WEBVTT - QLS Classic: Too Short 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:03.800 Of Course Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:09.200 classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora. Ladies 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:12.400 and Gentlemen, Welcome to QLs Classic Episode forty nine with 0:00:12.480 --> 0:00:17.360 the King of All Freaky Tales, Too Short, September twenty seventeen. 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:20.279 The joys of doing the show, y'all, is being able 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.320 to nerd out on our favorites and todd Too Short 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:27.080 Shaw is no exception, y'all. He's an example of a 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:31.040 self made millionaire upstart, literally starting his own empire, selling 0:00:31.040 --> 0:00:33.479 out the trunk of his car and the tails. He 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:36.040 is the tail boy man. This is one for the 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:42.160 record books. Please enjoy the great Too Short QLs Classic. 0:00:53.159 --> 0:01:03.560 Supremo, Supremo, Ro Supremo, Supremo, Old Call, Supremo, Son Son Supremo, 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:08.720 Roll Call, Suprema Sothing Son Supremo Roll Call, P B 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:09.160 and J. 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:11.640 Yeah, it's my favorite Sandwitch. 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:12.160 Yeah. 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:13.520 What's my favorite word? 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:14.160 Yeah? 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:24.080 Newman or Michael Scottish Silicon sup Roll Car Supremo Roll Car. 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:28.040 Yeah. Yeah, it's fante Yeah. All in your world? Yeah, 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:31.959 someone of the threesome. Yeah, I want a seventy five Girls. 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:40.120 Seven Supremo Role Car Supremo Supremo role card. 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:44.479 My name is Sugar. Yeah, I'm too fly, Yeah, I'm 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:47.040 too sexy. Yeah, I'm too high. 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:56.000 Car Supremo Supremo roll call, Supremo Suck Supremo roll call. 0:01:56.160 --> 0:02:00.760 I'm unpaid bill, Yeah, doing my part. Yeah, there's nothing 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:09.320 I can say. Yeah, totally clips Supremo Road super. 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:10.600 So. 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:16.520 My name's Light. Yeah, Yo, the thistle. Yeah, I'm about 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:19.200 to get turned. Yeah, you about to blow that whistle? 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:27.560 Oh capec Supremo roll came Supremo Supremo roll. 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:32.480 I'm too short, Yeah you know what's up? Yeah after 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:35.360 the show. Yeah, I'm going to give my dick suck. 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:42.640 Okay, and your. 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:51.440 Supremo Supremo roll Suprivo Supremo roll. 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:57.800 Ladies and gentlemen, light, you're and too short coming up 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:03.600 with men? Yeah, your brain is over. Okay. I would 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:08.080 be remiss to say that in practicing for an hour 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:12.240 the words the world's longest word, which is indeed new 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:16.440 meno or microscopic silicon volcanic coneos and. 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:17.120 What does that mean? 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.639 I have no guy, a medical par or something like 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:22.440 it is it is? Yeah, I looked up in the 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:24.600 medical diction Yeah, like this is like that. 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:28.919 Yeah, suffixes something forty five letters and after the show, 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:29.320 I'm going to. 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:36.280 Ladies and gentleman, Welcome to another episode of Questlo Supreme. 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:38.320 I think this is gonna go. I think this may 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.880 uh rival Heath Hunters experts. 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:44.520 I cannot wait even get into it. 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:45.360 You can't wait. 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:49.760 This is oh god, no, what's she saying? 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:50.839 Her whistle or something? 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:59.160 Is that what you said? I said, blow it too high? Anyway? Anyway, 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:03.200 so yeah, uh, we were here at U. Well technically 0:04:03.280 --> 0:04:05.800 are we in Live at Canem or do we call it? 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:08.920 We're at the Village Recorders. Now it's the Village Recorders. 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:12.760 I mean oftentimes studios changed titles and I don't. 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:14.000 Know what they were, but I think they've been the 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:17.120 Village Recorders since nineteen sixty seven, really sixty eight something 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:17.240 like that. 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:18.400 Why many? 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:21.200 Yes, I was looking at Short because he's been here. 