Miami is in the forefront of the industry right now, talented artists are coming out of the woodwork more than ever before. If you could only imagine the talent that this city possesses and the drive that they exhibit all across the city limits, their dedication is impervious. I’ve been saying this over numerous amounts of time and I’m going to repeat it again, Miami is the Mecca of down south music.

One artist in Miami is making a major name of himself with several different people. His grind and his swag make up quite possibly 40% of his artistry, while the other 60% comprises his lyricism. With Hustle Life Entertainment giving him full support, he is personifying the new sound of Miami Hip-Hop. All across Miami at local concerts, club shows, and open mics, he has graced the stage and made his appearance felt at all of his venues. I introduce you to The General of Swag, Swazy Styles. This is an exclusive interview with the General himself.

24: What’s going on with the infamous Swazy Stylez?

Swazy: Well, a lot of things are popping off for me. My career is really soaring, I got the single ‘Pocket Full of Green,’ it’s been buzzing since like March, and it’s really building a name for itself. There have been a lot of people following me now, the songs real big in Germany, Austria, New York, and Miami, of course. I just dropped another single; preferably it was requested by Derrick Baker from 99Jamz.I went in to see him to review ‘Pockets Full of Green’ I thought that for sure he was going to go for that one, but he was like this other song right here ‘Spend This Money with Me,’ it’s more on that T.I. you can have ‘Whatever You Like,’ the Rick Ross ‘Here I Am’ vibe. And you know what, I mean he saw that song fitting better into his program, so I went ahead and dropped ‘Spend This Money with Me’ and it doing well! I just released it like a week and a half ago and I’m real happy with what’s going on right now, the movement is crazy.

24: So it’s become apparent, that you have turned into an international artist.

Swazy: Yeah.

24: So before all this happened, how did you become Swazy Styles, can you get into a brief history of who Swazy Styles was before the music?

Swazy: Basically, I started out in a group called Mega Bite Productions, this was back in 1999. It was me, this other cat named Precise and this other dude named Magalon. Well, Magalon was on some underground, ruff rugged, hardcore type shit, so we kind of kicked him to the way side and me and my man Precise ended up coming up with the name ‘AmpedUp’. ‘Amped Up’ was the name of our group and we rolled with that for about seven years. We picked up management with Hustle Life Entertainment. We made songs featuring artists like Garcia and Special Ed. We made a lot of noise with the name ‘Amped Up’, but unfortunately my drive and my partner’s drive weren’t the same. It was kind of like I was carrying the whole load. I was the one on the street all the time. I was the one taking all the pictures, paying for this, that and the third. So, I finally smartened up and I was like, you know what man, I could move a lot faster by myself. So we parted as friends and in January of 2008, Swazy Styles went solo. I put ‘Amped Up’ behind and became Swazy Styles and here I am now I’m working hard. Been grinding real hard and I’ve made a lot of accomplishments by myself. It also seems like my name Swazy Styles is even bigger then my group name ‘Amped Up’, and that was a seven year run and it’s only been nine months as a solo artist.

24: Were did the name Swazy Styles derive from?

Swazy: Initially when I first started out in the game they called me Swazy. My partners actually gave me that name. They gave me that name because of my style, my swag, the way I dealt with the ladies, the way I dressed and my charisma. So, they would say ‘Damn yo, you swazy,’ so I kind of liked the name. It fit me real well and I rolled with it. Then I think like two years into my career I ended up going to school for hair; to be a barber. While I was in school my main objective was to open up a barber shop and then start a chain of shops. The chain of shops would be called Swazy Styles, because I was a stylist you know! So it sounded good and then it started ringing bells. I always held on to that name and put it on the back burner, but when I went solo I said I’m going to run with the Swazy Styles. It’s funny, was they was putting me on the show and they asked me ‘So what you gonna go by.’ ‘Swazy or Swazy Stylez’ and I was like Swazy Stylez rings more of a bell. Come to find out that someone else out there has my name ‘Swayze’ or something like that.

24: In the sense of style, what do you incorporate into your music that sets you apart from your previous group ‘Amped Up?’

Swazy: First and foremost I incorporate my life into my music. I talk about what I live and what I experience in my life. I’ve been making money for along time, so I talk about money, I like money. Money makes the world go round. It’s not the most important thing in the world but it is what it is. So that in itself is what separates me from my partners. Second, I’m going to say my image. It’s another very important aspect of the game. I’m really tedious about how I look, what I wear, how I present myself and how I come across to other people. My partners at the time weren’t really up on that, they didn’t care about that; they didn’t understand the important of an image. That was one of the things that separated us and that’s how I feel about my music. Now, my style varies. I’m pretty versatile, my energy, the type of songs I make; I can do crossover records, like right now I’m working on a techno record. I can do Hip-Hop, Reggaeton, Reggae, Down South, Crunk, whatever the case may be. I can fit into any circle you put me in and that’s what makes me different and unique.

