Inkstarzz.com Interview: J-Hood

"For the Writer in You!"

that has held his own on the mic with the best of them. Most may know
him from "The Lox" and D Block, but J-Hood is building his own brand
now with the ODG (On Da Grind) movement. With his eyes focused
on his prize and determination to follow his dream, J-Hood won't let
anything stop him from getting to the top. Ride with us through N.Y.C.
as we enter the world of J-Hood *

*DISCLAIMER: This interview was conducted in December 2008, before
J-Hood began his attempt to reconcile with The Lox.

Inkstarzz.com: What's up? What's good with you man?

J-Hood: You know just tryna make it happen, man. On the grind out
here tryna made it in these crazy streets.

Inkstarzz.com: I feel you man. So exactly how long have you been in the game? I know you've been
on the mic for a minute, but how long has it been exactly?

J-Hood: To be honest with you, I’m what you call in the game, but not in the game. I happen to be still chasing
my dream to get in the game due to the fact that my career was prolonged by people that I was put in the
hands of.

Inkstarzz.com: Some artists say that they write and others say that they just go to the studio and it
flows. What is your approach?

J-Hood: I use different approaches for different situations. One day I might wanna go in the studio and hear
the beat and it might just come to me like all at once. So I might just go in the booth and listen to the joint a
couple times and come up with the hook within a couple minutes. From there the foundation's already set, so
the lyrics just come. Oh, and to answer your original question, I've been in the game for about 7 ½ to 8 years,
when I was on the underground.

Inkstarzz.com: Oh, alright. I know you came in the game with "The Lox". Even though you’ve
separated from the group, is there anything that you took with you from them that you could use?

J-Hood: Yeah, definitely. It's real unfortunate the way it had to go down because the chemistry that we had
was incredible. I definitely turned a negative into a positive because one thing I did learn from them is what not
to do. They failed to do multiple things as far as on the business side of things. In other words, they're horrible
businessmen. I'm gon take what they did and do the opposite.

Inkstarzz.com: I also noticed that some words were exchanged between you and some of the
members of "The Lox”. Would you ever be able to look past that and consider working with them
again, even if it's just a mixtape?

J-Hood: Right now, I'm not even looking at them, I'm looking past them. It aint even the fact of that but there
was just a bunch of lies circulated. People were doing real under-handed, real suspect s#!t. I had to pull a
couple cards to let people know what's really going on and what really happened. They started slandering my
character out there and I can't let that go down. There are two sides to every story. They up there telling
theirs, it's only right for me to tell mine. I would never work with them again. I don't even want to. It messed my
mojo up being with them. It was a great thing being with them at first, but as time goes on.... I don't even
wanna be negative about them cus I'm past that, but it's not my thing over there. It's good that I got a hold of
my career and came to my senses at the time that I did and I'm still on my grind. God bless 'em.

Inkstarzz.com: Do you think the media/websites/bloggers took that further than it should have
gone?

J-Hood: Naw. Actually they (The Lox) took it further that what it was supposed to be because it all started,
originally, with me saying that I wanted to leave. It had been different stuff that had been brewing before that,
way before that. Like years ago when other stuff happened that people don't know about. It was just bound to
happen. I'm surprised it didn't happen earlier. If it was somebody else, it would've happened earlier, but me, I
just looked at a lot of things and gave a lot of people the benefit of the doubt. You know how it is when you
call yourself doing the right thing and end up screwed.

Inkstarzz.com: How do you feel about the state of Hip-Hop?

J-Hood: Hip-Hop is an excellent way for, not only African-Americans or minorities to get money, but people
on general to get money. It's definitely an avenue for people to get they currency on. As far as musically and
talent-wise, there's a couple people doing their thing right now. Basically, the south got it on smash right now
and if anybody else tryna tell you anything otherwise, they’re not telling the truth. You gotta give props where
props is due. We on the east coast and all that, but the truth is the truth. Us up top, we don't got all that unity
and all that. Not saying that they on some ol' "We Are the World" s#!t down there, but they looking at the big
picture. They know it's money to be made. Up here, we don't realize that there’s power in numbers. If I go
somewhere and hold you down at this show, our fan base collides. You do the same thing for me at the next
s#!t, then we making records and all of us be on this one record we continue to boost the s#!t like that. That
aint gon do nothing but make us stronger. It's gon be like we taking over all of a sudden.

