Thugpoetry.com: First I wanna ask you about the new album. It took couple of years to make. How did the concept of this album changed over the time?

TQ: I don’t really know how to explain it, dude. I think I really got to a point when I got started where I just really wanted to do a whole lot of music and then figure all that out after I got out of that zone or whatever. When I first started, I was working with Fresh pretty much constantly. So it had kind of a bounce feel to it. It had lot of the things that me and him didn’t finish when I was at Cash Money, We put lot of that together. As you go and work with different people and you come and you work by yourself things just change. The time that you’re talking about I probably did about 60-70 joints, man. I did just joints just doing work, just doing work. I cancelled any tour that came up or anything outside of the studio, even movies. I just wouldn’t do anything basically because I was in the zone and I wanted to stay in it. Over that time I think I really found that freedom that I was looking for. Anything done repetitively over and over again you can’t do nothing but get better, just like rehearsing or practising or anything else. So I think the name of the album Paradise came out of the fact that that’s where I found my paradise at; basically in the studio working freely without anybody breathing over your neck and actually just letting my gift use me, other than using my gift like I normally do. I think it had good results. I’m loving what I came up with.

Thugpoetry.com: You said you recorded about 60-70 tracks in that whole time span. Did you ever think about dropping a double album or something?

TQ: Nah, I didn’t. I just knew I wanted to load up on new music, man. That was really what it was about. I was recording and I was saying I was recording for the album, but I was recording for me. I was recording because there were some things I wanted to say. It was concepts for records I wanted to. Not that I’m comparing myself, but like how Michael Jordan when he was playing basketball and then he retired and then he came back with a new number and won three more championships. I kind of went through that point this year and at the end of the last year where I just wanted to rejuvenate, reinvent myself and just basically see where I was at and see where I was going from here on out; just start my new plan over. I think the first thing I needed to do was stock up all music and that’s what I did.

Thugpoetry.com: The first single In My Lap. What the song is about?

TQ: One thing definitely about this record is I listened to my fan mail. I talked to lot of the people on Thugpoetry and on Myspace and all of the websites. The consensus was that a lot of the girls like me as an artist. They’ve been rolling with me all of this time, but they really wanted things for them this time around, which I don’t necessarily give them. I focus on… you know what I focus on. You know how I am, but this time around I really wanted to do some records for them also because of the fact they’ve been down with me for so long and they give me so much love wherever I go. That one’s for the strippers, man. Them girls are out there trying to get it. A lot of people don’t understand. You know you look down on a girl for put it on the pole, but for me, I can’t knock nobody’s hustle. A lot of chicks out there, they getting it for the same reason we are getting it. Some of them trying put themself through school. Some of them trying to raise a kid by them self. They doing it the best way they know how. Not that I promote it, not that I’m saying that’s the way to go, but I applaud them for being able to do whatever. So I had to do a joint for them. Always In My Lap is basically song about me going to a strip club and getting a lap dance from the same girl all the time.

Thugpoetry.com: The second single is going to be the title track, Paradise.

TQ: I named the album Paradise also the single because I think more than any other song it really tells what I was just saying about my whole reason for taking so long with it and doing it. Like I said I found my paradise, so it’s really a two part song. We got a remix that’s featuring Daz and B.G. and for the remix I took it to a different level. Paradise on the main single is me talking about my people that have passed on and having them actually reach paradise and them saving a place for me. The remix is based on me taking a girl who’s been with me through the ups and downs, the thick and thin, the good and bad. Taking her to paradise.

Thugpoetry.com: So is the remix going to on the album or is it gonna be a bonus track on the single or whatever?

TQ: It’s gonna be on the album.

Thugpoetry.com: You also worked with Mike Mosley. How was it to be back in the studio with him after all those years?

TQ: It was cool, man. It was refreshing. Like I said, I was reinventing myself this time around, so I had to go back to the man that I basically started with just to put them batteries in. I had to recharge my battery with Mike Mosley. We had us a good time and we did all kinds of records. We did records for my album, we did records for other people’s album, collabos and we just had us a good time. Like I said this recording process, I said I was recording my album, but at that time I was making songs. Period. That’s what I do. I’ve just been making songs.