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:24.040 I was just like, well, he's not sixty seven years 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:27.120 old though, Oh that happened. But yeah, I'm in the 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:28.280 history of this place. 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:30.679 Is yeah, you know Lost Steely, Dan Fleetwood, Mac. 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:34.800 And many many, a death Row classic created in these hallways. 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:37.320 Yeah, and Breakfast in America by Super Tramp and. 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.720 A former style I like, are we in a church? 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:46.120 I don't said. Yes, wait, we even recorded here, right, 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:49.480 this is where I've never been here in the nineteen twenties. 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:51.440 It was a Masonic it was a Massonic church in 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:52.600 like nineteen twenties. 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:56.640 Then became a recording studio and the Rolling Stones did 0:04:57.760 --> 0:04:59.840 go toed soup here angie and all that. 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:02.520 Wow, well, let's thank. 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:04.599 You for face value. 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:07.600 Really, yes, this is what gave us the in the 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:11.520 air tonight. I don't know Jesus it was this room, 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:14.520 but yeah, it might have been. And and then the 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:16.920 the orchestrations for wise up coasts were down here. 0:05:17.080 --> 0:05:19.720 Hence didn't we record here once? Well, we weren't here. 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:21.279 We watched this twitter like via satellite. 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:26.600 Okay, well, thank you for the sorry anyway, Ladies and gentlemen, 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:31.680 please uh uh welcome. Wait. I didn't even know my intro. 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:35.320 I'll be honest. I spent so much time trying to 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:40.240 pronounce the word that I forgot to actually craft an introduction. 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:44.000 But uh, this young man needs no introduction. 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:45.120 Uh. 0:05:45.560 --> 0:05:50.599 He has taught us all how to mac. Yes, yes, 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:53.560 let's just get into it, ladies and gentleman. The legendary 0:05:54.320 --> 0:06:00.240 Todd shaw a ka too short, my fucking house. What's 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:04.799 what's up? How are you today? 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:04.920 Man? 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.920 Doing good man and enjoying it? You know the journey 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:10.960 of hip hop where it's taking me to join. 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.479 It a lot see to this day? Well, of course, 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:16.760 I mean your your your story is never ending, you know. 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:21.840 So it's it's it's probably you know, things are still 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:26.200 happening today that we, you know, have yet to discover 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:33.560 and and and find out. I gotta ask you, you know, 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:39.919 it's in your daily life. How many times do people 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:41.520 out of the word bitch to you? 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:42.680 Like? 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.559 Is that your I'm rick like, do you get tired 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:47.000 of it? Like? Do you just want to just be 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:47.480 touched on? 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:47.960 Just like? 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:52.400 Yes, it's the most random places, the most random people, 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:54.760 at the most random times, and they yell it from 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:59.080 blind size being whole foods or like in shurt or 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:01.720 like a voice to go past the aisle, I won't 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:08.360 even see who was just bitch? And then people think 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:10.400 that they think it up and they're like, I'm gonna 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:12.280 walk over to him and ask him what's his favorite word? 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:14.560 I'm like, are you siring of that? 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:15.280 Yeah? 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:17.960 Well, you know it's it's it's the thing, man, It's 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:21.040 the thing. That if you if it goes away, you 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:23.480 lose something, you know, So you'd be more worried if 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:23.920 you know. 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:24.640 They didn't. 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:28.680 Yeah, no one said anything, and they forgot about the 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:29.800 day passed without a bitch. 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:34.120 I would be remissed, all right. 