24: So as a versatile artist, I’ve heard a lot of other artists tell me over numerous amounts of time, before they write a song they listen to the beat and the beat tells them what to write. Does that same element go for you?

Swazy: For the most part, when I’m shopping for a beat, I pretty much have a record in mind. Like, I’ve already developed a concept of what I want my song to sound like. When I started out, the beat and the melody pretty much gave me my map out of how I was going to lay a song out; how I would spit off the record, but as I’ve developed, I’ve noticed that sometimes you maybe just chillin, and just think about a fresh hook or a fresh idea and it just sticks in your head, but now all I’m doing is looking for the beat that’s fitting my idea or I might write a song acapella and then tell my producer to build a beat around my lyrics. It really all depends.

24: Let’s talk about your single, ‘Pockets Full of Green’. Give me a synopsis of everything from the producer to what the songs is basically about; the element.

Swazy: ‘Pockets Full of Green’ was initially put together by me and my dawg Highlight who’s up in New York; he’s actually on the hook of the song. We started talking about the recession that we are encountering. You know a lot of people are loosing their jobs, a lot of houses going under and a lot of people just don’t have the “bread”. So ‘Pockets Full of Green’ is pretty much a motivational song for people who don’t got it like that, but is going to give you the motivation to go out there and grind, grind, grind, so that you can get your weight up and experience the finer things in life. We’re not all born with a silver spoon in our mouth and not everybody’s got pockets full of green, but it would give you something to work towards. If you were rich, you wouldn’t work as hard to get you weight up cause you will already have you weight up. So that’s how we put together the song “Pockets Full of Green.’

24: Explain the second single; the newest one that just came out.

Swazy: Well it’s a follow up to ‘Pockets Full of Green’. Once you got your money right, the ladies are going to come around you know! So, ‘Spend This Money with Me’ is for the ladies to come and enjoy life with a dude after he’s been grinding and got his money and weight up. Now’s the time when you want to spend time with the ladies; you want to wine and dine your lady. To take it a step further, the song was actually done based upon an ex-girlfriend who wasn’t trying to hear that I was making sacrifices for the music game and then when she seen the kid blow, now she wanna holla back at me. She never had faith in me, but you know what, I said I’m not going to be an asshole, I’m going to still let you come spend money with me; Even though you didn’t believe in me.

24: Can you describe exactly what your partnership with Hustle Life Entertainment is and what they provide for you?

Swazy: Hustle Life Entertainment is my management company. They pretty much handle all of my business and make a lot of decisions for me. A.J. Fields is the founder of Hustle Life Entertainment and he’s actually been managing me for about eight years now. I trust his judgment; he watches me develop and grow as an artist, group, and as an individual soloist. He’s pretty much guided me in the right the direction. He’s very hard working, very professional; he actually used to manage with Timbaland back in the days. He’s got a very good knowledge of the industry and the game and he’s taken me along way. Hustle Life is still growing as a company and pretty soon we hope to make it a label.

24: Are there any labels on the table right now? Is there anything you want to talk about as it concerns the business atmosphere?

Swazy: I’ve got a couple labels looking at me right now. Slip N Slide is definitely watching me along with Jive Records. Hustle Life is pushing me towards anotherbecause they feel we would capitalize more off our product, which is true, but it takes a lot longer that way. It all depends on what type of deal they put on the table. Let’s put it like that. It’s got to be worth my while and I’m not going to get raped. It’s got to be beneficial for both ends of the table.

24: When will we be seeing a debut album from you?

Swazy: I’m projecting that my album will drop summer of next year. I want to hit fans with at leased two or three more singles before I drop the album. I got the ‘Pockets Full of Green’. I got the ‘Spend this Money with Me’ and I got a couple more joints in the bag that I’m not going to tell you about right now, but summer of next year we drop the album. We just dropped the mixtape called ‘The Swagger General’, hosted by DJ Epps and it’s ready dropped. After that were going to drop the old school mixtape in January, which is going to be all old school beats, so we could bring the old school back to life.

24: Did you secure title for your album coming out in summer of 09, what do you plan on incorporating in that album?

Swazy: Well as you know I go by the ‘Swagger General’ and I’m kind of in a toss up between a few different names, which I don’t want to put on the table rite now; don’t want nobody taking my ideas, but as far as the name goes, its going to be something unique, creative and attractive to the crowd; to my audience.

As far as incorporation I want to incorporate a few big name artists out there. Not too many though; I don’t want to be a radio hoe. I want to have a few big names like, Jeezy; he’s one of my favorites. Depending on the project I would like to get Jay-Z and Kanye West to feature on the album. Three or four good artist is good. I want people to more focus on me and my life story and what I got to bring to the table.

24: What do you incorporate, subject matter wise?

