UG Rap Community

Easy Mo Bee: Words From the Genius
By Jake Paine


AllHipHop represents for those who can recite a verse from beginning to end, those who quote lyrics to explain serious life situations, and those who have an arsenal of punch-line snaps in they raps. But AllHipHop has just as much love for the producer. From eight bar loops, to live instrumentation, to the Triton, we love true beat makers and trunk shakers. AllHipHop's Paine has kicked off a series of interviews with the greatest, most innovative producers in Hip-Hop history. In depth interviews looking back, looking forward, and always looking for the perfect beat.
We continue the series with Easy Mo Bee. Mo Bee stands firmly at the line where hits meet streets. Perhaps no Hip-Hop producer better makes the "ballad" better. From producing half of Ready to Die, to producing some of Tupac's most artistic works, and giving Craig Mack the heat that put Bad Boy on the map, Moe Bee has a dynamite resume.

But beyond that, Moe Bee is a Grammy winning producer for Miles Davis' Doo Hop album. Miles had an unbending eye for talent, and Moe Bee is proof of that.
Without a doubt, Mo Bee is a man who just drips of soul. While stern in his grave approach to the music he makes, it's not uncommon for him to break out into song, or hum the notes (in damn near perfect pitch) of a dusty Jazz classic.

This is a man who aspires to play every instrument in the band, and know every groove ever released. Don't tell Masta Ace, but Easy Mo Bee is Hip-Hop's official "Music Man."

Die-hard fans have always argued the two pillar sounds of the music - Dre vs. Premier. While both are timeless masters of their craft, right in between stands Easy Moe Bee. A man who combines the glitter and the grime to a beautiful finish that makes even the greatest MC's, sound worlds better.

AllHipHop: One thing that no producer in Hip-Hop has done better than you, is put emotion into the track. How emotional do you get in the process, and do you plan out these effects before?

Easy Mo Bee: Wow! First of all, the emotion you're talking about, as far as I'm concerned, is soul. I get a lot of from my father. It all goes back to the different music that [he] used to play. A lot of Blues, Soul, Jazz, real traditional Gospel, Shirley Ceasar, Aretha Franklin, Sam & Dave, Bobby Bland, Elmore James, B.B. King. Real, real grimy forms of the music. That's where all of the musical taste and experience comes from. I just grew up with it, and I went on to being a DJ myself, playing records. From there, I went on to make records, and that's when I became a producer.

AllHipHop: I never realized that you produced Miles Davis last album. What did you learn from the man?

EMB: You don't have to always be perfect. I watched him, he and Tupac, they had a particular recording process, and that is like - when they started recording, they didn't want you to stop, and they didn't like to do punch-ins. In other words, a song typically has three verses. And Tupac and Miles would have you start the tape and let it run all the way through the song. "Don't stop. Don't punch me," in other words. Some people do a verse and stop, and do a second. Miles did not like to stop. [Of the songs on Doo-Bop], he nailed in one take. If there's anything I got from him in those sessions, it's you don't have to be perfect. Just be yourself and put all of your heart and soul into it. And most importantly, your point will get across. There's a lot of great records with mistakes on 'em. James Brown got a lot of records like that, where the bass player would mess up or something.

AllHipHop: Do you think those mistakes yield a vulnerability that makes good Hip-Hop?

EMB: Well, I think the art of freestyling has almost been outlawed. Most of your favorite rappers nowadays, most of they raps are pre-written. There's not too many people that just freestyle, or improvise on a record. Now, ODB or Dirt McGirt, do you know a lot of the records ODB made were improvised? Live, on the spot. Yeah.

AllHipHop: Isn't that largely true of Biggie's Ready to Die too?

EMB: Well, what Biggie would have, just like Jay-Z, he didn't really write down too much either. A lot of times he went into the booth. You'll see him sitting there for the last hour, forty-five minutes, hour and ten minutes, just mumbling to himself, nodding his head. He ain't writing nothing down. Then, he just jump up, "Aiight Mo, I'm ready." He'd go in there and nail every verse down. As far as I'm concerned, that's improvising. It's recorded, but recorded in the minute. Busta Rhymes is very good at that, I worked with him before. Who else? You know who was very improvisational? Tupac. I watched him in the studio between sessions, and he would just spit, what I would call, reality raps. The average East Coast rapper, when he freestyles, he's freestyling some braggodocious, material, this and that. But Tupac, it amazed me, he had the ability to freestyle reality type raps. He'd talk about what's going on in the world, police brutality, whatever.

AllHipHop: You can see that in the freestyle with Biggie and Kane. The way Big did it, and the way Pac did it. Night and day. Both amazing.

EMB: Right. Exactly.

AllHipHop: A key element of Ready to Die was its concept. Was that your idea, as the main producer? Were there any other ideas on the table?

EMB: Actually, the concept of the album, that was Puffy and Biggie's alone. I didn't have anything to do with the actual concept on the album. I did [half] the album. Pre that, on the Who's the Man soundtrack, I recorded the first studio verse Big ever spit. That was "Party & Bullsh*t." I'm the first producer that Big ever went into the studio with and recorded with.

AllHipHop: Lord Finesse was talking to us about that early Bad Boy team of producers. You were part of that. Do you as a builder in that label, feel cheated by the way that label has seemingly turned its back on its roots of real Hip-Hop?

EMB: First of all, in the very beginning, Puffy just had various producers just doing work for Bad Boy. Then eventually, he got the idea to create The Hitmen. I was never a Hitman. There's a lot of people out there that never understood that or never knew that. I never became one of the Hitmen. I was asked to. Or rather, I was asked to in a different way. [Puffy] asked to manage me. At the time, I already had a manager. So I told him, "I'm already managed by somebody. I don't know about all that. I'll get back to you." And, I never got back to him. Honestly, I think he always took that real personal too. Because, I could imagine early on especially, him wanting to have a piece of, and the control of Easy Mo Bee - this guy whose doing all these great beats and songs for [him]. Because I never became one of the Hitmen, I noticed I didn't really appear on anymore of the Bad Boy projects after say, Life After Death. And I had to really push for that.

AllHipHop: And the reason you got on that, relates more to Big, right?

EMB: Oh, me and Big didn't have no problems whatsoever. Big would've recorded with me til' the end, and I know that. There was an element to what I brought to his music, that I'm sure he would've made sure to include on any albums. I had to push to get "Going Back to Cali" and "I Love the Dough" on Life After Death.

AllHipHop: What are the terms with the lawsuit against Bad Boy?

EMB: It's concerning royalties owed. Back royalties. Let's put it like this: On the Born Again album, a lot of people don't know that "Dead Wrong" was originally produced by Easy Mo Bee. It was remixed by Chucky Thompson, but it was originally produced by [me]. I still haven't received any money for the Born Again album. Also, a throw-away verse from the "Dead Wrong" was used to construct "Hope You N*ggas Sleep." There's that, there's so many other different things. There's issues of issues of things that were done that are finally beginning to be dealt with. For instance, when Puffy used my "The What" for the "I'm Going Down" Mary J. Blige remix, in the credits he has it as "remixed by Sean "Puffy" Combs" or whatever. That's my track. Things like that.

AllHipHop: Since you're looking for new blood to work with, we got to ask. When you put your work alongside an MC, what do you look for? What moves you?

EMB: First, before I even check for what they're rapping about, I always check for his flow, or the more technical term would be the cadence. That's real important to me. In other words, we talked about the - you called it emotion, I call it soul - when you think of a sax player, like God rest his soul, like a Grover Washington, Jr., or any of the funky, soulful sax players, when they play, they don't play on a click. It's very freestyle the way it ends up on top of the beat. I always felt like rappers should rap like that. That would be the amount of soul you put in it. That's what I'm looking for. I'm very soulful. I wanna know if you'll get real soulful with me.

AllHipHop: In this series, we're spotlighting one track with each producer that I love. With you, it's gotta be "Temptations." Tell me about the creation of that track, and everything you can.

EMB: In the record, lyrically, he's talking about a relationship with a female. He's saying basically, "I like the time I'm spendin' with ya, but baby, I'm busy." He has intonations he has in there remind of a record that Bobby Womack did called "You'll Be There When the Sun Goes Down." They talked about the same thing. "Don't get hung up on me."

AllHipHop: The way you just explained that, I sense that you knew what Tupac wanted before anything was created.

EMB: You know, he mentioned to me, kind of what he wanted to talk about. Then, in the end, after he wrote it, 'cuz he would write with a pen and a pad. He was like, "Check this out," went in the booth, and it all worked out.

AllHipHop: So then you actually making the beat.

EMB: Let's talk about that. I went on the set of Above the Rim. I visited him while he was in New York at the Ruckers Grounds. During one of his breaks in the film, what he did was - he went in the trailer and I played him some music. He was like, "That's cool and everything," he picked a couple of them, but then he asked me, "Could you do something for me with 'Computer Love' and anything with Bootsy and do something for me off of What's the Telephone Bill?" The one off of "What's the Telephone Bill" became "Straight Ballin'" on Thug Life album. The one off of "Munchies for Your Love" became "Runnin' (From the Police)" featuring Notorious B.I.G., one of the Outlawz, and Stretch from the Live Squad, which became "Runnin'", remixed by Eminem today. And the "Computer Love" one became "Temptations." When he asked me to do [it], I said, "So many people have [sampled this] before, what am I gonna do different?" Throw it on 45, speed it up, filter it so you muffle it, getting nothing but the bass frequencies out of it, and then I went around that - built new drums, new keyboards, later I got the idea to add the Erick Sermon "Heyyy" from Redman's album. That's how I got Temptations.

AllHipHop: For instance, people had all sampled "More Bounce," but on "Going Back to Cali" it was so fresh, and so new still. Is that how you challenge yourself, to redo the already done?

EMB: Okay, that one - I told myself to do that. 'Cuz "More Bounce to the Ounce" was a record that I always wanted to sample, but who made "No Future In Yo' Fronting"?

AllHipHop: I think MC Breed.

EMB: Yeah, MC Breed used it, EMPD used it. I wanna use this record. But what can I do to set it apart? So what I did was, I dissected the record as if Roger Troutman gave me the master and I had access to the individual tracks and sounds. I kept the drums the same. The bass, I made it travel how I wanted to. Some light keyboard pads added to it. There's the light machine gun synthesizer added to it. The reverse waah waah. A lot of people don't know that. You know what made me feel better about that record? Right before he died, I got to know Roger Troutman over the phone. Rufus Blaq introduced me to Roger Troutman. From then on, me and Roger had our own conversations. First time he talked to me, he said, "Easy Mo Bee! A lot of people used my record before. But you flipped that [joint]!" That's exactly what I'm trying to do. That's the biggest endorsement coming from the man who made it. Now, peep that! That's deep, right?

AllHipHop: What's the next step for you? What's 2004 hold for Mo Bee?

EMB: You're about to see Easy Mo Records. With Easy Mo Records, you're about to see a span of R&B to Hip-Hop and anything I decide to try my hand at. There's a girl, her name is Kilidee. This is a white girl whose so soulful, man. My barber passed me a CD. I played it for my lawyer. He said, I'd regret it if I didn't work with this artist. I'm working with Mendoza, from Brooklyn. I have a good feeling for a R&B group named Duvall. In each category, I like to get comfortable with an artist, and build from there. I want to learn to play more instruments. I want to play. I ain't gonna be comfortable until I can play. I play keyboards and always played drums. It's a natural progression for me.

_________________

RBX, Oct. 24, 1995

Best known for his guest appearances on Dr. Dre's The Chronic and Snoop's Doggystyle, RBX dropped a bomb of his own earlier this year with a debut album titled The RBX Files. However, the Long Beach native is no longer stranded on Death Row, having left the record company for financial reasons a couple of years ago. With his unique delivery and diverse styles, the Narrator displays an originality and creativity that is rarely found in today's hip-hop world of copycat MCs.

So how's the album been received so far?

"Pretty good. I haven't really checked up on it as far as numbers go, but I heard it's goin' pretty good. I don't really want to get caught up in that, you know? The album's gonna do what it's gonna do."

What happened with Death Row?

"Just bad business, you know? A lot of promises were made that didn't hold true. I did a lot of work, and I didn't get what I felt was just, as far as payment goes. As far as my career was goin', when it was time for me to ask 'em when I was gonna do my record, I kept gettin' the runaround. I had things I needed, you know? I have to live. They couldn't give me no answer or nothin'. It was always 'next week.' Next week never came, so I just had to do somethin' on my own so I wouldn't have to worry about nobody else."

Yeah, it seems like things at Death Row are always gettin' delayed...

"Delayed, and all kinds of trouble. Fightin' and all kinds of sh--. So I kinda just wanted to get away from that."

Your lyrical style is intense and unorthodox. Where did that come from? I mean, how did you develop it? Was there an influence or anything?

"The only influence I guess I could say is that I just didn't want to be like anything else you ever heard, you know? I kinda wanted to do something new, yet not so different that it's wack. I thought hip-hop needed a fresh outlook, if you will. You know, everybody was into this gangsta/ b----/ ho/your mama-type sh--, and I thought maybe I could try to touch hip-hop in my own way and make a lasting impression as far as being different. I'm just daring to be different."

Your album has a consciousness about it. It's not just stuff on the surface, it goes deeper. Why do you think there isn't more of that?

"There's a bunch of answers. One, people are out there just tryin' to make a buck. Two, a lot of the conciousness and knowledge that I have, a lot of people don't have, so they can't do something that they don't know. I would probably say the majority, or at least a lot of people are in it for the money. They don't care what impression they make, as long as they get their money. I wanted to do more than that. More than just stereotypical bob your head to a bunch of nonsense type stuff. Cause if you're gonna bob your head, you might as well bob your head and get somethin' out of it."

When did you first start rappin'?

"About 14 or 15 years old. Just as a hobby, you know, with no aspirations as far as obtaining a recording contract. I just did it as a street thing with my cousins and some of the homeboys deejaying just as a hobby, to pass the time away."

How did you first hook up with Dre and them?

"Through my little cousin Snoop. I went to take Snoop to handle some business, and while we were sittin' there just loungin', I was bustin' a rhyme and Dre walked in and overheard it, and he was like, 'I want you to be down.' So it started from there."

So what kind of goals you got? Where do you want to take this from here?

"I'll do the follow-up album, and after that I don't know. I'm kind of undecided right now. I'm still kind of in the midst of this [album] right now. It depends on the outcome. It's still too early to say."

Is there anybody out there you want to work with?

"Sure. I mean, there isn't anyone that I don't want to work with. I don't disrespect no one."

What's your opinion on the whole East Coast/ West Coast thing?

"I don't have no qualms with it. I'm not in that mess, though. I feel that I'm just far too above that, and as far as I'm concerned, I don't care where you're from. When I'm doin' my thing, I'm doin' my thing, and I don't think I can be touched. So in that aspect, it don't matter where you're from. You could be East Coast or West Coast. Myself, I sit back and I just listen to it and enjoy. The heart of hip-hop is battlin', but when they start takin' it seriously and start bitin' each other, I'm not with it. But as far as lyrics are concerned, that's cool. That's what hip-hop was built on. It is gettin' crazy, though. As long as no one mentions me in nothin', then I ain't in it, but as soon somebody say somethin', I don't care where they from. I'm gonna do a full take off. Just like I did Dre. It doesn't matter where you're from or who you are. I'll just take off on you, and it'll be serious. Cause I ain't takin' no business in this rap game, I'm serious about it."

You mention The D.O.C. on "A.W.O.L." Now he's also left Death Row, possibly for some of the same reasons. Any plans to hook up with him later on?

"Sure, if it happens. Right now I'm solely concerned with my project, but if he needs some help and he needs me to do somethin', or I need him to do somethin' or we can collaborate on somethin', sure. I have no problems with that."

Is there anyone at Death Row that you're still in good with?

"My little cousin Snoop, and then Daz, Kurupt, and Rage. They didn't have nothin' to do with it. They should have listened to me and left, too. But that's on them."

What was it like filming the video for "A.W.O.L." at Alcatraz?

"Oh, man, it was tiresome, cold and spooky. Cause we were on the island, and we couldn't leave. We had to spend the night there for three nights, so it was an experience. It was my first video, so I didn't know what to expect. I was kinda newrvous, then I wasn't nervous, and then I kinda got nervous again, because I didn't know. After the first couple of takes or so and I got used to it, I was fine, no problem. But it was hard work."

I've seen some reviews that say you come with a Chronic, p-funk type of sound on your album, but I see a lot of different styles on the album...

"There's no one style on there. It just changes throughout the whole thing, from beginning to end, from one song to the next. And that's what I tried to accomplish -- coherence. I get sick of buying records and the next song sounds the same as the first, and they just changed the title. That's not really creative to me. I pretty much used this album as a challenge to myself. Since I was on The Chronic and people were expecting me to do that type of stuff, I kind of like maybe gave 'em a little taste of what I did on there, but then I put a whole new flip to it, so you know, I was just challengin' myself there."

A few MCs make guest appearances on the album. Are you tryin' to help them come up?

"I tried to do as best as I could. You really can't help nobody, 'cause when you do they just try to take it for granted. And when you ain't there and you're fittin' to handle your business, they want you to stick your neck out for them, and it's not like that. I did what I could do, but now I have to go forward, and they all have opportunities to do the same thing I did. By me being on Dre's album, that catapulted me into a position where I could do some things for myself, and I used that to my best ability. The people that I had on my record, they're not signed to me or nothin', they're free agents, so to speak. I gave them an opportunity to be heard in a major way, so now it's up to them what they're gonna do. I'm not gonna carry nobody."

