#99 - Demrick & Tony Choc

of that. So we get to chop it up with the homie Demrick as we're doing to staying on the independence scene for a very long time and in a group with Exhibit and be Real called serial Killers. It's been you know, him and Dizzy right put out an album together early last year. And second time Demrick's been on the podcast. First time he came on with Dizzy. This is the first time he's coming on kind of solo because Tony Chalk doesn't talk much. So there's that.

Let's get into it. Shout out to our sponsors at odd socks, odd socksoficial dot com, keyword bootleg Camp save twenty percent off the most comfortable socks in the world. God damn it, let's get into the interview. Butlet camp podcast episode number ninety nine, Wait one hundred is with Whack one hundred, which will be coming out Monday Friday. I don't know when is it? When is it coming out? Cook Monday? But ninety nine is here with Demrick Let's go and Tony Chalk. Sure for people who don't know

who Demrick is, Demrick is an incredible MC. And for people who don't know who Tony Chalk is, Tony Chalk is just an alright beat maker. Damn and you signed him. You're gonna put that out there about your boy? Man, This is you know, I mean, this is yours manager. This is horrible management. This horrible management. Horrible manager. No, Tony Chalk is an alien. He's an incredible producer and uh my favorite Vietnamese person in the world. God bless you, Tony.

This guy put me onto the best food I've ever had, like I've never I never even fucked with fub before this guy and he put me on man. Oh yeah yeah. He invited me over to a Korean barbecue at his house. M we did get fucked up, man, But listen. So Demrick, you're here. You guys are putting an album out next week, September fifteenth, Lessons on the Way. Yeah, how was it working? Like, obviously you've done this before with Happa a few times, right, So what was it like doing a whole project with

a producer that wasn't DJ Hoppa. I thought it was dub. You know, Tony Chak has a bunch of different like styles of making beats, you know, but he has like a signature sound that kind of like flows through all that production. So the whole thing was like, you know, kind of flipping on my style, you know, how I

want to go shit. I could really spit on and just kind of like, you know, I like to get melodic on some courses, but really I like to go heavy with the barwork, right, And so he was like, Okay, we're gonna do it, and then you know, he put

his twist. So some of it's like trap, but like with hip hop drum, like you know, he kind of like would just come to the table with with song samples that I never heard before, in tempos that were always he likes a lot of up tempo type shit in my opinion, and that was kind of different for me because I do you know, smoke and chill music.

Sometimes it get retrospective. And so the fact that he was keeping the tempos up and shit like that, I I just took it as a challenge to do something different, because I'm gonna tell you this, bro, it wasn't It's not just with DJ Hoppa along the way, Like you know, I was dropping full projects with Scoop Deville. I was dropping full projects even this year alone. Are you a

part of the Get Busy Committee? I wasn't a part of the Get Busy Committee, but I did a lot of record that was Ryu School Andopathy yeah and apathy, Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah No. I think you know, it's a missing in hip hop today, the idea of a full collaborative project with a producer shout out b real.

That's what he always told me about Cypracil, you know, he said, that's what gave them the sound was work with DJ Muggs, and so they was always about like finding a producer who you could get in in the trenches with. You know, even originally from my group Tangle Thoughts, I was rapping Tech would do all the beats when

I originally started rapping. So the way I looked at it is locking in with somebody and actually having a meeting of the minds about the music is how you come up with the best shit instead of just and it's cohesive exactly, instead of just pulling beats from different people this and that day. And you know, Tony Chok might call me like, oh shit, we need this kind of song, now, we need this, or hey, I was doing I flipped this beat this way. Hey, take a

listen to this now, see what you think. And you know, actually being in the trenches making a piece of art you're gonna present for it's like good to know that the people that's doing the music give a fuck just as much as you do about the content of the songs. How many songs did you guys cut all together? Because I know there was a bunch of didn't make it right. Yeah, we probably cut. So there's there's ten on the hours, so I would say we'd cut maybe like seventeen eighteen records.

