The Southern reign has been holding steady as the bottom states continue to hit every taste in the Hip Hop spectrum. However, looking at a map does present somewhat of a head scratcher in the form of that black hole between Georgia and Mississippi. Where the hell is Alabama? Did someone forget to send them the “the south is the shit right now” memo?

Rich Boy aside, that crew has been seriously absent. Is it too late? Did they miss the boat? The Mobillionairez say, “Not on your life.” Holding it down for over a decade in… you guessed it… Mobile, these cats are ready to take the south into its next hit zone incarnation. Tightly packed and completely self-sufficient, the group suggests they’re going to be as big as the Wu and as paid as Cash Money if you give them one listen. So get the door folk, Bama is knocking.

Mr. Moore, 1/5th of the organization sat down with Hoodgrown to explain how to work the independent side of things, why diversity in your portfolio is important and when you will be bangin their music (and that would be momentarily). Maestro, if you will….

The first thing I want to ask you about is the album. It’s called Rookies of The Year?

Right. Right.

What can the fans expect from the album? And is the Alabama sound different than what we get from the rest of the Southern States?

Well the sound is not going to vary from state to state. It varies with whose doing it. Our sound is most definitely different than everybody elses. We are very diverse. Once you cop the album, you might get a club banging crunk song for track one and the second track might be a reality type song. It’s going to be a lot of different things on the album, so you can expect that. We do Hip Hop. We do R&B. We do Gangster Rap. We do Techno. We do it all and when our first album drops were going to put it all in there. We’re going to try to hit every fan base.

Did you say Techno?

Yeah, Yeah.

How did you get interested in Techno?

Well, I’m going to tell you. It’s kinda crazy how we got to that. Baby T, the Producer, thinks he’s the best Techno Producer ever and every other beat he would produce would have a techno sound to it. So I was just like, man lets try it. And we tried it and it came out hot. It’s the Techno beat, but it’s got Rap lyrics. So you can either bob your head or pull your glow sticks out.

Funny. So what’s the name of the song?

We’ve got one called Boomerang that’s techno. And even our first single with Mannie Fresh actually has a techno sound to it. Shake it Fast; yeah that has a techno vibe to it.

Now how did you get the opportunity to work with Mannie Fresh?

Wendy Day is our consultant and she’s a great lady. She has all the connections in the world. She hooked it up for us. She heard the track originally when we did it like a dance type song for the club. She heard it and said it could potentially be our first single. So she said we needed to get a big time artist on the track. She hooked it up with fresh and he re-vamped the beat. We went up there with him and made it happen. It was all Wendy.

So when does the album drop? Do you have a release date?

It hasn’t dropped and we don’t have a specific date, but we are looking at some time late this year.

For the average rap fan, you guys are new to the scene, but I understand you all have been making moves in the Alabama underground for some time now. Tell everybody what you have done so far.

Yeah, we are new to the industry but we’ve been grinding for about 13 years. We’ve had opportunities to open for quite a few major artists like Rich Boy, Crime Mob, DJ Unk, Jim Jones, the late Soulja Slim. We went to Atlanta and did a song with Faebo called strike a pose; which is probably the biggest song up to the Mannie Fresh song of our career. That song broke radio down here. We got spins on it. So we been doing it for a while. None of this is real new to us.

I read that you won a talent show a couple of years ago called the Optimistic Entertainment Talent Search. And the grand prize was a deal, a contract to sign, but you turned it down?

Right. They came to our city and they had about 40 groups to perform. The groups were from New Orleans, Florida, Tennessee, just from all around the southern area. We won that and they offered us an exclusive recording contract. But since they were just coming on the scene and a recording contract was not what we were looking for at the time. We are really trying to do this independently. We just feel that if we keep grinding and keep pushing and hook up with the right people, we will get more than just an exclusive recording contract.

Were folks calling you crazy for turning that down?

