Marvo

24: Last time we talked you spoke on the struggles of coming up as a Chicago  artist. As of right now with the strong buzz that you have has the road to success got easier for you?

Marvo: Definitely not! If anything it’s gotten even harder. Before, nobody even saw me coming to try to stop me. They were looking at me like I aint worried about this lil nigga taking over the game. So I was just coming thru dunking on everybody with hot songs and guest appearances! But now I am on EVERY hater’s radar, so now I’m dealing with more politics and red tape than ever before! It’s like they instituted the “Jordan Rules” on me like the Pistons did Mike back in the day. They double teaming me now, fouling me and doing anything they can to get the ball out of my hands. But at the same time, I like it. “Whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger!” And that’s exactly what happened. They just made me and my team step our game up even more. So now we shoot turn around fade –a-way jump shots and 3-pointers to keep my scoring average up and my buzz strong!

24: I will say that your mixtape “Respect & Live Vol. 2” was one of the hottest mixtapes I heard, especially from a Midwest artist. How was the daily grind when it came to putting this tape together?

Marvo: Thanx fam, I really appreciate that endorsement. A lot of time and hard work went into putting that project together. My son was born in November of 2005, so that put a lot more pressure on me to make things happen. My manager came to meet with me on January 1, 2006. He asked me to put everything else to the side and give my music my all for 3 months. He said every producer, DJ, radio personality, artist, etc. that I had been chasing and trying to work with would be chasing me if I would just give it my all for 3 months. He told me I was walking around with a million dollar check in my pocket, but that I just didn’t know how to cash it. He asked me to let him help me cash that million dollar check. I said fuck it and just rolled with what he said. From there, for 3 straight months, my manager and my co-manager came thru my crib every morning at 7am and we would work on music until I had to be at work at noon. Then when I got off at 12am or 1am, we would go right back at it til 4am, and then turn around and do it again the next day. By the end of March, beginning of April, we had leaked a few records and I did a few key guest appearances and DJ’s, producers, artists and even radio was calling me. I was like damn, this nigga wasn’t lying! So we kept doing it, 7am, every morning, no matter what. That summer I walked away from the family business and we just kept grinding 24/7 trying to make the best music possible and the mixtape, my buzz and my career all grew from there.
 

24: What’s the meaning behind the title?

Marvo: I’m glad you asked me that question. New York rappers made the phrase “Money, Power, Respect” a way of life for a lot of people. But here in Chicago, it’s a little different. For me, or for us, its “Respect, Power, Money!” So for me Respect & Live Vol. 1 & 2” were all about me demanding my Respect. In the streets, you gain Respect, by showing your skills. When enough people Respect you, then you have Power with those people and anybody that Respects those people. If you have the “Respect and Power” you control the people with the Money. People with Money will pay you to have “Respect.” The rap game is the same way. My team sat down and decided it’s like Tony Soprano said in the skit at the beginning of the mixtape, “You don’t love me anymore, well that breaks my heart! But its too fucking bad, cause you don’t gotta love me, but you will RESPECT me!” So it’s like as long as you Respect me, then I’ll let you and your career live. If not, here comes “that Ether, the shit that makes your soul burn slow”!

24: The mixtape starts off with a hot song that you kill it on “Just A Dream” produced by Don Cannon. When was it that you got connected to Cannon and what you think it was that drew him to show you love?

Marvo: Now see this is a great example, of divine intervention, number one and great planning and strategy on the part of my management. My manager is good friend’s with La The Darkman, who just happens to manage the Aphilliates Music Group and their lead artist, his younger brother, Willie The Kid. So I’m at my manager everyday, like make this happen and make that happen and he like “naw, we gonna earn it.” So we shoot up to Grand Rapids for a “Gangsta Grillz” Party La was throwing up there and instead of trying to hand off CD’s at the party, my manager just waited. When we was leaving the party, we were parked right next to the car Don Cannon was in, so I’m like here is our chance, hit him with a CD. Still my manager is like “nope.” So my manager jumps in the whip, pops my CD in, rolls the windows down on the side that Cannon was on and just starts banging a joint called “Watch Yo Self” (its on Respect & Live Vol. 2) that I had just recorded a few days before. Once it got to the first hook, Don Cannon was like “man, that shit is hot, who the fuck is that you playing?” My manager just smiled and was like, MARVO and he is sitting right here next to me. Cannon was like “damn, that joint is hot!” So we just gave him the CD right out of our CD player and he popped it in his. So we go back home to Chicago and started adding Cannon, Drama, Sense and everybody from the Aphilliates on myspace. We noticed that Cannon had a beat up on his myspace page. My manager was like “kill that beat and Cannon will have to fuck with you!” So, I wrote to it, we got the okay from La and we used it as the intro to the mixtape and it’s been on from there. My manager decided rather than use his friendship, to use my talent and my buzz to make “true believers” out of people.
 

