I was reading an interview with Mos and he was saying how you introduced him to Shawn J. Period.

Mr. Man: Yea yea, the story with that is funny because we were still doing touring for the Gravity record. I was supposed to do some production for Mos, but I didn’t physically have time to do it because we were working so hard to get our record finished and do a couple shows we had. So I was like I know this dude we’re working with and his beats are crazy and he was like aiight bet. So I just put them in contact and that was the end of it. I never saw those two dudes again. They just came out with these crazy records. It was beautiful.

Light: And Shawn is cool. He is a good dude man.

Mr. Man: Yes, that’s one of the nicest people in hiphop. I can’t think of anyone nicer than Shawn J. Period in hiphop. He doesn’t even curse.

Light: I’ll take the stand for him. If they said he did something I don’t even have to be there he didn’t do it.

Mr. Man: He is so nice they wouldn’t even say he did it. They’d just be like nah Shawn ain’t do that that’s impossible. He never curses and he doesn’t sample because he told me one day he stopped sampling. I said what happened? He said sampling is stealing…

Light: And I don’t want to do anything wrong.

Mr. Man: Congratulations to Shawn he’s married by the way he’s got a baby girl. He’s got his family happening I’m very proud of Shawn.

He stopped doing music for a bit is he still making beats?

Mr. Man: Yea he took a break for a minute but he is actually coming back into it. He’s supposed to be doing some stuff with Mos. I’ve been hearing him and Mos are supposed to be back at it again. They’re like the Snoop and Dre of East Coast hiphop.

Light I noticed you were in a movie with Deon Richmond (Bud) from the Cosby Show and Merlin Santana (Romeo) from the Steve Harvey show who passed away not too long ago. Were you real cool with those cats and how did Merlin’s death affect you because people really ain’t acknowledge that he even passed.

Light: That’s the thing brotherman it’s an ugly game in that respect. If you don’t have a support group behind you as an individual, not just a company but your own personal engine be it management or whoever is pulling strings, you will get passed by. They did do a little for Merlin and I’m planning to do things for him when I can but it’s sad that more wasn’t done or said. During that time we were real close. He taught me a lot about acting. These are guys that have been acting since they was under ten on the Cosby show. He was a real cool dude. He rapped too and he had some skills. I have about four or five of his records that I have demoed up over here that I will never let get out. With the movie we did they already trying to put it out and they didn’t have all the clearances for him so we gonna do issues with them. But its out on stands now it’s called “The Blues.” We did it on our own. We all just put up the money together and shot it in the neighborhood and it was fun. We were just trying to show what we could do with 10-20 grand and they grabbed it.

We found out about his murder late and the info was sketchy what happened?

Light: He was shot out here in Los Angeles in the Crenshaw district. It was late at night and I had actually seen him a couple days before that in the same area. I was like what you doing out here boy you know your face is still on TV and all that. I gave him the little speech but this guy is from Harlem, he is not gonna move to Beverly Hills and never come out of his house. He is gonna roll around and see some girls and things. I don’t really know the details behind it whether it was jealousy or just random but he didn’t deserve it. He was a smart dude took care of himself, he had a daughter, and I think he was gonna be a real big actor when his time came because he had that star quality. But such is life and we gonna keep it moving.

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Posted by Halftime on Sunday, May 23rd, 2004 and is filed under HIP HOP ICON SERIES.