As founder of Certified Hustlas Ent. and manager to R.O.B., one of Cleveland's most popular rappers, Digga has his hands full! His passion for music, good business, being a positive example for young black men helped him start a promising career. But growing up in the streets influenced him to make some bad choices in life, that he's had to pay the price for. He's only been home six months after spending time in prison. I had a chance to sit down with the man himself as he spoke about his relationship with Hush Money Management, shady promoters, why he said fcuk Cleveland DJs, and tons more! Too much for one blog post, so join us in part one as Digga speaks on all things business...
Rashida: The first thing that I wanna do is get some background on you. Who you are and what it is that you do. What part of the city did you grow up in?
Digga: Actually, I was born and raised in East Cleveland. As I like to call it: The Real East Cleveland. After I came out of school in 1990, I moved to Cincinatti, Ohio. Certified Hustlas Entertainment got founded in 2003. At one time we had about ten artists on the roster. As far as Cleveland artists we had Young Ray ("I'm from E.C."), and of course R.O.B. He was the first artist on the label from Cleveland. Then branched off into HollyHood a.k.a. Hood, Young Cash, Da Guide, and Showstoppa. Unfortunately, a lot of guys aren't with us. Maybe if they get a chance to read y'all blog, as far as Hood and Cash, I want them to know they always welcome home. Because we all go through our differences within the camp. I feel like they're talented guys and I don't think they should waste their time doing anything else. But I understand how hard it is out here. A lot of times we resort to doing things that we really don't wanna do, we just do what we gotta do.
Rashida: I didn't know that you were involved with so many artists. Some of them are well known.
Digga: Yeah. One of our biggest shows was done at the OH10. For those that remember that club. We did a opening that consisted of my entire camp, which was like 75 guys mixed up from Cincinatti and Cleveland. I put that whole thing together. It's always been easy for me to do. One thing that I try to get these guys to understand is that we need to interact, whole heartedly, with the other parts of Ohio. Not just doing a song with them and not promoting the song or you might not deal with them again or call them again. If you wanna be a artist, especially from Ohio, we have to connect our dots.
Rashida: Definitely. Unity is important isn't it?
Digga: Yes! Because, for one, we're not being recognized the way that we should. I feel like we need to form a big bond of unity. Because a lot of peple that I've rubbed elbows with, from major labels like Def Jam and Atlantic, I've had deep conversations with these cats and they've said "Dig, the reason a lot of people don't pay y'all no attention is because y'all don't have no loyalty for self up there." and that's deep. Cats in Cleveland need to stop being so self centered and realize that the only reason that we mad at everybody else is 'cause we mad at ourselves.
Rashida: I don't know why that seems to be such a hard concept to grasp up here. What have some of your experiences with that been like?
Digga: Well, you know me and Rob have been through the wringer just like so many of the artists in the city have. Me and my other family, Hush Money Management, we do what we gotta do to support the other artists, the venue. But at the same time, we look at the game so different because Certified Hustlas and Husmoney Management together are one of the only teams that travel a lot. And a lot of people don't understand what needs to be done here. You have promoters who throw [shows at] venues and they don't realize how big your name is or how long you been grinding. Local artists need to get paid. Even if it's $100. Kind and courtesy don't cost a dime. Sometimes it's cool and they'll let you open for a major artist and you don't have to pay, but there are so many guys that had to pay to perform. And, no disrespect, but if you're a real promoter and this goes out to all of them. I'm just calling it like I know it. You need to pay these local artists because they are providing a service to you and for the city! Give a cat a appreciation bottle of Moet or something! I mean, it's a no brainer. You can't expect someone to respect you and you don't respect them back.
Rashida: You probably don't remember this but the first time that I saw you was at the Ohio Hip Hop awards this year. You were stealing cranberry juice and stuff from the bar! (Laughs)
Digga: (Laughs) I do remember that! Since no one wants to pay Certified Hustlas Ent. or Hush Money Management at this present time, yeah! We stole y'all liquor off the bar at the Hip Hop awards. Get it understood or we gon' make you understand. We gotta get something out the deal. It's all in fun and love. (Laughs)
Rashida: There has been a lot of debate this year about the Ohio Hip Hop awards. There are people that thinks it's helping and those that think it's not helping. What's your take on it?
