Exclusive interview with bay area hip-hop legend money b of digital underground
In the late 1980’s Oakland California brought together what would become one of the most important groups in Hip-Hop history. Known mostly for their comedic sex laced party anthems, Digital Underground’s worldwide smash debut album “Sex Packets” included timeless hits like ‘The Humpty Dance,’ ‘Doowutchyalike,’ and ‘Freaks Of The Industry.’ To this day they are not only a force in Hip-Hop overall, but they are a huge part of the pioneering foundation of the Bay Area music scene. On top of their own group and individual successes, D.U. was also the driving force that opened the door and unleashed upon the world one of the biggest and most important icons pop culture has ever known, Tupac Shakur.
Still highly active in the entertainment industry some 20+ years after making their incredible impact, Digital Underground continues to move forward whether as a group or as individuals with solo ventures and projects. We The West caught up with Money B for an in depth detailed conversation in which we touch on everything from Digital Underground’s past, present and legacy, Money B as a solo artist, working with and introducing the world to 2Pac, the transition into the Adult Entertainment Industry and Digital Underground’s influence on the Hyphy Movement, to Money B’s new ventures like his website, radio show, new solo album and other projects under his new Mandatory Muzic record label. For some this will be a needed history lesson and for others it will be a good update, read on and enjoy.
Talk about when you first started out and helping to lay the foundation for not only Oakland but for the entire Bay Area, and also bringing 2Pac into the industry.
When we came on the scene in 1988, Too $hort and MC Hammer were already out. $hort was already established in the Bay Area, maybe not so much on the national side, but he was the man and Hammer I think was just starting to blow up. At the same time Hammer’s name was rising, so was Digital Underground. And it was kinda cool back then because we didn’t sound anything like $hort, $hort didn’t sound anything like Hammer, we all had our own style, but we co-existed and all represented Oakland and the Bay Area. Of course there was a huge local scene as far as performances and people with independent records. You had people like K-Cloud, APG Crew, Flynamic Force Sway & Tech. We used to do talent shows and perform around the Bay Area. But us, Hammer and $hort were the ones that blew, and when we did we were kind of at the forefront of that movement on the national scale.
You mentioned how Digital Underground, Too $hort and MC Hammer were each in their own lane music wise, what did D.U. bring to the table?
Digital Underground, we all weren’t from Oakland. Shock’s originally from New York, but he grew up in Tampa, Florida. Of course I was raised in the Bay Area, Oakland and what not. DJ Fuze is originally from Syracuse, New York and so on and so forth. So we kind of didn’t think of ourselves as being-- that local, and our thing was kind of like a freedom to be who you wanna be. It wasn’t about being tough or doing this and that, it was just whatever we felt. That’s why ‘Doowutchyalike’ was the single, and that’s how we really lived and made our music. Whatever feels good let’s do it, we were about having a good time.
It was kind of a blending of all of your diverse backgrounds?
Exactly, being that Shock came up on funk, Parliament-Funkadelic and George Clinton, where as I came up on Spoonie Gee and Too $hort, and Fuse he came up on Led Zeppelin. He had a huge Rock background. Chopmaster J who was another member at the time, his father was Mr. Wonderful; he was a Jazz musician, so he was in that scene. So we just brought it all together and it was like a gumbo of music, and it came to be what it was.
Ok so how did 2Pac fit in to all of it?
He was actually signed to the same label as us, TNT Records, and he was in the group Strictly Dope with Ray Luv. Being that we were under the same label and management, he would come and get down with us. He was with Leila Steinberg who brought him to Atron Gregory, they had us working on Strictly Dope’s demo. Me and Pac were pretty much the same age, and my house was the kickin’ it house, I had the turn tables, we’d have the 40’s, and the breezies used to come through, and so whenever he’d come to Oakland, he’d come to my crib. That’s how we started kickin’ it like that. There was a point when Strictly Dope broke up and Pac was getting ready to quit music and join the New African Panthers in Atlanta and Atron was like “if we don’t do something with Pac now, we gone lose him.” We were getting ready to go on our first national tour with Public Enemy, and my brother was gonna come out as a roadie and he just took my brother’s place. And the rest is history, once he got out there and people saw what he could do. And he wasn’t a dancer; he came out on tour and did the same thing I did, which was whatever was needed to make the group go. He was never really a regular roadie, he was a roadie, but he was a roadie that had a part in the show. He wasn’t just a guy that set up the equipment; he had an actual part in the show. But aside from that being that he was the newest guy he had to break down turn tables and make sure everything was put up. He had other responsibilities.