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:36.920 So of course I know your history. But for our 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:39.640 listeners that you know, for the two of our listeners 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:43.240 that are unfamiliar with your folk word, uh tell us, 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:44.480 where were you born? 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:45.520 Sir? I was? 0:07:45.600 --> 0:07:48.480 What do we Okay, I'm about to ask the question 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:50.600 I hate the most, like what do I call you? 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:54.400 I call you mister to mister short mister, I'm from Oakland. 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:56.840 Man, you gotta have a multi multitude of names in Oakland, 0:07:56.840 --> 0:07:57.440 at least five. 0:07:57.600 --> 0:08:00.360 So I go by short dog, I go by You 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:03.680 can call me tired, all right, close, homies called me dog, 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:05.840 any variation, all good, all good. 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.400 A couple of people call me two too. So you 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:09.360 were born in Oakland? 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:10.480 I was born in LA. 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:13.920 I was born in LA and I moved to Oakland 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:15.960 right after ninth grade. A lot of people don't know that. 0:08:16.080 --> 0:08:19.120 But the reason why it's so Oakland is because when 0:08:19.200 --> 0:08:21.720 I got to Oakland, that's when I started rapping. When 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:23.600 I got to Oakland. That's when they started calling me 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:26.360 too show. When I started rapping, I started rapping about Oakland. 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:28.920 It never really had any connection to La at all. 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:33.800 Okay, Okay, So well I got to ask, because the 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:39.679 Oakland of twenty seventeen is hardly what the Oakland of 0:08:41.400 --> 0:08:46.120 nineteen eighty seven was. What are you just your general 0:08:46.240 --> 0:08:50.760 views of what Oakland has become, which is now more 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:54.520 Silicon Valley based, I mean, gingerf gentrified. 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:57.959 Yeah, you have to have your own personal opinions about that. 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:00.000 A lot of people, you know, it's not just happening, 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.120 and the Oakland's happening in San Francisco right across the bridge, right, 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:05.960 and it's happening in a major way because. 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:06.760 Of Silicon Valley is going. 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:09.520 It's going really fast, like neighborhoods being taken over, and 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:11.600 you know, just people are being priced out. 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:11.959 And moved out. 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:13.480 So where are they moving to? 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:16.959 I think it's the reverse white flight. I think the 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:20.400 suburbs are coming back to the city and then they're right, but. 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:23.319 Where are they putting Like for anyone that you grew 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:23.640 up with. 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:25.440 Andy putting them out in them cheap ass houses they 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:26.680 built twenty thirty years. 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:31.280 Ago, they fucking falled apart the little track homes is it? Yeah? 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:34.760 Like where is it? Literally? Like you know, it's too excuge. 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.760 Okay, you had a city like Antioch, thirty minute ride 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:42.439 from Oakland, and a lot of people dipped out the 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:45.680 Antioch for the suburbs, you know, And from what I'm 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:48.200 hearing now, it's some a little rough areas out there. 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:50.800 It's getting a little little shady because so that used. 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:52.280 To be the suburbs where people escaping. 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:55.000 Now that's because slowly but surely, you know what happened. 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:55.880 This is this is my theory. 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:58.640 You've got all the people who like people, you know, 0:09:58.760 --> 0:10:01.679 even even as the bubble burst. After the bubble, all 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:03.720 this stuff, people like scramping up all their money. Man, 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:05.120 I'm about to give me a house off the way. Man, 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:06.880 I'm getting out this crazy see, I'm moving out the way. 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:10.800 People been saying that. So at some point I feel 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:16.280 like the bubble burst, the gasoline prices went up. Shit, 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:19.120 just shit, just made suburb life real fucked up. You 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:21.679 gotta sit there in a two hour traffic jam both 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:25.079 ways every day during rush hour. You don't get to 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:26.559 see your fucking kids and your family. 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:27.199 You go old. 