What are your favorite tracks on the album?

"'Back to Akebulan'...'Rough Is The Texture'. Those are my favorite two. I mean, I like all of them, but those are my two 'sh--s', you know what I mean?"

Is there anything else you wanted to get across to the fans out there?

"You know, I gotta give best wishes for everybody. I hope they do what they set out to do. Civilize the uncivilized."


-- Mason Storm, The 411

Twin 1 Interview

Enigma: Since this is your first official interview for the website, let's start with some basic questions. Where were you born and raised?

Twin: I was born in San Francisco but I was raised in the Lake View Terrace/Pacoima area. 818 San Fernando Valley to the fullest.

Enigma: When did you start rapping and who were your influences?

Twin: Started rapping when I was 13. My influences were 2Pac, Scarface, Tha Realest, LL, Outkast, and that's about it. A little bit of everything back in the day, but now I'm on Tha Realest, only Tha Realest.

Enigma: Since you and your brother rap together, who started rapping first?

Twin: He started rhyming before me for about 2 years and then he brought me into it.

Enigma: How did you and Tha Realest meet up?

Twin: I met him through a mutual friend of ours back in the day, we clicked with eachother, and from there we kept it 100 with eachother, we established our relationship, and it's been solid since then. That was back in '97.

Tha Realest: I watched these niggas since they got out of high school, soon as I came to LA I met these niggas, as soon as I came from Texas. They was still youngins, him and his little brother. I got love for em, if I got a meal ticket, they get 500,000 from it, and if that ain't enough they get the other 499,000. These niggas the truth man, these niggas speak for themselves, real shit, Twin Inc. Real shit, I ain't tryin to just sign niggas to 2Real Entertainment, 2Real give niggas their publishing, everything. These muthafuckas so business orientated on they own that they already got their own shit set up. They already got Twin Inc set up, they already dropped their shit on their own 3 years ago. When they do somethin with me it's 2Real/Twin Inc, they got their own entity already, they some real business orientated niggas.

Enigma: Tell people about the album that dropped in 2000 since not too many people got to hear it.

Twin: We released the album underground in late 2000, put it in the streets all regions just to set the fan base, and get the response from the streets, and they loved us. We basically just wanted to let people know who we are, they loved us, and that was a stepping stone for us coming in the business.

Tha Realest: And everyone who's mad at me for not getting their CD's from Australia, I'm sorry, it's really not my fault. Twin tell em we ran out of CD's to send.

Twin: Yup we lost em right before I went in.

Tha Realest: I can send you guys back the cashier checks or money orders, I got em, it took me a long time to find them, but I got em. Sorry once again about that shit y'all, all the flack was goin at Enigma.

Enigma: Twin, what's goin on in your career right now?

Twin: I'm focusing on my solo album till my brother gets out of jail. I'm just holdin it down, fuckin with Realest, lacin him with whatever he wants for his album, representing Team Dime and 2Real to the fullest.

Enigma: When can fans expect your album?

Twin: I think my year is 2005. It don't matter when it drops, we gonna take it over, we the new hottest shit on the west, period, I put money on it. My shit speaks for itself.

Enigma: What do you bring to the game that nobody else does?

Twin: I bring originality because I'm a lyricist, I tell things from my perspective, nothing's animated, everything's real, I'm 100% gangsta, I'm a thug, my influences on the streets is hardcore hip hop music. Twin the person and Twin the MC is 2 different people but it's the same people because I talk about what I live. And I got skills, so it's not animated, it's all 100%.

Tha Realest: If my nigga talk about penetentary shit, my niggas did penetentary shit. If my niggas talkin about gunnin, my niggas did gunnin. These niggas got rank, they young but they got rank. You look at em and they ain't no looney tune ass niggas, these niggas real. I'm gonna put everything I got into them, my nigga Mike Bibby ridin with us. We got it comin.

Enigma: Are you and your brother gonna do a group album when he gets out?

Twin: As soon as he gets out we lacin that Twin Inc album

Enigma: Who are you feeling right now in the rap game?

Twin: Right now I'm feelin Tha Realest, that's what I'm feelin.

Enigma: Any last words?

Tha Realest: Lemme get a ghetto ass holla out to all my niggas, all my niggas in Texas man, niggas like Devin The Dude, my nigga C-Bo had to turn himself in, send me some mail nigga much love, Yukmouth my nigga keep it movin, Fat Joe keep it movin, Big Slip Roc in Sac-town keep it movin, Messy Marv keep it movin, all the niggas not gettin radio play keep it movin niggas. The Twinz, watch out for em they intelligent, the style is authentic, it's not copy-catted. Niggas might hate me cause they say I sound like Pac, but (laughing), fuck em man, cause I'm me, this is me, I come from the South dog. But these two niggas, I'm gonna bleed for them. No longer The Terror Twinz it's Twin Inc now.

_________________

Lavel



By Mike HODGE
HODGE- First things first man, Congratulations on your new album- "Nutty"! Especially the track "Don't Be" featuring ESHAM. That song is Lethal!


LAVEL- Hell yeah, it's the shit to finally work with Esham.

HODGE- Was the album originally called KUNPHUZION, or was that a completely differen project?
LAVEL- Nutty people are always Kunphuzed!

HODGE- One big change in this album compared to your two previous solo albums is that it has more guest collaborations on it. Let everybody know who you got on the album this time around.


LAVEL- For now we giving yall some ESHAM and Mastamind. Yall know, the wicked shit. It also has some new cats- twin Gunz, Bombshell and Tina on(ride). All Detroit love, but I still wanna work with dope artists from all over the world.

HODGE- Now, you also have a new CD single out for the track "I'm A Menace". On the CD single is an exclusive song called "Mic Torture" featuring TWIZTID's former partner from the HOUSE OF KRAZEES- "THE R.O.C." Was this a new track or an unreleased track from back in the day?


LAVEL- That's a killa new track. Only The R.O.C. and Beast from The Indigenous Tribe could Torture the mic like that.

HODGE- On the new album you have the Legendary Detroit Producer MIKE E. CLARK(the producer of ICP's first 5 Jokers cards). Since CLARK is branching out these days with artists like MARZ, MYZERY, and WHITE BOY RIC...is their any interest in linking up with any of those artists on a track produced by MEC?


LAVEL- I would'nt just work with an artist because they work with another producer/artist(Mike E. Clark), but working with Mike was the shit! That song came out dope.

HODGE- I gotta ask this. What was the deal with White Devil Productions compilation album titled UNFINISHED BUSINESS that hit the streets last year? I read a net interview in which MASTAMIND had no clue about that album that featured a track with you and he called "Hood Killaz". Reports say that the artists on the CD were unaware of the album? Was that album legit?


LAVEL- Nah, I don't know about that album.

HODGE- Speaking of MASTAMIND(ESHAM's former partner in the group NATAS), early net leaks of his "STREET VALU" album had many songs produced by you. Are your productions gonna remain on the official version of MASTAMIND's STREET VALU? I'm curious because in a recent net interview with MASTAMIND he mentions alot of artists and collabs on the album, but your name wasn't mentioned?


LAVEL- I produced some songs for Mastamind, but I don't know if he plans to use them.

HODGE- How was the turnout for last years "Jam For Jewell" benefit concert for your daughter? Didn't TWIZTID perform that night in her behalf? Is she feeling better these days?


LAVEL- You know right after that show I did a huge update about it @ my web site www.
LAVEL.net. Twiztid are my friends. I have known them for over 10 years and they love Jewell. They wanted to do what ever they could to help her. All the Juggalo Family showed up for the cause also! Jewell is doing very well for her condition and she's getting all the best medicine. She thanks everyone for being there for her in her time of need.

HODGE- Is it true that you and TWIZTID go way back to the days of the original KRAZY KLAN? What was the original lineup of the KRAZY KLAN?


LAVEL- The Krazy Klan was like a whole neighborhood and there was only a few of us that rapped. I think killaz know how far me and Twiztid go back lol.

HODGE- Aren't you also close with the R.O.C.? Was any awkward tension removed with you and TWIZTID when they patched things up with R.O.C.?


LAVEL- Yeah the R.O.C. is my man. Me and Twiztid did'nt really have any tension over it.

HODGE- Now as many people may already know, you and ANYBODY KILLA put out the KRAZY KLAN'S only 2 albums. You also produced most of his "Rain From the Sun" album when he was going by the name NATIVE FUNK. Do you guys still chill together?


LAVEL- Yeah me and ABK hang out now and then.

HODGE- I believe it was in early 2001 that ICP's official website stated that you were signed to PSYCHOPATHIC RECORDS. What ever happened with that?


LAVEL- That would be the shit to sign to Psychopathic Records.

HODGE- You now have 2 tours with PSYCHOPATHIC artists under your belt. Which was more memorable for you- TWIZTID's "Freekshow" tour... or BLAZE's last tour(as his hype man, the SHADOW)?


LAVEL- Both had there own flavor, of course I like to perform my own material...but they both were the bomb.

HODGE- Nobody's is quite sure what happened with TWIZTID's own label- Majik Recordz. However, if it starts back up again are you a candidate for the label? Or are you happy with Long Range Distribution?


LAVEL- Twiztid is on Psycopathic Records and L.R.D. is still learning how to deal with Detroit's sickest mental patient "
LAVEL".

HODGE- Is their any unreleased tracks with you and ABK, TWIZTID, ESHAM/NATAS, BLAZE YA DEAD HOMIE, THE R.O.C., MIKE E. CLARK, or the original HOUSE OF KRAZEES?


LAVEL- The years to come will tell.

HODGE- In my opinion KRAZY KLAN'S- DEVELOPMENTAL album and NATIVE FUNK's (aka ANYBODY KILLA) RAIN FROM THE SUN are two Detroit Classics. Does Slangtown Records still own the rights to them? Was their a fallout with you and Detroit rapper DEAD MIKE (owner of Slangtown Records)? Any chance the albums could ever be re-released?


LAVEL- No one owns Krazy Klan material except me and ABK.

HODGE- Rumor has it that you produced a track or two on BLAZE's "1 LESS G IN THE HOOD" album? Was "Maggot Face" one of them?


LAVEL- Yeah I co-produced "Maggot Face" and "Saturday Afternoon".

HODGE- I'm constantly in contact with Camp MYZERY. PONCHO told me that the beef with TWIZTID is over now. Would you ever consider linking up with MYZERY on a track?


LAVEL- I have never met Myzery.

HODGE- On 12/18/03 you have a concert at the Emerald Theater in MI. The concert is called "The Looney Bin Tour" and features MASTAMIND. When will a full tour kick off? Will it be a national tour?


LAVEL- No it's just a regional tour with a few dates here and there. Hopefully it will pick up into a National Tour. This show will be the shit!!!

HODGE- During you and ABK's KRAZY KLAN era their was a lot of guest collabs with some underground Michigan rappers. Do you ever hear from DAGO or STRICT 9 anymore? DAGO was Dope as hell!


LAVEL- Yeah I see Dago all the time that's my boy.

HODGE- What's spinning in your CD player these days?


LAVEL- Right I'm bumping that Green Book and that Wizard of the hood.

HODGE- Well man, it's been a pleasure interviewing you. When your tour hits my neck of the woods we should hit up the GOLD CLUB or some shit.


LAVEL- Hell yeah! I'm always wit that LOL.

HODGE- Any last words for your fans reading this?


LAVEL- Yeah, listen killas this is what you tell all the haters out there in 2004, and this goes for the ladies too- "YOU CAN'T HATE NO MO IN THE 04". I'm out HODGE and I love yall!

aber sicher...da hätte sein album noch weniger promo bekommen als jetzt. die haben ja schon repentance völlig in den sand gesetzt...

Dubcnn.com sat down to talk to Long Beach veteran Domino, most known for his super hit "Ghetto Jam". He talked to us about everything he has been doing for the last years, future plans, and interesting facts you may not have known about past westcoast stuff, and much more! Please feel free to send any feedback regarding the interview to - rud@dubcnn.com / nima@dubcnn.com



Huge thanks to Domino for taking time out to answer the questions fans wanted to know! (Interview was done by phone on April 20th 2004)

Questions Asked By : Yash

Domino Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here

ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN AUDIO: HERE (Make Sure To Right Click And Then Save As)



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dubcnn.com: What have you been doin these past few years you aint been droppin any albums?

Domino: Aw shit muthafucka have just been basically had a couple of deaths in the family shit muthafucka gettin to his roots so I ended up goin back to st louis, been gone for about 4 years I guess on and off and um thats basically what ive been doin. Been chillin with my peeps.

dubcnn.com: Who influenced you to get into Hiphop music?

Domino: umm SLick Rick , like ive been telling everybody from the begining
it's always been Slick you know. Back in the day Run DMC all them they put they bits in the game you know 1 love to all that. But I was always intriged by the different like everything i've ever dealt with so you know rhyming and rhymin
that shit was hot we was buyin it and was poppin to it doin whatever we could do but one time I heared the song by Slick rick that really intriged me because it kept a thought process you know makin shit makin sence, First time I ever heared a person tell a story for 3 verses you know Slick RIck thats that nigga.

dubcnn.com: You told me you were locked up last week what happened you told me they grabbed your boy at the club or somethin?

Domino: Yea yea I mean it was just some shit you know you got DOmino takin one your lil homies to the club and up in the V.I. chillin so he take his shirt off. They aint lettin him know they had a dresscode. Before anything could happen after that they taking him outta the club kinda agressive and im following them outside to see what the deal was. They got him on the ground, so im lettin em know aint no muthafuckin dresscode outside so let me grab him get up out of here.
By then you know they feelin like they got the power so they comin at me with that bullshit but see I kinda twisted the game on them with some real shit,
I just put it like this except the muthafuckers rage so much they had to call the police on me and book the muthafucka for that terrorists threat shit.

dubcnn.com: Dam so they got a new law on that shit since 911.

Domino: Hell yea if a muthafucka get scared thats what they do.

dubcnn.com: So whats gone happen now is there gonna be a trial?

Domino: Yea i'ma go down for that shit ummm I think the 28th or somethin like that they gone peep it out. I mean how that look you got 4 or 5 muthafuckin security guards then its just me just because im about to do the damn thing they call the popoz on me, who look like you know what I mean is in a weaker position?

dubcnn.com: yea, did you have any witnesses with you so they can vouch what you said?

Domino: I mean it just me and my nigz he gotto do what he gotto do then he gotto do what he gotto do you know I dont think its a situation where me and
my family should be worried about shit.

dubcnn.com: Yea It's gone be alrite, You were on Outburst at one point in your career did you have a chance to hookup with Bg Knocc Out And Dresta? Tell us about that.

Domino: Aw Yea BG KNOCC them the homies you know all the time me and Dresta used to link up out at outburst, get outthere for him you know get our drink on used to be in the club. you know it was all good. Compton niggaz was ait with that shit some real muthafuckaz SHoutout.

dubcnn.com: So you still have contact with any of them or you lost it when you moved to st louis?

Domino: Yea a whole lot of me went down when I started goin back and forth to st louis. I dropped the bombs on em and did two songs and shit like that and got into the mindframe of my fambam. Spiritually its a good thing but you gotto realize you know god gave real good talent like he gave me, now everybody dissrespectin for it you gotto do the damn thang again.


dubcnn.com: Physical funk was a tight album but failed to become as successful as the first one but still a good album you know What was the reason behind that?

Domino: Physical funk was tight as fuck I think umm between outburst and defjam they had an altercation defjam decided that they were gonna drop outburst like a week over and stopp. Like im tryna tell people you know we had the nr1 video before the record came out on MTV first video to ever had any animation shit hiphop you know, the song was one of the most added in the country. That shit hit all the record stores top of the charts across the US. Only problem with that
shit was when you sign as an artist you understand one thing you aint in control nomore.

dubcnn.com: So you wanna tell the story about Kurupt and Snoop again how they hooked up back in the day?

Domino: Yea I used to have a group called perfection and basically we was the muthafuckaz out the beach that kinda floated throughout all the showcases and management thats poppin shit now. We had umm this particular asscount showcase which was located at the rocks theatre anyway after the shit is
over we outside chillin and muthafucka walked up to me talkin bout he wanna freestyle.
He wanna battle me I aint no battler I can let you know, I dont do that shit but when it comes to paper im the tightest muthafucka in the town with the pen.
So my nigga snoop was the hottest muthafucka that I had ever knew.
So I let the dogg loose he started gettin on his ass real early like right at the dribble but Kurupt came and spit some shit that shut the crowd down.
You gotto let that be known man this shit was like big! Two muthafuckaz in their caliber. They went on for like 12 rounds. The crowd was like it's a draw and thats the first time I ever heared the crowd was like its a draw because theres always a winner and a looser in the streets. But they said this shit was a draw and thats the begining to that Kurupt and Snoop shit hottest muthafuckaz
on the west.

dubcnn.com: So that was back in 89 right?

Domino: Yea that was like 89.

dubcnn.com: Did Snoop contact you two years ago about possibly hookin up?

Domino: yea snoop left me a message him and Cat (Dj Battlecat) talkin about lets do this shit how we was doin it back in 87 and umm shit I called em but that nigga was busy or we woulda chopped it up, I was tryna get put the spot cuz we were suppose to slow that shit up with that reinventing the game, that shit went on for so many weeks you know the boy got shit he had to do gotto respect the game.
He got things and I got things so I didnt cross paths with him.

dubcnn.com: Your next single is "CALI STYLE" tell the fans how thats gone change the game up one mo gin!

