This is an old interview I stumbled across, and it had some interesting Pac related stuff. It seems he recorded more than just Big Time with Pac. Wonder if any of those songs will ever surface. I also didn't know that Stretch toured with the Afros 
F.E.L.O.N. MAGAZINE - ISSUE #1 (October 2001)
E-MONEY BAGS
E-Money Bags is one of the exceptions to this rule. A native of Brooklyn, E-Money Bags is having a successful career as one of the rap's underground elite and has proven himself a businessman while remaining street. During the course of his career, E-Money Bags has worked with everyone from the late 2Pac Shakur and Notorious Biggie Smalls to Queensbridge's finest Prodigy and has also acquired a number of fans through tremendous following overseas. E-Money Bags has been labeled by most as a survivor in both his rap and personal life because of his ability to succeed despite being faced with adversity. From being charged with a double homicide to being turned down for a major recording deal, E-Money Bags has taken it all in stride and has used these setbacks as motivation in his attempt to achieve rap greatness. In a candid interview with one of rap underground's finest, E-Money Bags reflects on the tragic loss of his mentor Big Stretch to his recent run-in with rap superstar Jay-Z. Throughout all the trials and tribulations he has faced, E-Money Bags has used his street smarts and business savvy to achieve longevity in the rap game but it is his comitment to the streets that has helped him to maintain his position amongst rap's underground elite.
THE STRUGGLE
E-Money Bags: Back then, I never had any intentions of being a rapper. I was in the streets like most of the niggas I knew. I used to see these niggas (Stretch and Majesty) going to the studio scrapping to get their shit together, but I wasn't thinking about that shit. I wasn't respecting the gangster of the music industry. I hustled! I was out to get it (money), so I took to the streets. shit was sweet til I got locked up. They hit me wit a double homicide charge. When i was in the pen, I watched these niggas take off....they got down wit the Afros and was travelling around the world. So, I was proud of my niggas, but at the same time I was thirsty. So, when my appeal came through and I got a not guilty verdict, I knew that was my oportunity to get into this game. Of course I hustled when I first got home, but that was to get on my feet. This time I was hustling wit a purpose that made it easier for me not to get trapped off.
THE SETBACKS
E-Money Bags: At first, I'm not going to front shit was difficult. I was using my hustling money to pay for studio time, and it seemed like the more work we put in the less we got out of it. But shit started to pick up in 93 and niggas started to feel us. We got on some tracks wit Pac (Tupac Shakur) which gave us some credibility in the rap game. But as soon as we started rolling we faced a number of setbacks. First and foremost was the loss of my mentor Big Stretch.
Majesty (Co-CEO of Grand Imperial Records) : We're still continuing this shit on after the tragedy and shit (death of Stretch and 2Pac), letting niggas know that we're still here. Cause we're the founders of this whole thug energy that's going on right now.
E-Money Bags: Then to add on to the stress, Pac was murdered and a lot of the shit we worked on was put on hold.
THE SUCCESS
E-Money Bags: I don't look at myself as an underground rapper. Fuck, I got a lot of shit that most known rappers don't have. I'm Co-CEO of an independent record label (Grand Imperial Records), I even got record sales overseas. What nigga from the underground can say that? I didn't even know my shit was popping off like that over there til my nigga Nore went over there for a concert. The nigga (Noreaga) called me from out there and was like ,
Nore: Yo, you got pull like that?
E-Money Bags: Fuck is you talkin bout nigga?
Nore: Yo, they got an article on you out here, I can't understand the shit but it must be good.
E-Money Bags: Love like that shows me that I'm not underground. For underground rappers, to stay in the game is a struggle and I'm far from struggling.
REAL VS. STUDIO RAPPERS
E-Money Bags: I feel that every rapper in the spotlight is a studio-rapper, myself included. No rapper can honestly say they still do the shit they rap about in their everyday life. If they do, them niggas are fools. I see it as making it across the George Washington Bridge. For example, a nigga like Master P has done everything in his power legally and illegally to make it across the bridge. Seeing all the bullshit he had to deal wit to make it across that bridge, I don't think he or any rapper who's getting it would do something to make them return to the bullshit they faced in the city. When I make it across....I'll come back , but just to visit.
CHANGE THE GAME? NO NIGGA, CHANGE THE NAME!
E-Money Bags: I was chillin when one of my niggas approached me on it (a new artist under the Rocafella camp who goes by the name of H-Money Bags). So I check the nigga (Jay-Z) on it. I called up there (Jay-Z was on the air at Hot 97FM), actually P (Prodigy) called up there, So he came to the phone thinking he was going to speak to Prodigy, P put me on the phone;
E-Money Bags: What's the word son, it's me E-Money Bags.
Jay-Z: What's up?
E-Money Bags: What's the word son, why'd you go give a nigga my name?
Jay-Z: Yo, I don't appreciate you got this little youngster passing me the phone (referring to Prodigy)
E-Money Bags: I don't appreciate you having a nigga up there wit my name! What you got to say about that?
Jay-Z: Dog, that's his name. You want to speak to him?
E-Money Bags: Yeah, put Hyrone on the phone. Yeah, I know the nigga name is Hyrone.
