Young Buck talks his upcoming “Renovation” EP, his criminal case, beef with 50 Cent and his unwavering commitment to the fans
By Katharina Moser
It is a name that has an ominous ring to it – accompanied by the anticipatory feeling that tingles down your back when you know you are in the presence of a character who has helped shape history, hip hop history, that is. And whether it is the spotless Cashville cap sitting on his head, his shiny gold teeth blinking in the evening studio lights, or his bold, daring grin of someone who knows what he has accomplished and is confident of what success is still to follow, one can recognize Young Buck immediately from meters away.
The legendary US rapper, founder of the record label Cashville, and former member of the infamous hip hop crew G-Unit under 50 Cent, has been around in the industry for thirty years – and has no intention of quitting. And to dispel any last doubts about his unwavered commitment, he has announced the release of a new EP, “The Renovation”. “I feel good to be out here pushing and being really relevant to the game still, and having the younger generation still reaching out”, Young Buck says. “I’ve been through a lot regarding my career. A lot of good, a lot of bad. In my music, I process all this. Renovation means that I’m rebuilding what I’ve already built, I´’m putting a makeover on what’s already there”, he explains what the EP is about. “I have been hot, I have been one of the dopest in this music business. It’s not that I feel everything is broken down, I just feel like it’s time to rebuild some things. Update me, upgrade me. That’s what the analogy to the renovation is for me.”
Young Buck hasn’t released a music project in the past years, except for a number of features with other artists, and instead had to focus all his energy on fighting a criminal case that he is involved in. “I just needed to get back to this mindspace of me being able to drop a project. It was just so much, fighting this criminal case that I’m in front of. But I got to a point where I realized that the fans need me. And I thought, I can’t let my fans down, after I brought them with me on this long journey”, Buck says. “I realized that no matter the outcome of the criminal situation, the fans are still there. What about them? So I had to fall back and put the fans before me. That’s why I’m dropping music again.”
“I have been a target for so long in my city that the man I was yesterday ain’t the man I am today.”
Young Buck
Lyrically, “The Renovation” EP is a reflection of the struggles Buck has been through in the past years. “I speak about things that I’ve been going through with regard to the criminal case. That whole situation of coming from a place where you are a big fish in a small pond. I have been a target for so long in my city that the man I was yesterday ain’t the man I am today. And a lot of people in the position of power hold things against me that they thought I did.”
In his words, the criminal case refers to an incident where he got into an argument with a former girlfriend, who in turn used her own guns to shoot him. “I did not touch this woman or anything. But she shot two different guns against me, one in the house and one outside. Luckily I was able to get in the vehicle and pull out”, Buck says. As a convicted felon, however, he was charged a couple of days later with possession of a weapon, arguing that he lived at her house and his DNA was found on the firearm.
In the court database of Sumner County, where the charges against him have been filed, the case file lists domestic assault, vandalism and possession of a weapon as a convicted felon for a violation date in October 2020, as well as the violation of a protection/restraining order a couple of days later. Young Buck is convinced that the charges are made up. “I used to live there, but it was never my home. The guns belong to her, they were on her name, she had a license to carry her own gun. I had nothing to do with that shit, but I’m being charged. It’s fucking crazy”, Buck says angrily. “I am totally innocent. My fingerprints are not on that gun, none of that. I don’t know what they feel in regards to me, but it’s the truth for me. She will even tell you, and told the authorities before, that I had nothing to do with no gun. Yet, they dropped her case three years ago. And she is the one who actually shot the weapon at me”, Buck says. He shows his ankle monitor that he has had to wear for three years and that costs him, he says, 250 dollars a month. “It’s unreal”, he says. He is also obligated to take a drug test every two weeks for three years, now.
“I’ve been to prison. For something that didn’t happen the first time, so I know it happens. And it scares me.”
young Buck
The trial date in the county database says 30 July. “I will have to fight for my life. They offer me ten years in prison, maybe even twelve years”, he says incredulously. He sees his chances for a win in court at 50-50. “Honestly, I won’t accept anything but an acquittal. I’m not guilty of any of those charges. You got the truth and someone who’s trying to make something into the truth. And the truth always wins. I put my faith in God and keep going through this. It’s unbelievable”, Buck says. “There was a time when I felt like I had to get way from this place. But the problem is not my city. It’s some individuals within my city that are not adjusting to the man I’ve become, and still look at me as the man that I once was. Because I can’t say I haven’t been an asshole at times.” Young Buck, himself the target of at least two drive-by shootings in the past, has a history of legal issues, some of them including drug and gun charges as well as assault, famously the case when he injured Jimmy James Johnson with a knife after he, Johnson, had punched Dr. Dre at the VIBE Awards in 2004.
