#510 - Richie Rich

You got your man, Richie rich Man live on the West Coast down here on the LA side of things, and you could check me.

Out with my man my Ace Boulet.

Care all right, man, look it's the Boot black Cat Podcast. We got a special guest in here, Oakland legend, Richie.

Rich what's that? What you kid?

Man?

I'm good, brother, I ain't gonna lie you. You always had one of my favorite voices when I was going up, like rather be one of my favorite Upac songs ever. Okay, and it was so dope to see, Like I was like scrolling and I see you pop up on at the pergola with the Russell Right. You have this legendary unfortunate moment for you where you.

You say me pop up and pop down?

Yeah you I mean you heard like you broke up while you were Toro lower Patello. Yeah, so you fall out, but you don't stop rapping, come on, and it becomes like this like viral legendary moment.

Hey, I'm man, I'm be honest with you. That shit. I mean, I didn't have no choice really, like.

But the dread had to be running for you to just keep going.

I didn't even feel the leg To be honest with you, I didn't feel the leg. I knew my verse was coming.

Russ was trying to pick me up, and I got people talking about, dude, watch that, Watch how you snatched the mic from the Russell Like you just snatched. I took the mic and just got to it and then I started freestyling.

What happened in the When I go back and look at it, I'd be like, damn, I was on point.

You was on your was Legendar say?

Legendar?

Yeah, you're one of like the very few people who were like on the ground level of like the hip hop scene in the Bay Area.

You were in a group of four one five frour one five.

Back in the day. When when would I guess when did you initially? When did that group start?

Just to get people a timeline, because I think the only guy we always reference like back to the eighties is like too short the early nineties, you know, eighties is like short, But like you were very much a part of that early early Bay Area movement as well.

We came right after Short four one five We popped in eighty nine. That's when we dropped that record, and uh it rolled into the summer of nineteen ninety. Uh so it was nineteen eighty nine when we dropped a full on five record and then uh it carried the ninety's funny you say Short was the only one, and he was. He was our target. That's who we was. We was gunning for Short because he was the dude,

Got a lot of ways.

Y'all got little ways to go before y'all can fuck with me, you know. And then we ended up dropping a fall on Fire record. We was at a car wash one day. Short pulled up and.

We was knocking the record. He was listening. He was listening. He looked at me. He said, all right, man, he said, y'all got to town right now.

He went in there and cooked that goddamn ghetto up and came back right back backing.

You feel you guys inspired you He's like someone coming from me.

I got to keep going. Yeah, but you know, dog man, that's one of my homeboys.

Man.

He he brother. Yeah, yeah, man, that was brother important. Fortunately, man, that's crazy. I think it was well, yeah, early yesterday morning and Wayne low Man, good dude, good dude. But yeah, short he pioneered that that thing, and uh, we came behind him. There was other artists that were still rocking, but four one five and we had no clue bro that that ship was gonna do what it did, you know what I mean. We just was putting music out and that's where it started from for me, and started

Uh the the what's.

The album he did against the World?

Yeah, he put on me against the World.

And so you had already had before you got incarcerated and got in trouble, you had already had a great relationship of pot because people don't I mean for people who are Tupac fans, they know Oakland roots.

No, I didn't know Pop when when I was four one five, when I got in trouble, I didn't know Pop. I met him after that. I met him when I came home. I met Tupac over a sack of weed.

Uh.

Chick called me and said she had a dude, the one to buy some pot. I went over there to serve him and it was in and then we kind of got cool, but not on the music shit right, just on some hanging out shit and one thing led to another, and then I think Pac put me on.

Me Against the World, and then the Loonies put me on.

That remix, yes, which is and that kicked it right back off for me.

Yeah where are you from? Ok? Yeah, and that kicked it right back off.

One of the greatest remixes ever.

Come on.

Yeah, that's dope too because if you think about from your perspective, you're a part of this group, then you go away, you come home. And like at that time I got five on. It had to be running the Bay.

Yeah, I mean it was.

That was a national record, but I'm sure up there it was.

It was killing shit. The Loonies was killing it. Yeah, that was a big record.

And shout out to Yuckmouth too, who went on to have an incredible like independent run and.

Yeah, yuck co lyricists, bro, I mean both of them, yuck and but I mean Yuck He's always was different man, and JJ always been different with them bars. So yeah, JJ and them put me on a they put me on. That's what we knew him as JJ before he came with you. But uh, they put me on that five on it and that spawned the death Jam deal between the five on It and to Me against the World, and then the labels start popping out, and then I ended up over there on Death on Death Jam.

That's dope, man, that's crazy when you found out. First of all, were you able to hear anybody else's verses on the remix?

I got five on it.

I got to the studio Lake keV. I pulled up late because I was always in the street hustling. I remember when I got there, Uh, forty forty had a garbage can bro a plastic garbage can full of hurricane, So I was like, what's in the garbage can?

It was like drink.

So he came with all the mix, I guess, and poured all this shit in his garbage can.

So I'm scooping my cus.

Like jungle juice.

Yeah, yeah, same shit.

Like he mixing all this shit, but this is in a big ass garbage I get to the studio and I think everybody's verses was down, and I remember Young saying double how long is it? Don't take you to write your verse. So I started writing, and we was

The certain niggas want to stick to the game because Park was.

Rushing me, Like, so I'm writing fast, and I figured the bars was cool, but I just I wasn't swinging them the way you know what I mean. Sometimes it take you a little time to when you write something to run run through it three or four times.

Man, they like, come on, let's get it down.

So both of them verses, to me, I was like, man, I could do it. Like with Park, when you lay something that you better lay what you want because it's stuck, like he ain't letting you go.

Back, and and the same thing with the five on it.

I laid it and do to me, I mean, shot Gee's verse was cold, Yuck's verse was cold. I had no clue that my verse would be the verse that everybody went to with the song.

Yeah cut this.

To me, it's my favorite verse on the song also because like you just brought like.

Your like real player shit, like right, and the thing it was like I was, like, I said, I was being rushed, so I didn't really I was listening because I think they played it a couple of times and I heard what Yuck had said and I was like, damn, here we go. Like he was hard to come behind. And so when I came with that where are You From? Oakland smoke, and I was just trying to cover up as many bars as I could because I didn't have

We in New York?