Jay-Z: Yo, E man, I don't respect this.
E-Money Bags: Why you ain't respecting that I'm asking about a nigga wit my name dog? You acting like you didn't holla at me to get Nas for you (Jay-Z wanted Nas to appear in one of his videos).
Jay-Z: That was then.
E-Money Bags: Oh, you that now...oh, you built like that duke...nah you ain't built like that! Yo, I ain't got nothing more to say.
THE AFTERMATH
E-Money Bags: We left it at that and hung up the phone. But what the fuck you calling Nas an hour later copping pleas telling him chill we (Jay-Z and E-Money Bags) went to school together, why you letting Prodigy gas it up like that? Like he wasn't on the radio with Angie Martinez, he doesn't remember that?
Johnny Handsome (rapper under the Grand Imperial record label): Right now it's verbal. They can take it however they want to take it. (If there was an opportunity for you and H-Money Bags to battle, would you be willing?) I'm down for whatever, whenever - Grand Imperial is here. Tell that nigga to holla!
E-Money Bags: You (Jay-Z) didn't hear me and Prodigy on Hot 97 barking on you about that? We're even on a mixed tape and Amil (formerly signed to Roc-a-Fella Records) hopped on the shit...it's war man, y'all niggas playing war. You (Jay-Z) forced my hand man, so gonna give y'all niggas what y'all want in rap, and whatever else...y'all wanna take it further, then hey, I'm built for that. Y'all know how it is going to go if you go there. I really doubt that though. People on the radio talking bout they love their life, they don't want it to come to this. So why front on the phone like you wanted it like that! I don't write lyrics I write live-its, cause I live this shit.
LETTING IT RIDE
E-Money Bags: As far as it goes with the name and shit, I got to take it like 50 Cent. He named himself after 50 Cent, a nigga from Fort Greene Brooklyn. 50 Cent the rapper is from Queens. The real 50 Cent, God bless the dead, was representing in Brooklyn so that's why he did that. Shorty naming himself Moneybags is like I died or something already. I'm letting him know that I'm still here representing that name to the fullest...but I don't want to make it seem like a gorilla to a possum. Like I'm really trying to bring it to shorty over some corny shit. If y'all want to act like it could be something, then hey, it's in y'all court...don't take it the way y'all know I'm about. Y'all know what I'm really trying to do is the right thing. Don;t force me to take it the way we all know it can go. That's why I showed you the flick of Pac, Big , and Stretch, all my comrades are dead. I know I could be next. I'm on the frontline representing that until the day I leave here. I follow the code of the streets. That's just the code I live by. I'm governed by those rules no matter what decisions I make.
F.E.L.O.N. MAGAZINE - ISSUE #1 (October 2001)
E-MONEY BAGS
E-Money Bags is one of the exceptions to this rule. A native of Brooklyn, E-Money Bags is having a successful career as one of the rap's underground elite and has proven himself a businessman while remaining street. During the course of his career, E-Money Bags has worked with everyone from the late 2Pac Shakur and Notorious Biggie Smalls to Queensbridge's finest Prodigy and has also acquired a number of fans through tremendous following overseas. E-Money Bags has been labeled by most as a survivor in both his rap and personal life because of his ability to succeed despite being faced with adversity. From being charged with a double homicide to being turned down for a major recording deal, E-Money Bags has taken it all in stride and has used these setbacks as motivation in his attempt to achieve rap greatness. In a candid interview with one of rap underground's finest, E-Money Bags reflects on the tragic loss of his mentor Big Stretch to his recent run-in with rap superstar Jay-Z. Throughout all the trials and tribulations he has faced, E-Money Bags has used his street smarts and business savvy to achieve longevity in the rap game but it is his comitment to the streets that has helped him to maintain his position amongst rap's underground elite.
THE STRUGGLE
E-Money Bags: Back then, I never had any intentions of being a rapper. I was in the streets like most of the niggas I knew. I used to see these niggas (Stretch and Majesty) going to the studio scrapping to get their shit together, but I wasn't thinking about that shit. I wasn't respecting the gangster of the music industry. I hustled! I was out to get it (money), so I took to the streets. shit was sweet til I got locked up. They hit me wit a double homicide charge. When i was in the pen, I watched these niggas take off....they got down wit the Afros and was travelling around the world. So, I was proud of my niggas, but at the same time I was thirsty. So, when my appeal came through and I got a not guilty verdict, I knew that was my oportunity to get into this game. Of course I hustled when I first got home, but that was to get on my feet. This time I was hustling wit a purpose that made it easier for me not to get trapped off.
THE SETBACKS
E-Money Bags: At first, I'm not going to front shit was difficult. I was using my hustling money to pay for studio time, and it seemed like the more work we put in the less we got out of it. But shit started to pick up in 93 and niggas started to feel us. We got on some tracks wit Pac (Tupac Shakur) which gave us some credibility in the rap game. But as soon as we started rolling we faced a number of setbacks. First and foremost was the loss of my mentor Big Stretch.