Was “Same Song” the first song 2Pac recorded with Digital Underground, or was that the first one that was released?
That was the first one that came out, that actually made an album. We used to make all kinds of demos, but ‘Same Song’ was the first time he was heard on wax, that was his first record, his introduction to the world. But when we were on tour, he would freestyle and just get it in, so every group that was on tour with us, after the shows in the lobby he’d freestyle ‘til the next morning and was killin’ cats and kind of made a name for himself on tour within the industry. And once ‘Same Song’ and the movie came out, wasn’t no looking back.
Speaking of that, the “Juice” Movie role was supposed to be for you right? Weren’t you trying out for the same role?
Not the same role, people think Pac took my role, no he didn’t. I had got the script and had got called to read for that movie, I wasn’t an actor at all but I was supposed to go read for this role in New York. But I knew Pac went to school for acting, he knew how to act so I asked him to help me practice to go in there for this audition. He read the role of Bishop which is the role he played in the movie, and as we reading the script I’m like “this nigga acts just like Pac really acts.” In a way it reminded me of Pac so I said “why don’t you come to the audition too ‘cause one of us might get it.” So I went in to read for Steel, who was played by the little fat Black dude, Treach came and he read for Q, which was the role played by Omar Epps and Pac read for Bishop. Pac was the one who could really act and he got the part. So it wasn’t like he took my part or nothing like that, nobody was mad, I was actually happy and I asked him to come because I thought that out of all of us he would probably be the one that could have a chance of getting the role in the movie. Then after that when they were shooting Pac said “if you come to New York, I’ll make sure you get in it,” everybody that was around, Pac was making sure they got little roles, Yo Yo was in the movie, Stretch, Treach had a little part. But I never went out there, the whole time they were filming it I was in Oakland working on whatever the next project was. When the movie came out we all went to the movies in New York to go see it. Pac was happy, he was poppin.’
Was the movie before or after he had an album out?
“2Pacalypse Now” was already out, but sales wise it wasn’t really doing so much, but he did the movie and then “Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z” was the second album and that’s the one that had ‘I Get Around’ on it. That’s when it just… it was over.
You described Digital Underground as something that brought various backgrounds together, how would you describe the sound of the group?
It was everything. It was a combination of Public Enemy, the Funk, Doug E. Fresh, Too $hort, Sugar Hill Gang, T La Rock, Jungle Brothers, whatever it was we were listening to at the time. I was influenced by Feerless Four, Funky Four Plus One More, real old school Hip-Hop. Shock had the funk comedy flavor; we all had that party flavor. We all had that freaky flow, whatever you wanna call it, I got the talking about the bitches from being from Oakland, while listening to a bunch of Too $hort tapes and just hangin’ out with chicks like that.
Now if you listen to any of my music, any Money B music that I’ve done solo, then you’ll see how I influenced Digital Underground. Pac brought a certain street element, but you could say I brought some of that too because my father was in the Black Panther Party and that’s why we moved to Oakland. So it all came from everywhere, but if you listen to any of my solo stuff, you listen to what I have now, you’ll see that “oh ok this is what it is,” because one thing that was a misconception was that Pac got crazy and started talkin’ that gangsta shit after the fact; no he always would, but when you do a Digital Underground, you put your input in and it comes out collectively, when you did your own project you’d hear more of what Pac was about, when you hear a Money B album you hear me talk a little bit more about chicks and street shit than I would, say in a Digital Underground record.
OK fast forward, let’s talk about the new singles you have out and your new album.