You know, I'm to the point now with making music where like a lot of times I won't even finish your record if I don't feel like, if that energy doesn't stick with me, you know, I'll start something, do a verse in the chorus, and I might think about it the next day bumping it. You know, some people that I fuck wud let them hear the music and just kind of sit with it for a second and say, maybe that one's not the one. You know what would be because Denmrik, you've done a great job of having

a great, independent, successful career as a rapper, right. I think at the end of the day, most artists who are aspiring to do this shit, all they really want to do is be able to have a good living for themselves while while doing what they love. Right. So you've done a great job of always having music out always, you know, being able to you know, do your thing

while just doing what you love, right. So what what would be some advice you would give some up and coming artists as far as like going to independent around and the things that you've kind of applied to your career that have made it sustainable for you to pay your bills off this rap shit. Yeah, well, I would say first, first, like just the typical way that you you know, because I kind of got on through the

hype man. Then songwriting and then kind of doing that and then Just as soon as I was able to just start dropping music and seeing that I could build fans through releasing music, I was like, that's all I need to do, because I'm not running out of ideas for versus songs. I'm living every day. I'm gaining more

perspective as I've grown. And if you've seen anything I've people who been listening to me for a while might be like, damn, I kind of seen this nigga grow up through the music, right because I've been dropping music for so long. So getting consistent is a big part of it. And like, don't wait necessarily for the perfect time to release music, or you know, if you believe in the song, release it and don't get too caught up in the one record or the one thing. You know,

this is it. You know, it's not necessarily that way for every artist, and along the way, one thing's for sure. As long as you are being solid and true within your music, people are gonna gravitate to it. And as you build fans and base, you know, and people that fuck with you, you you know, you build power through that. And so I just think about focusing on your fans,

staying consistent. Don't really get caught up, and you know, there's a lot of money goes into this game, so you want to have a big record or things like that. You know that ship inside, Yeah exactly, it can happen on some lottery ship like but with the lottery too, you know what I'm saying. But if you want to just drop some some dope ship and build with people,

you know, you gotta get in. You gotta get smart about how you're gonna do your releases, stay consistent, and don't get you know, block out the noise man, was that like the goal for you was just having a core fan base and then consistently dropping music to feed them and then watching it kind of just grow. I think initially I had I was like, shit, I'm finna get it, you know. When I moved out to LA It's like, shit, I'm gonna get signing six months, I'm

finna pop album blow up. You know. But as I started to get in the game further, I would actually see motherfuckers with one hits, one hit wonder from five years ago, one hit wonder from X amount of years ago, not looking like they doing so good. And I started to see some actual shit that made me be like you know, I really only thought about rapping and hustling as my job and what I was gonna do with

my life. So once I started seeing people fall off that look so big to me, you know, they pulled the curtain back, and I see the way it looked behind the curtain wasn't necessarily the way that I thought it but thought it was gonna be. But what I did see is real people who build real fan bases didn't really get caught up in the industry focused on releasing dope shit and them building long lasting careers off

of their creativity. So I started to think, like, yeah, I want the big hit, And the whole thing about the big hit is that shit is still happening out the fucking blood right, you know what I mean. There's still the chance. But if you spend all your time chasing that and you ain't building yourself fountain, you're going to be sad at the end because life is hard. It's one thing I learned for Show. Life's hard the

whole way. So you know what I'm saying, If you want to stay on top of this shit, you gotta find what works for you and go fucking hard for what you want. You have some big homies in the game. You mentioned be Real obviously exhibits somebody you know obviously you guys shout out to the Serial Killers projects that are crazy. What was like something you took from each

of them as far as helping them on stage? You know, because I think the first time I ever met you was in Idaho, you were it was a Busy Bone Be Real tour that was actually the very first tour that I ever went on would be Real. Yeah, uh, And Busy Bone didn't show up until like midnight and then didn't perform because Busy Bone. I had to pick Busy Bone up that night in Boise from the airport in my ninety two Hondo accord. And when I tell you that man was on another planet. He was galactic.

He was shot out Busy Bone. He was. I was like, I couldn't even I didn't know what the fuck was going on. Yeah, crazy, I thought I was. I thought that guy was possessed in My friend said like, this motherfucker gonna kill me. But no, But like, what are the things you learned from be Real from X as far as like early on, because you know, obviously Exhibit's done a great job of sustaining you know, you know, for people who think that exhibit fell off or exhibits

a boss, he's a businessman. He's fucking pivoted in so many different ways in this music industry. Same thing with be Real. What are the things that you kind of learned from them that right there? That for sure, the ability to look at opportunities, look at the landscape, and get involved in different things, you know, and not be so one track minded. But they told me to don't chase sounds, don't try to if you always try to, you know, be real. It's like the shit come in

full circle every time around. And why would I now believe him? He been in the game since the beginning of what you know, since early eighty nine to ninety. He came in the game and had a hit record, so he's seen shit come around a couple of times. So if he's telling me, you know, just stick to the script of what you fuck with, let the game come to you. That was one thing I picked up and obviously performing with them lot how to rock a crowd. I mean this shit like these these ain't club shows

