That's the Chronicals.
He gonna tell you how we go.
Welcome to the Gangster Chronicles podcast, the production of iHeart Radio and Black Effect Podcast Network.
That's how I got So that's how I got so cool with a lot of New York artists, man, because regardless of what was going on, Man, I got a lot of respect from a lot of New York artists and vice versa. So you know, I was never into the bullshit. You know, I used to fuck with niggas like uh, Pete and Premiere and early Nis before he came out. We all used to hang out with the Premier man in the white MPV van and he used to pick me up and roll me around, take me
to the crib. And so that's how I got familiar hanging out with him and people like Tretch and Ship like that on each coach.
So respect do makes sense? I know, I know you fuck with Prima. I knew that I seen Preme bring you out at summer Steads in New York. But I knew he was fucking with him back in the day because you know Primes, my Man and Pete and all them.
Yeah, prem brought me the bb Kings one time. Crazy He brought me out to do some stuff with Black Poet.
Uh.
Like I said, anytime I would go to New York on the promo run or anything like that, ship I would call Primo and Premo pick us up. Primo introduced me to Swisher sweets Man blunts.
And crazy crazy because to me, the Swishers, that's like, yeah, the Swishers to l A, we do. We did Philly We did Phillies back then, and then moved to the Dutch Master. Yeah, the White House really really L's.
And I smoked my first blunt with Primo. Man. He introduced me. When I came back the La probably like eighty nine ninety Nigga, I ran straight to Save Vins and it was Billy blunts man. And I've been smoking blunts ever since. Man.
La was always CALLI to me was always eight people smoke zags because New York we never have We don't have orange Jaggs. We didn't have them to way later. We had Bam Boo back in.
The day, right, we had the zags and shit. So that's how we used to get all smoke on. And then once I came back from New York, I'm like, I ain't never smoking that shit, no more big factory blunts. Niggas stuffed their motherfuckers and just be smoking all day like a big ass Cuban cigar. But just you know, shit, So definitely got love for New York.
You know, I'm like you, like I always like LA was always cool to me. I never I never felt none of that fun because you know, I've been fucking with mugs and Cypruss came out since they was seven eight three, and you know be Real was named Louis, so you know what I mean, Like I knew them from back then. So to me, like that was always my people in LA when I came to LA, always felling with mugs and b relling them. So to me, LA was always cool.
Definitely. That's crazy, man. You know what, this would be a dope ass show just listening to you and a tell those stories man about back in the day. Two legends, just building man reminiscent. What's happening to my people? It's another episode against the Chronicles podcast with m C eight and myself Norm Steele. Tonight we have legendary a n R DNTE Ross in the building. Now Dante Ross signed a whole bunch of dope people, and he telling us some real dope stories, you know, like he talked about
Big Daddy came putting hands on Slick Rick. But it ain't all about that. If you in your car, let you seek back and recline back. If you at home for yourself a drinking your favorite beverage and shake out this dope conversation.
Hey, I'm right here, man, I'm for it. You know I was. I was always a fan of the way you wrap the off beat on Beach style. That was always charged to me. You know who took me under? Was that was you know, we love that record in New York and it was fucking with that.
Yeah, yeah, they banged it took me under in New York. All that that early music to drive by Ship.
Yeah, that was my ship. That shit was funky. I like because y'all also had like you had, like you had the Lee Dorsey joint, Like you had a lot of breaks, Like I think Noon was doing it, but you was using a lot of ill breaks.
Slip was doing a lot of that. You know, the meter and le Dosh all that Slip. Slip was one of those digging the crates type of DJ.
So, yeah, he had to give it up joint the Lee Dorset Ship. When I when I heard that, I was like, Oh, these motherfuckers got records.
Over here, definitely, and you produced to right down to you don't produce a Yeah, I don't produce anymore, but you know I did for a long time.
Yeah, And I always had my hand that ship with like whether it was Poobab Brand, Nubian or Third Base, whoever was. Oh, I was this ship. And then later on I did. I did bigger alternative records. I produced ever last solo record shit like that.
Yeah, that every last record was huged, man, for those people. You know, we're not gonna do the standard introduction cause I'm like just sitting back here, like y'all do we have A and R legs? And you know when people it was really A and R records, A real A and R, real record man, Dante Ross Man, we appreciate you coming on man.
Man, it's a pleasure to be here. Man.
Yeah, we will continue on with this dope conversation man, because I think your contribution to hip hop, because both of y'all contribution to hip hop, man is very understated, man. And I think I listened to people give people props, and I don't you know, everybody don't deserve the props that they necessarily get because a lot of people take credit for stuff that they didn't do. But you really had a hand and this stuff. I think that's what made you real special is you.
Had a hand with it. Had I mean, I love I love the music, so you know what I mean. I grew up like loving music my whole life. I never knew what I was gonna do, and then somehow I lucked in the music business because our friends who was you know, was getting on, was popping, Like I grew up with the beasties and and all that, so being around it, man, I was just so lucky that not have to fucking do construction anymore and fucking all
the bullshit I was doing. So for me, it was always like music first, all the other shit the second.
You know what I mean, Yeah, for sure, I bet you feel like you never worked a day in your life.
Then, Yeah, it's crazy to say that because I always say that I've never had a real job. I was like, I don't really know what that's like. I just know how to do what I do, and somehow I managed to make it, you know, work for me. You know, I got lucky, man, you know, and everyone doesn't get lucky. Doing an R is so overrated in a sense because most people who love music have good taste. You know. I was just lucky enough to be in the spot to open the door for some people, you know, and
keep my spot. But you know, it's like a lot of A and R people are just we're really just glorified super fans. We're not that much more than that. You know, people get people get super gassed on that shit, but it ain't really all that.
Yeah, I was an A and R seven years, man, I did it for seven years, the mind of music published and always tell people I was a guy that had a pin with no ink in it.
I feel you, man, I mean amount of great shit that people. You know, my boss wouldn't let me sign sup so because there's kill him then, Like I wanted to sign them, and he was like, we're not going to put that record out and I was like, for real, I could have signed him. So that's like, you know, and there's always so many that tells me what you can and can't do, and this shit is just stupid, you know, the motherfuckers you don't really know the culture want to tell you what to do.
Yeah, I got a big one. So these people from England had a bag of money. They owned a lot of catalog. They actually owned the Chocolate Dyte record. They actually made all their money from sample. They owned that record, right, and they had that Yard Born people. Was a bunch of gap band stuff. So they you know, they talked to me and I actually met them clearing the sample. I was cleaning the sample for Glasses album and they were asking me who did the production on the records, right?
And I was like, oh, we did all this stuff ourselves. So I met with him in La and next thing you know, I had the job. Right. They were telling me they moved me to the office in LA. So my boy top Dog from TV, he hits me up, man, this is maybe two thousand and six, This is real early, like two thousand and six, two thousand and seven, he says, hey man, And at that point he only got I think he has. He got Kendrick, he got Jay Rock, he got Apps, so he got school Boy Q. That
was the whole TD roster, right. They were doing this stuff out the back of the roage and Carson and I knew he had some shit. Like you said, we're fans of music. I said, man, this dude got some shit, man, and this Kadi kid is unbelievable. You know. He had all these big words and stuff. He didn't wrap like the normal sixteen year old. So he came to me and said, hey, steal, see if I got to put
some money in these guys pocket. They getting askedy, see if you can give me a publishing deal for about one hundred and fifty two hundred, not that much money. I went up and asked him. They about laughed me out the office. They said, these people have no analytics. What are we just giving money away? You know that? No, no, no, And the funny part about it. They hit me two years later, Hey man, you think we can still do that deal? I said, yeah, right, No.
An or means analytics and research. Now that's all that should mean. People reading numbers on paper, you know, and that's that doing shit like that, you'll find you might find a fly by night record of a one off artist, but you ain't finding an artist I got, like a career artist. You're not going to find somebody who's around forever that way. That's just you're gonna find that one thing that's lightning in a bottle, but you're not going to find a great one like that very rarely. Man.
Yeah, collectively, all those four guys man have all sold upwards. I always keep kind of saying, man, these dudes are so like men twenty twenty five million records collectively, you know.
I mean kay Dot when he was just a pen like you know, before section eighty. I remember he had the mixtapes out. He was just writing for Dre and that's how he got plugged in. You know, he was one of his writers. And he's like to me, like, because the era that that we come from, you know, most a lot of disraption now couldn't hold water back in that era in the nineties or early two thousands. You know, Kendrick could hold water back then. He's dope like he would have been dope back then. Where a
lot of these dudes is coming. You know, it's it's cool for now, it ain't really cool for like the standards that like we have, you know what I mean, it's a little different, you know because because lyrics don't like, rapping doesn't really count like that anymore, say any ghibli.
Yeah, the standard of what we I guess uh stood on when it came hip hop or whatever. Uh it was a bigger standard that we took. We took pride, and that's how I try to tell motherfuckers. We took pride in making songs, you get me. We didn't take pride and just coming out rapping. You getting anybody do it? S not that, not that, not the clown. But we had ship like you know, we had rappers, and we
had MC's who made songs. Right, those are the type of artists who you look up today and they're still able to do a concert or or put out a single or video or whatever. Because we were able to uh uh stand the test of time because of the pride we took. You get nobody. Nobody wanted to release no whack ship to be on the radio, you get me. And yeah, you could have made a mixed show or whatever, but the pride of your song made you go fuck that. I'm a really records, you get me?
You don't, you know? The standard of rapping it it it's like the bar has been lowered, right, and everything's supposed to go up. Like we look at sports right like I'm a basketball fanatic motherfuckers are so athletic and incredible now, right, But rapping did the opposite that the bar got lowered for you're like really like, I mean, it's.
A lot of a lot of the motherfuckers because you know, the the the average fan of rap music changed and it's simple and what I tell niggas all the time, you're smart, motherfucker, but sometimes to be long and to put yourself in a different element, you dumb yourself down.
You get you make it simpler, easier, more palatable.
And that's what motherfuckers start doing. They start dumbing themselves down to the to the music because everybody not gonna understand a hood took me under or self explanatory niggas struggling or you know, a growing up in the hood. Uh, simplified. Everybody gonna understand, get your gun, make you some money, and shoot and fuck bitches.
