Being from Michigan and making it in the hip-hop game isn’t easy. You can’t hop on the subway and be at the Atlantic Records offices in 20 minutes and you can’t walk down Madison Avenue and bump into P. Diddy. You’re pretty much on your own and only the best can do it. Eminem did it and now successful acts such as Black Milk and Guilty Simpson are emerging from the Motor City. And of course, who could forget the Bake Up Boyz?

Breaking onto the scene with their hit single “Now I Can Do That” featuring Harlem’s own Jim Jones, the Bake Up Boyz took a lot of people by surprise and now they’re ready to ride the wave all the way to the top. Sixshot.com caught up with the fellas to discuss Michigan, their hit single, and their upcoming album.

Alright fellas, tell us how the Bake up Boyz started.

Dirt: The label started up in Michigan. Loot was in prison and when he got out I brought him in to get involved. I met Bub out in Ann Arbor outside Detroit and we became business partners five years ago. I met Jino out where I met Bub and we just took it from there. I came up with the name Bake Up Boyz and we started doin’ our thing.

What would you say each of you brings to the group?

Dirt: I bring that swagger to the game. We all got swagger but different flavors so I bring that street swag to the table. Loot brings that hard Michigan swag to the table. Bub is the one always coming up with them catchy hooks. Jino comes up with the hooks and them bridges and we just put it all in the pot and see what it do.

How did you get up with Jim Jones for the single?

Loot: He was out here in Ann Arbor doing a concert. One of our boys was doing a song with him so he called us down there and when we played him our joint  and he thought it was a hit. He jumped on it right there, the same night as the concert.

Did you think that song was gonna be as big as it was?

Bub: We knew it was gonna be big but it still got a little way to go. We about to come with the official remix in a minute.

What’s your relationship with Jim Jones today? I heard he’s on the album.

Bub: Yeah he’s most definitely on the album. But we only worked with him that one time. It’s no the type of situation where we’re in the studio together all the time.

So what’s the formula for the album? What has the creative process been like?

Loot: It’s good, street, grown-up music. I would call it mature music. It’s real street but I really feel like with this album we can reach anybody from like the ages of 13 to 40. It’s just the type of album where everybody can really vibe with the music, it’s universal.

What about production and features? Who can we expect to see?

Jino: We got a cat called Flawless who did most of the album for us. We got a few other cats as well who contributed. As far as features we got Jim Jones of course and a few others.

How do you feel about being a new group releasing a debut album in the climate the music business is in?

Dirt: It’s a struggle anyway with all the bootleggers that are out there and all the illegal downloading. But we’re a new group so we just gotta get out there and drop this good music so everybody from every state and around the world can see what we’re doing over here. WE got street music of course but we also got club anthems, commercial music, music that’s cool for the older people, man we got it all. That’s why we call ourselves the Bake Up Boyz because we’re all bringing different flavors to the table. We’re getting ready to take ours to the next level. We’re a new group and we’re workin’ hard to get in this game right but we comin’.

Loot: It ain’t no nerves over here man. There ain’t too much to be nervous about. Anybody that did it real major big on their first album we didn’t hear about that album. It must have been hidden or something. (Laughs) If somebody did really good or really bad on their first album you probably didn’t hear about it. Most people that do good have been around anyway. With most artists it takes some time before they reach that level. We ain’t nervous man. We just gotta keep grinding and stay at it and out third album might be triple platinum. It’s a game.

Before the Bake Up Boyz were formed were you guys heavily into hip-hop?

Jino: Yeah man we been into it for years.

Bub: Hip-hop is what intrigues us. The music intrigues us.

Loot: Yeah we were on some mixtapes, we put out our own mixtapes, we collaborated with some people, we did a lot of things. We did all the things you need to do to be an MC.

How do you guys feel about the hip-hop scene in Michigan today?

Dirt: It’s a good scene but we need help down here. It ain’t like Houston, Atlanta, or a real big time place like New York. There’s no A&R’s or execs and all that. They need to come here and do a talent search or something because we got a lot of it down here but they go to the bigger cities instead.

Loot: There’s more ways to do things. You can go to Georgia and bump into ten different music producers in one day but here in Michigan all that is harder. New York has execs and we don’t so we have to reach out and use other avenues to get us heard. It’s a shot in the dark but we done a lot being we’re from the area we’re from. Not to toot our own horn but we’ve accomplished a lot. Coming from a place where we don’t have all the resources we’re doing real good.

How do you feel that you accomplished so much with so little help?

Jino: Faith.

Loot: Just faith, God, and a little grind man. All those ingredients have made it real beautiful. Those are the things that got us here.

What’s coming up that we can check for?

Dirt: The second single is comin’ next. We’re having a little trouble with the clearances but once the paperwork is done then it’s on. It features Rick Ross and it’s coming real soon.

Loot: We got a song with Freeway comin’ too, a real feel good song.

Alright fellas, what do you wanna say to all the fans out there?

Loot: Buy the album and keep it real.

Jino: Shout out to Sixshot.com too.