Young & Restless

By the time he saw the commotion that was taking place in the parking lot, Trahan says, it was too late to figure a way out. He was shot twice, in the arm and leg. Several weeks lying in a hospital room on the fourteenth floor of Jackson Memorial Hospital gave Trahan time to think. The shooting, he says, was "a learning experience. Ever since I was young, I hung around some bad people. You know, they'd all say, `Let's go steal a car' or something, and I'd say, `Okay, y'all go ahead. I'll be here when you get back.' When I was fourteen years old, my mom went to this psychic lady who told her something was going to happen to me, something would be wrong with my legs if I didn't stay away from the wrong crowd."

The wound in his arm is now healed. The one that hit his right leg has left him with a nasty limp. He's lost about 25 pounds; it's as if the clothes that hang loosely off an already thin frame belong to an older, much bigger brother. "Since I got shot," he says, "I can enjoy life more. I woke up out of surgery and my stomach was open, I'd lost a lot of blood, my leg all cut - it almost had to be amputated. Even the boys that shot me don't realize how short life can be. Life is too short. A lot of my friends from the neighborhood were killed in 1991. Where I'm from, you either rap and dance or you rob and steal. Until you're on the dying bed, you don't know what life is about. It stops you from complaining about little things."

Maybe after the new album is released, Trahan says, maybe after a new round of touring is completed, it would be best if the duo started its own record label. "The public view is that me and Leonerist look very close. But we're not really that close," he confides. "When it comes to business, though, we can get down to business.