You get me the moneyfuck bitches. That's shit kind of like yeah, everyone got that, everyone gets that, but motherfucker's.
Gonna you know, but what's your story behind? And I think that's where it changed, because a lot of niggas was like, man, I'm not trying to make no motherfucking song that I look up thirty years from now, they gonna be still talking about growing up in the hood or hood took me under shit, nigga, I'm trying to make some shit right now, quick fast, in the hurry,
and then get it over with. And so a lot of artists dumb themselves down because they want to be simplified, because a lot of motherfuckers can't get the history of hip hop. You're getting me. That's why they're always talking about trying to cancel out or or or the age difference or you're getting because they don't want to give respect to the fact that motherfucker's like you would be and Steel and whoever, we still can sustain in this business if we wanted to, because that's how deep history
we had as far as our music is concerned. You put out a song today and nigg ain't gonna remember that, motherfucker past two weeks.
Yeah, that's crazy you say that, because I'm always like a song, last day, album, last week now exactly is just you know, and we got like I call it swag rap, you know, dudes, just like they think they got their cute little song and they got their swag on and all that the music's not popping, like it's cool for five minutes, you know, And we always had a little bit of that, and then you got to do too Like there's always been also this out of
wrap dudes, like they're not crazy spinners, but they got like a sauce to him, right, like too short, too short, a rock in, but he got sauce, you know what I mean, saucy, you know what I mean.
He he sustains his group because he's stuck to his format.
You get he was always too short a.
Little bit when I'm gonna go down with Atlanta and get me a little little John and sprinkle out on there. But the concept is still gonna be money, ass and pussy and bitches. It's still say the same concept. You get me. I'm not I'm not gonna go into an element to where what ship I think I'm gonna be a fucking Kendrick on this record or Drake or I think I'm gonna be at No. I'm gonna stick to the format that's been working for me for the last
thirty years. And he gonna call him, he gonna say bitch, and he gonna say, pop that pussy and give me some money. And every motherfucker who listened to him from back in eighty seven is gonna bang his ship today because he's sticking to the same form. Me. He ain't changed, and I.
Can respect that. I respect that he saucy. You know. It's like nowadays it's a cookie cutter. Everybody want to be like the next dude. Everyone raps like the next man. A dude has a hit over here like this, and dude's trying to make that same song. You know. When we you know, back in the day, it was like you can't bite that's you know, you're sucker.
Yeah that was right, there was a sucker ship. Yeah, that was just for us back then.
Uh, right in the day, you just not you know man. And like I don't always want to say everything's back now because there's a lot of shit I like, you know, like I went to the show last week. I want to see Earl Sweatshirt at the Novo and and this shit was dope, Like he was. It was dope, you know, seeing Alchemists and Rock Marshy and all that shit. That shit was dope to me, you know. So there's still a lot of shit I like, like Larry you and is ill there's a lot of shit. I like, still,
you just got to dig deeper. It's like it's like digging for record. You gotta just go a little.
Shit because we don't get as popular, we don't get as you know, promoted as we used to and not to say back then was good, but you still had the mighty power machine, the Sony's in the universes behind you, and you might have not got to the motherfucking Hollywood Bowl, but you got to the motherfucking Hollywood Palladium, you get right, right, You get me that we might have didn't play the form, but we got to play the Novo Downtown or the Key Tight in Holly, right, right right, So we were
able to get put on a better pedestal than nowadays. It's like, I don't want to go to that motherfucking show. You get me, like, you don't.
Know shows he's so wack half the time. Now it's like dudes rap over their vocals and is like karaoke, you know, just like a garbage like dude is just going on over the vocals, not really rapping like a live performances plummeted it is. And then you know there's still guys who you know, Earl was killing it like Tyler kills it. There's people who still still kill it. You know. I saw Naves with fucking Wu Tang in Orange County, like when it was out a little while ago. Ship
was funky, you know what I mean? But you got you got a lot of shit that's not funky right now. And and you know, even like doing A and R so like I have my own label with rock Nation now, But before I had this, I was I worked at for Warner Music Group, and you know, I was like chasing things with numbers because I was my job. And I signed a couple of things that like hit, but I was like, motherfuckers, I want to be in the studio.
This dude this record, he got one record, Like I know, this a problem again, And you just know that it's not a career artist. And when you start doing shit like that, that's when you got to change what you do. That should just ain't feel good?
Is that? You know what's funny? You said you was at the rock Marsh.
Yeah me and supposed to be there. Yeah yeah, I heard that because I fuck with what fuck with rock? He lived right near me, like, but also his manager, Robble is like one of my best friends, Selim, So I fucking Rock all the time. Rock is ill. He's to me like he's the coldest. He's cold. He raps really fucking good, like he just you know, he he he got it. He got the mojo where a lot of cats don't have it. Right now, I mean, you
and Rock together will be ill. I need to hear that that shouldn't be fun.
Yeah, we're trying to put some stuff together right now, you know what I'm saying. So you know it's certain, it's certain. I guess artists people can respect and when they link up and click up, it's something worthy of, you know what I'm saying. Like anytime I see Alchemist put something out, I mean, oh it's worthy. You get me.
It's just to.
It's just dude who still have that passion? You get me? Right?
Yeah?
I mean Alice like he's like, you know, he's like everyone's sun. Like I knew since she was a little kid, like he was in the hooligans. He choked it up like you know what I mean, he was born in the ship.
Like man, I started fucking with alchemists man back in when I didn't even know Alchemists I was listening to you know, Ship that he was doing with Prodigy in them you know, you know, and then for him to come out and he started rapping and busting, and then I started seeing older ship when he was a kid.
I was this is tight.
So anytime we fucked with, anytime he calls me and be like, hey, I need you to come do something. I think I did two records with Alchemists.
Yeah I heard, I heard him before. I remember, I know you Yeah, yeah, I mean you guys did one that was crazy. You want to recollect, you want to recommend Action Bronson.
Bronson. And then I was on a record with Spice one.
He did yeah, yeah, yeah that's crazy Spice Wheer you had an album back in the day.
Right, We had two little collaboration albums. And then once Alchemist started his label. Uh, I did two singles for Alchemists. Uh tight, Like I said, he he's one of them that's got that got that sound man that you just and and now they you know, like you said, they got that team of the Larry June's and the Rock Marciano's and all of that, so they they creating that flavor which is which is I think is appreciated by old school hip hop heads, you get.
Like we fuck with it. But I was at the show Man. There was a lot of youngsters there. It was cool as hell. I was like, there's a lot of you know, little little twenty year old eighteen year olds in here.
He brought uh, he brought hit Boy out and hit Boy performed.
Yes, yeah, James out there.
Even he got a song called Slipping and he and they he hit Boy performed it. So yeah, he had everybody there like kind of putting on dope. Yeah, it was super dope.
It was it was it was shit. It was my birthday to that day, so I went. I went with my people. It was fucking great. I saw Rocket. It was really cool. And that to me is like that's maybe the pocket of hip hop that is interesting to me still. You know, like but they shit everywhere, like even I look to like the South, like like I like Jid and earth Gang and Kenny Mason, all the dudes in Atlanta. The dudes rapped good too. Man, There's
there's still rappers who really rap. You just got to look harder for it, man, you know.
Ye earth Gang is pretty cool down in Atlanta. Yeah, how bangs them a lot.
I mean, what's fucked up is that New York, which should be like really still pushing the culture, really just tried to jump on being like everywhere else, which is like super disappointing because you know, like New York had, you know, they always pushed the boundaries. I don't say that was the most progressive, but you know a lot of a lot of very forward thinking, great music in from New York, and it's just not doing it's not
doing that right now. New York. Yeah, well you know it's the mecca of it, but you know, New York not It's not a leader anymore New York. New York was trying to be Atlanta for like the last decade.
But what happened is when you start seeing Brooklyn Drill and all this other stuff. We talk about it all the time. Man, it's real microwave right now. You see some of these girls like rapping, and you start thinking about the Queen Latifas, the mc lights and just you know that being a female of them, see you's some really dope female them seas and I look at them now and it's almost like embarrassing.
I mean female and she's a whole other category like they just I mean, you know, it's about like showing they shit and talking about they ship and that whole shit. It's like just it's been reduced to just a sex sexist cartoon at this point. It's kind of fucked up. It was part of us all too is because like making not sad, but making the Stanley could actually really rap. She don't really rap, but she can't really rap, you know, but they just you know, you're getting that box and
that's the box they're gonna keep you in. Brooklyn Drill is weird to me because I like the kick Cash Cobain, because I like his spin on it because she was like he took something that super negative and he made it kind of fun. But a lot of Brooklyn Drill she is just terrible. Like the dudes just rapping, just tear. It's you know, the whole style of punching in every single bar. It's just not happening to me. So weird as style.
And when you know what I think happened, man, the producer got took out the element where hip hop became easier and more accessible. You think about it now, it's like if I make a record I was telling eight the other day. I remember I would have to bring in a guitar player, a piano player, and this and that. Now I don't have to do none of that.
I mean technology. Technology is a gift and a curse.
Man.
You know a lot of kids like our fruity loops and and look like the beauty is it is that maybe some kid who's from nowhere in his bedroom, who ain't got shit, can make a hit record and have a better life. Right, That's the beauty of it. What the downside is. The downside is a lot of motherfuckers shouldn't be making music. Is making music like you know, and everyone should have made me.
Well what happened to Dante? Is this right? Where you got that producer that's kind of coaching you and as you go along, right like you think about it. Eight had his own shit going, but he had a producer in his camp. Well he had Slip, you feel what I'm saying. He had Slip and they would collaborate together. Eight is head of a producer too, so they would get together. They actually learn how to make records together, and he stayed with the same crew. Eight didn't chase
what was hot. He didn't go get a peak and Timberland. He kind of stayed in his lane, right, And I think what's happening today is, like you said, New York is no longer progressive. It's because they see these records blowing up in the South. Man, I'm gonna tell you, the South is not going nowhere. Man, they got a choke hold the game. It's not gonna change. Hell, it's the biggest region in the country. You know, when you start talking about the South, you got to include the Midwestern there.
