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Dec 18, 2010
Dec 14, 2010
Young Cash Breaks His silence:
Nappy Boy artist Young Cash turns himself in to prison Last Wednesday for an 18 month sentence. Now he has an opportunity to tell his story, and what he’s going through as a result of past choices. Here he talks about the case, snitches, and facing the music. He clears up several rumors, and offers some insight on what the future holds for those with one foot in the studio and one in the streets. #FreeYoungCash
By now, most people know you have to go away for a little while. Can you explain the situation?
My brother was notorious in the streets so the Feds always been watching us, and the music shit put the spotlight on us. They ain’t never got my brother. When my brother got shot they wasn’t really fuckin’ wit’ him ‘cause they thought he wasn’t doin’ nothin’ no more. That’s when I took over. The indictment papers say in 2003 me and two of my pa’tnas went to Brownsville, Texas, which is the border of Mexico. And from then on it says I was distributing kilos of cocaine and marijuana from Texas to Florida from 2003-2006.
Why did they take so long to arrest you?
They didn’t arrest me until 2008. They couldn’t catch me doin’ nothin’. An old connect I used to have fucked up on some other shit, and he just went to sangin’ like a choir. My connect told on me, but I was already out the game. I had sat that shit to the side and was focused on music since 2006. Now imagine, I been clean for 2 years, signed a new deal with T-Pain, everything was goin’ good, next thing you know, here come the Feds.
What happened from after they came and got you?
They take all your shit, all your money, anything they think came from drug money, and basically leave you naked out here, unless you got some money hidden somewhere. I had a few dollars put away from the music shit. So basically, they had five C.I.’s on my paperwork – C.I. is a confidential informant – it was two Mexicans I knew, another Mexican I met later, another Mexican from down here, and Dirt Diggla, which is one of my pa’tnas. At first I was like, they ever never caught me wit’ shit, it’s just they word against mine. I never thought they would tell on me. I was under them, they was my connect, so I thought the Feds were trying to go up. So I was like, fuck it, I’ll take it to trial. The Feds was like, “Go ahead and take it to trial, we got your homeboy from Texas, and we got two Mexicans with the same story.” I said fuck it, I ain’t even gonna play myself ‘cause the Feds got a 98% conviction rate.
Basically you had to plead guilty because they had witnesses?
I plead guilty and laid myself at the mercy of the courts. I didn’t want a lawyer from Jacksonville because of politics, and it was a high profile case, so I got lawyers out of town and my lawyer is a dog. So the judge showed leniency because it was so long ago, it’s 2010 and that’s some shit from 2003. And then, the Feds only had evidence from 2003-2006, so for two years before they arrested me I was an upstanding citizen. And after I was arrested and dealing with the case for two years, I ain’t never get in no trouble. Another factor of why he was lenient on my sentence is I have a 7-year-old autistic son. I had a sweet ass lawyer, the judge was real lenient and seen I was a changed nigga, I ain’t never got caught wit’ shit it was just a bunch of muthafuckas tellin’ on me to get their time reduced, the judge took all that into consideration. I only got a year and a half. Coming from a street perspective, that’s real good, but coming from a music perspective, missing a year and a half is real bad.
What was the maximum sentence you were facing?
The Feds go by guidelines. The maximum I coulda got was five years. At the last minute, the DEA got mad that I didn’t cooperate, so two weeks before I was about to get sentenced, the muthafuckas tried to say I was a leader of the whole conspiracy. That took away my safety valve. Safety valve is where the judge don’t have to go by those guidelines – there’s five components of the safety valve: no prior felonies, nobody got killed, you weren’t a leader of the conspiracy, and some other shit. I met all five, but they was pissed and tried to give me a leadership role, which took my safety valve away and put me at ten years. My lawyers went in and ate that shit up though and the prosecutor dropped that shit off. They passed a new law in 2005 that a judge doesn’t have to go by the guidelines, but 90% of them still do – my lawyer’s job was to show the judge he shouldn’t go by the guidelines on my case. The judge even said it was a weird situation, because it was one of the first cases in his life where the person didn’t stop because they got caught. I had already stopped and was pursuing my music career. The judge really respected that.
What’s the plan for keeping your buzz up while you’re away? You mentioned a year and a half away is bad for a music career.