I’m kinda running it like we used to do it back in the day with an A Side and a B Side, and the A Side is the song ‘Is U Down’ featuring Ne-Yo, and then the B Side is ‘I Drink’ featuring 2Pac. But I always say if you wanna play the 2Pac one then play the 2Pac one ‘cause it all comes from the same place, it’s from the same album. And both of those songs feature my man Scott Knoxx. Me and him have a group called M.A.S.K., which stands for Money B and Scott Knoxx. He’s from Milwaukee Wisconsin; I got down with him through my DJ, DJ Nu-Stylez who has been a DJ for Digital Underground for the past six years or so. We both had the same love for Hip-Hop, we’re both coming from the same place with our music, fun, but with more of a street edge; more so than say a Digital Underground record.
The new singles are on my album called “4 Tha Funk Of It,” it’s a collaboration to promote
www.moneyb.net which is my website and
www.tupacnation.net. That’s a site and forum where they follow everything and know everything 2Pac. All of the producers that produced that album are from Tupac Nation, and they’re from all over the world. They gave me beats and I sent them acapellas and we put the thing together. Like ‘Is U Down’ is produced by my man Phonkey Dee, he’s from Germany and the 2Pac joint is produced by DJ Henny he’s from England. The special thing about this album is I’m offering it as a free download. It’s a download only album, and in order to get the album for free all you have to do is go to my site
www.moneyb.net, click on the link for the album and fill out the email contact sheet. Leave your email address and your contact information and I’ll send you the link to download the full album. The album features Ne-Yo, 2Pac, Crooked I, Mouse Man who was down with Thug Life back in the day, Edi from the Outlawz, Mystic, Cleetis Mack, Bossolo, Eddi Projex and others.
The reason I’m doing this is it’s been about two years since I’ve put something out, even though I’ve featured on a bunch of people’s albums. I’m giving back to the fans who are really interested in Money B. When they fill out the email form, everything I do from now on, they’ll be informed about it. The next thing that’s coming after this album is the M.A.S.K. album, that’s me and Scott Knoxx.
OK tell me about the M.A.S.K. project with Scott Knoxx, is that going to be just digital also and who are you working with on there?
We’re probably gonna press that up. We’ve got production on the album from DJ Premier, Rhymefest is featured. Working on a few other features but I don’t wanna say the names right now. But for the most part it’s gonna showcase myself and Scott Knoxx. It doesn’t have a release date yet because we’re still recording. That’s why I need everybody to jump on this “4 Tha Funk Of It” so they can get a taste of what it’s gonna be like with me and Knoxx.
You’ve been talking about your website www.moneyb.net, what’s on there and what can people expect from it?
The website is the hub for all things Money B. All my new music, you can sample it, the mixtapes, the me and Scott Knoxx, you can hear songs from the M.A.S.K. project, hear songs from all of my older albums and mixtapes. There’s also a store there, because I actually own the rights to Digital Underground merchandise so you can buy T-Shirts, you can get your CD’s there. You can see old school footage, like footage of me and Pac on MTV, old school Digital Underground pictures. I also have a DVD series called “Sex And The Studio,” you can get information about that. My record label is Mandatory Muzic and that’s what all of my new releases will be on, so it’s an introduction to everything I’m doing.
One of the biggest things is I have a radio show, it’s an old school Hip-Hop radio show called The Goin’ Way Back Show with Money B. It’s classic Hip-Hop raw and uncut. It’s internet radio and podcast. I’m on three different stations right now and it’s probably gonna keep growing. I’m on
www.swurvradio.com,
www.gcradio.com and I’m on
www.deadbeatradio.com. You can go to
www.moneyb.net and check out the times. I also have a podcast that you can stream or download whenever you feel like. The podcast is
www.moneyb69.podomatic.com, but the easiest way to find all of that information is to just go to
www.moneyb.net and links to everything are right there.
What can people expect from the Goin Way Back radio show?