with two hundred people. So I've been on stage with cipers from the eighty thousand. You know, I've been on stage with with Exhibit in front of thirty forty thousand, you know, big shows and a bunch of nights in the row too, you know, in two years. And so that's kind of the way that I seen was big shows, big productions, real performance, being able to rap, perform your lyrics, control the crowd, hold it the fuck down. When you're

on stage, you are actually entertaining people. You got one hour if you just fucking dancing to your own songs the whole fucking time. You know, that shit gonna get old quick when I say when that when that hit start dying down and the show stopped and they stopped, the booking stopped coming, because you didn't really pay attention to the performance aspect of the game and everything. So I learned so much shit from from them that it's

kind of hard. I was actually watching something and they were talking about mentors, and I really am, like, am you know, I really have some dope ass mentors in my life, you know, be real and Exhibit and that I started out from one to rap for those dudes, to hype in it, for them to do out the songs with them, to doing albums with them and a long standing relationship that still goes to this day. So

that means what does that mean? It means you didn't fuck it up, you didn't drop the ball, you didn't get too big head, and you stayed solid. And that's one of the things. It's hard to get a big head when you see people that have done it so big for so long and see that they still grinding every day, they still going forward every day. But I see what it means to the people and what it means to them and how they present it. So stay solid, man,

And I'm lucky that I have mentors like that. Yeah, I think when you talk about the performance, I think that one of the things that kind of showed through is that versus battle with the Locks and you set. It's like them dudes was not wrapping over their lyrics. They wasn't read rock and there was rocking the crowd

and Dipset didn't take it serious at least anything. I'm not saying they didn't take it all the way serious, but obviously there's a difference between you know, did I feel like Dipset's peak happened after the Locks really started to come into the game. Even though CAM was around during the same time the Locks came in, but like the dipset wave really hit, Like I always think of like two thousand and one, two thousand and two, and

you think of the Locks. The Locks was late nineties, you know, ninety seven, ninety eight, and just kind of like the different eras of like performing like yeah, not over your own lyrics, yeah shows. And that's what I

say when I said they weren't prepared. I wasn't saying it in the in the scheme of the whole shit, but as far as like rapping, yeah, like to be able to just throw on a beat like who shot you and then Jada know his who shot your freestyle from it, and then just and rip it for two minutes straight exactly antalk shit, be funny, be charismatic, hold it down and actually delivering full versus all the way through, you know. And that's that shit is that it takes time.

You gotta hone your craft on that level to be able to do that. You know, it's you started, however you started. I feel like nowadays motherfuckers don't even they just start like basically in the room with the hommies, you know, just making songs on the computer. You know, I think when I started it was more like, you know, you was rapping in a cipher or some shit like that.

You know, But it's it remains the same. It starts from a very minimal place, and as it builds up, you gotta look at all of what hip hop is about and everything and figure out what you want to participate in and what you want to focus in. But if you want to do the whole shit performing as a part of it, you know what I mean, and rapping exactly rapping, that's it. Hey, what up? Man? We got to interrupt the interview real quick to tell you

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got the Nickelodeon, they got it all. So make sure you hit that website oddsocksofficial dot com save twenty percent off with the promo code bootleg keV. All right, go do that shout out to odd Socks. Let's get back to the interview Tony Chuck. So, you did a whole album with Caski Fine Art, which is fire. Thank you. What was the difference between working with Caski and Demrick on a whole project together talking to the microphone, you

fuck you. The difference is Kathy work way too fast and I try to keep up with him, but I don't know. It's it's a whole different vinument. I've I've learned a lot from working with Kathy and and and working with Demrick Denver kind of slowed me down a little bit and make me stinks more and you know, be creative. Right. And then with Kathy he was like, yo, go and go, let go pum pump and then then I go back and fix right. So yeah, so with Demrick is like, you take your time, do it right

to first go around and yeah. Yeah, so so I learned my page for what certain artists and yeah, what was your guys is like, Uh, if you had to pick a record one record off for Blessings on On by the Way, the title tracks my favorite, but uh, what's your guys's favorite record on that? Yeah? I like still that's one of my favorite as well. I would, but I like the intro I see that Blessings on the Way. What I feel like that record is like