Swazy: I talk about my life and what I go thru; my experiences. I love to talk about money, but at the same time I’m also going to talk about the struggle and what steps I had to take to get to were I am today. We got to keep it real. Not everyone has money, but everybody’s struggling. Whether it’s with your family, your friends, your future or money, everyone experiences that. So, I want to give people what they can relate to. People become more familiar with something that they can relate to. So that’s what I’m going to incorporating in my joint rite there.

24: Now what about Production? I know the production game is havoc in the industry and everybody blowing out these major beats right now. What are you trying to bring production wise?

Swazy: As far as production, I got to definitely go with my man Mike Beats. He’s crazy right now. He produced ‘Pockets Full of Green’ and ‘Spend This Money with Me’ as well as another single I’m going to be dropping real soon. Hazardous Sounds is real big right now, he’s real good. He works with CNN’s Noriega. As far as major production, ill be looking at Cool & Dre, the Diaz Brothers, they’ve got some good productions. Even as far as my man Lexx with DD Double H management, he’s got some good productions as well. So, I’m going to be looking at those avenues and of course I don’t mind working with other producers that don’t have a name for themselves. If they got hot music; something that I can vibe to, I wouldn’t mind that at all.

24: So when you have your contract on the table and start to get into the field, is your idea, to just start maneuvering and just go everywhere?

Swazy: Yes. My networking game is serious and I move very, very quickly. A lot of people have a problem keeping up with me. As far as connections an making sure it happens, that’s going to be on the table with the deal. I got a lot of people in my corner supporting me right now, which I want to shout you guys out now for looking out for Swazy Styles and for really helping the kid get over that hump. I got a lot of support and a lot of cats that are looking to help me out, even Jimmy Henchmen that’s up in NY; he’s looking out for me. So, we gone keep it as a family type deal and I’m going to show love to the people that showed me love and that’s the way I feel you become successful.

24: Besides your single that you want to release. What other future projects do you have in the works right now, with Hustle Life and Swazy Styles as a solo artist?

Swazy: My heart really is in acting. When we drop the video, it’s really going to be like a miniature movie, that way at the end of the day not only am I promoting my music, but I’m promoting my talent as an actor. My goal is not to branch off into some big name movie of course, but I’m looking into doing a reality show; ‘Swazy Styles Reality Show’, which I think would be real big. The move field is definitely some ware I’m trying to take this. The music game is going to be my foot in the door and will always be my heart. Even if I become some big name actor I’m still going to make music, you can call me Will Smith (laughing) and my last name is actually Smith!

24: You mentioned the recession and you know that hip-hop is in a state of emergency right now, with the fact that it’s declining on a very slow level. What do you thing that you could bring to the table to help that decline; to push it up where it used to be, to where the grind was harder?

Swazy: Capturing different markets diversifying your bonds so to speak. If you really think about it when most new artists out there make music, they make music for one targeted crowd, but if you got that cross over record like the techno song I said I’m working on; if you get that techno song, guess what your going to capture that whole aria of techno dance crowd and that’s in addition to hip-hop, because your applying the hip-hop and the techno in one. Its just like Reggae, you got the reggae rap and you attack the reggae market as well. So, that’s the only way we’ll really be able to expand hip-hop. We got to get away from what formula and try something new; bring whole different entity to the table.

24: If you were to describe your craft in one word what would it be? Elaborate.

Swazy: I would have to say ‘Persistence.’ The reason I say persistence is because in this industry, were over saturated with talent. Everybody’s trying to get on, but it’s your drive and motivation that’s going to separate you from everyone else. The only way your going to have drive and motivation is if your persistent with you drive and motivation; pushing your music and being up in the spot. Even though you tired and had no sleep for four or five days, your persistence is the thing that’s going to get you out of bed; to get you to that next spot were your face is can be seen. Marketing yourself; being persistent with your marketing and staying on top with people your working with. I use to describe the three P’s, Patience, Persistence and Perseverance.

24: With your Persistence, what sets you aside from every other rapper trying to make it in the game today?

Swazy: My grind. Let’s keep it frank, if you see me everyday you’re going to know me; you’re going to say hi or what’s up kid you look very familiar, but if you see me once in a blue moon, I’m always just going to be some nobody that you really don’t know and it’s going to take you a long while to recognize me. A DJ gave me an example. The DJ said ‘Look man I’m the DJ all night.’ Twelve or thirteen artists are going to come up to me and hand me their CD, but at the end of the night the dood that made the most impact on me is the CD I’m going to listen too. ‘How do you make that impact?’ You got to be in their face, you got to really make that connection, exchange phone numbers, shack his hand, call him up the next day and stay in his face. The grind! That’s what really separates you from other artists. I could just walk up to you and say, yo hears my joint, listen to that. Next time I see you at that club, I’m going to get the same response from you. You’re going to take my CD and put it to the side, cus you don’t know me. So I feel that my separation from everybody else is that I make sure you remember my face and I make sure I’m everywhere even when I’m not there.

24: Thank you for providing 24hourhiphop.com with this exclusive, do you have any last words for your present or future fans?

Swazy: I ain’t gonna let ya’ll down!