Domino: Cali Style Imean think about that shit, right now the west need some love they need a muthafuckin anthem and this shit right here brings light right back to the left side of the map. So muthafucka better realize everytime Domino get back into the mainstream you know on the radio im refreshing the game alot of muthafuckaz do this shit they rap but theirs only one Domino period. Cali Style is talkin bout shit that other niggaz taken from the town like how we started the b'z and the c'z playaz and ballaz.
Cali Style Hot ass beat one that aint been outthere in the game of hiphop when you hear that shit you gone know this shit is one of the original shit you can never beat getto jam but this shit will definetly build the gap. Cali style finna do the damn thang!

dubcnn.com: Yea foeshoe I heared the snippet and its bangin. So whats the new album called and when is it coming out?

Domino: New album is titled Mr. Melodocious and I am that Melodocious muthafucka. Yea it'll be out July the 6th through Getto Jam Entertainment. That's your boys lable. But muthafuckaz wanna order it now, they been askin for it so much that they got to hear the snippets. the muthafuckin Wcrydaz, muthafuckaz wanted that shit so you know I just made this available now. Order that shit on INDASTREETS.NET/DOMINO!

dubcnn.com: Who will be featured on the album?

Domino: umm I got a line of upcoming artists you know tight as fuck because these muthafuckas thats really doin the damn thang are chargin a notch.Dont be mad at me. I gots this muthafucka hot on the streets a boy go by the name of Dago, we got Versityle my boy tat eyez his outta carson tight as a muthafucka. I might be throwin out his shit look out for that one.

dubcnn.com: So Who did the production did you handle most of it?

Domino: I did you know but the rest was handled by some hot muthafuckaz you got the Collaborators outta Longbeach they gotto be some of the hottest shit that I ever heared. Got my boy CJ from C Tight on production they comin up out of longbeach. Im tellin you this aint no regular shit this shit is super extradinary so get ready to hear this shit and my boy Jason Heff cant forget him. Its all good.


dubcnn.com: Have you spoken with Battlecat Lately?any chance of yall hookin back up?

Domino: Yea I talked to Cat umm about 6-7 months ago matterof fact we met up at the end of the eastsidaz album in the studio up in Hollywood. You know we tryna do this shit again we made an oath that this shit gotto happen. Im on this lable right now and maybe next year we can get it wrapped up.

dubcnn.com: Do you still have a house out in Longbeach?

Domino: Na shit I always stayed up in the hills but one thing about me im in the hood everyday like I still live in that muthafucka. My mom and dad whole fambam is gone but im still on the block always.

dubcnn.com: Thats cool that you still keep in tocuh with the streets most of these rappers forget were they from and stuff.

Domino: Aw shit they can forget about it then watch the streets forget about them I mean like I told you when you get out here your getto pass gone be outlandish

dubcnn.com: How does it feel to be so underrated eventhough you're a pioneer of that classic G-Funk sound?

Domino: aaw shit man you know to tell you the honest truth I kinda enjoy being the underdog, I've always been the underdog i've always been the difference in the game as long as im the underdog and puttin this shit out how im puttin it out keepin it real these overrated muthafuckaz watered down this muthafucka gone still be idoled you know when you're doing shit like im doin it, you cant help but lookin at muthafuckaz like hot muthafuckaz of that nature that as far as years only a certain amount of people got to hear them but after awhile nomatter what shit you can do that muthafucka blew up and had his own era. You know you gotto think of that same level you know that domino shit is underrated but you gotto deal with the fact that I started a muthafuckin era now everybody doin that shit. I stayed idle with this shit long enough muthafuckaz gone present them opportunities.

dubcnn.com: What producer do you like the most out of all those you done worked with?

Domino: well you know I only worked with a few, me and Battclecat got that chemistry you know battlecat gone always be that muthafucka in the party of favourite producer that ive worked with.

dubcnn.com: Are you lookin to hook up with anyone that u haven't had the chance to work wid yet?

Domino: Hell yea you got Lauryn Hill thats my ultimate I dont know were her life is goin right now but thats a cold muthafuckin female, Mentally outta control on every level you know on write skills all that shit extra hot. Then you got a muthafucka like Young Roscoe I really appreciate the craft you know kurupt, then you got niggaz that I need to do that shit with Snoop, Nate, The Twinz you know that whole Longbeach that ive been listenin to on and on.

dubcnn.com: There's a gang of young people that are so tight right now Roscoe Crook..

Domino: Hell yea Crooked I is extra hot matter of fact I think he had a song with my boy S.O.C up in longbeach let him know he wanna fuck with him if you see the interview get with your boy

dubcnn.com: What artists from longbeach do you have love for and Kick it with?

Domino: I got love for all the homies up in Longbeach but one thing about it is I dont kick it with artists I kick it with G'z and Hustlaz.

dubcnn.com: You told you were real coo with my homie big Prod how did you guys meet up?

Domino: Prod's a street nigga and im a street nigga Prod has a real simple as voice so shit he talk about is some real shit I just like the whole flavour of his music so we linked up and did that song called Ballin with umm folks from oakland and that shit been in line ever since.

dubcnn.com: yea but he needs to step up his game a little like you said.

Domino: Yea Yea foeshoe Prod man you know when we hit that studio ima make his ass step up a notch homie we need that old Prod back muthafuckin South Central they came around for a reason they made it big in they era so we gone do this shit and do this shit right.

Dubcnn: Have you recorded for any other projects so far this year? besides your album.

Domino: Just a couple documentariescant remember the names of them shit but really its time for the MR Melodocious album when some of the brothers hear this shit homie man this some of the hottest shit ive done. since the begining of my career so.When brothers get to listen to this they'll know whos back and muthafuckaz gotto respect the style the tracks tight its that domino shit.

dubcnn.com: You not only rap and sing but you produce aswell, what do you like the most?

Domino: I have to say production part of it because its a new craft it's more talent in it and it aint nothing like a hot cold as artist rappin or singin or this muthafucka playin instruments over your track. The dope ass feelin you know. Eventhough I can twist that rap and sing shit up you know thats my heart I gotto say I like the production side a little more.

dubcnn.com: You been on quite a few soundtracks and compilations which one did you feel was most fun makin?

Domino: That have to be the Russell Simmons song on "The Show" that shit was hot "Dominos In The House". Really why that muthafucka was so fun to make was because that was the first soundtrack that I had produced and also it was an ongoing party it was just like we was in the muthafuckin streets you know alcohol and had a big ass crowd all the homies and homegirls come in do the muthafuckin hook now this shit we put out off that Hen and Bud and this shit lasted all muthafuckin nite homie.

dubcnn.com: So whats the craziest thing a groupie done for you?

Domino: The craziest thing would be... oh you know what that was when I went to albuquerque new mexico had a show with this old school group called War.
oh anyway after that shit was over I went to do the autographs and when I was signing autographs this little boy literally smashed through the crowd. Little latino kid he wasn't nomore than ten he came through the crowd and wanted me to sign his 100 dollar bill that he had for his mother.
He let me know its moms birthday today you know she love you so much and so on. so shit I signed it and told him to bring his mother out to me because I wanted to see who she was. He brought her back you know nice tight older one and soon as she sees me she starts tremblin crying and shit. I hugged her, kissed her and shit told her how I appreciated her support. The next thing I know her ass fainted and fell like two stories from the stage and ended up in a dirt ditch. Last thing I've seen of it was the ambulance and shit. I dont know what happened after that.

dubcnn.com: Would you like to venture into other things like movies, a clothing line or something?

Domino: Yea all that shit you know that's whats cold about it because I didn't get to enjoy that shit back when "Getto Jam" came out. I was hustlin tryna make a hit record not thinkin you need to be outside the box. Now you see how the game is been monopolized by smart muthafuckaz in the hiphop industry. I gotto do it, you know the movies is more of a sence that I want to do more interations that gone make my fam have somethin they can hold on to and respect you know what I mean.

dubcnn.com: Yea I hope everything goes well, You have worked with latino rapper Frost aswell how was it working with him?

Domino: Oh Frost cool muthafucka. I mean he's just the hottest muthafucka with that lowrider shit. You know that was something that I wasn't really doing.
Brainstormed this shit with "in the rain" by the Dramatics and flipped that shit. He always stuck in my head as far as anything that had to do with some lowriders. I thought we had to do it you know we linked up. He was a fan of mine I was definetly a fan of his ever since the La Raza and shit we put that shit together.
Oh yea he had me drinkin that muthafuckin presidente that was the first time I had ever taste that shit.

dubcnn.com: How does that drink taste?

Domino: shit after the first shot you dont know nomore. *Laughs*

dubcnn.com: Getto Jam hit nr1 on the billboard and was a crazy hit all over radio world wide. How do you plan to take your new single to the same hights?

Domino: You know "Getto Jam" they had a machine you know Defjam the nr1 muthafuckin rap lable in the world. See you got a machine when you dealing with defjam. With this shit that im doin "Cali Style" im just tryna get the green muthafuckin thang it's the new Domino plus im doin it independent doin that shit from an internet basis. What that will do is make this shit pass before I take it to a mainstream level. Once the Domino fans see they boy is back well thats all they waiting on, they won't buy it if they dont see it.

dubcnn.com: Which lable treated you the best as far as gettin paid and promoting you?

Domino: Definetly Defjam, they was the best lable, eventhough I wasn't signed to Defjam it was actually like a production team with Outburst. They just made it you know worth my while. I didn't have to call Outburst you know to get some cheese you know everything went smooth whatever it may be. Shit I just New York lend a muthafucka 4-5000 you know what I mean it was that kind of relationship.

dubcnn.com: What lable is the new album gone be on? are you goin the independant route?

Domino: It's on Getto Jam Entertainment, your boys lable.

dubcnn.com: What song is your favourite out of all those you made?

Domino: One of the favourite ones gotto be "Turn It Up" because people that dont know who Domino is, It's gone let you know who I am. Muthafucka better know Im a real pioneer prolly the only rapper that came out of Biggies mouth out some real shit he was like "Here we go here we go wuttup to domino" were that shit came from think about it.

Dubcnn: I always wondered why the last 2 albums that came out has almost the identic same last 2-3 songs. They were like recycled Could you tell us why you used 2 songs on the same albums?

Domino: Those were on two experimental lable, what I ended up with was a domino effect on some real shit. You got a company called Big Wells and basically I was givin the record to them and umm he didn't secure distrobution. He tried to do this shit himself and umm doing shit like that well this game is about whos hot whos not. Bottomline is he couldn't get records in the muthafucking stores and I mean he didn't have any expirience on dealin with it on the promotional side also his dollars was very little. So this shit happening in both the situations I recall myself taking a couple of songs off of that because people didn't get to hear the record. You know they shut down 2 weeks after that shit. So I put them on another record I called "Getto". That came out on Pioneer entertainment and dam they filed bancrupsy. Both of them companys filed for bankrupcy real quik because of their inexpirience in the game. So you know I just tried to take my songs.
Because I believe certain muthafuckin songs you need to let people hear them. It also lets people know that Domino is the tightest muthafucka if you can take some shit from 4-5 years ago and bump it in they ears put it on the new album and they respecting it like its new than your true blue to it you know what I mean.

dubcnn.com: After listenin to the snippets to your new album I really like the sound of it. Can you tell the overseas people where they can order it once again?

Domino: INDASTREETS.NET/DOMINO

dubcnn.com: What was the biggest crowd you ever performed infront of?

Domino: It was either south carolina about 25,000 or virginia with biggie. when he saw me he jus gave me a hug and said much props. that was a real one. I never thought about getting with him on recording together. He was so cool it was jus like a homie you knew for years. We just got tow up together. I guess people take
for granted the time we live and im one of em. After all that time that biggie gave me props i never really acted on it, it always felt like a fam thang. Biggie is without a doubt the hottest lyricist to enter the game.

dubcnn.com: Do you have any last words for the fans?

Domino: Yea to all the fans that's really into Domino, you know I was surprised to hear how much muthafuckaz wanted me on it. But anyway to the fans sorry muthafucka took so long but it's time to do the damn thang Cali Style!
Them peeps tryna make me in the game want words from D you know got that shit tatted on me. You better talk the way you walk you know what im sayin walk the way you talk either way you do it. Walk the way you talk keep that shit real and to all the Domino groupies stop loving your nigga so much it's all gravy. And shit a message to the coast you know like I said before all my niggaz on the westcoast I don't know exactly how we doin it but this shit is definetly out of wack you know the town is not unified the coast is not unified. If we gone take this shit to another level we gone take this westcoast hiphop to another level. All the main important pieces of the game that gotto be utilised the way it needs to in order for this shit to rise all these muthafucking hataz outthere you know take your skirts off and let's be men about it. Get with your boy.

dubcnn.com: Thanks so much DOmino for taking time out and doin this indepth interview with Dubcnn.com!

Domino: anytime homie.

_________________

Interview with Bang’Em Smurf




When did you first get involved with the rap game?

I’ve been in this rap game for a minute, man. Since I was 14. I used to roll with Freakie Tah from the Lost Boyz and I was really young so I was involved in some street activity and I didn’t really take the music seriously. I used to be around shows, meetings and studio sessions tho so I was familiar with the game ever since I was around 14.

How did you come up with your name? Bang’Em Smurf.

I was real short back in the day, and I mean real short! People used to be like “damn this n*gga’s crazy. What’s your name? Smurf?” The Smurf didn’t really fit me tho… The only reason it fit me was because I was short, so some old heads from my hood threw in the name Bang’Em like “You’re Bang’Em Smurf. You bang em.” And it stuck with me. You know it was really hard for me to get rid of “Smurf” cuz that name really stuck with me since that’s what people knew me as.

Ok. Let’s clear this up. A lot of people think that you do rhymes as in verses, but you’re really doing kind of like the Freakie Tah thing, right?

Yeah, I just do adlibs. I do adlibs and talk trash. I just hype ‘em up. Domination speak the truth and I bring the extra energy. I don’t rap at all.

Ok.

And I’m the CEO of Gangsta Flip Records. Domination is my artist but he’s a CEO aswell. This is our company, we’re 50/50 on everything we do.

Ok… So you’re like a mixture between Freakie Tah and Suge Knight then, hehe.

Hahaha yeah you could say that! Hahaha.

About GF Records, Gangsta Flip Records... Who’s on the label except for you and Domination?

We’ve got Big Swing, he’s an animal. He’s hard… real real hard. He’s on 3 or 4 of our mixtapes. Then we’ve got Young Dice. He’s 14. He’s young, he can flow and he write his own rhymes.

Yeah we’ve got some audio from them on our website right now too.

So about that G-Unit thing… did you start G-Unit or what was the thing with that?

You can’t really say I started it because G-Unit started out with some rapping people. 50 and Yayo used to rap together. Banks wasn’t really around like that at the time. Banks was really young and he never really came outside or nothing like that. Nobody really knew Banks before 2000 when he came on the block spittin’ and he was hot. That’s when the hood embraced him. That’s the only way n*ggaz is getting out the hood! It’s either play sports or the entertainment business. Rapping, do movies or something. Banks was always tight from day one. I used to hold that boy down in the hood. He had no problems… n*ggaz couldn’t even touch him in the hood because of me and my team. He had it easy because he was rapping… People treated him differently.

Ok…

On the street side, that’s where I came in. That’s where I started that and held everybody down. They were my soldiers, my squad. Everybody who’s down with me today, that’s the people I formed G-Unit with…. But he got his money and he actin’ like he forgot who his real homies was… Cuz in my hood, kissing ass is not allowed. If you kiss ass you a bitch ass n*gga in New York, South Jamaica Queens. You’sa hoe, you’sa bitch. So for me to come home after these n*ggaz leave me in jail, there’s no way I can run back behind n*ggaz with G-Unit like everything’s all good. I ain’t no puppet. Hell no! I had to leave and start my own shit, cuz I’m a man. I’m a grown ass man. No one else will provide for me, I’ll make it for myself! You’ve got to respect that!

Yeah… You kind of answered the question on how you went separate ways…

Yeah I caught a case in New York…

So have you got beef with everyone in G-Unit now?

That shit ain’t even beef. They can’t come back here. They didn’t just shit on me, they shitted on their whole community! They can’t even come back to Queens! You ever heard that song on his album called “I’m So Hood”? That was real n*ggaz from South Jamaica Queens. Everybody he named was a real person. He shitted on his own hood.

Ok. Who have you got as production on your GF label?

We ain’t got no inhouse production but we work with Supermario he’s with D-block and Benny Idol. He’s got good production, we got a few of his joints. We got Megahertz. We got joints from the Heatmakerz. We fuck with our underground n*ggaz before everything. Straight Underground!

I saw an interview with you on allhiphop.com and you told a story about how 50 Cent rolled up when you were shooting a video, and he was rolling up with the police or something?

Yeah man we shot our video January 31st. We shot our underground thing that should come out pretty soon, but yeah he rolled up with 2 vans filled with police. For what reason I don’t know because he really embarrassed himself. Half South Jamaica Queens was out there. I had people from magazines out there, people who were doing DVDs out there, all kinds of people. Even politicians. They all seen it! They couldn’t believe it! I couldn’t believe it! Why are you coming with the police to your OWN neighbourhood? That’s a true story.