something that's connecting with a lot of people. A lot of people are feeling it right now with everything that's been going on. Yeah, exactly, It's like it's a song that speaks to a lot of people. You know, it was written in a in a form that's kind of like for everybody, you know. What I mean, Blessings on the Way who out here. You know, we're in the time of everybody grinding getting to it. Everybody's blessed, everybody's going hard for their shit. Everybody is seeing, you know,

knocking shit off. They list one step at a time. So that's what it is. Blessings on the Way embodies that. So what do you you know with the pandemic? Obviously I don't even know if we're on the other side of it yet, but like, I know you depend a lot on the live shows, right, Like, how did that kind of make you rethink things or maybe make you pivot differently? Twenty I think I'm assuming you were gonna

be on tour. I was going to be on tour And what happened is like, because you know, shout out, this is because we did we during the pandemic that you know when you show right, you had to cancel on the ring. Yeah, we canceled one because that whole thing. They wanted us to make an announcement for people to get vaccinated or show up with the with the negative tests, and now I feel like that's kind of the norm, But when they wanted us to say it, it was kind of like I don't know if we want to, like,

you know, really put that out there like that. So yeah, we canceled one show, but the other show was good. But what I'm saying is basically, during when COVID hit, it gave me a chance to sit at home and say, hey, number one, I'm gonna make more music. I'm gonna drop more shit. I'm gonna double down with putting things out online and things like that and really get projects like the one with Tony Chak Dune like me and exhibiting b Real did another Serial Killers album. Me and Dizzy

did a blaze with us too during that. Yeah that's real me. I dropped a lot of I dropped a lot of I dropped me and Mike and Key dropped Championship Rounds and uh so just a lot of music that I put out. And I gotta shout out Reazy because we dropped the album called Payday. So I dropped so much music the last couple of years of this ship. Because now we're looking at the pandemic. Shit almost been around a year and a half year years of March,

right two years of March, and it's crazy. Uh I was, And how I know that is because I was on stage, me and Berner and Larry June. We did four shows right before the COVID. It was they were on Cali right, yeah exactly, and me and Berner, we was on stage. You know, I go up on stage and ju Xanax patrol with over. We was we was doing the fucking the shoulder ship, you know, instead of doing it, you know, because it was kind of like we didn't really know

what was going to happen. So uh, of course everything locked down, and I said, shit, let me double down on these businesses. You know, let me let me figure out you know, Stony Point, the cannabis brand, you know, let me figure out uh, the gas Co mac tonight,

you know, let me figure out this merch situation. Let me figure out we just dropped the beer Stony Juice that we dropped me and Happa with a company called four h five North Brewing, and you know, you just double god Beard Kings you know on the side in the catalog. Yeah exactly. And but it's it's about kind of like cultivating these other little business ideas and seeing

where they could grow to. You know. Obviously being in the cannabis market is something that I feel like a lot of people want to do but right now, but a lot of people can't really get in on a real level, And so I had the opportunity to really be involved with it. So the thing is, it's like how hard do I want to go for it? You know? How big do I want to push it? Today? Yeah?

I think that's the thing. A lot of rappers will get into the weed game and they think that like you just get a strain and that's where it stops, Like the weeds going to sell itself. It's like, bro, you really got to work as hard if you really want to pop off in the weed game because it's so competition is almost as crazy. I mean, it's not as crazy as the rag game, but it's up there. Yeah. I mean there's so much weed, especially in Cali, it's

so much. How do you how are you gonna separate yourself from the pack, not even just quality wise, just

braining wise, just like you know. I think that's another thing, like with the weed game, It's like there's artists who might might not be as like I guarantee you there's bigger artists that have weed trains that aren't even touching how successful your weedstrain is, you know, and that's what they should they'd be giving weed strains and ship that some people don't even smoke weed, you know what I'm saying and doing for the name literally jay Z. Yeah,

shout out to who Hope is just historically not a pot guy. Yeah, I don't, you know, you know, shout out to my guy g Easy, he just launched flower shop. Never was a big weed guy. I mean he's been smoking more recently, but he was somebody who wasn't like a big weed guy, you know exactly, but you look like someone like Dizzy, who's obviously yo, dizzey. Shit gotta go because people are gonna be like if it's Dizzy, right, ship I'm a smoker because I know he's a smoker exactly.

And it's like understanding that we actually met with the breeders, built with them. Example, Yeah, right, Burner's got the biggest weed shit. And like if you think of Burners like a rapper, like there might be bigger rappers in the space, but Burners all in exactly from the jump, you know what I'm saying. So yeah, and I think it's it's dope to see the stony points shit going crazy. So that's it. Besides Blessings on the Way, we got to like four or five more months left in the year.