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:28.520 You don't even know, they don't even know you. 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:31.679 So I think a lot of people decided to, you know, 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:33.760 with the price of gas and the fucking stress on 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:35.640 the highway, like fuck it, I'm just gonna go get 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:38.079 me in back three three bedroom apartment. My kids like fuck, 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:40.400 no more yard, you know what I'm saying, Like fuck it. 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:41.160 And it's. 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:45.079 That's one angle. But the other side is you from 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:47.960 the city and now you're looking at neighborhoods where you're like, shit, 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:50.360 this ship was a tough ass neighborhood five years ago, 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:53.600 and now it's just like you know, horror books, blond hair, 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:57.079 white chicks walking down the street, untouched, like safest, safest hell. 0:10:57.559 --> 0:10:59.480 So, when's the last time you've been to your because 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:01.400 I know you also moved to Atlanta, when's the last 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:03.760 time you've been to Oakland like as you knew it, 0:11:03.880 --> 0:11:05.839 like where you grew up in that area, Like has 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:06.680 it totally changed? 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:08.679 While from East Oakland And they're not. 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.080 They're not gentrifying East Oakland at this point, not yet, 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:12.480 hadn't made that point. 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:17.040 There's always one area toast, but they jumped. 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:19.120 On West Oakland because it's the closest to San Francisco, 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:22.400 and they took downtown Oakland because it's right adjacent to 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:25.160 West Oakland and it's moving outward. 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:28.000 But I'm one of those people who. 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:29.120 I feel like. 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:33.120 People in places are going to progress. 0:11:33.160 --> 0:11:36.439 You're not gonna You're not gonna say let's stay the 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:38.080 way we are because you just can't. 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:39.800 You can't make hip hop stay away. You can't make 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:41.679 anything stay away. It is changing. 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:44.240 So Silicon Valley was they were sitting out there in 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:47.040 San Jose and Livermore and out there in the middle 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:49.720 of fucking nowhere, and they decided one day, we're taking 0:11:49.760 --> 0:11:51.160 San Francisco and they took that ship. 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:53.440 And then it was just the. 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:58.160 Basic theory is that, which I guess is that the 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:01.520 the the hidden message is that, of course it won't 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:04.360 be like okay, no poor people, no brown people, no 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.280 black people, low like. Their version of that is the 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:10.880 rent will be five times high as it ever was, 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:14.040 and you have to have nineteen jobs in order to 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:17.080 you know, I mean, I know people now that work 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:20.520 in tech worlds in which they're sharing a house with 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:25.959 seven people made for four. So you know, I just 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:28.760 visiting Oakland. I did a show in Oakland like three 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:32.440 weeks ago and it was not the Oakland that I remembered. 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:34.280 So did you invest? 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:35.520 Did you get a little piece of property? 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:37.920 So before the you know, for the blow up, Well, 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:42.040 you know, I think it's a little too late to 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:44.959 like get to get little areas because you get a 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:48.400 twelve hundred square foot house the size of a tiny 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:51.600 studio apartment or something in San Francisco for two point 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:52.200 three million. 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:54.480 Yeah, it's the most expensive, Yes it is. 0:12:54.720 --> 0:12:54.920 It is. 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:59.000 So you don't get a yard driveway, just get a 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:00.480 little box two. 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:03.200 Million, two million for a walking Closses. 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:05.120 All right, so take us players like me, we moved 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:09.360 to Vegas. Big. 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:12.480 I've always had a spot in Vegas. That's that's part 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:12.880 of life. 