“I’ve been to prison. For something that didn’t happen the first time, so I know it happens. And it scares me. Because I went to prison innocently. Honestly”, Buck argues. “I am a man. I can say it when I was guilty and accept it. But I went to prison because I chose not to cooperate with them.” Young Buck is convinced that this has a lot to do with his identity as a Black man and as a gangsta rapper, someone regarded as a danger on the street by authorities. “That’s exactly what I´m being judged for. I can’t wait to be able to say that we were able to bet that situation. I know I’m innocent. What I am more worried about is to let the world know what’s going on here. This is real. People can really have it out for you”, he says. Buck is convinced that he is the victim of an unjust justice system, and unfair treatment in Sumner County. “I need to bring light to this situation. I am a celebrity and they are looking to do me like that. Think about what is being done to people that are, so to say, the regulars!” Young Buck has never doubted that as a Black man, fairness is still something he needs to fight for. “Racism still lives in certain places, in certain people´s heart. We don’t wanna face it but that’s the reality.”
It is the lingering injustices of a society not yet ridden of racism and discrimination that Young Buck is glad to see being overcome by his family. Recently, he proudly shared a photo of his son who graduated high school with honors at the age of only sixteen, calling it “breaking the cycle”. Yet, society seems to keep shoving stereotypes in the faces of those trying to build a better future. “I read a comment underneath the photo saying, how can you say your son is breaking the cycle when he is in his graduation picture throwing up gang signs?”, Buck recalls. “And I said, hold on a minute, and went back to the picture, then called my son. And he said, it is the sign a group of friends has established in their fraternity at school. He is a very well-mannered child, very far away from all that. But I still had to see.”
“I have become the underdog. But I started out as the underdog from the beginning. I know what this feels like and I’m okay with being one now.”
Young Buck
Buck is proud of his son for taking a different path than his dad. “I never made it through high school. I made it to 9th grade, and then I made the decision to choose the streets over school. I never thought about ever graduating. It was never a thought in my mind to consider. I had already made up my mind on who I was going to be. And at that time, I was trying to be the best drug dealer I could be. That was my motivation at that time, and my mind frame as a youngster coming up in the environment that I came from”, Buck recalls. “To watch my son separate himself from certain struggles I know he has dealt with, with regards to the streets and certain groups of kids, for him to keep his head on the right way…”, he trails of. “And not only graduate, but graduate with honors at the age of 16 – my son is the first in my family to ever graduate that young. It can happen.” His four daughters have graduated college as well or are on their way. “The cycle was broken through my seeds. You know where I got my GD? In federal prison. I had my capping gown on just like my son. I walked on the prison stage and got my diploma. It was handed to me from a guard”, Buck tells us and laughs. “Once I got to prison, that was my focus. I had nothing else to do, so I did it. I know I’m a living example of redemption, too. Doing what I did, after I had been counted out.” Young Buck brought it to massive success with G-Unit, one of the most famous and best-selling hip hop crews in history. “I have become the underdog. But I started out as the underdog from the beginning. I know what this feels like and I’m okay with being one now. Because I know what it takes, and what I’ve done wrong. And I choose to learn from experience, what route not to take, who not to listen to. This is the renovation!”, Buck calls out, and his gold teeth blink promisingly.
His return to bringing out a new music project is in part also due to the fact that there are still a few scores to settle and contributions to make in the music industry, he feels. “As someone who is big on independent music and independent hustling, I see the game in a really tricky place right now. We are at a place in the industry where artists are forced to release their music and then have to wait 90 days before they see their check – after anybody else has collected. There are so many middlemen in the music, and us artists need to find a way to make it work for us, too. We give our time and our all to making this music for our fans, and yet, sometimes the artist is the one getting the least out of the deal.” To conquer this, Young Buck has developed an app called SPNDAT, where artists can sell their music without a middleman, directly to the fans, for a self-defined price. Young Buck plans to also release “The Renovation” EP via the site, first. Fans can pay 50 dollars to get the tape before it is released on major distribution sites like Spotify, and all profits go to the artist himself, who keeps owning his music. “Fans do not only get the music early, but can also directly communicate with the artist. You pay a little more, but you get a little more for your buck.” His first single “Live Change” is already out on the platform, available via the app store.
