When you think of G-Unit, the first thing the name usually conjures up is images of 50 Cent...then a barrage of bullets and constantly simmering beef. Quite a few people forget that admist all the drama, G-Unit is a collective of talented rappers.

Perhaps the most unheralded member but arguably the most talented, Young Buck is a product of Cashville, Tn. aka Nashville. Because of the association of his hometown with country music and the majority of the focus being on the more prominent members of The Unit, 50 and lyricist Lloyd Banks, Buck's debut album, Straight Outta Cashville, was the sleeper that proved that the Southern native had much to offer. His debut sold over two million copies and Buck is no longer the sleeping giant of the group. Now, much is expected as many are anticipating his new release Buck The World. Not only that, Buck has the weight of reppin his, for the most part, his whole city and state.

The amazing thing is, in line with G-Unit's unspoken mantra of them versus the world, Buck accepts and gladly bears the weight of it all. Poised to take his position as one of the contenders and never one to mince words, we break take time to build with Buck...

TSS: What housing project do you claim?

Buck: I claim J.C. Napier , south muthafuckinside of Cashville.

TSS: They still standing?

Buck: Yeah they one of the only projects out here that they ain’t tore down bruh. You act like you might know something a little bit about the city cause half of them projects has been tore down. They tore down Jo Johnston. They tore down Preston Taylor. They tore down Lischey Avenue. You see what I’m sayin? So my project is really the only project left.

TSS: Oh ok..so how you feel about that man?

Buck: I don’t really feel too good about it because you know what I would feel better about it if they would tear the bricks down and have set places for the people that they movin out of the homes to go they would have down and then they put they ask the people that you know that might not be built to to to have to get the funds, you know, to support the way of life and the position that they put them in. So actually life can become harder you know what I’m sayin. It’s cool if you take them away, you put them out of the projects and you put them in a nice house.

But it’s people that’s livin the projects cause they don’t even have a fuckin job. But if you take the nigga out the projects like that and put him in a house then they don’t even have a job to keep the water runnin and shit like that? So the projects is bigger in a sense to people who ain't got shit...more than they could really see. They don’t see it. The government will never understand how much the projects and shit mean to individuals who come from them and live in them. Because half the government officials that make the rules, they ain't never lived a day in the projects, let alone walk through one. Straight up, real nigga shit.

So it’s like they don’t understand the life. All they see is the crimes and shit when the news pops up and the shit happens on this certain street, you know what I’m saying. They focus entirely on that. They forget that it becomes a part of a person’s life, you know what I’m saying, that you take away in a sense. So if you take it away, at least tell a nigga something or where to go. That’s the way I feel.

So I chose to leave away from them and go make my own thing happen know what I’m saying…What up nigga? Aight act like you ain’t never seen a nigga. Man, it be groupie niggas. Niggas be worser than bitches you nahmean? I’m out here driving man and it’s a nigga with the window down riding up beside a nigga bruh. I expect a bitch to chase and do shit like that …

TSS: Where you at?

Buck: I’m in Cashville. I’m at home with my niggas.

TSS: That’s where you spend a lot of your time

Buck: Yeah when I ain’t on the road and working. I spend...I’m back and forth I’m a three city type nigga. I’m in Cashville, Atlanta, and LA

TSS: Ay what’s it like in LA these days. The cops be sweatin you still?

Buck: I mean when I’m out there I just kinda like keep it on the low. But they got they own way of lookin at Buck in a sense already, you know what I’m saying, from the Vibe Awards and then…whatever you say to me the world seen it live and direct and for me to walk away from that they feel like muthafucka if you slip a little bit we gonna get you. So I walk a straight line when I’m around them suckas, straight up. I ain’t giving them no reason to even fuckin harass and play with me. I try to stay out the way.

But the streets love me honestly bruh I get the feeling...I don’t know how Pac used to feel but I’m a keep it real with you bruh...I feel I get a nasty feeling when I’m in L.A. I feel like I don’t never want to leave and that’s real you know what I’m saying. It’s like that’s what my whole thing is I just I got a lot of my family out there so in spite of other shit that’s like my muthafuckin home.

TSS: You comin at Game on the new album?

Buck: For what my nigga? Straight up nah hell naw. I ain't saying one thing about Game on my album.You know what I feel like at the end of the day…for my end, the streets will judge of who real and who fake and what’s real and what’s fake. So for me it’d be devoting dead energy to it man.

