C-Bo

Cowboy alias C-Bo aus Sacramento, Kalifornien, war einer der ersten Künstler, der auf eigene Faust und ohne Major-Hintergrund genug Alben verkaufte, um auf einen Schlag einhunderttausend Dollar in der Tasche zu haben. Seit 1993 verkaufte er ganze zwei Millionen Alben, und das als Independentkünstler! Nicht nur seine Verkaufszahlen machten ihn zum Vorbild für 2Pac, E-40, Spice-1, Master P und Yukmouth. Seine Authentizität spielte eine mindestens genauso große Rolle. Während diejenigen, welche C-Bo zum Anfang der 90er Jahre zu Gangsta-Rap motivierten, heute nur noch Geschichten aus zweiter Hand erzählen, weiß er sie aus erster Hand zu erzählen. Er ist nicht nur für seine Worte (“So when they [the police] try to pull you over, shoot’em in the face, ya’ll” vom Album “Till My Casket Drops”), sondern auch für seine Taten Stammgast im Gefängnis. Sascha Weigelt (BACKSPIN) und Puddah verabredeten sich zum Telefon-Interview mit C-Bo, um aus einem riesigen Fragenkatalog wenigstens einen Teil der Fragen loszuwerden. Dabei entpuppte sich der auf seinen Alben sonst so raue Gangsta-Rapper als netter und umgänglicher Gesprächspartner, welcher sich ausführlich Zeit nahm, uns Rede und Antwort zu stehen.

Where have you taken the energy for your new album “Money To Burn” from after your last records were critically damned?

The energy comes from the streets. I get my motivation from the streets. Out here on the block, that’s what I look at all day and that’s what I’m talking about.

Which block do you represent?

49th Street, Garden Block, Sacramento, California!

You have some of that old school beats and old school stories on the album. Was this your plan or do I miss the point?

I just pick a song, I feel a song and I make it. We had no direction, when we started. It’s whatever we felt at the time. When it came together, it is, what it is. Whatever you feel it is, I don’t put a title to this or know, what it is. I just do it and this is, how it came out.

Is this the way you record all of your records?

It’s the same with every album, you know? I go to the studio, hear a track and start thinking of a song. I don’t have no concept before, nothing like that. It’s whatever I’m feeling or what I’m thinking about.

Your fans say, “Money To Burn” ain’t grimy enough. Do you agree with them?

Some of them might feel that way. I’m doing this a long time and musically, this is what I’m feeling. I probably got some fans out there, who might wanna hear something different, but things changed and people change. There is a couple song on that and I’m leaving nobody out. It might not be as many songs as they want to, but I try to do music for everybody. I’m a business man and try to sell some records out here and have some people that’s looking up to me. I try to couple all aspects. It’s some grimy, some this some that, some everything on that. We got a bunch of stuff and they know, where I’m at with the music. When enough off this album fall, I got some more coming for them and will try a little harder next time for my grimy folks. Maybe, I will do an all grimy album. But then all my other fans won’t complain, you know? We work it out! When your stuff gets commercialised on a major, there’s a lot of stuff, they can’t do and say. That’s us, one people to another, we’re independent. We don’t get all the radio play and videos. When you say, you like this album, the other person says, it’s senseless. We gotta deal with both.

Tell me from the days of old, the days, when you came into hiphop…

Really, hiphop for us was gangster rap. We were on no hip hop. Rap is due, NWA, KRS-One and all that. This morning, when I drove to work, it came into my mind, that gangster rap deals with showing people the street reality and make them not wanna take part in gang banging and drug dealing. On the other hand, you get arrested for telling those stories. Ain’t that crazy? That ain’t what we are saying on our music. We
say, shoot ‘em! Freedom of speech is one of the problems. Out here, we speak, how it really is. That’s the problem we really have. You got people, who could be easily influenced as far as how they looking at it. Somebody is looking at us and they’re talking about shooting situations, somebody can. But, that’s the same thing with the movies. You can do a movie like Arnold Schwarzenegger, the gouvernor, with Terminator. They’re shooting and killing everybody. It’s just a form of freedom of speech. These big labels, they won’t have any problems for it. We’re independent and the powers, they don’t want us to be like that.

So what do you wanna reach with your lyrics?

If you’re feeling it, you’re feeling it! If they listen to it and don’t like it, they don’t like it. This is how we’re living out here. This is how it is from California. We didn’t put out like 35 albums!

When you say “Shoot ‘em”, aren’t you afraid it might come back on yourself one day?

You can’t worry about all that right now. That’s how it is out here. It’s a wild wild west! Ya’ll don’t get the news out there? This is how it is out here! We’ve been living this all our lives. We didn’t think about it, we just deal with it. Is it, what it is.

Talking about your hometown Sacramento – when can we expect the second Brotha Lynch & C-Bo album?

We get it together. He got some stuff, he got going on with his label. We’ve been in contact. It ain’t going taking long until we finally sit down. I’ve been around doing stuff, we get it all together. It won’t be long. It will be out! It’s coming!

How is your relationship with your old posse, the Mob Figaz? They record one record after the other – without you!

