In 2008, the next chapter in the spiritual warfare of mankind will not take place on land, sea, or within our hearts and minds, but will instead be carried out upon the unlikely battlefield known as a t-shirt.  Created by the lead Black Wall Street producer, DJ, and entrepreneur, Nu Jerzey Devil, Heaven or Hell is the clothing line that fuses the angelic with the devilish for sinfully addictive apparel. 

For those tempted by the dark side, the hell aspect of the line features t-shirts emblazoned with vibrant colors and fearless designs adorned with cryptic skulls, bat wings, and more.  If you’re a warrior of the light you can choose t-shirts that feature majestic clouds, awe-inducing mysticism, and such commanding lines as “Death before dishonor.”

 With these combined features, Nu Jerzey Devil, has created a line that draws from the Middle Ages, religion, Rock ‘N’ Roll, and the culture of hip-hop for a line that seeks to appeal to today’s generation of loyal hip-hoppers.  The line has already received support and praise from some of hip-hop’s elite such as: Lil’ Wayne, The Game, Rick Ross, and video vixen Gloria Velez. 

Nu Jerzey Devil took a moment to talk to Sixshot about his inspiration for entering the world of fashion, what separates his line from the rest of the pack, the true level of his actual involvement in the line, his own sense of personal style, what the future holds for Heaven or Hell, and more.        

You’re known as a producer and DJ so what inspired you to venture into the creation of a clothing line?

Basically, I’m a fly type of dude!  I like to dress real nice and it’s hard to find stuff that I like.  So I took it upon myself to make my own line.  This way I don’t have to worry about that anymore.  Clothing is a beautiful thing.  We spend money on clothing everyday, so why not?  It seems like the best next venture for me to do.  I’m doing the rap thing, I did the producing thing, and I’m doing the DJ thing, so the next step for me was the clothing line.  

There are tons of major artists coming out with lines all the time.  What would you say separates your line?

Every t-shirt that I have has meaning and great concepts.  The style of it is definitely crazy, it’s catchy, it’s meaningful, and what’s better than having something with meaning and it’s fly at the same time!

How heavily involved are you in the creation and concept of the line?

I’m very involved.  With every product that’s manufactured there’s definitely something that came from me.  Every t-shirt concept has a personal theme to it.  We have a t-shirt called, “Death before Dishonor,” and things like that.  We got scriptures from the Bible on t-shirts.  So every shirt means something.  It’s not just a shirt with a creative design on it.  Everything has a background to it.

Do you sketch the designs?

Yeah, I’m a graffiti artist too so I did sketches.  I do the little sketches, send it to my designer, they put it together, I say yea or nay on what needs to be changed, what needs to be added, what types of fabric to use, and all that type of stuff.  So I’m definitely hands-on.  I’m full-fledged.  I go all the way with it.  I’m not just somebody that says “Yes I like that,” or “No, I don’t like that.”  I like to be involved in all my products. 

How did you get involved in graffiti?

I started out as a little kid.  I was born in the Bronx so that’s the home of graffiti right there.  During my junior high school years and high school years I was always a tagger—just going around spray painting up everything.  I got locked up for tagging on walls and all that.  So that’s just a part of hip-hop.  That’s the way I grew up.  It was just something I did and it was actually useful.  I don’t regret anything I did, and I’m grateful that I was a graffiti artist. 

Is there a connection between your experiences and talent as a graffiti artist and the creative design elements of Heaven or Hell?

The only connection I would say is pretty much the artistic side of it.  There’s no type of graffiti writing on the clothing just because I don’t feel like that’s the fashion right now.  I don’t think that’s the trend right now.  You might see it in the future.  As of right now the only two links between that are me being artistic and getting my point across on the clothes.

The line has a unique concept of heaven or hell.  It seems to mix religion, medieval sentiments, and gangsterisms all in one.  Was that the approach?

It definitely was because everything now that’s out doesn’t have any meaning behind it.  Heaven or Hell is pretty much who I am.  It’s what I stand for and it’s just pretty much everything that I’m involved with.  So I love it!  I love the whole concept of it.  There’s a lot of clothing out there that doesn’t have any good meaning or represents nothing.  I like to have meaning with everything that I do. 

The line also uses a lot of skulls and color which reminded me of some rock inspired elements.  Is the style of rock music an inspiration for the line?

That aspect came from the hell side of everything.  We got the female clothing line which will probably have some more heaven stuff with clouds, angels, and all that type of stuff.  It all reaches out to heaven and hell.  

How do you expect this line to appeal to hip-hoppers?

Well, me being in hip-hop that’s pretty much the easy part.  My goal is to try and reach everyone else—the suburban kids and the rockers.  Hip-hop is already there for me.  I’m a part of it and everybody has gotten involved in it.

I’ve got Lil’ Wayne as a model, [The] Game, Rick Ross, Gloria Velez.  So the hip-hop end of it is pretty much covered.  So my hope is to now reach the other crowd that I haven’t touched yet.  Hopefully at the end of the day everybody will wear Heaven or Hell. 

Hip-hop fashion has gone through several changes from the gangster wear to the business look to the preppy element.  What do you see as the next step in the evolution of hip-hop fashion?

That’s kind of hard.  All it takes is for one person or artist to wear something crazy and then the world pretty much jumps on it.  So I can’t really call and say what the next thing is going to be, but Heaven and Hell will definitely be a part of whatever is going on out there. 

How would you define your own personal sense of style?

My sense of style depends on my mood.  I might wake up today and feel like a business man and throw on some preppy clothes.  I still keep it hood but it just depends on how I feel.  I’m never stuck on one type of fashion.  I think that’s gonna be a plus for Heaven or Hell because as I get more fashionable so will the clothing line.  I’m grown; I’m getting older and more mature, so I might start a more upscale line as well.  It’s just a great thing to have, a great thing to be—Heaven or Hell is defiantly the future for ’08!

What immediate expansions do you have planned for the line?

Right now we just started the female line with Gloria Velez as the top model.  After that I’m going into children’s as well—toddlers and infants.  We got the sneaker line out.  We got one sneaker and then we’re gonna produce another one.  We’re gonna pretty much cover every aspect with this clothing line—jackets and all of that.  The next step after the females will be the kids--definitely having the kids wearing Heaven or Hell.    

For more information please visit:
www.myspace.com/heavenorhellclothing