Last week we were able to fill in some of the missing pages in the story of Big L’s life. In part two of my interview, I talk with Don and Gustavo Guerra (CEO of Distrolord Entertainment) about the new album. Don and I also get a chance to dissect some of L’s best music, as well as get the latest update on the upcoming biographical documentary in the works.

So this new album — is it going to have new material, or will it be mostly stuff we’ve heard before over new production?

Don: No, some of it will be [stuff you've heard before], but a lot of it’s gonna be new. Gustavo can tell you more about that.

Gustavo: Just to be honest to L’s fans, the album we’re releasing we’re putting out to start off Big L’s legacy. The majority of these records are unreleased because they were never put out officially. People would just take like 2 or 3 records and just put them out, but they were never put out as an official Big L album. He has a bunch of other material that hasn’t been released yet that we’re going to put out, but this is basically the beginning of what we’re putting out. You’ve got to understand, there’s a whole new demographic of people who’ve never heard of Big L before. So this is their first introduction to him.

What time-period would you say most of the material is from? Is a lot of it old material left over from his first album?

Don: No. Most of it is from around the time he got shot.

So when he was recording a lot of this, that was on his own dollar, right?

(laughs) It was on our dollar, yea.

What are some of your favorite Big L punchlines?

“chicks stick to my dick like magnets on refrigerators” (laughs) Oh my god! My moms just passed two years ago. But [when we were] growing up, she always had magnets on the refrigerator. And even until the time she passed, wherever she went — Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados, wherever — she’d bring a magnet back and put it on the refrigerator. So I’m thinking that’s where he got that shit from. My moms was an amazing woman, man.

What did she think of L’s music?

She never listened to it. She didn’t wanna listen to it cuz she didn’t want no cursing or talking about girls like that. But she didn’t know how big he was until he passed. She was so amazed, it was crazy. She was like, “Mont Mont?” That was her baby, Mont Mont. Then she’d start crying — she really didn’t know that a lot of people knew him like that.

I remember when that video came out — “Holdin’ You Down” with Stan Spit. That was my first introduction to Big L, so I guess it was kind of the same for me since he had already passed by the time I’d seen it. I remember seeing it on RapCity and going, “Who is this? I never heard of this guy before, but apparently people loved him.”

Those are my kids [in the video], my nieces and nephews, my moms, my family. Everybody was in that video. I wasn’t there. I was locked up. But when you seen that — remember [on RapCity] they used to put up drawings that people sent in? I sent a drawing from where I was at upstate, because the whole time I was up there I ain’t never seen anybody send in a picture of my little brother. I sent a picture with a letter and they showed my picture and read my letter. I was in the hole — cuz I had just beat some dude up — but I got out the hole that same day that they showed it. The young boys always had it on TV up there so you couldn’t help but to watch it.

What I think was L’s greatest strength aside from his punchlines was his storytelling ability. I’m thinking in particular of “Casualties Of A Dice Game” from The Big Picture. That’s just great writing. I don’t care if you’re writing a novel, poem, rap, whatever — he took you to a place and painted a picture.

He took you to 139th St. between Lenox and 7th. We used to roll dice all the time. Niggas used to get shot all the fucking time over there. That’s why I say about Ma$e and Cam — them niggas was scared to come around 139th St., man. It wasn’t til my brother got killed and all of us got locked up that they started talking bout 140th. It never was 140th. 140th got on the map because of how everything went down with my little brother — that’s why they put the mural up on 140th. But that’s the real, though. It was 139th St., shootin’ dice and gettin’ money.

I like to give everyone I interview a chance to have the floor, so whatever you want to say about yourself, L, the family, now’s your chance.

Me and my family appreciate everything the fans do for L. Like I said before, I just wanna put him where he’s supposed to be. I told people when I first got into this, it ain’t about the money. If the money comes, he would want me to have it anyway, he always wanted the family to have it. I just want everybody to hear him. Let them judge him for themselves and I guarantee he’ll come out on top. His lyrical [content] is ridiculous, yahmean? I want him everywhere just so they can hear him — even if they don’t buy it and just hear it from somebody else, I just want them to hear him — let ‘em know where he’s coming from. Let ‘em know who he was. That’s all I ask. My job is to get him out there. I’m getting help from here and there, but I need more help. I need everyone’s help with this documentary we’re doing. I need Eminem’s help.

Is this documentary in the works right now?

It’s almost finished. I just gotta promote it. It’s called Street Struck, and it’s directed by Jewels the Director. I gotta get a good deal where it’ll be all the way out there — here and overseas. Eminem is a big fan of L, and I know he would love to do it. I got like 9 hours of footage that we had to break down. We want to make it almost two hours long, but we don’t want it to be boring. We want to make it so that when you watch this documentary you go “WOOOOW!” Not “Aw, it’s just some Big L documentary.” We want people to say, “Listen, you gotta go see that Big L documentary.” That’s how we’re trying to make it. We’ve got EVERYBODY on this joint except for Jay-Z, Big Daddy Kane, and Dame Dash. Those are the three we gotta get, but even if we don’t, it’s still gonna be tight.

Aww, you gotta get them!

I had Big Daddy Kane’s number but I lost my phone. And he’s starting to do a lot of work now, yahmean? A lot of old school people are calling on him to do work now, and he’s been moving around a lot. We’re gonna catch up with him though, because he’s a real real big fan and he’d wanna do it.

Not only that, but I know L was a big fan of Kane’s too.

Lamont was a real big fan of Kane’s and Kane knows this. I told Kane when I ran into him at his show. I went backstage and talked to him, and he introduced me to all his people and was like “Oh shit! Big L’s brother!” So we sat down and talked. I got his number and everything and he said, “Yo, anything for L, man. I’ll do whatever.” And then I lost my phone. But I’ll catch up with him.

By the way, that question you asked me about L and why he was at the place that he was at [on the night of the murder], I’ll say a lot more about that in the documentary. I’ll say a lot more.

If L was still here, where do you think he’d be right now?

He’d be bigger than Jay-Z. I’m telling you. That’s not exaggerating anything either. See Jay made a lot of good moves, but my little brother took Jay out [in a battle] on the corner of 141st St. and Lenox Ave. He got out on him. I mean they was just out there having fun, but he got out on him. This is how Jay and Lamont got together on that Jay-Z and Big L joint. This is why Jay was coming around EVERY WEEKEND! This was like a month, a month and a half before L got killed — I literally ran into this dude every weekend coming to pick my little brother up. He knew L was hot, and he knew he was a moneymaker. He knew he would’ve gone a long way, so he wanted to get him on his team and sign him. If that contract [with Roc-a-fella] would’ve happened, I’m telling you, he would’ve been next to Jay or bigger than Jay. He wouldn’t have been under him, I know that for a fact.

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