TQ: The Secrets Behind Cash Money's "Jailhouse Love"
From allhiphop.com May 29, 2008

A Team…

That always got me going. When I used to play football, my coaches always made sure we focused on that. It takes a team to win… That’s what made me jump at signing to Cash Money. It looked like a bunch of ni**as playing their part to win. A team.

That’s some sh*t that I fit well in. I always have. But in my career up until that point, I never really had one. It was always me against the world – a.k.a. me against a f**k a** record company…

These ni**as rolled with their bosses. I rode on Slim’s bus, ya dig? Ni**a, I saw Tommy Mattola twice! Do the math… If my bread was late, I didn’t have to have my manager call this person to “check on it” with that person or none of that sh*t.

I could walk my a** into Popeyes with Baby and quietly ask him, “Where the f**k is my money?” Now he could in return quietly tell me to, “Get the f**k outta his face” which he did on several occasions, but hey it is what it is. You the boss bruh…we don’t eat seeds on the West Coast though.

Like I said before, Baby doesn’t owe me a dime. Now he’d come around late every once in a while, but hey, who doesn’t? I think this is why I turned a deaf ear to all the rumors going on around me. Now New Orleans was like my second home at this point. I had been living there for about a year. There was a lotta chatter going on in the city about this big rift going on inside of Cash Money. I loved New Orleans, so I stayed in the streets when I was there. The streets talked.

Even though I was signed to Cash Money, I had some real TQ fans down here way before that. They would see me in the streets and tell me what’s going on within my own camp! Like they was trying to look out for a ni**a, you know? I found out that that Juve wasn’t f**kin with us no more in the streets. Some ni**as saw me at the Daiquiri Shop and and told me all about it over some Hurricanes. Same thing when Lil Turk said "f**k’em"… BG told me out of his mouth.

Can you imagine that feeling? It’s like, “What the f**k did I do?” I swear everywhere I went in the city, my fans were asking me why I signed with them “fake a** ni**as”… Fake a** ni**as… That was the theme. Everybody seemed to consider Cash Money as some “Fake a** ni**as”… Dawg, I’m from Los Angeles, ya dig? I’m just listening, making observations, and trying to be a diplomat.

It got to the point where I wouldn’t drive Baby’s sh*t no more. Too hot. I was finding out that that in New Orleans, most ni**as didn’t f**k with Brian Williams. “Call somebody and ship some of my sh*t down here!” I ain’t bout to get in a twist over some of this ni**as sh*t. Everywhere I go there’s somebody talking bad about this man in his own city! What the f**k? Nobody got sh*t good to say!

I’ll never forget the day we were in Baby’s old neighborhood shooting the video for “What Happened to That Boy.” He walked me over to this cat that he wanted me to meet. He was like, “T, you know how y’all got them ni**as out there that you call OG’s? Well you ‘bout to meet my OG…” I was kinda pumped as we walked over to the ni**a cuz I’m figuring I’m about to get some game. Man did I! The ni**a had just got out the pen.

We walked up to him, and Baby introduced us. I noticed that the cat wouldn’t look at Bird. Dude was like, “Yeah man I know who you are. We used to listen to your sh*t in Angola… I don’t know why you signed to this pussy ni**a tho… He ain’t gonna do sh*t but jack ya style and put you on the shelf. I hope you got your paperwork right with this bitch…”

I’m like, “Huh?” I’m lookin’ at Baby, then I look at the cat and I’m waiting on somebody to laugh or somethin’! Talk about a crazy ten seconds…Baby’s phone rings and saves his a**. He walks away. The OG tells me “Later Wo” and walks the other way. The lil’ ni**as in the projects who were sitting on the curb watching all this bust out laughing. Man I didn’t know what to feel… But that sh*t was funny though. That ni**a didn’t crack a smile! LOL.


Too much funny sh*t was going on at Cash Money. This ni**a Stunna would have a fit about me being out by myself. I’d tell him to chill out! Man I ain’t stupid. I don’t run around jeweled up like you. I don’t keep cash on me like you and my thang thang is registered to me, unlike yours. Chill the f**k out! Make no mistake, this ni**a is a boss. He’d send somebody behind me I guess. Sometimes the ni**a would call and blow on me about being where I was at the moment. The ni**a would say, “Get the f**k from ‘round there!” and I’d get the f**k from ‘round there. Quick too…

See this ni**a was the head of my team. I did what he asked me to do. I used to hate that sh*t though man…How did he know my every move? I wonder now if that ni**a was concerned with my safety or did he just not want me to hear his city sh*t on him… I don’t know man. Sh*t started leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

We did a whole Hot Boyz record with no Hot Boyz in the studio. I never saw Juve when we did Project English. The new movie that we were gonna do got scrapped because Nile wouldn’t do it. Baby owed them money man… Big time. Every last one of them… [Mannie] Fresh and Wayne were just being loyal and waiting it out I guess… Meanwhile all the new cats were working like slaves in the studio and not getting anything out.

Me, Gillie, Mikkey, Strings, Boo & Gotti, and Lac & Stone were in the studio with Fresh taking a whole bunch of old CMR sh*t and making it hot for the day. We’d give Baby the sh*t he asked for and then Fresh would make us our own sh*t on the sly. That was the best part about Cash Money to me. Muthaf**kin’ Mannie Fresh… When Bird was gone, we’d really get down. We gave that ni**a so many songs I could kick myself… He still got a bunch of sh*t! Win some, lose some right? He won that one.

Too much funny sh*t was going on at Cash Money. I’m sitting at the house in the East one day Wayne comes in and walks over to Baby and kisses him in the mouth. I didn’t just see that so I ain’t gonna say sh*t. When Wayne gets ready to leave, they do it again.

I guess some of them other ni**as recognized the look on my face and ran to the rescue. “T, don’t trip, that’s jailhouse love.” Jailhouse love? What the f**k? Them two ni**as and never been to jail! I’ve sent my fair share of Kites homie and I ain’t never heard of two ni**as kissing as being jailhouse love unless they was… ya dig? That sh*t was disturbing to me pimp. They say it’s a father-son thing. Ni**a I ain’t kissing my daddy in the mouth!

To each his own… I ain’t questioning a ni**a's sexuality cuz I just don’t get down like that, and I know for a fact that both of them cats like women. But it f**ks me up when them ni**as do that sh*t in public… Everybody always asks me about that picture. Well did y’all forget about 106 and Park?? Ni**a, my neighborhood rode me for months about that sh*t… I had to speak on it cuz y’all wanted to know.

That’s my spin on the whole “kissing” sh*t. I’m done with it.