Some of them got recorded, when I was locked up in jail, I’m staying outta town and got solo projects. Everybody gets on his own stuff. There’s a lot of people I’m trying to get on my album. They might be on this one or the next one. We’re a machine. It’s a machine out here for us and we keep it pushing. Ain’t no love lost.

You’ve appeared on 2Pac’s “All Eyes On Me”. How did you hook up with him?

Through some mutual friends. He was coming to town. When we hooked up with Pac, it was a beautiful thang. He was running around doing his album, I was running around doing my album. He was putting out “All Eyes On Me” and told me he want me to get on his album. We came down and hooked up with him in LA. It was beautiful, gave me a big hug. You would have thought, that we already knew each other. Spice-1 was around. Connect all the dots and that’s all what happened. Our folks hooked it all up and it was all love, when we finally got together.

If Pac would still be alive, would your career have went another way?

Definitely! I was on two tracks on “All Eyes On Me” and we recorded like six songs. He was going out with his label and The Outlaws, who are on the first song on my album “Money To Burn”. We’re all family, we all came through him together at the same time. He got a lot more going on than The Outlaws at this time. So he concentrated and got in all that situation. We definitely discussed signing on Pac’s label.

AWOL released the album “Enemy Of The State” while you’ve been locked up. What have you thought about that, back when?

That was my label. I released it. I was still running my label from jail. They didn’t release it without my permission. The last album I’ve had was “Final Chapther”, that was on somebody else’s. From then on we have total control. The other albums, “Tales From The Crypt” etc. we were under a major, which was finally under Virgin, Noo Trybe Records. There was a lot more money behind that, too. But we didn’t see as much
money. Right now, we get 10 dollars a CD. All I need is to sell 30.000-40.000. That’s 400.000 and enough for us. We got records that’s selling 40.000 and we got records that’s selling 150.000. It all balanced out. This is how we look at it. We did lot more promotions, we have radio, do a video, that’s what really makes the difference on how many the records sell. Right now I have kids to feed and bills to pay. I don’t have an extra 100.000 to spend on some radio and hope to sell records. We’re not in this business right now. I’m out here living my life and if I need do do another record, we do some more records, ’cause I got bills to pay. We’re still out here grindin’, still out here in the street. We got bills to pay. This music ain’t the only thing we do. I’ve been in any prison of California. I’m a real nigga. Real gangsters out here. That’s how we’re living. For real. We’re not trying to portray it like that. It’s real life shit. You can come out here and see what we do. This is how our world is! We’re in a whole different world as you are. If you ain’t here to believe it, you can’t understand. Police killing niggas out here. Niggas gotta defend theirselves, so we’re shooting police, too. That’s how it is out here. It’s a war with everybody. You got Blacks, Mexicans… I’m cool with everybody. I’m a lot older now, but I was also like these little young guys. They really can’t be talked to. They ain’t trying to hear it. They’ve been programmed from a younger age. This is how it is. Some of them never been out of here. I’ve been out of the States, we’ve been all over. We’re living another life. This California lifestyle ain’t nothing to play with. It’s rough. You’re out here trying to get some money and something, you know. You got the police and you got niggas fucking with you.

Are you a free man or are there any probations and trials after your jail time?

I stay on probations, got about two more years, came out last year. I got a whole ‘nother case, but I’m good, trying to stay out of trouble.

Why did AWOL go broke?

I don’t know. I wasn’t running the management side. That was a good friend of mine, Freddy T. Smith. He went to jail, too. When he was in jail, the company folded. He got arrested, I got arrested. We got arrested in Atlanta.

Why didn’t you restart it?

We did, but before we restarted it, I got my own company, West Coast Mafia Records.

What is the WCM up to at the moment and which artists are signed to the label?

You got West Coast Mafia Records and you also got a distribution company, West Coast Music Entertainment & Distribuition. Different labels got joint ventures. We got a deal with Young Bleed from the old No Limit camp, Rapphael Sahdeeq with his Pookie label, E-40 and his Sick Wid It artists, Lazy Bone. Then we got my Westcoast Mafia label, which is my rap label. I got propably five different groups, always working with somebody putting out something.

Besides WCM you are with the Thug Lordz. Is Spice-1 still a part of that group?

Thug Lordz is almost me and Yukmouth. Originally Spice was supposed to be in it, but Spice is doing his own thing. We couldn’t really hook up all the way with him, when we was trying to put the whole project together. He definitely was a Thug Lord. When we were trying to put the album together, he was out of commissiom. So we did it without him. Of course, he’s still our family, West Coast Mafia and Thug Lords for life!. We got him on one song, the main song, we got the video for. Yukmouth is an idol for me, I’m an idol for him. We started together around the same time and we’re folks ever since 1994, when my first allbum, “Gas Chamber”, came out.

Is there anything that I missed to ask?

Keep supporting the WCM. We got a lot of shit coming out for our fans. If you ain’t a fan, we hopefully can make you a new fan. Buy some of the old albums, for sure, there’s some of the old 30 albums that y’all like. Go to the website – hats, t-shirts, posters, everything you need!