The Great Adventures of Dope Boy C: Dope for President- Behind the scenes

Somewhere around the "Black Folks" video shoot I came up with the idea to do 4 new installments of "The Great Adventures of Dope Boy C"...I had 2 records done that fit the whole political/social message that I wanted to get out. So "Dope For President" was born. I had so much inside of me that I wanted to say, that I wanted to get across to people, I just didn't know where to start. I think "Wake Up!" was the official beginning. With all the drama behind the scenes with the "Black Folks" video, being on the road performing, and almost being homeless again, recording got haulted for bout 3 months. In April '09 we were back on. "All For the Money" was the 1st of those records to be made. That song gave me the spark and the motivation to really go in deep and say something to the people. Honestly I ended up recording so many joints for this project, I could probably do a pt. 2. I think me talking to Seige and really telling him what I wanted to get out was the turning point in the project. "State of Emergency", "3 Little Pigs" and "Preacher, Preacher" kinda rose the bar up musically. I re-focused and centered the entire album around those 3 records and came up with the sound for the album. I didn't wanna do any features this go round. Tyrese was already on the "Tomorrow" record, but he got into this whole speech about "I'm not an artist anymore, i'm doing movies" blah blah blah and didn't wanna be "featured" on it. At the last minute I said fuck it and promoted it as "CurT@!n$ feat. Tyrese" anyway (He actually hit me up after the fact and loved the song and sent out a twitter blast to his followers. Whatever I guess) so there I had 1 feature. The "Like This" recorded needed somebody else on there. I thought of 2 people and immediately reached out. They both loved the record and agreed to do it. In a race against time, we only ended up with Bun-B's verse, the other person was tryna meet a deadline themself for their upcoming album release. So there I have Bun-B and Tyrese. Not too bad I say. The beat selection was probably the easiest part. Once I explained the concept, every producer kind of knew what to bring to the table. All in all I gotta say "Amerikkka's Most Wanted" by Ice Cube was the sole inspiration for this album. I zoned out to that album everyday just soaking up the vibe and tried to recapture that essence. Lance Drake didn't do any of the video's for this project, but he had great ideas for the artwork. We sat and tossed ideas around and came up with the whole dollar bill/american flag mesh. In the end when he sent me the final artwork I was blown away. I'm proud of how this whole project came together. Through all the fighting, drama, missed deadlines, dealing with idiots, dealing with ego's- it was well worth it! Dope For President!