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Ali Vegas - The Young Veteran
Interview By: Dale Coachman
 Coming up at twelve years of age with the likes of Nas, the Bad Boy era and Jay-Z, Ali Vegas has been through the good, the bad and the ugly of the record business. Almost to a fault, his loyalty may have slowed him solidifying himself in hip-hop but he lives with no regrets. With an upcoming album entitled the Generation Gap the self- proclaimed “Prince of the City” is ready when we are. With lyrics over Scott Storch, Cool & Dre mixed with DJ Premier’s pioneered style Ali Vegas is here to edu-tain and make music that parents and their children can nod their heads to.
 Nobodysmiling.com : For the people, who don’t know who Ali Vegas is, just give a brief summation of who you are and where your travels have taken you?
Ali Vegas : For starters I came in the game young, around twelve years old and I signed to Trackmasters and Columbia, that was my first deal. Tone and Poke got dropped from Columbia and I had the choice to either stay with Columbia straight or walk away from it. I chose to walk away from it because I don’t go into a situation and it turns bad and I decided to walk away with the people I came in the game with. I took time off and I was living life and then I get a call from Tommy Motola.. told me he wanted to start a label and he wanted me to be the catalyst, but when it came to the process he wanted me to do pop instead of hip-hop so that didn’t work out. After that I was really jaded so I started my own joint with my Big Homie Lamar Odom and now I have creative control and I can do what I want to do.
Nobodysmiling.com : How did you and Lamar Odom come together?
Ali Vegas : It’s been a dream of ours since we both were young. We both agreed that whoever got on first they were going to do this and vice versa so we were just taking the proper steps to put the plan together. The artists that have deals today aren’t even mentioned in the era I came in which was in the 90’s. Nas, Jay, BIG, Pac, Mase that whole Bad Boy era and that’s the era that I’m from.
Nobodysmiling.com : What’s the biggest thing you took from that up and down period of the record business?
Ali Vegas : Knowing that it’s not my fault. You have to understand that no one is going to do for you what you can do for yourself so sometimes you have to make those things your fault and if stuff goes wrong it’s your fault and that means I was hands on with it and I was doing what I was supposed to do and knowing I didn’t leave it in nobody’s hands. So now it’s cool because it’s like I want it to be on me. It’s like being Kobe, I want t take that last shot. If I lose look at me wrong because I’m going to take that last shot again. That’s what I took from it the most because I’m going to be blamed for it regardless. Iv never been dropped from a label I’ve always been begged to stay but the people that I was under they got dropped.
Nobodysmiling.com : What have been some of the things that have really gotten you back in the studio?
Ali Vegas : Just the game itself and I never really stopped recording that’s why I have over 1500 songs today so my catalogue is serious and that’s why on my mixtape I’m able to give you real songs instead of rhymes over instrumentals because I have love for the art before the business stuff. It’s hard when your living the life, I do some of these thing that rappers dream about, like whenever I fly…I’ve never seen what a commercial flight looks like I always fly private, stay in the best hotels and live in a Mansion and I wake up feeling like a king. It’s hard when there’s something that you love to do is giving you stress and something that you don’t even care about is giving you so much pleasure. I look at myself in the mirror and it’s okay that I’m living my life straight but at the same time my generation and the generation after me is suffering because look at what they have to listen to and look at what they have to endure. This isn’t what it’s supposed to be like so there comes a point in time. I spend 90% of my time thinking about others so that’s what really made me come back in the game was my youth.
Nobodysmiling.com : So what’s your strategy this time around because it’s not about the art anymore, now it’s about marketing, timing and personality so what is your attack this time?
Ali Vegas : Give them the truth, we live in a reality era and I’m such a behind the scenes person and a ghost to the public. When I tell the truth you don’t see me but you see everything I’m talking about coming to life in front of your eyes then you have no choice but to follow me or at least listen to me every time I come on. That’s not a strategy that’s just me being me telling the truth.
Nobodysmiling.com : So when is the album officially dropping?
Ali Vegas : Sometime this year when the people demand. I don’t like to put dates on things but when the people want it, the Ali Vegas album will be I stores near them.
Nobodysmiling.com : It’s interesting that you talk about making music for the youth and there is music out there that is being made for the kids but it mostly concerns a specific dance. What’s your opinion on that?
Ali Vegas : It’s cool but that’s why the name of the album is Generation Gap. I want parents and their children to discuss my music and that’s what’s missing. A mother and their child can’t talk about certain songs that are on the radio because it’s either too grown for the child or too young for the parent. That’s why I call it Generation Gap because it’s a discussion they can take to the table.
Nobodysmiling.com : What’s your creative process like when you’re in the studio?
Ali Vegas : I don’t want to sound like a cliché but I just go in there and speak my mind. I speak to the younger kids in my neighborhood and I take what we talk about and guide them and that’s why my lyrics are so personal. One song on my album is called Alright and it’s about two parents getting a divorce and there’s a son and a daughter and the two kids are realizing they’re not related and it’s stuff that my little homie is going through so I have songs on my album like that. So they’re situations like that and if you don’t go through it now these songs will prepare you for them.
Nobodysmiling.com : As far as the youth if there was one thing you could make them aware of immediately?
Ali Vegas : Never take their eyes off the prize and never wait for the prize to come to them. Nobody is going to do for them like they’re going to do for themselves.
Nobodysmiling.com : There’s been a lot of talk about the New York and the South and the shift and that subject. If you could say anything to the people of New York what would you say to them?
Ali Vegas : It’s music man! What they have to learn to understand is instead of being the main existence try to co-exist and learn how to feed off of that. You think cares about what Whodini does? Whodini made you appreciate Rakim. You listen to Microphone fiend and then you listen to the Freaks Come Out at Night, and this is what makes the people appreciate it. You show fear when you say stuff like that, we from New York the best city in America, the ball drops here so why would I feel threatened about music it’s so much bigger than that. Stop being so selfish with it and then the city will be what it once was.
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