I AGREE...
LIL TROY
Lil Troy is a busy man. He's put two movies on the streets in the past year, and is hard at work on his next CD -- entitled BACK TO BALLIN. His relatively upscale, contemporary, casual clothing line just hit the streets. He just bought a mini mansion in a new semi-hidden enclave about 45-minutes southwest of Houston, and is in the midst of signing a whole new wave of artists to his hometown label, Short Stop Records, a 100% independent entity. He also just got out of the Federal Penitentiary about 10 months ago, and has been making these moves while on work release. He's just become free and can now leave Harris County once again to make them moves.
Not much is known about Lil Troy. Having been in and out of the penitentiary three times over the course of the 1990's for various offenses, Troy's life and career have hit some stumbling blocks, but no matter what the case, he always came back to the music. Troy's always been about the music. In elementary school he began playing alto sax in the school band, and continued throughout high school. After graduating he started playing in a concert band and began producing tracks for local rap artists on the side. This was back around 1989, when the seeds for the now burgeoning Houston rap scene were being cultivated. One of the first artists he worked with later became one of the most revered MC's of all time. That rapper is Brad Jordan, aka Scarface, and his underground single with Lil Troy, was a hit in Houston before the bulk of the nation had ever even heard of the now infamous Geto Boys.
Scarface soon went on to sign with Rap A Lot records, and Troy continued on with different artists until catching his first bid in the pen from 91-93. He bounced between music, hustling, selling drugs, and doing bids for the bulk of the nineties, and even had to celebrate a good part of the success of his multi platinum major label debut, "Sittin' Fat Down South," while sitting flat in a Texas Federal Penitentiary.
"In the midst of me being all hot and hyped up about me being Lil Troy, I had to go sit down, I had to go do the Fed time which was like 9 months. The record came out before I went to the Feds but I had already caught the case about a year before, and I was fighting it. So I fought it down to 9 months, came back, and now I got the movie out. Matter of fact I got two movies out. Done all before I went to jail."
His newest film, "Wanna Be A Baller" was filmed in the 11 days preceding his 9 month Fed sentence. In fact, Troy shot the final reels one Sunday night at two in the morning, knowing that he had to be in Beaumont to turn himself in, in just 6 short hours. Now that's a work ethic.
"So I went to jail," Troy continues, "came out in 2000, edited the movie, and BET picked it up. It showed on Action Pay Per View everyday in February, and March and is out now on video." Without the help of Universal Records -- they refused the film when Troy first brought it to them -- the film is now available everywhere on video and has been shown numerous times on BET's national pay per view network. Quite a coup for a first time film maker straight out of jail.
"Wanna Be A Baller" portrays Lil Troy as a "Don" of sorts. The kingpin of the clique who everyone comes to when in a jam. The man at the top who sets off every party, and masterminds every operation. The self-proclaimed "Little Big Man" of the hood. "That's a role I play for real," Lil Troy explains, sitting in his office just 3 blocks east of the Astrodome, dipped in a jet black Short Stop Wear rabbit jacket and pants trimmed in leather on the hood, pockets, and sleeves, "the little big man in the hood. The business man behind everything. When something goes down I'm ready to take care of it, but I'm always calm, cool, and collected. I don't never just up and do no irrational things. I ain't like a nut, cuz that's when you get caught up. I'm like a Don when you start talking about the streets. I might be 5'4", 154, 32 in the waist, cute in the face but they know. When I unzip this suit, I got a gorilla suit underneath of it. I'm like a little kid, like to laugh, tell people what to do and guide them in certain directions, but when they cross me wrong, I unzip it.
"My life is a movie. You can peek inside my life and write a movie about it right now. I done watched the next man put his pants on one leg at a time like I do so that mean anything he can do, I can do. If I put my mind to it I can do it also. So I seen Master P make movies, Cash Money, Mack 10 and them, everybody making movies, but they all do music. So I thought, wait a minute. There's something happening right there. They making money and they winning. I can make a movie too. Let me find the right person to help me write this movie up and I'll get the people to come shoot it. And that's what I done, I got this girl named Tara Davis come in and started helping me write the movie and I let her direct it and put it together. The movie let em know there gotta be a better way than in the street. It got little scenes maybe about my life you know, like with the women. You know what I'm sayin'? There's a lot of sex scenes. I like to have sex. That's my therapy. It keeps me sane. I just wanted to let people know that there's a better way, you can do it if you put your mind to it."
And Troy's life is living proof of that. While many might have counted him out after his first bid, Troy kept on with his vision and continues to make things happen. In 2001 he has records on deck from H-Town Mob, Pose A Threat, Bay B. Doll, R/Dis and of course his next solo release. He recently left Universal records after learning the lesson many artists in his place have before -- there's more money to be made making records yourself. He can make more cold, hard cash selling a quarter of what he did on a major, independently.
"I worked too hard and dedicated too much of my life to not have control of what I do," Lil Troy reflects. "If that was the case I wouldn't have been risking my life and taking penitentiary chances, and life chances to get to the point where I am now. I went and I over came by the grace of God. So now I'm not gonna let nobody come in and just take that away from me. I feel good about where I'm at, looking back at where I came from. I feel good. I feel blessed. But I'm not where I want to be yet. Gimme two more years, three more years, and I should be where I want to be. Financially and spiritually where I want to be."
And independently.