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.800 But what do you do in Vegas besides everyone? 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:22.040 For for my perspective, quest love Supreme guest, Like literally, 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.240 I don't know what it is about September. They're all like, yo, dog, 0:13:25.640 --> 0:13:29.080 I just moved to Vegas. Like when I missed that memo? 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:30.679 When did Vegas become the new? 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:31.240 What is it? 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:31.400 Like? 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:33.520 Is it taxes? 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:34.240 Is it why? 0:13:35.240 --> 0:13:39.520 People's probably the best value real estate wives. 0:13:39.280 --> 0:13:41.680 On the West Coast more than Arizona. What Arizona does 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:42.840 kind of same thing. 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:43.680 But but Vegas. 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:46.200 You get all these fucking world renown restaurants and all 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:49.240 these big time production shows and fucking freaky ship every 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.120 weekend and ships just Vegas. 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.160 That's good, all right? 0:13:56.240 --> 0:14:00.800 So take us take us back to Oakland eighty five 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:05.079 of Oakland. Wait, can you get a place in Vegas? Like, 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:12.559 I'm not kidding around you, dog. I tried a residency 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:16.599 out there. It's it's tough. I mean, you got to 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:18.160 speak the language, you know what I mean. 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:22.760 And it's just like it's a certain a lot of 0:14:22.840 --> 0:14:31.560 the music that I like does not intail. Like I 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.360 went to a club, no, I mean the manager. I 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:38.120 went to a club to watch Steve Okie spinning. You 0:14:38.200 --> 0:14:42.320 know they're there. Modus operandi is every five minutes has 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:46.320 to be New Year's Eve countdown. Oh wow, every five minutes, 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:54.320 the drop the cake and pressure you know what. Actually 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:57.160 I did a d J gig with Snoop once out there, 0:14:57.440 --> 0:15:06.760 and this motherfucker actually played intimate from It was like, 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:11.440 but I mean he was snooped so he could get Yeah, celebrity. 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.320 Snoop will play Harold Melne and the Blue Notes at 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:15.480 the Vegas Club in the morning. 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:19.760 Nobody would challenge. It was the most amazing thing I 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:20.200 ever seen. 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:24.320 All Right, So Oakland nineteen eighty five, Yes. 0:15:24.840 --> 0:15:24.920 What. 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:29.680 Can I say? Is that safe? Just assumed that eighty 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:32.200 forty five is were the legend of too short? First 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:34.800 of all, how did you pick your moniker? Too short? 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:37.920 Well, eighty forty five was the legend of crack, and 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:39.320 it was that's what That's what happened. 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:40.400 Too short. 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:43.880 Too short came a little bit before that I appeared. 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.080 I moved to Oakland nineteen eighty. The year I moved 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:49.440 to Oakland is the moment I started rapping that same 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:51.560 something I started rapping, and it was just like a 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:56.080 novelty thing. Got to high school that year, my brother 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:59.640 and his friend's nicknamed me short. And they gave me 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:02.760 the nick name short because, uh, I was like the 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:04.360 shortest person in the whole fucking school. 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:04.680 Like it was. 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:06.960 It was a dude named Shorty that was taller than me. 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:11.840 I mean, you're not that short. Everyone like six three. 0:16:12.720 --> 0:16:15.360 I was five too when on my nineteenth birthday. Oh, 0:16:16.440 --> 0:16:18.280 I was five eight on my twentieth birthday. I don't 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:18.800 know how to happen. 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:19.640 So in high school. 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:21.800 In high school, I was fucking. 0:16:21.600 --> 0:16:23.920 Five too, Okay, you got a spurt huh. 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:28.120 Somewhere in there after I turned nineteen. But so because 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:30.680 because I was shorter than somebody named Shorty, they just 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:32.560 called me short. They're like, we can't even think of 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:35.200 a nickname for you, we can't call you todd. Fuck that, 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:39.200 like it can't be tired. So it came up with 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:40.920 short And I fucking hated the ship because it was 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:41.320 a joke. 