Deviouz Dollarz/ Mongo Maddne$$

Mongo Maddness is the kind of man that commands attention when he enters a room. It’s hard not to notice when a six foot four, nearly four hundred pound, man walks through the door. As soon as he flashes his trademark smile, however, everyone is quickly put at ease, this man is here for one reason, to do business.The story of the Deviouz Dollarz mogul is one that starts in Bridgeport, Connecticut, his hometown and current residence. Even at the age of seven he showed an interest in music, taking up the drums, an instrument he still plays to this day. Drums led to beats, and where there are beats there’s Hip-Hop. Mongo was quickly drawn in by the culture.It was with his original clique, Pump Nation, where he would earn the name Mongo. Ironically enough the large budding mogul received his nickname due to his resemblance to a children’s cartoon character. Mongo remembers “at a meeting one of my people started to call me Mongo from the cartoon Heathcliff. I had on a grey sweatshirt with a red skully just like the cat has on in the cartoon and the name stuck with me.”Though he got behind the mic a time or two Mongo quickly realized that no matter how much he loved rap, rapping simply wasn’t his forte. “I felt my skills as a rapper weren’t up to par,” he explains, “I felt like I could handle the business aspect a lot better.” In 2001 he decided to go with that feeling and he formed A Dollar and a Dream. The label made a name for itself in the Bridgeport area within the year. Two years later, looking to build and expand, he merged the company with Grouch Sparkz’s Deviouz Records to form Deviouz Dollarz. Deviouz Dollarz quickly became known throughout Connecticut and even beyond the state’s borders.Aside from being a big man in the music world, Mongo is also a big man in his community, hosting a free block party in his hometown every year, providing both the food and the entertainment. This is why Mongo not only flashes that million dollar smile whenever he makes a power move, but also whenever one of the people in his community makes one, as well. The community reciprocates these feelings, and when Mongo was incarcerated for a short stay Free Mongo mix-CDs were distributed throughout the area. The project was even written about in one of Connecticut’s largest newspapers, The Connecticut Post.It hasn’t been the easiest of journeys, but Mongo Maddness has positioned himself to make this the year he takes the music industry by storm, and at 6’4’’ and nearly 400 pounds many consider him to be the new definition of Big Business.
In Connecticut, a place where rappers engage in so much in-state beef that they usually end up sabotaging their own careers before they even get them started., it’s rare to hear about budding Hip-Hop moguls joining forces to work together. That combing of powers is exactly what happened, though, when Mongo Maddness and Grouch Sparkz decided to merge their young companies to create Deviouz Dollarz.On Mongo’s side was A Dollar and a Dream, an upstart label that he founded in 2001 that had a roster full of talented MC’s and R&B acts. On Sparkz, side was Deviouz Records, a recording studio he owned where he worked with a handful of his own acts. Mongo remembers their first meeting in 2003 when A Dollar and a Dream was “looking for a place to call home.” ”We recorded in a lot of studios to try to find the comfort zone and in March ’03 I MET Grouch Sparkz. He had a studio called Deviouz Records. I came up with the idea to combine our two teams of acts into one to make the ultimate team.” That ultimate team also needed an ultimate trim as they decided to focus their main efforts on two main artists, one from each camp. Uncut was chosen from A Dollar and a Dream and Sonnie Seegs became the Deviouz Records representative. Mongo feels the duo are “up to the standards of compete with anyone in the industry.”Mongo quickly got to work putting out music for the Bridgeport, Connecticut community. Since the merging of their companies Deviouz Dollars has released a number of projects, including CT Welcomes You parts one and two, Free Mongo part one and two, and most recently Uncut’s “My Time to Shine”. The Free Mongo mix-CD were distributed during Mongo’s brief incarceration, were written up in a number of local papers including one of Connecticut’s largest dailies The Connecticut Post.Deviouz Dollarz also distributes some of their work for free. Mongo explains, “all through this game you hear about so and so selling 10,000 copies out his trunk. Well I’ll be that cat that says I gave away 10,000 copies. That’s how you get love and support in the hood.” In addition to free CD’s Deviouz Dollarz also hosts a block party every year with free food and free music.In a state where most artists are looking to tear each other down, Mongo Maddness stands out as someone looking to build for a greater good. They know what the keys to success are and they are implementing them on a daily basis in their Bridgeport studio and throughout their community. With a combination of street knowledge and business acumen, Mongo Maddness makes Deviouz Dollarz to be on the lookout for throughout 2007 and beyond.