Digga: I'm glad you touched on this. I'm gon' be honest with you. Mad love to everybody that got they hands in the Hip Hop awards. Shout out to Quincy and In The Way Marketing. Q, you know we been dealing with eachother for many moons. On the other hand, I actually feel that they need to stop having it in Cleveland all the time. You have to go to a different city. Because if you think about it, majority of the artists that win the awards and are nominated are from Cleveland. Don't get me wrong, at one point in time I felt like my label should have won label of the year. No one in the state of Ohio has a movement like mine. You never seen us out of pocket. You never seen us in or start any drama. Never saw cats not groomed. I have to give much respect for that to Rob. Because he customize clothes, shoes, he can draw, the whole nine. He made sure that everybody looked according to what we were trying to do as a movement. The only other cats was Aristocrats from Cincinatti. So when I see people from New York, Houston, and Atlanta recognize the movement and not my own people it's like a smack in the face. But we need to realize that we got a lot of hot cats in Youngstown, Akron, Cincinatti, Toledo. Especially Dayton. Cincinatti and Dayton got some animals! It's a good thing, too. I've seen a huge advancement from where it was to where it is today. And the Ohio Hip Hop awards should only be for local artists. You think a cat with a deal care about a award? No disrespect to Hi Tek or Ray Cash, but y'all need to pass those awards down. Whenever you ready to touch on this DJ thing I'm ready! (Laughs)
Rashida: Okay. Let's get to the DJ issue. What's that all about?
Digga: I was getting a lot of flack on Twitter because I said fcuk all Cleveland DJs.
Rashida: Wow... I missed that one!
Digga: Yeah. People gon' say "Dig was going in on niggas. He had this and that to say anout the DJs." Hell yeah I'm gon' talk about the DJs! 'Cause y'all ain't right! One of my uncles is a DJ. Johnny O. Johnny know I ain't holding my tongue for nobody. A lot of you cat's ain't right. Like I said, I call it like I know it. They got mad at me but so damn what! Y'all know Dig. I speak my mind. It's only right.
Rashida: So what is your issue with Cleveland DJs?
Digga: The thing is, is this. And I like all of 'em it just that I don't like y'all technique on how y'all do what y'all do. Because if you think about it, this is what we need to incorporate into Cleveland. Snoop had a video on World Star and he said that when he step in the club in the south they'll give him a 20 minute set. They'll bouce his music for a hot 20 minutes, and it's probably not a whole 20 minutes. But after that it's like 'Okay back to this ATL shit'. And Snoop said 'I respect the game 'cause ATL doin' it the right way'. So my thing is if these DJs is really paying attention, and I'm not telling y'all to copy cat, but at the same time don't you want your city to blow? Don't you think that if you break a artist that he's gon' come back and fcuk wit you and say "I'm gon' take you on tour with me and get you some of this money". In Atlanta, their local artists down there are the shit. But you can't get one DJ here to play nobody but Fat Al and Chip tha Ripper. And it's not respect to them. Fat Al, that's my cat. I never got a chance to chop it up with Chip, but I respect his grind. He kick it with my lil' cousin, Young Ray. But when is it gon' be a time when we walk in the club and all y'all play is our shit from all across Ohio? Quit fcuking with these other niggas from outside. 'Cause guess what we look like. A whole bunch of d!ck riders. That's basically the concept of what y'all doing! I can understand radio. Y'all puppets they got a hand in your butt. But the other ones we shouldn't have to walk in the door and walk to the DJ booth and say " Hey, would you play my song?" man that's corny as hell!
Rashida: What's up and coming for Certified Hustlas Entertainment?
Digga: We got Kobane. You know he 'bout to pop off. His joint drop March the 4th. As y'all all know his CD been in the streets. It's been out for a couple months now. But it still hot. It's stll doing it's thing, doing numbers. We got Mizzike. He'll be home. He's in a federal institution. We got Miss Bei. We got a lot of things popping off it's just we strategizing rigth now. The thing about Certified is all we have to do is resurrect. We're not dead. We got a few things working that I'm not at liberty to talk about. (Laughs) That's my lawyer terminology. R.O.B. got a new single coming out. It's crack! It's called "My Phone Body Rockin'". Kobane got one called "Hood Sh!t" and one with some Cincinatti cats called "Three Hours Away". So all I can is say is watch what we do next. CJ and Skent got their projects on the move. We trying our best to be one big happy family, but you know, you got a whole bunch of talented people and cats is hungry. Cats is trying to make the best of the opportunities that we got. So a lot of times we got our own personal issues, but for the most part it's all love. We ain't got no problems with nobody. Because at- I'm tired of saying at the end of the day! At the beginning of the day we got to sit down and have a discussion among our camps. Because you can't have leaks in your camp or none of that. If we start off good today, we need to be good tomorrow.
To be Continued.....
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