You know, right, and stuff from the South to also travel better than New York music, right, Like southern music would hit in the Bay Area with hit in La More definitely, Chicago, Detroit, the middle of the country. You know, motherfucker's in New York. They talked different. It's different, you know, it's not the same dialects, So it didn't travel as well New York. Also, you know, nothing other New York was on its own did too much. Like at one point,
you know, it was too much. And I think that's what kind of started the the you know, other people's like fuck New York shit, you know, and it just kind of like we did it to ourselves. If you get it, you know. And it's funny too because we talked about that nineties pocket the early two thousands, before all that shit happened with Puff and death Row and
all that bullshit. Motherfuckers was musically fucking with each other and it was different sounds, but we respected all the all the snoop shit and short in New York, we was fucking all that. That shit was all cool to us. Ugk All that shit was cool to us, and New York music travel too. Once that happened, shit everything changed, you know, And I hate to say it, I almost blamed the dummy down the rat. It started with Mace.
I always think he's the first one to make it stupid because it was like, you know, Big was like the greatest, and then Mace came right after. And Mace was like he was swag wrapped, like he was rapping and kind of it was like almost karaoke. He was wrapping off of shit. Every like everyone knew the records he was using. It just didn't have the creativity and everyone's seen that hit, and then it was like I could do it too.
Then we got as dude the nasty rap when he want to.
He actually can rap. And when he's some children corn. He actually did rap, you know, like I've seen a freestyle him the other day. He was rapping good. But you know that that moment in time, just when it changed everything forever. Ship was never the same after that.
Yeah, he took it from the They took it from the natural element, and somebody figured out, let's commercialize this ship, and nigga, I'm gonna be I'm gonna be hammer with the taco bell pants on jumping down getting me like, somebody figured out, wait a minute, let me commercialize this ship. Let's use some of those popular commercialized seventies dance records
and woot the womb. And next thing, you know, it seemed like the element of creation started changing because, like you said, now everybody want one of those commercialized you know, hot ninety seven hits that they can play all day, and you know, take it from you know, like you said, base with the simple records and you know, my bigging jay Z went to the ABC and you know, h to the Iszo. Everybody started going, I'm gonna commercialize the ship and make big bucks.
And you know it's it's it's hard to be like commercial and still dope right to walk that fence right. A few people did it. Jay did it. I think Buster did it sometimes a big pun, right, Snoop, how do you do that? How do you walk that line and not not be corny as hell?
Right?
Very hard to do man. And some cats did it, well, a lot of cats did it trash, you know, like I thought it was, you know, like the d MX was like interesting.
Snoop saying cuz on T mobile commercials Now, that's so crazy, right, It's crazy as motherfucker. Somebody, you know, we were sitting up somewhere. Somebody looked at me and say, did he just say cuz? And I said, yeah, that's.
So crazy, so crazy. That's just the craziest right.
There, exactly. And knowing from where that that's that that stem from an all walk of life to hear, you know, a big ass corporation to the point to where they letting the nigga just bang on nigga.
Cuz he was cripping in the Olympics, man, Like you.
Know what I mean, it's it's it's it's Snoop is the popular, he's the he's the comfortable crip. He makes everyone feel like, oh game bang and it's cool. Nigga. You see Snoop Dogg, He's to meet me, like crazy, that's that's that's cool to them.
That's cool to me.
I mean it's cool to me on one level because I'd rather see Snoop get that checked than someone who's years after Nigga walk.
Up till you get the couzin You've been my Oh, Nigga's finna go down something. But you're like, damn this Nigga and and eighty million homes talking about eight because and move through, and it's like, oh shit, we don't care. That's Snoop dog I'm so crazy.
I mean, you know, being from being from New York, like when I when I would go to l A and people people would say hard, I'd be like, oh, ship, motherfuckers, is really really about that because New York like we don't say ship with like eight days. But when that's I always knew I was in the ship. I was like, Oh, the motherbucker just said hard. I'm like, oh man, this
is fucking this is the ship over here, buddy. You know, I knew Ice Cube back in the day, and I had gone to his house a long time ago right after it was after Erica's Most Wanted came out and I want to I want to hang out, and was like right around that time. And we went to his house in South Central and his mom made like I had cereal at his house and I was like, I was eating food and shit, and I was like this shit don't look bad. Like I was like, you got a house in a yard. Like I'm from New York.
We don't got none of this ship. It was like night time. He was like, nighttime, it's fucked up over here. And then he told me all about it. I really seen how different it was. I always was fascinated by the cultural differences between New York and LA because New York back then, we didn't have no gang bang and shit, right, we didn't have that shit. We got your block, you got your crew from your block. It's a different a different world, you know, it was. It to me was
always fascinating because we didn't have the organization. But but it was like also a little bit depressing that like so many people are born into this thing that's like,
you know, man, where's it going to take you? And and there's not a lot of ways out of it, And it's generational, so you know, I would always be like, you know, and there's this book that my pops, she was a writer he pum other called City of Quartz and then explained kind of the roots of it all and mister how the penis system in California came to basically dictate what happened in the streets of California. To me,
that bugged me out because New York is different. It's not that it's a whole different way of looking at but we go to twenty twenty four and New York got all that shit now exactly.
It was crazy to see that transition because somebody like me who've been traveling in New York since eighty nine, you get me like, I didn't see none of that shit. Like we used to have that shit. We used to get on there, We used to get on the train, you know, we used to walk around. We used to go to Brooklyn, we used to walk over the bridge. And the last thing, now I knew, motherfucks was hard. You know, we didn't see it. We'ven't seen the warriors
in different moves and situations. But I never had the fear of going be sweated by another cripp of blood out here.
You get me like it.
Was hard niggas. Like I tell that story. Everywhere we go. It was hard niggas everywhere we go.
But everywhere you go there's somebody.
New York didn't. They didn't express the cripping blood and ship like we did in l A. That was like our foundation.
That's not our culture exactly. New York cultures graffiti and breakdancing.
GRAFFEEDI breakdancing. They got their crewis and clicks, and you know, we got the warlords or the spiders or the whatever exactly. Never like nigga, we the we, the we we the spider bloods over here or we we you know, we the warriors over here. It was never that it was ship nigga. You'd be Blacks, Mexicans, whatever, it clicked up in the same ship. So I never feared or not the same feet. But we never anticipated running into any gang banging situations as far as New York was concerned.
Even I go to Chicago, I'd go to tech says niggas was Like I said, niggas was hard everywhere, but they were limited places where niggas was actually cripping in blood.
You get me, and that shit took over the whole country. I mean, I was in New York, like you know, I'm well friends with bou Yah. I was out there like with them. The first time they came out there, I took I took cover and them to Harlem. They wanted to go to see one hundred and twenty fifth Street,
and motherfuckers was bugging on them. There's all red and the Braids and motherfuckers like yoo, motherfuckers look crazy, you know, because in New York everyone talks to each other, right, like everyone's everyone got some shit to say to you. And motherbuckers was like, oh yo, motherfuckers look cool as hell. That shit could not happen nowadays. You can't. You couldn't go do that now they know.
Hey, you know, did you watch the Wu Tang movie? We did the series?
Yeah? Yeah, I wrote on the third season. I worked on it, and I worked with Rizon a bunch of stuff. I had helped them work on the Dirty episodes. I wrote on a couple of them. So yeah, not only did I watch it, I worked on it.
So yeah, real quick man, because old Dirty Man. I think he was one of the most unique artists of all time.
I mean, he was undoubtedly I mean, he was undoubtedly one of the the you know, the craziest, most charismatic while you know, he was like he was like a dangerous Bismarcky or some shit, you know what I mean.
But you know what crazy is it? Confidence? I saw this dude in New Orleans one year and it was I forget where we was at. Man, I was out there with I think DJ Bobcat and he said, any rappers out there, I'll push y'all ass right now where the rappers that and nobody stood up.
Yo. I was there that year. Man, he was so crazy. That was man. We did this electra showcase and man, he tore that motherfucker down. But he came out and they had a mirror on the side of the States and just started looking at himself and talking, wrapping himself in the mirror like he was like, I can't Like
Elvis Presley said, I can't even explain it. And he was like it was like there was like two thousand people, consider the people that he did a performance in the mirror for like one song for himself, Like he didn't even pay attention. He was so fucking wild. I love to do man as unique. I miss him a lot. He was you know, it was hard to see how it all went down, you know, like he was rough to watch.
He was good people. I had the pleasure of fucking with Dirt a lot when I went to New York. You know, Wu Tang. For some reason, we gravitated to each other.
You know, it's real, recognized real.
That's why they even put you in a series ads in the series, I called him. I was watching, and I said, they got the homie eate in there. Yeah.
I was real cool, especially with a with Method and Dirt, and then with Ray Kwan. I was real cool with them. And so, like I said, they flew me out to New York to be in an All Kennedy So simple video.
Yeah yeah, yeah, that's right, that's right, that's right, You're in the video. It's crazy. I forgot about that.
And then I did a song with Dirt with the remix for Shimmy Shimmy Me and E forty.
Yeah.
He was a cool cat. He was in Compton for a while to stomping around. Yeah, Dirt, Dirt was everywhere, man.
Reason man, Yeah, he was could he'ling up anywhere? You never know where else up he was. He was the Wilder. He's a wild life.
Homies from Compton. Man told me he was messing with his sister. He told me, he said, man, old dirt, old dirty bastard, been over her house, messing with myself.
What he wanted.
He was doing something. But we were stomping around the streets for men.
Man.
But he was just accepted by motherfuckers because motherfuckers knew how serious and passionate he was about his ship. And when he was putting the record once she became frying and cool with him ship.
Oh man, he was best. I mean. I was in the Bay Area with them and we we we I knew Forty a little and we bumped into forty and them, and that's how him and Forty ended up on that record because they had the same birthday. So they started talking and they was like something came up and it was like, yo, we got the same born day. And then they started calling each other twin and that they we were like really cool with Forty because of that.
It was like, that's a that's an odd pair, those two, you know what I mean?
Like we was all in Oakland for something in the day they was doing, and we just all happened to end up at the same spot and we all went to Studio Tones that night, Me, forty and Dirt and that's when we came up with the remakes and they liked it so good that they flew us all back to New York to do the video.
The video.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, got the video.
Yeah. I was at the video shoot. Came by and all that. That's so crazy. Yeah, man, he you know, I've worked on this documentary that's on Hulu now called Tailor two Dirties. I was a producer on it with the family and and you know, like I did a lot. I do a lot of stuff for his family still, Like I helped him find checks here and there, and his wife Shaquita I suve Shia Henry. Maybe eight years ago. It was like I got all this old footage of dirty do you think we could do something with it?
