Illuminati 2G

I2G sat down with the Certified King Of Las Vegas, Dula-Mite for a exclusive interview. We talk about how he got the name for himself and what it means to him, his countless projects he has lined up for 2010, his thoughts on the local music scene in Las Vegas and much so sit back and enjoy.

Illuminati 2G is here with Dula-Mite how's it going?

Aww man I am blessed. God is great.

Tell me about how you got your start in music and who are some of your musical influences out there.

I started doing music around 7,8 years old. Once I saw the first B-Boys break dance, I was in right there. Once you go through the whole elements, you watch the B-boying, the break dancing, the Djing, and then it went to the microphone and that was it for me. Once I got my first performance in front of 500 people at 9 years old, you know doing kiddie rap and I seen the people's reaction to just how it was when I was that age and I was in it. I like the attention, I am not going to lie like other people, I like having a bunch of people watching me.

As far as my influences go, Heavy D & The Boys was a heavy influence on me, The Lost Boyz, Camp Lo, I think as a teenager, Jay-Z, Biggie, Dr. Dre is one of my biggest influences. But the first influence that I had was Heavy D & The Boys.

How did you come up with the name Dula-Mite for yourself?

Dolamite is one of my favorite blackplotation movies of all time. I think that and The Mack and I think anybody can call themself Max Julian but my name is Abdullah and you can only come up with so many nicknames just for that so everybody was just calling me Dula for short. Dolamite, Dula-Mite, high school I was a ladies man so I just put it together and came up with Dula-Mite and put the dash in the middle so people could try to pronounce it right.

Another name that you also go by is the Certified King Of Las Vegas.

It's going down!

That jumps out right away, especially dealing with the whole music scene out here. How did you come up with that name for yourself? Or is that something that basically the homies gave you that name?

Dula-Mite The Certified King Of Las Vegas I came up with that myself due to my confidence. I think early on when you start spitting, I don't think that you should call yourself the prince or king of anything. I think as your skills develop and your work ethic develops on how hard you want something, that is when you do it. I just think that my work ethic is 10 times greater than everybody out here. I can honestly say I don't think anyone works as hard as me, and if they do work hard and I see they work ethic, then I step it up 10 times more, so I can be 40 blocks ahead of them. You know I get hated on.

Oh of course (laughs)

I say I am the king, but I am undefeated. Ain't nobody beat me yet and I have had a whole bunch of people try to make diss tracks and I just give a 2 line rebuttal and that was the end of it. I think hands down I got the best work ethic, and I am not going to sit up here and say I got the best songs or nothing like that. I am not going to be a asshole like that, but I think when you say top 3 in all the categories just around Las Vegas, I'm in that. I also think when you say top 5 in categories of unsigned artists, even about the stuff accomplished on the west coast I am in the top 5. And if someone does want to believe that, all they have to do is google my name and see what I have accomplished and they can't say shit. (laughs)

Ok (laughs)

I am a real honest dude and I don't sugarcoat things.

That's the way it got to me man. Tell me a little bit about your 2 new singles, I seen that you posted on Twitter, Party Tonight and Flight School.

Yeah actually what the deal is I am probably going to have 6 singles on I-Tunes and Rhapsody because I am dropping 6 mixtape. I don't know, you can say mixtapes but I say albums, I am dropping 6 mixtape albums next year. With the Cali-Untouchable DJs, September 7th, DJ Raze One and Big K. Basically Spetember 7th is the main DJ that endorses my talent. Everybody has a DJ, whether it is DJ Vlad or somebody else, DJ Clue, September 7th is my main DJ and he endorses me. I am dropping 6 mixtapes and Flight School is the first single off of the Respect My Fresh project coming out in February. Then I have the TGIFresh album and that is going to have the afterparty joint on there and after that will be the I'm A Lesbian album and then after that will be Boogie Nights, after that it will be the Best Of Dula-Mite mixtape and then and the last one will be a surprise for people. I could give the people what it is but, they will see once it comes out because that will be the biggest one.

You said you have one called I'm A Lesbian?

I'm A Lesbian!

HA, HA that is genius!

Alot of people when they make music they don't be honest. Alot of the dudes now they Autotune or skinny jeaning and so many people, you can read alot of peoples interviews and they say they are not influenced by what's going on and try to do the music they want to do. 95% of those people be lying. They go with the trends that they think is going on and I can honestly say that I am not one of them. I think when people say what is your style of music, my style is me telling the truth, talking shit and being honest. Alot of people that are in the industry and blow up are some of the most honest people on the microphone.

50 Cent is real honest, Eminem is real honest, Jay-Z is. Some of the biggest artists of all time say what they felt, they did not sugarcoat anything and they kept it real. That's me, I am going to keep it real, like sex, so I am going to talk about sex. I don't kill people, so I am not going to rap about killing people. I think alot of people suck, and people can think I suck but I am going to rap about that and if people get offended by it, fine but what you are going to get out of my music is pure honesty and I'm a lesbian I love the women. 

