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Sev One - And The Winner Is…
Interview by: Mike Ivey Jr.
 I’ll be honest: my knowledge of Massachusetts is limited to major sporting champions, Project Move and The Departed; apparently, now, the streets’ taste-makers identify a fresh “M-A-$-$” channel that provides galling images of it’s underbelly.
Blocks outside the Northeast may not be abuzz about Sev One, AKA The Boston Bully, just yet, but your favorite DJs, all of them, know the deal. Sev’s new mix, ‘The Bootlegg,’ which includes twenty tracks of slick similes, a few up-tempo attempts, and co-signs from DJs Drama, Kay Slay, Big Mike, and Whoo Kid, is available for free download courtesy of Sev’s label G.E.M.S Worldwide. The husky-pitched lyricist recently made time to chop it with NBS and GET FAMILIAR (I know, shameless) with our online nation.
He’s “no pussy,” Sev doesn’t get boxed: his antagonistic verse on “Gangsta Shit” is book-ended by fire from Uncle Murda and “The Black Babe Ruth” (Jadakiss), but it doesn’t mean Sev’s protest jewel “War” (w/Junior Reid) is any less real; Sev’s favorite female feature is “the back of her throat,” but it doesn’t mean he sounds any less sincere when hoping out loud for a solid connection outside the sack.
Boston, Mass. ambassador Clinton Sparks is on board ‘The Bootlegg,’ so it’s quite clear Sev handles a versatile, thoughtful pen. In one of his first interviews to kick off 2008, Sev discusses the geography of his home state, the unique nature of his independent deal with G.E.M.S. Worldwide and ways to stay on track through the digital curve. At the risk of being sued for copyright infringement…PAY ATTENTION!!!
 Nobodysmiling.com : So you must either have a lot of money or be really respected because, you have Clinton Sparks, Drama, Whoo Kid, Kay Slay & Big Mike hosting ‘The Bootlegg.’ Which one is it?
Sev One : I think it’s probably a combo man. To be honest. But overall, that was Clinton. Clinton’s part of my team so I told Clinton that I wanted to make that happen cause I had that idea for a while now. And he’s the one that reached out and made that happen.
Nobodysmiling.com : How’d you guys decide the sequence of the DJs appearing on ‘The Bootlegg?’ Was that Clinton’s thing?
Sev One : Yeah, Clinton put it all together so…I don’t know if it was any methodology; I think he just did it. I was watching em put it together and he was just throwing em in so…
Nobodysmiling.com : Who was your role model rapper coming up?
Sev One : To be honest man, I listened to all kinds of different music; it wasn’t just hip hop. But it’s gonna have to be a combo-Biggie, Nas and Hov. I had those albums in heavy rotation, always.
Nobodysmiling.com : Your speaking of ‘Ready To Die,’ ‘Illmatic’ and ‘Reasonable Doubt?’
Sev One : Heavy.
Nobodysmiling.com : Out of those three albums though-
Sev One : Oh, you ask me the debate of the century-
Nobodysmiling.com : LOL! You gotta pick one, c’mon man!
Sev One : No, it depends on the mood and it depends on stages in life for me; there were certain points when I didn’t think anything was better than ‘Reasonable Doubt;’ there were certain points when I didn’t think anything was better than ‘Illmatic;’ there were certain points when I didn’t think anything was better than ‘Ready To Die.’ But at this stage in life I’ve learned to accept the fact that you’re gonna look at artists like, ‘This dude mastered his section of the craft-so did this dude and so did this dude.’ You can’t really choose; that’s like saying, ‘What’s better ice cream?’
Nobodysmiling.com : Is your goal to partner w/ a major label or build an independent base w/Gems Worldwide?
Sev One : I think…the thing is with G.E.M.S, it’s independent but it’s not like the average independent where they don’t have funding cause actually they do have some funds. And on top of that, they also have connections with incredible technology companies and stuff like that, so they’re able to actually make some moves that major labels are able to make too. So it’s actually like the best of both worlds. If that opportunity presented itself and it looked right, I’m sure we could make it happen.
Nobodysmiling.com : What kinds of tech companies are we talking about?
Sev One : Well…that’s them; they be talking about it in meetings and what not…for example, we just sent out to all the college DJs-we sent out a package including a vinyl, it also includes a CD, and it also includes a USB-you know, like a flash drive? But on the flash drive it has the entire mixtape and some of the singles; it also has the insignia of G.E.M.S Worldwide on it. We also sent them a USB strip with an MP3 player as well-you can plug your headphones right into it; you can record on it; you can keep other files [on it]-whatever. So that’s like the stuff there they’re into; they’re tryna approach the record industry in a non-traditional manner-use the Internet to help you instead of-all the majors are tryna push the Internet away and tryna stop this and stop that. We’re gonna use that to our advantage, you know?
Nobodysmiling.com : So it was a pretty easy decision to provide your mixtape as a free download, considering the state of the industry?
Sev One : Yeah. And especially being a new artists too. It’s a lot easier to get people familiar with myself if they don’t gotta pay for it. It’s hard for me to throw dough out on some new artist I never heard of at all, so…that has to do with gratitude too. If you break down G.E.M.S, it says Gratitude, Excellence, Monumental Success so…that was them-heavy gratitude giving that out. I appreciate it. I know it wasn’t free to me.
Nobodysmiling.com : LOL. I’m sure you invested a lot of time, energy and heart into it. Word up.
How’d the collab w/Junior Reid come about?
Sev One : I wrote that song a few years ago. I wrote it in my crib. I got the beat-the beat came from Chucky Thompson.
Nobodysmiling.com : Really.
