What was it like being introduced during Hot 97’s Summer Jam in June?
That was big, man. There’s nothing bigger than that. That was live with real hip-hop fans in my city and the tri-state area. That was a head rush right there. It was amazing to me. You know how New York and the tri-state area is—one minute they love you, the next they not feeling you and then they feeling you again the next day. So to get the reception that I got was amazing. Akon says you’re bringing the East Coast back. How do you plan on doing that? Good music. We haven’t had a consistent run for a few years, since most of the bigger guys that were putting out the hits fell back, like Jay-Z, Puffy, Murder Inc. and Ruff Ryders. We had a slew of multi-platinum artists at one time. Mainly that’s what [Akon] meant. He just meant [putting out] great music consistently. When a city or an area moves to the forefront, it’s not because they had one good artist or one good thing, it’s because they’re rolling. Like when Houston was doing their thing, they had a bunch of artists that went plati
