Bars & Hooks: Queensbridge for Life

By Mark Williams-Washington

Shine recently caught up with Hooks, one half of the duo Bars & Hooks, to find out what's really good with the former Mobb Deep protégés, and what they think of their mentors' move to G-Unit...

Shine: What's hood family?

Hooks: Just working everyday in the studio and sh*t. You know I got my own studio and sh*t.

Shine: The people want to know where B&H been at?

Hooks: Where B&H been at? We like a diamond in the ruff. We been in the lab, we been working. I can't front, P always told us "Just make the song." That's all Prodigy used to say. Just make the ammo. Just have the ammunition. And that's what we been doing. We been f*cking with Bin Laden, trying to get some ammo.

Shine: When is the album dropping?

Hooks: We trying to drop it like the fourth of July or maybe June. Fourth of July, Independence Day, was our plan with the Mobb before. But now we still going to go with the same plans, Independence Day '06.

Shine: Who's on the album?

Hooks: Oh, I got some sh*t for these mutherf*ckers man. I got Remy Martin. Of course I got Mobb Deep. I got Jungle, I got Nas on there, I got some crazy producers. I got Alchemist, I got Jimi Kendrix. I got my own producers... Now & Laterz, JR Writer is supposed to come through next week and get on something. We done talked about the money [and] price situation and the n*gga was keeping it hood with me. [So] I am going to get the dude JR Writer on there. The sh*t is going to be sick though.

Shine: I know ya'll haven't been f*cking with the Mobb for a minute. What's good with that, can you talk about that?

Hooks: When you young you blame sh*t on everybody. Like 'Yo it's they fault, it's they fault.' But when you man up and when you get older…you be accountable for your own actions, whether they wrong or bad, whether good come out of it or bad come out of it. 'Cause nobody didn't put a gun to my head and say 'F*ck with P or do this.' It always come back to me…so now it's they do them.

I am a grown man now. Like, I became a man in the industry. I started out with this sh*t as a boy, as a child, as a teenager. I grew into being a man in the industry, so I made a lot of childish mistakes and sh*t…I realized that all that was just a stepping stone.

Shine: Would you do a song with anyone who dissed Mobb Deep? Like say for instance, Game. I think he just recently said some sh*t about P. Would you do a song with the n*gga?

Hooks: Hell yeah. 'Cause I like the n*gga Game. I respect his whole movement. Black Wallstreet, I f*ck with Jimi Henchmen. Not first because I f*ck with him, but because his sh*t is hot to me. I told P to dead the beef with Jay-Z because what the f*ck you going to have the whole hood go down carrying guns just in case they see n*ggas from Brooklyn, and the sh*t ain't even going to happen.

It's just all in people minds. Nobody thinking about Jay-Z and Prodigy beef. But he would have n*ggas from the hood carrying toast and all that sh*t. For sh*t that he don't even know why he beefing with a n*gga. So I can't be mad at Game, you know what I mean. I will do a song with the n*gga any day.

Shine: What do you think about Mobb Deep being with G-Unit?

Hooks: Man it just makes me feel better…It makes me feel better a lot. Because I realized that they was really really immature about being CEO's. That it wasn't just really my fault. Like, it just speaks for itself. They signed to someone else. They not ready to put out other people. They even let they money go. Picture Jermaine Dupri signing to T.I., and then letting the Brat sign to him too… They signed Mobb Deep and they let Gambino sign to G-Unit from Infamous Mobb. It's crazy. They just want to be babied. They just want to be catered to.

Sometimes if you the boss you got to do the catering, you know what I mean. And they wasn't ready for that position yet. Me and Bars inspired them to keep rapping like "Yo we need to keep doing like them, do like them." We kind of taught them, we feel like the--

Shine: Like you the OG? Like you the old head?

Hooks: Yeah I feel like I'm the OG man. And that sh*t is crazy man. Without the bread though. We still will shine though.

Shine: What's the hardest thing to deal with being an artist?

Hooks: Knowing how to separate personal sh*t from business. Because everything could be personal but at the end of the day some sh*t is business. Separating business from personal sh*t. That's the hardest sh*t.

Shine: I know you cool with Remy Martin. I heard she was mad at her deal because they didn't put enough units in the stores.

Hooks: Yo, Rem, Rem is my heart word up. I can't front yo. I feel like that was lame of them to do that because, keep it a hundred if you going to do that. At least let her be aware of that ahead of time and let her know the reason why. Because she roll with n*ggas, and got dropped off the label, and then came back to the same label because of her loyalty. Now you suppose to do something in return to that. Not no favors, not no kiss-my-ass favors, but you got a trooper that's willing to pop your company off.

And she already got Grammys, and a lot of awards, through the Terror Squad album. So it's like they disrespected her with that. They should have showed her a little more respect.

Shine: What else are you working on other than music?

Hooks: I dropped the Mike Delorean DVD. That's my aka name. Mike Delorean - aka Been Had Money, aka Hooks, aka The Lord of The Bling, aka The Whole Brick. Also I am about to start doing a movie in Queesbridge. The first movie actually shot in Queesbridge. Because "Murda Music" was shot in another hood. We going to actually shoot the first movie in Queensbridge. It's called "The Bench."

Shine: Any last words or shout outs?

Hooks: My n*gga Bars. You know B&H for life. Shout out to DJ Phantom. He come through when we be going through it in the ghetto. He come through and show us love. Green Eyes, that's my dogs; the enforcer. When n*ggas mind get twisted he keep them in order as far as the whole click. Shout out to my fam. Everybody who believe in the whole Bars & Hooks movement. We going to bring some new sh*t to the industry, and some unity to Queens and to Queensbridge.