Anything else you're gonna be dropping right after this, right after Blessings on the Way, which drops September fifteenth, you got to check this album outs Fire. What is that on Thursday? Wednesday? It's a Wednesday. I think it's Wednesday because Friday is the seventeenth, right, Yeah, and then Stony point three with me and Hoppa is about to drop, so we got that next. It's completely recorded and ready. And then me and Jared Benton going in the year

with an EP together, so that'd be fire. That's it, bars Man, having fun with it, you know, just talking our shit. You know, I think at this point that I like what I see with a lot of rappers that are out there right now getting to love. I really love what Bennie the Butcher and Zelda's doing. I

love what you know. I like to see Freddie Gibbs, you know, somebody that I can sit to be around the whole time I've been around grinding and see where he's sitting right now, and just seeing rappers really sticking to their guns and getting what they deserve like you said almost like would be real, told you like, let the game come to you exactly, bro, So that's what those guys did. Yeah, So as far as the lyrical shiit and just talking our ship like that, shit ain't

going away. As long as I keep experiencing it, I must keep on bringing it to the table. Hey, Tony, what advice would you give upcoming up and coming producers? Don't give up, doesn't matter what type of beat you make. Don't give up. Don't give up, don't give up. Why do you say that? Have you been Have you been around for a while? I mean this must of the time I want to give up. But how long you've been making beats? Tony? How old are you? Damn? You

fucking old as fuck? Bro, Bro, I'm just fucking with you, Tony. You're like two years behind me, I know, but I'm just saying, bro, y'all Asian motherfucker's age? So well? How old do I look? You look like you're about twenty seven? So yeah, hey man, it blacked on cracking. Asian people don't age, I said, facts, shout out to all the ages,

so listen, So don't give up. But this is what I want to say about Tony Chak and his production is I feel like he was the person that when I was going out to Arizona, they would always say, Hey, you gotta get with this producer named Tony Chok, Like he really got that shit, and he came to the studio a couple of times. And I don't think you ever had an opportunity to really press play. Yeah you know, yeah, but the way that it actually worked out is you

grind it. You ended up signing with with Bootleg Cad convinced Hiss, asked to move out here, to move to LA And it's like, by the time I see you in the studio right here, I realized that the hunger would it wouldn't be denied. You know. It's just like you every day making beasts. I follow you on social media. I see you consistently working. I'm like, shit, when you that hungry and you got that much talent, it's timing and it's actually getting in the mix of putting the

work in. And it's one of the hardest working producers that I that I met, you know, and he'd be running from one session to the to the I'm coming and you know, I work hard, so I'm like this, this dude going crazy, and the fact that because it was really you who was like, yo, y'all got to

make this ep hap you know? So I have a feeling like for people out there that haven't heard of his production, like, it's a lot of big records, a lot of music, a lot of foundation and groundwork being laid, and it's only a matter of time before everybody gonna on a project with him. Shock is gonna be on everybody ship. That's it. Period, there it is, man, hope it's coming to this. He got everyone who doesn't know I bust this guy's balls always, not just for the

cameras are rooming. You gotta keep them humble, man, gotta keep them humble. Yo, what the fuck at man? The fu? I didn't know how racist that would be, if I'm being honest. I was going to try to. I was gonna try I was going to try to get Fuz brought in for the interview, but I figured that might be a little knocking on racism. Door. I asked him yesterday. He was like, He's like, no, we're good. I love fun, But you know, I just don't know, man, don't I

don't want to get canceled online? Who like CAF brings fun the Vietnamese producer's interview and he's canceled. Well, listen man. The album is out September fifteenth, that's next Wednesday. Uh, this will be out Friday, so five days away. Uh and uh there's a few there's three or four songs out right now. Four songs right, yeah, Yeah, there's four records out. Rich record just dropped what you're doing really well. I saw yeah took me, Uh, Paul Wall that record's

out the money and it being's dizzy record. Yeah, and then what was the what was the one with Alexis and Yeah, Sexton kid Man ride from Mine there it is, Go go support Demrick Tony Chuck shout out to don't we have an album release party coming up where Arizona Monarch on the twenty ninth of September. Go Phoenix. Get your tickets, they're only ten dollars. It's easy, all right, pull up man, if you're in Arizon. A lot a lot of people in Arizona watch this. So come come

the fucking I'm release party. Tony will make a beat live on stage. He's gonna bring his fucking ableton push and be get it all right. There it is Boom