MurderIncOnline recently met up with Mpire Music Group recording artist and Guap Boy member Merc Montanta, a.k.a Young Merc. Merc talked about his plans with the Guap Boys. Check it out right here on MurderIncOnline.com. 
MurderInc-Online.com: Whats been happenin withca?
MERC Montana: A lot of things have changed, been on the road done a few tours...a lot of shit really hasn’t changed. But we working man, this new situation we got with Mpire, I’m real excited about it, I’m very excited, I’m on my toes.
MIO: The Guap Boyz are no more, what kinda position does this put you in now?
MERC: Its just Mpire now, but we are all working together, we got rid of the name because there was so much bullshit that had to do with the name. Like when we thought of the name Guap Boys weren’t saying that we’re just Guap Boys, we were saying it like we were trying to create a movement for anybody, just to build confidence in people, like we a lifestyle…you get money, let’s get money, enthuse people about it, but it became a fuckin’ headache. A Guap Boy is a self-motivated person that’s trying to get money, but it created problems, there were too many guap boys.
MIO: Like the people from Cincinnati?
MERC: Man fuck those n*ggas, please print that!
MIO: So you saw the video of Harry O addressing the other Guap Boys?
MERC: Yeah he did that very intelligently, like he was supposed to do it.
MIO: Did you feel the need to address them?
MERC: Nah, we already talked about that, like I was gonna address it but everyone was like don’t even do it, ‘cos it aint even worth it. If they say don’t do it, Im not doing it, if they say tear ‘em up, I’m like fire on his ass. I already had something ready for them, I had about 40 bars just ready to tear these n*ggas apart, but I thought about it and decided I’m not even gonna give these n*ggas room. For what? They’re whack, it’s not like they can even really compete, like you see how we move and how they move so it was really worthless.
MIO: Do you enjoy making music aimed at other people?
MERC: I enjoy making music aimed at other people, but it’s emotions, it’s feelings, it’s not a fake feeling, like I don’t make music about people I really don’t have a feeling about. If I say something about somebody it’s cos I really feel that way, I’m not like ‘oh he’s beefing with Ja’…no. If I feel like this guy is a clown and I know he aint like that…like most of these guys that rap, when you see them in person they aren’t like the people they are in their music. You could see them in a situation and you’d be like…wow I thought he was a real tough guy, but he’s standing at the back of everybody and he aint saying a word, somebody else is talking. I’m not that type of dude, when I see n*ggas it’s on (laughs). But we don’t really have friction with many people like that, I’m a loyal dude Mpire / Murder Inc whatever the situation I’m loyal to my family. This is my family, this isn’t just music, like I don’t need money for this shit really, these are my n*ggas and I fuck with them hard body from the womb to the tomb. These are the people I know that if I get into a fight somewhere, I know that these n*ggas are going to ride with me.
MIO: You said you were freestyling a lot lately, is there a reason you’re doing that rather than making records?
MERC: Yeah there’s a reason, a lot of people don’t know this but I had writers block for a long, long time, my mind was really off the music. I went through a lot of tragic events a lot of people don’t know about…I had a fire last year that killed my Grandfather and I lost everything. I lost my mother my father two years before that, so now I got to take care of 
my little sister, there was a lot of shit. So I really didn’t give a fuck about music at one point, but right now I’m starting to get back into it because I’m getting over the shit that I went through. Back then I was going through a whole bunch of shit that I couldn’t really talk to anybody about because they wouldn’t understand. You can’t understand how it feels to have no mother and no father if you’ve got a mother and a father. Now they’re gone and you got a 19 year old sister and you’ve got to hold up that hold situation. So my story is different to a lot of people and it freaks people out because they’re sitting on the outside and they don’t know because I don’t really talk about stuff like that. Now I’m growing as an artist and I’m putting all this in my music, like I got a record with Somong called ‘Find a Way’ real dope record, real heartfelt. In that record I’m explaining how I lost everything and I’m telling people aint nobody in this world like me. It pushed me as an artist because it made me think about things other than the streets, it made me have feeling and look at other people like…damn I wish I had that still.
MIO: Top down was a fan favourite on MIO, it brought us back to the early Murder Inc years when Ja was on top. Was Ja a big inspiration for that record?
