After months of featuring his tracks on the site and getting continuously positive feedback, DMV Unplugged finally had the opportunity to speak with the rising hip-hop star and DMV native known as Muggsy Malone a.k.a. The Parkway Kid.

DMV Unplugged (DMV): So, just who is Muggsy Malone?

Muggsy Malone (MM): The first part of my name is an acronym that stands for Motivation You Gain Grinding Surviving Yesterday. I incorporate it into my everyday life, strive for success in all that I do and I instill it in the people that I am around. God and life experience are my backbone. I believe in patience , perseverance , and persistence. They call me The Parkway Kid because I’ve lived and been just about everywhere in the DC metro area and the state of Maryland growing up as a child traveling back and forth up and down the highway going to school and being with my parents while they were on their jobs trying to make ends meet.

DMV:When did you first start rapping and what/who inspires you to continue?

MM: I began rhyming at about the age of 8 or 9. My mother was sick with cancer and eventually passed and my father was dealing with it too, rest in peace to him as well and I really didn’t have too many people to talk to about it so I started putting down how I felt on paper. From seeing my folks struggle I learned early that life is real. My mom was an English and Math teacher at Langley Park Elementary where I also went to school for a minute so I was always interested in words and reading the dictionary. She has a mural up there in her name now. I listened to a lot of jazz , blues and rap. I really listened to what people had to say. Jay Z, Ice Cube , Duke Ellington , Nas, Marvin Gaye, Dizzy Gillespie , Snoop , BB King , Al Green , Scarface , Black Star and the list goes on and on. I’m just a lover of music period. I used to play the piano and took lessons for it back in the day.

What inspires me to keep going in the game is the fact that I love it. Point blank period. There’s nothing else to really say. Its what I feel like I can do. I get a spark of flame from trying to prove people wrong too. There were a lot of people who doubted me in the past and they probably still are but I never really worry about it. Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player that will ever live and people doubted him too. He practiced like he wanted to prove a point and leaders practice more than anyone else in their team or platoon because it all comes down to them at the end of the day. I have a lot of goals I’m trying to reach and I have no choice but to grab them now with no excuses.

DMV: Who are some of the artists and producers you have worked with?

MM: Some producers I have worked with consist of Mario Winans and Amadeus (who works with most artists on the Bad Boy roster), the duo Best Kept Secret (who do tracks for just about everybody in the DMV now), Grussle from Inner Loop Records (he produced M.U. Double G S Y coming off of TPK), I was on J Scrilla’s Culture Of Honor album, I have worked with Team Demo, Streetrunner and Infamous (who won a grammy for The Carter 3), Judah (who does beats for Wale), RatheMC , XO, The Tek (my partner out of St. Louis whom I met in the Army), Sesay (who did work for Doe Cigapom), Kajmir Royale (who did beats for Crooked I , Murda Mook, and a host of others), Ra Charm , Jab The Future , Vada from Equinox Professionals, Charlie Brown, my man Jay (who is the producer who got me my first record deal and he works with a rack of people in the industry).

Some of the artists I’ve worked with are a majority of the artist in the Inner Loop Records family: Laelohood , Teflon , Lyriciss , K-Beta and Sketch M. I think that’s the whole roster. Mo Betta from Topp Dogg Hill, Product Of The Streets is the group im in with me and my family, Prophet a.k.a Real Lyrics, Doe Cigapom, XO, Nonya The Songbird, Killa Cal, 32, Mo Chips, Dayo, Mo Millions, and Jane Nithrow. I got verses and songs in the works for a lot of artists in the DMV and abroad and I try to get to everybody that I can keep it a hundred with. You miss people sometimes but you still try and make it work.

DMV: What separates you from other DMV artists?

MM: I don’t think I’m separated from anyone honestly. I don’t claim to be anything special , God-like , super-thug or anything in that glossary of terms man. I just work hard for what I want. I am willing to go out there and put my neck on the line as well as my life for this thing of ours. I call it how I see it, it is real and I expect other people to do the same as well. I believe in living by a certain code that has been un-kept for the past several years and we’re not even talking music-wise man, we’re just talking in general. I, like many people in the area have been somewhere close to that ledge of no return. That’s why I look at things so differently. People try to live off of others instead of being willing to get hit in the face and raising the bar for themselves; stepping out on their own for a spell.

DMV: What do you want your listeners to get from your music?

MM: That I’m a regular person. I live life like you do and put on my pants the same way. I just talk from the mind of a man who’s been through it and still does. I can’t fake like shit is all good when it ultimately is the opposite. Not everybody is balling and we don’t all drive expensive cars. Some people take the train to go to work in the morning and come home to their six to two to take care of the necessities or fund their dreams of not doing their nine to five and doing what they love while being parents for their children. I came from a single parent household and I bounced up and down the east coast so I know the value of hard work, it’s instilled in me. I want them to get that they don’t have to stall themselves or forfeit their opportunity. People can do it if they really want it. To me there are three types of people in life: winners , losers and those with winning potential. Winners win , losers quit and those with winning potential will train harder than the winners and realize they already have the losers beaten. Hip-hop is a professional sport just like basketball , football and any other competitive setting. Some make it and some don’t , but if you retire before your first game what was it all for? Keep pushing!

DMV: What do you think of the DMV as an outlet to get your music heard?

MM: I think that the area in itself is starting to bloom in a bigger way than the past days, I’ll say that. We used to host an open mic on U Street for artists to come through and rock out so to see everyone doing their thing with it is excellent. There’s always going to be a constant battle between radio and artists wanting to get heard on the radio. I got on WPGC with my song “Be Alright” as a stroke of luck because Rane was doing the Myspace Mondays segment at the time , but not everyone has that come to them. There are things that good people with ties to the industry are setting up in the DMV to connect folks with DJ’s to learn about how things work. I.E. Igotit4free.org’s Jam Session where she invites the people you would want to speak to get heard and Pstew’s Cap City Cipha where MC’s come through and spit for the love. There are a lot of things you can do musically to go and get heard.

DMV: How do you feel about the current state of DMV rap/hip-hop music?

MM: A force to be reckoned with, period. I know I’m pushing hard as hell. No matter what I’m doing writing at the least 16 bars a day speaking for myself and representing.

DMV: Where do you see yourself five years from now?

MM: I don’t know exactly yet. I plan for the future but I’m taking it one day at a time right now. I got big goals and plans but I’m really analyzing the moves that I’m making and seeing to it that they get executed properly. I’m definitely working on my own record label I’ll tell you that much.

DMV: What can your listeners expect from you in the near future?

MM: First I’m dropping “The Preview” which is going to be coming out the first week of March so be on the lookout for that. And keep your ears to the streets because “TPK” (TheParkwayKid) is coming this summer most definitely. Shoutout to everyone and much love to everybody. Peace
–sixtyforty

Listen to some of Muggsy Malone’s tracks on DMV Unplugged:
Muggsy Malone – M-U-Double-G-S-Y
Muggsy Malone – Guardian Angel
Muggsy Malone – Make You a Believer
Muggsy Malone – Necessary Roughness
Muggsy Malone – Survivor ft. Cheri Dennis
Muggsy Malone – Somewhere To Be At
Muggsy Malone – Can’t Let Ya’ll Catch Me

Follow Muggsy on Twitter