Everybody knows I work like a dog. This is my life. People talk a lot of shit about why they ain’t make it, I feel like niggas don’t work hard enough. I’m a workaholic. Especially being an up-and-coming artist, when money ain’t coming in like it supposed to, but I’m blessed to have a situation where I can get in the studio anytime I want. I got songs for days. I could put together about five albums right now, and about three or four R&B albums. I got hooks for days for people who want ‘em. I got shit to put out while I’m in, and I shot eight videos, so I should be alright. The streets, T-Pain, and everyone I fuck wit’ in the industry gonna be running a Free Cash campaign so that’ll keep my name out there too.
You mentioned the money not coming in for an up-and-coming artist, so that maybe explains why some people get caught up in stuff. But how do you feel about rappers like T.I., Gucci Mane, and Lil Wayne that are already on and still get into legal problems.
That shit makes me sick to my muthafuckin’ stomach. It saddens me. Some niggas just got that mentality where they can’t escape the streets. I don’t know if they tryin’ to prove theyself or what, but if my shit was on their level, I wouldn’t even have them type of problems. Like the T.I. situation – why do I need fire when I got millions? I could have fifty niggas with fire legally standing around me. Now the shit with Wayne, he really got fucked over. The police in New York just wanted him. That wasn’t even his gun, it was registered in somebody else’s name, and they still tried to put it on him. The T.I. situation I don’t understand, that shit really discouraged me. It’s so many niggas hungry, trying to get to that position, and niggas is fuckin’ up they position. It’s like, do you know how many niggas would die to be in your position? You gotta do right.
Do you think rappers are targeted more by the police these days?
Naw man, they ain’t even worried ‘bout no rappers. Rappers fuck theyself up. You know who the real niggas is in this shit – niggas like 50 Cent, Gucci Mane, real street niggas been out chere. Some of these rap niggas wanna get in the game and then try to do all this wild shit for publicity or for their image. In reality, the real niggas don’t want no part of that shit. I don’t want no part in going to prison, being away from my family, my little boy, my music. This shit is ridiculous. I was reading an article on 50 Cent and he was saying rap is missing authenticity. Nobody real is coming out. It ain’t been a nigga like 50 Cent, a nigga that done been to jail, been shot up, his story was so real that’s why people took to him. Now a nigga can come out with a little dance and be a millionaire, ain’t no real shit in the game no more. It shows you where our generation is, they go for anything these days.
So there’s no authenticity in rap these days?
I love Rick Ross, Ross is my nigga, but tell me what nigga can lie about being a Correctional Officer, come back and still be on top. Ain’t nothing against Rick Ross, we all in the same camp, he had his reasons for lying, but I never thought I’d see something like that in our generation where everybody claiming real shit. It don’t add up. I was feeling 50 Cent. We need to get back to reality. Even if you was a suburbs dude, as long as you telling your story and it’s authentic, a nigga gon’ feel that. You got these other niggas talkin’ ‘bout they slangin’ this, shootin’ that, and ain’t never shot at no one, ain’t never moved no kilos. It gets redundant. I don’t hardly listen to rap music no more, I listen to R&B, Rock, and Alternative.
Obviously you going away isn’t the ideal thing to be going through, but do you think anything positive will come from it? What do you see for your future?
I see a lot of muthafuckas tryin’ to holla at me. You can’t take away my talent. It’s in my blood. I rap for real, sang, do production wit’ my niggas, all this shit is real. You can’t take talent away, even from a nigga like Ross. The man can rap his ass off. I see a positive situation when I get out. Three or four labels already tryin’ to holla at me, but nobody wanna fuck wit’ me ‘cause nobody knew what was gonna happen to me. They ain’t wanna invest into a nigga who could be doing five years.
Weren’t you actually supposed to turn yourself in a few weeks ago? I heard the prison was full so they postponed it, or something like that.
Yeah, well nothing really happened. When I was sentenced the judge gave me 30 days to get my all my business affairs in order. We was under the impression that after 30 days I had to turn myself in. On day 25 I was like damn, I ain’t got no letter and nobody told me nothin’. Usually within that 30 days they would have me set up somewhere, but everywhere close to Jacksonville was packed, so they’re sending me to South Carolina. They gave me 18 months, so I’ll probably do a year there, and if everything goes right, I should be in a halfway house the last 6 months.
How can people get in touch with you while you’re gone? Is there an address to write?
