you played because it was fun. Once you start getting older though, a lot of politics comes into play. And then sometimes for a lot of basketball players, it's not as fun anymore, it turns into a real business. It's like battle rap. I battled because I liked to do it. I'm pretty sure every rapper grew up doing that. This is how the game was made. Battle rap is the foundation of rap, which is why sometimes I cannot understand why executives will shun upon it. But it doesn't really benefit me anymore; it's basically a lose-lose situation. If I battle somebody and I kill them, I was supposed to do that. It's like taking care of your kids, you're not supposed to get praise for that because those are your kids, you're suppose to do that. So I decided to fall back from battle rap and work on records.

BallerStatus.com: So you're getting out of the battle rap?

Murda Mook: Hold on. Let's not say I forgot about battle rap. Because I ain't forget about it. I abandoned it. I'm still synonymous with battle rap, that's where I'm from. You think about battle rap you're going to think about me.

BallerStatus.com: Has anyone challenged you lately?

Murda Mook: Nah not anyone worth my time. Because if I'm gonna battle, I'm going to make sure it's worth my time. You may see me judging though.

BallerStatus.com: When you first started battling how come you never got into something like "106 & Park: Freestyle Fridays?"

Murda Mook: I mean when 106 first started it was real good. But over the least three years or so, it was just became watered down. You had more worse rappers than good. You can only really think of about four people from "106 & Park" that can stand out from that. It was really watered down. You couldn't really get what the real essence of battle rap was. It wasn't looked down upon at first though. The reason I never did it ... was because I felt I didn't really have to. I already had my niche. SMACK DVD was getting to a lot of people. People would hit me from Egypt, from Australia talking about SMACK and I felt people could really see the raw me off of SMACK. SMACK was mine, SMACK is mine! People was buying Smack just to watch me. They just bought it to see me battle. They would get it, go right to the end, watch the battle, then watch the rest of the DVD later.

BallerStatus.com: So now you're focusing on songs. I heard you were down in Atlanta working on songs, how have you been going about this?

Murda Mook: A lot of artists respect me. There were some situations that were supposed to be worked out that never happened. But wherever I'm at, I get shown love. But I was in Atlanta and T.I. is my dude and Bow Wow is my dude, plus I have a studio down there. I was living down there. People just show love when they see me -- Jeezy, Gorilla Zoe. They all showed me love. When I was down there I was straight. I was just trying to build relationships with people.

BallerStatus.com: Has anyone ever asked you to ghostwrite?

Murda Mook: Yeah I've done that. I love doing that. Some people say with ghostwriting it's a pride issue. When someone hears someone else rap the lyrics that they wrote, they feel they gotta tell them and get credit ... I don't care. This is a business. If I'm getting paid for what I'm doing, I don't care. I've ghostwritten ... probably a lot more than what people might think. A lot of people have to come to me to have versus or even songs written for them. See, I'm an analogy type of person. So I'm doing songs for people and they loving it and they hearing them on mixtapes. So how can you say battle rappers can't make songs? That's like somebody having the stereotype of being a bad student in class and then you have the good student in class. Even though teachers may not admit it, they grade those papers on how the kids are doing in class. I remember one time I wrote a paper for a kid who was always getting A's and he wrote my paper. The paper I wrote for him got an A, the paper he wrote for me got a C+ and that's what I usually received on my grades. And this really happened! It's the same thing in music. I write a song for someone else and they love it.

BallerStatus.com: So how do you plan on getting it where all your songs can theoretically be A+'s?

Murda Mook: Well really, it's going start off with this Stereotypes album. We're going to push this heavy, and you cannot deny good music. Maybe you can deny one song, but if it keeps coming consistently, you cannot keep denying it. And that's the name of the game ... consistency. I have so many other songs that I'm ready for, but I'm trying to build everything up. I've been stagnant for a while because the person I had representing me is in jail now. Now I got the music and as long as people hear it, I'm going to be fine. I'm not really worried about it.

BallerStatus.com: What has been your experience working with other artists?

Murda Mook: It's always been like "I'm a f*** with Mook." Everybody I run into always shows me love. The only thing with it is the time and place. A lot of times when I see people were not in the studio, so we can't actually get it done. I usually run into them in the club. You know as I do, that people be busy. It's tough to find time to do it. I keep in touch with them and I don't really push them, but when I'm ready I'll really call them and I'll get this feature and it will be love. I don't have to pay no money, they're just willing to do it because they f*** with me.

BallerStatus.com: So after the album, how do you go from where you are now to being where you want to be?

Murda Mook: If I was sure, I would be there. You don't really know. You kind of have to expect the unexpected. Jay-z made it where you don't have to put all your eggs in one basket to get money. I appreciate that. The game is changing. So basically the only thing that I can do is stay in the mix and look for that right situation, because they always pop up. Situations always pop up where someone wants me to sign with their label or do whatever.

But, a lot of times with me, I'm not signing anything ... maybe I'm stubborn, but I can read a contract, and I can read people. I know situations and I'm not going to sign anything like a lot of artists are doing. These artists are basically signing stuff with no shot. The execs are just trying to get money off you. It used to be just revenue off your album, but now from tours to logos, to names, to anything, they're trying to get money off of everything. I'm not really with that. Both sides have to come to terms where they both feel satisfied.

I'm not stressing though ... I'm only 23 years old. I'm not rushing anything. There's a lot of rappers now that are old and their time is limited, so they might have to rush. But I know my fan base is growing up with me, so I can continue to keep grinding and building my career. It's like a chain that's hollow, like a Jesus piece with diamonds all around it. Some people wear those and from far away it looks like that sh** is crazy. But they paid $1,000 dollars for it and it's all hollow, so it just looks good outside. That's like a lot of artists. They come out with songs, but never built a foundation, they don't have a career. People that are my fans have grown up with me, they remember when I was young. Do your fans love you? It doesn't matter if they like listening to your music, but do they love you? And I got a lot of people that love me.

BallerStatus.com: So being in this industry is there anyone that has really influenced you?

Murda Mook: Bow Wow. That's my dude. We're real cool. He's influenced me with his work ethic in terms of business. He's shown me how focused you have to be. You have to be going to sleep at 4 a.m. and getting up three hours later and get everything done. As far as a person that I've worked with musically, it has to be Wyclef and Talib Kweli. I want to work with them again and pick their brain to see what I can get. I like to pick brains, especially with people that have been around a long time to see how they've done it.

BallerStatus.com: By the time you're 28, where do you see yourself?

Murda Mook: What I would like to accomplish by 28, to be realistic, is to have my career going as well as 50 Cent's was when he first came out. I hope to have an album out with another on the way. I hope to break some type of record for album sales ... so that when I talk to ya'll again I can say "I told you so!"

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