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George Lopez is an American music executive, promoter, and proprietor of Texas-based record label and music storefront T-Town Music. He is also the owner and operator of marketing and management entity Jin Music Group, through which he manages Dallas recording artists Big Tuck and Dirty South Rydaz. Originally a DJ), Lopez established a system of independent distribution and marketing with the help of his store that became beneficial to various labels including No Limit Records, Rap-A-Lot Records and Swisha House. The store was also integral to the success of Southern Hip-Hop collective Dirty South Rydaz (DSR), which Lopez and Trini D. formed and managed, consisting of Big Tuck, Tum Tum, Fat Bastard, Lil' Ronnie, Double T, and Addiction. In 2005, Lopez and Trini D. negotiated an agreement that prompted the signing of a 7.2 million dollar deal for T-Town Music to Universal Motown Records as 50/50 label deal.

If you were running for mayor of the DFW hip-hop scene, what would some of your campaign promises be?
I would have session meetings with artists, retail, DJs, radio, club owners and promoters to put everyone on the same page. Right now, there's no hip-hop network for DFW! That's why everyone is starving and losing in the music game. I've had these talks with major people in our music scene, but everyone is in it for themselves and don't want to network together to make our city strong. I'm here, been there, done that. Now it's time for us to get together and work as one machine.

You've been doing this a long time in Dallas.
Yes, been in the music game for years as a DJ, radio personality, distributor, marketing/promotions and consulting person, retail store owner and then CEO of T-Town Music.

Is managing tougher nowadays?
Yes it is, because artists are told things that ain't true in the business, so artists want to manage themselves now days.

Do you still retail a good bit? How's business in 2012? Eighteen years as a mom and pop store, but it's slowed down a little bit due to free downloads and bootlegging. How different is all that now as compared to T-Town's heyday?
Bootlegging wasn't as bad as then. Now all the gas stations and barber shops in Dallas are bootlegging CDs and selling them for $5 or less.

It seems like everyone is a club DJ now.
Yes. Back then, we had to buy expensive equipment and every record was $5 to $15 each, and CDs were $15 to $20 each. Now these "DJs" buy a laptop, download free music, plug up to a mixer and play, and don't even mix the music! They just scratch and slam in the song.

How do the best DJs land the best gigs in 2012?
It's all politics like always. It's about who you know. I run three nightclubs in Dallas and I have my people that I want deejaying. People ask me, "How can I deejay at your spot?" and I say, "Send me a mix to my email and I will check you out.

"Tell us about some new blood from DFW that's impressing you right now.
Well, there's a lot of new music, some bad and some good. The new blood, like Rock, Doughski-G, Chiefa, Pooca Leroy, T-Cash. These guys represent the new D-town sound. Also, as a retailer, they actually sell a lot of music. Outselling some of these other major label artists in sales. For 15 years, major labels used to call me directly and ask, "Who is selling in your store?" and "Who do we need to look out for or sign the next big deal?" Now, they're not researching like they use to. That's why the artists they have now suck and don't sell any units. Only a few single ringtones. Major labels don't have that bond with us independent retailers, like we used to have. Network is the key to success!

MUSIC MOGUL

George Lopez puts the Dallas hip-hop scene on the national stage.

Talk's about Dallas’ hip-hop scene and how big it can be—no, will be, with his help. Thing is, for all his bluster, George Lopez is probably right. He’s the one, after all, who brought six Dallas rappers, Dirty South Rydaz (DSR for short), to the attention of execs at Universal Records. He’s the one who pushed their six-album, multimillion-dollar deal through in October—the biggest-ever contract in Texas. And he didn’t stop there. He set up a Universal subsidiary in Dallas called T-Town Music, whose job it will be to find every other DSR, not only here but across Texas and, heck, maybe the entire South,and bring them fame. Ergo, Dallas hip hop will be huge. They’d sold 350,000 units in places as far away as Virginia.Lopez, whom in Dallas in less than 4years, phoned people he knew at the major labels. “Universal is heavy on research,”says Imran Majid, an artist and repertoire representative with the label. DSR, he says, got 200 retail requests a week—unheard of for an independent. “Signing them was a no-brainer for us.” Majid says, “a lot of pieces fell into place at the same time.”

