For quite some time now, the South has run roughshod over the Hip-Hop industry.
Their equals up North has shown glimpses of what once was, but still hasn’t been able to match the firepower its underneath neighbors have been dishing out—and hoping to keep that momentum flowing is Polo Grounds/J Records newest signees, C-Ride.
Hailing from the same Carol City, Florida region as Rick Ross; C-Ride embodies the similar hustler’s mentality, and having people in your corner like Cool & Dre, T-Pain, Game, and Ricky himself doesn’t hurt either.
Right now, the next big chapter in his career comes courtesy of his first official album, Automatic Vibe; who better to tell the story of how he came to be than the man himself. Time to head down South.
Talk about how you first got into music. Was it something that you were doing since your childhood?
C-Ride: Nah. I never rapped when I was a kid… I used to see people rapping in school, and I thought it was corny… But eventually, I found out that I had a talent…
[Laughs]… With you being from Carol City, how was it like when you were coming up there?
C-Ride: Carol City is in a really big county, and it’s just like any other ‘hood… You have everything going on there, but you have to pick your battles… You have to try and make it out, stay out of trouble, and make a way for yourself…
Right now you have your album coming up, Automatic Vibe. So what can people expect to hear from it?
C-Ride: I’m treating it like my first child, because it’s my debut album… I worked with Cool & Dre, Lil Jon, Tha Bizness, Trey Songz, Game, and some more people… I also have a DVD coming out too, so we’re just working hard…
Do you have a memorable moment from working with a particular artist?
C-Ride: It would probably be with Lloyd… He came in the studio with a bunch of chicks… They went to the club, and come back, and he had like a Michael Jackson vibe…
That’s when I really saw the superstar aura around somebody, and what he did in the studio that night was cold… He was in a vibe I never seen before, so shoutout to Lloyd, because he did that…
Going back to your DVD, what does it consist of?
C-Ride: It has to deal with my everyday life, and it’s not about just waking up and rapping… I control everything; I don’t have any real management, or anything like that… I started like that, and I’ve gotten really far by just making moves on my own…
So the DVD is going to show you that, along with all my videos and freestyle videos; and I just shot one with Rick Ross… So all of that stuff is going to be on there
Do you find it difficult managing yourself?
C-Ride: Yeah, it’s harder but I’m the type of person that likes to go after it… Every time I had a manager, it didn’t work out… So I feel like if I want to get things done, then I have to do it myself…
How did you first hook up with Polo Grounds/J Records?
C-Ride: They reached out to me… I had a mixtape out called
Coming From Da Bottom with DJ Ideal, and I ended up selling about 4,500 copies of it on the Internet, mom and pop stores, and just all over Florida… A lot of people saw what I was doing, and Cool & Dre always saw what I was doing, and the label reached back…
Bryan Leach over at Polo Grounds was the only person I thought didn’t think of me as a monkey, and that he wanted to work with me… So that’s why I went with Bryan Leach and Polo Grounds/J Records, so shoutout to him.
How did you go about selling that many CD’s on your own when it came to the up close and personal part, excluding the Internet?
C-Ride: It was different, because it was right before DJ Drama got in trouble… There’s a DJ down here by the name of [DJ] Ideal who was already selling his own mixtapes… So we stuck to each other, and he showed me how to sell mixtapes all over the country…
So once he showed me the blueprint, I just went hard… I sold myself, and I made the stores that never even heard of me want my CD… Then I just gained more fame, and it was all about word-of-mouth… It just went flying…
Do you feel any tension on your part now that you have a machine like J Records in your corner?
C-Ride: Yes and no… I’m going to always do me at the end of the day, and be myself… The pressure comes with selling records, because you can be on the road, and be huge, but still not sell any records… That’s where the pressure comes, because they want their money back…
But I’m going to always do me, and grind, because I do shows off mixtapes… My grind don’t stop, but I’m confident with everything, and that’s why I’m getting my buzz up right now…
Speaking of getting your buzz up, have you found it difficult trying to stand out?
C-Ride: A little but the more fans you get, the more feedback you get, and the more confident you get… After that, it’s a lot easier because you know how to target yourself, and you know your audience…
I also wanted to bring up one of your big breaks, where you had your song ‘Pushin’ on the Save The Last Dance 2 Soundtrack. How did that opportunity come about for you?
C-Ride: That song was actually on one of my mixtapes, and somebody from KOCH/E1 Music hit Cool & Dre about that song, cause they heard it off the mixtape… Then it eventually got on the soundtrack, so it was a blessing…
So what do you say to the people that think artists from the South are not as lyrical as their up North counterparts?
C-Ride: I would say that’s just their opinion, but there are a few Southern MC’s that can get lyrical… We just have a different vibe then the people up North… We came up on UGK, Master P, and Scarface…
We came up listening to a lot of n*ggas that rapped about the streets… I’m one of the lyrical ones too, so you’re going to see the difference between me and the rest of the South… We also like to dance, so that’s never going stop, especially me, because I’m from Miami…
At the end of the day, what do you want people to take away from your music?
C-Ride: The difference between me and the rest of the South is the lyrical content… When I go in, I try to slaughter who else is on the song with me… I just want them to say, “He slaughtered that.”