What year was the party?

The party had to be ninety five?

Oh shit, So this is this is before Diddy got super weird.

This was when the parties were still We're still like very player.

Yeah, it was a restaurant, so it was his son's restaurant. So this was my first time being in one of them events, and I remember Puff was a.

Puff was always to me like.

The hardest working man in the game, like they had all the records, dude, and and it just seemed like for me, I always felt like once you hit a certain spot, you'd be like, all right, I'm good, I canna lay off. But I remember going to Justice with my manager. He was like, hey, Puffing him having a party up here. Big was was Big there. I don't know if Big was there or not. I know Craig macnum was in there. And we came from like when we club, we go to the bar and we buy shots,

I was like, no, I'll go to the barn, just grab a drink.

So we was in there and they dropped that record, bro, And when I heard the response, I was like, they like that off the motherfucker in New York. Yeah, And then from there everywhere we went. I mean that record smashing right now.

For sure.

It's still it's still in gold rotation all over the country. Like you know, you turn any new mix on any radio station, you go hear it.

You know that five on it is a crazy record?

Yo. That's crazy? Yo? What for you?

Man?

Like? Was it about? You think? Were you and Parc meeting?

Uh?

Doing that?

We deal that that you guys were able to kind of catch a vibe and fuck with each other.

Yeah.

It was trippy because he was making music, but he wasn't making a kind of music we was making.

You know.

Four and five was like gangster hip hop, and Park was more on the black power than he had to Bringdus got a Baby, more conscious shit. Yeah, but we locked up because we liked fucking with brogs, you know what I mean. And we started going to clubs and hanging out and shit like that. So we became homies

Be just did he just did an interview.

I seen Money was like, well, we was running with Park, but then once he got with Rich and Gov, it was some whole other ship because you know we.

Was in the street. Yeah you know, and uh I just had him under my wing. Dude. He was just a young dude, smooth cool.

I didn't know he was gonna end up like the nigga he ended up being, you know what I mean. I couldn't see it on him, to be honest with you, but.

I mean you hear he was like obviously a complex guy, like a kind of and and I think all greats are like contradictory in.

In nature, right, you know what I mean.

You would hear PoCA love women. He loved the party. You also heard he had hands. He was also very much like a revolutionary, you know, fighting a good fight. Like you know, I feel like that era of Tupac, you know, I feel like it's not as talked about, like him running around the Bay Area.

Yeah, it was layers. It was layers to him. He was he was a he was a different kind of individual. And I remember following him down to l A and he was shooting all the movies and ship, you know, shooting the Poetic Justice, and I'm like this thing over here with Janet Jackson.

It's different, all shit, It's different. Like he just was.

He was just moving, moving, move And I had never really seen it like that because we was just on an independent level, you feel, so I had never seen it like that.

And just what you guys ever get any squabbles together like with like you know, maybe leaving a club.

You know what.

We had a little issue in San Francisco one night at a club called The Stone, but we didn't actually get into a squad. Some niggas was throwing some shit on stage, some water bottles, and I remember Pop picked up the mic stand and kind of jabbed it down at the DO. But it wasn't no altercation. It was a story that surfaced like something happened in that club,

We really just was smoking and fucking with bitches.

That was it tell me about. So rather b is like, it's one of my favorite Chupac songs ever. I think it's like one of the I mean, people love that song. It's a classic. But your guys little interaction in the beginning back and forth, like was that like a natural one take or did you guys rehearse that?

No, it was one take, and it's crazy if you listen to that record. They beat a word out like I said, this is for the Honeyes, the super Saucy, but they beat Saucy out. I don't know what they thought that meant or something, but no. So I came in the studio and Park was like rich. He said, uh, he had just finished up writing a song. He went in and laid the verses and he came out. He said, man, we need to do something for the bitches. I said,

So I said, okay, well I can lead off of that.

You know, you could ride I was because he was talking about winding and dining with the bitch, you know. So then I said, well, you could ride out with spoke code to get your libst and crab because all I got it, I'm just finna dick you down, you feel me?

So we went from there. He heard that, then he spread off of what I said at the end.

Of my verse, and that shit just came to Dude. We did that song in probably ten minutes.

Bro.

That's crazy.

We wrote that song in.

Like ten minutes, bro, And it's crazy when we went there and laid it and then he had EBB come sing on the hook. Once the song was done and we sat back, he was like, Nigga, this is that shit right here. And I mean it turned out to be a classic record that's still like a lot of people's favorite.

Yeah.

No, for sure, women love that record, love it, especially a certain like growing up as a kid in Phoenix surrounded by latinas certain specific type of love. The Mexican woman pops into my head when I think of that song.

Right, I got the baddest one though, yo.

So you obviously man coming from the what are your thoughts because you know the weed game I'm sure when you were growing up right in the Bay, because it's always been like northern California's got the best weed. Everybody from all over the country at a certain point in time. Not to say that they still don't, but for the most part, like you would hear like a lot of people's plugs would be.

Up north, right, right.

Is it kind of crazy to just see like the just the pack culture becomes so like I wouldn't necessarily say it's mainstream, but it's just it's just kind of crazy like that, Like you know, like shipping a pound of weed in the mail is like not that crazy anymore, even if it gets caught up in the mail, like you probably gonna hear about it if it's if it's like one or two packs.

Fair.

Yeah, we came up, We came up moving white. So when we was always secondary to whit, it just it didn't make money like that people always smoked it. Back then, it was only two kind of weeds. It was indo and tie indo and tie stick, which is crazy.

So when the.

Weed game got to where people was pitching out of state and getting tons of money for the shit, I couldn't believe that you could make more money with weed than you can do with the white. I was like, it don't make sense, but I saw people doing it.

I've been going through TSA and I've seen them move my weed out of the way to pull a microphone out and be like, oh, it's just the Michael, and then put it back and just just it's obviously weed.

Like man, I went, I went to New York, dude and didn't take no weed, and you.

Didn't need to if you went recently, you didn't need to take It's everywhere. Hey.

