L to R: Money Mon & DoughBoy

“You know if you want it bad enough, you’re willing to put everything you got into it.”-Money Mon.  

     Many outsiders migrate to Atlanta for the job opportunities and the nightlife. But as the new “Black Hollywood” emerges, only the true Atlantians know the history of the city and how it has become this grandioso town for Black Americans. Meet Doughboy Tha Weightman and Money Mon aka Montana, two young cats that have lived through the hype and represent MLK Jr Drive and the Westside of Atlanta wholeheartedly. Their devotion to the city and its “real” lifestyle can be heard in their music from the first track to the last. Currently, tearing the streets up with their latest mixtape “Ready 4 Tha World”, these cats got southern swag reminiscent of Eightball & MJG and the mental motivation like their Westside ATL rap peer, T.I.  As they stay focused on giving rap lovers the true grit and struggle through their rhymes, these Click Tight Records artists are ready for their break out moment and ready to conquer the whole ATL and then the world.

     STACKS Magazine recently caught up with Doughboy and Money Mon in Adamsville. Check out what these talented young rappers had to say about their style of music, how the hood has affected them, artists they’ve worked with and want to work with, advice on being independent, and more.

Where did you grow up? How did it affect your music?

MM:  I’m Money Mon aka Montana the Don. ..Westside up, Montana down. I’m a Westside nigga born and raised right here in Adamsville. Pretty much, this where I’m from and where I grew up.  You know, got money over here. Started the music business right here. We hanging out right now on Wisteria (Rd). 

DB:  Doughboy Tha Weightman.  Adamsville, this where I’m from. Basically the same thing he said. As far as the music and how it molded us, we’ve always been around music. My brother and cousin’em was rapping in the late 80s, early 90s. His [Money Mon] brother was doing it , R.I.P Chris Terry. He did a lot of stuff for a lot of groups out here as far as writing and features and stuff like that.  My daddy stayed next door to Killer Mike. So you know hip hop was always around us. We try to rap about what we do, what we see, and how we were raised. So basically how hip hop just moved us. It’s always been around. When we were younger, me and him,  about 8 or 9, got records and scratched up his daddy records when we were little…in the basement, and just get to scratching and rapping. We were like 8 or 9 years old when we used to do shit like that. So it’s always been in us. Hip hop and the music and the love for it. The people older than us and who were around they lived it. We seen them boys battle in it. So it’s always been in us , I can say, since day one.

Describe your style of rap…

MM: We pretty different from the next group that’s out there.  We more on the way we grew up and the hood and street shit. We think we are little more lyrical because that’s what we got in us. That’s what we bring to the table that’s different from the average group that’s out. There’s a lot of music out there. But in my opinion, are kind of garbage right now. I guess that’s where our style come in and differ from everybody else. We offer that street, hood shit…

DB: struggle…

MM:  at the same time, we serious about our issue. We can jump out there with anybody that want to get in the booth with us. So I say, pretty much playa shit, club, you know we do it all for the most part. Like for instance, on our cd Ready 4 Tha World (that’s what we got out now), we’re both actually are solo artist. At the time, we got a group project out now called Ready 4 Tha World. On that we got tracks for the ladies,  we got tracks for the club like the one with Yung Joc. We got shit for the radio like the one with Killer Mike…This What WE Do, Yola [Tha Great] on it. So pretty much…

DB: something for the streets too with Slick Pulla (CTE), talking about them niggas that snitching. All them niggas out there snitching…Stop It!

MM: so that’s how we do it. It is what it is. CT Records , that’s how we get down man.

What are the hot tracks on the mixtape?

DB:  Trap Flooded. We got one, Stack Bread with Yung Joc. We’re about to hit the town real hard with that one. Basically, you can put the album in and let it ride from the beginning to the end.  Everybody who’s hearing it, they really liking it.

MM: If you want to check it out, we got the visual. We got the video on Youtube.  You can click on Doughboy Money Mon. We got Trap Flooded, Ready 4 Tha World, and Work…all 3 videos. We got behind the scenes footage as we shooting the videos.

DB:  Youtube/Doughboy and MoneyMon. Put it in there just like that for it to come up.  Like you said, Trap Flooded, Ready 4 Tha World, Work…Check it out.

MM: Check it out. Hard shit, real shit. We’re getting pretty good views. So click on that, help support it. Them views doing numbers. So click on it and help support that thang.

