BLEED Interview
Young Bleed first made the national spotlight with his hit “How Ya Do Dat?” that featured Master P. From No Limit Records and Concentration Camp, Young Bleed released 2 solo albums (“My Balls & My Word” & “My Own”) of high quality that represented Baton Rouge, LA with truth and passion. Now, Young Bleed is back as Young Bleed Carleone and he is truly on his own. He is no longer with Master P. He is not involved with Concentration Camp anymore. He’s not even on Priority Records. Young Bleed started his own independent label Da’tention Home Entertainment and he is ready to get back in business… the family business. I had a conversation with Young Bleed while he was recording at Bluff Road Studios.
T.JONES: “How are you doing?”
YOUNG BLEED: “Pretty good, man.”
T.JONES: “So, did you change your name to Young Bleed Carleone? Why?”
YOUNG BLEED: “Nah, it was always that but I never printed it on a record like that there.”
T.JONES: “Tell us about the new album ‘Vintage’. Who’s on it?”
YOUNG BLEED: “I’m introducing a few guys that I have been working with in the past and a few new additions to the Carleone family. We can call ourselves a coalition or a clique or a ‘clique-alition’, whatever you want to call it. It’s the Carleone family, a few cats from around my way. We’re tight like a family. We’re introducing cats like Last Level Carleone, Lucky Knuckles Carleone, the list goes on.”
T.JONES: “Lokey is a producer you used for the new album. How did you meet him?”
YOUNG BLEED: “He’s one of my new homeboys out of Columbus, Mississippi. Actually, his folks ended up living out this way so we ended up linking and making music.”
T.JONES: “What’s your favorite song on ‘Vintage’?”
YOUNG BLEED: “I’m stuck there. I like the whole thing.”
T.JONES: “Who are the people on the album cover?”
YOUNG BLEED: “That’s my grandfather and my uncle. My uncle recently passed away. My grandfather was the person who I got my name from. His name was Good Bleed so my name, Young Bleed, is a tribute back to him. I started writing rhymes when I was living with him during a period in my life. When I mean ‘Vintage’, it goes all the way back to me being a 9-year-old kid. It’s a tribute back.”
T.JONES: “The song ‘N Dis World’ is the single. Are you going to make a video?”
YOUNG BLEED: “It’s a toss up between 3 singles right now. We’re looking to do a video for each one of them. ‘N Dis World’ is jumping off in some areas while ‘Out Dat Dirty’ is jumping off in other areas.”
T. JONES: “How did you meet Uncle Pauly and how did he become your manager?”
YOUNG BLEED: “Me & Pauly grew up in the same neighborhood. Front Street! Butter since we were kids! Elementary school! Little league! We’ve been down for a long time. Baton Rouge!”
T.JONES: “You released your last LP ‘My Own’ on Priority Records. Why did you leave Priority?”
YOUNG BLEED: “Priority merged with Capital and there was that whole transition with another company. In the midst of that, I was working on my album. I wanted to get it done on my own.”
T.JONES: “What is Da’tention Home Records? How did you start that?”
YOUNG BLEED: “We always had it. First, we had an underground label called Criminal Records but Beanie Sigel just came out with a Criminal Records. There’s also a couple of other Criminal Records out there too. We needed to come up with something brand new and ‘Da’Tension Home’ was something that worked for us. That’s what we call around the studio and the area. When the time was present, we presented it.”
T.JONES: “Do you have more creative freedom since it is your label? What is that like? Is the money much better?”
YOUNG BLEED: “Yeah, no doubt! Well, the people control the money. You still have to sell the records. It’s the first project. It’s the first presentation from Da’tention Home Entertainment so we’ll see what is going on. We have new artists and new projects coming out so we will see what happens. We just want things to grow and accumulate.”
T.JONES: “What are some of your musical influences?”
YOUNG BLEED: “Musical influences go a lot of ways. As far as general music, I love that old school sh*t. You can go anywhere from Curtis Mayfield to George Clinton to Jimi Hendrix. I like a lot of that 70’s kind of sh*t. That’s what I’m talking about ‘Vintage.’ Mine is an old style but it’s also new.”
T.JONES: “What are some of your all time favorite hip-hop influences?”
YOUNG BLEED: “Big Daddy Kane, Eric B. & Rakim, Run DMC, LL Cool J, Krs-One, Sugerhill Gang, Melle Mel. I like that old school sh*t. ”
T.JONES: “What was it like growing up in Baton Rouge?”
