Juelz Santana head into the weekend with a trip out to Los Angeles, where he was invited for an appearance on Power 106 FM on Friday, March 24. In spite of whatever squabbles might be hampering the camaraderie of the former Roc-A-Fella crew, wherever Juelz goes he brings Dipset with him, and thus, The Diplomats were into the building to field whatever nostalgic questions J Cruz and Krystal Bee might have had for it's the youngest member.

The interview worked up to the topic of Harlem's former rap "empire" as Cruz called them, with Santana vouching for Drake's talent albeit the lack of recognition he gets from the streets, before turning to the topic of the historic uptown Manhattan neighborhood known throughout history as a hub of artistry, culture and street life. Harlem wasn't the gentrified place it is today, Juelz noted, as neither was hip hop the pop genre it has become. Dipset exemplified where the culture was at the time because they helped influence it as the universally recognized overlords of the city circa the early to mid-2000's.

"It was almost a thing like, when you came to New York City you had to get with Dipset at that time ... Everybody who came through New York City, you know what I mean, you know, had to pass, kind of like through the set ... and not because we made it, I mean we made it like that ... it was just they knew, like, that's what New York is right? That's what we wanna be connected with," Juelz said, noting some of the biggest artists from the South and West Coast coming through to do features exclusively with Harlem's own.

Cruz had been noting how Dipset's reputation as a no-nonsense, "violent" yet "colorful" force, preceded them. Santana agreed although he clarified that the disharmony actually lied more in their relationship and rapport with players on the business end, than with fellow artists. "We had a lot more, when it comes to the scared things, like you know with the promoters and the clubs like that. And you know what I'm saying, just getting booked," he said, noting that such a dynamic might have served their street rep, but was counter intuitive to the hard work they were putting in to capitalize and dominate the industry. "I guess that kind of had a stigma on us as far as not getting to that next level. You know the name was big and everything, but just getting over that hump and being able to you know. Even some stations we couldn't go to, some radio stations you know ... certain things we had to clean up our act a little bit," he said.

Source: youtube.com