Did Midnight Black produce the entire album?

DB: We worked with Pittman. He did a track on there for us. Pittman did the Party Like A Rock Star. Ole dude, Big Russ did a track on there for us. But I can say, a good 98-99% of the album was produced by Midnight Black. Shout out to Black.

Any other artists you’d like to work with?

DB: The lane open. Any opportunity comes my way I’m going to try to take it. So, basically anybody.

MM: Like he said, the lanes open. We’re looking to work with everybody. Anybody who doing this thang. Personally, one of my artists I would want to work with  is hometown favorite, Outkast.  Andre, Big Boi…yall listeneing to this, holla at ya boy [laughs].

DB:  T.I. , Rick Ross…

MM:  Who you say, T.I. , Rick Ross…

DB:  I fucks with Rozay hard. Homes, killing them right now.

MM: That’s pretty much it. We pretty much do our own thang man to try to hold them 16 down. But we ain’t turning no features down and especially from the big dawgs like that.

What’s next?

MM:  Next, we’re actually still promoting Ready 4 Tha World right now. But the next project, we’re heading back to some up-n-coming artists we got.  But at the same time, we’ll probably move back into our solo projects cause like I said, we are solo artists, Doughboy Tha Weightman and Money Mon aka Montana. So we’re still actually working on them songs right now.  But we so busy trying to promote Ready 4 Tha World right now.  That’s really what we are focused on.  Ding more videos for that and getting posted on Youtube and Worldstar Hip Hop. But as far as getting in the studio again, it will probably be the solo projects for Doughboy and Money Mon and the compilation for CT Records.

Pro’s and Con’s of being an indie artists/label…

DB: We do what we want to do. Ain’t no label telling us we can’t put this out as far as that aspect of it. It is what it is. It’s independent. Would you say it’s a little harder? [looking at Money Mon]

MM: I guess one of the advantages is… like you said, we can put out what we want to, when we want to.  The disadvantage of it is, we independent, so it’s all coming out of our pocket.  At the same time, it’s an advantage, because any money that come in come right back to us. So it’s like a give and take type of thing. You know if you want it bad enough, you’re willing to put everything you got into it. So you reap the benefits when the money come in, it’s all ours. So we stuff it in our pockets. For people who getting into the game, I’ll say… for upcoming independent labels like us, we been in the game well over 10 years. For people getting into the game, definitely put your all into it. I say stay independent until you catch a break. So when it comes, you got both of your feet in there to where they can’t move you to where they want to move you. You got a right to stand up and say you know no we doing this. We got a little leverage here. You know …it’s all about money. People will try to step in and handle you if your business ain’t right. So I say keep doing your thing.

     As long as you making your name in these streets, they can’t take that from you. We got ground to stand on. That’s what we doing, that’s what we did, for the most part, that’s what we’re going to keep doing. That’s the advice I got for anybody trying to come up in this music thang. It ain’t gravy, it ain’t hard as long as the music good. You just got to beat these streets up with the music.

DB:  Work hard at. At anything you do, you got to work hard at it. You’re independent, so if you start something, you got to put your all into it. And go hard at it. Like he was saying… it’s a good thing. It’s a learning process. You grow. You find out what you should’ve did and what you should not have done.  A lot of people tell you you have to learn from your mistakes. But it all comes together as something good in my eyes.

Are you on Facebook, Youtube, etc?

DB:  Facebook…Dougboy and Money Mon . On Youtube, check out that Trap Flooded, Ready 4 Tha World, and Work. They can check us out on that right there. We in the streets heavy promoting…passing out cds.  You might see us on a corner near you passing out cds. We got a bunch of young niggas with us, with Click Tight Records shirts on, passing out cds. So they can reach us just like that.

MM:  Also you can check out Datpiff.com and put in Ready 4 Tha World. Facebook/DoughboiMoneyMon…you can go on our Facebook page and we got links already up to where you can click on that and go straight to the videos, mixtapes, everything we got on there.  Check us out. Be looking out for the new videos, mixtapes, and all that shit. We really just working hard…trying to beat these clubs and streets up.  Trying to make it do what it do. Once we break through you’ll see a lot more  of us.  But right now, we’re tearing the Westside up, all of Atlanta for the most part. But keep an eye out for us, we on the rise.

Full Video Interview:

 

Video for “Trap Flooded”: