Havoc Crushes The Indie Myth, "If The Deal's Not Structured Right, You Won't See No F*cking Bread"

With up-and-coming artists hoping to make it big independently, SOHH decided to reach out to Mobb Deep's Havoc, who has been on major and indie record labels, to get his take on the solo grind.

Asked if Mobb Deep is headed to an indie deal, Hav said his goal is to find the best possible financial situation for himself and group member Prodigy.

"I'm all about getting into any situation that makes money, you understand what I'm saying," Hav told SOHH when asked if Mobb Deep is headed indie. "So I wouldn't just be like, 'Oh no, indie is this and major is that.' You can sign to an indie and it could wind up being structured like a major deal and you won't make any money, any way. Artists beware. People are quick to say, 'Oh yeah, I'm doing indie.' If the deal's not structured right, it could get structured just like a major and you won't see no f*cking bread. I'm into getting into anything that makes money." (SOHH)

Last year, Atlantic Records' Lupe Fiasco stressed artists should consider going solo for dolo.

"Stay independent, if you can finance yourself, you put in that work ethic and do it on your own, I definitely think you should try that route," Lupe explained in an interview. "[At least] before you go into the professional kind of realm. But each one has its pros and cons. Sometimes it comes down to finance. You can't say that to a broke n*gga. Somebody flashing 50, 60 thousand dollars -- that means a lot, especially these days...You gotta do what's best for you but I definitely think that if you can muster it up and you got your focus and work ethic at least, you can pull something on your own." (All Hip Hop)

In April, Hav talked about possibly dropping a Mobb Deep compilation EP independently.

"I feel that we've been in the business long enough to totally know what to do," he said in an interview. "The whole thing right now is to really capitalize on our talent and what we do instead of having all these major labels take, take, take. We might as well reap the rewards of our success." Havoc said the eight- to 10-song EP, which the group plans to call Mobb Deep, will drop in August and will be the first Mobb Deep project released since Prodigy was released from prison in March. "Sometimes you have to man up and do you your own thing. We can do this. We've been in the game for years, so it's like, 'Let's do it. The time is now.'" (MTV)

Prodigy recently spoke on parting ways with G-Unit Records following the release of Mobb Deep's 2006 album, Blood Money.

"You can go get your money, elsewhere. And when that happened I was always talking to 50 [Cent] the whole time while I was locked up, and I basically asked him 'How are we going to proceed? How are we going to move forward when I get back?' And he was telling me he was interested in negotiating a new deal, with the new situation he's got, and I was like, 'Alright, cool.' Came back home, and we're still talking about it, throwing ideas around now about how we want to do it, but as of right now we're free agents." (Complex)