Scott Bejda
[JT The Bigga Figga from The Bay Area is one of the most important figures in independent rap history as he helped lay the groundwork for many others to follow. He and other Bay Legends such as E-40 and Too Short showed people how to get that independent money. He is also responsible for launching the career of The Game by creating Black Wall Street and putting out his first projects including a collab album with Nas entitled Q.B. 2 Compton which caught the attention of Dr. Dre and Aftermath. JT also speaks on surviving 3 shots from an AK-47 at point blank range just 2 days after the birth of his Daughter.]
1. Independent Hustle
I was eating but I never got the meal that I wanted. P.Diddy for example, I remember him getting his first million dollar check from Arista Records in 1994 and in 1994 I already had 10 albums out and I was a f’n kid. I was doing it but I was eating little meals. I signed with Priority a year later in 1995 for $500,000 but I didn’t get the meal. Master P actually got the meal. He got the meal I was looking for in 1996.With me I don’t make no albums or no movies without the feeling but what still keeps me going is I still have rap dreams from 1992. I shot Game Recognize Game on my Momma’s stairs in our apartment building.
2. Discovering The Game
It was a blessing to know my hands had something to do with it. I woulda never imagine 5 months later that Dr. Dre would have signed the n*gga that I found who was from Compton. When I dropped Untold Stories two weeks before the Aftermath album while he was on TV I moved about 100,000 units in 3 weeks. Nas dropped Ether and in the midst of all that going on between Nas and Jay-Z that sh*t was so big I f*cked around and bought 8 Nas songs and I did QB 2 Compton with Game and Nas. Game didn’t know Nas, my people knew Nas and from there I blended that project together and that motherf*cker got the buzz going to get him signed. Dre and them was like “How did he get with Nas when he is from out here!”
3. Master P Sat & My Mama’s Kitchen Table & Soaked Up Game
Master P sat in my Momma’s kitchen to learn how you put out all these goddamn albums out and what studio are you working with and who is doing your graphics? All that training he got from me but we both got it from E-40. That was the blue print I was following along with Dr.Dre ad Death Row. I wanted to be Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Suge Knight all in one. So when you see Playaz In Da Game that album was my effort to do that because I was the producer, the engineer, the rapper, the executive producer.
4. Black Wall Street’s Creation
I wrote the CEO Manual which you can google and it’s an ebook and the first artist I signed you see Game sitting there in my house. The Game asked my permission to use It like he was gonna do it in a way where I can get my credit. They was like no this is too powerful you need to trademark it and cut JT out and that is exactly what he did. When the shit happened with Game originally me and him started going at it and it was over him using Black Wall Street saying it was his and him telling me I can’t use the songs I paid for. They wanted to make sure the world didn’t know that I put him on. We seen each other for the first time last year going to the gang summit and he tapped me on my back and said what up. He did what he did to me to 50 Cent less than 8 months of being in the G-Unit.
5. Surviving 3 AK-47 Shots 2 Days After Daughter’s Birth
I’m back on my feet but I was almost gone. I got hit with an AK-47 3 times at point blank range. I never got shot until I moved down south. Out here you got to have a gun or don’t even come out. I moved to Atlanta 7 years ago. I got hit 3 times and all the bullets hit me in good spots which coulda killed me. I lost 80% of my blood on the way to the hospital. I had a new baby on March 26th and on March 28th I picked up my Wife and my Baby and took them to the house. Then I went to the projects to give the people some food and these little punks see the car and saw me by myself and they went for it. When they shot me in my stomach by my hip, and show nuff they shot me some more and they didn’t even go in my pocket, they ran. It was the fear of them knowing what the f*ck they just did. I was getting blood transfusions, stomach cut open, guts, and I get out the hospital 30 days later. While I was trying to feed some people these f*ck n*ggas was trying to take my life. I’m standing up on my feet right now. I got a little limp because my leg was broken; I heard the bone snap when the bullet hit my leg. My stomach is almost healed up all the way too.
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