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:42.360 Really. 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:47.240 So somewhere down the line, I saw the movie Penitentiary 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:50.440 Too Sweet, Too Sweet, and I was like, too sweet, 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:55.800 got oh damn he beat everybody up any all the pussy. 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:58.480 I was like, I think I'm gonna be too short. 0:16:59.880 --> 0:17:04.720 I put it, I put a twist on it. Yeah, 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:06.040 I see all right? 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:12.400 So what was how did how did hip hop culture 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:16.520 even find its way to the West Coast in like 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:17.080 what year? 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:20.720 Like so nineteen seventy nine, right before I moved to Oakland, 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.280 Rappers Delight came across the airways. Now, before Rappers Delight, 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:28.640 you would hear rap. 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:30.080 But not have a name for it. 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:34.560 It was sort of records like King ten third, certain 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:37.800 Parliament records. George Clinton was always rapping, talking to rymen 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:40.399 and I mean, there was a lot of records that 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:44.920 have rapped in it. And when Rappers Delight came me, 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:49.640 being a elementary school drummer, high school marching band type kid, 0:17:50.880 --> 0:17:54.520 I instantly heard the cadences and I related it to 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:56.520 drum patterns, and I was like, you. 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:58.119 Told me when I first met it, you told me 0:17:58.200 --> 0:17:59.960 that you dabbled on drums, so you were serious. 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:03.119 I was in the elementary school band it was school 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:05.480 fucking march in high school a couple couple of years 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:07.760 that type of sh I was a drumm, snare, drum, 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:13.320 tenor drum you know, all right, And I immediately recognized 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:16.399 the patterns as something I could do, and I just 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:20.360 tried it. It was it was nineteen eighty. Uh, singles 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:23.760 were coming out left and right. It would be Curtis Blow, 0:18:23.920 --> 0:18:26.760 then it would be Spoony g. It would be grand 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:30.480 Master Flash and the Fist five, it would be the sequence. 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:30.119 You know. 0:18:30.280 --> 0:18:32.680 Just records were just coming out back to back, and 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:34.399 I'm like, I can do this shit, I can do it. 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:39.120 And I found a record. It was a jazz record, 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:42.720 all instrumentals, and one of the instrumentals on there was 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:43.520 kind of funky. 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:46.000 I can't remember what song is. It might have been 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:48.600 a Grubb Washington track or something, but they were they 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:49.879 were doing cover tunes. 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:53.119 And I wrapped to it and I just had like 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:55.480 a remember those little recorders that that you might do 0:18:55.520 --> 0:18:57.120 an interview with U something you pressed the buttons down. 0:18:57.440 --> 0:19:00.440 I sat that ship next to the speaker to my 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:03.879 mother's component set, got down on my knees and just 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:07.080 wrapped some words and it was like it was, you know, ship. 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:09.440 I knew I could do it. It was it was. 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:11.480 It was one of those things like you look, you 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:12.800 look at the roof and ship and you're like, I'm 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:13.960 about to jump off the fucking roof. 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:17.520 So it wasn't It wasn't a thing where you know, 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:20.600 there was like party jams in the park and this 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:22.280 crew bat on that crewise. 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:25.240 I invented too short in my bedroom. 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:26.240 The whole ship. 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:28.920 Every every step of the way, it was always like 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:33.160 my little home recording thing just kept getting bigger and bigger. 