The hotel I stayed at right across the street, they had like a it looked like it was a smoke shop, right, yeah. So I walked in. I said, man, y'all see a weed. He's like, no, we just cut the little pipes and zags and all the ship. So I bought some some raw papers, some vibes, I mean, yeah, shot to n be mad at me.

Sorry, sorry burn. Yeah, I bought some vibes.

And then when I'm walking, I said, man, y'all, don't know where I'm gett no weed from. And the dude was looking at me, and then he was like you where you live at? I said, California. He's like, all right, I got some weed. I said, what you got? So he whispered something to his man. This man went out the front door. Took him about five six minutes. He came back with a bag and had all type of apes. I was like, damn, okay, because I remember having to go to Branson to Bye the we you know, and

You know, they're doing full sessions.

Like if you go to Central Park there's dudes just with fold up tables with just if you go to like Bodega's.

They got shrooms on display. Right, what the is going on?

It's going down.

I think we were there the week it got legalized, and it was like a flip switched.

It was crazy instantly it was just nothing to everything, just like that.

And it's like early like Cali legalization days where it's kind of the wild wild West still right, you know.

So yeah, New York's wild right now. Dude, it's it's it's pretty crazy.

Talk to me about uh, you know obviously, man, you just dropped a new record called Richard, which is out. You got Larry June on there, you got some of the younger guys, you know. I mean, I feel like the Bay Area is somehow there's so many wins in the industry when we look at guys like Russell and we look at you know, Larry Junior, even a guy like like g Easy who redid the West Coast record.

I don't, man, you know what, I'm being honest with you, kid.

It's rough because we started a lot of the trends, you know what I mean. But the way I look at it and the way I look at it is different than the way a lot of the young artists look at it because they always what the normal chatter is, people steal are shit, we don't get no run with it. But the way I look at it is you know, le Or and Russell taught me how music works and basically gave me an.

Example of.

Record companies are like helicopters, and they fly over markets and they try to see how many people are in the market. So when they flew over the Bay Area at the time, it was probably about a sixty thousand unit market between Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose. You could move about sixty thousand units there. So they pick up artist up from there, sign him to the label, put him with other artists that are hot, so people in

I mean, shot, you got a gold record here?

Yeah, come on, shout out Mazi. Uhh. To me, that's how it works.

But then I see, to me, I feel like some of our artists it's not that they don't know what to do, but they don't know what not to do as much. And sometimes when you get to see too much of a situation, then you'll be like, damn, well if it was that, why would dude do this? You know, it's just like social media. I'll see posts with some of the guys and you'd be like, that's dope, and then you'll keep scrolling, you be like, damn, why the

But What happened with us is we never really had.

Production like LA had production, like New York had production in the early age. Like DJ Durrell he produced our four one five record, he had some heat. But like now we got the groups like the Mechanics, like Dudes who got beats. But before I think the Bay Area got slapped see.

But pre Pilo, pre the Mechanics. I don't think our production was.

Accepted by the rest of the world because it was basically just baselines, you know. I mean, we was just rocking over baselines because we come up on the too short defunct.

That's like what we run with.

But around the world they want more than that. They need you to come with something that they can get with. And I think LA produces a more national sound as opposed to our shit is it's bay Area laden because it's built for the streets of Oakland. Is built for the trunk or the cougar, It's built for the trunk of the Mustang. A lot of people come and be like, Hey, this shit is dope, but people be wanting a little bit more musical, not just baslines. I don't know, bru

Bro, and like a lot of like I mean, there are records being sold out of the Bay. It's just like the and you know, I got it. It's crazy to think, like the most commercially successful rapper outside of like forty and too short to ever come out of the Bay.

It's g easy, exactly. And it's a lot of talent in there, a lot of talent in there.

Yeah.

G's like showed so much love, took everybody on the road with and put everybody on all his albums, you know, when he's going crazy.

And G's doing real well for himself. It's weird, bro, because because I think.

Like I think about the Pack and I'm like, okay, the Pack sonically before a little B went did his little b shit the Pack? To me, when I think of the jerk movement in LA and I think of the Mustard shit h the League of Starshit, I think, well, damn, like the Pack, we're kind of making it.

They did that first.

It was like their bag, you know what I mean, Like sonically, you know.

Yeah, it's weird. I don't know, if I don't know if it's our business. You know, we don't do good business. I don't know what it is. Because it's been a lot of dope ass music that comes from the Bay. I don't want to be one of them dudes who sit there and be like, yeah, we put it out, they take it and run with it.

I mean sometimes two it's also like getting at it, like I feel like I'm friends with a lot of artists from the Bay and a lot of people who are you know, big deals in the Bay, like behind the scenes. I go out there a lot. I feel like too a lot of times, like the getting popping in the city is it's it's almost like it's not

That's what I'm talking about.

Istoven, right, Jaethoven's from the Bay. Right, It's like it's not Zetoven who's from the Bay?

Is it Aetoven? What's to do from the.

Bay that did all the shit of Goujie from the Bay, the dude.

Who fucking produced the four fifteen album for Ghazi. He's a fucking that everyone thinks he's from Atlanta.

That must be saying. It might be I didn't know.

They might be wrong. I'll tell you right now. Actually what's the uh?

But see like you, that's when I when I mentioned the business. That's what I'm talking about. Like, you got to move it around. You got to be able to get on the plane, go sit in some other places network, you know what I mean. And I think for the longest Oakland has been like it's a world to us, you know what I mean, it's like the Oakland world. If you can hit here, if you feel like you didn't hit everywhere, but you got to move it around.

It's like we don't move out. I call it the Chitlin circuit.

Yeah, for sure, that's what I call it.

I'd be like.

Vegas Portland, you know, yeah my death so yeah, you just be on that on that little ass track, you know, but you got from uh.

Jose No, No, is that the guy who did the four fifteen I'm Gazi was fucking with him all broke.

I don't think it's Aetoven. I think I'm tripping.

You're talking about uh, you're not talking about what to call him? What's that boy name? Not chopped? What is that boy? Man? I know you're talking about tip of my tongue Istoven.

I don't know if he's from the Bay, but he did spend up there. He's got Bay roots and he did that.