Young Buck also wants other artists to use the site, make it grow, and fight the monopolization of the music industry. “It’s enough room for everybody to eat. I think for us artists, it takes someone to actually jump out there and do it, and I’m up for a challenge. I’m an underdog in this game, the underdog everybody is following”, Buck says. “Some of us really build a family with the fans. Without them, there is no me. We support each other. We as artists want to be able to win from this game, financially. That’s why I’m in this the independent way. I want to show the people you can do it, build it up from the ground. Not only for myself, but I want to see the people win. I’ve always been somebody who wanted to see the bigger picture”, Buck says.
Despite all the projects he has going on, the amount of music he has brought out over the past two decades, and the innovative ideas he is presenting, his projects of substance tend to, every once in a while, get overlooked in the media, which prefers to concentrate on the riff raff around Buck´s legal issues, criminal history, beef with 50 Cent, or financial problems. “I had to come to terms, I had to let go and let God, when it comes to that. Not only do people speak about anything else but my music the whole time, but also is a lot of that stuff made up or hearsay. What about the ten tapes I put out? All this music, where is that? All the good things I’ve done? But I learned the hard way that media is based on news that generate the most attention. More negative media seems to gravitate to people than positive”, Buck ponders. “That’s the truth that people in positions of power and in the media in control have to live with. You can give a person positive energy, or you can give them negative energy. That is no different with my music. But at this point in my career, I don’t give a fuck about this bullshit. I’m about moving forward, for fans, to feed some good music to the streets, and to make some good money”, Buck says daringly.
Young Buck, at the end of the day, wants to be remembered as the rapper who put Cashville on the worldwide map, the first to do it on that scale. “I did it for my city, and I did it for myself. And I have created a name and a brand for people to carry for years and years on”, Buck says, and holds on for a moment. His phone is ringing, his mother calling, and Buck does not hesitate a second to take it. “I love you”, he says before he puts down the phone. “See, that was my mama asking me to pay some bills for her. Life is real. We need to be paying our mama’s bills.”
“For me there comes a time where you see that good times don’t last forever, and I gotta keep moving. I can’t sit here and mope about the past – that shit don’t pay bills.”
Young Buck
Young Buck, after all these years in the industry, leaves a hip hop legacy unparalleled by many artists in the Southern part of the US. That is in part due to his impeccable solo projects, but not the least also due to his contributions to G-Unit, which spiraled him to the top of the game at the beginning of the decade – that is, until he had a falling out with 50 Cent and the crew broke apart. Following mutual accusations, insults, rap beefs and social media fights going on for years, the two rappers are still not on good terms. Does the nasty falling out not give a bitter taste to an otherwise so miraculous achievement? “Yes, it does. It is sad. And I have my moments. That was my brothers. We allowed whatever it was to come between us. And if we was true brothers, you would allow nothing between us. Nothing can come between you and your real brother, no matter what”, Buck says. “The issue with me and 50 Cent… I´m not pointing a finger at him or myself. But if we could have sat down, face to face, before reacting on social media… We never sat down like we once could and always have, to iron out whatever the issue was. It is what it is.” Buck smiles melancholically. “I reached out to them several times and tried to bring us back together genuinely. In the beginning, when we broke up before, I was the one who brought us back together. But shit just happened again. That’s family feud. Brothers are gonna fight.” But Buck would rather have them put the gloves on and battle it out that way than “the shit we’ve been doing”.
“For me there comes a time where you see that good times don’t last forever, and I gotta keep moving. I can’t sit here and mope about the past – that shit don’t pay bills. You heard my mama. Life is real”, Buck says in his no-nonsense kind of way. “We did not only hurt ourselves and our pockets with this bullshit, we were also fucking the fans over with this. But I’m so grown, I’m gonna get money either way. I ain’t tripping on that funny ass shit that they have been doing, saying shit on my name. I know who I am, I ain’t none of that shit. Motherfuckers have done a great job at trying to make me into that. But I love getting money, and I love making good music, and that’s me, that’s Buck, cheers!” He raises his plastic cup, bright red like his Cashville cap, and under his wide, confident grin, his gold teeth sparkle, undeterred, in the twilight of the studio in Nashville. It is the city he has helped put on the map of world hip hop – and the city he does not plan to quit on anytime soon, or ever.
The Wrapper 