The mixtape game has been a part of rap since it's inception, when the only way to hear your favorite emcee was through some DJ's live recording. In the last few years though mixtapes have played a large part in the marketing plan of many of today's biggest names in rap. The fact is you need to let the streets know who you are. You need to let them know that when they see your name on a jewel case they're gonna get their money's worth.

            This fact is not lost on Brooklyn based emcee Labba who's been featured on more than his fair share of corner store and street merchant CDs. Like many rappers he fell in love with the culture at an early age, but unlike many he's been fortunate enough to come in contact with more than a few industry heads. People like Busta Rhymes and Kevin Liles have been sounding the call about Labba and the uniqueness of his music. That uniqueness in based on his West Indian heritage, evident from the moment he opens his mouth. Hard to find in the rap game, Labba's booming voice delivers lines to let people know about the culture he represents, and that realness has earned a lot of attention.

            Putting the finishing touches on his debut LP Labba has been in touch with everyone from Disturbing the Peace management to MTV (who is producing a cartoon featuring his voice) but he still understands the importance of the mixtape grind. Meeting in East Flatbush Labba talked about his hustle and his experiences in the game while leaning against a freezer full Italian Ices at his corner Bodega. With the occasional neighborhood friend stopping by to say whatsup we talked about what it means to stay relevant in the streets.

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PLATEAU MAGAZINE: I REMEMBER FIRST HEARING YOU A FEW MONTHS BACK ON NEW CRACK CITY . THE BUSTA RHYMES MIXTAPE HOSTED BY CLINTON SPARKS. SO I'M CURIOUS TO KNOW WHAT YOU'VE BEEN INVOLVED IN SINCE THEN.

Labba: I did like two Kay Slay mixtapes. Then [a mix with] DJ Mor' fire , all three of those mixtapes came out and were real successful and started building my buzz. Then the real challenge came when Busta said "we just gonna put out a mixtape with Labba called New Problem, and we moved like 7,000 of that. That shit was so successful, we were like "great!"

At this point, though, the market is so saturated with artists doing what they are suppose to do, and when you are an entrepreneur like myself, it takes a little more time and you have to work extra hard, because you are also paying people to do a service, and then in addition to that I have to keep doing what I am suppose to do. That's what I have been doing, sticking to strictly that grind, that mixtape grind.

(P) SO THERE'S A FOCUS NOW ON CREATING MORE OF A STREET BUZZ?

(L) I mean, yeah. I got broken on the radio, it's like when you are a new artist and you get broken out on radio, its totally different than if Green Lantern picks up Unc Murder [for example] and puts him on the mixtape scene. Its two different things. The artist that's getting broken on a mixtape he has the dj who works that circuit, so he is going to feed you that constantly. He is going to repeat Unc Murder in your head until you get it. With my situation, it was...it wasn't like that. The radio Dj's was like whoa, we're fucking with this kid right here...so that was the good, but it can also be a curse, because now when u get on the radio it can only last so long before someone starts pushing another artist or someone says, yeah this is a one is a go. So its an excellent buzz, but for an artist like myself its basically balances out, because it gets your name out there, but you still have to continue, and how we continue is staying on the mixtape grind, nah mean? Me, myself, without having that tool, of a mixtape Dj like a Green Lantern or a Kay Slay, I have to go out and build my relationship with these men first before I can even go into that realm. It's something that people do, and it became big, from 50 to Dipset to everybody, it's the system, its how we get our break as an artist.

(P) HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN THE INDUSTRY ITSELF? MORE SPECIFICALLY, HOW DID THE RELATIONSHIP WITH BUSTA START?

(L) I connected with Bus, cause his fam is not too far from where we are at right now. He use to live on Troy avenue and he knew about my buzz because when you are a West Indian American, and you are selling Hip Hop in East Flatbush, you're going to be known, you know what I'm saying? That's like big shit...   and this is our culture. We both West Indian Americans... [Labba waves to a passing friend] Wassup baby! [he looks back at me]... My buzz has to grow.   I have to feed my people. And a lot of folks [including Busta] understood.   So next thing you know, Disturbing Tha Peace is calling me. I'm on jet planes with Baby [aka Bird Man] heading to Miami with this guy, and everybody is seeing my point of view. So to tell you the truth, the entrepreneurs in the business right now... I sat and met with and talked to [them]. They gave me the business, the tool to be on this path that I'm on right now.   And I have my dream, and I am willing to defend that, that's what I do, defend that.   To me, I'm in love with this shit in love with this music.

(P) IT SOUNDS LIKE AFTER YOUR RADIO EXPOSURE, THINGS PICKED UP STEAM WITH MIXTAPES THAT STOOD OUT BECAUSE OF THE CULTURE YOU WERE REPRESENTING IN THEM?

(L) Absolutely. Yeah. When I did one mixtape, this guy by the name of Hop bought one. Next thing you know I was sitting in my first meeting, which was with Kevin Liles [ Executive Vice President of Warner Music Group] . He bought one of the mixtapes, and he happen to put it in Jeff Dickson's CD player he was like "who the fuck is this?" Then Ludacris was like "who is this?" Chakah was like "this kid is crazy." Kevin Liles happened to be in the car at the same time, and they were all going away on a trip. They went away with me on their minds and that shit was grand for me. Next thing you know, my phone started ringing and Disturbing Tha Peace was like my life saver...you know what I'm saying, cause they came in, and they started taking my demo around and shopping me, like telling people "yo there's a dude in Brooklyn!" [ he laughs] ya nah mean..."Y'all not up on y'all game...we came all the way from the south...ya motherfuckers aint working right!" Jeff started pounding people, but Busta knew. He was in the west, though, doing the Dr. Dre thing. I don't wait for nobody, so I continued working, and Jeff and them gave me a helping hand, they brought me to Dj nasty, you know what I'm saying...made me meet the Affiliates . They was in love with what I was doing by myself...they never asked to sign me, they just knew that I worked hard.