Sev One : Yeah, I was writing to it and it just happened-it just happened, as far as writing to it; I have a couple friends right now that are in Iraq and what not. And then I got-I got people that are here at home that are caught up in all kinds of -all kinds of shit, so I wrote it-I wrote the hook and everything. And then one day when we was recording in Sony, I was recording another joint and my manager hit me up and was like ‘I got a surprise for you,’ and just came through with Junior Reid. And then Junior Reid-I told em the hook, he memorized it, went in the booth and…murdered.
Nobodysmiling.com : Was it important to have him say ‘Blood’ on the hook in order to grab people’s attention?
Sev One : That was him adding some ad-libs. I wrote the: “there’s a war on the streets, there’s a war overseas/ and our soldiers are dying each day,…police, as more bodies are placed in the grave.” That’s the part that I wrote. So him in the background doing the blood thing…that’s his signature move I guess.
Nobodysmiling.com : That’s what it seems like. Are you able to vote Sev?
Sev One : Yeah, yeah.
Nobodysmiling.com : Who’s your front runner for the ’08 presidential election?
Sev One : I’m either going Hillary or Obama. I’ma have to flip a coin though. I’m not sure. I’m not sure yet. But I know how it works overall with the electoral college and stuff though. And if you know that stuff too-everyone of us in the country can vote for one of them, but they don’t want it to happen, it ain’t gonna happen, as you can see eight years ago and four years ago.
Nobodysmiling.com : What does Sev One mean?
Sev One : I’m one of seven children; I broke it down from that and here are the little things-Massachusetts is at seventy one degrees longitude, and when I was born I was seven pounds, one ounce.
Nobodysmiling.com : Hm.
SEV: That’s just extra stuff. I found all that out later.
Nobodysmiling.com : That’s very interesting.You have the song “Gansta Shit” with Kiss and Uncle Murda. Who A&R’d that whole thing? That’s a serious collaboration for a new artist like yourself.
Sev One : The way it happened is, once again I was in Sony just recording and…Murda came through and when he came through they did it up so that, you know, we could do a mixtape joint or whatever real quick. And this is before Murda had actually signed to the Roc-like right before; like the night before almost. So we ended up ah, ya know, he did the hook-went in there and did his thing; I made my part and then we had the joint sitting there like that for a little while on the hard drive, and the dude the beat- he works with CNN a lot- he ended up playing me a joint a few days later of…some Reggaeton joint that he did that he got Kiss on, and he said Kiss was his man, and I was like ‘Yeah right! If that’s the case, see what you can do about getting him on this joint.’ He was like “Aight, I’ll see what I can do.’ Less than a week later we was in the studio and Kiss laid his bars, so…it was a real good look.
Nobodysmiling.com : That’s what it do. OK, so at the end Kiss is shouting you and G.E.M.S. out really heavy. You must have hit it off when you met.
Sev One : Yeah-yeah-yeah. He was a good dude. We was in the studio for a few hours after we laid the stuff down. He played us a lot of his new stuff. We ran through a bunch of my joints-a few joints that might have been on the mixtape, a few joints that are probably gonna be on my album. We just asked em to go in there and do an outro and he took it upon his self to take it from there, so I appreciate it.
Nobodysmiling.com : Word.
Sev One : Definitely. He’s one of my favorites too so…
Nobodysmiling.com : I can dig it-that’s for a lot of people. What’s good with the “OK” sign in your Myspace pic? It reminds me of what Brother Jim Jones does when he puts that circle over his eye-
Sev One : Oh-oh, I didn’t even think of that. Actually in Boston they got a thing that they do with their fingers; it’s like a respect thing-when dudes give their handshakes out here, you never give one of your friends or your peoples your trigger finger.
Nobodysmiling.com : Oh really?
Sev One : Yeah, you give a handshake like that; you don’t give any of your peoples your trigger finger. So it’s just a Mass. thing.
Nobodysmiling.com : OK. Are we looking at an album this year?
Sev One : Yeah-yeah; it’ll be out in ’08, but I’m not sure exactly what quarter. We’re just tryna make it absolutely perfect-had a lot of joints that we threw away that weren’t gonna make the album like on the mixtape and what not so…we’re going in.
Nobodysmiling.com : Now obviously I know it’s just a song title, but from what you tell me about the trigger finger thing and etc. …what makes Sev One on some gangster shit?
Sev One : Yeah-I’m not really on some gangsta shit to be honest. I been through some shit and what not. Definitely not a pussy-
Nobodysmiling.com : LOL.
Sev One : But yeah that’s Murda’s hook and it ended up being the name of the joint, so I just went on it and repped.
Nobodysmiling.com : I can dig it. As far as G.E.M.S’ connects with technology, do you guys have some ringtone ideas for the mixtape or is that coming later?
Sev One : I’m not sure about with the mixtape, but I got some ringtone ideas that are gonna change the game- don’t sleep; it’ll be in like a year.
Nobodysmiling.com : Ideas such as what?
Sev One : If I tell you then it’s gonna get out and we’re gonna see ‘Mike Ringtones’ taking over the planet.
Nobodysmiling.com : LOL. Just give me a little clue; you don’t have to tell me the whole thing.
Sev One : Nah, I’ll tell you next year, next time we meet for the next interview.
Nobodysmiling.com : OK. Fair enough Sev. Anything you want to offer before we wrap up?
Sev One : Yeah man, just tell em I appreciate all the love so far. Make sure you cop that mixtape, ‘The Bootlegg.’ Dropping the album in ’08. Shouts to everybody over at Nobodysmiling too. I appreciate it. Thank you.
Nobodysmiling.com : As we appreciate you. Hey Sev, good looking.
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