24: Cadillac’N Thru The Hood was another favorite so is that something big in Chi-Town, that the ballers Cadillac through the block?

 Marvo: Chicago is definitely a Cadillac town. From the pimps, to the hustlers, to athletes, old school players, rappers, they riding Cadillac’s around here. Escalades, STS’s, DTS’s, CTS’s, XLR’s, everything. So when the producer Dough From The Go played me the track, I was like damn, and when the hook came in, I was like I gotta have that! I’m like aint nobody else getting that joint! Dough kept it so gully and real, he let me burn the tracked out data files to CD and then delete it off his computer. So I wrote 2 verses for it and at the time we felt like a deal was coming soon, so I left that middle verse open, we felt like we heard Ludacris on the song all day long, not on some famous guest appearance to get sales shit, but I’m on some make the song great shit! We wanted to hold it and use it as a 2nd of 3rd single for the major release of the album. But then we went on the BET/Vibe Tour and it was all historically black colleges, except for NBA All Star Weekend in Vegas, so we was like we wanna use it in my show on the tour. The people loved it in every city, “Thru The Hood (Hey). Thru The Hood (Hey), I’m Cadillac’N Thru The Hood!” Then a few radio mixshow DJ’s here told us they felt it was the one to run with it, so I wrote that middle verse and then it was like we had to put it on the mixtape. I got even hotter joints in the chamber right now, so it’s all love! We’re trying to work something out with the Leo Burnett advertising agency to get Cadillac to license the song and use it in commercials too!
 

24: “Step Into The Bad Side” is one song where you speak on the issues within the Black community. Philadelphia my hometown alone has the same issues in Chicago as far as the hoods go, so was growing up in Chicago and the things you experience in the streets the motivation for this song?

 Marvo: Absolutely. I was a victim of Chicago, poverty and the streets, as far as, the desperation and short-term thinking. Letting the block, block my mind. It’s fucked up. No nice way to say it. I went thru a phase in my music where I was Superman. If you’ve ever heard “Respect & Live Vol. 1” (you can download it free at www.myspace.com/marvo11) I say “You locate me in the bathroom in the mall/ fucking hoes in the stall/44’s in the draws/Unload in the mall/Shells going into y’all/You him, him, him and the dude you was finna call/That’s the end of y’all!” You can still see it in “Respect & Live Vol. 2,” my frustration still makes me wanna just air everybody out. But I’ve grown as a person and as an artist. I realized that while I can’t do a project and not talk about the streets and my experiences, I needed to take a different approach. If I knew then, what I know now, I would have never been on the block, sold drugs, carried guns, etc. I’m here to say, that shit aint cool. But it is reality. It’s reality for a lot of young people living in Harvey, Chicago, Philly and all over the country. The third weekend in April there were 37 separate shootings in one weekend in Chicago. That same weekend the year before had 18 separate shootings. There were more kids killed in Chicago Public Schools last year then the tragedy at Virginia Tech! So how can I ignore that in my music? Let’s be really honest, I’m still a victim of that short-term thinking at times. I still spend a lot of money in Non-African American businesses. I have a son to feed and when rap money slowed up this winter, I got on bullshit for a minute. It’s hard to be patient, I can’t lie. You have to be really strong in your faith! Without God, I couldn’t do this! So I just wanted the world, the listeners to get a glimpse of what it’s like. We didn’t choose to grow up how and where we did. Let’s see how many “privileged” people would go sell drugs and be criminals if they had to grow up like me!
 

24: The music you make is very talented yet for you to be so young is aggressive which you catch people’s attention with. Do you sometimes find it surprising that people be shocked you spit that fire?

Marvo: Every time! Its like I said earlier, they NEVER see me coming at first. It’s like Spud Webb back in the day, who knew, til they got dunked on! I’ve met other artists and saw the disbelief and even sometimes relief in their faces. They thinking, “at least I might have a good chance in a fight, cause I aint got nothing for this lil nigga on the mic.” Producers, engineers, DJ’s, they all get humble and get to confessing “shorty I aint gon lie, I didn’t think you was gon be a beast like that!” I think it works to my advantage.
 

 24: As of right now who would you say is someone responsible for a good majority of your success?