I know, you know, I know, I know. I was surprised to hear that it is. I A'm thinking, is Atoven Man?

I was about to say, shit, I need some of them to say the zay got knocks too.

I know you had some Bayarrier roots for sure, because he did. He did that whole album with Remember that album Ghazi put together that it was four fifteen, right, they were calling it, you know whatever. I'm curious, man, what are your thoughts on? You know, Oakland as a whole has gotten like a national It's kind of like the punching bag for like the rest of America to be like, this is what happens when they're shitty Democratic

Hey, I come, I come from the old Oakland where that ship was lovely. It's different now, bro, it's I mean, it's just, man, it's different up there.

It's different. It's just these these youngsters.

Man, there's just a different breed of a young man moving around there.

Bro. It's wild, but it.

Was always wild like, but it was wild with some fear of your parenting.

Wild with a with a dash of principle. Yeah right, there's a line here.

Yeah, right, right now.

These youngsters they don't they don't respect nothing. The ain't afraid of nothing.

Man.

And then you can feel it outside, like like you say, bipping, they breaking windows and taking shit out of cars.

You could be in the car.

Yeah.

I remember I pulled up in front of FAB store and walked across the street. Fab say, w you got anything in the car. I was like, Noah, I got somebody sitting in there. He said, double, They'll go in there with the motherfucker's sitting in there. And I'm like, huh, I've never been billed, but everybody that I know been hit at least four times.

Yeah, it's crazy because All Star weekend's coming up right, Oh my god, it's about to be great people. Oh what, there's so many people coming in down that the fucking idea where it's about the Cameron tried to tell them they gonna get a fucking rental car.

They're gonna have their shit, and they ain't gonna have this shit.

It's gonna be a lot of glass on the ground. I'll tell you that.

We're gonna fucking see Erdie Johnson on T and tving like, guys, I know you see me in a sweatsuit, but my suit was just stolen.

Oh man. They didn't hit news cruise for cameras all kind of shit. Oh yeah, yeah, I ain't doing fuck around you.

And then two weeks later hit the mission and get stuff very cheap.

And a lot of that started with.

Little motherfucker's breaking in a car, catching a dude who just came from the airport trying to come by two three hundred pounds. Oh yeah, and they hit for four hundred thousand, three hundred thousand, And when you tell your buddies you just hit for three hundred, now they think it's three hundred in every car they look in to hit.

The numbers game. It's like scratching a lot of the ticket.

And that ship series up there, Bro, you will get your shit bipped.

Yeah me, my boy, My boy John. You might know John Coston. Shout out to John. He he just opens his trunk and rolls all his windows down.

That's what they say you need to do. I'm not doing that.

He's like, yeah, yeah, because he's like, I got a Tesla. It's a bitch for me to get my window fixed. He's like, so I'd rather them just go through the car, see nothing's in here, and then like, don't break my window so I don't have to like go through a two week process of getting my window fixed.

When that ship first started, it was a dude on Instagram.

I don't know where he's from, but.

He he pulled up, got out, rolled his windows down, opened the trunk, the hood, all four of the doors. Then he started walking towards the store. He came back, opened the glove box and he was looking at the car. He's like, I should be straight, and he walked. I'm like, see for me. If I'm gonna leave my car open, I feel like somebody can go steal it, you know what I mean, even if it ain't shit in there.

I gotta take my charger with me.

Hey, they done bipped moving cars. You don't seen it?

Like that car that I think just left the airport and they had all their luggage in the back, and I think there was like a fork.

On the freeway.

Try to get onto the bridge right, yes.

And then they hit them and then hit the other way.

And then let me tell you something I saw my first live bipping. I was at a a grow, a place where they sell grow equipment.

I was talking to one of my homeboys when the parking lot and this truck pulls in and parks. I ain't even paying attention to the truck.

Only reason I know about the truck now is because I saw the move in comes this little Toyota zooms up. I mean, call the motherfucker stopped. Like equivalent to where that computer is? We standing here talking, One dude jump out by break the back window of this tie hall jumps in there. I mean to where his waist all. You see his feet in the air. His homie stealing the car with the heat comes up out of there with two big ass bags. Throw them on the ground,

Dude.

They was in and out in seconds. So the dude I'm talking to, he owns this place to sell the grow equipment. He said, damn, they just hit Dude. They must have followed him coming from his grow. I said he had weed there. He said, yeah, them bags was full of weed. I was like, damn, that's crazy. They zoom out the parking lot. Now the way the parking lot is set up, you come in from here. This car sparked here, so they zoom in. Bubb of them hit him and go this way out and around. So

There, stop again, get more.

No, I think his gun when he went into the window, fell out, fell out into the car, came back, dived back in the window again, went opened the doors and found the pistol, got up, got back in the car and left. I said, boy, this shit crazy, but the cold thing about it brave. It was in and out, dude, it seemed like twelve to fifteen seconds.

Well, the tools that they used to break the window, I know sometimes.

They'll use like spark plugs, right, but they sell these little like uh yeah, they got a little button. Now you just and it just it just it's it's it's some Batman shit for real. Honestly, it's some real Batman shit. It's like the Bippers are modern day Batman.

Well now they're taking Now they're taking your cars like hellcats and you can't you can't keep.

A hell cat because it just gets stripped down.

No, man, they coming to get that motherfucker. I don't care where it's at. Oh no, they come with this satellite dish looking thing. One dude that's holding the thing.

Oh yeah, yeah, that's by your house.

Yeah, because the door, and the other dude's on the door. You hear he crawling there out that motherfuckers start up and they go yeah no.

So what they say is they that there's these metal containers. If you're worried about that, there's like these metal containers that you're supposed to keep your key in in your house because if someone pulls up that little thing, it's supposed to kind of magnify whatever signal your key gets off. If your key's in the house. A lot of people when they come in, they put them by the door, right,

They sell all these priuses too. You need to get a fucking prius because.

Nobody wants the prius and it's good on gas.

But they'll take your Calidi converter off that motherfucker got right now. Stealing is just it's at an all time high, bro, Like you can't have shiit no more, Like they'll hunt you down.