We previously reported here on worldwideconnected.com about you signing a deal with Koch and Death Row…

Yeah I didn’t sign no album deal with Death Row. I signed with Alan Grunblatt from Koch Records for distribution and Suge Knight is over there. They’re doing their business partner thing over there, so Death Row is… You know how Aftermath and Interscope is? Well Death Row and Koch’s that. It’s more than distribution over there. Suge’s got a lil percentage there in the company. We’re just using that for promotion, tho. Suge ain’t cutting my checks. Koch is cutting my checks. Suge is just in the back row because he wanted in and I like that that’s more promotion so let’s go. Suge’ll be here this week. I’ve got to go up to Koch today because he might be there already. But yeah, Suge is involved with our situation but we didn’t sign no artist deal with Death Row because we’ve got Gangsta Flip Records.. It’s like a joint venture. Koch with Tha Row.

Yeah because a lot of people misunderstood us…

Yeah man I would never be an artist, man. I’ve been in this business for a long time and there’s no way a n*gga’s gonna pimp me in this game. The best you can do is help my company out. I’ve got a 60/40 thing wich Koch and you can’t beat that. I get $10 off of every album. We got our own shit. Everything. Money from shows or anything like that. We got our own thing going. We ain’t signing Koch individually and we ain’t signing Death Row. It’s a joint venture. Distribution worldwide.

Ok so it’s not just to Koch but to Death Row aswell…

Yeah! It’s like Shady Records and Aftermath… You know how they got the G-Unit label? That’s how it’s going down. And it’s like everybody I got beef with, they’ve got beef with. Suge’s got beef with Jimmy Iovine, Alan Grunblatt got beef with Jimmy Iovine. Alan is by my side. He cut NWA their first paycheck.

Just to clarify then… You’re not a sub-label of Death Row. It’s like… Koch is distributing you and Death Row is promoting you?

Yeah.

So it’s not like No Limit… they’re on Koch too.

They’re on Koch too, exactly, but it’s different. They’ve just got distribution through Koch. Suge’s doing business with the head owner.

Yeah I just wanted to clarify that because a lot of people though we were making shit up and…

It’s cool tho. I don’t care what they think cuz it’ll be cleared up once we start putting shit out. Right now we’re just in the lab. We’ve got 54 days to do the album. We’ve got to June 19 to handle the album. We’re looking at late July or early August to release the album.

What album is that?

Domination. SBG. God give it, God takes it away – that’s the name of the album.

Ok cool. Now that you’re working with Koch and Death Row, can we expect to hear you on upcoming Death Row releases and them on yours?

Oh yea fo’ sho! Definitely! I think Suge’s dropping a compilation for them boys… them dudes at war or whatever it’s called. We’re definitely gonna drop some on that. Domination touch all subjects. He gets deep… so we’re definitely got some for that compilation. We’re gonna work with everybody, man. Whoever’s on Koch I wanna work with. Cuz I want their fanbase. I want everybodys fanbase! No Limit is on Koch? Allright I want a track with Master P. I want a track with everybody. It’s nothing to get cuz we label mates now. Kurupt. I’ve got a home over there! AZ’s over there. Cormega’s over there. Shoutout to Cormega! We just did a track with him and his artist, a female artist. We did a track a video with him that’ll be out soon so look out for that. I’ve got a lot of veterans over there. Like we’re fresh, we’re rookies. We never sold a unit in this game so we got a lot of energy, we’re hungry so we’re gonna put them numbers out there. And everybody over there at Koch respect us! The veterans are like “Yo man ya’ll got the streets, can’t front”. And again, a big shoutout to my himie Cormega cuz from Queens. There’s a lot of people over there at Koch, man. Royce 5’9… Domination did a joint with him…

We’re gonna interview him soon.

Yeah it’s serious. He’s on Koch and he’s got drama with “them” too! He was an original n*gga from D12. I’ve got a squad over there at Koch, man. We can ran through this industry if everybody just stick together and we do what we gotta do. Koch is one of the major independent companies. I’m not mad at all being there.

Yeah it’s a good company… When did you do the deal tho? Cuz I think Suge came out like 4 or 5 days ago…

Funny thing is I hollered at Koch… Shoutout to Fredro Starr that’s my consultant to my company. Somebody got this shit twisted too like we work for Fredro or some bullshit. Me and Domination are CEO’s of Gangsta Flip Records. Fredro Starr is the consultant for my company. He’s like the mouthpiece. He speak to them companies and shit for me cuz they were really scared of me in the beginning but now they understand me. So he’s the consultant of my company. He’s working for my company.

Ok so he’s not a signer artist, because someone thought he was too…

Nah. He ain’t signed to us and we ain’t signed to him. He’s doing business with my company. Fredro ain’t tryin’ to rap no more he’s doing movies and taking care of business. So he’s got a lil percentage of my company and works as a consultant.

So how’d you hook up with him?

Fredro Starr was in LA and one of the homies in LA handed him a mixtape and was like “you know these n*ggaz? They from Queens.” And he was like “Nah who’s Domination? I heard about Bang’Em Smurf, he used to roll with 50 right?” So they told him we do our own thing now. So he played our shit and he loved our shit so that n*gga called us and we’ve been kickin’ it since. We’ve been shoppin for deals everywhere together. That’s why 50 be blackballin me man. Calling DJ’s, labels and all kinds of shit. He tried to swing at Fredro at the Vibe awards because Fredro was doing business with me. It’s like everybody that’s doing business with me, he’s trying to stop them. Blackballin’ everybody! DJ’s and everything!

Yeah… Interscope’s been rumoured to do that before…

That’s why I feel great at Koch! Everybody that they’ve got drama with, I’ve got drama with. So they’re gonna put that money and push me. That’s what we do. We’re gonna shut Interscope the fuck down, watch me n*gga. N*ggaz thought I couldn’t get a label deal in less than a year. Watch me shut Interscope down, man. They got a whole bunch of retards over there. Em is a fuckin’ retard, D12 all them n*ggaz is homos. I know all these n*ggaz personally they all fuck gay poppin pill ass mothafuckas. 50 he’s soft, Bank’s a super-pussy, Yayo’s PC in the pen. We shut them n*ggaz the fuck down, man.

Ok. We interviewed Skrilla from Smoke-A-Lot Records before and he told us a lil about the situation with Young Buck and Juvenile and Young Buck said something about how he was being left in LA without money and all that…

Yeah I heard that story. He told me the story how he left them dead broke in LA and had no money to get back… Whatever but shoutout to Smoke-A-Lot Records cuz I fuck with my n*gga Yukmouth that’s my n*gga! We did a track. With them aswell. My n*gga C-Bo aswell. That’s my westcoast mafia, Thug Lordz. Shoutout to the whole Huston. J Prince. That’s my n*ggaz out there.

Yeah. How’d you hook up with Yuk and them?

Like I said before, I don’t know how our mixtapes be generating like they be generating but them n*ggaz heard our mixtapes and they called Fredro because he was out there in the west. Fredro called me and gave them my number and next thing you know these n*ggaz flew me and 4 of my n*ggaz out. Flew everybody there and we did the track “A n*gga nead a hug”. It was so crazy, we did like 6-7 joints. Shoutout to my n*gga C-Bo he’s gotta go do some time he’ll be back tho it’s nothin’.

Ok so can we assume that you’ll work with them in the future aswell?

Oh fo’ sho’! That’s my n*ggaz. That’s family.

Ok. What do you think about the beef between 50 Cent and Ja Rule?

I think 50 was mad at Ja. Not because they had beef or nothing, just mad at Ja because he was doing it at the time and 50 knew him. But it’s like he’s doing everything Ja Rule’s doing right now. He made fun of Ja Rule for doing bubblegum music, singing on tracks and all that. Riding with police and all that. And then go on and do the same thing he do? Taking your shirt off in every video… Me looking back on all of that makes me think that son was just being mad at him for being successful But now he’s doing the same thing so now he’s just hatin’ on that n*gga. Now you’re singing for the bitches… he’s contradicting himself like crazy. He lost all his street credibility. N*ggaz in the hood don’t give a fuck about how many pushups you do, how much you lift weights, how big you are… That shit don’t count out here, man! Some young boys out here will lay yo ass out. That’s how crazy it is out here in New York, man. N*ggaz don’t give a fuck how big you are, that shit don’t count. They’re talking about guns but they don’t do that shit. They’re rapping about what we was doing, man. All this shit is entertainment.

Hehe ok…

I’m a good guy! I’m not really crazy, haha.

Haha ok… That thing about the stabbing about the hit factory… were you there when that happened?

I wasn’t there. I was on the block slanging on the side. I was slanging heavy. I was a hustler on the block. That’s when 50 was starting his music thing and we didn’t really have money like that so somebody had to get the money. Black Child and them did what they said they did tho. I don’t wanna incriminate nobody but they did what they said they did. 50 never pressed charges tho. That order of protection shit is bullshit. Marwin Bernard aka Tony Yayo signed the order of protection and this engineer… engineer or DJ or producer… he really got stabbed the worst in the chest. I was told that Marwin Bernard aka Tony Yayo he got the order of protection out and he was about to sue. We had to talk him out of that. He was like “Yea we about to get rich. We about to come out the hood.” I was like “Nah I don’t wanna come out the hood like that. That means you’ve gotta go press charges and telling on people.” But he still tried to charge him eventually.

Ok so like if he signed it, that goes for everyone who was there or what?

Yeah. The only reason Curtis Jackssons name is on the papers is because that was his studio session. Regardless of the fact. If you book me a session I’m the artist recording there. If anything goes down at that time in that facility I’m getting blamed for it. That’s the only reason 50’s name was involved because there was a stab in there… in his session and when the police and everybody came he wasn’t around. So Curtis Jacksson wasn’t involved. I don’t shit on someone for no reason, I’m a real n*gga.

Ok. Back to your label… You talked about the Domination album. Do you have any other releases planned?

Yeah. We’re looking for Young Dice this summer. He’s a little fly guy. He’s really talented. He’s coming with a kids point of view like how he like a girl from class and she had a crush on him but they went out and he didn’t really like her and had to break her heart. Some kid shit, some real reality kid shit and that right there is something people will like. I think I might drop the Guerilla Gang album before that tho but we’re still working on that. We’re in the lab and we’re just working on the Domination album and after that that’s when we’ll find out what we should drop next. I wanna take one thing at a time because I wanna make sure this album is a classic. It’s definitely gonna be a classic.

Ok. And Silver Back Guerillaz that’s you and Domination right?

Yeah that’s me and Domination but we ain’t gonna be using “Silver back Guerillaz”. You’ll probably hear us scream out Guerilla Gang and Guerilla family… or SBG because… a bunch of people’s got “Silver Back Guerillaz”. 50 tried to get it trademarked and all that. This is all I could get trademarked cuz 50 got all my shit trademarked: Gurerilla Family and Guerilla Game… Those are the two names that I could get. I might scream out SBG too tho. 50’s trying a lot of hatin’… Why are you trying to get my company names and my shit? That’s unheard of. That’s some other shit right there. What are you doing? What areyou, nervous? Are you scared? You’ve got all the money in the world! You’re good! What the fuck’s wrong with you… He can take all our names and he still can’t stop our buzz and our company.

Do you have any guest appearances planned for you and your artists on other peoples albums or mixtapes?

Yeah we’ve got a whole bunch of shit planned. We’re on so many mixtapes right now it’s crazy. Every up and coming Dj want us. 50’s getting at all DJs that wanna work with us getting em scared… They get nervous. That’s why we wanna work with up n coming Dj’s right now. I’ve got my official all mixtape site mixtapemob.com. You can find all the official Silver Back Guerillaz mixtapes up there and every other mixtape in the streets. That’s how I do it. I’ll sell your mixtape even if I got beef with you! Mixtapemob.com that’s my official mixtape site ran by my lil whiteboy Chris. We got anything up there. We’re just touching every mixtape. We’ll still do our thing and drop our own mixtapes tho. We gotta drop our own mixtapes sometimes because the Dj’s are scared. We’ve got a few mixtapes and the best of Domination coming out this week. King of tha underground. We’re dropping a DVD aswell called SBGT Vol 1.

What’s the DVD about?

It’s about our struggle. About how we got here. About our studio sessions and about when we’re on the block. It’s about everything! Everything we do! People think we’re just local rappers but the DVD will show how big we are. The DVD will show us in LA, in Vegas, in Atlantic City, Boston , Conneticut… I just wanna show the world how people embrace us. They like what we’re doing. I know a lot of people probably don’t like us… but the way I see it if a n*gga won’t fuck with me he’s a bitch n*gga. If he can’t respect where I come from and what I did I can’t respect that. I know people rapping their whole life, struggeling and can never get a deal. I’ve got a distribution deal, man. C’mon, man. I could’ve gone to any label because no label is gonna make me. Me and my homies created the buzz by ourselves with no help. The only thing Koch is gonna do is put the album in the stores… but we’ve got the marketing and distribution now anyway so that’s even better. We can create history underground. I finna move a million independent, man! The buzz is crazy, man. We’ve got people from germany, Australia, France, everywhere doing interviews, doing DVDs. People travelling 5000 miles just to holla at Bang’Em Smurf and Domination. We got like 200 000 visitors on our website already. I’m just glad that I can provide for my people out here. It’s hard out here, man. I take care of them and they take care of me. You can’t be the only one with all the money. You need people around you to be comfortable. I’ve got good men with me, man. Gangsta Flip Records… I respect them because they’ve been down with me from day one and stuck with me. I’ve got to respect them for that.

What do you feel about the rap game right now?

This shit is wack! 50 brought that gangsta hard shit back when we needed it, but then he switched up. Up in the club and all that shit… man I’m talking this shit back to the block where it started. That hard shit. People want reality music, man.

WORD ASSOCIATION:

Freakie Tah

God bless his soul.

Mr Cheeks

I don’t fuck with dude like that.

Daz

Ah man I saw his interview on your website. Stop talking crazy, boy!

Did you see that story he was telling about Kurupt?

Oh yeah! I fuck with Kurupt! We’re label mates now! Kurupt’s on Death Row. If that nigga’s got a problem, I’ve got a problem. I’m happy in the west. With or without Suge.

Do you have any stories like that about someone else? Maybe 50 Cent?

Hell yeah! I got so much on them it’s crazy! What you wanna hear?

I don’t know… just a lil something you wanna share with us.

Like how he got my lil man Haleen rub baby oil on his 5 Cent tattoo before he got on stage? That’s a true story. He’s putting on makeup and all that! My lil n*gga Haleen rubbin’ baby oil all over his back. I don’t fuck with that bitch no more neither. How are you gonna be a gangster and wear make up and have a man rub baby oil on yo skin??

And Banks, I got stories on all these n*ggaz, Banks never had a fist fight in his life! You remember when they was locked up with those guns last year? That wasn’t even their guns! That was the securitys gun, haha. They caught a case for their security! 50 tho… How the hell are you gonna have a man rub baby oil on you, man… or wear makeup?

One more thing… Tony Yayo is a PC in the federal prison in Brooklyn. I don’t think you should be in protective custody if you’re a gangsta rapper… That doesn’t look good at all. I never said anything about him till this day but Marwin Bernard… you let me down. One of my homies was in the pen and he told me Yayo was PC’d out.

Ok… Let’s go on with the word association. Next word is Suge Knight.

Suge Knight… All I can say is shiiit… Suge get ready! I don’t think Suge can control us, hahaha.

P Diddy

I like his style.

Snoop Dogg

Fuck Snoop.

$krilla

He aaight.

Bootleggers

I love the bootleggers. Shoutout to all the bootleggers in the world. I love ya’ll! I fuck with the bootleggers.

Dr Dre

Dr Bitch

2pac

I love that boy!

Lil Jon

He’s rapin’ the game right now… and all his beats are the same! That’s a hustler! Shoutout to Lil Jon! He’s rapin the game with the same beat… gotta respect that. He’s a hustler.

Domination

He’s the hottest rapper in the world. Everybody just give it the fuck up. He’s 22 years and he’s gonna be here for atleast another 10 years.

Last word is yourself, Bang’Em Smurf.

All I can say man… salute that boy, man! Respect him for what he did. Fuck what he do. Respect him for what he did. Respect that boy for his business moves. I don’t care if you like me or not, just respect me and where I came from.

_________________

Interview with Bang’Em Smurf




When did you first get involved with the rap game?

I’ve been in this rap game for a minute, man. Since I was 14. I used to roll with Freakie Tah from the Lost Boyz and I was really young so I was involved in some street activity and I didn’t really take the music seriously. I used to be around shows, meetings and studio sessions tho so I was familiar with the game ever since I was around 14.

How did you come up with your name? Bang’Em Smurf.

I was real short back in the day, and I mean real short! People used to be like “damn this n*gga’s crazy. What’s your name? Smurf?” The Smurf didn’t really fit me tho… The only reason it fit me was because I was short, so some old heads from my hood threw in the name Bang’Em like “You’re Bang’Em Smurf. You bang em.” And it stuck with me. You know it was really hard for me to get rid of “Smurf” cuz that name really stuck with me since that’s what people knew me as.

Ok. Let’s clear this up. A lot of people think that you do rhymes as in verses, but you’re really doing kind of like the Freakie Tah thing, right?

Yeah, I just do adlibs. I do adlibs and talk trash. I just hype ‘em up. Domination speak the truth and I bring the extra energy. I don’t rap at all.

Ok.

And I’m the CEO of Gangsta Flip Records. Domination is my artist but he’s a CEO aswell. This is our company, we’re 50/50 on everything we do.

Ok… So you’re like a mixture between Freakie Tah and Suge Knight then, hehe.