I’m on some hood music shit so I push my line like that. I say not even Game cause Fat Joe, Jadakiss, all them because I done had the opportunity to run into a couple of them you know what I’m sayin and it wasn’t that good. If it was about that, they had the opportunity to make it like that. So for me, I believe in getting shit out of the horse's mouth and if I get it out of the horse's mouth like it ain't on that shit.

It’s done been built up on this beef shit through rap. I'd rather goddamit lay low because at the end of the day when shit happens and I catch a lot heat from it whether I did it or didn’t do it you understand what I’m saying. So it’s like...well for me it’s like I think hip-hop almost got shifted in a sense because every big beef issue that ever came about with the Unit has been real life.

From the beginning whether it was with Ja Rule- 50 Cent or if it was from The Game and the Fat Joe shit or whatever it was it’s all real issues. And they’ve been up front where people know that we dislike these niggas. Well I'mma tell you a cold catchy situation out of all this shit my nigga. You know that us and Game have our dislikes toward each other. You know that us and Ja Rule have our dislikes towards each other. You know the Fat Joe and The Lox and the way it go.

You know what, if you know that guess who else know? The police, straight up. If you know all this shit and I know all this shit, the police know even that and a little bit more. I'm trying to keep myself on the yard, you see what I’m saying, and stay out and maintain this shit. So you know I stay away from it and if I see them and it’s about that we’ll get down to it like that the grown man way.

If not, bruh, I’m on some get money shit…just being my whole life is full of concrete of the streets nigga. You take the streets away from me it ain’t no more Young Buck. Up until then and as long as you got a corner and if it’s a corner and your block is the only corner that’s left, I’ll come get with ya’ll if ya’ll accept me. If ya’ll ain't gonna let me over there. I’mma come take it. I’m like that. I’ll get with ya’ll; I’m like that. That’s how I get down. That’s only the right way, right? Cause it’s only one corner left. If it was only one corner left, right?

TSS: Take it yeah...

Buck: Yeah nigga I’m comin to get with ya’ll. If a nigga don’t accept me then there’s only one corner left, and I’m from the streets, that means I got to come get it. I got to come take it you nahmean.

TSS: Let me ask you something about back in the day. Who was Priest?
My guy pointed out references to him on the first album...

Buck: Priest is like my big brother. Priest just got of the pen. He been doin it in the penitentiary for a like long time. He tryin to like…as far as in the streets and comin up not havin no father guidance and shit like that, you know what I’m saying. I was put out here at a early age as far as takin care of stuff and without having a job my nigga you know what I’m saying. So I didn’t have no guidance in a sense of, I learned whatever I learned from the streets and this nigga here he laced me with game from a young one. So at the end of the day it’s like he not no rapper; you won’t hear him on no rap or no shit. But he play a part with everything.

TSS: Okay, he’s known in Cashville?

Buck: Yeah, yeah, yeah...yeah real real like that.

TSS: Oh all right so just to get a recap man so you got a group you said you got a group, 615?

Buck: The group is 615. 615 is the area code in Nashville Tn. That’s the group. The label is Cashville Records and G-Unit South is like the movie shit. At the end of the day, Interscope still owns the brand G-Unit. So if I was to take my company elsewhere other labels,say Def Jam, wanted to give me more than Interscope...but then it would be issues with the name brand. So I wanted to bring up something new anyway. Cashville Records is something that Cashville..you can’t say Cashville without saying Buck at the end of the day and, like I said, I want to bring a new brand so G-Unit South is like the movie you know what I’m saying.

I'm G-Unit to the bone gristle and I’m from out here, down bottom. So you gonna get that from me. It’s like...um you know, the group consists of myself, D-Tay, another cat named Hi-C, and another cat by the name of Lil Murda and we formed the group 615. And you know I got another crew; it’s Chedda Boyz...you know what I’m saying. They from Detroit; they like Detroit natives to the streets. They street niggas that I choose to fuck with and put in this rap shit because they game is so real to what they do from my end I feel like "fuck it." It’s only right to kinda put on other niggas that got that real talk, to come along that really real really live their life. I believe in checking report cards, telling my niggas that you know what I’m saying. And these niggas do it cause at the end of the day that’s what it all ends up to you know what I mean. That’s what it all falls back to at the end of the day. You take all this shit away, a nigga gotta be able to go right back to where he come from and be good. If you ain't one of them type of niggas, you laugh around me you cause I wouldn’t laugh around you my nigga, straight up.