Marvo: God! He put this together! It would be easy for me to throw the obvious name out there, but I feel like I would be wrong to say that just one person is responsible for the majority of my success. To say that would be a slight to all the other people who have pitched in and done their part, big or small, to try to make things happen for me. Aint NO big “I’s” and little “you’s” in Supreme Money Makers and that applies to me too! Everybody has to play their role. When you talk about a car, some might say the engine is the most important thing, but without the wheels, the frame, the transmission, the gas tank, the brakes and everything else, the car is going no where. Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player that ever lived, the obvious star of the Chicago Bulls and the entire NBA, didn’t win Championships every year that he played in the league. Why? Cause without the right team and the right coach wasn’t shit shaking! So when you talk about the Team, the Machine and the Movement that I represent, I would have to say my whole team. We ALL need each other, REAL TALK! Supreme Money Makers, every last one of em, and a lot of people that have nothing to do with Supreme Money Makers, other managers, producers, engineers, fans, DJ’s, concert promoters, advertisers and vendors, radio personalities and assistant programmers and industry people who showed love and looked out because they feeling me and our whole Movement. Everybody did their part, whether a major or a minor contribution, it all came together like Voltron to get me where I am today!
 

 24: You have a label, Supreme Money Makers, so what makes MarVo a supreme money maker?

Marvo: Ha, Ha, cause I make my money in a Supreme manner of ways! I think Supreme first, even before money. We don’t think short-term. I still own ALL my publishing! My management is the best, my production is the best, my engineer is the best, my photographer is the best and my artwork is the best! I put my CD in full color Digipaks and sold them for $10, instead of $5. Look at my video for the Don Cannon produced “Just A Dream,” my videographers are the best. My business is straight homie! I’m in a position to maximize my earning potential and become wealthy, not rich, at a very young age! If we can’t do it right, then we try not to do it at all. Bottom we think about being great, being the best, FIRST! That’s what makes me a Supreme Money Maker!
 

 24: Are you the only artist on the label?

Marvo: We have a couple two, three artists lined up. My cousin Ty Money and  brother I.D. The General, they both some beasts and a couple others we have our eye on, but to  make them sign paperwork and commit to the label right now, would be short-term thinking.   Running a record company is very expensive. We don’t have the finances or the resources to push more than one artist right now. We can’t go up in radio and be like here, play these 4 singles from our 4 artists, when we are just an independent.  So it’s like, yeah, sign these artists and now we got a monopoly, but then time goes by and aint no checks being cut, projects haven’t been put out or pushed properly, now you have disgruntled artists who will bad mouth the company and not want to work with you. So we are just working my career for now and once we secure a joint venture and have the best situation for the company to grow, we can sign the artists we want and cut checks.
 

 24: You did a song with my boy Trel Mack for his new mixtape “The New Dynasty” on a track called “No Problem” ft. Donny Goines, Clap Cognac, Fred Knuxx, who are all on the rise like you in which I call myself the future of Hip-Hop. Your verse was crazy, but what got into your mind to spit flames like that because you had me going “Damn that was hot”?

Marvo: Yeah, Trel Mack doing his thing, so when I was asked to do a joint, I was definitely wit it. I heard the track and it was crazy. I’m a serious competitor so I was already thinking to myself I gotta kill it and that I couldn’t really make it about going back to the streets cause I knew that’s what everybody else was gonna do. Plus, a lot of crazy shit was happening at the time. We had to close the studio down, deaths in the family, etc. Everything that could go wrong, did. As I said earlier, rap money slowed up this winter, so I was on some bullshit trying to get this paper. I gotta keep it real, my manager was mad at me, we damn near beefing, he telling me fuck the streets and focus on music, but I couldn’t really hear him at the time, I needed that paper. So I’m like if I kill it, I can kill two birds with one stone. I can pick up a lot of new fans and I might shut my manager up for a minute about what I was doing in the streets. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s the truth.
 

24: I definitely look forward to you working with Trel Mack some more, it’s Philly to Chi-Town [laughs].

Marvo: For sure I haven’t been there but I fucks with Philly. I fucks with Philly music hard, from the old school right up to today. My peeps used to tell me all the time that when he was in the Fed joint, Philly cats was some of the realest niggaz in there, real talk. I need that love!

24: What you been working on lately as far as new music, albums coming?

Right now, I’m working on my next mixtape “V For Vendetta” and my album. “V” is gonna be sick! I’m doing all original beats and I’m trying to kill the rap game with it, like V did Parliament in the movie. My album is top secret, I can’t have nobody stealing my concepts and ideas, so we put songs together, but don’t record them for now. Which has all my producers frustrated like a mother fucker, cause they wanna hear me over their tracks, but y’all gotta trust us, we know what we doing over here at Supreme Money Makers!

24: Any final words for the readers?

Marvo: Stay Supreme in every aspect of life, strive for perfection, put GOD first, never lose faith and work hard! www.myspace.com/marvo11.