I think what happened in LA was like during the pandemic, the influction or the influx of money that came in because of like all the PPP and the DD.

Shit was crazy.

That's what happened banks And when that ship, when once it was gone, they went it's like, well, fuck, I'm used to this shit.

It was in Oakland too, everybody was rich.

I like nineteen forty two there was.

A segment and it's funny you say that there was a segment and a time in Oakland where it was so many nineteen forty two bottles. Okay, so you know that how they do the memorials when somebody get killed and you might see a couple of Hennessy bottles, and it got to where it was all class a alzou all forty two bottles. You just look down and you're like, Dan, that's twenty thousand dollars worth of liquor right there.

Like, yeah, the pandemic made tequila crack boy.

Like and everybody was getting that money. Then it was gone. And once it was gone, that's when it started happened. Motherfuckers just starting licking shit.

Yeah, I think I think find like me and a men were talking because we're like, there was like a little period of time where like the nightlife in the Bay was a little fucking dried up, and he said it's starting to come back. I mean, I feel like it's always kind of been right in Oakland.

Well, you know what our problem is, what our night life is. We used to have Hello spots, No, it used to be crazy. Now it's only a few spots. But the violence and the windows being broken people just like I don't want to go out, you know what I mean?

Yeah, when I go out, I mean when I go to the Bay. Dude, I'm in a fucking uber there you go. Yeah, that's it.

Uber.

You got an uber because shit, when when you leave your car somewhere, nine times out of ten, you're gonna come back when your window's gonna be gone. It's slowed down a bit though, Like I was asking some of my people who be really outside fucking with it, and they's like, it's not as bad as it was. But right and like you said, right when that pandemic money dried up.

The two right after that, this year was crazy.

It was crazy. You are you are you paying Obviously.

You've always had a relationship with guys from sack Shot to see Boing those guys, But are you paid attention to what's.

Going on in Stockton?

Like Stockton's got a lot of motion, but it's also like seemingly the most violent place in California and everyone's getting arrested or killed out there.

Like so Stockton is an overdraft city, just like Antioch. I got a place in Antioch. They built all these new cities and these new homes and in effort to get people to move out of the Oaklands. The San Francisco's, Yeah, because they want those cities back, because they got ports, they got all these nice.

Houses, and all the tech money came, all the.

Shit came in.

So as far as the violence that's going on in Stockton, I'm not up on that, but they do have a bunch of little hot artists. This moving Stockton got some motion right now. Yeah, I'm in a young kid named Haiti Baby. Yes, Haiti is killing it. It's a couple other Stockton. Stockton on fire right now. As far as the young rapt just like they don't fire.

Just stop beefing. Yeah, you know, like Haiti Baby, he's a sharp dude.

He got out, even made the run in La. You're working with j Z now.

He had a viral freestyle on our show that Rihanna reposted.

Did you ever see his freestyle.

He had or he was like hi, hi, Hi, No, but oh my god, it was it was insane.

It was like everywhere he's been moving, bro. I was actually I'm doing some shows with Haiti. They say he was in New York right now doing a great guy went to do.

Uh also makes me feel fat every time the radar.

Yes, yeah, yeah, you know what, He's got a different kind of energy and he kind of reminds me of.

The pock Ship, you know, because he in shape.

I see that.

We get to pulling his shirt off type ship, you know. And and and chicks love at his shows. Be loaded with bitches, you know what I mean. But yeah, Stockton, they got a movement going right now. For sure they got they got a movement. It's like five or six little artists coming up out of stock and that's kicking up some dust right now.

Talk to me about the Death Jam days, because at that time it's really you. I don't know if Joe Felon he was on Death.

Jamp yet when from the West, when I got to Warren, me and jail right, what was for you?

Like? Obviously you also run some big soundtracks. Show on the Naughty Professor soundtrack, I want to say soul food.

Oh no, we did Nutty Professor. We did uh how to be a Player?

How to be a Player. I just saw Bill Bella, he came a pizza shop shot.

Yeah, me and Me and Quick and Rick James did a song on I Believe how to.

Be a Player. Rick James, Rick, the real Rick James. Now let me tell you about that.

Did you guys meet him?

Yeah, we came to the studio Quick had him, had him at the studio. Rick was there and the boy Danny who play on the horn and them niggas was in there barefoot. Now this is the second time I seen this barefoot ship with these ogs. George Clinton stopped by a studio that I recorded called the Grill in Emoryville, which is in Oakland similar to Oakland's closer. We call it em Oakland, but it's really Emoryville, and Clinton was in there. They was in there singing barefoot, and we like,

So I asked Rick, I said, man, what's the barfoot shit? I said, because I seen.

George do the bearfoot of shit, and he said, oh, you didn't know the funk is in the floor. I said, well, he said, the funk comes from the floor and comes up. He said, but if you got on them shoes with the rubber soles, it comes up and it goes right back down. So the next time I saw George at the grill, I just ran it by him. I said, Man, what's the barefoot shit? He said, Well, that's the only way you're gonna get the funk, he said, because the

He said. But when we was recording the records, we was recording the shit barefoot.

Damn, they said, because the funk is in the floor. And then I learned not to cut you off. I learned later on that's why they put rubber on the bottom of shoes so we don't catch the herb's vibration, because once it comes up electricity. Rubber is the only thing that rebels it. So I think it's some truth to that.

Quite possibly was Rick like all that. You know, sometimes sometimes you meet somebody who you grow up loving.

And then he was cool as a motherfucker. The thing was he.

Quick, He was he was fucking with me, but he's really fucking with Quick, you know what I mean, Quick Quick? Yeah, And I was, you know, they featured me on the record, you know, definitely kind of just put me in that space. But once I laid the verse and ship and I got to holler at him, it's just just a.

Player, bro.

He went in there and sung that it was a remake of one of his old songs, hard to Get, And I mean, dudes sound exactly like the old record. Just went in there and just start cooking, bro. Like that's one thing about all them old artists, Dude, the motherfuckers was special with that ship. And I remember talking to Quick me and Quick sitting back watching him cook. We were like this nigga right here, the truth and Quick on the beat and ricking.

Hear it and his man on the horn.