KIKI J

PLAY

ALLHIPHOP.COM

As the NBA’s All-Star weekend approaches and seemingly every hip hop celebrity in the world gets ready for their featured party in Dallas, many heads are turning towards the Dallas rap scene, curious as to who the major players are in the “Big D” If you know anything about Dallas hip hop you know that many people have tried to categorized Dallas as solely a “dance song” or “ringtone song” city, but some people in this area beg to differ. Since 1994 T-Town Music & More has been located in the Pleasant Grove Bruton Bazaar. The store has provided listeners with Dallas’ best hip hop music, mixtapes, DVDs. The owner of T-Town Music & More, George Lopez, built his empire from this location and has been in the game for some time now. Whether it was developing relationships that helped up and coming labels like Rap-A-Lot, Swisha House and No Limit Records, or running T-Town Music & More, or creating one of Dallas’ most well know rap groups, DSR, George Lopez has built a hip-hop empire in Dallas that is seemingly unparalleled to any other hip-hop executive in the city. “George Lopez will be remembered for years to come. He took the Dallas sound and spread it across the country as well as possibly making the greatest sacrifice for the city.” –Kiki J K104 Hip Hop and R&B of Dallas “George is definitely a pioneer and he’s a trendsetter. His store helped break a lot of artists and his street tactics and marketing go so under looked in the market.” – Play of Grammy Award Winning Production Team Play-N-Skillz

AllHipHop.com: So, just so our readers
know, tell me a little about who you
are what you have done here in Dallas?
George Lopez: I’ve been in the music business for a long time now. I’m like an old school DJ/ retailer/ promoter/CEO, I’ve done it all. I started DJing back in 1983. Been in the mix music wise for a couple of years now. Opened up a record store in 1994, T-Town Music & More, we were the first ones to bring Screw music to Dallas. I was part of the whole movement with Swisha House, Hump at Sucka Free Records, D-Wreck there at Wreck Shop. Pretty much I was the one that brought all that music over here. I was bringing the Swisha House music, Wreck Shop, we were pumping the Rap-A-Lot music pretty hard out here. I was the new record store in ‘94, but I hooked with those guys in ‘95 and ‘96 . Worked with Master P, pushed a lot of No-Limit stuff out of my shop. A lot of people knew me because I used to push a lot of No Limit, also a lot of Houston music. For years, people would come to the music shop. They knew we had everything, No Limit & Rap-A-Lot had to offer. The DJ Screw mixtapes, the Swisha House mixtpapes, the Lil’ Flip mixtapes, people knew we had it all.From the first day that I met OG Ron C, to G Dash, to Michael Watts, to Hump at Sucka Free, to D Wreck at Wreck shop. You come to my city, let me know I got you. You know what I’m saying?Music-wise, we got tons of stores in Dallas. I made sure that their product was in a lot these stores, because I believed in the movement that come out of Houston and the movement that came out of the South. So being that said, everything that was going on with shows, features in D-F-DUB, you know I made happen.

AllHipHop.com: Can you tell us about some of the artists that you have really worked with and that have worked Dallas hard? What artists have really killed the streets for your company? What kind of movements do you got going on?
George Lopez: The first guy that I stared working with out of Dallas was Kottonmouth. I mean he sold crazy numbers and he was a beast in the streets. You know he has a lot of hits and he is a legend here in Dallas. I also worked with Pimpsta, Mr.Pookie and Mr.Lucci. I worked with them for about two and half years. Everybody knew how many numbers they moved. I worked with a lot of people man. I was blessed enough to work with Big Al and his crew. When I was young I would go to the Twilight Skating Rink, which was a big skating rink here in Dallas, the legendary Dr. Rock, Dr. Funk, those were like the big type DJs in Dallas back in the 80?s that were doing their thing, Then I started hearing the whole new movement going on, that was the Nemesis, Ron-C, Fila Fresh Crew, Fresh Roc Production, I started getting a lot of knowledge on the Dallas scene, so you know, I was working with artists that were building up and bubbling. But me learning all that, me working with Houston artists, I was like, You know what? I need to have a Dallas movement of my own started. So we put a group together called DSR and we sent flows to Ray Face and the Boss Hogg Outlawz and the Color Changing Click, which was Chamillionaire and Paul Wall, they was already doing his own label thing. We sent some flows out to his way. We sent some out to Swisha House, and they check them out. So that’s how DSR kind of just started, you know the new movement in Dallas and this was like 2001.

