| Diesel Money |
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D I E S E L M O N E Y
Sometimes, artists will be waiting at the Hip-Hop Train Station without a pass and try to catch a ride to the top of the charts off of somebody’s coattails. But not Diesel Money. He doesn’t follow the trend. Although the 26 year-old rapper may receive guidance from a few peers, he thinks for himself and uses his verbal skills to earn him a ticket to board the money train. “It’s always about the work ethics,” he says. “It’s just about who you know, what you’re going to do and how aggressive you’re going to be to make shit happen.”
Diesel Money knows about that a little too well. After all, he has been applying that business theory to his everyday routine since he was a teenager, just to make life a little easier for his family and himself.
Growing up on the Southside of Chicago, Diesel had a pretty good upbringing as both of his parents worked blue-collar jobs. They provided for him, his older sister and two younger brothers. But by the time he turned 12 years-old, his father passed away from lung cancer. After the grieving process, Diesel was left to assume the role of being “man of the house” and although he was still attending public school, he had to help support his family.
“I feel like I’ve been a grown man since I was a teenager,” he says. “I did what I could to make ends meet for my mom, be a full positive circle for my younger siblings and I feel like I’m a role model for my older sister. I was putting in work on the football fields or on the streets, doing what I have to do. This shit is for real.”
Fortunately, things picked up. His mother became a nurse and Diesel Money himself became a star cornerback in the high school. After graduating in 1999, he went to Jacksonville State University on a football scholarship.
But over the next few years, his attention drifted from the pigskin and academia to music. Once he saw the Up in Smoke Tour in 2000, featuring Dr. Dre, Eminem and Snoop Dogg, he heavily started getting involved in booking shows and setting up private parties. Then, he would hit the labels. “What I would do is call the offices crazy and the offices would be so used to me calling, they would put me in touch with the people. They were like, ‘Oh, we might as well give this cat a chance,’ and I would go and meet these cats,” Diesel Money explains. “Jacksonville to Atlanta was about an hour, so I had this whole college curriculum that I was supposed to be working on. I’d be taking that, driving to the A, go party with these niggas until 5 in the morning, drive back and do my homework before class.”
Apparently, he made quite the impression. In 2003, he transferred to Northern Illinois University and also formed his company, Diesel Management. He worked with several top caliber artists such as Jim Jones, Juvenile, Ludacris, and 8Ball & MJG. That’s not including the unsigned rappers like Don Profit and Moneybags he is attempting to bring to the forefront. Diesel was covering all the bases.
The closer he worked with his clients, the sooner they rubbed off on him. While he was running a successful management company and touring alongside Hip-Hop A-Listers, he also spent time with them in the recording booth. Soon, the transition from CEO to full-fledged MC took place. “I been rapping and I used to flow with my guys in the studio. It’s a natural talent being around greats like Twista and Juvenile when they were in the writing process, especially with 8Ball and MJG,” Diesel Money admits. “I was seeing all the talent and the songs come together. So I always had the knowledge to make a hit. You’ll hear that through the rest of my career.”
For the past year, Diesel Money has been laying down tracks in the studio and is strongly pushing his first single “You Got Me Going” featuring his lyrical client Don Profit.
Between his highly successful management company and his soon-to-be blossoming rap career, it looks like Diesel Money is setting a new standard at the Hip-Hop Train Station. “I’m just trying to have my place in the game,” he says. “I heard this stuff these other cats been talking about and personally, I’m tired of popping it in my CD deck and iPod. I wanna hear some good music and that’s what I intend on bringing to the table. When people hear Diesel Money, that ain’t no bullshit. It ain’t no snap, crack and pop it. It’s some real Hip-Hop.”
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