So that was that was the start of my When I got to death Jam, like I said, it was a ben war with with other labels, but I was like I could go fuck with Russell Simmons, Like I got to this is LLL cool J.

This is that.

So that's why I went to death Jam. Uh Tina, shout out Tina Davis. She's the one who plugged me with the deal.

She's in the bay now shot.

She out there working with Gazi. Yeah.

Yeah, So Tina plugged me with the deal. And then when I got to death Jam, I got to see music on just on a bigger level, you know what I mean.

So I got plugged on some some soundtracks. Uh.

My manager at the time, rest in Peace, Dominum Toome, he was putting me, put me on New York undercover.

It was just like a lot of ship that was happening fast.

For a guy Leoren, Like is he as advertised or shark.

Leord the truth? You know a lot of people say weird shit about Leor. I don't have nothing. I don't have nothing bad I can say about nobody at Deaf Jam, and I met them all, Julie Greenwall, Tina Davis, Leor Cohen, Kevin Lyles, Michael Kaiser, all of them. Dude, just serious about this music business. But Leor was the ring leader of that shit and he just pushed a line. I remember one time we went to I wanted to buy some weed. I was in New York. They had an

So we fuck around.

We jump in the black truck and he takes me down to one hundred and forty fifth down there in Les and he's like, you can get your weed right there. That's Brentson going there and get you some weed. I said, all right, I said, you coming in. He said no, I'm I'm gonna bounce. I'll just leave the car here with you. And I said you're gonna bounce? He said, yeah, I'm good wherever I go. And he just jumps out of a car at fucking two in the morning, dude,

Now.

I thought tailors only give you three hundred dollars. I said, this motherfucker pull about nine thousand dollars out of a tailor machine at ATM, out of an ATM bro And I had never seen no shit like that.

Because you, I mean, I think you set your limit.

But yeah, yeah, I was like, what the fuck is going on? But Leor he is definitely a shark. But the boy, I mean, he gets it done. He gets it done. Don't the funniest thing that I've ever heard him do. He put me on the spot.

One time.

They had a meeting and a PolyGram meeting in San Francisco at some big hotel and he was like, Rich, I'm in town, Come fuck with me. I said, all right, So I pulled up on her. He said, I got this board meeting to go to. Then we can hang out.

But I think we found our jewel. And he's here in the building. Richie.

Rich come up here and then walked me up on stage. He said he can talk a lot better than I can, and he.

Walked off stage. Dude, I'm sitting on the stage with these three hundred people, and I'll just start popping it, you know, just start.

You did that no idea that it was gonna happen.

No, he don't give you no lead up. When he was finished, he's like, you're my fucking man. That's why I love you. Like a fucking chameleon, Richie. I can just set you down anywhere and you adapt. But he was he was a he was a dog when it comes to the business. I used to see him on two phones. Dude, he'd be on this phone. Look, he'd be like, yeah, no, we're gonna get it done. Hold on one second, No, no, no, tell him to get it Okay, give me two seconds.

I told her I need it done. I want to fuck it done. Hold on, yes, no, we're gonna get I mean, dude, I was like, this dude's a fucking maniac now popping from wild to calm. And then he's like, sorry about that, Richie, where were we? I'm like this, do this?

Yeah, you know he always gets a lot of help for making the three sixty deal thing. But I saw the way he explained it, and for a lot of artists how he explained it made sense because he's like, look, if you and I start a restaurant together and I invest all the money. Let's say you're the chef, and then the restaurant it goes crazy, and then you decide to bottle up the sauce from the restaurant and sell it at Walmart. It's the restaurant sauce. Put the money up.

You better know?

So it's like and.

I think you know, But then you see people who don't need that or aren't. That's where it's all about leverage, right situations. It's like you're like, if you're the Russell, you could tell label go fuck yourself exactly because you're like, yo, I'm making more money than you can offer me. Fuck your advance until and he's not you know, the Russell's not against signing a major deal.

He said that.

He's like, Yo, the right deal comes along, sure, but for now, like funk Off, I'm not getting taken it, you.

Know what I mean.

Like he told me, The Russell was like, it ain't even so much about the money for me rich as much as it is if I make a hot record tonight and I want to put it out tonight, I want to freedom, he said. I don't want to ever lose that, he said. And that's kind of what fucks it up for me with you.

Know, you're fully independent right now. Yeah, what's your distro through?

I'm through the Empire. I'm with Ghanzi since he was in Grooves. Yes, I'm grandfathered in back before it was Empire, back.

When well, I mean, were you Did you ever have any interactions with the guy? Brian Sampson.

Brian Sampson, He did distribution, He.

Was the radio guy for Empire when it started, and he used to work Gazis Records at in Grews.

Real real Yeah, no, No, I ain't had no interest with him. You know, we started off with Walter at City Hall. That was our independent man. And that's back when forty and then.

Was moving that that would push the records and all that.

No, no, city Hall would.

So basically what we would do is we'd record the records and Walter would do pre orders. He'd be like, I need twenty thousand of that, and you bring him the record and.

He cast you. Oh that's fine.

So that's how you we walk out of Walkers Walters with a check for seventy bucks, you know, and it was it was good. Now what he was making off that was probably more than that, but shit, that's how the independent game really came up. Before I got with Empire, we used to fuck with City Hall.

Like you're gonna cast you out for a project, this is what you're gonna make off it?

Well, yam, and then it's he wasn't He wasn't even mind the project.

He'll just tell you we're gonna press up to press up twenty thousands, press up ten thousand units of it and bring.

It to me. And I'm a bum from you for seven dollars apiece.

Oh that's fire. Yeah, So you come.

Up here with ten thousand of them at seven apiece, that's seventy And he writes your check for seventy and he distributed them and sell them and he called you back and be like, I need twenty more.

Yeah, And that's how it was rolling.

What year did you end up believing Death Jam?

I was only there for a year. I was in and out like the Burger Joint. So I'm gonna tell you what happened.

Because your Season Veteran was on.

Rush right, yeah? Yeah?

So was that still like yeah.

That was still now Season Veteran was on Death Jam, but.