Hahaha yeah you could say that! Hahaha.

About GF Records, Gangsta Flip Records... Who’s on the label except for you and Domination?

We’ve got Big Swing, he’s an animal. He’s hard… real real hard. He’s on 3 or 4 of our mixtapes. Then we’ve got Young Dice. He’s 14. He’s young, he can flow and he write his own rhymes.

Yeah we’ve got some audio from them on our website right now too.

So about that G-Unit thing… did you start G-Unit or what was the thing with that?

You can’t really say I started it because G-Unit started out with some rapping people. 50 and Yayo used to rap together. Banks wasn’t really around like that at the time. Banks was really young and he never really came outside or nothing like that. Nobody really knew Banks before 2000 when he came on the block spittin’ and he was hot. That’s when the hood embraced him. That’s the only way n*ggaz is getting out the hood! It’s either play sports or the entertainment business. Rapping, do movies or something. Banks was always tight from day one. I used to hold that boy down in the hood. He had no problems… n*ggaz couldn’t even touch him in the hood because of me and my team. He had it easy because he was rapping… People treated him differently.

Ok…

On the street side, that’s where I came in. That’s where I started that and held everybody down. They were my soldiers, my squad. Everybody who’s down with me today, that’s the people I formed G-Unit with…. But he got his money and he actin’ like he forgot who his real homies was… Cuz in my hood, kissing ass is not allowed. If you kiss ass you a bitch ass n*gga in New York, South Jamaica Queens. You’sa hoe, you’sa bitch. So for me to come home after these n*ggaz leave me in jail, there’s no way I can run back behind n*ggaz with G-Unit like everything’s all good. I ain’t no puppet. Hell no! I had to leave and start my own shit, cuz I’m a man. I’m a grown ass man. No one else will provide for me, I’ll make it for myself! You’ve got to respect that!

Yeah… You kind of answered the question on how you went separate ways…

Yeah I caught a case in New York…

So have you got beef with everyone in G-Unit now?

That shit ain’t even beef. They can’t come back here. They didn’t just shit on me, they shitted on their whole community! They can’t even come back to Queens! You ever heard that song on his album called “I’m So Hood”? That was real n*ggaz from South Jamaica Queens. Everybody he named was a real person. He shitted on his own hood.

Ok. Who have you got as production on your GF label?

We ain’t got no inhouse production but we work with Supermario he’s with D-block and Benny Idol. He’s got good production, we got a few of his joints. We got Megahertz. We got joints from the Heatmakerz. We fuck with our underground n*ggaz before everything. Straight Underground!

I saw an interview with you on allhiphop.com and you told a story about how 50 Cent rolled up when you were shooting a video, and he was rolling up with the police or something?

Yeah man we shot our video January 31st. We shot our underground thing that should come out pretty soon, but yeah he rolled up with 2 vans filled with police. For what reason I don’t know because he really embarrassed himself. Half South Jamaica Queens was out there. I had people from magazines out there, people who were doing DVDs out there, all kinds of people. Even politicians. They all seen it! They couldn’t believe it! I couldn’t believe it! Why are you coming with the police to your OWN neighbourhood? That’s a true story.

We previously reported here on worldwideconnected.com about you signing a deal with Koch and Death Row…

Yeah I didn’t sign no album deal with Death Row. I signed with Alan Grunblatt from Koch Records for distribution and Suge Knight is over there. They’re doing their business partner thing over there, so Death Row is… You know how Aftermath and Interscope is? Well Death Row and Koch’s that. It’s more than distribution over there. Suge’s got a lil percentage there in the company. We’re just using that for promotion, tho. Suge ain’t cutting my checks. Koch is cutting my checks. Suge is just in the back row because he wanted in and I like that that’s more promotion so let’s go. Suge’ll be here this week. I’ve got to go up to Koch today because he might be there already. But yeah, Suge is involved with our situation but we didn’t sign no artist deal with Death Row because we’ve got Gangsta Flip Records.. It’s like a joint venture. Koch with Tha Row.

Yeah because a lot of people misunderstood us…

Yeah man I would never be an artist, man. I’ve been in this business for a long time and there’s no way a n*gga’s gonna pimp me in this game. The best you can do is help my company out. I’ve got a 60/40 thing wich Koch and you can’t beat that. I get $10 off of every album. We got our own shit. Everything. Money from shows or anything like that. We got our own thing going. We ain’t signing Koch individually and we ain’t signing Death Row. It’s a joint venture. Distribution worldwide.

Ok so it’s not just to Koch but to Death Row aswell…

Yeah! It’s like Shady Records and Aftermath… You know how they got the G-Unit label? That’s how it’s going down. And it’s like everybody I got beef with, they’ve got beef with. Suge’s got beef with Jimmy Iovine, Alan Grunblatt got beef with Jimmy Iovine. Alan is by my side. He cut NWA their first paycheck.

Just to clarify then… You’re not a sub-label of Death Row. It’s like… Koch is distributing you and Death Row is promoting you?

Yeah.

So it’s not like No Limit… they’re on Koch too.

They’re on Koch too, exactly, but it’s different. They’ve just got distribution through Koch. Suge’s doing business with the head owner.

Yeah I just wanted to clarify that because a lot of people though we were making shit up and…

It’s cool tho. I don’t care what they think cuz it’ll be cleared up once we start putting shit out. Right now we’re just in the lab. We’ve got 54 days to do the album. We’ve got to June 19 to handle the album. We’re looking at late July or early August to release the album.

What album is that?

Domination. SBG. God give it, God takes it away – that’s the name of the album.

Ok cool. Now that you’re working with Koch and Death Row, can we expect to hear you on upcoming Death Row releases and them on yours?

Oh yea fo’ sho! Definitely! I think Suge’s dropping a compilation for them boys… them dudes at war or whatever it’s called. We’re definitely gonna drop some on that. Domination touch all subjects. He gets deep… so we’re definitely got some for that compilation. We’re gonna work with everybody, man. Whoever’s on Koch I wanna work with. Cuz I want their fanbase. I want everybodys fanbase! No Limit is on Koch? Allright I want a track with Master P. I want a track with everybody. It’s nothing to get cuz we label mates now. Kurupt. I’ve got a home over there! AZ’s over there. Cormega’s over there. Shoutout to Cormega! We just did a track with him and his artist, a female artist. We did a track a video with him that’ll be out soon so look out for that. I’ve got a lot of veterans over there. Like we’re fresh, we’re rookies. We never sold a unit in this game so we got a lot of energy, we’re hungry so we’re gonna put them numbers out there. And everybody over there at Koch respect us! The veterans are like “Yo man ya’ll got the streets, can’t front”. And again, a big shoutout to my himie Cormega cuz from Queens. There’s a lot of people over there at Koch, man. Royce 5’9… Domination did a joint with him…

We’re gonna interview him soon.

Yeah it’s serious. He’s on Koch and he’s got drama with “them” too! He was an original n*gga from D12. I’ve got a squad over there at Koch, man. We can ran through this industry if everybody just stick together and we do what we gotta do. Koch is one of the major independent companies. I’m not mad at all being there.

Yeah it’s a good company… When did you do the deal tho? Cuz I think Suge came out like 4 or 5 days ago…

Funny thing is I hollered at Koch… Shoutout to Fredro Starr that’s my consultant to my company. Somebody got this shit twisted too like we work for Fredro or some bullshit. Me and Domination are CEO’s of Gangsta Flip Records. Fredro Starr is the consultant for my company. He’s like the mouthpiece. He speak to them companies and shit for me cuz they were really scared of me in the beginning but now they understand me. So he’s the consultant of my company. He’s working for my company.

Ok so he’s not a signer artist, because someone thought he was too…

Nah. He ain’t signed to us and we ain’t signed to him. He’s doing business with my company. Fredro ain’t tryin’ to rap no more he’s doing movies and taking care of business. So he’s got a lil percentage of my company and works as a consultant.

So how’d you hook up with him?

Fredro Starr was in LA and one of the homies in LA handed him a mixtape and was like “you know these n*ggaz? They from Queens.” And he was like “Nah who’s Domination? I heard about Bang’Em Smurf, he used to roll with 50 right?” So they told him we do our own thing now. So he played our shit and he loved our shit so that n*gga called us and we’ve been kickin’ it since. We’ve been shoppin for deals everywhere together. That’s why 50 be blackballin me man. Calling DJ’s, labels and all kinds of shit. He tried to swing at Fredro at the Vibe awards because Fredro was doing business with me. It’s like everybody that’s doing business with me, he’s trying to stop them. Blackballin’ everybody! DJ’s and everything!

Yeah… Interscope’s been rumoured to do that before…

That’s why I feel great at Koch! Everybody that they’ve got drama with, I’ve got drama with. So they’re gonna put that money and push me. That’s what we do. We’re gonna shut Interscope the fuck down, watch me n*gga. N*ggaz thought I couldn’t get a label deal in less than a year. Watch me shut Interscope down, man. They got a whole bunch of retards over there. Em is a fuckin’ retard, D12 all them n*ggaz is homos. I know all these n*ggaz personally they all fuck gay poppin pill ass mothafuckas. 50 he’s soft, Bank’s a super-pussy, Yayo’s PC in the pen. We shut them n*ggaz the fuck down, man.

Ok. We interviewed Skrilla from Smoke-A-Lot Records before and he told us a lil about the situation with Young Buck and Juvenile and Young Buck said something about how he was being left in LA without money and all that…

Yeah I heard that story. He told me the story how he left them dead broke in LA and had no money to get back… Whatever but shoutout to Smoke-A-Lot Records cuz I fuck with my n*gga Yukmouth that’s my n*gga! We did a track. With them aswell. My n*gga C-Bo aswell. That’s my westcoast mafia, Thug Lordz. Shoutout to the whole Huston. J Prince. That’s my n*ggaz out there.

Yeah. How’d you hook up with Yuk and them?

Like I said before, I don’t know how our mixtapes be generating like they be generating but them n*ggaz heard our mixtapes and they called Fredro because he was out there in the west. Fredro called me and gave them my number and next thing you know these n*ggaz flew me and 4 of my n*ggaz out. Flew everybody there and we did the track “A n*gga nead a hug”. It was so crazy, we did like 6-7 joints. Shoutout to my n*gga C-Bo he’s gotta go do some time he’ll be back tho it’s nothin’.

Ok so can we assume that you’ll work with them in the future aswell?

Oh fo’ sho’! That’s my n*ggaz. That’s family.

Ok. What do you think about the beef between 50 Cent and Ja Rule?

I think 50 was mad at Ja. Not because they had beef or nothing, just mad at Ja because he was doing it at the time and 50 knew him. But it’s like he’s doing everything Ja Rule’s doing right now. He made fun of Ja Rule for doing bubblegum music, singing on tracks and all that. Riding with police and all that. And then go on and do the same thing he do? Taking your shirt off in every video… Me looking back on all of that makes me think that son was just being mad at him for being successful But now he’s doing the same thing so now he’s just hatin’ on that n*gga. Now you’re singing for the bitches… he’s contradicting himself like crazy. He lost all his street credibility. N*ggaz in the hood don’t give a fuck about how many pushups you do, how much you lift weights, how big you are… That shit don’t count out here, man! Some young boys out here will lay yo ass out. That’s how crazy it is out here in New York, man. N*ggaz don’t give a fuck how big you are, that shit don’t count. They’re talking about guns but they don’t do that shit. They’re rapping about what we was doing, man. All this shit is entertainment.

Hehe ok…

I’m a good guy! I’m not really crazy, haha.

Haha ok… That thing about the stabbing about the hit factory… were you there when that happened?

I wasn’t there. I was on the block slanging on the side. I was slanging heavy. I was a hustler on the block. That’s when 50 was starting his music thing and we didn’t really have money like that so somebody had to get the money. Black Child and them did what they said they did tho. I don’t wanna incriminate nobody but they did what they said they did. 50 never pressed charges tho. That order of protection shit is bullshit. Marwin Bernard aka Tony Yayo signed the order of protection and this engineer… engineer or DJ or producer… he really got stabbed the worst in the chest. I was told that Marwin Bernard aka Tony Yayo he got the order of protection out and he was about to sue. We had to talk him out of that. He was like “Yea we about to get rich. We about to come out the hood.” I was like “Nah I don’t wanna come out the hood like that. That means you’ve gotta go press charges and telling on people.” But he still tried to charge him eventually.

Ok so like if he signed it, that goes for everyone who was there or what?

Yeah. The only reason Curtis Jackssons name is on the papers is because that was his studio session. Regardless of the fact. If you book me a session I’m the artist recording there. If anything goes down at that time in that facility I’m getting blamed for it. That’s the only reason 50’s name was involved because there was a stab in there… in his session and when the police and everybody came he wasn’t around. So Curtis Jacksson wasn’t involved. I don’t shit on someone for no reason, I’m a real n*gga.

Ok. Back to your label… You talked about the Domination album. Do you have any other releases planned?

Yeah. We’re looking for Young Dice this summer. He’s a little fly guy. He’s really talented. He’s coming with a kids point of view like how he like a girl from class and she had a crush on him but they went out and he didn’t really like her and had to break her heart. Some kid shit, some real reality kid shit and that right there is something people will like. I think I might drop the Guerilla Gang album before that tho but we’re still working on that. We’re in the lab and we’re just working on the Domination album and after that that’s when we’ll find out what we should drop next. I wanna take one thing at a time because I wanna make sure this album is a classic. It’s definitely gonna be a classic.

Ok. And Silver Back Guerillaz that’s you and Domination right?

Yeah that’s me and Domination but we ain’t gonna be using “Silver back Guerillaz”. You’ll probably hear us scream out Guerilla Gang and Guerilla family… or SBG because… a bunch of people’s got “Silver Back Guerillaz”. 50 tried to get it trademarked and all that. This is all I could get trademarked cuz 50 got all my shit trademarked: Gurerilla Family and Guerilla Game… Those are the two names that I could get. I might scream out SBG too tho. 50’s trying a lot of hatin’… Why are you trying to get my company names and my shit? That’s unheard of. That’s some other shit right there. What are you doing? What areyou, nervous? Are you scared? You’ve got all the money in the world! You’re good! What the fuck’s wrong with you… He can take all our names and he still can’t stop our buzz and our company.

Do you have any guest appearances planned for you and your artists on other peoples albums or mixtapes?

Yeah we’ve got a whole bunch of shit planned. We’re on so many mixtapes right now it’s crazy. Every up and coming Dj want us. 50’s getting at all DJs that wanna work with us getting em scared… They get nervous. That’s why we wanna work with up n coming Dj’s right now. I’ve got my official all mixtape site mixtapemob.com. You can find all the official Silver Back Guerillaz mixtapes up there and every other mixtape in the streets. That’s how I do it. I’ll sell your mixtape even if I got beef with you! Mixtapemob.com that’s my official mixtape site ran by my lil whiteboy Chris. We got anything up there. We’re just touching every mixtape. We’ll still do our thing and drop our own mixtapes tho. We gotta drop our own mixtapes sometimes because the Dj’s are scared. We’ve got a few mixtapes and the best of Domination coming out this week. King of tha underground. We’re dropping a DVD aswell called SBGT Vol 1.

What’s the DVD about?

It’s about our struggle. About how we got here. About our studio sessions and about when we’re on the block. It’s about everything! Everything we do! People think we’re just local rappers but the DVD will show how big we are. The DVD will show us in LA, in Vegas, in Atlantic City, Boston , Conneticut… I just wanna show the world how people embrace us. They like what we’re doing. I know a lot of people probably don’t like us… but the way I see it if a n*gga won’t fuck with me he’s a bitch n*gga. If he can’t respect where I come from and what I did I can’t respect that. I know people rapping their whole life, struggeling and can never get a deal. I’ve got a distribution deal, man. C’mon, man. I could’ve gone to any label because no label is gonna make me. Me and my homies created the buzz by ourselves with no help. The only thing Koch is gonna do is put the album in the stores… but we’ve got the marketing and distribution now anyway so that’s even better. We can create history underground. I finna move a million independent, man! The buzz is crazy, man. We’ve got people from germany, Australia, France, everywhere doing interviews, doing DVDs. People travelling 5000 miles just to holla at Bang’Em Smurf and Domination. We got like 200 000 visitors on our website already. I’m just glad that I can provide for my people out here. It’s hard out here, man. I take care of them and they take care of me. You can’t be the only one with all the money. You need people around you to be comfortable. I’ve got good men with me, man. Gangsta Flip Records… I respect them because they’ve been down with me from day one and stuck with me. I’ve got to respect them for that.

What do you feel about the rap game right now?

This shit is wack! 50 brought that gangsta hard shit back when we needed it, but then he switched up. Up in the club and all that shit… man I’m talking this shit back to the block where it started. That hard shit. People want reality music, man.

WORD ASSOCIATION:

Freakie Tah

God bless his soul.

Mr Cheeks

I don’t fuck with dude like that.

Daz

Ah man I saw his interview on your website. Stop talking crazy, boy!

Did you see that story he was telling about Kurupt?

Oh yeah! I fuck with Kurupt! We’re label mates now! Kurupt’s on Death Row. If that nigga’s got a problem, I’ve got a problem. I’m happy in the west. With or without Suge.

Do you have any stories like that about someone else? Maybe 50 Cent?

Hell yeah! I got so much on them it’s crazy! What you wanna hear?

I don’t know… just a lil something you wanna share with us.

