"I been doing music my whole life," says Young Buck. "I started rapping when I was about 12 or 13, just playing around with it. Around the age of 14, 15, I was in the studio, serious about it."

Young Buck also had two feet in the streets, peddling street narcotics in his early teens. "I was the youngest n-gga in the field," he recalls. "There's really no age limit when you out there in those streets. I was out there doing grown-man sh-t." The older hustlers - more specifically one now-incarcerated OG named Priest who was especially close with Buck - would chide him due to his youth. "Sit your young ass down," they'd say. "Pay attention, you young buck motherf----r." It wasn't long before "Young Buck" became a term of endearment as well as his name.

When Young Buck was 16, he got word that New Orleans's Cash Money rap troupe was recording in his town and scored a chance to perform for the label's CEO, Brian "Baby" Williams, who had him prove his worth by engaging in verbal combat against Cash Money's baby gangsters, including future Hot Boy Lil' Wayne. Buck's performance was so impressive that Williams offered him the chance to become part of the cash Money stable. Buck accepted, dropping out of high school and relocating to New Orleans for the next four years.

The year was 1997 and the Cash Money Millionaires were a few diamonds away from being the bling kings they are today. "We all lived in a little-bitty apartment," recalls Buck. "Everybody was in struggle, in the grind trying to make it. I was young and felt like it was an opportunity, 'cause they were moving units back then on the underground scene. You could see the potential of them becoming something. I felt like if I wasn't around, maybe my shot would be gone."

Young Buck dedicated himself to the development of the crew, going as far as to secure props for the label's breakthrough moment, the 1999 video for Juvenile's "Ha," which was shot in the young rhymer's hometown.

"The people I used to have around me from Nashville was showing love to the Cash Money clique on the strength of Buck trying to make it; making sure Buck gets to where he gots to go. We provided the cars you see in that video: the yellow Ferrari, the blue Jaguar. Things wasn't all the way right for Cash Money around that time and we respected that. We were blessed to have a little something, so we added to their finesse in the beginning."

After about four years of waiting on the Cash Money bench, Buck decided to return home. "I came back to the hood and got in those streets and started doing whatever it took for me to provide," he confesses. "I had lost so much time. Financially, I was brand-new. I was on some other sh-t out there trying to get that bread. But you reap what you sow. At the same time I was out there doing my thing, there was another motherf----r who felt like he could come and do his thing to me. That's exactly how it happened. Motherf----r come kick in my door at 4, 5 in the morning. I was laying in the middle of the floor. He came standing on top of me with AK or a Mac something. I ain't had no gun so I got my ass off the floor and ran towards the kitchen. It just so happen one of my homeboys, he was awake, he pushed the guy back up out the door. I got shot twice. One of them damned near blew my arm off and another caught me in my upper leg, in my thigh. I had so much illegal sh-t in the house at the time I rode around for 45 minutes to an hour before I even went to the hospital. I damned near lost my life from bleeding so much."

But Young Buck had also been pushing hard in the studio, and, along with childhood friend D-Tay, released an independent LP, "Thuggin' Til The End." Though the record didn't sell many units, Buck gained invaluable experience -- especially when he tried to get out of his one-sided contract. "I was young and so eager to make some money as well as get exposed and show my talent," admits Buck. "When I started looking for other opportunities, I realized this dude had paperwork on me that was holding me. I felt like, 'Let me get up offa this here.' He kinda didn't want to make it happen at the time, but we wound up working it out."

Buck's next opportunity came when Baby Williams called him, inviting him back into the Cash Money fold as part of a new group he was putting together. When Buck arrived at the offices, he saw that the label's fortunes had vastly improved. But after about a week of sitting around the office and not running into any of the recording roster, he felt that he was just sitting on a more comfortable bench. "I was ready to get out of there when Juvenile stopped by the office," says Buck. Juvenile, who at the time was having contractual issues with Cash Money's principals, offered Buck a chance to join up in his new venture, UTP Records. "Juvenile was like, 'I can't promise you nothing, but at least you'll be out on something that'll be heard.' I made my decision from there. I had Juvey take me to grab my luggage and I struck out on the road with him and started recording songs. In the first three days I did about 11 songs."

Young Buck was living and recording music out of Juvenile's tour bus when UTP met up with 50 Cent and his G-Unit crew in New York City. A freestyle session led to some group collaborations, most notably the street hit "A Little Bit of Everything." "It was like an honor thing for me to meet 50, 'cause I respected his whole story. I was a fan of the n-gga before I even became an artist under his Unit. We started vibing from the beginning. We left on a note of, 'Yo, if this rap situation happens for me or it happens for you, we're both gonna holla at each other.' And through the grace of God, it started taking off for 50. And he came back, like, 'I told you.' Juvenile had always told me, 'If an opportunity comes, take it. I'm doing what I can do, but if it's something that's gonna help you better, do it.'"

Young Buck's first G-Unit appearance came when 50 Cent took "Bloodhound," a Buck solo effort he enjoyed from their first meeting, turned it into a duet and placed it on 50's record-breaking debut, "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'." Then, the G-Unit released "Beg For Mercy," which has sold well over 2 million copies to date.

Hit songs include --

• Shorty Wanna Ride
• Let Me In
• Get Buck
• U Ain't Goin' Nowhere

Young Buck may be available for your next special event!

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