It’s classic Hip-Hop raw and uncut, it’s Hip-Hop that was released 1999 and earlier. That’s the era I come from so it’s a lot of music that comes from my personal collection of Hip-Hop that I’ve collected since I bought my first record in like 1983 or ’82 or whatever. So you’ll get T La Rock, $hort, and each of my shows I do interviews with artists from that era. I’ve had Scarface, Kid Capri, Above The Law, Kid from Kid-N-Play, Spice 1, DJ Red Alert, YoYo, I do a 2Pac tribute every year and the thing that’s special about my show is that most of these artists are actual friends of mine. We’ve toured together or they’re actually my peers so when I do the interviews they’re more candid and it’s more kind of like friends having conversation and it gives a lot of history. We talk about the past and then bring them up to speed on what the artist is doing now. Everybody wants to know what Kool Moe Dee is doing or Easy Mo Bee.
Since that era the 80’s and the 90’s there’s like two whole new generations since then. A lot of these youngsters that think they know everything need to be educated.
Yeah there’s a whole group of kids who don’t know who A Tribe Called Quest is, they should know. Not that they should know, but great Hip-Hop or timeless music is timeless music. Just like ‘Atomic Dog’ is always going to be a hit or Marvin Gaye, if you hear Sugar Hill Gang in the party it’s still gonna rock, or even closer to home ‘Freaks Of The Industry.’ They don’t know the history, so I try to give it to them. Like when I did my Spice 1 show I played all the Spice 1 shit and my nephews like “oh I’ve never heard this, make me a copy of it,” now Spice 1 has a new fan.
It takes something like that to build the foundation. These cats can’t come up and think Hip-Hop just started with D-Lo. You can’t have a true respect and understanding for something if you don’t know where it came from.
Yeah exactly and even D-Lo he needs to know who Souls of Mischief and A-Plus and them was, you know what I mean. I know he does because he works out of their studio but he may just think they own the studio, but they had a whole movement of their own. So that’s what I try to do with The Goin’ Way Back Show, I’m giving back, and trying to put some history out there for those that are into it, but also there’s a whole generation of us where that’s the music we love to hear. I have people that email me from all over the world that listen to the show, some of them are 19 and some of them are 49. Someone might say “I’m 19 and Eazy E is my favorite rapper,” or someone in their mid-40’s might say “I played that song at my wedding when I was 20.”
What about your new music and the Bay Area now, you had a song called “Stuntin” with Eddi Projex that sounded like it could have been a hit now.
People might say my first record came out in 1988-89 but the music I’ve got now is hot. I thought ‘Stuntin’ should have been a hit. I get down with Eddi real tough, and Shady Nate and Stalin. I stay on top of it, especially coming out of the Bay I try to promote the Bay and the artists and try to give back if they ask me to do something or whatever. I try to do as much as I can to keep the whole movement alive, especially ones that are doing good Hip-Hop in my opinion. I support everybody, but the ones that I see that are serious about it and actually have talent I try to push them or support them in any way that I can.
I wanna go back a little bit, when I asked you about the sound of Digital Underground I know it sounded like I asked the same question twice but the reason was, with the style and sound being the fun-party-freedom to do you vibe, people from the D.U. era and today have said that those were the roots and foundation of what would become the Hyphy movement. Do you feel this is true or how do you feel about D.U.’s influence on what became Hyphy?
Well I think it is true just for the fact of the energy of it all, that’s what ‘Doowutchyalike’ was, you know, go dumb, do what you like, do whatever you feel and don’t care what nobody else say and it’s ok to act silly sometimes. You can act silly and still be cool at the same time. I’ve heard that and it kind of is true, we were perpetuating that energy back then, and it’s kinda like what’s old is new. Like $hort talking that pimp stuff, he got that from the ‘60’s and the ‘70’s and he just bought it up from the people that was older than him. He just emulated what he thought was cool being a child. So I think now the youngsters that’s in their late teens early twenties, they’re emulating what they saw their older brothers and sisters or maybe uncles and aunts or whatever how they was kickin’ it when they was three and four which was fifteen years ago, which is our time. They just changed the names of it.