And from there we you know, we kicked it around for a three years with Messiah who runs the foundation, and we ended up hooking up with Sam Pollard and and Jason and we got the doc done and we made it with post films. So like from her just calling me one day with this idea, it actually all happened. I got to I gotta take my hat off there. She really, she really really was like I think I got somewhere and she did. It was super cool to see it man come together and Dirty was like, you know,
I loved him. Man, It's someone was you know, like a lot of people. I always say this, we're not most people's not built for fame and fortune, right, And if you grow up in group homes and you're institutionalized, and you might have some some bipolar issues, substance abuse problems, et cetera, et cetera. You give someone everything in the whole world that they wanted, it's very hard for people to handle that. Well, most people aren't Ice Tea, you know what I mean. Like Ice could get all that
and he can handle it. Most people are not that person and they lose perspective. And that's what happened to Dirty. It is very sad, but it's also like, you know, it's a classic still cautionary tale. You got to really, you know, watch what happens when you get everything you wish for, Because when you get everything you wish for, it comes with a lot of shit attached. You know. It's like and he just wasn't you know, he wasn't prepared for and it just all went the wrong way.
It was very sad to see, you know. I saw him when he came out of out of prison and Dame Bash had signed him, and Dame had you know, A knew Dame back then. I still know Dame. But he was like, come, come and check out your man. And it was it was really sad, man, it was really, it was really really sad to see he was he was, It was he was spent. It was done being in prison, and and the psych ward in prison really had taken taken a toll on the brother. He wasn't the same
human being. And it was sad to see, you know. And I remained friends with Risen a lot of those guys because I always stood by dirty through thick and thin. He was he was worth it and he was you know. I remember he got shot when I worked with him. He got shot in Brooklyn. He jumped to a window another time. I mean, we did this show in l A. And I want to say it was at the Plate him,
but it wasn't played. It was the spot on Vine right by Capitol whatever that is, that club right there, and we did the show for it was rat Pages had like a seminar and he killed it. Was right when the record came out, right when a single came out, he just bodied it, just destroyed it. But he was performing and it was like the second or third the last song, and these dudes in the front was he had bottle and they was all hanging out. They was like in front of the crowd, and it was apparently
Grape Street Crypts. We didn't know that. But he just took his bottle and he handed it to a dude he drank from the audience and gave it back to him. And so after the show, like they literally cut his sound off. He jumped off the stage and walked through the audience and was still performing. And we went outside with all these dudes and they like became our friends,
and they were all these grave street cryb dudes. We didn't know at the time, We didn't know what they were, but they ended up always fucking with him when he came out here because we had met them at that show, and I was like, this motherfucker could go anywhere and meet motherfuckers and be good. It was bugged out and they was like, you know, They're not the people you expect to be old dirty Bassa fans, but they was
his friends. In this fans it was bugged out like we you know, we used to come out of a lot, like I knew the dudes, the operation from the bottom dudes too, and they used to they used to rob with brand newbie in a lot. So we would come
out he and meet dudes all the time. And it's funny how like people come out from New York and they'd have problems, but we would come out to New York, I mean to LA and we would always be good because we always you know, respected everyone's boundaries, where everyone's from, and you just got to know how to move wherever you go, you know, like re new this is very good at doing that. They always made friends wherever they went.
I think that's one thing about l A. Man sets usually embraced cats to come out here in that cool.
Makes sense. I mean, look, you could step in ship anywhere, if you if you're if you if you ain't the right size, you can step into bullshit anywhere. But you know I did this ship my whole life. I never had a problem anywhere.
Yeah, And I think if you come I think what don't happen though with a lot of these young cats. You know, there'd be some dudes from the hood and they wind up on to become crips and bloods. I never understood it because I always say you can just be yourself, and they go fuck with you. Just be yourself.
You at you got guys, I mean, you got guys who gotta like check in when they come here. And you know, we all know, like, look, man, I grew up with like crazy Puerto Rican motherfuckers and you know who who who to let in and who not to. You got to give dudes a heisman. You can't let dudes get in real close because you know, gangsters are gonna do gangster shit and if they could do some gangster shit, you they're gonna do gangster shit.
You what I say all the time. But niggas can get close and fuck you. He gonna fuck you if he thinks YEA with it. So just got to watch your element, I see.
You gotta know and if you got, if you're smart, you got the spidery scends.
You know, you just know, how was it trying to mix that album?
Dude? Mixing Old Dirty bast album was a nightmare because Rizza had told me. He told me this years later, Like, so, I don't know if you guys know, he had a flood in his house and he lost he lost Cuban links and he lost liquortories, the whole albums. So the blood destroyed all this equipment. So he had a two inch machine in the house, he had all his records, all this shit, so he lost everything. So he had to go and make those records while while Dirty's records
waiting to get mixed, so he doesn't show up. So I got to figure out how to mix the record myself, and I, you know, I'm an engineer to an extent, Like I'm not an engineer, and I know a lot of shit, but man, you know, the way he does it is not the way a normal person does shit. He got risk of signs I ain't got. I ain't got the manual. I don't have the riz of God
body manual to mix his records. So you know, it was very difficult, and most difficult to ball was was mixing Brooklyn Zoo, which True Master did, but but True Master was nowhere to be found. And so I mixed that shit three fucking times and I couldn't get it right, just ain't sound right. I could not get the motherfucker right. And the fourth time, I was like, you know what, man, I'm gonna just fucking put a kick in the snare in the shit because I can't make the drum sound good.
They sound like shit. So I just took a break record and I chopped that shit up and put it in there. The only thing I did on the record, really, and I only did it because I was I was I was failing over and over again, and I was like, I gotta get this fucking record done. So it worked, and you know, it made it made it made sense. And when we went to met master the album, I told Rizza, you know, I put a kick in snare in there. He looked at me like whatever, Like he
didn't it didn't make no sense. He didn't care. But when I hear that record, I still hear the kicking snare in there. It's a it's a pretty famous break record. You can hear the snare every time you hear it if you know what record it is. But it was it was hard, man. You look, they gave me. They gave me, Like the album has like eleven twelve songs, like I think it came in here was like eight songs done, vocals done, and getting him to finish the
rest of the ship and mixing the ship was. He got shot, he got arrested, he got thrown out of every night club in New York. He showed up on dust a few times. Like you know, he was just fucking a wild man. So you know, we got it done, though, man, we got it done. It was you know what, like in my career, I've done a bunch of shit, but like there's that's the only time someone hand me lightning in a bottle, And there was like, you know, they gave me the football in the in the red zone.
They say, Yo, score that fucking touchdown. Take that motherfucker. Get it done. Walk these dogs, because in my head, I kind of knew it might never happen again, you know, like you got to catch that moment, like be in the moment, get it. And I never had that. I never had that battery on my back before when I was as an R guy, and I managed to get it done against against you know, a lot of people told me I signed the wrong motherfucker. They were like,
you sign dirty, Why ain't soign met the man. You know, I don't know man, Old Dirty basst He his presence spoke to me. And when I met him, I was like, this guy is a genius. You look. I love the I love the the biz marquise, the grand Poobahs, the snoop dogs, even the ludicris Is. I like those characters, right, the character and Old Dirty Basht was a character to me. Right, So I was like, this, this could be one of
the great things I do. And I was lucky enough that I was right, and I was lucky enough this is the thing ourselves the luckiest enough that Riza trusted me. So I met Rizza and we bonded, and he trusted me to walk those dogs, because he could have took that ship anywhere, right, but he trusted me with that gem and so that's that's that's a big honor. So you can't fuck that up. When Rizza trust you with one of his his own family, his cousin, you know, you got to rise to the occasion if you know,
you know, what are you worth in this world? Right? So that's one of them times when I had to I had to do what I had to do. I had to prove myself and I did you know you.
Had another one too, you had km D.
I did m F doomf doune.
I think it's his brother dad in the car.
His brother dad, right, Yes, brother got hit by a car under mysterious circumstances. And you know, we put out the second record was coming out, Black Basterds, and and like you know, he used the sambo logo that he drew, and the records called Black Bastard looked like the game Hangman. You know that game he played when you were a kid. So it was that, and it was he was hanging his the sambo stereotype and effigy, and you know Billboard saw it, a woman named Terry Rossi, and she said
that it was it was basically irresponsible. And some you know, like kind of accused us of being racially insensitive for allowing him to use his artworks. So his record, the label it was in there.
You know.
It was like right after I S had the ship with cop Killer. So Warner Brothers was all they were nervous and they let it go. So they gave him back his masters and he disappeared for a few years, you know, and he came back as MF. Doom. His name was is Doom is Daniel Doomle, so his name was Doom. So he just became who he really was. And in a strange way, it was a blessing, right he would you know, never lose your brother, can never
be a blessing. But but like all the trials and tribulations he went through made him find this this inner voice and he came back as m AT Doom, which is, you know, a totally kind of different chamber of music. But I feel like that is like a metaphor on some level for like black people in America, Like you can hand motherfucker's a bull of shit and they're gonna
come back and make the greatest thing ever. You could give people the worst conditions in the world, subject people to bullshit, but watch the motherfuckers do with that right, that ingenuity and that spirit. And I always felt that in his music he was like a modern blues man or some shit he took. He got handed the worst shit in life, and he made that ship into gold. Right. You know.
That hip hop, yes, hip hop shit really that mass iconic. I remember, man, somebody telling me that Doom would go do shows all over the world and have somebody being doom over he did in England, somebody in Ireland doom.
Yeah. I want to see him in fil One time. I once drove up there to the show and I was on the side of the stage. Dude came up next to me. I put his arm. I looked over and it was doomed but he was on stage. His man was being him, this dude Ben. It was Ben Klingon, Like, yeah, doom was you know, man. We're working on this big, big thing about him, me and and the family, and we're gonna do. We got a lot of ship that we're trying to do that celebrates him because you know,
he's one of a kind like he is. It's wild because he has become like a guy who never had a hit record, right, but he is like a folk hero, which is so wild when I think about him. A lot of mythical.
