The music industry has always been considered to be like a revolving door; where some artists find themselves right back out in the cold where they started, while others have the ability to stay in the building, and avoid the harshness that awaits them upon failure— and if anyone has taken the brunt of this cycle, its been the female MC. In the male-dominated Hip-Hop world, female lyricists have always been few and far between, and no one knows this better than Miami’s own Jacki-O.
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After initially coming onto the scene back in 2004 with her debut album, Poe Little Rich Girl, the ugly side of the music business reared its head in her direction, which led to a legal tussle between her and her formal label regarding her departure.
She was ultimately released from the confines of those contracts, and kept her name in circles with the help of the mixtape circuit, and she’s doing it once again with her most recent project, Griselda Blanco: La Madrina [click for download] and her book titled Relentless.
So how does a female survive in a man’s world? The answer to that and a lot more lies right ahead.
Jacki-O: Actually, this is setting up for more music… I’ve had some of the other girls in the game submit music, so we can bond… We’re coming together like we always should have been doing from the beginning… We’re showing people that there is unity, and that we are making some things happen… I’ve gotten a lot records from Rah Digga, Diamond, Rasheeda, and a lot of other girls…
We’re going to be in control of our own destiny, instead of allowing all the guys to come in… They do mixtapes together, and you see the “T.I.’s.,” the “Gucci Mane’s,” and the “Lil Wayne’s.” If all of them can be on a mixtape, then why can’t we do that? So basically this is setting up for more music, and to beat the streets with more music; that’s about it…
Jacki-O: Yes… That has always been my mission… So if they need a feature, or if I need a feature, we’re going to work with each other… I think this will squash any stereotypes of women not being able to work together…
Jacki-O: Well, I dropped the Poe Little Rich Girl album, and then I dropped Free Agent; which was when I left Poe Boy… Then I dropped the Jack-Da Rippa mixtape, then I dropped Lil Red Riding Hood, and after that I dropped Bad B*tches Bang Pink mixtape…
I’ve been dropping mixtapes from time to time, but a lot of people think they were albums… That’s the history on my music, and that’s the history on how I’ve been able to stay relevant; it’s by dropping mixtapes… I’m still getting booked for shows, and I haven’t had an official mainstream album out since 2004…
Jacki-O: Not really, because there are more male rappers than females… Anytime a female drops anything, she’s going to be recognized because there are so few of us in the game… I think there is a big market for us, but we haven’t been really able to capitalize on it… That’s because there is no unity, unless you have team like Lil Wayne and Nicki [Minaj]…
Lil Wayne is a real strong force, and he’s been able to co-sign her, and she’s been able to dominate the female category because of her team… You’re only as strong as your team… So when a female drops a mixtape, you do get recognition… You might not get as much recognition as you like, but you get attention because everyone wants to know what the next female is talking about…
Jacki-O: Relentless is book that wrote; but then I started putting so much of my personal life into it, and so much of what really took place in my life… It talks about my influences, what I’ve been through, the people I’ve met and what they expected, what I expected in the game, and what keeps me going to continue…
It’s about being rambunctious, radical, and not taking no for an answer… When one door closes, find a way to break in… That’s what the book is about… It was spiritual for me as well, because I was able to tell people what it really is… “That’s what you heard on them blog sites?!” “That ain’t true…” “This is what it really is…” It was therapy for me as well…
Jacki-O: Yeah, but not in the beginning… I’ve always been a writer when it came to music and poetry… When I was going through my legal situation of getting off those labels, I didn’t know what I could do… I was in between trying to get off these labels, and going back and forth to court to get these contracts severed…
Then I realized those contracts were for music, they weren’t for books… So then I started writing… So when I was able to get out of those contracts, I realized that this was a new talent, and that I could do this too… We’re all able to do things, but we don’t know until we’re forced to do it… So going through that situation kind of forced me to write books…
Jacki-O: Ah man… Nobody knows [Laughing]… You go through this emotional trauma, and it’s really disbelief… You start faulting yourself, and start saying things like, “How could I have been so stupid?” You want to count your losses, and you want to count your wins, but more importantly you want to count your wins…
But what I had to learn was that my losses were more important than my wins; because when you win, you don’t really learn from your wins; you learn more from your losses… So instead putting one on the board for me, I had to put one on the board for them, and I didn’t feel good about that… I couldn’t say it’s all their fault, because I put someone in control of my destiny…
So then I took control by getting lawyers, and finding a way to get out of those contracts without having to owe anybody anything… I did feel bad about that, because I know there was a great deal of money put forth for me to be a mainstream artist, but unfortunately the numbers were still saying that I was an underground artist…
So got out of the contracts, filed for bankruptcy, and did some other things that allowed me to get out, and I don’t legally owe anybody anything… It was really crazy; especially financially because I wasn’t working… I wasn’t hustling anymore, so my main source of income was coming from music… It was crazy…
Jacki-O: I was green as grass when it came to business… I had a few years of college, but I’m a street person… I’m not bragging about that, but I never knew anything about contracts or anything like that… I put everything in the hands of my people, and I trusted them… All I knew how to do is write music, and I was green to all the other stuff…
But now even though I can be friends with somebody, business is first… At the end of the day, when you go home to eat; I ain’t sitting at your table… If ya’ll got steak on your table, and I have bread on mine, and I put in the same amount of work; that ain’t right…
So it’s really about keeping a business mind, having the right paper work, and not going in there wearing your heart on your sleeve… I don’t think they intentionally did me wrong, and I still have a lot of love for those guys; its just that the business wasn’t right…
make up assist- Ka-lea Darling