Thugpoetry.com: You put that song Dopeman on your Myspace. Is that gonna be on your album?

TQ: I don’t know. We got so many songs and not enough space for all of them, so I’m not finished picking. I got eight that’s solidly locked now right now. I’m finished cutting, but I did not finish picking all of the ones I’m gonna use. I got eight locked and four to five more to plug in. As I mixing stuff, we start knocking stuff off and putting stuff on, but it’s not locked yet.

Thugpoetry.com: This song Dopeman is kind of like a metaphor with the whole drug thing…

TQ: Exactly, but it’s another one for the girls, really. What I’m basically saying is pick your poison. I’ll be your drug, I’ll be your heroin, I’ll be your cocaine, I’ll be everything you need. I’ll be all that.

Thugpoetry.com: I like that line “You can snort me, smoke me, shoot me up”!

TQ: Believe that, haha.

Thugpoetry.com: I heard there’s gonna be an underground album called The Lost Ones?

TQ: Yeah, over the years I’ve been accumulating a whole lot of music. A lot of stuff that didn’t make albums or Cash Money stuff that never came out and just a lot of other songs that I now control that I didn’t control. It’s time to put them out, let people to hear them. Actually, I’ma drop out a series of records called “The Lost Ones” just to get those records out. That’s real underground, real independent. You might not find them everywhere like you will Paradise, but that’ll be a hot commodity, I think, for the people who love TQ music.

Thugpoetry.com: Do you have any idea how many volumes?

TQ: There’s no telling. I got so many songs. I’m just gonna put them out when I feel like it basically.

Thugpoetry.com: That’s really dope though!

TQ: Yeah! I’m gonna kind of treat them like how rappers do their mixtapes. That’s what I’m kind of doing with my joint.

Thugpoetry.com: Tell me about some songs that are definitely gonna be on The Lost Ones album.

TQ: I got a record called Keep On. I’m sure you’ve probably heard it. A lot of people love heard that record. They got it some kind of way, I don’t necessarily know, but it never dropped. It was supposed to be for The Second Coming. I got another record that was supposed be on The Never Saw Me Coming which was Thugz Women. That one never came out and a lot of people got it on the underground. They like it. It’s gonna have Hotel California. A lot of different joints that were never really able to come out all the way, but maybe some people generated some hype in it one kind of way or just certain songs that I like that I’m just gonna put out there for people. The bottom line is it’s an even fan field now, Everybody’s independent. The web is really a master of everything right now. It’s time to let them check them out and give it up.

Thugpoetry.com: Talking about unreleased songs… You recorded a song with Whitney Houston. Is that right?

TQ: Yeah. Well actually, I wrote the song. I didn’t record it, I just wrote the song, but it didn’t make her record though.

Thugpoetry.com: And also a song with N-Sync. Is that true?

TQ: Yeah, on their first record.

Thugpoetry.com: Did that actually come out?

Thugpoetry.com: In Europe. Outside the US. It didn’t come out here. Shit, I get paid on it. That’s all I know about it, haha.

Thugpoetry.com: The other day you told me there’s gonna be a mixtape dropping. Is that gonna be “The Lost Ones” series?

TQ: No. It’s a certified mixtape. It’s actually gonna be Street Muzic Volume 2. Every time it gets time to drop an album, probably a month or so, few months before it comes out I’ma drop another Street Muzik volume.

Thugpoetry.com: When can we expect this Street Muzik mixtape?

TQ: Probably first week of June. Probably.

Thugpoetry.com: And the actual album is gonna drop in July?

TQ: Yeah July, middle of July as of right now. When you’re tied to a company you never know how it goes, but as of right now it’s the middle of July.

Thugpoetry.com: What about this distribution deal? You signed a deal with EMI?

TQ: Yeah. I signed a deal with EMI. It’s independent just like I said, but this time around it’s not all on me, like my last deal. I had to market. I had to promote. I had to do everything. This time I got a helping hand with that in this situation. I thought the last time to have a fan base as big as mine you need some help to get to all of them, so this time around I had to give up a couple of dollars and get the help that I need.

Thugpoetry.com: So you totally moved away from Warner Brothers?