No. You know what, not many people knew about it. Outside of our families and the people who were there, no one really knew about it because we don’t like to blab about a lot of stuff until something actually happens. Because one moment everything can look good and you have the whole city, the whole hood amped up and then it all falls down. So outside of family, our management team and the people who were at the show, no one knew about it. We didn’t put it out there like that.

You did join with an organization called Hands Up Music?

Yes.

So what did they have to offer that made you say yes?

Actually one of our Managers was my boss where I was working. And he saw me writing music and he asked what I was doing. I told him I was writing music. He asked if I was any good and I said I think so. So he asked me to bring him a demo and let me hear it and if I like it I might invest. So I brought him the demo and he played it and him and his family and everybody liked it. So he actually became an investor. So he invested and we created the Hands Up Music. It’s our independent label.

I got ya. So why independent? I mean if a major knocked on your door tomorrow, would you turn them down too?

It just depends. If they come with the right deal, the right price; you can’t turn them down. But you have advantages to independence and disadvantages. The reason we want to do this independent is because we believe we have enough in house that we don’t really need a label. We have our own production, our own engineer. We do our own writing; our own recording and everything. So if we can cut out the middle man, that’s the best route we can go. But on the other hand, majors can out you out faster. They have more avenues and money to work with. So if they came with the right deal, we couldn’t turn it down. But right now our man goal is to have Hands Up as our independent label, compete with these major labels and maybe one day Hands Up will be a major label.

Now tell me about how you hooked up with DJ Smallz. Was 2 Deep your first mixtape?

It was our first major mixtape. We did a lot of underground mixtapes by ourselves with DJ’s in the area, you know club DJ’s we knew. But that was our first major mixtape and again that connection was made by Wendy Day. She knew DJ Smallz. It was a few other DJ’s she brought to our attention to host our mixtape but we liked Smallz work from what heard in the streets here. So went with Smallz to host the tape.

I have to be honest. Before checking Wikipedia the other night, I could only come up with two Hip Hop artists out of Alabama and that was Rich Boy and Mr. Bigg. I’m just curious about why you think there is such a small representation in Hip Hop from Alabama when the southern sound is so dominate?

It’s a lot of talent in Alabama. Crazy talent; Atlanta talent is right here in Alabama. But we don’t have Wendy Day’s just walking around here. So it’s hard for us to get out. A lot of people that’s doing it are going the wrong way about it. They don’t have a team or a supporting cast to help them get their music to who it needs to get to. So that wraps it up. I mean, trust me a lot of talent. Rich Boy, Mr Bigg, Mobillionairez; this wont be the last you hear from Alabama.

The south has been pretty dominant for a long time and some folks are getting a little antsy thinking it’s about time the hotness moved to another region. Does that concern you? Do you feel like the south isn’t going to be “that spot” anymore? Or do feel Mobillionairez can transcend that?

It don’t concern me at all. The south is here and the south is never leaving. Not to knock any other region, but the south keeps it moving. I mean we cant adapt to whatever. Most people that you hear from the west coast is just going to be west coast. Most people that you hear from the north, its just going to be north. But like I told you we hit all angles.

Your bio relates the Mobillionariez to the likes of Wu-Tang and the Hot Boyz suggesting that like them you all are destined to do some really big things. Now that statement puts you in some really serious company. You think the five of you can back that up? It’s a pretty strong statement.

It’s a very strong statement and there is not a doubt in my mind that we can back it up. Like I said, we’ve got from the production team to the writing team. We’ve got what it takes to become a Cash Money or a Wu-Tang or whoever. We can be right up there with those guys. There is no doubt in my mind that we can compete and be right there with them. Only difference is I don’t want to break up. We gonna keep it moving because were all family.

Alright, well I think that’s a wrap. Is there anything you want to add that I forgot to ask you?

Naw, that’s it. I just want to tell everyone to be on the look out for the album. Thanks for the support. And much love to Wendy Day because we couldn’t do this without her.

And where can folks go on the World Wide Web to check for what’s going on with Mobillionairez?

Right now the Myspace is up at and we also have a website at . You can check us out there and on Facebook.