Inkstarzz.com: Has there ever been a time that you wanted to give up on rapping? Where you
wanted to just leave the Hip-Hop game?

J-Hood: Imma keep it 100 with you. It was a real, real big second in my life
that I felt like giving up on it. It was like "F%*k all this s#!t, I aint F%*king wit it
no more.” That was only for a brief moment. Every person, when they're in a
struggle that involves all the pain and suffering and trials and tribulations
that's similar to mine, would do the same thing. That's just the type of thing
that I would never give up because, at the end of the day, I'm doing this for
my moms and my family and plus myself. I aint gon let a lil altercation derail
me from what I'm supposed to be doing.

Inkstarzz.com: Which would we have a better chance of seeing, you
producing a track for a hit song or acting in a hit movie?

J-Hood: You can look forward to me doing both. I'm tryna be one of the new faces for '09, one of the multiple
new faces of '09, maybe the main one. I aint even gon front, I'm bout to grind hard, turn it up in '09. Any of
them directors, anybody holla at the kid. I'm booking jhood@aol.com and all that.

Inkstarzz.com: Have you ever thought about doing any reality show or anything like that?

J-Hood: We actually working on one currently right now called "Life After the Block". It's basically showing
people my life after D-Block. Cameras are actually following me to label meetings. They with me at the diner,
at the mall, on the block, 145th, shopping, wherever. Me going to pick chicks up, it's real s#!t.

Inkstarzz.com: Don't hesitate to shout out Inkstarzz.com!

J-Hood: Off top. Inkstarzz, you already know, man.

Inkstarzz.com: If there's one word you could use to
describe your flow, what would it be?

J-Hood: Remarkable

Inkstarzz.com: What' up with the O.D.G. movement?

J-Hood: That's what it is right now. That's me and my crew, the movement that we created a couple of years
ago and it stands for On-Da-Grind. That's the way we live our life. P.B.P., Paper Before Pu$$y. That's out
state of mind because you can never go broke messing with money but you can always go broke messing with
broads. No disrespect to the chicks man, but that's real s#!t. That's what we on right now. Young, fly and
Swaggarific.

Inkstarzz.com: What artists are you currently listening to right now?

J-Hood: I like the homie T.I., I listen to Weezy. It's a new dude called Young Capone and I'm felling what he
doin. I still listen to my man Sean Paul with the Young Bloodz from the A[tlanta]. My man Jigga, of course. Just
the O.D.G. crew and myself. Beside a lil
R & B that I listen to when I'm with one of my fly thangs.

Inkstarzz.com: So what can we expect from J-Hood in the future?

J-Hood: Multiple colossal projects and we bout to just flood the industry and flood the whole scene with that
real talk, no lie starting in '09. Look forward to it cus it's gon to be real, real, real, big. We bout to drop a lot of
mix tapes this year plus we bout to release the first few episodes of the reality show. It’s gon be a lot of s#!t
out there for the fans. That's another thing, too. When we were with D-Block, they were starving the fans out
there. I couldn't be a part of an organization that was starving the fans. They hit the fans with a little taste of
shit and then have 'em just waiting for a long time . Why would the fans f%*k with somebody that's playing with
them with food when they have the option to go to other people that have no problem giving them material?
That wasn't right over there.

Inkstarzz.com: Yeah, that's one thing I say about Weezy, he always
feeds his fans. That's one thing I say about him.

J-Hood: They can say what they want about him. Like I said before, they say
this, that and the other. I don't know about the eye ring and the lip ring and
all that other s#!t, that aint really hip-hop, but he definitely consistent.

Inkstarzz.com: Do want to leave any contact information for your fans?

J-Hood: Yeah, myspace.com/therealjhood, myspace.com/jhoodofficial - that's
the music page. Check my s#!t out. I update my s#!t daily, if not daily, every
two days. I do check my own messages, so holla at me man for a feature,
verse, book me for a show, walk-through, anything. Whisper atcha boy
matter-of-fact, don't even holla at me.

Inkstarzz.com: Ok, thanks for the interview.

Interview by: Sonnie V.