TQ: Yeah, I’m done with Warner Brothers 100%. It wasn’t working out. I didn’t like the way they was handling things. It is what it is, but the guy I was dealing with was cool and he wanted me to be happy, so he allowed me to walk.

Thugpoetry.com: Are the other Street Muzik dvd’s actually gonna be released?

TQ: Yeah, definitely. We just started up a film company in the last month or so. We’re getting ready to shoot my first movie that is coming out of my company. It is called “One Love” and we’re actually gonna be running the Street Muzik dvd’s through that. We’re also gonna actually re-release volume 1 because it didn’t really get a fair chance, so we are gonna re-release that one this year and then in the beginning of the next year we’re gonna be releasing volume 2.

Thugpoetry.com: Is it gonna be US release or an international release?

TQ: World wide! We’re doing everything world wide from here on out.

Thugpoetry.com: Let’s get back to that mixtape. Is that gonna be all original production?

TQ: Not all original. Some of them are gonna be popular tracks that I’m just flipping songs on top of. Some will be collaborations. I done did songs with lot of people, man. Just songs, just to be doing them. You know you might be in a city or something and see somebody you know and it’s like let’s go step in the studio and do something. I’m always doing that and now it’s time to put stuff out. That’s basically what it is.

Thugpoetry.com: So the mixtape is also gonna have the new single?

TQ: Yeah, it will.

Thugpoetry.com: You told me that you actually made a mini movie for of The Comeback & Bye Bye Baby

TQ: Yeah, I did.

Thugpoetry.com: How the hell I did never hear about that before?

TQ: Cause my record company is wack, dude! Come on now, don’t we all know that? We all know that! I had a fucking ass record company the first time around. That shit was hot in the streets and they ordered fucking 10.000 copies of it and that was it. They wouldn’t order no more. They all gone. I got one and the one I have is on a V Light VHS. Not only do I have anything to play it in cause I don’t know nobody with a VCR. Second of all it’s a V Light, so it only plays 10 times and I think we done played the motherfucker eight times already and it’s gonna pop on the tenth, so you better believe that’s going into glass fucking box to sit on a mantle. And no you cannot have a copy, buddy! Hahaha.

Thugpoetry.com: I would really love to see that shit cause I have never even heard about it.

TQ: Man, I would love to see it too! Think about it. I can’t watch it. If I stick it in a VCR I might lose it forever.

Thugpoetry.com: For the people that don’t know about it. What’s in that mini movie?

TQ: It’s basically both the videos playing back to back with skits. A skit before, a skit in the middle and a skit at the end. Just like the way it was on the album. We just acted it out and filmed it.

Thugpoetry.com: So I didn’t really miss much, except for the pictures that actually came with it.

TQ: Right. If you got the album then you know exactly what happens. Daz and Kurupt was in it with me. It was tight.

Thugpoetry.com: Do you have any other videos that we have never seen?

TQ: Not that you haven’t seen. Hell no. I think you have seen more of my shit that I have.

Thugpoetry.com: For the Listen album the plan was also to release Gone But Not Forgotten as single. You never recorded a video for that either?

TQ: No, not at all. Well actually, we did a live recording of it that we shot ??, which I’ma do something with it eventually. I got so much shit. I’ve been accumulating so much shit and I just didn’t have no way to drop everything, but now I’m in a position where I can drop shit. We’ll see. We just have to concentrate one thing at the time, dude.

Thugpoetry.com: Before Listen dropped you said you would drop Gemini after this album that’s coming up. Will that still happen?

TQ: I’m definitely putting Gemini out. I don’t know if I will make it this year, but definitely by 2008 it’s gonna come out one way or the other. Everybody should know that that’s an R&B record. It’s the most R&B of anything that I’ve done yet.

Thugpoetry.com: Actually that song Dopeman, when I heard the song I thought this could have been on Gemini.

TQ: Right, exactly.

Thugpoetry.com: Was that also your intension when you went in the studio with Mike Mosley? To make a really good R&B?

TQ: No, not necessarily, man. I didn’t really have no intensions. Like I said when I was doing this album and just doing this whole recording process for the last year or so I was just recording songs. There was certain concepts that I had. I wanted to do a song about the dopeman for years. It was just a concept that I came up with on a plane or something, but just didn’t never do it, so here comes that track, it fit and I did it.