LIL TROY
Lil Troy is a busy man. He's put two movies on the streets in the past year, and is hard at work on his next CD -- entitled BACK TO BALLIN. His relatively upscale, contemporary, casual clothing line just hit the streets. He just bought a mini mansion in a new semi-hidden enclave about 45-minutes southwest of Houston, and is in the midst of signing a whole new wave of artists to his hometown label, Short Stop Records, a 100% independent entity. He also just got out of the Federal Penitentiary about 10 months ago, and has been making these moves while on work release. He's just become free and can now leave Harris County once again to make them moves.
Not much is known about Lil Troy. Having been in and out of the penitentiary three times over the course of the 1990's for various offenses, Troy's life and career have hit some stumbling blocks, but no matter what the case, he always came back to the music. Troy's always been about the music. In elementary school he began playing alto sax in the school band, and continued throughout high school. After graduating he started playing in a concert band and began producing tracks for local rap artists on the side. This was back around 1989, when the seeds for the now burgeoning Houston rap scene were being cultivated. One of the first artists he worked with later became one of the most revered MC's of all time. That rapper is Brad Jordan, aka Scarface, and his underground single with Lil Troy, was a hit in Houston before the bulk of the nation had ever even heard of the now infamous Geto Boys.
Scarface soon went on to sign with Rap A Lot records, and Troy continued on with different artists until catching his first bid in the pen from 91-93. He bounced between music, hustling, selling drugs, and doing bids for the bulk of the nineties, and even had to celebrate a good part of the success of his multi platinum major label debut, "Sittin' Fat Down South," while sitting flat in a Texas Federal Penitentiary.
"In the midst of me being all hot and hyped up about me being Lil Troy, I had to go sit down, I had to go do the Fed time which was like 9 months. The record came out before I went to the Feds but I had already caught the case about a year before, and I was fighting it. So I fought it down to 9 months, came back, and now I got the movie out. Matter of fact I got two movies out. Done all before I went to jail."
His newest film, "Wanna Be A Baller" was filmed in the 11 days preceding his 9 month Fed sentence. In fact, Troy shot the final reels one Sunday night at two in the morning, knowing that he had to be in Beaumont to turn himself in, in just 6 short hours. Now that's a work ethic.
"So I went to jail," Troy continues, "came out in 2000, edited the movie, and BET picked it up. It showed on Action Pay Per View everyday in February, and March and is out now on video." Without the help of Universal Records -- they refused the film when Troy first brought it to them -- the film is now available everywhere on video and has been shown numerous times on BET's national pay per view network. Quite a coup for a first time film maker straight out of jail.
"Wanna Be A Baller" portrays Lil Troy as a "Don" of sorts. The kingpin of the clique who everyone comes to when in a jam. The man at the top who sets off every party, and masterminds every operation. The self-proclaimed "Little Big Man" of the hood. "That's a role I play for real," Lil Troy explains, sitting in his office just 3 blocks east of the Astrodome, dipped in a jet black Short Stop Wear rabbit jacket and pants trimmed in leather on the hood, pockets, and sleeves, "the little big man in the hood. The business man behind everything. When something goes down I'm ready to take care of it, but I'm always calm, cool, and collected. I don't never just up and do no irrational things. I ain't like a nut, cuz that's when you get caught up. I'm like a Don when you start talking about the streets. I might be 5'4", 154, 32 in the waist, cute in the face but they know. When I unzip this suit, I got a gorilla suit underneath of it. I'm like a little kid, like to laugh, tell people what to do and guide them in certain directions, but when they cross me wrong, I unzip it.
"My life is a movie. You can peek inside my life and write a movie about it right now. I done watched the next man put his pants on one leg at a time like I do so that mean anything he can do, I can do. If I put my mind to it I can do it also. So I seen Master P make movies, Cash Money, Mack 10 and them, everybody making movies, but they all do music. So I thought, wait a minute. There's something happening right there. They making money and they winning. I can make a movie too. Let me find the right person to help me write this movie up and I'll get the people to come shoot it. And that's what I done, I got this girl named Tara Davis come in and started helping me write the movie and I let her direct it and put it together. The movie let em know there gotta be a better way than in the street. It got little scenes maybe about my life you know, like with the women. You know what I'm sayin'? There's a lot of sex scenes. I like to have sex. That's my therapy. It keeps me sane. I just wanted to let people know that there's a better way, you can do it if you put your mind to it."
And Troy's life is living proof of that. While many might have counted him out after his first bid, Troy kept on with his vision and continues to make things happen. In 2001 he has records on deck from H-Town Mob, Pose A Threat, Bay B. Doll, R/Dis and of course his next solo release. He recently left Universal records after learning the lesson many artists in his place have before -- there's more money to be made making records yourself. He can make more cold, hard cash selling a quarter of what he did on a major, independently.
"I worked too hard and dedicated too much of my life to not have control of what I do," Lil Troy reflects. "If that was the case I wouldn't have been risking my life and taking penitentiary chances, and life chances to get to the point where I am now. I went and I over came by the grace of God. So now I'm not gonna let nobody come in and just take that away from me. I feel good about where I'm at, looking back at where I came from. I feel good. I feel blessed. But I'm not where I want to be yet. Gimme two more years, three more years, and I should be where I want to be. Financially and spiritually where I want to be."
And independently.
^
HE hasn't dropped his second album yet.
what rule says that when you debut to mainstream, immediaetly following that...you have too drop a second album?
some cats drop a follow up quicc, others take their time, and still others may be re-negoating their contracts....
at this moment...you can't call it.
HE hasn't dropped his second album yet.
what rule says that when you debut to mainstream, immediaetly following that...you have too drop a second album?
some cats drop a follow up quicc, others take their time, and still others may be re-negoating their contracts....
at this moment...you can't call it.