YOUNG BLEED: “Ghetto life. It’s the same sh*t everywhere you go. Louisiana is the most private states out of the 50 states. We live under certain laws and crazy sh*t. It gets all sort of ridicules.”
T.JONES: “What were you like as a kid growing up? A good kid? Bad kid?”
YOUNG BLEED: “You know, it was a ghetto life with ghetto love. My family always had debt. I ain’t coming from no rich background. It was what it was. It is what it is. It made me who I am. I let my lyrics tell my own story.”
T.JONES: “During the time of the album cover where you had to live with your Grandfather, why did you have to live there?”
YOUNG BLEED: “That was a different time, a hard time. It’s real, real personal. I can’t talk about it now.”
T.JONES: “The song ‘Murderous’ is an 11-minute long jam session with live instrumentation. How did this come together? Was this your idea? What was it like recording the song?”
YOUNG BLEED: “We have a production team called Da Crime Lab and Lokey is one of the producers. When we created the song, we just jammed on it for a little while and that’s what came up. It evolved.”
T.JONES: “How did you hook up with Too Short on ‘Time And Money’ from ‘My Own’ LP? What was he like to work with?”
YOUNG BLEED: “Short is a cool cat. I ran across Too Short dealing with Priority. We always talked about doing a song together so when the opportunity came, we took advantage of it. Like I said, he’s cool people.”
T.JONES: “What is the last incident of racism that you experienced?”
YOUNG BLEED: “It’s obvious when you visit Louisiana. It’s a whole other ball game out here. It’s the home of the Klu Klux Klan. Imagine being poor, young, and black and growing up down here. It’s a struggle. Just trying to get a job is hard. It can force you into a certain dangerous way of life since there aren’t many opportunities. We have the nice countryside and a few places to visit but if you are looking at opportunity, the best you can probably get if you are young and black is a plant job or something. We got something down here called The Napoleon Law. It’s a real, real old law. We the only state that has parishes. We’re really under some old sh*t and it’s crazy.”
T.JONES: “Abortion – Pro-life or Pro-choice?”
YOUNG BLEED: “I have a few kids myself so I never got into any abortion situation.”
T.JONES: “Death Penalty – For or against it?”
YOUNG BLEED: “I don’t like to judge stuff like that. It’s hard to look at a man and say that it is okay for his life to be taken. God really judges that situation. I don’t feel that anyone but God truly has that authority to call it.”
T.JONES: “Where were you during the Sept. 11th Terrorist attack and how did you handle it? How do you think it will affect hip-hop?”
YOUNG BLEED: “I don’t know, man. It’s kind of crazy. That goes a lot of ways. As far as hip-hop, I don’t think that it has any direct involvement. As far as humanity, I feel that we should unite and write to make songs about the situation. It took a thing like Sept. 11th for people to unify. Before Sept. 11th, I don’t know if people were as unified as they are now. If that’s what it took for God to bring us together…. I’m not saying that it was God’s will when I say that. It was a crime against humanity and everybody suffered.”
T.JONES: “God plays a major part in your music and in the album’s imagery. How has God affected your approach to music making?”
YOUNG BLEED: “No doubt. Look at the covers. I hear people think that things are good or bad due to the profanity. I give glory to God in everything I do. First and foremost, I think this rapping is kind of prophetic. It depends what your aim is with music. Different strokes for different folks.”
T.JONES: “What is the key to surviving in the ghetto?”
YOUNG BLEED: “That’s a crazy question. You have to do what you have to do to stay alive in every sense of the word. And that goes for everywhere, not just the ghetto. Survival, period.”
T.JONES: “How did you hook up with Daz Dillinger on ‘A Hustla’ (from ‘My Own’) and on ‘Hustlaz’ (from Daz’s ‘Who Ride Wit Us’ compilation)? What was he like to work with?"
YOUNG BLEED: “Basically, it was the same thing with Priority Records in California. Daz is cool people. He came out this way. We recorded together and everything is everything.”
T.JONES: “In your albums, you have many references and samples of gangster movies like ‘Scarface’ and ‘The Untouchables’. Do you have an all-time favorite gangster movie?”
YOUNG BLEED: “I can’t just say one. There’s a lot of them but if I had to choose, I would say ‘The Godfather’ and the sequels because of the family orientation of it.”