Fiend (International Jones) Ready To Rock Out At The “No Limit Reunion Tour,” Announces New Podcast!

Fiend shares the bittersweet moments of embarking on the “No Limit Reunion Tour,” from reunited with the squad to not having key components from the labels hay day present.

Fiend has enjoyed Platinum and Gold success. He has reached legendary status both locally and globally, yet, to have a conversation with him, it feels like you are speaking to a life-long friend who you grew up with since childhood. Humble and down to earth explains why, Fiend has survived the constant grind of the music business while never having any major beefs. His mellow demeanor spills over into his music and projects over the mic when he spits. He also has another side, the amped side that shows the diversity and versatility of the New Orleans native. In fact, that amped side was on display from “King” James himself. A recent video posted by, LeBron James where he’s rapping, Fiend’s, “I’m A Soldier” verse. Fiend described seeing, LeBron James rapping his verse as, “Invigorating.”

I recently spoke to the legendary New Orleans rapper, who is ready to hit the stage with his former labelmates during the, “No Limit Reunion Tour,” talks about his upcoming podcast and his desire to continue to make dope music.

Man… it’s been awhile, Fiend. How are you?

Fiend: Things are good, bro. Thanks for asking. What about yourself? What’s new with you since the last time we spoke?

I’m speaking with you, man, so I’m great. Just rocking out with, The Hype Magazine now. I see you have a lot going on. What’s new with you?

Fiend: Yeah man, I’m just enjoying life and transitioning into making music for me and the vibe I’m on, more than just strategically going to get more clicks. Things of that nature, but I am working desperately to make music dope which will cause high volume of clicks and garner interest. You know what I mean.

I know exactly what you mean. It seems like you are in a space where you are enjoying your music and just having fun with it.

Fiend: I appreciate that. I remember a long time ago, it’s not going to mean nothing now, the Platinum plagues. Man, I went Platinum, I went Gold. I heard that you make your first album for your neighborhood, you make your second album for the world and you make your third album for yourself. And I’m on, I don’t know how many albums (laughing).

Album 20 is finally for yourself (laughing).

Fiend: (Laughing). It’s gotta be some point where I should trust me to have our best interest. And from there, the consumers who believe in what I’m doing, should trust that I have their best interest too. So, that’s honestly where I’m at right there in making new vibes for the world.

You are embarking on this, “No Limit Reunion Tour,” does it feel like picking up where you left off or is it a reacclimating phase that goes into putting together something like this?

Fiend: Honestly, it’s just like going through an old neighborhood that you grew up in and basically just people are just so happy to see you. You see people that you haven’t seen in so many years. They are just so happy to see you back there; you know what I mean?

That’s actually a great description of what a reunion tour should be.

Fiend: It’s like you go through the old neighborhood and it’s like, “Ah man, Percy, where you been? It’s so good to see you.” That’s the closest thing I can say to describe it. I’m enjoying being on stage. The biggest thing for me, I guess being so young on, No Limit is seeing, Percy Miller. It’s always going to be seeing him and just being around each other and being able to be like, “What’s up, big dog? What’s up dude?” It’s going to always be that affect. A lot has happened over the years, I don’t know what to point fingers at on what about what, but I am grateful to still be here. It’s unfortunate that a lot of my closest buddies doing music with me or no longer around; some are incarcerated, free, McKinley Phipps and free, Corey Miller. They are both falsely accused of some things that they did not do. Let justice ring for my brothers; ya dig.

And a lot of people who are not here that passed away, Big Ed, Mr. Magic and Soulja Slim. A lot of things… a lot of nostalgia going on, a lot of happy moments and a lot of small sad moments when you think about the people who aren’t there. But it’s so good to connect with the fans all over again. Man… so many people didn’t get a chance to hear you or get to see you face to face during the height of this thing. A lot of kids were skipping school to go get the CD’s on Tuesday. A lot of them grew up off of our music, so I’m happy for it, bro. I’m honestly happy to reconnect with the fans. It’s always cool to make a few dollars doing something that you love. But I think the whole picture is nostalgic and long overdue for the fanbase and I’m happy to be a part of it.

You guys have already done a few shows and it seems like that energy is still there and everyone seems like they want to be there and when those two things come together you can’t create anything short of dope.

Fiend: Bruh… ah man, I may have put out the first footage. I had my camera crew there and I was like, “Man, I got some footage that I want to release.” Shout out to, ATL Top 20, out there in Atlanta, Georgia. He came out there and he wanted to film it. He was the first to release footage on his phone before anybody. Then from there it went from my camera guy putting footage out there on behalf of my company, “FDE.” It’s gold, bro. I can’t wait to show you more footage. It’s like walking to them ring, man. It’s like an NBA Championship, you know we came to win. You know we came to win, bruh. And it all told it, Mr. Crawford, when we did that, “Make ‘Em Say Uhh,” together, bruh. Man!

It’s funny you mention the NBA because I recently saw a video of, LeBron James rapping your verse on, “I’m A Soldier.” I know that had to bug you out. How good of a feeling that you get from seeing that? You touched on it on your socials, but he wasn’t even born probably or was very young when that dropped.

