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Capital/EMI Records signee and Mississippi rapper Tito Lopez recently spoke with AllHipHop.com while making a tour stop at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles. CA. The Gulfport, Mississippi-bred rapper is currently on his first national tour – the “Live from the Underground” tour – alongside fellow Mississippi rapper Big K.R.I.T.
“We just got the call that K.R.I.T. was going on tour, and I met him a couple of years ago and there’s no egos or nothing,” Lopez told AllHipHop.com in an exclusive interview. “What was incredible is I met him in New York. I already knew of him in Mississippi; we may have crossed paths, but he lived in a different part, so when we finally really chopped it up over at the Def Jam cypher – because Sha Money [XL] is my man, and he signed to Def Jam – I found out he’s a fan of my music.”
While news of Lopez’s record deal broke earlier this year at the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, Lopez actually learned of EMI/Capital’s interest in his music well over a year ago, and is finally getting to show fans what his music is all about. Recently, he has been in the studio working with Dr. Dre on the long-awaited Detox record.
“Detox, you know, was a straight accident, really. You know, I’m signed to Capital Records; that classic building over there is in L.A., so I spent a lot of time over on the West Coast, and I spent a lot of time in Cali period since I got my deal. I signed last year, but I’ve been keeping it on the low. Actually, I was already signed when I met Dre – a lot of people think that’s how I got my deal, but that’s just the homie,” Lopez explained.
“So we went and met him at Encore Studios; good dude. We chopped it up about basketball, and I was just supposed to be there for a couple of minutes, but we hit it off, and he wanted to hear some music. But me, I’m raw, a lot of n*ggas can make themselves sound good on a record, but let me just spit for you raw and let you know what it is. I spit for him, and he cut on a beat, and what you see is what you get. Someone posted something on YouTube, and from there, he was just like, ‘let’s go do some writing and work on some music’,” Lopez recounted.
“There’s been multiple times when I’ve been back in the studio with him since. And pretty much, whenever he is in town, he will call me if we are in the same town, and he will be like, ‘Yo Tito, let’s go, let’s go do some writing,’” Lopez told AllHipHop.com with regards to working with the West Coast rap legend.
“I’m checking when this “Recipe” comes out; I’m checking when “Three Kings”…I’m checking when all of this sh*t comes out just to see if I wrote one syllable, just use one of my words, so I can get a publishing check for something. I’m just making sure every time I get a Dre verse, and I don’t want to make it seem like everyone writes everything for him; it’s a collaborative effort. I’m just saying if I write a couple bars for him, let me get a check on something!”