Illuminati 2G

From the moment that Lulu picked up the phone, it was an open conversation about his beginnings in life, BYI and Omar Cruz. As the interview unfolds, you’ll read the questions I asked as I wanted to see what was really up with their business and in my own mind, I was curious to hear their perspectives on music, history, politics, sexism, all that and after both of my conversations with Lulu and Omar Cruz, I have to tell you that it was hella refreshing to speak to cats doing real things yet seemingly grounded with the intent to bring work back to our Community and ultimately give people a soundtrack while they ride out the storm. BYI has a joint deal with Interscope and their 1^st release will be Omar Cruz, which is coming soon.

Lulu of BYI Records: We got to take it in our own hands, if we don’t do that, hip hop for Latinos is going to be around as long as Reggaeton. I don’t listen to Reggaeton, that’s not something that was really for me. What I did respect about that, was that they were Latinos and they did make a boom but theres another side to that they allow the white people to basically abuse the movement and culture so fast that is has no foundation. You know, they was just in it for the quick buck Reggaeton came and Reggaeton left. Nobody was taking control of that kind of music The artists were there just to get their quick dollar andget as much as they can because they’ve been starving for twenty years and there was no CEO behind it that was Latino or that was actually saying, “ hey, we appreciate what you’re doing, were going to put it in our hands and do it the right way.”

Jehuniko: hell yeah…

Lulu of BYI: Being a CEO is always something I’ve wanted to be. The reason I’ve always wanted to be a CEO is not because of fame or glory, not for women, it’s for the opportunities that I can give to other Latinos.

Jehuniko: Who were your inspirations?

Lulu of BYI: You know, when I was growing up looking at the game, you know the music and television game, I’ve worked in both of those, most of the time I was the only Latino that was around working behind the scenes. There was never anyone around that inspired me to be like, “wow, he’s dope and he’s Latino and he really doing it,” that was my age, from the streets and from the struggles, going through the same things I was going through so of course I’m looking like right now you asked me in regards to my inspirations. Other people ask me, “ who do you want to be like or who you trying to compete with,” I’m going to tell you that I want BYI to be as big as Def Jam as big as Aftermath, as big as Roc A Fella, none of those labels are Latino. You can’t blame because because we don’t have leaders that’s why me being the CEO for BYI, I’m not here to compete with no body, I’m not here to take money away from nobody, I’m here to create opportunity. That’s the only thing that if I die, will people remember me as one of those dudes that that actually cared about our people and tried to create opportunity for our people you know what I mean and that’s the way BYI is as a label, that’s how we run you know what I’m saying. We don’t run around trying to be superstars and this and that, somebody needs to step out the box and take the hit you know. We get a lot of slack, people talk a lot of shit, this and that, but I didn’t see that many people, in regards to these so called artists, that are doing this and that, out there at the big immigration rally doing or really showing what it was to really be out there.

That was a last minute thing to be honest ( Omar Cruz video filmed amidst the massive protests in downtown Los Angeles) because me, Omar and Rome went out there. We had our camcorder and we just wanted to be out there in the middle of it. Then Omar was like it, “I have to do this song,” that song that he made. He just did it and we started recording it and we put it all together. Today I met these kids, these Orange County Latino kids, Omar right now, his street single was leaked last week, they leaked it on Power 106 (big hip hop station in LA) they played it 7 times in one day, I could easily start charging people a lot of money to perform, just 1 song, I could charge people $2500 or $3000 to show up, but for these young Latino trying to start their own marketing team and promotion team I didn’t even charge those kids that much money. You know, its all good, I respect you guys as youngsters trying to open the doors and actually trying to do something with yourselves, with your life. To me that’s more inspiring than me trying to charge some young Latinos a whole bunch of money just so Omar can perform you know and he understands that. He understands that every move I make, he trusts me to make every move and that I’m going to make the right move. At the end of the day, I love hip hop, I grew up on hip hop and that’s all I listened to.