Fiend: Ah bro! It was amazing to see how big the impact of all our music was to the world in the Midwest. LeBron was just one of those defying moments. Bro, I cannot lie to you… LeBron if you read this, fam, I want to tell you, I appreciate you being the person that you are and just like millions of other people who are just like you are. To tap into that certain vibe or moment that makes you want to go to the gym, get up and go do things or make you go handle your business off of this music because it shows, LeBron is just like you. I remember in our first interview you said you listened to me before every football game. You went to school off of it, you grew up off of it and at any given point in time, you about to release the eye of the tiger. And that is going to be the soundtrack to his, go-get-em attitude. Percy, it made me feel so good. I wish I could have bottled it up and just put it in an icebox to be able to sip from that every once in a while. Feeling that type of energy, I felt invigorated. Like I sipped from the fountain of youth or something.

For him to be on your verse during the video and rapping along with it and even dropped a Whomp Whomp was dope.

Fiend: Bro, it just spoke champion volumes. It made me think to myself, we are all on the same frequency of awesomeness. One is going to be more known than the other one, but hey bro, you’re still in the same class, still riding in the same car and ya’ll share the same dream and admiration and don’t ever forget it, bruh.

I’m not going to pretend that you don’t deserve that. You deserve, LeBron James rapping your music, you deserve me telling you I rocked out to you before my games. You’re a legend.

Fiend: Ah man… bro, no levels to what ya’ll give me, fam. That gives me chills, bro. To know that I was right there with you in spirit, bro… it gives me chills. I was that little guy watching, “Konan The Barbarian,” I was that little guy watching, “He-Man,” and that little guy watching, “Usual Suspects” for the first time. I was that guy listening to, “N.W.A.” and I was like you, I was playing football and listening to music that made me want to lift those weights, made me want to get out here and get it, bruh; crack some skulls. I’m fortunate and I’m so honored, bro. I’m so-so honored because I feel like, if that’s for me, that goes for, Mac, that goes for, Corey, that goes for, P, that goes for, Silk, that goes for, Mia, that goes for, Mystikal, that goes for, Magic and that goes for, Slim. It’s invigorating, bruh and I’m getting excited just talking about it.

Just hearing the name’s, you listed, No Limit had a super team before the NBA super teams was a thing. That’s a hell of a roster.

Fiend: It felt like being a part of, “Super Friends.” It felt like almost being immortal, bro without egotistically letting it ruin my life.

I love when I see the younger generation salute the OG’s. Fendi P represents you to the fullest. What’s that relationship like?

Fiend: Fendi is my brother, man. I met him years ago through, Musa; part owner of Jet Life. That’s my brother also; a friendship that goes over 27-years. He introduced me to, Fendi P. We knew him as, Pee Wee. Something about him… I gave him the name, Corner Boy P. Something about him made me think, “Damn, if I had a hundred guys like you, I would take over this music business.” Because he’s going to go out and do the legwork too. He’s going to go out and put up posters, you’re not going to be scared to go in these neighborhoods and he’s not going to be intimidated by getting on the stage with me. It was something about him and I carried that with me. If I had more guys like this dude. And he was a young man that didn’t even rap. I asked him if he would do it and I told him, “If you’re not scared, I’ll rock with you.” He wasn’t scared and that was it. He started rapping, we put together this song called that was on, Can I Burn 2,” and the rest is history.

You’re going to hear about a lot of this on my podcast that I’m putting together right now. We don’t really have a date for it, but just know. The content is so worth hearing. It’s a million dollars’ worth of game every day. You will be hearing just genuine communication and conversation that you just don’t get from everybody. Me being there when, Young Jeezy was just popping off, me being there when, David Banner popped off, when BoneCrusher popped off, Gucci Mane. Me being there for these key points. I’ve always been there. I’ve always been there in the background… Lil Wayne.

It was 2-years ago, Lil Wayne brought me up. He has these festivals called, LilWeezyAna Fest. So, my man invited me and anther young man by the name of, Chris Brown (laughing) as special guest at, LilWeezyAna Fest. I was like, “Me and who? Huh bruh!” He invited us as special guest, so what we did, we were special guest that wasn’t announced on the bill. I did a special performance and something very special happen. I got on stage and I lost it. Lil Wayne was singing all of my lyrics back to back with me and I just lost it, bro. I flashed out. I don’t know what happened, I just know a whole bunch of awesomeness happened. It was amazing, bro. I was telling myself, “I don’t even know what to do with myself right now.” It was unheard of. That was one of those evenings that changed my life, bro. It made me want to do this podcast, it made me want to do this cooking show and it made me want to do more content because cats need to see guys that they look up to, that have every day lives and also live this extraordinary something too. And I want to be one of the gentlemen that can do it.

I came a long way and I just want to let guys know, it’s okay to be cool, it’s okay to be a father, it’s okay to be married, it’s okay to be a player and it’s okay to be dope. Never apologize for it. And you can still live this earth, travel everywhere, do a lot of things, have a lot of money or little to no money and still be happy and live a wonderful life. And to know that there is no need to hate, everyone gets their day. I got so much to talk about on this podcast, movies coming out, this tour, the transition from Fiend to International Jones, the progression of, Corey Miller and McKinley Phipps and how they are surviving. Even though the circumstances they are living in is horrible, the conditions are horrible, but they are just unique individuals, awesome human beings who are overcoming these obstacles and making it possible. Just so many things that everyday TV is not going to give you.

I appreciate the time as always, shout out to my girl, Angelique Phipps. She is great at what she does, and I appreciate her linking us back up. Is there anything else you want to add, my man?

Fiend: Shout out to, The Hype Magazine for doing this interview and giving me the platform to speak about it today. Ya’ll be sure to follow me on all my social media platforms, Instagram 504fiend, Twitter @FIEND4DAMONEY, Facebook, 504 Fiend or Richard Jones and Snapchat is Fiend Whomp Whomp!

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