Durham, North Carolina emcee M.O.S. is taking the underground hip hop scene from the streets to a venue near you. M.O.S. is no rookie to the game and has been known to stay true to the streets. Recently crowning himself “King of N.C.” on his “Talk That Sh*t” single featuring B. Stacks and Young Swift, the Durham rapper is most definitely heating up the rap scene.
Too add even more momentum to an already impressive drive, M.O.S. dropped his latest mixtape titled Business Never Personal 3 last month and has received nothing but positive reviews since.
I recently caught up with M.O.S. and we talked about everything from him dropping out of high school to linking up with Ski Beats.
Hip Hop Enquirer: It seemed like at a young age you had a lot of different distractions going on in your life, ultimately causing you to drop out of high school. Is this when you found your passion for hip hop?
M.O.S.: I was always into music. I grew up listening to west coast rap a lot. Like Ice Cube, NWA, DJ Quick, Spice 1, and MC Eight. When I left school it was pretty much about chasing dollars. I wanted nice things and my momma wasn’t going to buy them so I had to get them. I left school a couple of weeks into the 11th grade. I had actually got into trouble for getting some fellatio from a nice young lady. I guess that was the last straw. They kicked me out and expelled me after that.
Hip Hop Enquirer: At the age of 18 you and a friend formed Hot Block and were behind driving the mixtape market in Durham. What was the hip hop scene like in Durham before you and your crew got together?
M.O.S.: To be honest there really wasn’t a scene. I mean there was, but there wasn’t. There wasn’t anybody that really connected to the streets. Back then in Durham if you were rapping we would probably look at you like you were a lame or a weirdo. In Durham it was pretty much drug and gang based and that pretty much ran the city. I would even have to hide my rapping to my homeboys, because it really wasn’t cool. What we did was kind of spearheaded and brought the streets into the music. What we did is take after what we seen the Lox was doing and DJ Clue and what 50 started doing with the mixtapes. That was a little advanced for down here.
Hip Hop Enquirer: In the midst of you establishing yourself as an emcee you had to serve a brief sentence, but while incarcerated you decided to take music more seriously and you worked on your penmanship. How did that experience put things into perspective for you?
M.O.S.: My bond was crazy and I had to sit for a few months, but in that time all I thought about was if I do bond out and God give me another chance I’m going to really try this music. When you get behind that wall, there’s a lot of niggas who was spitting, but I was looked at as the best. They are really the ones who gave me that early confidence. After I got out I told myself when I saw Petey Pablo on 106 & Park, that if he could do it, I know I can.
Hip Hop Enquirer: Talk to us about Ski Beats and the impact he has made in your career.
M.O.S.: Ski had came to the music conference that I put myself into and I was the standout of the conference. From there he invited me to his house and said he wanted to record with me. A few days after the conference I went to his house and I didn’t look back after that. I felt like everything up to that point was play-play. Once I got with Ski he challenged me and helped me sharpen my sword.
Hip Hop Enquirer: Tell us about your affiliation with Y.B.E.
M.O.S.: Y.B.E. stands for Young Black Entrepreneurs. It’s a company that I started years ago, maybe 2002, with my little brother who is my business partner. I had helped him start Faculty Entertainment when he was younger. We have just been helping each other to push each other’s lives.
Hip Hop Enquirer: Your latest mixtape Business Never Personal 3 just recently dropped. How are you feeling about the mixtape?
M.O.S.: The mixtape is crazy. We haven’t had one bad review. Everything is going beautiful with it right now. We got production from Ski Beats. We got Ensane Wayne. Manifest, who just did “Drug Dealers Dreams” for Rick Ross’ Mastermind album. The feature that I have other than Carolina artists is Bleu Davinci.
Hip Hop Enquirer: Do you have any upcoming events to promote the mixtape?
M.O.S.: Yeah, I have been booked pretty much the last two months. We are doing a mixtape release party in Raleigh this Friday. Then I got Greensboro next Saturday, Charlotte the week after that, and South Carolina the week after that. I’m booked for the rest of this month and May. We are shooting all the videos now too. I got a new video going on WorldStar in a couple days called “Talk That Sh*t”. I got my homeboys on that track too.
Hip Hop Enquirer: What can we expect next from M.O.S.?
M.O.S.: I want to get into a situation where I can pretty much dictate my own numbers. The next mixtape is Like A Movie 2 hosted by DJ Folk. I’m trying to drop that around the Fourth of July.
Man, we just pushing over here.
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