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:37.120 My father had showed me how to take this little 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:39.680 hand me down stereo. He gave me, you take the 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:42.119 inputs out, you know, outputs, you run it the speakers 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:43.840 you're running. So I said I would take that shit 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:45.119 and loose and hook it back up and move it 0:19:45.160 --> 0:19:46.359 to the other side of the room. And I was 0:19:46.440 --> 0:19:47.919 I was real big in that ship. So I started 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:53.400 getting parts, trading uh components with the homies, Like man, 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:55.159 I got an extra record player, let me get that 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:55.960 cassette player. 0:19:56.880 --> 0:19:57.360 You know what I'm saying. 0:19:57.400 --> 0:19:58.720 I really was trying to get my hands on a 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:00.400 dual cassette player. I was trying to ge my hands 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:02.080 on a microphone in the mixture. I knew, I knew 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:02.560 what I needed. 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.160 I love everybody's stories from that era trying to figure 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:11.120 out how to course with like a fucking two cassettes 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:14.920 and a microphone. It's just like everybody's got that story 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:17.400 of like how can I put together in a system 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:19.080 where I can fucking record, you know. 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:21.720 A fucking home studio, Like I gotta get my voice 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:23.119 onto a tape. 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:26.240 Can I ask you a question about the the Grover 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:28.840 Washington was it is an Inner City Blues or do 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:29.960 you remember what song it was? 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:33.480 I don't remember, I do. I can give you a clue. 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:37.399 This was a jazz record. It had four songs on it. 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:39.960 They were all instrumentals, and I want to say one 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:44.359 of them was a remake, a replay of brick House, 0:20:45.119 --> 0:20:45.399 you know what. 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:50.840 Okay, so those records, no, no, no, well that's the thing. 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:54.960 Shout out to jan Brown. All right, So okay, here's 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.719 the deal. When you threw parties in the seventies and eighties, 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:02.960 all think he's basically describing. There's a slew records that 0:21:03.080 --> 0:21:04.960 came out in the seventies. It's like their version of 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:08.280 Now that's what I call music wow, where you don't 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:10.600 hire DJ, but you have a record that just has 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:12.840 all the hits. But the thing is that it's too 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:15.399 expensive to license these songs, Like you don't go to 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:17.920 Motown be like, yo, can I get break out? You 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:21.919 just get a local band to replay all them songs 0:21:22.000 --> 0:21:25.320 and put on records. Like right now, that's my record 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:29.000 collecting obsession. I got. I got Gene Brown going through 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:34.439 every record store down South. Give me all them party records, 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:40.760 like I have at least like, you know, thirty versions 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:44.360 of various bands doing like you know, casing the Sunshine bands. 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:49.040 Let's get down tonight, weird things like various covers of 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:52.600 Billy Jean, like right now playing stupid covers. Yeah I heard, yeah, 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:57.200 you play some exactly like when I play es Page, Yeah, 0:21:57.240 --> 0:21:59.760 all that stuff like marching band versions. So yeah, more 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:02.840 likely that that was the investment, Like you just get 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:03.679 party records. 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:10.080 So so the next phase was rappers and you know 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:12.520 disco records. They all had the B side of the 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:17.440 twelve inch, so I would music always came out on Tuesdays. 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:19.840 I got a little I got a little ingenious. I'm like, 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:22.280 I'm going to the record store every Tuesday, and I'm 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:24.280 gonna buy every new twelve inch that comes out of 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:26.720 everything that grabs my eye. So I get these twelve 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:29.680 inches and before they can get popular in Oakland, I'd 0:22:29.760 --> 0:22:31.399 flip it over and rap to. 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:34.000 It and get around the streets and claim it really 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:36.399 and not just claim it just it is what it is, 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:36.879 right right. 0:22:37.800 --> 0:22:40.159 A few records people people people will come in and go, 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:46.679 hey man, something like stow your record. I would get 0:22:46.680 --> 0:22:48.120 it out there first, but that was that was the trick, 0:22:48.240 --> 0:22:49.920 was to try to find it the dopest beat, and 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:51.040 all the ship was coming out of New York. 