How did you personally and the group feel about the Hyphy sound and the culture surrounding it?
Like I always say, when I was coming up, you know Hyphy is an old word, when you say something is too ‘hyphy’ that wasn’t a good thing. They changed that into what that movement was. But like I said a few minutes ago, whether I like the music or not, if I’m traveling the world or if I’m traveling the country I’m gonna support what’s coming out of the Bay. But, in my personal opinion I think there was a time when it seemed like it was gonna really bust out on a national level, but I think rather than people carrying the movement they turned it into a gimmick. Meaning there could be a song that makes you go dumb rather than every song talking about how hyphy you are or how you go dumb and it kind of killed it, it made it corny. This is what I heard being outside of the Bay.
It got to the point where there was no originality to it. Like the very first thing you talked about, when you were coming up, Digital Underground, $hort and Hammer all had their own sounds, Hyphy got to the point where people were just making the same song over and over.
Yeah and that’s what kind of killed it because if you’ve heard one you’ve heard it all or if you play a party it would just sound like one long record, everybody goin’ “yadada, I’m hyphy, go dumb.” It’s like ok I can see where this is going. But at the same time a few years later I think the people who were really about that will continue to make it because some people were just trying to capitalize on the new thing and get a deal, where as if you’re really about that, if you’re true to your music you don’t follow fads, do what you do. Musically the Movement may be slowed down but now it’s just gone back to what it originally was, built in the streets.
Earlier you mentioned your “Sex And The Studio” DVD series, how did you get involved with and what did you do in the Adult Film Industry?
S.A.T.S. Productions is a video production company, “Sex And The Studio” is a DVD series and we produced and directed the series. We are the co-owners, myself and Cleetis Mack who is also a member of Digital Underground. It was a lifestyle celebrity based adult series where we would go to parties and throw parties and interview artists, but the theme of the whole thing was about sex. And in between the interviews we’d have full out sex scenes of your favorite adult stars. We tried to involve the celebrities as much as we could. We’ve had Ludacris, Chingy, Xzibit, Too $hort, Randy Jackson from The Jackson 5, DJ Premier, Kim Whitley. Between two episodes we probably had a good fifteen to sixteen celebrities per episode. We did two, and barring complications with distribution we’ll start working on episode three.
Did you do anything else in the Adult Film Industry, as far as producing actual movies, or just the “Sex And The Studio” Series?
Oh yeah we have, S.A.T.S. Productions is our company, “Sex And The Studio” was just one of the series,’ we also did, let me think of some of the titles, you can look ‘em up if you’re into that, Money B Presents “In Those Jeans,” “Do The White Thang,” “Ho Smasshin,” “I Bet She Will.” Some of them you would see me introduced at the beginning, and some of them I was totally behind the scenes. But in the “Sex And The Studio” series I’m the host, myself and a few of the female porn stars doing most of the interviews.
I guess Luke would be the first rap artist to get involved in the Adult Film Industry, but you were also one of the early ones, how do you feel about all of these rappers getting involved in it now releasing their own movies and appearing in others, like Lil Jon, 50 Cent, Dipset, Yukmouth?
I feel like we were at the forefront of it, me and Clee. And even like with Snoop, Snoop’s came out right before ours, but he didn’t interact the way we interacted and made it a quality production. I feel responsible for all those people you just said because Yuk, his first footage I helped him shoot it and he actually took some footage that he shot at one of our parties. That’s kind of how he got started in it, so I had a hand in that. Lil Jon, we actually shot one with Lil Jon in it and him being involved with the whole scene after that I think he kind of caught the bug and wanted to do it as well.
Did you feel that there was a market for Hip-Hop and Porn, or was it just an opportunity that was presented to you because of the people you were around?
It had been presented to me a few times but it wasn’t until Clee really said “hey let’s do this” and he really wanted to make it happen. And at the same time we were around it a lot. We used to perform at the Players Ball every year, which is an adult event. It was right up our alley, ‘cause we were performing at the porn conventions and everything, and I knew a lot of the cats that’s in the business. We had friends so it was an easy transition, we was hanging out in the same spots anyway.