AllHipHop.com: Who's in DSR?
George Lopez: DSR is Fat B, Big Tuck, Tum-Tum, Addiction, Lil Ronnie, and Double T. That’s six artists. It wasn’t that small to begin with because I worked with a lot of artists and I didn’t know what I wanted and a lot of new artists that I was working with were pretty good. So really when DSR the name first started, I had actually like 17 guys and it was like I liked all of them. Now with us starting this movement, now you got all these other Dallas artists making their own movement for Dallas and I love that. People say, “Man, are you against it or do you hate it?” Man you know what? This is the way I look at it, “bad press is good press.” You got your good press out there that’s good and you got your bad press out there. You got people saying, “What do you think about the whole dancing movement?” I say, “Dog, we don’t dance, we boogie down here. This is what we call the boogie movement.” What do you think about that, people say this, “people are writing in magazines about this and that, about one hit wonders?”Look if this one hit wonder can make two or three million dollars and put the city of Dallas on the map, I will congratulate them. You know what I’m saying? Cause if it was so easy, why didn’t someone else do it all these years? You know what I’m saying, I respect everyone’s hustles and I respect everyone’s music.Me as a retailer I’m going to get people that want to buy dance music, I got people that want to buy trapin’ music, I people that want to buy this and this and that. I’m here for it all, I’m a retailer/DJ, and so me if I like good music, I’m going to push it.

AllHipHop.com: Tell me a little bit you have coming out right now.
George Lopez: I got my marketing company, Jin Entertainment, so it’s like right now I’m in the mix marketing, promotion, distribution, anything you need and that’s what I’m doing. It’s about you networking. We’'ve gotten so far because of the people we’ve networked with. We’ve networked with the key people in the game. Not just anybody. We deal with the key people in the city. We go to Miami, we deal with the right people, we go to Atlanta, and we deal with the right people. I mean these are the movers and shakers that we deal with, we don’t just go to anybody. I mean we cool with everybody. We keep our business nonstop on conversation, emails, phone calls everything non-stop every time, and that’s how when you are pushing your music you have to be on top of your game. If not you are going to fall into the cracks because there are a lot of rappers that are trying to get on. People don’t understand that this is a business and a business runs with money but that it also runs with relationships and networking and that a lot of the stuff we built on.

AllHipHop.com: So, just so our readers know, tell me a little about who you are what you have done here in Dallas?
George Lopez: I’ve been in the music business for a long time now. I’m like an old school DJ/ retailer/ promoter/CEO, I’ve done it all. I started DJing back in 1983. Been in the mix music wise for a couple of years now. Opened up a record store in 1994, T-Town Music & More, we were the first ones to bring Screw music to Dallas. I was part of the whole movement with Swisha House, Hump at Sucka Free Records, D-Wreck there at Wreck Shop. Pretty much I was the one that brought all that music over here. I was bringing the Swisha House music, Wreck Shop, we were pumping the Rap-A-Lot music pretty hard out here. I was the new record store in ‘94, but I hooked with those guys in ‘95 and ‘96 . Worked with Master P, pushed a lot of No-Limit stuff out of my shop. A lot of people knew me because I used to push a lot of No Limit, also a lot of Houston music. For years, people would come to the music shop. They knew we had everything, No Limit & Rap-A-Lot had to offer. The DJ Screw mixtapes, the Swisha House mixtpapes, the Lil’ Flip mixtapes, people knew we had it all.From the first day that I met OG Ron C, to G Dash, to Michael Watts, to Hump at Sucka Free, to D Wreck at Wreck shop. You come to my city, let me know I got you. You know what I’m saying?Music-wise, we got tons of stores in Dallas. I made sure that their product was in a lot these stores, because I believed in the movement that come out of Houston and the movement that came out of the South. So being that said, everything that was going on with shows, features in D-F-DUB, you know I made happen.