It was it was all Rush associated labels. That was like the father the parent company. I got to Deaf JM in ninety six, recorded my first record, Seasoned Veteran dropped it, started recording the follow up.

Which I named The Game.

And then that's when the merger shit started popping off, when poly Graham and all that. So Leo and Russell came and sat me down and said, hey, which were about to sell the company, and your sophomore record is about to come out, you know, and it's up to you if you want to stay here. But we don't know who's gonna be running the company, they said. And the fact that you know we met you and as a hustler. You know, we got a this is the proposal,

And they said you can leave. They said, but if you want to stay, you could stay too.

They said, the only reason we're telling you this is we don't know who's gonna be running and it gets shelved or some shit like that. So my manager at the time, do muhim too may He was like, shit, let's take the money and the record. We didn't get another deal, so that's what we did. Well, what ended up happening is whoever was buying the thing, it was a seagram in Sons deal Edgar Brofman's name was in the mix somewhere, so they had something to do with Seagrams.

Because then I would have it was kind of like the New Golden exactly, Yeah, jay Z exactly.

And then I would have, you know, because my first record did well, and then I was a West Coast artist and they didn't really know how to market West Coast music, but they were trying to figure it out. So I think my record is like three hundred and sixty thousand or some shit before a first before sophomore album on the West Coast nigga that was decent numbers, and they was like, well, the next one will definitely go goal.

So I would have stayed if I knew they were going to be in control. But I didn't.

But then when I look at it in hindsight now and see all the fun toy that happened in the industry, I think me leaving was the best thing that could have happened because when you put.

Out I remember, the game was all over every magazine, Like I don't know what y'all's magazine budget was, but I used to buy every source and every double XL right, and I feel like there's like album covers. I remember mentally in my head because I would just see the ad.

Right, I was sitting by that bends with the brim wrong. Yeah, yeah, And that was a dope record.

H So was that was that you ended up putting that out?

Put it out independently, and so it was independently And.

Back then I used to just drop the records, set them on the ground and walk away.

How much would y'all spend on magazine ads?

I always wondered that as a kid, like when Double XL source spread, you know, like.

Yeah, we used to get them their ads for dirt cheap bro bus stops. Back then it was bus benches and source ads, and and that's how you were selling records.

You know.

I wasn't a I wasn't a win wizard at it, like forty in them forty and them was wizards at the independent game. Him and his uncle Saint Charles. They knew how to market and move that shit. For me, it was like after leaving Death Jam, it was almost like my plane just was slowly glide because it was was it like.

A four year break, five year break before the album came out.

Yeah, it was a minute. It was a minute, and then I just kind of dropped it. I didn't promote it much, you know what I mean, because I was used to what Walter was doing. He was just buying our shit, cashing it out, so I didn't have to promote the records. And it's crazy because I remember lee Or he was letting me know, like this shit is payola, like you gotta you have to breath, you gotta grease

We owned those two ships.

Yeah, that was the old school game, right you had to pay for store places.

Yeah, those these top shelves, the ones by the register, we got. That's us and you ain't gonna see nothing there.

But are they used to take like money to rate your album and the source?

I believe so I'm never paid source, but I believe all of that shit was like that, because I remember I spoke on this in my last interview. They had the music box where people used to call them Request and less Ryan. When number one on the box and I called Leors like I told you it was gonna go number one, he was like yeah, I bought the spot and You're like.

I was deflated. Bro. I was deflated.

Bro.

I was like, you know what, I'm going back to the street. I'll said, this shit right here is too much.

What would you say because before this project, the last thing you drop was the grow Room.

Right, which five years ago, twenty twenty.

Is there been anything that has just kind of letting the fire under you again to dive back in and put some new music out.

What my biggest thing was, keV was I had always been making music, right, and always making this kind of music that I make, but the music that was out and that was selling was different, you know, And I didn't think throwing my project into the market while all that other shit was moving was gonna be a good idea. So I was kind of hesitant. I was like, ah, Hele was like, man, put that shit out, put that

But back you know, little Baby was killing it. Uh. You know, it was just a lot of shit out that was still from that other kind of.

Where you're like, yeah, this is where do I fit in here?

Here?

Like I was like, don't know about the way the shit I'm talking. It's cool, but where do I fit in with what's happening? So I kind of was stand office and then I said, fuck it. I put the record out and now the record is getting so much good feedback. But I did a call with the Nerve DJs, a zoom call, and a lot of DJs was chiming in from around the world, and it's one DJ said some real shit. He said, Bro, you dropped on Death d M in ninety six. He said, it's two five.

He said. I remember the.

Specifically, he said, because I follow you, And I was like, damn, rich An, He's not putting out no music with this. He said, So what has happened?

Rinches?

You stayed the same and the shit spent all the way back around. He said, Now it's right back where they ready for the kind of shit that you make. And I didn't even really trip off that that it's been that long, you know what I mean. But it seems like right now you remember how much music was dropping, or it's not a lot of people dropping.

Nas was one of the first dudes to start fucking.

With the hit boy and then he was like, hey, if you old school and you got music, put that shit out, put that shit out.

Yeah.

I had recently, I talked with ice Cube and Exhibit on the pod recently and I thanked ice Cube because I was like, hey, dude, thank you for putting out like an ice Cube album and like ice Cube trying to fit in right and Exhibit his new album comes out next month. But I had the pleasure listening to it and I was like, bro, thank you. This is an Exhibit album. This is not like you don't sound washed, try trying to hang with the kids. Like, at the end of the day, this art form that we all

Want to hear fucking jay Z do little Baby.

Shit like exactly. I mean like and it's and little Baby shit is flying hard him and.

Listen a little baby I'm gonna go go there for that.

But if I want to listen to Richie Rich or if I want to listen to you know, whoever it is, It's like, I know what I want from cube album.

That's what me and Glasses Malone talk about. A lot of Glasses is a real student of this shit is amazing. Yeah, he knows this shit and he's been pecking on me, like, dude, put some fucking music out. Rich He said, you a cool old nigga. Bro, He said, you an older nigga. He said, but you got style, you got clean whips. You still talk that shit. He said, that's the ship

He said, I want to hear rich doing Rich.

