Shawty Lo speaks with HHW about his new mixtape and updates fans on the status of his reality show …

HHW: Shawty Lo! The big day is here, you got a new project for the people. How’s life?

SHAWTY LO: I’m great. It’s the big day, it remind me of my birthday. B-I-G.

HHW: I’m lookin’ at the tracklist for I’m Da Man 4 – are you sure this is a mixtape? The lineup you have here looks more like an album.

SHAWTY LO: You won’t believe this, everybody asks me when I’m working on something, whether I’m doin’ a mixtape or an album. I don’t do music for mixtapes. I do quality music regardless. I put my message into it at all times because I want the fans to be pleased.

HHW: That’s definitely wassup. I see you have production from Spielberg and Zaytoven all over the project. How long did it take for you to put this whole thing together?

SHAWTY LO: This mixtape, I been working on for about two months now and probably not even that long because I’ve recorded so many songs … I recorded close to 70 songs and these are the ones we picked to be on the mixtape.

HHW: You’ve got about 20 songs on here, so where are the other 50 or so tracks gonna end up?

SHAWTY LO: It’s gonna go to something else. I’ll probably give the DJs a few exclusive records for themselves, that’s what I’m gonna do.

HHW: When you put a mixtape like this together, do you have a favorite record?

SHAWTY LO: I’mma go with my favorite track right now, and that’s “Hol’ Up” with Fabo and Stuntman. People always ask what’s up with D4L – me and crew ain’t been together in almost 5 years, so I think the “Hol’ Up” record’s gonna do well because the group is back together on this one.

HHW: How was it rockin’ with Fabo and Stuntman on that track?

SHAWTY LO: It was fun, man. When we get together it don’t be nothin’ but fun, and we probably had problems in the past where we had different people cuttin’ in and tryna turn us against each other, but we back to the basics. We got families, we got kids and you can’t hold grudges, gotta keep it movin’.

HHW: I’m excited about the “MVP” record. You have Rocko and Gucci on that joint and Zaytoven on the boards. Tell us about that song.

SHAWTY LO: Man that record there’s so special because us three guys – me, Rocko and Gucci – those my brothers from another, and all us come from the struggle and we on top of our game.

HHW: You have Young Scooter and Cash Out on the track “New Money.” Tell us about that one.

SHAWTY LO: All they gotta do is look that one up. I got my young crew, Cash Out and Young Scooter, two very hot artists.

HHW: At the top of the year, you were set to star in a reality show and that caught a red light. Give us an update on the status of All My Babies Mamas.

SHAWTY LO: I got a wonderful family, man. I got 11 beautiful kids, 9 girls and two boys. I never reached out to no network to come in on my life. It came to me. At first I wasn’t tryin’ to do that, but you know, I had people like, “You got a story that’s never been heard of, plus you take care of your family so it’d be interesting just to do it.” But people made assumptions that the show was gonna be violent or something or I was doing it for money, but you know, I never had money problems.

HHW: So if another network expressed interest in picking the show up, you’d still be down?

SHAWTY LO: That’s what’s in the works. It’s just the legal process right now with Oxygen. We got like five or six other networks right now interested in the show. Basically all the people did is make the show bigger than it already was.

Download Shawty Lo’s latest mixtape, I’m Da Man 4 NOW at livemixtapes.com

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