Thugpoetry.com: Last year you also released a remake of Crockett’s Theme. How did that opportunity came up?

TQ: I was in Europe doing some shows and shit and somebody just came to me with the idea. I guess it was a guy from the record company that released it. I remembered the song from the tv show. I used to watch Miami Vice. It used to be one of my favorite shows back in the days. It was just something I wanted to do. I wasn’t really expecting too much from it. I didn’t really even know what the situation was. I just remembered when Crockett would be riding in his car they’d be playing that music. I was like hell yeah. It brings back memories.

Thugpoetry.com: The song actually came out good, but it was not really promoted as good as it could’ve been, I though.

TQ: Right, right. I wasn’t expecting nothing. It’s just the fact that I could ride down the street and play myself singing on top of the Miami Vice song, haha. That was cool enough for me, along with some paper to go with it. It was all good.

Thugpoetry.com: Do you any other soundtrack type of things you would love to do a song over?

TQ: I never thought about it, really. When they came up with that idea, I just jumped on that. I don’t know. I never really thought of it.

Thugpoetry.com: So what’s going on with movies anyways?

TQ: Rockin’ Meera be coming out in August. Richard III is coming out some time around the end of the year and I don’t know when Devil’s Grind is coming out.

Thugpoetry.com: Did you shoot any other movies that you hadn’t shot last year already?

TQ: Those are the three that I did last year and I’m getting ready to do Consequences now. Then One Love will be next.

Thugpoetry.com: What are those movies about?

TQ: I can’t tell you about Consequences. I’m bound in silence on that one and One Love is a modern day Romeo & Juliet, set in the neighbourhood. A guy and a girl from rival families and rival gangs or whatever end up falling in love with each others and they have to work it out. It’s a trip, a real trip.

Thugpoetry.com: When you were in Amsterdam you also talked about Kinfolk with Lucky and AtWill. What’s going on with them?

TQ: They album is done. Will had to go go do his thing right quick, so we are waiting on him to get his situation together and then we be putting them out too, but they album is done. They got Mannie Fresh on it, they got me on it, they got Static on it. They shit is hot. They’re on my album too. They’re rapping on a song called “Down” that Mannie did on my album.

Thugpoetry.com: When is their album coming out, do you have any idea or you can’t really say yet?

TQ: I can’t say yet.

Thugpoetry.com: Is it gonna be independent though?

TQ: Yeah it’s coming out on my label, on HUB Muzic.

Thugpoetry.com: You should drop some music on the site.

TQ: Yeah, it’ coming. We mixing right now. Like I said album isn’t finished. The singles have been picked, but album isn’t completely done. I’m done cutting, but as far as post production, mixing, mastering and all that is not done yet. As soon as it’s done I ain’t gonna hold it. I’ma let it out there and let people get hold of it.

Thugpoetry.com: On the website there’s a biography section of yours and in that section there’s also a small list of favorite things of yours, like favorite baseball team, etc. I wanna ask couple of favorite things to add to that list if you don’t mind.

TQ: Yeah, that’s cool.

Thugpoetry.com: Favorite car?

TQ: Porsche Carrera GT.

Thugpoetry.com: Favorite food?

TQ: Catfish and shrimp po boy from Uncle Daryl’s in LA.

Thugpoetry.com: Favorite place to go on a vacation?

TQ: South Spain off the Mediterranean.

Thugpoetry.com: Favorite superhero?

TQ: Eazy-E.

Thugpoetry.com: Favorite bad guy?

TQ: The Joker.

Thugpoetry.com: Favorite sitcom or tv show?

TQ: The Sopranos.

Thugpoetry.com: Favorite moment of your life?

TQ: I guess the day I was born. The day I touched the world. I was in all my glory that day. Butt ass naked telling the world to kiss my ass, haha!

Thugpoetry.com: Before we wrap it up, do you have any last words you wanna add?

TQ: I just wanna say much love to my folks on Thugpoetry, much love to everybody that’s been giving me love from the beginning, much love to you homeboy!