Like how he got my lil man Haleen rub baby oil on his 5 Cent tattoo before he got on stage? That’s a true story. He’s putting on makeup and all that! My lil n*gga Haleen rubbin’ baby oil all over his back. I don’t fuck with that bitch no more neither. How are you gonna be a gangster and wear make up and have a man rub baby oil on yo skin??

And Banks, I got stories on all these n*ggaz, Banks never had a fist fight in his life! You remember when they was locked up with those guns last year? That wasn’t even their guns! That was the securitys gun, haha. They caught a case for their security! 50 tho… How the hell are you gonna have a man rub baby oil on you, man… or wear makeup?

One more thing… Tony Yayo is a PC in the federal prison in Brooklyn. I don’t think you should be in protective custody if you’re a gangsta rapper… That doesn’t look good at all. I never said anything about him till this day but Marwin Bernard… you let me down. One of my homies was in the pen and he told me Yayo was PC’d out.

Ok… Let’s go on with the word association. Next word is Suge Knight.

Suge Knight… All I can say is shiiit… Suge get ready! I don’t think Suge can control us, hahaha.

P Diddy

I like his style.

Snoop Dogg

Fuck Snoop.

$krilla

He aaight.

Bootleggers

I love the bootleggers. Shoutout to all the bootleggers in the world. I love ya’ll! I fuck with the bootleggers.

Dr Dre

Dr Bitch

2pac

I love that boy!

Lil Jon

He’s rapin’ the game right now… and all his beats are the same! That’s a hustler! Shoutout to Lil Jon! He’s rapin the game with the same beat… gotta respect that. He’s a hustler.

Domination

He’s the hottest rapper in the world. Everybody just give it the fuck up. He’s 22 years and he’s gonna be here for atleast another 10 years.

Last word is yourself, Bang’Em Smurf.

All I can say man… salute that boy, man! Respect him for what he did. Fuck what he do. Respect him for what he did. Respect that boy for his business moves. I don’t care if you like me or not, just respect me and where I came from.

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ich find das immer zu hart wie sie angeben wie lange sie doch schon im "rap game" sind ... yo alter, ich hab gerappt bevor ich papa und mama sagen konnte, ich hab schon in der krabbelgruppe die kindergartentante gedisst, ich hab bei meiner geburt dem doktor ins stethoskop gespittet blablabla...

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UGRAP YOUTUBE ++UGRAP DISCOGS

muahaha, zu hart..

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UGRAP YOUTUBE ++UGRAP DISCOGS

thumbs:

Bang 'Em Smurf war doch frueher selbst G-Unit-Mitglied, richtig?

Interview with Monsta Ganjah









Where are you from?

I’m from Long Beach, California.

Would you say your style is a pure west coast style then or more like a world wide thing?

I’d say that my style’s Universal. Predominantly it sounds eastcoast because my voice is deep, but I’d like to give it a universal style.

How’d you hook up with Yukmouth?

I hooke dup with Yukmouth through my uncles in BooYa T.R.I.B.E. They was doing some stuff with him in the studio… and I actually met Yuk before that and I told him that they was my family and he’d seen me in the studio with them. First time I saw him I freestyled for him… and I kept seeing him at the club and stuff and I just kept buzzing for him and stuff. Then I hooked up with him and we was kickin’ it and he was like “Let’s do this. Let’s make some music and make it happen” so I was like “It’s nothin’”.

You mentioned the BooYa T.R.I.B.E. Did you work with them before?

Yeah it was my family, man. You know there’s Big Monsta… I’m like Young Monsta. Lil Monsta Ganjah… and then there’s Gawtti, Ganxsta Ridd, Kobra, you know… They’re my family tho, from my dads side. So ever since they’ve been doing music, going overseas and everything I’ve been knowing… from their first album…

What did you think about their latest album?

I was supposed to be on there!

Why weren’t you?

I don’t know, haha. I really don’t know. They can probably answer that better than me. I was supposed to be on it tho… I guess I wasn’t around for the recording and all that.

Ok. What are you working on right now?

Right now, I’ve got… I’m trying to get like a… deal, ya know? I’ve got a couple of things going down. I’m on the next UGa part 2 which is United Ghettos of America 2. I featured on a song with Yukmouth and Planet Asia called “Fire” or “Spit Fire” or something like that, I don’t really remember… And then I did an other song there that’s called “What’s Beef” with Luni Corleone, I-Rocc and Yukmouth. What I’m working on right now tho… I’m probably gonna drop a solo-album out in Australia, New Zeeland and Asia. Overseas.

Ok. Not in the US? Just overseas?

Yeah I’mma try to drop an album out there overseas. I’m droppin’ mixtapes here too. Then there’s the Regime album I’m working on.

What about the solo album? Is that an independent release on Smoke-A-Lot?

We’re working on that right now. It’s gonna be Smoke-A-Lot slash whoever we get the deal with. It’s definitely gonna be Smoke-A-Lot but it could be Universal, BMG, Warner Brothers… I have no idea yet. Predominantly we’re aiming for it to be released overseas like in Australia, New Zeeland, Asia…

So did you start working on that album?

Yeah I already started working on that album. I’m also working with my boy L.T Hutton out here… He’s a producer. He did beats for Yuk before and he did beats for 2pac and…

Yeah I know who he is.

He’s off of Dogghouse. Me and him are working on something too.

I was just gonna ask who was doing production on your album, so I guess LT Hutton and…

Yeah, and probably whoever Yuk gets. Mandogg and whoever he gets… I’ll probably have some on there from LT… and there’s gonna be others on there too. Sceet Murches. My boy outta Long Beach. There’s a lot of people out there that ain’t big names but that’s got fire.

Yeah and you mentioned mixtapes. You just released a mixtape, right?

Yeah I just put one out. It was just like 8 or 9 songs. I didn’t charge or nothing… it was just for the buzz.

Do you plan on doing any more mixtapes?

Hell yeah. Before this year is over…. I’ll probably put like 3 or 4 out. Yuk’s gonna have the Regime mixtape and I’ll probably be on there too.

You were just on tour in Europe so I guess you got a lil buzz there too…

Oh yeah they were feeling me out there too, man. There was some songs I had on the internet and they knew the lyrics and shit. I was trippin’ out. In Berlin, there was someone like “Can you spit this one song?” and I was like “What song?” and he spit the lyrics for it. I was like wow…. And there was some dude saying I sounded like The Game or something… whoever that n*gga is. I guess Dr Dre just signed that n*gga.

Yeah.

For the records tho, I’ve been around longer than that n*gga so he sound like me. I don’t sound like him. I don’t give a fuck. I’m the real Monsta Ganjah. I’m the real beast in this shit. Fuck all these n*ggaz… like Swizz Beats. I’m not saying fuck Swizz Beats but everybody trying to be a Monsta now. It’s all good tho. I’mma let n*ggaz know who the real Monsta is.

Yeah about that name… How’d you get that? Monsta, is that from BooYa T.R.I.B.E? You mention that before…

Yeah. When I was younger my aunts used to just call me Monsta because I was big. Yuk added the Ganjah part.

Cool.

Cuz we be smoking so tough.

Haha. Actually someone asked us to ask you how much you smoke in a day…

Well the most we’ve ever smoked was in Australia, man. It was 2 pounds in like a day and a half. On a regular tho it’s like… anywhere from 7 grams to a half zip a day.

Is that during the day or just in the evening?

Yeah that’s continuently all day. If I had more money it’d be more, haha.

You kinda answered this one when you talked about UGA2. Are you gonna be on any other albums? What about Yukmouth’s “Million Dollar Mouth Piece”?

Oh I don’t know. Yuk’s gonna put me on that album if I spit some hot shit.

And you talked about the LT Hutton thing, too. Is that like a compilation or something?

He might be doing one, but it just might be a whole other album on his own. He’ll probably have joints on my solo album overseas tho.

Ok. Why do you wanna drop it overseas tho… I mean…

Oh we gonna drop it over here too! But we’re gonna focus on overseas just as much as we will focus over here. An other reason we gonna aim at the overseas dudes because right now the game is really slaughtered, man. If you ain’t Eminem or G-Unit or if you ain’t with Dre and them it’s a wrap. You barely even eating. I don’t hate on nobody. I think these dudes has got tallant, they’re doing it and getting’ paid so more power to ‘em because that’s what’s it all about, man.

What do you think about Yukmouths beef with 50 Cent and G-Unit?

That’s over like… him being a snitch. Yuk’s got stuff that he did with bang’Em Smurf and stuff… I really don’t know. Personally…. I really don’t know…

So you’re not gonna get involved or anything like that?

If they clown ofcourse. I’mma blast and say what I gotta say, but right now it’s just between Yukmouth and 50. I’ve got my n*ggaz back tho, dude.

Ok cool. Are you beefing with anybody right now?

Nah, I ain’t beefing with nobody.

Ok. What artists are you feeling right now?

I feel Cam’ron… not off top. Off top I feel that kid Lloyd Banks from the G-Unit. He’s pretty hot. He’s got his little punchlines and shit, and… that boy Cassidy’s hot. He be spittin’ fire. Nas… Tony Yayo too. I listened to some of his mixtapes. I’m into mixtapes… the streets. Who else… Eminem’s coming with it all the time, and Yukmouth. I’m always listening to Yuk.

What are your plans for the future?

My plans for the future is to drop as many records as I can and also to get into producing. Doing beats. I’ve been messing around… I haven’t really produced anything but you asked about the future. I’ve been messing with that MPC3000 a little but. I’ve got to get the rap thing down first but I’ve always wanted to make music tho. I love music and I don’t really segregate. Predominantly rap tho. Street shit.

Yeah. About the mixtape tho… What’s the name of it?

The first one was just named “Ganjah Music Volume 1” and the next one coming out is gonna be called “All Gas, No Breaks”. That’s a group I’m part of with my cousins “The Suspects”, from the bay. That’s a lil group side project we’ve got going on. I’ve got all kinds of stuff going on. I’ve got my other two sophomore projects Big Time and Chi Son. They’re two brothers and that’s who I rapped with before I met Yuk. We used to just freestyle down people on the streets.

A lot of artists call something a freestyle when it’s really something they wrote before. What do you think about that?

It’s bullshit. I ain’t perfect tho. I ain’t gonna sit here and lie. I’ve done it. Everybody’s done it, dude. I heard Lloyd Banks at The Basement and he was buzzin’ some shit he wrote. That’s not right tho. If you freestyle you’re supposed to freestyle just about what’s going on.

Ok.

That ain’t cool, tho. I’ve heard a ton of people. I’ve heard Nas… I’ve heard…. Biggie! Even Biggie Smalls did it on The Wakeup Show. That one freestyle.

Yeah. About Smoke-A-Lot Records… It’s people from all around. The east, west, south and all that…

Yeah it’s a mixture. It’s all kinds of people. Yuk’s got Diesel Don from the East coast, from Jersey, which is Redmans cousin. He’s got Techn9ne from Kansas City. C-Bo out here from the westcoast. Dru Down from The Regime. Grant Rice who’s also messing with Techn9ne. Doracel is a Regime affiliate. Skrilla… There’s all kinds of people, man.

How does it feel to have that many different artists on your label? Is it easier or harder to do music with ‘em because of their different styles?

It’s cool with me because that’s exactly what I look for – different styles. That would be the main thing, ya know? I ain’t got no problems.

WORD ASSOCIATION:

Yukmouth

Weed. Marijuana.

Redman

Pick it up, pick it up.

Bang’Em Smurf

He used to fuck with 50. That’s all I know really.

Above The Law

Aww, man. Big Hutch, man. When you say Above The Law I think of that one song… Black Superman.

Bootleggers

Aww that ain’t cool, man! I don’t like that, man. It’s like a bad decease.

Daz

DPG. Doggpound.

Suge Knight

Death Row

Kurupt

New York, New York.

United Kingdom

Lloyd

Haha ok.

Big Lloyd, man.

Da Brat

She was one of the first dopest female lyricists. When she came out she was real street. Dope, female MC.

The last word is yourself, Monsta Ganjah.

Fuckin’ big. That means anything, man.

Yeah. Is there anything else you’d like to say?

Aww man I love music, man. I appreciate music. It’s a big thing. It’s a beautiful thing to make music, man. That’s all I wanna say and I hope that people come out and support us.

Interview with Afroman




How did you get your name, Afroman?

I used to wear a wig… I had this afro wig when I used to rap. I didn’t have a name for myself and I used to go to rap battles and I used to win so people just started yelling “Afroman”, so I kept the name.

How did you start rapping?

I started rapping in the 6th grade when this girl was picking on my clothes and the only thing I could talk about was her mustache.

Haha.

She didn’t have a real thick mustache but it was like… if you looked close… it was enough for me to exaggerate about. Make verybody laugh…. And I heard “Lodi Dody”, do you remember “Lodi Dodi”?

Yeah.

Well her name was Carrie, so I made up a song called “Hairy Carrie”.

Haha ok. Who influenced you back then?

I’d say… *whistles* KRS-1… Too $hort.

Ok. People wanna know how you were like at school.

Oh ok. I was fun. At first when I was young, I was the class clown but as I got older, in the upper classes, I learned how to keep my humour in the curriculum. There for I’m not distracting the class if I’m not drawn into it… But I was just a funny person or atleast tried to be anyway…

Ok. About that single you had a few years back… “Because I Got High”, did you think that it was gonna blow up as much as it did?

No I didn’t. I just wanted some gas-station fame. A couple of handclaps here and there but it got Spice-girl bidding, man. It really blew up.

And you just released a new solo-album. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

This album right here is good. Haha that’s all I can say. It’s good rap music and that’s desperately needed right now. I’m taking em back to the westcoast… I’ve been recording these songs and just been feeling good and I wanna transfer that feeling to everybody listening to the CD. It’s just Good Times, man. Smiles and just ride on ride on.

Who’s handeling production on it?

I did a lot of the recording… Jim Thompson did a lot of editing… different people in different areas.

Do you have any guests on there?

Yes. I’ve got E-40, from the original 2Live Crew. I’ve got Dj Misty Mix and a local talent here in Harrisburgh, Mississippi I have a name by the name of Big Luke.

Cool. People is wondering how you hooked up with E-40.

I told my peoples that I wanted to do a song with him and they got him some kind of way… My cellphone rung and I said “Hello” and you know how E-40 talk real slick… It was him. It was a trip, man. It was an experience. I went over to his house and we did a song called “Roll On”. “Roll Over” is on Grit & Grind, E-40’s album.

Ok.

He’s got a song on my album called “What If”.

Cool. People think you switched your style on this album…

Nah man I think I really returned to it… I think people don’t really know what I do. “Because I Got High” was a fun song but I think it painted the wrong musical picture to people… I am a rapper… I used to battles and everything…. And win. “Because I Got High” was a real success. It exposed me to a lot of people and was a fun song. But it’s all said and done, man. I’m a rapper.

Ok. So you kinda switched your style on THAT album then?

On that song! And that’s all people know. I always rhyme. I’m hooked on different moods, ya know? Life brings me some… Life brought me “Because I Got High”. Life brought me “Crazy Rap” and as life goes along, I trap moments. Sometimes I’m in a happy mode… sometimes in a more focused mood… So I’ve got different songs about different things, but I’m always Afroman. This is Afroman in a different mood or on a different topic, ya know what I mean?

Yeah…. There was a rumour that you were gonna do Christian rap…

Yeah.

Are you doing that now?

Aww man… that’s where my head is. I’m like 30 and I’ve done a lot of stuff… I’m just looking at the earth and the world… and I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. Like I said, Afroman is at a stage where like… *whistles* this is the page I’m on, ya know? There was a page when I was on hustling and all I was about was making money. Then I was on weed and was just on weed, and then I was on women I was just on women. Now I’m just trippin on life. I’m on it. Since I’m on it so hard, it’s crazy… but in a fun way cuz everything I express is fun, ya know what I’m sayin? Cuz Afroman is fun… It’s like hey man… it’s what I’m rappin’ and singing and yappin’ about.

Did you stop smoking weed?

Yes.

For what reason?

Well you know I wanna stop… I wanna get high and then I wanna stop… But one thing I’m beginning to realize is that I’m just gotta take a day at a time. If I feel like smoking a joint then I’mma smoke one, and if I don’t feel like smoking a one, I’m not going to. Getting high is something to do… We can go play basketball and we can go swimming… or hey we can go get high. If I feel like getting high I’mma get high but I don’t feel like getting high.

Ok. On this album, you’re rapping more about the West Coast than on your previous album aswell. Is there a reason for that?

Yeah, to get people a foundation and more understanding of me. If they can see who I really am, then maybe we can have a long term relationship. If they think I’m just a stupid “Because I Got High” guy then I’m sorry, goodbye.

Yeah. Did you stop talking about the stuff that you talked on the old album because…

No, man. As a matter of fact, I’m talking more about it. That’s my life, that’s the truth. My life is hustlin’, weed, women and music. Getting drunk… just trying to make the best outta life as far as a young dude knows. This is what I know and I’mma continute to rap about what I know. I’m not gonna try to get up here and rap about this and that….. but in my personal life I’mma try to do more Christian things…. I listen to a beat and that beat takes me somewhere… If you listen to all my songs, there’s a reason why I started the way I started and there’s a reason why I flow the way I flow. I listen to the beat and the beat took me somewhere… and wherever the beat takes me in time, that’s what I’m writing about. If the beat takes me to weed and women that’s what I’ll write about.

And you started a label too… have you got any artists on that label?

Yes I do.

Who?