It’s Joseph Williams 32467-018 .... FCI Edgefield Correctional Institution P.O. Box 725 Edgefield, SC 29824. Also I got a small team that’s gonna keep my shit running. I’m leaving my computer with my people so I’m still selling hooks and beats.
Is there anything else you want to let people know about?
I’m going in a dog, I’m coming out a beast. God speaks to me all the time, he told me and my brother that eventually I was gonna have to face the music on all this drug shit. It’s a whole gang of rappers in the city runnin’ they mouth saying, “He ain’t a real street nigga, he ain’t this, he ain’t that.” Then the shit hit the fan and it really shut niggas the fuck up. I done heard so many stories about me. I done heard my parents got millions. Dawg you don’t understand, my daddy been dead since I was 16. My mama is an average lady with four kids that works at State Farm Insurance. I been in the hood my whole life. But I let my music speak for itself. You can look at my indictment papers and see what I was doing – trafficking five kilos or more and 100 pounds of marijuana or more. At 22 years old I coulda been ridin’ Lamborghini's. Them bitches ain’t nothin’ but $150,000. I had that under my mattress, easy. But I spent every dime toward this music shit. I’m not glorifying no shit like that. I don’t encourage nobody to do that, only two things come from that, dead or in jail. Y’all niggas think y’all gettin’ away with this shit, but a nigga can tell on you at any time. They came got me for some shit seven muthafuckin’ years ago.
How do you deal with that type of hate in your own city?
I never fed into that type of shit. I know it’s niggas in competition so they try to belittle you to get theyself on. Nigga let your talent speak for itself. I never retaliated or did a diss record on niggas I know was talkin’ shit. A lot of people talk down on me and my nigga Lil Henn, and our whole movement, but niggas really should be applauding a nigga like me. Name a nigga in Jacksonville that had records playin’ in the club before me? I’m the first nigga with the state of mind like these Texas niggas that support they own shit. I started this shit in Jacksonville. If it wasn’t for me, DJs still wouldn’t be playin’ y’all shit. It would just be a bunch of niggas in t-shirts reppin’ they company, passing out a bunch of CDs. Nobody was showing love. I showed niggas how to market theyself and get on in they own city. After Young Cash had two or three songs played in the Jacksonville club, which was unheard of, then you had T-Rone’s shit bammin’ in the club, Bread Boyz, Saw Money, Hustle House, they all have shit playin’ in the club. One nigga started that. You’re welcome. I’ma go to prison on that.
By now, most people know you have to go away for a little while. Can you explain the situation?
My brother was notorious in the streets so the Feds always been watching us, and the music shit put the spotlight on us. They ain’t never got my brother. When my brother got shot they wasn’t really fuckin’ wit’ him ‘cause they thought he wasn’t doin’ nothin’ no more. That’s when I took over. The indictment papers say in 2003 me and two of my pa’tnas went to Brownsville, Texas, which is the border of Mexico. And from then on it says I was distributing kilos of cocaine and marijuana from Texas to Florida from 2003-2006.
Why did they take so long to arrest you?
They didn’t arrest me until 2008. They couldn’t catch me doin’ nothin’. An old connect I used to have fucked up on some other shit, and he just went to sangin’ like a choir. My connect told on me, but I was already out the game. I had sat that shit to the side and was focused on music since 2006. Now imagine, I been clean for 2 years, signed a new deal with T-Pain, everything was goin’ good, next thing you know, here come the Feds.
What happened from after they came and got you?
They take all your shit, all your money, anything they think came from drug money, and basically leave you naked out here, unless you got some money hidden somewhere. I had a few dollars put away from the music shit. So basically, they had five C.I.’s on my paperwork – C.I. is a confidential informant – it was two Mexicans I knew, another Mexican I met later, another Mexican from down here, and Dirt Diggla, which is one of my pa’tnas. At first I was like, they ever never caught me wit’ shit, it’s just they word against mine. I never thought they would tell on me. I was under them, they was my connect, so I thought the Feds were trying to go up. So I was like, fuck it, I’ll take it to trial. The Feds was like, “Go ahead and take it to trial, we got your homeboy from Texas, and we got two Mexicans with the same story.” I said fuck it, I ain’t even gonna play myself ‘cause the Feds got a 98% conviction rate.
Basically you had to plead guilty because they had witnesses?