Yeah, yeah, a lot of people fucked with M F. Doom that I didn't even know about. I would see people and they'd be like, man with the mask and all that shit. He was like he he was, like, like you said, a folk hero to a lot of people.
Know he's he's like the centerpiece for like the whole Earl world, Tyler and them. They love him. He's like God, like to the mythical it's bugged out.
Yeah, you know who put me up on the m F done My oldest son. I heard that gazillion here and I was like, who is this? You listened to?
This?
Shit is ill? He said, m F doone m F Doune was incredible.
He's crazy, said that because like all my arm all the youngsters around me, like my family and shit, Like, you know, my nephew like his favorite rapper is Doom. He's like twenty years old. I was like, how the fuck is that your favorite rapper? He's supposed to like Travis Scott or some shit, but he just loves Doom. And he's always asked me about Doom. Shit. So you know, if we if if everything lines up in the next you know, we're trying to do this this doc and
all this shit with the families. You know, we're knee deep in trying to figure it out. So his story will be told in another way, a very creative way. Everything comes together. Doom was one of a time man. You know, that's a unique individual. And I always tell people I worked with KM d I don't work with Doom, but Doom was my really good friend. You know. He was like my brother for life. And he's just a
unique individual, Like he's a wild boy man. He was the funniest like and there's no one like him, you know. And in this rap thing, like I always say, like, I'm so lucky to be allowed to be part of it, to contribute a little bit to it, to be accepted, to have made friends who are like family to me, whether it's large Professor or it's mugs in them or whoever the fuck it is in this world that, like you know, I get to really be part of it.
To have spent all those days with Bismarcky looking for records and pro keads and traveling, buying shit with him and shit like that, running around the world with people like that is the greatest honor of all of it. Like I never had a real job, I never really had to stress too much for money, Like you know, I'm fucking blessed. This thing is to me, like hip
hop the most important subculture of my lifetime. And without it, I don't know what the fuck I would have done, And my life would have been so much it would have been boring bro life and you be doing it.
Some of the greatest artists in hip hot would never probably came into existence.
No, I can't say that. I can't say that. I don't say that because I say to me, so, I was just lucky enough that, like, I don't know how you guys feel about God, but I believe in God very abstract. I believe in something bigger, you know. I'm not like a Jesus dode with God, like I'm on some universal unconsciousness, right. So, but I was lucky enough that what I call God put me in a position
to open the door for people. But I just was that lucky motherfucker who's antenna was turned tuned in, turned on, right. So I just was very blessed to be allowed to help some great people come to life. But I believe that those people would have found a way anyway because they had the talent. I was just lucky enough to be able to open the door for him. And that's an honor, man, That's an honor to me.
Now I want to ask you about I want to ask you about three, two groups and one person. Okay, why did you Digital Underground?
So Digital Underground a guy named Ed Strickland I worked with. He was a promo guy. He was traveling and he came back from the Bay and he had Underwater Rhymes. He had that record and we listened to it and we liked it a lot, and then Adrian Gregory, who managed them, sent him the tape that had had do what You Like on him before it came out, because they were putting records themselves out on tnc Records to Macola, so they were putting they have put out Underwater Rhymes.
So they pressed up do what you Like and sent us that. We was talking to him, and then I had the record and we played it in the office and day La Soul was there and they were like Pasta News was like you better sign those motherfuckers, and we all were like, yeah, we need to get the deal done, and we signed them. So my hat's off to Daylight kind of pushed that one over the top.
And that was it.
Man. We met Hump and and all that, and unfortunately I left before the album came out because I wasn't making no money working at Tommy Boy. And someone actually was like, we're gonna give you a real job and give you a real check and you don't have to live in a shoebox apartment no more and sell wheat on the side. So I got to stop hustling and had a real job, thank god. But yeah, dude, you know digital Underground and Shock was like, like Shock, he's
one of them dudes. Man, he was like a genius, like I can't explain it, Like he could sit down at the piano and play some real shit like he was a boy. He's a genius. Motherfucker. He did all the artwork. He would send the drawings in like he was a genius. Like I never yo, He's like, look, man, drugs suck, you know what I mean? Like you know, and and he you know, he had problems with with things later in life. But man, that dude was light
years ahead of motherfuckers. And he did everything. He played everything, produce everything. He was so motherfucking talented and so fucking cool. He was the coolest.
Well Shock, so you lay it right into him daylor Soul. Do you remember how you met them?
Yeah, So they were getting signed already and I got interviewed with the job I had been. I mean, I'm I'm old, so but I was there being rockins Road manager right. So when I was a kid, because I worked for Rush Productions, I worked for Russell lee Or and I was a crazy kid. You know. I went on the road with the Beastie Boys and and when I was a kid and my friend Sean was a road manager. He was like, here's how you here's how
you be a romantic basically his slave. He was like, you're going to just be my fucking slave every day. You're can do all the shit I don't want to do. So I learned how to kind of road manager. I became their road manager and rap music and you you, I'm sure you know the state It wasn't like it was small man, small community right in la probably even smaller than New York. You know, it was just just
a hand. It was like because in la I think in la Is it was like it all comes from Uncle Jam's army, right, right.
That's what records came through. Yeah, right exactly.
And it was small, man. It was like it was Ice and them, dudes, and you know, there was just a small group of people, Dre and them. It was small Julio g it was Tony and them. So, you know, New York was was a little bigger but it's still small. So I knew everybody. So Daddy Oh from Stetsusnic. They had offered him an A and R job, but he could he didn't want it because he's he's doing the ship. But I had been on the road with him. He
was my boy. Damn here, damn hear him. He was damn here trying to get me to be like a five percent. I swear to God, I can't make this ship up, you know, like the whole ship, like the teacher, you know, I know, the supreme alphabet, the whole ship. So so he told them they should hire me, and I went for the job. And they played me a tape and it was Dayla or Soul and it was plugged tuning and I lost my mind. I said, this
is the greatest thing I ever heard. I was like, this ship is the I was like, I loved ultra magnetic. I was like, this is beyond ultra magnetic. This is like even further out there. And they said, oh, we're gonna sign this. So they called me a couple of weeks later, right before Christmas. I'll never forget, it was snowing out. I went to the office and they Monica Lynch was like, so you got the job, and you know that group that you really like. I was like, yeah,
Prince pauls Hoopers. I knew Prince Paul. She was like. I was like yeah, She's like, that's gonna be your first group. So I ended up working with them and really basically spent a whole year in my life with them traveling. I would road manager and we go all over the country. I took them to La the first eight eight you'll appreciate this. I took them to play at World on wheels. We played that World on wheels and we had never seen no shit like that before. So I knew I'd been to LA. I knew more
about it than them. But we played that World on wheels and that shit was cripped out like a motherfucker. We had. We never seen no shit like that before, like I had. I was like, Yo, this shit is fucking crazy. And we were bugging because everyone's wearing like Yankee shit and Georgetown shit, and I was like cowboys shit. And then we seen do Yeah, we seen dudes crip walk and iced. He hosted the events for kDa and seventy three. That's where I met Mugs that's the damn me.
No I knew mugs I've met ever last that day he was with the Rom Syndicate and and we we knew Ice, but I knew Ice, but we got cool with Ice because in the club there was a big ass fight and then dudes went at it and they got everyone out the club. You know, they locked us in the club. They locked us in and dudes are shooting in the parking lot and we're like, and you know, we're Dayla soul man. There was striped shirts and we got flat tops and Aaron Max's we not we don't
know about that ship. That's not us. You know, no one's a sucker, but we don't know that ship. And man, just running around the country with daylight was that was so much fun. And and then I came back a few months later with Latifa and we played at at at World on wheels and at Skateland. So I went to both of those motherfuckers. And Skateland was wild. Skate Land was Skateland was way scarier than me. It smelled like dust. We walked in and the bou Yad dude.
That's why I met bou Ya because bou Yah dudes were doing security, so they yeah, the dude from bou yall Rid Gangster D was like, hey man, I rapped, I'm gonna get you to give me your number and and then I talked to Gangster D on the phone is ship So like, you know, daylave Man like people forget like eighty seven, they were out and they their record was big on KD was big in l A. So you know what Daylight was like, I met them LA. Yeah,
they like New York didn't have all rap station. KD was the first all rap station in America, the first one, right, So we used to fuck with Greg Greg Mack and his scandalous as and Roger Clayton because Roger used to be in New York. People don't notice that the l A possibly moved to New York for a while when it was all all that Bobcat And that's why I met Pooh. So I met Pooh back then because Pooh
was the youngest one. So me and Pool used to hang out and smoke weed like because they were always who was like, they were always kind of son and Pool like take this their do this, do that? Right? So I knew all them dudes. And back to Daylight, Like Daylight was just when I met them, they were like it was like looking at myself, and we had the same likes. We like all the same shit. We all wore funny ass shit. You know, we were fucking
funny mother. You know we were funny like we was because at that time rap change, everyone was so hard, right, but this new thing came out and it was like we was having fun, like and it was bitches around. It was like it was another thing. So you know, we was in it all that like step fashion and shit. So when I met them, it was like meeting my kindred spirits. Like I was like, oh, I known you my whole life. So we just man, we ran around the whole world.
Man.
We went to England the first time they went. We did all this wild shit. It was super fun and to this day, like those are my brothers. Like I speak to Post all the time. You know, Like when day passed, I was like, really, you know, that took a lot out of us. But you know, when he passed, I went to New York. I spoke the past and
He's like, come to the shit, stop bullshit. So I got a ticket, Like the last second I went to New York and I was there when when they had the big thing at Webster Hall with Dave Chappelle and all that. Like I was on stage, like you know, I was with Latifa, I'm with Loa because Dana's like my sister, and I'm there and we're common. And I got to tell you, man that she was like a spiritual experience. Man. I was like, you know, I didn't go to high school. I barely went to high school.
I didn't go to college, but I went to hip hop. That's my college, right. So and that was like my college reunion. I was there with my people, with pas and and you know, everyone was there and Mace and man, that shit was great. And and you know, look the people you meet when you're a young man, you're becoming a man. Those people are very important your whole life, right because you have gone you have you know, you watch people have children, You watch people get married, you
might some get divorce. You watch people go from being young men to be to be men. And that to me is like those bonds we make them, they never go away. So me and me and day lives like you know to this day, were like, you know, always connected. I go to Miami. I'm gonna go see pass. You know. That's how it is, you know. And those dudes musically like they change everything, Like you know, look, there's people who change everything. NWA changed everything, right, Dayla Soul changed everything.