(P) WHY DO YOU THINK YOUR MUSIC CAUGHT PEOPLES EARS LIKE THAT, WHY DO YOU THINK IT WAS SUCH A STAND OUT IN THEIR MINDS?

(L) Kevin Liles said I remind him of Chub Rock with a gun in my hand. Slim and Baby, said I remind them of when they was young and they were grinding. Leon Prescott , said I was just "it."... Basically, what I have been hearing about my music's content, is that the West Indian-American aspect of it is real grand, that's all I been getting, like "Yo my moms came here for this grand copper," or "my moms came from Trinidad," "Yo my moms came from Jamaica." Most of the fans that I have been meeting are Americans, but they come from a West-Indian background. So I think that's the biggest thing, our culture. I sell it. I sell that. Of course, the number one thing in Brooklyn is robbery and extortion, so I do rhyme about that also. I feel that that shit needs and should be addressed. I mean everything ain't flossy, and everything ain't shinny, and that's what I think brings people to my music, and I appreciate that too.

(P) HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED WITH HIP HOP? HOW DID YOU REALIZE THAT YOU WANTED TO GET INVOLVED IN THAT CULTURE?

(L) I was on that corner right there [he points beyond the bodega window to a corner outside], on 93 rd and Winthrop right here, at like 14. If you go outside there's a base on the wall, my man use to hit that shit everyday, and I use to stand outside here and rap till 4 or 5... I was like "Yo this is what I wanna do," but I think it really got serious when Mark Pitts [ A&R at Jive Records] - he is also from this neighborhood - he took me in. That was like my first set of mentoring, and he showed me the hard work, the grind, what you're suppose to do, what you're not suppose to do, how you're suppose to behave, how you're suppose to walk, talk, eat... after I got that first lesson on what the music business was gonna be when I enter it, I fell in love.

(P) WHAT PROJECTS DO YOU HAVE GOING ON RIGHT NOW?

(L) Ahhh, right now, besides from the mixtapes the main thing is the album. We just finished it. I got Cool n Dre, Scott Storch... I'm missing a couple of producers here, but I'm working on a grand album, I'm gonna finish up that. [Then] I'm going back into the studio in with MTV to finish the next six episodes of the cartoon... shout out to Justin Squad...

(P) TELL ME ABOUT THE CARTOON...

(L) My homeboy Jahad - I call him my homeboy now, even though I had to audition for him four months ago [laughing] - my homeboy Jahad came up with a creation for MTV that when he pitched it to me, I was fucking blown away. They [the main characters] fight crime against the madness that's going on in the industry. All the stuff you wanna ask me, [laughs], like who is getting robbed, who don't know how to read their contract, who we gotta go save, you know, the regular shit. I thought that was real great when he pitched it, I seen it going real far, but then I entered into a new set of politics on television: your character, business conduct, management books...shit was being sent to my house, I never had a business management and conduct book before in my life, but I started doing a cartoon, and had one sent to me in the mail, via Viacom, which is MTV.

We shot four episodes. They took it out to California, and they gave us thirteen episodes, so that's a blessing right there. Its due to come out in the second quarter this year, that's like dope for me. To hear your voice on an animation, through the animation's body is crazy...that's dope...that's dope...

(P) SO WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOUR FEELING ABOUT THE INDUSTRY RIGHT NOW? ABOUT THE CRIMES AND THINGS THAT'LL DEPICTED IN THE CARTOON?... YOU KNOW YOU CAN SAY WHATEVER YOU WANT.

(L) [Laughing] You can print whatever the fuck I say, but I'm gonna keep it honest with you. Ray Charles said it best, I'm just here to do my shit; I'm just here to do my thing. How I feel? I feel great... The reason I feel great, is because I'm the only person that's doing what I'm doing. Wyclef is West Indian, Busta's West Indian, Cardinal Official is West Indian, but the way I enforce the culture on hip hop is fucking ridiculous, it's ridiculous. That makes me feel elite [cause of] the demand for what I'm doing is now. The industry is fine to me... you keep on making your records about ya diamonds, ya five hundred thousand dollar cars; you keep on flushing your ass down the toilet. You can keep on being flashy. I'm here for affordable housing... when it's all said and done, you gonna come back around here, and you are gonna see the YMCA I get built, that's what I'm here for. I'm not here to spend my money on cars, four million dollars worth of diamonds. Not saying I don't want some diamonds. Not saying I don't want no cars. I'm not gonna be no hypocrite, and I'm not saying I don't want to get out the slums either. But I'm letting you know that's not what I sell, that's the difference between me saying yeah I love my market, I love hip-hop, I love the business... When everybody understand yo he's an immigrant, and he raps about walking around barefoot, poor and robbing.

(P) I WANTED YOU TO TELL ME ALSO ABOUT YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS, LIKE WHEN YOU GO TO THE STUDIO, HOW DO YOU APPROACH A TRACK...OR WRITE...

(L) Pain, pain, pain, pain pain... No I'm not lying, I sell pain, that's it. It ain't nothing. Its fun in the slums too though, but even when I speak about that, its pain, I go in there hurtin'. I go up in there hurtin' because I feel I'm not where I'm supposed to be yet. My peoples aren't where they're supposed to be either, so we fucked up across the board... I sell pain, I write pain, even if I was to write about these cheetos [he points to a shelf of 25 cent snacks] I'm gonna write about how much pounds this shit put on me....straight up, but im gonna tell you I love cheetos too [laughin]. How many pounds it put on my fat ass, but it will be pain, 100 percent...so that's it. That aggressive behavior and pain...that's all I write.