I plead guilty and laid myself at the mercy of the courts. I didn’t want a lawyer from Jacksonville because of politics, and it was a high profile case, so I got lawyers out of town and my lawyer is a dog. So the judge showed leniency because it was so long ago, it’s 2010 and that’s some shit from 2003. And then, the Feds only had evidence from 2003-2006, so for two years before they arrested me I was an upstanding citizen. And after I was arrested and dealing with the case for two years, I ain’t never get in no trouble. Another factor of why he was lenient on my sentence is I have a 7-year-old autistic son. I had a sweet ass lawyer, the judge was real lenient and seen I was a changed nigga, I ain’t never got caught wit’ shit it was just a bunch of muthafuckas tellin’ on me to get their time reduced, the judge took all that into consideration. I only got a year and a half. Coming from a street perspective, that’s real good, but coming from a music perspective, missing a year and a half is real bad.
What was the maximum sentence you were facing?
The Feds go by guidelines. The maximum I coulda got was five years. At the last minute, the DEA got mad that I didn’t cooperate, so two weeks before I was about to get sentenced, the muthafuckas tried to say I was a leader of the whole conspiracy. That took away my safety valve. Safety valve is where the judge don’t have to go by those guidelines – there’s five components of the safety valve: no prior felonies, nobody got killed, you weren’t a leader of the conspiracy, and some other shit. I met all five, but they was pissed and tried to give me a leadership role, which took my safety valve away and put me at ten years. My lawyers went in and ate that shit up though and the prosecutor dropped that shit off. They passed a new law in 2005 that a judge doesn’t have to go by the guidelines, but 90% of them still do – my lawyer’s job was to show the judge he shouldn’t go by the guidelines on my case. The judge even said it was a weird situation, because it was one of the first cases in his life where the person didn’t stop because they got caught. I had already stopped and was pursuing my music career. The judge really respected that.
What’s the plan for keeping your buzz up while you’re away? You mentioned a year and a half away is bad for a music career.
Everybody knows I work like a dog. This is my life. People talk a lot of shit about why they ain’t make it, I feel like niggas don’t work hard enough. I’m a workaholic. Especially being an up-and-coming artist, when money ain’t coming in like it supposed to, but I’m blessed to have a situation where I can get in the studio anytime I want. I got songs for days. I could put together about five albums right now, and about three or four R&B albums. I got hooks for days for people who want ‘em. I got shit to put out while I’m in, and I shot eight videos, so I should be alright. The streets, T-Pain, and everyone I fuck wit’ in the industry gonna be running a Free Cash campaign so that’ll keep my name out there too.
You mentioned the money not coming in for an up-and-coming artist, so that maybe explains why some people get caught up in stuff. But how do you feel about rappers like T.I., Gucci Mane, and Lil Wayne that are already on and still get into legal problems.
That shit makes me sick to my muthafuckin’ stomach. It saddens me. Some niggas just got that mentality where they can’t escape the streets. I don’t know if they tryin’ to prove theyself or what, but if my shit was on their level, I wouldn’t even have them type of problems. Like the T.I. situation – why do I need fire when I got millions? I could have fifty niggas with fire legally standing around me. Now the shit with Wayne, he really got fucked over. The police in New York just wanted him. That wasn’t even his gun, it was registered in somebody else’s name, and they still tried to put it on him. The T.I. situation I don’t understand, that shit really discouraged me. It’s so many niggas hungry, trying to get to that position, and niggas is fuckin’ up they position. It’s like, do you know how many niggas would die to be in your position? You gotta do right.
Do you think rappers are targeted more by the police these days?
Naw man, they ain’t even worried ‘bout no rappers. Rappers fuck theyself up. You know who the real niggas is in this shit – niggas like 50 Cent, Gucci Mane, real street niggas been out chere. Some of these rap niggas wanna get in the game and then try to do all this wild shit for publicity or for their image. In reality, the real niggas don’t want no part of that shit. I don’t want no part in going to prison, being away from my family, my little boy, my music. This shit is ridiculous. I was reading an article on 50 Cent and he was saying rap is missing authenticity. Nobody real is coming out. It ain’t been a nigga like 50 Cent, a nigga that done been to jail, been shot up, his story was so real that’s why people took to him. Now a nigga can come out with a little dance and be a millionaire, ain’t no real shit in the game no more. It shows you where our generation is, they go for anything these days.
So there’s no authenticity in rap these days?
