MTV: The story of how you got started in the business is a pretty good one. Instead of a manager discovering you, you sort of discovered your manager.

LZ: Yeah. Being a brat for, like, ten years, just chasing behind him. Remember the group Another Bad Creation? On the backs of the albums by ABC, Boyz II Men, and Monica, I used to read the credits. I was nine years old, and I used to read the credits on the backs of albums. And I never knew who he was, but I just kept seeing the name "Kevin Wales," like, "special thanks to Kevin Wales," and of all the names I saw, that just stood out. Not the producers, not the label, just him. So at, like, 11, I got my mom to enter me in the talent show where they said on the radio he was going to be at. It was my first time, and that night happened to be when all the labels were there. I went on one time and performed and blew it up with my group, Chronic. It just so happens that the labels had not gotten there yet.

[The label people] started walking in, and my man hosting was like, "Yo, we got to let [you] go back on." The crowd already knew the song, so they were repeating the words like we were platinum already. We came off the stage, and by the end of the day, we walked out with contracts in our hands. But Mom and Dad didn't [want us to sign them]; we didn't have a manager. Then a Benz pulled up to the club, so I'm like, "Mom, hold up for a minute." She's like, "Nah, we've got to go, it's two in the morning, you've got to go to school." I'm like, "Ma, that might be Kevin Wales!" She tried to keep walking, but I stayed back a little bit and ran back to the car, and it was him. I was like, "Yo, I ain't got that much time, I'm like 10 now, my mama's pulling me, but my name is Zane, I just wanted you to come check out my group! We just performed, you missed it, we blew it up, blah blah, you can ask about it!" He just liked the way I approached him, I guess. He didn't actually sign me the next day, but he's kind of been a mentor throughout the years.

MTV: He helped hook you up with 112 for "Anywhere." What was that experience like?

Zane: "Anywhere" was just... I wasn't nervous, it was just... the setup was too sweet. 112 was already big, they were platinum; Puff Daddy was doing his thing. Bad Boy was on a roll, and there wasn't anyone out there like me. A lot of people are wanting to be hard, but they don't want to be themselves. They don't want to show their happy side. I'm not this happy-go-lucky kid, but at the same time, if I'm hurting inside or feeling down, I don't wanna bring that around my people. I wanna lift my spirit up when I get around, keep my problems to myself. And 112 understood that, felt where I was coming from, gave me 30 minutes to write a verse. Wrote a verse in 30 minutes about how I felt, just some party for the females -- and you know, 112's got all girls, so that makes my job easier.

MTV: Your song "Money Stretch" from the "Next Friday" soundtrack did really well. How'd you hook up with Ice Cube?

Zane: Ice Cube just lugged me out. I submitted, like, four songs to Ice Cube. I even did one of his old songs over, called "I Ain't The One." He just picked "Money Stretch" out of all of them. I didn't think "Money Stretch" was the hottest song I got -- I know it's not the hottest. It's like the wackest to me. But he liked the feel of it. He just felt like the song went with the vibe of the movie, so he used it like a double single. His single on one side, my single on the other side. So you didn't like the Lil' Z song? You bought Ice Cube's song. Didn't like the Ice Cube song? You bought the Lil' Z song. But you bought both of them. Thank you.

MTV: Have you talked to Cube again about any future collaborations?

Zane: I would love to work with Cube -- he's the man -- but he's doing the NWA [reunion], he's doing his album, he's doing movies. I just want to jump up in one of the movies if I can. I mean, give me a shot at something. But I would love to do music with him. He knows I got love for him. I think he's gonna let me out in the future.

MTV: It's taken a while for your album to come out. Any reason for that?

Zane: Most artists, once you get the hot single, they feel like you need to jump out there before they forget you. But I think my fans have been loyal. I just feel like I had to make it right. I stayed in the studio, got the perfect topics, the perfect cameo [from 112]. I didn't want to go get a lot of people on my album, like the Jay Zs and the Nases, 'cause I just wanted to introduce myself to you all first. "Young World: The Future," it's about Z, then you get to know me, know what I mean? The topics on it are crazy. Topics about how I grew up and where I come from, so you know a little bit about me. Topics about relationships I've been through -- with females, with best friends, with my parents, with my brothers and my sisters -- show the love, the emotion I go through with them. I have stuff for the clubs, stuff for the streets, stuff for the cars, stuff for the Walkmans. I think it's everything. I worked on it for about a year and a half.

MTV: Talk about the single, "Callin' Me."

LZ: "Callin' Me" has my boys 112 on it. They show me love, putting me on "Anywhere," so I figured on my album, it's only right. People like to see that combination, man: 112 and Lil' Zane. We're killing them right now. The ladies love it, the fellows love it, so why mess up the chemistry? This one is like a party-slash-groove with a Latino feel to it. It has every race in it; all the chemicals you need to make a hot song.

MTV: You said you didn't want to have a lot of cameos on your album, but does anyone else appear on it?

LZ: My label is called World Wide Entertainment, and the World Wide Renegades, that's the name of my little clique. The Anngenetta Boys, they're from Mississippi. Then you got my man the Howg; he has a song called "World Wide Renegade" on the "3 Strikes" soundtrack. He's like a big guy from College Park -- real Southern slang, but has a lot of game to it. My man Pain is from Detroit.

People ask why we think we're worldwide, and I say because I went and got producers from Africa, I went and got producers from Trinidad, so it's like all the elements are there. I feel like it's gonna bump overseas. I mean, got Puerto Rican in me, Chinese, everything, so I think the world's gonna relate to it. And I think people are gonna respect the fact that I wasn't trying to be like nobody. I wasn't trying to run behind the person that's selling 4 million to make me sell 4 million. I got enough faith in myself, in my team, in the whole movement, and everybody around me.