It seems fitting that Project Pat’s latest album, Walkin Bank Roll, was released on October 30th, a night normally reserved for mischief. An innovator of the crunk sound, Project Pat’s been inciting crowds into riotous elation since his debut in 1999. This week RapReviews caught up with him to find out how his life has changed since being released from prison, his thoughts on how the rest of the Hip-Hop world feels about the south, and his goals for his music.

Adam Bernard: I have to admit when your name came up as a possible interview I was surprised. For some reason I thought you were still incarcerated. When did you get free?
Project Pat: A lot of people though that. I’m back on the bricks now, baby. I got out last year, it’s just Sony didn’t put me out there like they were supposed to, they didn’t get behind it, they didn’t do what they were supposed to. But I’m out, alive, dressed, straight, new album is out now.

AB: How have you lived your life differently since getting out?
PP: I’m cool. Things have changed, we got more money. A lot of people know I’m in Atlanta because of the Adventures in Hollyhood show with Three 6 Mafia. We’re gonna make a movie out of it.

AB: So other than having money and doing some acting how have things changed?
PP: God has really been blessing us. Ain’t nuttin really changed. What changed mainly is the prices of shows done went up and we just signed Yung D to Hypnotize Minds. I’m just working, man. Down south we’re trying to get it all. The game done changed some, but not really. The hooks of the songs have become shorter and people are doing dances, but I never started out like that so I can’t end like that.

AB: I was about to say, don’t make me beg you to not make up a dance.
PP: Ah nah, you ain’t gotta worry about that. Never happen.

AB: Do you feel with all these good things happening to you the universe is telling you you’re doing things right?
PP: I think it’s like every dog gets his day. God is blessing, man, and I’m just receiving.

AB: Do you feel any of your lifestyle changes are reflected in your music?
PP: Yeah, it has because I’ve started to see things differently as far as how the feds do stuff, staying more focused. But I don’t think it’s changed that bad. I don’t think nothin’s changed.

AB: With you having done your time, some have said that with the way the legal system is set up jail time is almost a rite of passage for young, black men. Do you believe this and if so what needs to be done to change this?
PP: That’s really a lie. That’s not a truth. I don’t believe that, I think it’s a stereotype and a false statement because you have a lot of people out here who’s not doing that.

AB: So where do you think it comes from then?
PP: People do a lot of talking about what they see and what they think, but they don’t know. They don’t really know.

AB: So tell me what you know.
PP: What I think about the situation and that statement? I don’t think that it is like that, I think that’s just something that people subliminally put out there to make people think oh well maybe since such and such went I’ll have to, too. Like Dan did this so I have to do this, too. But it’s all fake garbage, you know what I’m saying. I believe it’s truly a racist statement that somebody put out there that’s negative and I don’t even want to dwell on it.

AB: OK, so don’t dwell on that, but tell me some of the ideas you have worked into your music on this album. What do you have in store for listeners this time around?
PP: It’s basic entertainment. You go down south and we don’t change nothing. Down south we’re set in our ways. We want to hear about the shine, these cars, these money stacks, man. It’s motivation. We don’t change in the south. We don’t flip no scripts down here, you know what I’m sayin? We just basically shine, man.

AB: Finally, what mark do you feel you’re leaving on Hip-Hop?
PP: Another bullet in the dirty south chamber. A lot of people are saying that Hip-Hop is dead and Hip-Hop this or Hip-hop that, let me tell you, real talk, Hip-Hop ain’t went nowhere down here in the dirty south, they love it down here. Hip-Hop ain’t went nowhere. I hear about people talking about south rappers is bubblegum rappers and they rap bubblegum. Well we’re selling two or three million and getting fifty thousand a show cash money, so if we bubblegum then whoever says that needs to start chewing a whole pack of Hubba Bubba everyday. I’ma tell you something. They say rap is Hip-Hop, but I’m just out here trying to get some money, man. Flat out. The majority of down south, what we’re doing. We got kids out here, we’re providing jobs for people, they’re feedin their kids. People try to say the industry now is just being about glamour and this, that and the other, well guess what, we don’t want to hear none of that. We’re sick and tired of hearing these old slick Uncle Tom songs, we want to hear something about flossin, we ain’t tryin to here nothing about “oh we got it oh so bad and we so poor, but one day it’s gonna happen.” We ain’t trying to hear that. Our motto is get out and get. Like Jeezy had that song “Go Getta,” go get that. Folks run their mouth trying to talk about being dirty south and is it Hip-Hop? When you’re through talking we’re still going to be riding Benzes, paid for, big mansions and houses and throwing money in the club because it’s nothing. We’re still going to be out here shining and looking good and God be steady blessing us. When they get through running their mouth, they’re wasting their time. I don’t get how people do that, just to get into a conversation if Hip-Hop’s dead. Man, that’s bull. I don’t want to rap about that because there ain’t nothing to it. Once it’s completely dead then we’ll start doing something different, but right now we ownin this dirty south, man, we got this game. We’re gonna let everybody get on, from the little towns to the big cities. Everybody gonna get a piece. We don’t trip. See that’s what New York did, that’s how they lost the game. In New York they created it, but they ain’t let nobody else do nothing with it. Boston, Connecticut, states like that, the small towns like Albany, NY, they ain’t let those dudes get on. Since they didn’t let them dudes get on we gonna let everybody get on. Dirty south we don’t care. We’re gonna have us all the little towns in Mississippi all through Tennessee, everybody can get a piece and we’re gonna buy it and we’re gonna support it.

AB: Being from Connecticut I have to agree it can be hard for out of towners to get on those New York stages.
PP: We just don’t be tripping. We just ain’t with that. We let everybody get their time and since they didn’t do that up there in New York it’s gonna be real hard for them. I got a guy that’s out of Albany, NY, his name is Matty Rich, I want to say what’s up to him.

{*Project Pat is approached by a man who gives him a CD*}

PP: Did you see that? That’s a guy’s CD that I used to listen to a long time ago. They had fallen off a little bit, but they’re still doing independent stuff, right. They were in Alabama and I was down with those guys so when I seen that I said yeah man. I took the CD and said I finna bump that. That’s how we do down here, we don’t trip.