I love Rick Ross, Ross is my nigga, but tell me what nigga can lie about being a Correctional Officer, come back and still be on top. Ain’t nothing against Rick Ross, we all in the same camp, he had his reasons for lying, but I never thought I’d see something like that in our generation where everybody claiming real shit. It don’t add up. I was feeling 50 Cent. We need to get back to reality. Even if you was a suburbs dude, as long as you telling your story and it’s authentic, a nigga gon’ feel that. You got these other niggas talkin’ ‘bout they slangin’ this, shootin’ that, and ain’t never shot at no one, ain’t never moved no kilos. It gets redundant. I don’t hardly listen to rap music no more, I listen to R&B, Rock, and Alternative.
Obviously you going away isn’t the ideal thing to be going through, but do you think anything positive will come from it? What do you see for your future?
I see a lot of muthafuckas tryin’ to holla at me. You can’t take away my talent. It’s in my blood. I rap for real, sang, do production wit’ my niggas, all this shit is real. You can’t take talent away, even from a nigga like Ross. The man can rap his ass off. I see a positive situation when I get out. Three or four labels already tryin’ to holla at me, but nobody wanna fuck wit’ me ‘cause nobody knew what was gonna happen to me. They ain’t wanna invest into a nigga who could be doing five years.
Weren’t you actually supposed to turn yourself in a few weeks ago? I heard the prison was full so they postponed it, or something like that.
Yeah, well nothing really happened. When I was sentenced the judge gave me 30 days to get my all my business affairs in order. We was under the impression that after 30 days I had to turn myself in. On day 25 I was like damn, I ain’t got no letter and nobody told me nothin’. Usually within that 30 days they would have me set up somewhere, but everywhere close to Jacksonville was packed, so they’re sending me to South Carolina. They gave me 18 months, so I’ll probably do a year there, and if everything goes right, I should be in a halfway house the last 6 months.
How can people get in touch with you while you’re gone? Is there an address to write?
It’s Joseph Williams 32467-018 .... FCI Edgefield Correctional Institution P.O. Box 725 Edgefield, SC 29824. Also I got a small team that’s gonna keep my shit running. I’m leaving my computer with my people so I’m still selling hooks and beats.
Is there anything else you want to let people know about?
I’m going in a dog, I’m coming out a beast. God speaks to me all the time, he told me and my brother that eventually I was gonna have to face the music on all this drug shit. It’s a whole gang of rappers in the city runnin’ they mouth saying, “He ain’t a real street nigga, he ain’t this, he ain’t that.” Then the shit hit the fan and it really shut niggas the fuck up. I done heard so many stories about me. I done heard my parents got millions. Dawg you don’t understand, my daddy been dead since I was 16. My mama is an average lady with four kids that works at State Farm Insurance. I been in the hood my whole life. But I let my music speak for itself. You can look at my indictment papers and see what I was doing – trafficking five kilos or more and 100 pounds of marijuana or more. At 22 years old I coulda been ridin’ Lamborghini's. Them bitches ain’t nothin’ but $150,000. I had that under my mattress, easy. But I spent every dime toward this music shit. I’m not glorifying no shit like that. I don’t encourage nobody to do that, only two things come from that, dead or in jail. Y’all niggas think y’all gettin’ away with this shit, but a nigga can tell on you at any time. They came got me for some shit seven muthafuckin’ years ago.
How do you deal with that type of hate in your own city?
I never fed into that type of shit. I know it’s niggas in competition so they try to belittle you to get theyself on. Nigga let your talent speak for itself. I never retaliated or did a diss record on niggas I know was talkin’ shit. A lot of people talk down on me and my nigga Lil Henn, and our whole movement, but niggas really should be applauding a nigga like me. Name a nigga in Jacksonville that had records playin’ in the club before me? I’m the first nigga with the state of mind like these Texas niggas that support they own shit. I started this shit in Jacksonville. If it wasn’t for me, DJs still wouldn’t be playin’ y’all shit. It would just be a bunch of niggas in t-shirts reppin’ they company, passing out a bunch of CDs. Nobody was showing love. I showed niggas how to market theyself and get on in they own city. After Young Cash had two or three songs played in the Jacksonville club, which was unheard of, then you had T-Rone’s shit bammin’ in the club, Bread Boyz, Saw Money, Hustle House, they all have shit playin’ in the club. One nigga started that. You’re welcome. I’ma go to prison on that.
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