There's before run DMC changed everything. There's before and after. Motherfuckers come out and they do this, and then there's what happens afterwards. So they're one of those groups that changed everything. And I'm lucky and that Wu Tang change everything, you know, I'm lucky enough to have been around that shit, you know. And you know, my Pops is like a very smart cat. He hung out with all these jazz musicians, like, but he he always knew, like he always could spot greatness, right,
So I'm lucky enough that I could see sometimes. And it's not only the music, it's the culture around it. You can see the greatness if you're lucky, right, And Daylight was one of the things that was a moment in time when you felt like, man.
Like.
Eight did you ever go to Latin Quarters? So the Latin Quarters to me was like I was like, every single one of these fucking groups gonna be famous probably, like how World on Wheels was all that everything, like every one of these motherfucker's gonna be famous, right. It was just like it was in the It was in the air. I can't explain it other than that it was crazy.
No, for the last group I want to ask you was a two fold question, Leaders of the New School.
Oh that's okay. So Leaves of New School is like the best and worst group I worked with of all time because they were like r they kicked him out, didn't they They didn't really kick him out. They kind of just ruined it all like so, so it was like they never got along too good. But there was always like tension between Brown and Buster. It was always beat, always little shit going on, and it was jealousy because
Buster was a star. We've seen it. He was like his motherfucker is a star, and Charlie Brown was dope. Don't get it fucked up.
Yeah, you know, he wasn't.
Enough Buster rhymes though, you know there's only one to.
Him, showman. He wasn't the show that Buster was. Knew he had the showmanship. You give me everybody else is in the group. You give me right right lyrics, We got lyrics. But you you know, when there's this that Nigga's gonna be superstar, you get me.
I mean he he had that Jamaican dance all ship, you know what I mean? Like you know, like like in New York, we have a lot of Jamaican culture. I grew up. I lived in Brooklyn, went to the high school Brooklyn. So Jamaican people is if you ever go to Jamaica and if you ever peep any dancel ship, no slouches make it because it's so It's the third world in Jamaica. My book is is poverty is real. So if you made records at Jamaica, you dope at fuck.
Buster has that thing in him, like he's super competitive and super dope because it means everything to him. His work ethic is crazy. So you know, there was jealousy and it was mounting. And as we got to the second record, like I always say, scenario is the greatest thing to have the leaders in new school. It's the worst thing to have no leaders in new school. Because Buster rhymes qut doing the crazy al Right, he was like,
I'm gonna make this whole record. This one part is a showcase for him, Like watch this and it passes him. The rock exactly drops the drums, and then Buster has the you know, he's just no drums and he's just as I come, you know, as I rewind, Like the shit is just crazy. So after that, everyone's tapping on Buster's shoulder, do this feature, to do this feature, puffs in his ear, fucking everyone's trying to fucking him big as hollering at him. He's a you know, tribe is
with him all the time. He's like he is starting to really shine, and shit gets really hectic. And with that second record time, if you ever listen to it, they're all trying to out wrap each other. No one's giving each other. It's not a group no more. It's all like look at me, look at me. It's not cohesive. And they made the record the first time and it was yo. It was whack yo. They delivered it the first time, and Chris Lighty rests in peace. He was
their manager. He was like my really good friend and me I was like, Chris, what's up with this record? He was like, the shit's whack. I was like, the shit's whag. So we sent him back. We sent him back to do a whole record again, and it got better, but not a whole lot better, and I had wanted Q Tip to go do the whole redo, the whole record, and was so bugged out. All of them said no, but Buster took him to side. He said, Yo, I like that idea's and I was like, this guy's smarter
than everyone else. So record came out and it didn't do too good, got bad reviews, and I knew they're gonna break up. And the whole time me and Chris was like, Buster, we got you on the solo, We got you on the solo, We got you, we got you, And it took him. He didn't want to do it. He did not want to do it because he was a little scared. He was only nineteen and he had been in the group, and he felt like he didn't
want to be disloyal. He felt like that was you know, this is my click and I'm gonna I'm gonna write out with my people and that's what I signed on for. And then when, but when Charlie pulled that shit on the O MTV raps, when he basically was like broke the band up on TV, you know, Buster was so man. You ever seen someone get so mad they cry like they so mad they cried like they they're not They're not hurt like that, they're not sad. They're so angry.
They crackers. Some want to kill somebody. That's how Buster was. And me and him just we hung out the whole the whole day, like and I was like, come on, man, you know what it is like, you know, you're ready, and he was like, you know, he's like I think I'm ready, And he came back and said he was ready, and then Bomb we just went and did the Bust of Rhymes show and that was that, you know, and like,
I don't regret it at all. Look, those guys leaders had talent, you know, but but Busterer Rohns was probably always should have been a solo artist. He's that dope. And and you know the proof is in the pudding. He's still here, still relevant. Well how many years later, right thirty five years later, it's like it's like Brand Nubian too. They had split up and everyone told me, don't make them. They ain't not ship without Grand poo Ba. But then they put up Punch Jump Up, and I
believe that they had it. I didn't feel like the leaders without Buster had it the way that Brand Newbian did I can't say it a thing the other way.
They had they had some they had some cuts that were sustainable. Like you said, they were able to you know, don't let it go to your head and yeah, punks jump up g beat that they had songs, so yeah, able to sustain without grand Pool. But now I like the grand Poopa too.
I love it.
He was he was nasty, he was you know, there was like I would say this, like for one year, Like there's a lot of dudes who was like top dog for a year. For like one year, grand Poopa was the top dog in New York. But you know, you got to do it for ten years, five years. You can't do it for one year. It's tough, you know.
And where did grand Poopa come from? Did he come from a group called Masters Ceremony ship Man?
That was the ship sexy was I mean, they was banging out on kDa that was a k record.
The record was hard as fun.
It was hard. Look man, we were fans of grand Pool by me and when we was making Daylight Soul record was grand Pool. Its nice. We're like, I don't know about the rest of the group so much, but grand Pool by Yeah, he's nice.
He was nice. Man, He definitely was nice.
You know. So he I mean, you know, and he had a he had a run for a minute, you know. And so the brand new being and look man music is it's it's really hard to sustain. Man, it's so hard. And because just because you don't do it and you're not a top dog for ten years of twenty years, doesn't mean it wasn't great. You know.
It's just like you know, when I knew bust Around was gonna be the ship I played college football, right we was about to play We was about to play somebody that was big. We was about to play Arizona when they had the desert swarm. That's when this is a big game. When I go to a little bit he has Mexical State. And that was the year they was number one team in the country and we lost them fourteen to seven. We listened to We've got the
bus from Los Cruises all the way to Arizona. You know what, they played back to back and that's when I started sucking with bust a brand. Come on down, come on down, come on down. Think that he kinge joint. That's that that that real minisent. And he was like hold over the track Man. We went out there almost upset fucking Arizona listening to that song.
Man you know came back eight did you know came back in.
The day I bang came Like it wasn't ship he became with this man.
He was nasty king was like the James Brown of rap.
Like he was like he was dishes man, especially when he went off on records. You gave me that smooth operator type.
Shot rap, mad the wrapping like that.
Let it roll, get bold explore man.
When I like, I used to see him at the Latin Quarters and I was like, this motherfucker is the greatest motherfucker in the world. I was like, he's the greatest. I really was like he's the greatest, Like he was so ill to me. Ain't Carris once too? Totally different but super crazy for you know like that that like witnessing that man, that was like to me, like I've seen everything, that's still to me the greatest shit I ever seen.
Raps. We had the greatest rhymers man of all time in our era and body. But we, like I said, it was a certain pride we took when it came to making songs and music and we looked at that as man, you can't make it here. Nigga, you ain't making it nowhere, so you better put in some shit because nigga act to the block. It's back to shootout to drug sales. So I got you, I got it, I got it, man. It got to make sense right now, you feel me? And somewhere repped like they was trying
to get off the block. Some motherfuckers just put their ass and yeah, every nigga who was rapping back then was trying to get the fuck off the block. And once they once they knew, wait a minute, I could put some some real shit together and nigga's finna pay me a couple of million. Nigga, I'm about to get men. Nigga, please, nigga.
I'm like, nigga, it ain't finna be just no. You know ABC one two three, Mary had a little lamb and you know, block, Nigga, I'm shit to where you're gonna be like, God, damn, this motherfucker hard.
And so year did you first make your first record? What year was your first record?
My first record was probably eighty seven, eighty six, eighty seven. I had a single out with DJ Slip, and I wasn't doing shit on it, just chatting on the record, but I was. I was a sixteen year old kid like and Slip used to make They used to make techno records out here, you get me. A lot of techno came through La before the establishments of Tone Looks and Toddy T's.
And all the electro shit, all the like up tempo like they did all the records.
Yeah, So me as a young kid trying to get out the hood ship, I would go I met Slip and I would just go sit up at slips house while he would do techno records from you know, that's how they made their bread. I'm gonna make a twelve inch nigga, call this motherfucker nigga the Shock of the Hour, some crazy shit and I'm gonna throw this motherfucker out and the swap meets and on and the record pools and all that shit. And that's how niggas made their
little change back then. And so Slip used to let me, you know, niggas Compton City conton something, and I would just do chants and make records with him while he did the beats and the music, and I would just Chi and it went from there to go, I'm fenna write a fucking rap, and then I just started writing and then going through the situations I was going through every day with high school and gang bang and team pregnancy and trying to sell crack pieces to you know,
I just start pinning the shit about the life. I was shit, nigga. Today we woke up, niggas tried to sweat us. Police came through the home meet. God shot nigga. I was at the swap meet trying to find me. This got into it with some niggas from the other side, and you would just start writing that, and then it turned more serious. When you start going I need to make some money, turned from I can't get a job. I got no high school education, I ain't went to college.
