SPOTLIGHT: SHA STIMULI EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Sha Stimuli Interview
The Boy Hollywood

CHAMP: What’s Goodie b?

SHA STIMULI: I’m good man good jut enjoying life

CHAMP: That’s what’s up. We wanna shed a lot of spotlight on your career as an artist so I just wanna get the whole history of Sha Stimuli like where you grew up and what kind of influences you had.

SHA STIMULI: I grew up in Brooklyn and I was born in Brownsville raised in Flatbush. For those who don’t know my older bro is the dude named Lord Digga who’s a producer who did songs on Biggies first album Me and My Bitch, One More Chance, Everyday Struggle, and he was one of the members of ISC with Masta Ace and he was a rapper himself. He was signed to Atlantic back in the day. So me being a little kid growing up next to a dude that took music serious and Masta Ace and Craig G by my crib all the time and being at Juice Crew video set; I’m probably 13 years old with dudes that really chose this as a career and my brother would just bring me around to absorb it all. To me it was a dream but at the same time I saw people that chose this as a career and it was a reality to them as well as a reality to me. Some days I would just sit and write and just really study the craft. I was a fan of music itself like I was a fan of Michael Jackson before rap.

CHAMP: There were times where you were around when Biggie was recording the tracks for Ready to Die.

SHA STIMULI: Yeah, when he first did Ready to Die, Me and My Bitch the original version a lot of that early stuff. I was just sitting back like “this is amazing” and I would go home and write rhymes until I fell asleep.

CHAMP: (Laughs). Now at the age of 11 you were penning rhymes. Were you trying to launch a career at that age or did you do it for kicks?

SHA STIMULI: It was like as a kid you always thinking something’s gonna happen. I was on Ace’s album doing ad-libs and writing hooks and all type of stuff. I was excited just to do that. Back when Kriss Kross and ABC was out, I was thinking that I could come out. I was following whatever the popular trend was. I was playing whoever was the popular artist although I had dreams about it I was definitely writing, battling in school, and really just learning but at the same time I never ever saw me working like a real job in my mind. I couldn’t do anything other than music. Even when I went to school I majored in Radio & Television, I interned at a record company and I was really like business is my back up plan.

CHAMP: You actually majored in Radio-Broadcasting?

SHA STIMULI: I went to Delaware State. First I went to Iowa to play ball and I did one year out there, and then I came back to be closer, and went to Delaware state and graduated there with honors so school was nice for me. Interned at Roc-A Fella in ’97 and really studied the breakdown of how you make a record label from the beginning. As an artist I believed in early before he was popping and helped build that whole movement  like the Roctober slogan that was all me and you can check that too that was definitely me

CHAMP: (Laughs)

SHA STIMULI: They still use that today and when I say business was my back up that was my back up . I was interning and learning the whole game. Like I wasn’t really set on becoming an artist until BIG passed and it was one of those feelings like the idol isn’t here anymore like damn I gotta add something to the game.

CHAMP: Now when you just came off Delaware or where you interning while you were out there?

SHA STIMULI: I was interning while I was out there and when I was doing the intern that’s when I met Lenny S which ultimately lead to me getting signed to the same person so to all the people out there, interning you never know

CHAMP: And Lenny S was at Virgin.

SHA STIMULI: He was but now he back at Def Jam. He started at Def Jam and was there when I was there and he was just on Street Team when I was there.

CHAMP: So while you were interning you hooked up with Lenny S and in 2003 you came out with the mixtape titled Let Me Show You The Way and like you said in your bio, on it you could hear a conversation like flow and you got the flows that’s like; you be peeping through various tracks and come across yours and you’re like “wait a second” I gotta pull this shit back ‘cause the flow just grabs you immediately. So when you were at Roc-A-Fella did you ever kick a flow to any cats up there like spit for Jay-Z or spit for any cats that were in the building?

SHA STIMULI: Not when I was doing the interning thing. Like when I was there as Sha the Intern or Sha the Cool Dude I let them hear through the back door. I was doing stuff in school that got back to a couple people who were asking me like “I heard you doing the music thing” and I would down play it and who pressured me was Lenny. What I would do is I would let Lenny hear a few songs and then just be like yo should I keep going? And he be like “Yeah keep going!”. I never said yo bring me to game, bring me to Jay or nothing like that. I was like should I keep going or should I quit and every couple months I would do that and I think he still viewed me as Sha the Cool Dude. I wasn’t really making no wave, but when I started getting labels interested and started getting spins with the records then he was like wait a minute we got something. After the Virgin deal is when I spit for Jay and he was like “fo real”.

CHAMP: So you eventually ended up spitting for Jay?

SHA STIMULI: Eventually. It’s funny ‘cause I never really put this out there but during the whole situation with me leaving Virgin, I was supposed to go to Def Jam. We did finally have a meeting with Jay and he held it off for like 9 months, but we finally got the meeting and I think Guru and Ty-Ty was there, and they kinda knew what I can do so I threw em like 102 bars and everyone was real real blown away to the point where they was saying I was outshining my music. I don’t know what that means but they will see me again so…

CHAMP: Now in 2005 you had the tour in Morocco, and how was that whole thing, being out of the country in South America performing.

SHA STIMULI: That was my first time man. It was a beautiful thing. I ain’t never left the country.

CHAMP: How was the response?

SHA STIMULI: The response was good. They probably did the research because they about some records but they ain’t know how to speak English, but they knew a couple of records. It was real good. The energy out there like they get real excited for anything, because a lot of them never come to America. A lot of them can’t even leave the country so they get mad excited. It’s a whole different experience.

CHAMP: What’s the next step for Sha Stimuli?

SHA STIMULI: Right now I’m doing the acting thing  got a little spot in the Terrance Howard movie called Fighting, also doing the independent film with me Pain In Da Ass, Rock from Heltah Skeltah  called Gotta Get Mine. I got a lead role in that with me and Pain In Da Ass you know the guy that does the voices

CHAMP: Yeah the homey doing the Scarface type voices on Jay-Z’s joints

SHA STIMULI: Yeah so it’s really embroidering my horizon. I definitely take it serious and it’s really helping out my career. Other than that, I just dropped the mixtape called Rehab and I’m putting that in the streets and on a couple of websites, the best of me is out there, and also working on an independent album called Cinderella Man with a producer named J. Cardim.Tryina bring it back to the old one rapper one producer deal and I’m setting up The Motion Picture which will be my major release on Clockwork/Universal and all of that is coming to your stores real soon. It’s just gonna give people more visuals, a couple videos, and just throw that out there so people can really see my face and understand what I’m all about. Rapping’s one thing, music is another. I feel the game is saturated and the fans don’t know who to like and how to differentiate. People are complaining about hip hop being dead. I’m just tryina keep this thing alive and do what I do and represent people with my voice.