His name is Strange, man. He’s crazy. The Strange name matches him. I come from back in LA and they’re real realistic there… They like to have nicknames that match ‘em. You can tell what a guy’s like by his nickname… You know like Heavenly Henry and Pimpalisious Paul.

Haha.

But anyway we call him Strange because he’s really strange… He’s kinda tall… he’s like a westcoast Ol’ Dirty Bastard. He’s fun, man. He’s like ODB and E-40. He’s sick, man… and funny too.

When can we expect to hear an album from him?

We’re still recording right now… but that’s who I’m working with right now.

Ok cool. Who are your biggest musical influences besides rap?

I like Shardey, James Brown… *whistles* I like Mighty Clouds of Joy. I like Creedence Clearwater Revival… I like umm… *whistles*. I like anything, man. If you go to my place I got like 8 CD-books… big ones. I’ve got everything I ever wanted… if you went through it you wouldn’t even think it was my book.

Ok. Let’s talk about that track, “Whack Rappers”. Why did you do that?

I did it for several reasons. One reason is: Not only am I a rapper, I’m also a fan. I need inspiration.. I need music for myself! When I go to the store, there’s nothing for ME to buy! I’m sick of myself… and I’m complaining about the music! How old are you, man?

I’m 22.

Oh ok that’s little young but I remember when rap music sounded better…

Yeah I listen to a lot of old stuff aswell since a lot of the new stuff is kind of wack.

Yeah! So do you agree with me!?

Yeah.

Yeah! WE remember when rap-music sounded so much better… but kids growing up don’t have a comparison. They don’t know so… all they know is… the Ying Yang twinz so as far as they know, this is hiphop. We’re remembering KRS-1 and Big Daddy Kane and we’re like “Hey those kids out there, they’re getting’ cheated out there”. So just for the health of hiphop, I thought I’d tap a few shoulders... And maybe the artists I mentioned will write some tighter songs for ME to listen to. I like some songs, and some I don’t like. Like I was clowing around with 50 Cent… but then again as soon as I did that song I went out and bought that one cd… “I wanna be your lover” cuz I like that particular song…. But what I want is a whole album. I was just complaining about the quality of hiphop but in a humourus, healpful way. Cuz I just think it coul be better, man. I want music!

Yeah and it wasn’t like you were dissing them but more like clowning them, right?

Yeah, man. I don’t know ‘em. I’m just having fun. I don’t know if you listened but I tried to have facts with everything and if something was my opinion I said “I think”, ya know? Trying to keep everything in perspective and I’m entitled to my opinion. Hey, people always asking me questions so I thought this would be a fun answer.

Are there rappers out there today that you’d like to give props to except maybe the ones you already mentioned in that song.

I think… Devin The dude’s nice. *whistles* Kayne West, I like him.

As a producer AND as a rapper?

Yeah… I think that’s the only newschool dudes I’m listening to right now… Devin The Dude and Kayne West.

Ok. What do you think about the beefs in rap right now? For example Ja Rule and 50 Cent…

I think it shouldn’t be taken that far… This is rap music. Rap music was invented to avoid stuff like that. You’re battle rapping, you’re battle breakdancing, ya know what I mean? Use your energy in a positive direction… It get to a point where you go from rappin’ to you know, scrappin’ in the streets. That’s not rappin’, that’s scrappin’, and if you wanna go be a boxer, go be a boxer. We’re not boxers, we’re rappers. It’s supposed to be fun! People go to it like a circus or something. It’s like a sport. It’s like basketball! If cats get to batteling eachother, he supposed to say something funny about the dude, and he’s supposed to take the joke with a sense of humor and he ain’t trippin’ – he turn and come back! We’re exchanging words! If you can’t exchange words, well then you lost, Haha. You wanna fight? You lost! Haha.

Haha yea… Let’s move on to you. What’s your plans for the future except for that album with your artist “Strange”?

Make good music, man. Get it out to people… like buckets of water to a fire. I wanna keep making music and keep rapping. I’m gonna go on the tour right now… everywhere… I wanna spot people that like Afroman and entertain them. I didn’t get a chance to really tour… I toured a lot but I didn’t get a chance to tour that much. So now I wanna go around and do a lil stir around all the Afroholics. Wherever my people are at in the world, I wanna balance myself out so that I can go out and see ‘em.

Do you have a schedule for the tour?

Yeah. It’s on afromanmusic.com… all the cities we’re going to and we load ‘em up as we get ‘em.

Ok, so people can go there and check it out.

Yeah they can go to afromanmusic.com and they can get free music, “Whack Rappers”. They can check out the store. They can check out the tourdates… They can get on the message board and talk to me. I do talk back to everybody who writes me on afromanmusic.com. I get around to it, but I get back at them usually in about two days to a week. More or less.

Can we expect to hear you on any other peoples albums with a guest appearance?

I don’t think so, man. I think I wanna be the one rapper that don’t politic like that. I bought a tape one time and this guy had so many guys on there I didn’t like. This is my whole purpose of buying you, so I don’t have to hear them! And then I buy you and guess who’s on there? The guy I’m trying to get away from. So… I’m Afroman. People wanna hear me. I’m not really into the politics of the whole situation. I’m just gonna sing and then I’mma sit down.

WORD ASSOCIATION:

50 Cent

Gangster.

2pac

Hmm… I don’t know…

Kobe Bryant

Baller

Bootleggers

Hustlers.

Above The Law

Corporate world.

Suge Knight

Gangster.

Yukmouth

Whack

Nas

Intelligent.

Mixtapes

Ghetto creative

Yourself, Afroman.

Crazy. Goofy.

Is there anything else you wanna say before we wrap it up?

Yeah, man. I just want everybody to go to afromanmusic.com. Download the music, free music, check it out and just keep up with me. I’m gonna keep putting out more albums and everything. Putting out more people and we’re gonna try to get out some healthy hiphop… to the humanity.

_________________

Alchemist Interview



MARTY: How many tracks do you have on the new Mobb Deep album?

ALCHEMIST: Right now its just two. 'Cause again, Hav does beats thats his thing so its like, they let me in, you know I got like 10, 15 songs for the new album but two of will probably make the cut thats just how it is, you know, when it comes to Mobb Deep, but that enables me to have mad joints for like Whoo Kid or whoever to do whatever with them, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, but, probably going to be two joints on the album.



QUIS: You did the "Twisted" joint, right?



A: Yeah. You know this time around it was like after the last album, on Infamy I just did one joint, and I had like 6-7- "Backwards" was ready for Infamy, its been around that long. That ended up on Free Agents on the bonus CD, that shit was hot but it got wasted, and it was like I learned now from playing the background with Mobb Deep like yo, I'm not trying to just make album cuts, cause I got so many of em its like you get lost in the songs. Fuck that, I'm not part of the group officially so I can't just make album cuts and survive. If I'm gonna be a producer, [claps for emphasis] I need my shit to be heard by the masses, it needs to be like 'Produced by him [Alchemist],' you know what I'm saying? It needs to be something special in order for me to survive continually, I don't wanna be this little underground dude who [just] does album cuts for Mobb Deep. So for this album, we had already done most of the shit, and I really sat back. We had like 10-15 joints in the can that was cool, a couple were better than others and it was like, none of em was 'the single,' you know what I'm saying? Hav did a couple hundred songs and it was like "Fuck that," I'm sitting back and I just try to make some shit that would really hit man and really thought about it, not really the lyrical content or the concept of the song, just the sound of the beat and the sample I was gonna flip and I was thinking of "Quiet Storm" and how they flipped the old..[starts doing the bassline to "Quiet Storm"]



Q: "White Lines"



A: Right, you know and it was like the beat wasn't technically like an ill, beatmakers beat, it was just the song was a hit, you know what I'm saying. It gave you that feeling, so I was thinking of that a lot, and thats how we made the shit, I was trying to make a fucking hit record. I didn't wanna just sit back, I got so many joints I could just play that I feel are better beats and there’s more, you know, give you that feeling but, you'll be an unsung hero doing that shit, you know what I'm saying? Like sitting in a room playing it for people and the world will never hear it cause the music industry doesn't have faith [in the song]. So I felt like it was a good medium with the 'Twisted' joint like we flipped the old record but we still kept it gutter. We didn't go too far over the top, it ain't too bright, its still gutter, its for the club. Every Mobb record that ever blew, from 'Shook Ones,' 'Quiet Storm,' all of em were always in the club-



Q: Like grimy records..



A: They were grimy, they weren't made for the club but if you remember parties back then it was like when they came on it was on in the club, you know?



Q: Me being a DJ when I throwin those songs on in there the place-



A: Always! You knew when 'Shook Ones' was out, throw it on in the club it was like somebody's getting hurt, rowdiness going on, it was [claps for emphasis] that adrenaline. I wanted to bring back that shit, you know what I'm saying, and that's how we did 'Twisted.' So at the end of the day I'm not mad if I only have two joints on the album cause I felt like this time I brought a single to the table. This is the first time ever that the first Mobb [single] was by someone other than Hav, he'll always do the first record, then might throw some shit afterwards, know what I mean?



M: Well, 'Gangstaz Roll' was supposed to be the first single, right?



A: Right, well it was like more of a 'let's test the streets' joint, you know what I mean? I think Jive [Records] and people started working it more cause they got a decent response from it, but it wasn't really that type of record that will put you over the top. I love 'Gangstaz Roll' man, the rhymes, everything is just that shit, but to go over to the top, its not in the club- there were certain things that were holding it back. So, Jive went for that and went with it but then it wasn't going all the way, so it was like "What are we gonna do right now? We want a hit record, we don't wanna be playing around. We need something on a major level." Especially with the current state of rap music in New York, nobody's really taking it...all the records thats coming out of New York is like their incorporating the sound from over here, from over there, they're using this guy or that, its like nobody is just standing firm with their own shit. Alchemist is like a Mobb..I'm affiliated with them, so for them to come out the gate with their own team and all that, instead of going and hiring so-and-so and doing this, its just..the record sounds like it came from New York, you know what I'm saying? It just has a good feeling and I think that were rolling with that. It's like...I don't love Ghost's [Ghostface's] single-



Q: You don't like that?



A: I don't really like Ghostface's single..I don't really love Jadakiss's single. We're talking about Ghostface and Jadakiss, and we're all coming out this summer, you know what I'm saying? Mobb, Jada, Ghost, and I feel like right now we have a good look. Not dissing nobody else, everybody's doing their thing, but I feel like we got this right now as far as New York and this record and the Mobb album is just..its a good timing man. I feel like with that and my project coming right after it, its gonna be a good little movement of just that, pure rap shit or just that feeling. I don't wanna pigeon hole it or give it a name or anything or put it in a hole, its just..gonna be a good feeling, its gonna be something people are gonna be excited about, you know what I mean?



M: I wanted to ask you about your solo album, 1st Infantry. A while ago, I heard it was supposed to be a collaborative album with yourself and Twin Gambino (of Infamous Mobb). Now its going to be a compilation album.



A: Yeah, its more of my album. Twin is a solo artist and he's an artist- me and him don't have a group. Me and him did a record together that I'm probably gonna put it on the album cause it never made it to an album or nothing. But, me and him, that's my man, he's a soloist and he's part of Infamous Mobb. It confused people cause we did a 12", and we put a bunch of records out. But 1st Infantry is just the title of my solo album. You know its basically like how Dre did The Chronic, rhyming somewhat through the album but it was based on his production and his cast of people, that's like my album. 1st Infantry is just my cast, people I fuck with and I'm on it, here and there just to hold it down you know but...thats basically what the 1st Infantry album is. Twin is doing his solo shit, we're working on stuff, he's working on the IM3 album and things like that. I don't wanna confuse people, you know what I mean, so we decided, like what I'm gonna have to do with the press now, like clear the air- this is my album, you know what I mean?



Q: It's coming out on Landspeed?



A: Nah, Koch, Koch. ALC [Records], our label, Koch is the distributor.



M: What kind of artists are you going to be working with on 1st Infantry?



A: It's basically like, I assemble...Like Mobb, D-Block, G Unit...Soul Assasins basically thats the collaborations. I got a Devin the Dude record, I got a Nappy Roots record, I got um...a couple other things, Dilated record...some things else that you would probably expect. But its basically a collaboration with them, you know...good amount of Mobb basically you know. Pee holds down the whole album, probably gonna give him executive production credit cause he's definetly popping in and out of the album a lot, but I like it like that cause it gives it more of a vibe, you know what I'm saying? Like I assembled a unit of people, we kinda got down together, not always on purpose you know, we weren't always in the studio together but it feels that way when I listen to all the songs, it worked out well. Like I got this Lloyd Banks record...[The] Game is on a song with Pee..It's like a little bit of everybody, together on an album and its more street than...it's hard, you know what I'm saying? It's definetley that shit, its not like too much shit that you would be like "oh he made a record for the bitches.." It ain't none of that. I just made songs cause I like em, really ain't too much hidden agendas with the songs, know what I mean? At the same time, its gonna be hard I think for people to get a full understanding of Alchemist with this album, that's why in the future I'm working on other stuff while I'm writing more and doing more shit as an artist, this is just going to be to open the door for that. Cause at the end of the day, it's still an album with a bunch of different songs, and I can give a message through that album as the Alchemist, as the artist.



Q: You had The Cutting Room Floor first, and then Insomnia. Was that meant as promotion for your album or just something for the streets?



A: Yeah, we just decided to do that man to get people ready for the album, get them ready for a project that had my name on it. Get em ready for that. That was pretty much it. Get some of these joints out there that was just sitting around, you know?



M: What do you look for in an artist that you might possibly collaborate with?



A: Shit..I don't look for nothing I just listen! [Laughs]



M: Like Lloyd Banks, how did you hook up with him?



A: Yeah, that was like, affiliation, the managment company got down with us. I respect him as an artist, you know mutual respect, so its like let's shoot for that right there, let's go for that one. Really wasn't too much premeditation on it. It kinda just happened, real spontaneous like "let's just do this." It just felt right, so really wasn't too much though, know what I'm saying?



M: Do you ever get any paths crossed up, like you were saying earlier about like when Blueprint was being recorded, there was the whole thing with Jay and Prodigy, do you ever get caught somewhere inbetween a beef? Like Nas and Mobb Deep-



A: Nah, cause I know where my loyalties stand as far as friends and all that or if it ever came down to me in a loyalty situation...it's just business at the end of the day. When it comes down to loyalty, I'm very loyal, you know, make no mistake. I've never been in a situation where I've had to choose like one way or another...that's just..childish, you know what I'm saying? Everybody knows it ain't really like that. If people thought it was like that then they were buggin. It's more like, everyone understands whats going on. If it ever came to a situation everybody knows where my side of loyalty is. If it's Nas or Mobb Deep, I'm rolling with Mobb Deep. If it came down to it, it's not even a question, know what I mean? But it would never have to be like that, I'm able to work with Nas and Mobb Deep, know what I'm saying?



Q: Nowadays, is it like more artists are coming looking for you?



A: Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes, here and there. But uh...you still gotta grind man, gotta get your shit out there. They may want me, but know really know what I'm sitting on. They may be thinking about "We Gonna Make It" or something, know what I'm saying? Its like, do you make the beats or do the beats make you? I always say that. If the beat makes you and you don't make the beat, then it's just that one beat is what...know what I'm saying? If you're the person who made that beat, you can make another and another, a better one, the strength is in the person, you know what I'm saying, that's what I always try to tell people. All these A&Rs be like, 'make a new hit'...they don't get it. So..fuck that I ain't trying to chase that shit.



M: Are you doing anywork with Nas on his new album?



A: We'll see, know what I mean? I got some shit for him, but uh...I don't know how to get in touch with him right now. When we link, if we do, it'll be some shit. They got some joints we did a couple years ago that never came out. I wouldn't be surprised if that shit came out. I don't have a copy of it, or else I would have put that shit out already [laughs]. Fuck that, I ain't with all that.



Q: I heard you were working with [Roscoe] P. Coldchain too, how'd that happen?



A: Yeah we did some joints. We did two joints. Both of em will come out one day, they [the Neptunes] just came from their situation at Arista, they're switching over..their whole situation got fucked up.



Q: How about the artist Poverty, you got a couple joints on his album..



A: Yeah.



Q: Is that gonna see the light of day?



A: I don't know.



Q: Is that frustrating to you when you do work on different albums and it eventually never comes out?



A: Whatever, you know what I mean? People gotta get their business right with their labels and all of that. If its hot, the shit will come out man. It it's hot it'll come out. So...maybe it wasn't the right time, you know?



M: You do a lot of work with New York artists like Nas, Mobb Deep, Saigon, you know that have a certain kind of image, like a New York image. Could you see yourself working with a Common..



A: Hell yeah.



M: Someone like that, Mos Def...



A: Hell yeah. Being a producer man, you gotta be able to do different styles of beats. I just don't end up working with them for one reason or another but if we end up getting with each other, I'll definetly have a beat to fit to their style. 100%, know what I mean? I make different styles of music but, the artists I'm working with, end up doing those types of records. But I would definetly be open to that.



M: And what about, not even rapping, I know you did some work with Chinky, does that interest you? Like more R&B stuff?



A: Hell yeah. Just being able to create on any level. To have people go like, 'Alchemist did that?' That's way more exciting to me than like, 'oh Alchemist definetly did this.' I'd rather them be shocked, like that's more of my style. They can be like either think something bad or not good, but as long as their like taken aback about it cause just being predictable sucks, you know what I'm saying? And it works for a while but....Yeah I like don't stuff like that. Chinky got a gangster song on the album, not "Letting Go," a different one.



