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Sixshot: How are you guys going to separate your selves from being in Cam’ron’s shadow?

Juelz Santana: I mean ya know, the shadow thing is just something to deal with. But we gonna do it the same way 50 cent got himself away from the Emeniem shadow. Know what I mean?

Freekey Zekey: At the same time ya know Cam’ron lets you be ya self, he lets you do your own creative things as well. We venture off from him as far as being our own independent rap artist, because we got our own style. Cam’ron has his style, then Juelz and Jimmy got they own style; so it actually does separate us.

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JS: If you listen to a lot of these artists, they be crews and the reason why they be crews is because they all sound alike.

FZ: We differentiate from one another by our styles; where like u might got one dude who might wear his red and white sneakers, so I might come with my red and green sneakers, Cam might come with his white and pink sneakers. We all got the same Nikes but in different colors, ya feel me?

Sixshot: People label Juelz as the front man kind of like the Justin Timberlake sex symbol of the group; does that affect the chemistry between you guys in any way?

JS: If that’s what I have that’s gonna set me aside, let it set me aside cause it’s a beautiful thing. I’m the 1^st artist on Diplomat Records, so they look’n for me to come and take ova. So what ever I do is gonna benefit the label, so in a way it might be best to expose me now.

FZ: No, it don’t cause this is a record label so the more Juelz shine or if they feel he’s the sexiest guy in the world we all shine cause that’s extra for us cause it all comes back to the melting pot cause we a label.

Sixshot: Can you tell us all how you came together? I know you are from Harlem World, but can you explain how living close to one another enabled you guys to form the core foundation of the diplomats?

FZ: Between me, Jimmy, and Cam’ron it was like over 11 years of knowing each other; we grew up down the block from each other. Me and Jimmy meet in the 4^th grade during a summer school math class. We was both running around looking for a pizza, but we didn’t have no money and this girl had a token and dropped it. So we picked it up and bought a pizza with it. From then on we both lived on the 5^th floor; and when you're children at that age around 9 everything comes into play and it’s all good. His grandma’s name was my mother’s name, so that’s how we became pact. Jimmy Jones always knew Cam’ron so from there that’s how we linked. We always knew Juelz, but he was so young we used to hang with his older brothers and a friend of mine name Tobb, Juelz’s cousin. So when Juelz started to mature he became a good artist. Actually he was signed to another rap label, but that went sour; so we checked out the contract and Tobb helped to bring him over. When he brought the boy over I couldn’t believe what he said, man it was like nitrate ya know; the way he said it, had started melt’n the speakers. He was young like 15 going on 16 at the time, and he was saying things we was thinking about; it was like he had an old soul.

Sixshot: Speaking about O.G’s in the hood; who were some of the older cats that the diplomats looked up to when they needed advise on rhyming, hustling, or any thing like that? Was it Cam’ron?

JS: It’s a lot of different people making moves where we were at. Cam was down the hill, so I just knew him on the music tip. I was up the hill so I knew hustlas like AZ. Not the rapper AZ, but the hustla AZ who wrote the movie Paid in Full, a true story. So more or less I looked up to guys like that, but when it came to rap I looked up to Cam. But you know they was down the hill doing they slang’n and bang’n thing. Up the hill was different, its like two different worlds, where as in La everything gets around and everybody knows who's who.

FZ: When you looked up to someone in Harlem it was for his fly ways, it was for how he got his paper and how he got down. Usually it was the hustlas, so rap artist imitated the hustlas. So that’s what we emulated.

JS: Back in the day it was rappers imitating hustlas, now you got the stone cold hustlas actually rap’n. So all that battling stuff is not being taken lightly cause these is actually the real people who had they lives spoken on; they ain’t trynna hear the next man talking about them. They beef’n, they treat’n rap like the corna.

Sixshot: When it comes to rap each style varies; some people are freestylers while others just stick to writing. Where would you guys place your selves?

JS: To me freestyling is all good and it’s a beautiful thing, but I think based on writing music it is the fact that you can sit down and take time to make a deep thought. A freestyle to me is just quick thoughts. I can do it, but I prefer to sit down and really dig into my soul. I like to be specific and make sense every time you hear me so it don’t even sound like I’m playing when I’m rhyming. I don’t knock anybody who freestyle's cause maybe they can do it just as good as I can sit down an write. But maybe that’s just their talent. I prefer to think about my thoughts, gather them together, and make sure they will make sense, then present them to you like a big picture in a story. I don’t think I can do that in a freestyle.

FZ: After a certain amount of rhymes you end up saying, you end up remembering ya whole rhyme in ya head and you don’t have to write anything down, so that can almost be considered a freestyle. Once you become a person who has gathered the art of learning all three 16’s with out having to write anything down you become a pro of your work.

Sixshot: What type of beats do you like to spit on and write your music to?

JS: What eva I’m feeling cause it’s a life thing. On your album you get 15-17 tracks, you're not gonna make all of them sound the same. I don’t really got any favorite beats, I just love music. If I’m feel’n it, then I’m feel’n it; we take what ever is hot.

Sixshot: Some times big name producers don’t like to drop beats on up and coming artist. Do you guys face this problem?

JS: We from Harlem and a lot of guys is feeling us. We were nominated for a Grammy with Cam. We ain’t that new, people know us and got respect for us. It would be a lot of producers that come up to us and give us beats.

Sixshot: Can you guys speak on the dues that you have paid in the game; cause out here on the west we are not really exposed to mix tapes therefore we don’t really know the things you guys have done?

JS: We up to volume 4 on the mix tapes with just straight Diplomats. We started doing our own thing at first, that’s how we got our deal with the Roc when we did volume 1 of the mix tapes.

FZ: We been with Cam since his first album and this is his third. The name Diplomats just came about because at the time we all felt we was at the apex of our game and there was nothing to surpass us; so we called ourselves Diplomats and it just stuck over the years. We just didn’t make the name up; we all just felt that way about each other and through Cam’s experience in the rap game we all grew and later on people started hearing us on the albums and started to become a hot commodity. Then when we put out the mixtapes that was what actually brought us over the hill to be signed as artist to Roc-a-fella.

Sixshot: What roles do each of you play in the crew?

FZ: With Cam’ron he is a very exceptional person, because he gave all of us executive jobs. Myself being the president of Diplomat Records, Jimmy Jones is the ceo, Juelz is the vice-president as well as Cam also being ceo. He gave us the opportunity to become execs in our own business. The rise and fall of Diplomat Records will be on us and that’s a good thing cause that’s pressure on us and we like to work against pressure.

Sixshot: Has the transition from the hood to executives been rough for you guys?

FZ: You learn as you grow so little things that you might make a mistake on you just have to learn to conquer the limitation that you have at the moment. When its something you don’t know you have to call an older person like Dame. Dame is a good friend of ours, so of its something we don’t know or feel funny about we always went to him or somebody else who knows.