Back on the music side, recently on MTV Jams they had the “Bay Day” all Bay Area videos and interviews day, in which they played 6 or 7 Digital Underground videos and live performances, how did you feel about that?
From what I saw I dug it. I was more interested to see how they were going to portray it and where they were trying to take it, like was it gonna say ‘Bay Day’ and end up being ‘Houston Day,’ or is the Bay that interesting that they wanted to do a one off special about it? But I thought it was cool though you got to see a lot of the older videos and I saw the clip of them talking to J-Stalin, it was cool, you know the old to the new, that’s what I’m about. I just wish I could have recorded it so I could have seen the whole thing.
Currently what is Digital Underground up to as a group?
Collectively? We did an album last year on Jake Records called “..Cuz A D.U. Party Don’t Stop,” and since then Shock has been touring as a solo artist with DJ Fuze and I think Kenya from Kenya Gruv if I’m not mistaken. I’m doing shows, Money B, or Nu Money with DJ Nu-Stylez who has been our DJ for Digital Underground the last six or seven years like I mentioned earlier.
You used to be with Fuze a lot though right, you had a group with him?
Yeah me and Fuze were Raw Fusion. We were actually together before Digital Underground, and actually the way I got into Digital Underground was Shock was trying to steal Fuze away from me, he was trying to take my DJ, and Fuze was like “if I roll with you, you gotta roll with Mon’ too.” That’s kinda how we came together.
So yeah it’s not that we can’t or won’t do shows again, but right now there’s been a hiatus probably about the last year.
Now let’s talk about status, how do you feel about yours and Digital Underground’s legacy as a pioneering group within Hip-Hop and music period and the respect that you receive now 20+ years later?
Well it says something, like you said when it’s twenty years later and people still acknowledge it. And more so within the industry, like when I do my radio show and I interview artists sometimes they’re just as excited as far as me interviewing them as I am to interview them. It’s kind of mixed because you get the respect from the artists, your peers and then you get the respect from the average person on the street who grew up listening to it or some youngsters who enjoy it that know about it or just because of the affiliation with 2Pac. But what’s crazy is how you get the least amount of respect from these young DJ’s that are on the radio. It’s incredible to me. It’s crazy, I’ll go to say, a KMEL to a radio station and some young DJ or whatever…. I’m like out of respect for what we’ve done, they should give us some spins anyway, to see if people like it. But we’ll give them a record and they’ll say “well I ain’t heard nobody talking about it.” They’re afraid to break records.
OK a Part 2 to the previous question, how do you feel about 2Pac’s legacy and impact on the world 15+ years later?
I think right after he died and the whole thing with Death Row and Suge may have stopped a lot of people from doing a whole lot more in his memory than what has happened. I think there would have been a movie or certain things like that sooner, but there was just so many complications between Death Row and Afeni and everything. But Pac is still relevant for sure.
Whether being a significant part of the foundation of not only the Bay Area or Hip-Hop in general, or reaching out to today’s artists and lending his knowledge and help, Money B continues to push forward in 2009 with new projects and new technology. Again make sure to log on to
www.moneyb.net for anything and everything Money B. Download the brand new album “4 Tha Funk Of It” for FREE! He can also be reached there if people have any questions and also requests for The Goin’ Way Back Radio Show. You can also reach out to Money B on Twitter @MoneyB69, Facebook
www.facebook.com/moneyb69, Myspace
www.myspace.com/mandatorymuzic or email him direct
moneyb@moneyb.net .
MONEY B FEATURING NE-YO & SCOTT KNOXX "IS U DOWN"
http://www.wethewest.com/component/c...derground.html
MONEY B FEATURING 2PAC & SCOTT KNOXX "I DRINK"
http://www.wethewest.com/component/c...derground.html
quelle:
www.wethewest.com
Anmelden
FAQ
Suche
und glooty-us-maximus 
[/center]
[/center]