Majesty (Co-CEO of Grand Imperial Records) : We're still continuing this shit on after the tragedy and shit (death of Stretch and 2Pac), letting niggas know that we're still here. Cause we're the founders of this whole thug energy that's going on right now.
E-Money Bags: Then to add on to the stress, Pac was murdered and a lot of the shit we worked on was put on hold.
THE SUCCESS
E-Money Bags: I don't look at myself as an underground rapper. Fuck, I got a lot of shit that most known rappers don't have. I'm Co-CEO of an independent record label (Grand Imperial Records), I even got record sales overseas. What nigga from the underground can say that? I didn't even know my shit was popping off like that over there til my nigga Nore went over there for a concert. The nigga (Noreaga) called me from out there and was like ,
Nore: Yo, you got pull like that?
E-Money Bags: Fuck is you talkin bout nigga?
Nore: Yo, they got an article on you out here, I can't understand the shit but it must be good.
E-Money Bags: Love like that shows me that I'm not underground. For underground rappers, to stay in the game is a struggle and I'm far from struggling.
REAL VS. STUDIO RAPPERS
E-Money Bags: I feel that every rapper in the spotlight is a studio-rapper, myself included. No rapper can honestly say they still do the shit they rap about in their everyday life. If they do, them niggas are fools. I see it as making it across the George Washington Bridge. For example, a nigga like Master P has done everything in his power legally and illegally to make it across the bridge. Seeing all the bullshit he had to deal wit to make it across that bridge, I don't think he or any rapper who's getting it would do something to make them return to the bullshit they faced in the city. When I make it across....I'll come back , but just to visit.
CHANGE THE GAME? NO NIGGA, CHANGE THE NAME!
E-Money Bags: I was chillin when one of my niggas approached me on it (a new artist under the Rocafella camp who goes by the name of H-Money Bags). So I check the nigga (Jay-Z) on it. I called up there (Jay-Z was on the air at Hot 97FM), actually P (Prodigy) called up there, So he came to the phone thinking he was going to speak to Prodigy, P put me on the phone;
E-Money Bags: What's the word son, it's me E-Money Bags.
Jay-Z: What's up?
E-Money Bags: What's the word son, why'd you go give a nigga my name?
Jay-Z: Yo, I don't appreciate you got this little youngster passing me the phone (referring to Prodigy)
E-Money Bags: I don't appreciate you having a nigga up there wit my name! What you got to say about that?
Jay-Z: Dog, that's his name. You want to speak to him?
E-Money Bags: Yeah, put Hyrone on the phone. Yeah, I know the nigga name is Hyrone.
Jay-Z: Yo, E man, I don't respect this.
E-Money Bags: Why you ain't respecting that I'm asking about a nigga wit my name dog? You acting like you didn't holla at me to get Nas for you (Jay-Z wanted Nas to appear in one of his videos).
Jay-Z: That was then.
E-Money Bags: Oh, you that now...oh, you built like that duke...nah you ain't built like that! Yo, I ain't got nothing more to say.
THE AFTERMATH
E-Money Bags: We left it at that and hung up the phone. But what the fuck you calling Nas an hour later copping pleas telling him chill we (Jay-Z and E-Money Bags) went to school together, why you letting Prodigy gas it up like that? Like he wasn't on the radio with Angie Martinez, he doesn't remember that?
Johnny Handsome (rapper under the Grand Imperial record label): Right now it's verbal. They can take it however they want to take it. (If there was an opportunity for you and H-Money Bags to battle, would you be willing?) I'm down for whatever, whenever - Grand Imperial is here. Tell that nigga to holla!
E-Money Bags: You (Jay-Z) didn't hear me and Prodigy on Hot 97 barking on you about that? We're even on a mixed tape and Amil (formerly signed to Roc-a-Fella Records) hopped on the shit...it's war man, y'all niggas playing war. You (Jay-Z) forced my hand man, so gonna give y'all niggas what y'all want in rap, and whatever else...y'all wanna take it further, then hey, I'm built for that. Y'all know how it is going to go if you go there. I really doubt that though. People on the radio talking bout they love their life, they don't want it to come to this. So why front on the phone like you wanted it like that! I don't write lyrics I write live-its, cause I live this shit.
LETTING IT RIDE
E-Money Bags: As far as it goes with the name and shit, I got to take it like 50 Cent. He named himself after 50 Cent, a nigga from Fort Greene Brooklyn. 50 Cent the rapper is from Queens. The real 50 Cent, God bless the dead, was representing in Brooklyn so that's why he did that. Shorty naming himself Moneybags is like I died or something already. I'm letting him know that I'm still here representing that name to the fullest...but I don't want to make it seem like a gorilla to a possum. Like I'm really trying to bring it to shorty over some corny shit. If y'all want to act like it could be something, then hey, it's in y'all court...don't take it the way y'all know I'm about. Y'all know what I'm really trying to do is the right thing. Don;t force me to take it the way we all know it can go. That's why I showed you the flick of Pac, Big , and Stretch, all my comrades are dead. I know I could be next. I'm on the frontline representing that until the day I leave here. I follow the code of the streets. That's just the code I live by. I'm governed by those rules no matter what decisions I make.