Other than that, that’s what I look for in an artist..a nigga who is what he is not tryin to be…you know what I mean? Out of every artist I got that I’m telling you about that’s what I get out of them and that’s what got me to fuckin with them. So niggas stay tuned. I’m comin to a hood near you. I'm makin them cut the muthafuckin check all the labels - Atlantic, Def Jam, Interscope, whoever. It ain’t really so much about the money cause a nigga breaded up as it is. And today, I’m really focused pretty much more on the best deal with my company, you know. The best promotional company that really knows how to handle urban and rap, you know what I mean, handle rap music.

I’m not trying to go to no company that don’t have a foundation with rap. And then at the end of the day, I like a company that has a family feel. I don’t like just dealing with muthafuckas from a business point of view cause that leads to a nigga giving you just business excuses. I’d rather for a nigga to fuck with me from the heart rather than from the hand that shit that lasts longer…

TSS: You work with a lot of Southern artists, man. You stay busy man. Who would you say is your favorite top five producers/rappers right now?

Buck: From the South or just overall?

TSS: I mean overall. I figure the South because you work with so many artists from the South but whatever.

Buck: You sayin my top five producers or rappers?

TSS: Both, producers or rappers.

Buck: I don’t know...I think Jeezy really doing his thing tough you know what I mean. That’s my homeboy you know what I’m sayin. Outside of the Unit, he’s one of the closest niggas that’s in the game that I’m affiliated around, that I fuck with you know. T.I., he doin his damn thing. I like the way he maneurving and throwin his weight around with just getting his hands into everything you know what I'm sayin. He got a lot of hustle...

Ludacris, to me, is the shit; he been the shit. Luda is the nigga who can get down in any kinda way you want it - he can give it to you in a street way, he can give it to you in a commercial way…and then he stay the same fuckin way. He never change as a person; he just change with his music. He real inventive so I really really fuck with Luda.

UGK, I feel like they fuckin real true pioneers of the South. And Eightball & MJG, bruh. I feel like they real true pioneers of the South, period, you know what I’m saying. Not just along every state, which Houston, Texas and Tennessee alone for them, but just overall. And add Scarface,cause at the end of the day, I feel like he’s the biggest South artist in the fuckin game. He’s the king of South to me you know what I mean.

TSS: No doubt. So how about Young Buck? When they gonna talk about Buck later on? Like people who didn’t know, people who didn’t pay attention? How do you think is the best way to describe what you bring to the game?

Buck: Man real life..reality, you know what I’m saying. You know when you hear when you getting so familiar…you know what I’m saying, it’s something that's actually pertaining to something...that’s real you know and then…not know what to expect from Buck that’s what the whole thang is about.

I been reinventing my stuff with the music and not changing as a person. I'm always looking for new ways and new things to do so I continue myself. My nigga I don’t even know my own style. All I know is that I'm a South nigga and you get the Nashville Southern slang and I focus on the lyrical side. You put that together, you put a name on it and come up with it. It's me though, man, straight up.

TSS: All right we’ll dig on that one. I heard you were giving away some money on the radio?

Buck: Hell yeah bruh, they broke me (laughs hard). I gave away a lot of money out here. It’s like my way kinda like giving back in a sense. I do a lot of different things for my city and giving back you know what I’m saying. I believe in getting hands on with them you know. Christmas, every Christmas, bruh, I take care of everything. The whole city, bruh. I give away thousands of thousands of dollars and shit. That’s just my way even before I was in this position. It’s my way of taking care of my hood cause before it was all legal for me, we would just fill up with U-Hauls, bout 10 of them bruh, and just every Christmas you would come to the middle of the projects. And we got it for you straight up. So, when it got legal, I started tying in with the YMCA and shit and start making an impact from that end. But I been giving back before you had a chance to see me give it back.

TSS: So you feel like you getting…respect from the established Nashville people, the music industry, at all?

Buck: I had their respect before I actually had the opportunity to be where I’m at now. So it’s like coming through, I was carried as the biggest local hit that was moving at the time. My city was in supporting and they played a part for me to be at where I’m at now and I never, ever lose sight of that. I can’t just say that I’ve grown in respect or nothing like the respect changed cause the respect that I’m getting now feels no different than the respect I was getting when I wasn’t on BET or MTV or selling records worldwide. I’ve always had my home,bruh, you know. If you ain’t got your home, you ain’t got shit.

TSS: True, true aight man.

Buck: Aight, my nigga, stay real it’s been real.

TSS: Aight man I appreciate your time man you be easy.

Buck: Aight money.

For more on Young Buck, visit CashvilleRecords.net and G-UnitSoldier.com

To read previous Smoking Sessions with artists like 9th Wonder, DJ Drama, AZ, Phonte Of Little Brother, Lloyd Banks and more, click here...