AllHipHop.com: Can you tell us about some of the artists that you have really worked with and that have worked Dallas hard? What artists have really killed the streets for your company? What kind of movements do you got going on?
George Lopez: The first guy that I stared working with out of Dallas was Kottonmouth. I mean he sold crazy numbers and he was a beast in the streets. You know he has a lot of hits and he is a legend here in Dallas. I also worked with Pimpsta, Mr.Pookie and Mr.Lucci. I worked with them for about two and half years. Everybody knew how many numbers they moved. I worked with a lot of people man. I was blessed enough to work with Big Al and his crew. When I was young I would go to the Twilight Skating Rink, which was a big skating rink here in Dallas, the legendary Dr. Rock, Dr. Funk, those were like the big type DJs in Dallas back in the 80?s that were doing their thing, Then I started hearing the whole new movement going on, that was the Nemesis, Ron-C, Fila Fresh Crew, Fresh Roc Production, I started getting a lot of knowledge on the Dallas scene, so you know, I was working with artists that were building up and bubbling. But me learning all that, me working with Houston artists, I was like, You know what? I need to have a Dallas movement of my own started. So we put a group together called DSR and we sent flows to Ray Face and the Boss Hogg Outlawz and the Color Changing Click, which was Chamillionaire and Paul Wall, they was already doing his own label thing. We sent some flows out to his way. We sent some out to Swisha House, and they check them out. So that’s how DSR kind of just started, you know the new movement in Dallas and this was like 2001.

AllHipHop.com: Who's in DSR?
George Lopez: DSR is Fat B, Big Tuck, Tum-Tum, Addiction, Lil Ronnie, and Double T. That’s six artists. It wasn’t that small to begin with because I worked with a lot of artists and I didn’t know what I wanted and a lot of new artists that I was working with were pretty good. So really when DSR the name first started, I had actually like 17 guys and it was like I liked all of them. Now with us starting this movement, now you got all these other Dallas artists making their own movement for Dallas and I love that. People say, “Man, are you against it or do you hate it?” Man you know what? This is the way I look at it, “bad press is good press.” You got your good press out there that’s good and you got your bad press out there. You got people saying, “What do you think about the whole dancing movement?” I say, “Dog, we don’t dance, we boogie down here. This is what we call the boogie movement.” What do you think about that, people say this, “people are writing in magazines about this and that, about one hit wonders?”Look if this one hit wonder can make two or three million dollars and put the city of Dallas on the map, I will congratulate them. You know what I’m saying? Cause if it was so easy, why didn’t someone else do it all these years? You know what I’m saying, I respect everyone’s hustles and I respect everyone’s music.Me as a retailer I’m going to get people that want to buy dance music, I got people that want to buy trapin’ music, I people that want to buy this and this and that. I’m here for it all, I’m a retailer/DJ, and so me if I like good music, I’m going to push it.

AllHipHop.com: Tell me a little bit what you have coming out now.
George Lopez: I got my marketing company, Jin Entertainment, so it’s like right now I’m in the mix marketing, promotion, distribution, anything you need and that’s what I’m doing. It’s about you networking. We’'ve gotten so far because of the people we’ve networked with. We’ve networked with the key people in the game. Not just anybody. We deal with the key people in the city. We go to Miami, we deal with the right people, we go to Atlanta, and we deal with the right people. I mean these are the movers and shakers that we deal with, we don’t just go to anybody. I mean we cool with everybody. We keep our business nonstop on conversation, emails, phone calls everything non-stop every time, and that’s how when you are pushing your music you have to be on top of your game. If not you are going to fall into the cracks because there are a lot of rappers that are trying to get on. People don’t understand that this is a business and a business runs with money but that it also runs with relationships and networking and that a lot of the stuff we built on.

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CONTACT GEORGE