HHW Preview: Mike Jones – The Prince Of H-Town Returns

Posted by Bossip Staff

HipHopWired launches in just a few short weeks so check out their latest preview with Mike Jones. We know you want to really know if he lost all that weight on the Subway diet.

Hip-Hop Wired: Wasn’t your last project The American Dream supposed to be a double album? How did you come to release it as an EP with a movie instead?

Mike Jones: Nah, it wasn’t ever a double album. It was always just a movie and an album. The movie was something I put together that I wanted to give to the people to show them visually how I came from nothing to something to living the American dream. When I recorded “Cuddy Buddy” and “Next To You,” people didn’t like those songs back then and didn’t want to use those songs on the album. I didn’t want to put an album out if it wasn’t put out and marketed the way Who Is Mike Jones? album was. So I just kept it and held on to it and it took me three or four years to finally get “Cuddy Buddy” out the right way and now “Cuddy Buddy” done took off. I lost over 100 pounds and now people are like, “Wow.” I’m like, “Back then they didn’t want me, now I’m hot they all on me.” I guess it come back around for the songs too, ya know.

Hip-Hop Wired: Who made the decision back then that the songs weren’t hot because normally songs get dated but fortunately yours didn’t?

Mike Jones: I try to make all my songs non dated. I look at it as if when I die, I want people to still bang Mike Jones. I want people to still be able to have them songs. Like Michael Jackson, he got songs that people are going to forever jam. I just try to hold it down and do it like that but it’s the big boys. When you get on a label, the big person on the label makes the decisions. Don’t nothing get sprung unless they say, “Approved.” And if they personally don’t like something then they can turn it into a business decision and there it is.

Hip-Hop Wired: How hard was it having to fall back since you come from an independent grind and normally put stuff out when you want?

Mike Jones: It was hurtful. I did Balling Underground and did 250,000 on my own and then to go and do Who Is Mike Jones? which went double platinum and then to not come out with another album… And to have to hear that ya’ll don’t have faith in the project. Nah man, I wasn’t feeling that. I didn’t want to put an album out. I was like since ya’ll already got the movie, ya’ll already got these songs. We just going to put out the EP, the album and that’s what we did. I wanted to at least let the fans see a vision of me while I was going through that war. But now everything is fine and great. The album The Voice is out now. Asylum/Warner Bros. is on the team with this one. We get to pushing you know, family fights. But at the end of the day, we all smiling right now.

Hip-Hop Wired: As far as the weight lost, it takes a lot more than eating Subway and counting calories. What else did you do because losing weight is more of a mental thing than physical?

Mike Jones: It’s definitely a mental thing. It’s like crime. You know that you’re not supposed to do crime but if you do you have to be prepared to do the time. Everybody says they want to lose weight but you have to mentally push yourself to want to lose weight. Some people wait till they have to go to jail and are forced to lose weight and work out. But if it ain’t in your heart, it ain’t never gone stay there. I had to put it in my heart to make me want to do it. Somebody could throw you a girl but if you don’t like her with your heart, you’re not gone treat her the same as a girl you really feel for. I had to really feel for what I wanted to do and I wanted to work out and lose weight. I wanted to come back and show the world that Mike Jones wasn’t a 1-hit wonder. I wanted to show the world that I’m still on my road to making my goals and I ain’t fumbled the ball yet. I wanted to explain to the world what happened and why it happened and why it won’t happen again and that’s why I called the album The Voice because you getting it straight from me.

Hip-Hop Wired: How has the weight lost affected your performance and creativity? You’re making these sex symbol records now showcasing yourself in whole new light.

Mike Jones: It ain’t just the performance. Anybody that looses weight is going to perform quicker but it’s not me. The media blew it up about me losing all the weight. All media outlets ask me about my weight every time they see me because they can’t believe I lost that much. And I tell them the truth, it’s the treadmill and Subway. People say, “You’re like Jarret.” But nah, I got my own thing. First I had to be mental and ain’t nobody get in my mind. I had to start running and eat right and that’s how I got to this point.

Hip-Hop Wired: Lyrically Houston has some of the best MCs in the game above and underground. When the light shined bright on H-Town a few years back, why do you think it came off so quick?

Mike Jones: You got to keep in mind that that’s how the world is and people’s music span is so small. You get a record that’s hot, back then people held on to it. Now it’s hot two months or three and they move on to the next thing. So BET and MTV and all the TV networks follow what the people follow. People’s time span is very small… one month they on this movement and the next month they on to that movement. Just because the camera moves on to the next movement at the time doesn’t mean that we played out. When everybody was following New York and they were wearing the Timberlands and Yankee caps, people across the country were doing it. But when the screen went to Houston and people started talking about ‘64s and purple drink, people were still wearing the Yankee caps and Timberland boots out there. So I don’t get how they say we dead because they did us like they did everybody else. They just moved the camera but we never stopped doing what we do.

Hip-Hop Wired: So who did you work with on The Voice and what can the people expect to hear?

Mike Jones: On the album I got “Cuddy Buddy” with T-Pain, Lil’ Wayne and Twista. Jim Jonsin made that one. I got Mannie Fresh producing “Give Me Call” and Devin The Dude is on that one. Amadeus produced “I Know” with Trey Songz. I got Big E on the track “Swagga Right” which got over 2 million views on the Internet video. Mike Dean produced like six tracks on the album and mixed and mastered the whole thing. Most of it is me just explaining to the world where I’ve been because so many people have been asking. Every record I made has a reason behind it and best believe I didn’t disappoint my fans.

By Michael “Ice-Blue” Harris

Check out the exclusive footage here.