MERC: It was really just the beat, when I heard the beat I just thought about good times. I made that record in the middle of winter just thinking about summer. I just thought about when we used to ride with the top down, like when we flew from New York to LA, get off the plane and get a bunch of drop tops and tear LA up. It was inspired by a lot of things I’ve seen but I felt like the beat alone just did something to me from the first time I heard it. Everybody was shocked at what I did with it too; even Rule when he heard it said ‘nigga this shit is crazy!’ I can do those types of records all the time, it’s just that I had so much built up in me that was just frustrated and let out anger, anger, anger…now I’m at peace with myself, I’m cool. There’s more than meets the eye, you can look at me and you can judge me off the cover, but once you open that book and you read and get to know me, you’re gonna be like damn, he’s different. It’s funny with me because some days I’ll wake up and say ‘I’m gonna write twelve songs!’ and one day I’ll get up and say ‘fuck this shit!’ (laughs) I’m emotional but I’m not emotional showing, in my mind I’m thinking of a billion and one things
MIO: Will we be hearing the record with Sean Kingston anytime soon?
MERC: Yeah that’s real D-Boy, you’re gonna hear that. I was trying to get Jeezy on there but right now it’s like pulling teeth. The record is crazy regardless, even with just me on there, it’s a crazy record, I just felt like I should put somebody else on there. I’m about to let it go because at this point in time I’m not holding on to records, because I know I can make records.
MIO: Do you feel like you can break into the mainstream pretty easily?
MERC: Hell no it aint gonna be easy, but I feel like I can. I feel like I can bring it to the mainstream and crossover, it just takes time and experience, I haven’t seen everything I want to see yet.
MIO: It’s funny that you mentioned Jeezy because that’s the rapper you usually draw comparisons to on MIO. If you did break into the mainstream, is Jeezy’s lane a similar one you see yourself going down?
MERC: Yeah the authentic shit, on the edge, for the streets. I’m a fan of Jeezy, I’m a fan of T.I., Rick Ross, Jay and a lot of artists, so other artists do inspire me as well as my surroundings. I listen to what’s poppin’ and try to reflect off of that, rock like that but be better than that. It’s like someone saying they want to be a fighter, but want to be as fast as Floyd or knock you out like Tyson, you take something from everybody, it’s like living from experience.
MIO: Caddy recently had an interview addressing his situation at Murder Inc and where he stands with Irv. He is your cousin, what's the relationship like for you now and does this put you in an awkward situation at all?
MERC: I don’t feel any different, he’s a man and he has his own opinion. He went through that situation, I didn’t so I can’t sit back and say you’re wrong for feeling like that. I don’t know how he feels and what actually occurred and no one really knows what occurred, but at the end of the day every man has a right to his opinion and you’ve got to make your next move your best move. So if he’s feeling like that’s the best move then hey, more power to him. But that doesn’t put me in an awkward situation because my situation is with Rule and Mpire which is completely different. Gotti is still my dude, everything I’ve learnt in this business I’ve learnt from Gotti, Rule, Caddy and Black. I know what I’m going to do and what I’m not going to do.
MIO: Have you spoken to him recently?
I spoke to him on D.O. Cannon’s memorial anniversary, September 4th. He had a video release party at this little club in Queens for 24-7, he’s a got a lot of things poppin’. Caddy was just up here prior to that interview and he did a record for me, so he has no problems coming up here, its all love. He’s just trying to move on as an artist, it’s not like he’s shitting on Gotti he’s just stating how he feels just like Lloyd or Ashanti did.
MIO: There’s been a sudden outburst from former artists recently. Do you think that’s a coincidence?
MERC: I really don’t care because it’s no sweat off my back about any one of those situations, but what I will say is those are all adults and they are all dealing with a business.
MIO: The World Is Mine mixtape, whats happening with that?
MERC: It’s already done I just haven’t let it go yet, I’ve just been fooling around with it. I got my man DJ Will on there, I was on DJ Green Lantern’s shit which me and Rule tore up, Superstar Jay…so I got a few on there. Look out for that mixtape me and H-O about to do as well, it’s called ‘Tango and Cash’ we are going to do a DVD short film and all that with it.
MIO: Do you have anything else to say to your fans before we end?
MERC: All my MurderInc-Online.Com fans I love yall, keep supporting your boy, I’m about to light a match in a gas room so just be prepared to see the building go up in flames.