You get me. I'm out here gang banging, trying to sell dope to make ends meet. Where the fuck am I going? You get me? What's so different? Because I look up every day when I go to school and I see a hundred niggas just like me. You get me. They're in the same shit. We all got on raiders hats and white T shirts and khakis and cortels, and we all doing the same shit. You gotta separate yourself
from the ship. So, like I said, I just started writing raps about the community and niggas can't get ahead, and niggas can't get a break, and motherfucking you got niggas over here wanting to kill you. You got one time's over here want the jack you you get. So that's how I started constructing my ship, to make it like, oh, it's niggas like me out there, like you know, fun and you know, we had the young m c's and we had the JJ Fatz and we had the fun wraps.
But then nigga is some serious shit going on out here.
Well six in the morning. The one I got you like to like know you can do with that stuff.
Honestly, Eric Rockim the president president is you start rapping like our rap as to what he's doing, because he was even though it was it was he was the same ship you give me. I'm taking off my coat, Nigga, the rhyme's antagonized me. Nigga, I'm I'm looking for a donut. Nigga, the bitch trying to glaze me. You get love it ship you give me. He wasn't talking about you. I rock Hemp having fun, Nigga, I'm in the struggle out here.
You get was signing ice cold.
Then I came to the door. I said it before, Nigga, I never let the mic magnetize me no more. But it's biting me. You get me he telling you some ship, Nigga. I got to take off my coat and clear my throat. Nigga, Like, let me let me talk to me right quick. That's what made me take Raps serious when I heard him crazy.
That's what you think I said, when you first heard a Gainst the Rep, like be real, like when we first heard a Gainst the Rep that you know it was gonna be some ship.
So I'm one of the like five people in New York who liked that, n w A. So I came to this is such a funny story. I came LA for motherfucking BRR. I think you remember br I came for the br shit I was working. I think I was working at Tommy Boy. I just started working at eighty seven, and I grew up with this is the craziest thing. I grew up with Kadeem Hardisan Dwayne Wayne from from Cosby Show. He's my childhood friend. We went to his mom and my mom's in school. He's my brother,
so literally my friend from grade school. So I was hanging out with him. I checked in him every time I came out of and he was like, you heard this shit yet, And it was like it was is makaj and it was dope Man, and I was like, what the fuck? And it sounded kind of like the Beastie Boys, but it was ill and they had to skit, you know, hey, mister dope man, the whole shit. And then I went to bu up to twelve and I was like, I want to go buy that, bring it
back home. I brought it and I've seen the cover and the cover it just bugged me the fuck out. I was like, who the fuck are these motherfuckers? This shit is wild? So I was fan. I was. I was. I like this ship. I liked it. It was I didn't know c I A. I knew Six in the Morning, I knew Ice Tea, I knew the Battle Ram but those records didn't really pop in New York like that, but I knew them. But I heard that Dope Man shit.
I was like, this ship is crazy. And then I came back to La and I met Ice Cuban Dre so I was a fan. And if you look at that first Underway record, they said Dante Ross from the Tommy Boy because because I met them and they came to New York and they didn't know it was gonna be dumb cold. I took Cube to buy a coat because he came out with the little fucking he had the Derby jacket. He didn't have a real coat, like I was like, mother bucket, it's cold out here. So
so I don't know, man, I always liked it. I liked it because ship was raw. Shit was raw, and it was they was talking some ship that wasn't like New York. They wasn't trying to be like New York. So I liked that about it, where like even Miami Base, I didn't really like Miami based music, but it was original. It wasn't trying to be New York. But I didn't like it the way I like gangster rap.
Can I tell you a secret about Miami Base.
I mean it's just electro, it's really just playing it round and you know that shit originated out here.
They produced mixes.
Yeah, I knew that he's from the Bay and and you know even like you know egypt like go you know, Egyptian Lover, like you know, Dill of freaking all those records, those are like before. Those are like two Live Crew before Two Lives to me, you know, but that music to me was when that came out, like that ship was like a little it was like it was cool.
But then when they kept going with that, it was ancient to me, Like I was fucking with rock can, I was listening to whatever ll that shit was like that.
Was our early I guess, our early introductions into the crossing over from the techno into the hip hop so to speak, you know, Egyptian Lover and the Wrecking Crew and and and those type of cat l a dream team. Uh, that was our introduction because you know we thought that was wrapped, you know, and my beat goes boom and what is the DJ if he can't what is a DJ if he can't straight?
That was hard. That reck was hard. I can't run. That was hard. That was hard, but hard to me too, I can't.
Dolla Freak was our ship too, because if it got the girls freaking works, donad Freak was our party anthem. And then, like I said, you. You wrapped it up with a little bit of Egyptian lover Like I said, my beat goes boom and what is a DJ? And then then you brought it back with ice tea and when he came with six in the morning, and then kind of set us on the path of finding our own identity as far as hip hop was concerned.
Uh In The Battle right.
Was was? The Battle Round was really a neighborhood jam until it got so popular that eve Jam, which was an independent label, put it out and then Todd ended up getting the deal like a single d N yeah because of it.
So the Battle I mean I always liked I like that record.
Like to me, it was like travel through stages. It went from the homie cassette tape, then it went to the independent label, then it made it to the majors.
I mean I used to go to the swap meet. I used to go to I used to go to go to the swap meet and get hats me you know, the La hats, the embroider hats. And I would go there and I would ask dudes what the ship was, what was the tape, what was the thing to buy? And dudes would put me up on records in La like and I had met the dude. I went to
the roodium in Torrents and I met that. I went to the dude ship Steve Ganno, the Japanese dude, and I bought records from him, like you know, I would, you know, I knew, like I had checked him out, but I remember that I had bought and I know you guys used to be funking, but I had got DJ Quick's tape at the swaplan before it came out, and it was called the Red Tape.
Uh.
And that album is the same album as Born and Raised in conference. Yeah, that was like eighty five percent the same ship.
We had to change up some ship. Yeah, he changed up a little shit, but ninety percent of that that Red Tape was his first.
Album album because I had, Yeah, he was talking ship, he was talking that ship.
He did a gang of dissing on that Red tape. He was this in us, He was dising easy in them. He was dising that.
He took shots at everyone.
You when you're establishing your position and based on you know how we was. We were in Compton in La as far as the game were, it was only right. You get me them. Niggas is crips, we bloods, like the.
First person to bring the aspect to it right.
You know, to me, like rap, don't get a fucked up. Rap is a full contact sport. If there's a full contact sport, that's not for. It's not for you know, it's not marshmallow music. And people forgot that along the way kind of you know, like look, Daylight are not tough guys all that shit, you know whatever, But rap is like that the essence, the battle aspect of rat. That's like at the core of it. That's like the meat and potatoes. That's where it started. So you know,
that's part of it. Like take a full circle.
Touring with niggas. You don't give a fuck where they from. When y'all on tour funking with some niggas in another state, then this whole tour gonna start getting down. Primo used to tell me stories all the time, how nigga they wasn't no gang banging, but if so and so was on the tour and they was getting into it, niggas ship premont like nigga we rolling up the sleeves too.
That's how it is, man. It's not a you know, it's like one for all. That's how it is. I mean, you know we're talking about like battle Rap go full circle Man, Drake and Kendrick. Man, that's just that same ship. You know. It's like that's to me, like, look, you hope it doesn't have repercussions, right, but that's like part of the beauty of this thing. Man, Like that's you know, hammer ticket shots at run DMC and then you know that shit is just part of it. It comes with the territory.
Yeah, for real, man, you know what I heard Big day Came actually had hands man somebody else beat Slick Rick and rode out about you about the Big.
Rick did that happens? Big Daddy Came was knowing to beat people up. He was like you know, he just was was hot tempered. He definitely was knowing to put his hands on people, you know. And then there was also it's also like it's very he was he beat up what he's from East New York exactly. That's a serious place that's in East New York. Back in the day was only Browns Bell was worse than all of Brooklyn. That's one of the roughest neighborhoods.
What what what what beers mark He saying. My Nigga said, Big Daddy would grow up to be nothing but a hulum either in j J someone shooting. He was the hard nigga. Big would talk about hisself like that. He telling you, I had another brother that's calm and playing. He goes by the name of Fellow, that's laid back back in the days, he was nothing like that. And Nigga said, I remember when he used to fight every day.
He beat up, he beat up, He beat up Brother Marquise.
He beat up Brother Marquise too.
Brother Marquise said some ship to him, some some god body ship. He he didn't appreciate it. And he turned around and he had to do what he did at the New Music Seminar upstairs in the balcony, and King came on them.
We're not what we used to get it in at the New Music seminars. Nigga, you have for the nigga you meeting them at the seminar. Nigga is going down. Nigga, I'm telling where.
That's where lay on them, cut mob and above the law.
Let me ask you so me. I want to ask both of you.
At the New Music seminar.
Let me let me ask you. I always hear about Above the Law start A G Funk. I never know what the truth is and all of that because I never liked their music after Dre and Them didn't. I didn't love it. I like some songs, I like Black Superman, there's some joints, but they wasn't rocking the way Dre was to me. So I always wanted to know was they really Were they really those dudes who invented that ship.
Hutch goes back, you know hutch has you know it's the really Hutchinson and all that. So they had that Philadelphia sound. But then you know, you got my dude Warren g who you know with Snooping them whose claims their ship came out. You get me. Above the Law came out before all of them.
Yep, they did.
Man, You gotta remember A Warren and Snoop started off with Above the Law exactly. They all.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, they was all clicked together when Dre and Them formed. So because Above the Law had the first album Living like.
Hustlers right well before then n.
W a Is but not Snoop and G Funk and William G. It was n w A and then it was Above the Law. They were first after after Ease, after the Easy solo record and the n w A straight out of Compton. They came out on epic under Ruthless. Yeah, the first album was Living like Hustlers and.
That album that almost popping that she was knocking an.
Album was the Ship. They had flow on on that motherfucker. And now I got a murder rap, just another execution nigga. They had flow on, Nigga. They had songs on.
It was hard. That shit was hard, that she was harder than anything else they ever did. But I just like, who invented what? Like I always wanted to know because I always read it and I'm was like, who really did what? I want to tell you.
Like this, Dante Warren, She and Snoop were with them at the time, right, And I would have to say that they kind of did. And Warren is always kind of undervalue to me because his contribution to the chronic is never hardly talked about. He kind of put that stuff together. But Drey, you know, Dray got that here. You know, Dray hooked it up because a lot of those records was done already, a lot of those records
like Little Ghetto Boy and all that stuff. Those records was done already, and you know, Trey kind of went in and put his touches on him and made a magic I'm not saying Trey won't do nothing, but Warren, she played a big part of that all so the dazz right, yeahs Dads and Warren. I would say Warren was probably a little further along than Dads at that time.