Q: Do you write a lot?



A: Hell yeah.



Q: I know you used to be with the Hooligans.



A: Yeah, I write all the time. All the time. Even if I'm just giving a flow to whoever's here, like 'take this flow, do it like this.' Just the pattern, it doesn't even have to be the words, you know what I'm saying? It's like I'm just laying the sound to the beat, like a percussion instrument, or if I'm gonna add a hook or whatever, but I stay writing. It's like making beat, it's no different. Cause I'm hearing songs when I'm making beats.



M: What do you think of all the Black Album remixes, everyone is coming out with their own version of the Black Album, what's your take on that? Do you think that's good for hip hop?



A: That's cool man. It's taking it back, bringing back the creativity. It's an extension of...technology as well, cause back then I don't think people was able to get all these fucking acapellas, and now with technology its easier to just get in touch...you know? Do these new versions, edits and shit that you could never have done. So I think its cool man, everybody got a different take, know what I'm saying?



Q: You ever thought about doing your version?



A: Only reason why I wouldn't man is because at this point right now, I think if I had more albums underneath my belt as a producer, I would. But I've never done a whole album yet. Once I get a couple albums off the ground, where people can respect me as [producer for] a whole project, I'll probably mess around.



Q: You're a big critic over your beats...



A: Nothing is ever finished. Ever. You could always do something better, you know what I mean? I give it up though, I don't beat myself in the head. Like I said, if people like it, I don't wanna piss on their parade like 'Oh, the snare could be different.' I don't say nothing like that. That's just personal, you know, between me and the beat.



M: In terms of you coming out, you have your album and you're trying to establish yourself as The Alchemist. Are you at all stressed about having to do press and go out...



A: I was built for this shit man. I've been doing it behind people for so long, standing on the side while they do it. It ain't no different, you know what I'm saying? Now that the focus is on me, I'll be able to speak my peace. Cause everybody who knows me knows that I'm a verbal motherfucker. I'm very opinionated, I'll have something to say. So its like, its time for me. I ain't afraid to do any of that shit. I seen it when I was young doing that shit. I've spent 10 years watching groups, start from the ground up and blow, start from the ground and blow up and drop, stay on top and continue on top for years, I've seen every different element of groups and artists. From the ground up I've seen motherfuckers love each other, fight with each other, come up, come down, it's like I've been schooled. So for me to not know how to do it now, I'd be a fucking fool, know what I'm saying? While I'm still relatively young, its like time for me to do this shit now so I can build up to wherever else I want it to be in the future, so I can be like 'I did that' and not have that burden on my shoulders. It's been like ten years in the making anyway, everything is just a step to where I'm gonna be at now with this next project, and after that, take more steps, you know what I mean? So everything up until now, is for a reason to where I'm at now. If I didn't rap for all these years, to be in the studio for all these songs and productions and know to fall back and not be like 'Yo let me rhyme on this,' when I've been rhyming for all these years, now I'm not gonna fuck all that up now. Try to jump on everything with this rhyming...I'm very conscious of that shit, you know? I value myself as an artist, so I definetly gonna do it the right way. People ain't gonna be mad at all.

Special Thanks to Bigg Jay from ALC Records

www.alchemistbeats.com

_________________

Interview with Saigon



Where are you from and what was it like growing up there?

I’m from Mooseknuckle, I’m from Rockland County, man. I grew up everywhere but that’s where most of my family’s from. It’s a lil hood. It’s a lower class suburb. It’s a poor suburb like 20 minutes outside New York City. I grew up there a few years but I really grew up in jail, man. I grew up in prison. That’s where I was from 14 to 22 so that’s where I went to school at, and that’s where I became a man.

Is that where you started rapping too?

Yeah that’s where I started rapping.

Ok. What would you say separate you from other rappers? How would you describe your style?

My style is straight to the point. I deal with reality, I deal with all things that are real… like I try not to deal too much with fantasy because a lot of hiphop is based around fantasy things. A rapper may be rich, he made a lot of money, but that’s not the reality to the consumer and that’s the people you’re talking to. Most people in the hood are poor, man. A hundred thousand dollar cars are unheard of. I’m taking it back to the 93-94 era when it was cool to have a MPV.. a lil 18 thousand dollar MPV and you was tha man. If you listen to Nas biggest record, which is “If I ruled the world”, Nas says “If I ruled the world and everything in it, sky's the limit I push a Q-45 Infinit”. He was talking about if he ruled the world he was pushing infinity. Nowdays you’ve got fantasy rap where it’s not a reality to people in the hood. A lot of people think that if they’re selling a lot of records they’re touching the people in the hood. The people in the hoods are not buying your records, it’s the white kids in the suburbs making you go platinum. You’re not getting to the people really…

You talked about how you went to prison… Where do you think you’d be right now if it wasn’t for you rapping?

Oh I’d be back in jail, man. I’d be back in prison because that’s the way the system is set up. It’s set up for you to go in and out. The rap saved my life, man. Hiphop’s been in my life all my life and it’s actually given me a sense of direction now to where I believe that I have something that I believe in.

You said that you started rapping in prison, how and why did you start?

Being in prison, being bored and not having a lot of things to do. Being around people who rap… My man Ruff… when I heard him I was like “This is the best rapper in the world” and he just told me like “yo man keep writing”. Cuz I always used to write but nobody knew I rapped and he just told me “Keep at it. Keep writing and shit” and I just kept writing and it was on from there.

What’s “Abandoned Nation”?

Abandoned nation is actually mine. I own that. It’s a production company that I started. It’s a non-profit organization where we do things for children and incarcerated people. We give them school supplies, school clothes… And we also have the bookbank where we encourage education in lower class neighbourhoods. I’m an artist who walks the walk, I don’t just talk the talk. You could say you’re gangsta and everything but until you go out and do something or something gets done to you, nobody take you seriously.

You’re not signed right now, right? Weren’t you signed to another label before?

Yeah I was signed to Aleda Records, Mark Ronsons label. He had started a label and I had signed with him but it didn’t work out. I made sure the deal was short in case I wouldn’t be happy there. Once the deal was out I got up outta there, because they weren’t real focused at the time. I’m still real col with the cat but I had to make other moves.

You were on the “Unsigned Hype” in The Source a while back. When was that?

I was in unsigned hype in March 2000 or 2001… It was 2-3 years ago.

Are you wanting to sign a label right now or are you shopping for a deal?

Nah man I’m hot. I’m the hottest thing in New York right now so the labels are coming to me. But they’ve got to give me a kind of deal that they’ll give Brittany Spears or somebody like that. A lot of times they think that because you’re a rapper and you’re from the streets, they’ll give you 50 000 or something he’ll sign anything. And a lot of them do! I’m not taking the “nigger-deal”. The day I sign my deal, my life has to change. I’m doing all the work for them. I just got a Rolling Stone interview, I’m on the cover of Murder Dog so I’m doing the work that the labels are paid do and I’m doing it on my own. So when I sign a deal, they have to break major bread.

So you’re just kind of considering the options right now…

Yeah exactly. I’m just building my stock up, building my brand up to where they have to… not try to buy it, but buy into it and be a part of the action. I have a big fanbase already. My fanbase is humongous. I don’t really need a label right now, I’d be better off looking for a street distributor so I can make 7-8 dollars/record instead of 85 cents.

So that’s something you’re considering too…

Yeah I’m just weighing all my options. Whatever makes the most sense to me at the end of the day is what I’ll be doing. At the meantime I’ll keep making music from my hard which labels does not allow you to do. All labels care about is a radio song and a club song… They don’t allow you to make records from your heart, make music that you really think is good music, they’ll give you some A&R and he’ll be like “No, do this. Rap to this beat. Do that.” I need my creative control. I need my freedom and a label will take you away from that.

So are you working on a solo album right now?

Yeah I’m working on a solo album right now with Just Blaze.

Oh ok.

Just Blaze from Roc-A-Fella. He took me under his wings and we’ve knocked out about 10 records already. He’s gonna produce 95% of my album.

Do you plan on having any guests on there?

If I can get Andre 3000 on my joint I’ll get ‘em. He’s an artist that I like. Dead Prez… they’re friends of mine. I can get them on my record any time. There’s not too many artists that move me.

Ok. Do you have like crew that…

Yeah. Abandoned Nation is a crew aswell, man. The guy I told you enspired me to write is still with me today. His name is Ruff and if you’ve got any of my mixtapes he’s on there with me. That’s my dude right there.

Ok cool. Is there any producers you’d like to work with except for the ones you’re already working with?

Umm… I’d like to work with…. Kayne West. I like his sound. I even like Pharell. I think when Pharell’s making raw beats he’s good at it. I think a lot of times he goes for the pop sound but when he does make hard records, they come out real well. I’d like to work with… umm… Dre. Or whoever makes his beats.

Haha.

They say it’s not him all the time.

Haha yeah I heard something about that. Do you have a title for the album?

Yeah. It was called “Greatest Story Never Told” but I changed it to “Dear Black America”. That’s the name of my album because that’s who I’m trying to get to… let’s start thinking. Let’s start using our minds. Not your guns, not your money. Our mind is our most proper weapon. I’ve got to address my people because I address anything else. Out the gate that’s what I’m comin’ with. My album is politically motivated.

Do you have a date for it? I guess you can’t have a date for it yet but an approximation…

Nah I don’t have a date for it but I know it’s gonna come out on top of next year.

You’ve been on a lot of mixtapes and compilations too. Is there anything like that coming out in a near future?

Yeah I’ve got a mixtape… It’s like an album but it’s really my mixtape classics. It’s like a “Best of” of my mixtape songs. It’s coming out on Sure Shot records on June 1st. I’ve got a lot of my best mixtape songs on it. 18 joints. A lot of people on there too. Get that June 1st. It’s a very very dope project.

Ok cool. What about guest appearances on other peoples albums?

Ali Vegas and my lil’ homegirl Mecka Mill. She’s a new artist that I’m working with. Young little girl. She’s very dope. She’s about to shut the female game down.

What do you feel about the rap game right now?

I think it’s very sour right now. The rap game sucks right now. It’s like money see money do. It went from the gangsta shit to now the pimp shit. Everybody’s a pimp. If you know what a rela pimp is… A real pimp is a homo. Most pimps are homosexuals. That’s why pimps like to ger perms, they like to get their nails done, they like to get manicures and they like to dress fancy. Like women! They hate women because they wanna be women. That’s why they have women out there selling pussy because they don’t have no pussy. They’re mad at em. That’s where the pimp culture come from. Only a homo would beat up a woman, man.

Yeah.

Only a fucking punk would do that. And this is what these rappers glorify. If you look at it… You have Jay-Z “Big Pimpin’”. 50 Cent “P.I.M.P”, you’ve got Nelly “Pimp Juice”, David Banner “Like a Pimp”. You’ve got mothafuckin’ everybody doing something with a pimp- Everybody’s a pimp. Where are all the stand up guys? Where are all the motherfuckin’ leaders? Where are the Malcolm X’s and the Martin Luther Kings at, man? They don’t exist no more? They pimps too?

Yeah it seems like most political rap disappeared from the mainstream when 2pac and Biggie died.

Yeah, exactly. You know why? Because these record labels are scared of it. It’s not that it doesn’t sell. Public Enemy sold 2 million records in 91. It’s all about making good music. At the end of the day, your music still has to be dope. Most people don’t listen to words anyway, they listen to the hook and the beat. They don’t care about the quality of the music anymore. They just care about the marketing and promotion and how the person looks and all that other shit that’s not really not important.

So is there anyone you’re feeling right now? Like if you play music in your car, what are you listening to?

I’m listening to oldschool RnB right now. I can’t fuck with this new shit because… the downsouth rap and the Midwest rap doesn’t really do it for me. I’m not going to shake my ass… I went and did a show down south and even the dudes down there went booty-poppin and all that shit. Shakin’ they ass! Men doing that shit?! Get real, man! Is this what ya’ll call crunk? A grown man shakin’ his ass in a club? I don’t want nothin’ to do with that, B! So I listen to some old school RnB and some oldschool hiphop. I can’t fuck with this new shit. New York has nothing to offer. I’m waiting for that Rakim album to see how that sounds and he’s like a 50 year old man.

Yeah it’s a shame he didn’t get an album out on Aftermath.

Yeah because Dre don’t want that. Dre want the white boy that’s going to kill his mother and 50 Cent who wants to shoot up the whole world.

What do you think about that racist tape? The Eminem racist tape.

I think that that was some real shit that more people should address. It’s showing the state of the people tho because if that’d been Jay-Z saying fuck all the white people in the world, fuck the crackers, fuck the honkies, it’d been a big issue. If that was Puffy or one of the big black premiere artists. When Lauren said that shit they pretty much shut that down. We haven’t heard from her since! But Eminem do it and they sweep it under the rug. Where’s Deloris Tucker and all these muthafuckas? Where are they at now? They want to attack Tupac and Snoop for saying bitch and hoe and this is something that you learn as a little kid in the ghetto but they don’t have anything to say about Eminem. Russel Simmons was the first to come to his defence. He was like “Hey he wana little kid. Everybody said something wrong. He just said “n*gger” and all black women ain’t shit”. He’s talking about you too, homie. He’s talking about your mother and your sister.

Yeah. There were rumours about a beef between you and 50 Cent before. Was there any truth in that?

Nah it wasn’t beef. I wouldn’t call it beef. We had differences as far as opinions and music but it wasn’t beef to where… I see 50 right now and it’s like “What’s up my n*gga”. There wasn’t no beef like that, we just had different opinions on how music should be.

Do you have any beefs with anyone right now?

I’ve got beef in the streets. I’ve got beefs with n*ggaz I shot before, man. I’ve got beef with n*ggaz whom I shot their mothers and stuff like that. I’ve got beef where if they see me they may try to kill me type shit. These beefs that I have came from when I was a kid. The first things you do stick with you forever. Mistakes that I made… when I see these them today they don’t wanna get at me. I was thinking “This lady’s just a crackhead” but that’s somebodys mother. That’s the only beef I’ve got. As far as industry rap beef? I don’t even entertain that because if I thought you was a problem I’d be at your show and you wouldn’t leave there.

Hehe ok. Do you regret the things that you did before…

Yeah I regret the things I did. I regret a lot of it. I regret more of it than I don’t. I had no sense of direction when I was a kid and I was following the wrong people. The people that I was influenced by was people that was fucking……. Not the best people. They did things and I got caught up in it.

Ok. What’s your advice to up and coming rappers that wants to make it in the rapgame?

My advice is don’t wait on no record labels, man. Record labels do not see the vision of black music. They’ll try to hire somebody, some negro, and put him as head of black music. They don’t really care. All they care about is numbers. White kids are the ones that make these people successful. 50 Cent is selling millions of records to Eminem fans. Not to my kids. 50’s not selling all those records because people love him in the hood. People in the hood think that you’re a fuckin’ clown! You’re bragging about being shot? You’re a victim, homie! You’re not a thug because you got shot. These dudes forget the millions of dollars that went into marketing and promotion them. The millions of dollars that got into making you to who you are. It’s not your talent, homie. It’s the fact that you’re looking a certain way… You wear makeup in them videos and all that shit…

Yeah we interviewed Bang’Em Smurf a while back and he was talking about that makeup stuff too… he had a lot to say about 50 Cent actually.

Bang’Em is a real dude, homie. Bang’Em is the one in the streets really Banging Em.

Ok. How do you feel about the internet?

I think that the internet is good and bad. I think it’s good because it’s a good form of promotion for artists like me who doesn’t have record deals and don’t have that million dollar. You get your music all over the world. People can type in my name and get a bunch of music. It’s good promotion but at the same time it’s bad because it hurts the artist as far as downloading and everything like that… If you put hard work into your music… It won’t hurt a big artist but it’ll hurt the underground artists who’s doing everything at home and getting downloaded hurts them. It doesn’t really hurt the big artists tho. An artist like me who’s trying to come up… it helps and it hurts at the same time. I’m all for it, tho. If mothafuckas be downloading my shit that means they like it so it’s all good. If they like it enough they’ll go out and support you.

Yeah I was just gonna say that. If they download an album and like it they should support the artist…

Exactly!

WORD ASSOCIATION:

Cormega

Smart thug. Smart gangsta.

Kurupt

Overrated.

Cam’ron

Dillusional.

Bad Boy Records

Over

Haha ok. Roc-A-Fella

I love Jay-Z and I can’t stand Dame.

Why?

I don’t like his attitude, man. House n*gger.

E-40

Genius. Entrepreneur.

Afroman

Lunatic.

Benzino

Cool but no real sense of direction. He need a sense of direction…. But he’s a cool cool cat.

XXL

I think they’re good. Great. Good magazine.

Jadakiss

Good rapper, fake gangster.

Nate Dogg

My homie, my man.

What was it like working with him?

It was great, man. He was the most humble… He taught me that no matter how long you’ve been on you have to stay humble.

So maybe we can expect you two to work together in the future?

Yeah on my album.

Last word is yourself, Saigon.

The next Malcolm X

Cool. Is there anything else you’d like to say before we wrap it up?

I’d just like to say: Let’s be more responsible as artists, man. Let’s let the children know that it’s not all about money. If we don’t teach the babies now we’re into some deep shit because the people that raised us thought we lived in a fucked up generation. If we don’t make it better it’s just going to be worse. It’s our responsibility to lead them into the right direction. Music is a weapon so let’s start being more responsible with what you say because what you say will come back to you calmer than a mothafucka.

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