Midwest Leak Magazine

Words and photos by: Le’Deana Brown

How long have you been rapping?
I been rapping since I was forever since I was a kid, I listened to the songs i like and overtime i would listen to it whether it be 2pac or bone or whatever i would rap it the same way they rap it. overtime i would do it i was training my voice, i just i didn’t know it at the time. I didn’t know the music was in me. I couldn’t stop it. There wasn’t nothing I could do about it. So as i got older and i realized i been training my voice to you know use it in the same aspect they was using it but for my own thoughts.

When did you write your first original song?
My first rap i wrote i was in the 12th grade, couple of friends of mine was free styling I was amazed..I was sitting there like I didn’t know i could do this shit. I was just sitting in class one day and something just inspired me [ right a rap ] i wrote it, it was kinda tight but i didn’t let nobody hear it though didn’t know if someone would tell me it was whack or not. Fast forward, I moved to Indianapolis—from Gary I was staying in West Lake Apartments and then my dude invited me to the studio for the first time we laid this song–it was horrible. It was terrible. It was tight because it was us. Ya know what i’m saying, but as I listen to it right now it’s terrible. Fast forward, I went to IUPUi started free styling and somebody heard me, I got in the lab instead of doing my homework I would find myself writing raps. So I felt it was outweighing what I thought I was supposed to be doing and now I’m doing what I know I am supposed to be doing.

What was your first solo project?
My very first solo official project was “Tex Message.” Now I been doing this since 2003. I never had an official project, solo, that I put out. But this one came–insprired by just straight raw, shook everything off, straight real, this is it–this me. Love it or not. This is all you’re going to get. I can’t do nothing extra. I ain’t no killer, no dope boy, none of that. But I am familiar with all of these things and I know what people go through and I feel like they need the message out there. I want you to be able to ride around and still be able to bump some music that sounds good, but at the same time I wanted you to be able to hear a message in it.

I had a job to do, which was to camouflage a message into some music that you would of ordinarily bumped. Regardless of the content, just because you liked the beat in the chorus. So i did that. Then I incorporated Tex Message into that and now you got some positive music flowing around and I feel great about that.You know I already touched a couple people’s lives and changed a couple bad decisions that they probably could of made. They call me and tell me about it and I feel great!

What’s the fan favorite on your mixtape?
Every single track on there, somebody has came to me and told me it was their favorite and that’s my hand to God. You know, so I don;’t know but the most heavy famous… “In the Zone,” “Probably is” “ A day like this,” and “ money is the root.” Those four right there, I hear all the time. Oh and “night cap,” shout out to Wayne Glade, C. Note on the track.

What’s your favorite song on your mixtape?
My personal favorite song on the “Tex Message” is Fear –the last song on there. It’s the outro, I just broke it down to the rawest emotions I had. Ya know, I just really wanted people to know how I felt. Before this CD stopped, I wanted you to know how I felt. You’ll have no other questions to ask about my perspective on things after you listen. That is all me, that is Courtney Matthews right there– that wasn’t even Tex Message right there.

I hear you say “Mammy” all the time. What is that all about?
Mammy ENT. is my company. Mammy derived from my nigga, RIP my nigga PIMP, P.Dot. Ever since ‘06, when I came back from Atlanta we rolled. Me being with him all the time, we talked the same way, I hit him with a “mammy,” he’d hit me back with a “mammy.” Gives us our own unique feel to the world. I don’t know anybody else who says, “mammy.” We say “On my mama,” as a region already. So we just broke it down to a smaller denominator. Hit em’ with the mammy, Mammy ENT, Mammy that!