So I think there's this.

I think there's I think at the end of the day, man, there's a market for it, and there was always a market for it. I feel like there's a artists who have kind of been If you look at a guy like Berner, Berner's had like a really successful independent hip hop career, right, his shit is really like laid back player shit, Like he's just talking some game and talking about like and it's like, you know, the production is he's never really chasing any like crazy like trendy production.

Yeah, Malachi is cold talented dude bro.

Definitely just fucking man talented little dude bro.

That whole movement they got, they got a lot of cool shit going on, but little Mally be talking that ship.

No, he's hard bro, Like I mean, I'm whatever he I man. I remember when when I heard him rap for the first time game of Goosebumps and then he came up here and just destroyed it. It's dope to see him, like, you know, grow up like two or three years ago when he came through.

You know what I like about what Larrussell has brought to the game is it's stripped down back to where it's coming through the ear and not through the eyes. Because for a minute they took it from the ear to the eye. If you didn't have ten cubans on and you wasn't the man, you feel me, and music has always been a thing that should come through the fucking ears, you feel me.

That's how we had. We had to listen to you that way.

There YouTube, there was a discman or a walkman and exactly or the radio and your and your imagination.

So what l Russell is showing is that, Okay, you don't have to have all that to put your project into the space and you know, try to get yourself some fans. And I think that's cool because there's a lot of artists who feel like they might need to go rob and steal and kill to get the piece, the rap costume I gotta have. I need the rais, I need the ghost, you know. I gotta have the

He's just like you might see him on a ten speed taking a bike ride.

You know, you'll see Larry in a fucking Ferrari with the bike on mounted on top of that bitch shit.

So it's coming back to.

End up being individuals where people can like you for what you do and you don't have to be doing what everybody else is doing. That's what I like about what's happening. I've always felt like my lane was game just to just to chop some game.

My uh, my strong suit is my voice. People's like man Rich got that voice.

But for a while, the music shit had got to where like if you wasn't stupid balling, you just you just you wasn't shit, you know what I mean?

Sure, I think I think it's dope to see fans like just like they just want to relate to people, Yeah, exactly. And I think with Russell. You mentioned a thirty year cycle. I feel like there's like this cycle of like he's doing the new version of getting it out the trunk back in the day when when when we think of the bag or we think of Texas selling CD's out the trunk, like lo Russell has, I feel like changed the way a lot of independent artists think about what could be possible.

Right Well, he gave me that.

I told him when I came back to the Pergola after before I messed my leg up. I told him, I said, bro, I got tons of music. I said, I just don't know how to release it. I said, because it was a different game. I said, show me that you know how you're releasing the music. He's like, I got you. And the cold thing about Larrussell is people think that he just is in. He's just an independent artist man, dude just booking his own shows.

It's all you feel me.

He's got his own infrastructure, like everything he does is all.

It's like, Yeah, if you want to come to a Larussell show, you're going to buy the ticket through me, and you're going to pay what you want and then will approve your bid.

Exactly and which is at his merch there, and I mean, what I really like about him is he's not selfish.

Bro.

Should you see the tiny desk? Yes, okay, so when you see the tiny desk, you've seen the same cast of him, t the musicians, the cameraman. I mean, yeah, we all rolling, We all rolling. It ain't oh yes, just me, y'all fall back. I got to go do tiny.

Desks, you know what I mean.

And and it's a certain amount of love inside of his creativity that's making people realize like, oh, it's okay to just be yourself.

And I like, you know, such a rough place, you know, I like that. Uh, you know, he's he's also showing like Hell is an amazing place. Go to Vallejos right by the water, and yeah, you know it's it's a it's a shaky place, right, but it's and so is everywhere else. Is everywhere else exactly exactly for sure. Well, look, man, I appreciate you pulling up. The album is called Richard.

Richard's out right now.

I'm glad you got the wrap, Battery back in your back, Come home, brother, anything else coming?

H Yeah, I got a record. Me and Dj Fresh just did a Tonight Show album. Okay, so that's gonna be dope. It's supposed to be the first off of his The Legends series that he's dropping. I got another record following the Richard album. I haven't titled it yet, but it's ready to go.

We shoot.

We're currently shooting videos for that. See, I'm ahead of the game. Well, I'm ahead of the game, right. I got three records. I got the Fresh, I got another album behind that. See, for me, making songs is the easy part, but it's just getting it out and now that I've learned how to make some money off the music. It ain't always the music that you're gonna get the money off of. But if you package an album and a vinyl and a hoodie, somebody will give you two hundred.

For that, for sure.

You feel me.

Yeah, It's almost like when you just think about streaming income, it could be disheartening exactly because there's not a lot of money there.

Right.

It's like, if you use the album and the music as a vessel to monetize people who fuck.

With you, exactly, all you gotta do. You can get you.

You can get you a fan base of two hundred people, and if they'll spend twenty to fifty dollars with you a month.

You're chilling. You chilling.

You know you're chilling because a lot of people don't know you can get on these majors and do all these shows and go to these awards ceremonies and your mouth be white and dry.

I mean, we all.

Heard the TLC stories. We've all heard the stories. It ain't always how it looks, you know what I mean. So it's cool that you can get direct to the consumer. And what else is cool is that people are still supporting the artists they really fuck with they do.

Man, well, I appreciate you. Go follow this guy with.

Rg www dot. I'm trying to get you straight to the website. So my what do you call him? Is at the real Richie Rich. That's my Instagram. All of my socials are at the real Richie Rich. And thus spelled t h A R E A l R I C h I E r I c ed rich. You can get merch. I got a website ww dot double worldwide.

Double is spelled like bubblegum d U B B L E world Hi.

Get these hoodies, bro, I didn't know I was coming to see bro, I gotta assume something.

Get tartets up, man.

Uh any plans for the All Star weekend.

You better know what.

Yeah, me and Russ got something cooking for the All Star weekend. It's back on, bro. It seemed like people ready for the rescue man, and I got a whole bunch of game for him.

I love it so yeah, I had to make my rounds. Come down here.

Appreciate you get pulling up there. It is Richie, rich my guy.

Come on, let's get it.

Boom fire