It seems like Grandaddy Souf has been just outside the tidal wave of success the South has been having for the last few years. While he is signed to a major label in SRC Records it hasn’t translated to much acclaim for the Orlando, Florida based rapper.

While Miami rappers have been running the scene, Souf has been left as the odd man out. With talent to spare it’s hard to imagine that with all of those records sold Souf couldn’t even scan a couple hundred thousand. If anybody is dealing with industry politics it’s this man. 

Sixshot.com was able to catch up with the man himself and discuss his newly released album that nobody knew was out, his wax getting shipped to Seattle, and why he’s getting sick and tired of the rap game.

Alright man, first things first, tell us how you got with SRC.

I actually started as an independent artist and I made some noise here at home. I had my own label at the time and my DJ was Prostyle who had a working relationship with Loud Records. He told Steve Rifkind and them about me and it just went from there. They checked out the Soundscan and the word on the street about me and we took it from there.

Was it a big change going from independent artist to major artist?

Yeah it is, there’s a lot of politics and bullshit in this industr y but with the majors you see it a lot more. You could really feel the whole corporate infrastructure when they’re not trying to push an artist. As an independent artist you control your career a little more. For instance, if I want to focus on a certain region more then I can do that. I could tell the majors that and I did but they don’t listen. Large amounts of my vinyl were being shipped to Portland and Seattle and I hadn’t even established myself there yet so it didn’t make any damn sense.

They were sending large quantities of wax over there when Paul Davis from the South Carolina record pool called and specifically asked for 60 pieces of the record. They couldn’t even provide him with that because they sendin’ all my shit to the West Coast where motherfuckers don’t know shit about me. One thing about the majors that we all know is that they’re a machine and they can catapult a situation if they want to and they can set it back if they want to.

How is your album doing?

To be honest with you homey and this is on everything I love, I never check the Soundscan ever. I never even check the first week. I do know the album is selling. When I go into different stores I see what people are buying so I know it’s selling. I get hit up on Myspace and people are telling me they copped the album and it’s tight but they didn’t even know it was out until they saw it at the store. I’m not the first artist this happened to though. It happened to T.I. on his first album. Some people may look at it like a setback but it ain’t a setback to me because I’m gonna just keep it moving.

So you feel like they didn’t promote it right?

Nah it wasn’t promoted right or set up right. It wasn’t set up at all. It was just kinda out there. It is what it is.

Tell me bro; growing up in Florida, did you ever think it would be the hip-hop powerhouse it is today?

I always thought it would come back to Florida. We had Luke, JT Money and these dudes were runnin’ it from way back. I always felt it would come back to the crib.

The Florida hip-hop scene seems to be real close. Is that the case?

I beg to differ because the Miami scene is more click-ish. One thing I always gave artists from Atlanta is that they all work together. They don’t even have to be the best of friends to work together. In Florida you never really see artists out of Tampa working with artists out of Miami. The only person who really went out of town with it was Trick [Daddy]. He put Tampa Tony on a record with him. Miami artists just kinda stay in they circle so I beg to differ on that one. You got Plies from Fort Myers but he’s on a Miami based label, Slip-N-Slide. He’s label mates with Rick Ross and them.

So you feel like Miami gets more shine than Tampa or Orlando?

Miami gets all the shine for the whole state. The only person not from Miami getting shine besides Plies is T-Pain but I’m talkin’ on a much, much, much bigger level. He’s the biggest artist from the state of Florida.

You think it’ll ever swing around to the other areas?

I would like to see that happen. I’m from Orlando and one of the things that kept us down was the whole Disney World perception. The crazy shit is that Disney World ain’t in Orlando. It’s in Kissimmee, Florida, which is like on the outskirts of Orlando but for marketing reasons they say Orlando because some people can’t even pronounce Kissimmee.

Orlando has one of the highest murder rates around but people don’t know that. Even with the Orlando magic, check this out. They would never win until they got some hard nose players on the team with some tattoos and some cornrows but they don’t want that look. The shit that came outta here was like N'Sync and Backstreet Boys and that shit kinda holdin’ us back.

You’re unhappy with the promotion of your first project. Do you think you’ll head elsewhere for your second project?

I’m gonna do another project over there but to be honest with you it’s not even about an album anymore man. It’s about one record. That’s all it takes. Flo Rida had a record out here that was like a regional hit but he didn’t blow up crazy until he did “Low”. That shows me that all you need is one fuckin’ record. He had a nice album too but it only took that one record. It’s all about ringtones, ringbacks, and all them other little shits. That’s why labels are doing EP deals and single deals. Rap was getting boring to me for a second. I felt like niggas wasn’t being creative and the DJ’s weren’t challenging them to be creative. It’s a lot of monkey see monkey do type shit.

So with all that said where do you see yourself in the future in terms of hip-hop?

To be honest, I used to wanna stay in this shit as much as I could but now I just kinda wanna work with labels and be on some A&R shit. It’s boring right now so I would like to be on the inside and help find new relent and help guide their career without that cookie cutter shit. I don’t like the way the business is now. Back in the day it meant something to develop an artist but now it don’t mean a motherfuckin’ thing.

Alright man, do you wanna say anything to the people out there who supported the album?

I wanna say thank you. Keep supporting me and I’m gonna keep bringin’ that heat. I speak from the heart. Ya’ll can check out the Myspace for updates at www.Myspace.Com/grandaddysouf.