Absolutely. So you were saying these are basically like mixtape albums. Do you have something as far as a major label release? Or are you just going to stick to the indie route, is this all building up towards a bigger album in 2010? What is going to go on after all these mixtape albums drop?

I think the reason that I am giving out so much material is that nowadays it is hard to even make money now. You can easily try to put your album in the stores and give it on ITunes, but the internet is the biggest key to everything now. I just learned that from watching certain people in the industry now they did their work on the independent thing and got signed. I think Crooked I dropped a mixtape every month last year or the year before that and that lead to the Slaughterhouse deal and a possible deal with Shady. I mean I am just like a couple people, I have some people looking at me but nowadays they are offering 360 deals. If you have someone looking at you, you have to give them a reason to sign you to more than that or to keep the attention on you so you can get it popping.

Because nowadays they don't really care that you can rap, they want to see that one single and they want to see your work ethic. I am going to give them my work ethic and I am going to try and give them a single on every song so they can have a reason to believe in my talent. I mean we already got one artist signed in Las Vegas off of one single. I mean that is a big influence on what I think I can do so why not give them 6 albums of singles ya know?

Just what is your thoughts on the local scene here in Las Vegas as far as hip hop is concerned? Where do you think it is headed in the next year or so?

As far as the local scene, there are 3 things. One, we already know the radio only supports latino hip hop. If you are not latino and you want your song on the radio, either 97.5 or 98.5, you are gonna have to break bread to get on the radio. Not to say that is the Djs fault, because the Djs do actually listen to the local talent, but DJs only have so much power. We already know we are not going to be able to perform on the strip so that means almost anywhere we are going to perform it is not going to look the best. But that is cool because you can actually work on your stuff and you are out on the streets more and the streets is what makes you hot. Second thing is, I think as far as the music on the local scene, you can definitely tell who is born in the 80's and you can definitely tell who is born in the 90's.

Right

You can definitely tell certain cats is influenced by the late 90's, early 2000's, autotune, skinny jeans, the hyphy movement. Most of those styles of music are going to be 90's babies and 80's babies usually try different things on their albums as far as sampling and having music that is lyrical. I think that is a good look, you have the younger generation, if they have the New Boyz, we had MC Hammer. It's a difference but I think it is going to be cool, I think it is just separating the music sometimes. I think some cats should not do music with each other because it is not going to sound right because you just don't make the same stuff.

Third I think that it is important for Vegas music to have it's own indentity and style. We are not Cali and we are not the south so artists need to develop a sound true to them. Las Vegas is a melting pot and we do have people from all walks of life all over the country that live here, but we really need to develop a style and sound that we can call our own. We have about 10 artists that get it popping in Las Vegas and I think once the industry opens its eyes and see we are not just the strip, Las Vegas is going to be the next Atlanta. That is how I feel about it.

If you could create, and you had mentioned, it is funny that you said Slaughterhouse and that leads right into my next question. If you could create your own Slaugtherhouse with local Vegas artists, 3 or could be more of your favorite MCs that you either want to work with or have, who would you pick and why?

Me, myself and I.

Just yourself huh?

I bet that anybody that you interview 10 MCs out of Las Vegas, I bet only one would say me. So I am not going to say them.

(Laughs)

(Laughs) Not saying that I do not have Vegas love, but just me saying that I am the king, cats can smile in my face or whatever but I think that I am the most loved and the most hated MC in Las Vegas. I am not going to mention them if they don't mention me. I could sit here and say..., or I will say Samson.

Ok

Samson and Campfire Music but other than that I don't see anyone else mentioning me, so I am not going to mention them. I still love them and listen to their music but I am not going to mention them.

Alright (laughs). Do you have any upcoming shows or tour dates around Vegas or anywhere else in the U.S.?

Yeah man, Halloween I will be in Greensboro, NC opening for Gucci Mane, OJ Da Juiceman and Nicki Manaj. In January I will be in Louisville, Kentucky opening for Nappy Roots and then also around March 2010, I will be in Atlanta, I don't want to say who I am opening for because it is not finalized yet, but I am down as a opening act. In between that you can catch me performing at one of the local spots so yeah I am getting it in. Trying not to be local anymore, trying to get that national look so we can get it popping.

Absolutely. What is your website information for people looking to check out your music and see what you got going on?

Fo sho, you can check me www.myspace.com/dulamite, twitter is the same thing. www.twitter.com/dulamite. www.facebook.com/dulamite. Google me too, anything you want to know about me, from being on This Is 50.com to the UK man.

Alright well that is all the questions that I have for you, appreciate you getting down for the interview. Is there any last words or shoutouts you want to get out there to the people?

Yeah I want to shout out all my peoples on Young Fly Mistas Entertainment, Dirty Urban, my producer Prophet, The Cali Untouchable DJs, good looking for holding me down, I appreciate it. DJ Pimp, DJ Ophax, DJ Lexus. Even though I did not make a Slaughterhouse, I want to give a shoutout to Campfire Music, Sedrew Price, he doing the damn thing, Mr. Finley, congrats on the Def Jam, Lil Will and all the other artists that really put it in everyday trying to get that thang going. One love we gonna get Las Vegas popping. It's the king homie!