Warren was always dope.
Because he had kind of went through boot camp like Snoop and them could have came out with about the law. They kind of gave Trader blessing to go ahead and you know, handle it with Snoop.
Interesting. I never knew. I never knew any of that, like I had. I never met above Block. I met Easy back in the day. I mean he was Easy was in New York. He like he didn't give a fuck, Like he was like I'm over here now, like fuck it.
Iris like Easy had Easy had deals everywhere, didn't he?
Yeah, Easy everywhere?
I mean Easy Easy, This is so crazy Easy. Jerry Heller, Dre and michell La came to my office because I had one. I worked at Tommy Boy. I want a son. Two groups. I didn't get either of them, Trive Request because they got way more money, and DC, who we could have for one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. Tom Silverman looked at Jerry Heller and said, no, but I want to work at a lecture. Jerry Heller called me up and he said, I'm going to get out
of my deal with Atlantic for Ruthless. Do you want to sign DC? And I said, how's that working? He said, we have a song that they won't put on an album called Bridget. You guys probably know that song. It's a song with all It's the one they run the train on the Girl. So they were like, they won't let us put the record on. We're gonna get out the deal. So he came to see me and they
came to my office and DC wasn't there. I had never met Doc and they I was like, they were like, they won't let us put the song on the album. I was like, yo, we'll do the deal. So then me and Jerry the next day met with my boss and my boss told me my boss is says og Is. There was Bob Kraus and he said that Jerry Heller got don't trust him. I don't know how he knew. He said, don't trust that guy. And it turned out
they couldn't get out of their deal. But they were all in my office and I remember I played one song by grand Football for them and Dre was like, he you know, he's like grand Pool boy, He's a bad motherfucker. But Easy was just like clowning. He was just fucking around, like walking around, just fucking around in the office. I was like, he was bugged out, but he really was in New York like just like he was like, I can't explain it. He had an aura. He had an aura like I was like, this guy's
bit larger than life, mad small. So the only time I ever met him, he bugged me out though, and then of course it all became what it was and Doc to me, he was a bad Motherfuckerdoc.
Doc was the ship I think gotten an accident.
Man, it.
Really fucked a lot of stuff up for him out. I'm always curious to see what his career would have been. Eight and he's been able to put three or four more albums out.
Ship Star, Yeah, he'd have been he would have been in that Kendrick era. He would have been. In that ice Cube era.
He would have been him and ice Cube would have been like the top in.
That ice Cube era, that Scarface era that you know he he was. He was, like you said, he was a bad motherfucker when he came to that pin. He was.
He raped. He rat better than Ice cbe back then.
Yeah, he he knew how to because like another thing, he wasn't an l A nigga, you get me, So he was able to pin a lot of ship that didn't have the cultural aspects of game bang and ship. You just looked at yo see and thought he was an l A nigga, But he was from Dallas, Texas crew you look fresh crew. That's where I first heard of.
Him, to crew.
And he was one of those motherfuckers that when you heard, you was like, god damn, this mother talented when it came to that pin. So, you know, I doubt I wouldn't doubt that he would be up there on on that upper echelon, you know, his Cube status, you know, or any nigga who was popular from the West coast.
And if you ask him, I talked to d C and I talked to Scarface, right, I told d C Man that I thought his verse on the on the Grand Finale was I thought he got you know. He told me, he said, man, I wasn't better than Cube. Scarface told me he wasn't better than Q. I think prime ice Cube.
Man, he was some ice cubes on those guys. For one year, maybe two, he was top dog. He was the badest motherfucker in the world. When America's Most Wanted came out, No, he know what was fucking Cube that year? I was like he was top dog.
Yeah, in my opinion. Yeah, the America's.
Second album too, he.
Uh the death certificate. He it was, I I don't you know, I say, by a round. Then Cubes started, you know, venturing off into a lot of shit. After that second record. He started to the Predator. It's you feel it starts declining. And like I said, not because of you know, his ability, but just because of the interest.
Probably he's doing movies and this, that and the other.
Like Fridays, I'm doing this, I'm doing are we there yet? I'm doing this, I'm doing this movie. I got another Friday movie. I'm doing this. And Q turned into you know, the hip hop Demzel Washington.
As far as the first.
Thing about the economics though, eight especially back then making records. You figure he got that movie money man, he looking at what.
I go to a movie, this.
Record and maybe make a half a million maybe, but I can put out this movie and make forty fifty. You get me like demographics. So now my more thoughts and process is the finishing up these movie scripts than the trying to pin another steady mob. And I was, well, I wasn't a movie dude. I didn't consider myself No.
Man, you incredible and menace. Man, you were fucking great.
Oh that's why it was vice versa. It was different for me. I relied more on pinning wraps. Then let me go sit up and try to write a script with a nigga or do this or do that, because my sole interest was records was hip hop.
I mean, let me tell you someonehen you're in the car and you told them to stop acting like bitches. That ship was classic when you was like you said that shit was incredible. Man, you were so authentic, Like it was so because you are authentic, but.
It was that was and they and people ask and I'll be like, man, that shit we did every day on the on the regular man.
It didn't have to be great.
It didn't have to be a camera on, It didn't have to be a microphone on.
What you telling me? Say? They killed your.
Nigga. Nigga and you riding around talking about who you don't want to shoot and who you don't want to kill, but your cousin laid up dead, nigga. Y'all got to be the most bitchiness niggas I've ever seen.
Right now, But I was so classic going.
To pill some niggas caps. We worried about who's standing around outside and I don't want to shoot no kids. And we didn't have that mentality that was real shit like we had a sense of of, well, we ain't just gonna start shooting if it's five and six kids running around on bicycles and ship. We had a difference of approach. But hell no, nigga, we in the car and it's time for dirt to be done. I don't want to hear no shit about well, I don't want to do this and I don't want to be nigga.
Are you politicking right now?
I mean to me, that's the that's the best. That's the best. Likely movie game.
Movies your cousin laid up stiff as hell on the on the sleigh I have in the morgue, and you want to talk about what you don't want to do, nigga, if you don't get the fuck up out of my car right now.
You turned down after that, though, didn't you ate?
It was it was nothing as important as far as us, as far as that that scenario as that that that movie, everything else was like bullshit. So I didn't want to do No.
That movie is a statement. Man. That's a great movie. It's just a good It's just a great movie, Chris, because it's also like real life, like the way I want to.
I didn't want to be a Watch the Wire.
It's like similar in a way because what it showed you in that movie is like there there is no real justice. The straight murderer o Dog gets away obody. He was trying to turn the turn the corner and do the right thing. He got smoke. And that's the way sh it is. There is no right or wrong. It ain't always gonna work the way it's supposed to work.
And I thought that that was classical. Like in the Wire, when the little motherfucker killed Omar, right you never know, you know, there's no real rules and how it's gonna happen. That's what I thought was great about it because there was no moral to the movie.
Right, I love it.
I love about it. That was bug.
Did you ever watch The Wire eight?
I've seen it.
The little bitty dude, the dude that was put me in all that work, man, a little bitty kid came and smoked him at the end.
Yeah, little dude, a little like fourteen year old smoked him. Because it's like, you know, when it's your time, at your time, and it's not going to always work that way.
And when somebody feel like I could step in them shoes, it's show time.
It's I mean, look, man, I know you've been to a lot of crazy places, but I've been there when the when the bullets went by and they didn't hit me, and it was if it was my day, it was my day, it wasn't my dad. I'm fucking lucky, man. No, it's fucking life.
You just take life for what it is, man, Try to walk in that, in that in that light to where, hey, I can't control what happened. You know what I'm saying?
Are you for good now?
Yeah, I live in l A. I've been here for for six years. In February, I still have a place in New York, but I stay in l A. I like l A. L A Is. I hate Winter Bro, I hate Winter. I don't like that ship. And one day I was like, you know what, I don't got to live in New York and be dealing with winter no more. So I moved to l A.
Like, you got a lot of dope. You got a lot of dope, fast stuff going on, man, And I'm no eight Field the same. You got a home here, man, You work from here?
Yeah, you know, I'm out here, man, I live out here, you know, working in a lot of film and TV. Ship right now. I sold the screenplay the lions Gate. I'm doing it. I'm working on a project with Ice that I will talk to you guys about in a minute because I need to get eight on camera in it. It's it's basically everything before n w A. So it's the story of how it got to that. So from Uncle Jam's Army to my cola and swap me the torrents and the whole shit. So you know, we got
we finally got the funding for it. So as I get into shooting it next year, I'm gonna want to sit you guys down and and talk about because to me, like, and this is just my favorite rappers from LA, Like we're always like you know, obviously there's Cube and everyone, but there's always you and King T were like the motherfuckers. I was like, and and you guys got your records played in New York. It was like uncanny. We was bumping.
Doc got a ship bump in New York too, But they played your guys records like side by side with all our records, and that ship, to me is so cool. You know, we listen to your music, man, We've been listening to it from when it came out. So I want to at some point see you down when we're shooting, and I want to interview because I want to get your perspective on how it all got to where it came from, you know, from from because you know what Uncle Jam's army was going, and Mycola records just pop in.
Corny ass King Keith, I mean corny ass Young MC and Tone locas out there. They were making hit records. And Ton Locu is a real one. He's not a sucker. So I just think the whole ship is kind of interesting. You know.
So that's that's a crypt exactly for sure. That's all good. Let's make it happen. That's doing.
Man. Look, you guys got my math. Anytime you want to holler, I'm here whatever you guys need, Man, I'm I'm always here. So let me know.
We appreciate you coming through, Bron.
You're on Twitter a lot, right I'm on Twitter, Instagram. I'll be talking about fuck trump Ship. I'm on my my fucking Nipsey Hustle fuck trump Ship right now, you know. But you know so, so if that drives you crazy, you don't look at my Instagram right now you be mad because I'm.
Y'all make sure man, y'all hit my man up. Man, this is history record wister Instagram.
Bro Aunty Ross at at Instagram.
It's my name Ross Instagram. Man, that's another against the chronicles. Man, We're gonna hoigher at your cats next week. M hm