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:51.920 It was New York hit popp. 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:54.159 It was those independent labels that were putting out all 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:56.639 the twelve inches nineteen eighty eighty one, eighty two, of 0:22:56.640 --> 0:22:57.040 those years. 0:22:57.200 --> 0:22:57.960 What did your folks do? 0:22:58.200 --> 0:23:00.639 They like supportive of both of. 0:23:00.680 --> 0:23:04.040 My parents are accountants. Wow, that that goes. 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:07.399 My mother graduated from Dillard, moved to the West Coast, 0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:10.439 met my father, and she kind of put him through college. 0:23:10.480 --> 0:23:12.200 You know, wow that situation. 0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:13.360 So your money is right? 0:23:15.119 --> 0:23:17.000 She mean she used to say shit like I fucking 0:23:17.080 --> 0:23:17.960 did all his homework. 0:23:18.080 --> 0:23:19.640 I took his chest. 0:23:19.880 --> 0:23:20.800 That's my damn degree. 0:23:22.600 --> 0:23:24.960 No, but seriously, your money is right, right, like more 0:23:25.040 --> 0:23:25.720 than the average. 0:23:25.960 --> 0:23:27.120 I'm the child of two accounts. 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:27.600 Exactly. 0:23:27.640 --> 0:23:29.080 All right, Aunt, you have. 0:23:29.200 --> 0:23:31.960 To be because I mean the way that your hustle 0:23:32.119 --> 0:23:34.479 at least when you started. Was it Up All Night Records? 0:23:34.800 --> 0:23:37.199 Was that your first label? Or was it seventy five? Uh? 0:23:37.320 --> 0:23:37.520 Start? 0:23:37.560 --> 0:23:38.879 We started with seventy five Girls. 0:23:38.960 --> 0:23:41.639 Then we then we did a label called Dangerous Music, right, 0:23:41.800 --> 0:23:43.639 and then that evolved in the up All nineties? 0:23:43.640 --> 0:23:44.520 So seventy five girls? 0:23:44.640 --> 0:23:45.119 Was that you? 0:23:45.600 --> 0:23:45.960 Or who? 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:46.680 Who's behind? 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:49.439 A guy named Dean Hodges and he was a very 0:23:49.480 --> 0:23:52.000 colorful street character, played a low key He wasn't like, 0:23:52.119 --> 0:23:53.480 he wasn't a loud guy, but he you know, he 0:23:53.560 --> 0:23:56.680 was nineteen eighty five and he drove an eighty five bing. 0:23:56.760 --> 0:23:58.960 So he was, you know, he was doing his thing, 0:23:59.440 --> 0:24:05.479 and he he wanted to be not physically but mentally. 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:07.000 He wanted to be a fucking rock star. Does that 0:24:07.080 --> 0:24:07.480 make sense. 0:24:07.800 --> 0:24:09.680 He didn't want to be on stage playing guitar, but 0:24:09.720 --> 0:24:11.879 he wanted to want the walk and be a fucking 0:24:11.920 --> 0:24:13.399 rock star. He wanted to look like a rock star, 0:24:13.680 --> 0:24:15.600 and he wanted to be around rock stars all day. 0:24:18.560 --> 0:24:20.960 The aspiration of the rock star lifestyff. 0:24:21.040 --> 0:24:24.399 So he provided us with I was friends with his 0:24:24.440 --> 0:24:26.000 little brother. Little brother brought me around. 0:24:26.000 --> 0:24:28.159 I'm popular all in the streets and ship and he 0:24:28.359 --> 0:24:30.080 just provided us with the best equipment. 0:24:30.160 --> 0:24:30.280 Man. 0:24:30.320 --> 0:24:32.159 He had all the best ship, the Lynn drum and 0:24:32.600 --> 0:24:35.000 fucking all kind of rolling ship and all his guitars 0:24:35.040 --> 0:24:37.359 and shipping modules and ship and ship that you never 0:24:37.440 --> 0:24:37.680 seen it. 0:24:37.760 --> 0:24:40.240 And he was booking sessions nightly. 0:24:40.359 --> 0:24:40.639 We do. 0:24:41.520 --> 0:24:44.560 We did eleven PM six am sessions for to get 0:24:44.600 --> 0:24:48.320 the half half price of Graveyard Shift, and we go, 0:24:48.760 --> 0:24:50.399 we go to the studio and just every night. 0:24:50.880 --> 0:24:52.639 To me, I look back at those years like that 0:24:52.800 --> 0:24:54.920 was college. That's what it did for me. 0:24:55.080 --> 0:24:59.800 It really gave me the opportunity to when I got 0:25:00.200 --> 0:25:01.800 to a major and when I started making records, I 0:25:01.880 --> 0:25:04.399 had tons of experience. I've been in studios, I've been 0:25:04.480 --> 0:25:08.439 in mixed sessions, I've been working with musicians and punching 0:25:08.480 --> 0:25:11.440 shit in and out and learning recording techniques. 0:25:11.560 --> 0:25:15.600 So with the history of the Bay Area and its 0:25:15.680 --> 0:25:21.320 relationship to music, which you know, I'll say next to 0:25:22.600 --> 0:25:25.960 New Orleans, next to I mean at the time in 0:25:25.960 --> 0:25:31.480 the seventies, Philly was still immersed in Chicago. Also, were 0:25:31.600 --> 0:25:35.520 you rolling with actual musicians and like, what was your internet? 0:25:35.640 --> 0:25:38.480 First musicians that I worked with through seventy five girls 0:25:38.560 --> 0:25:42.000 had all been affiliated. It was guys like Marvin Holmes 0:25:42.119 --> 0:25:45.040 and Greg Levias, and these guys had played all around 0:25:45.440 --> 0:25:47.560 with cast like Rick James. 0:25:47.359 --> 0:25:50.480 And just you know, uh like Minor Williams. 0:25:50.520 --> 0:25:54.560 These these dudes were like in the Bay Area, musicians 0:25:54.720 --> 0:25:57.520 have always been connected with musicians everywhere, and it's. 0:25:57.359 --> 0:25:58.400 Still like that to this day. 0:25:59.480 --> 0:26:03.200 It's still they still breed that out there, right now, 0:26:04.200 --> 0:26:08.480 Get your skills together in church, you know, get learning 0:26:08.520 --> 0:26:11.000 the jazz. You know what I'm saying, it's still you know, 0:26:11.080 --> 0:26:12.239 young Cat's playing jazz out there. 0:26:12.240 --> 0:26:14.520 Because I was going to say, because the choi is kept, 0:26:14.920 --> 0:26:20.280 especially when you listen to your catalog. Now, I mean 0:26:20.359 --> 0:26:22.840 you you really didn't even pimp the fact that, you know, 0:26:23.840 --> 0:26:27.440 live musicianship was a big part of your musical presentation. 0:26:27.880 --> 0:26:29.480 Yeah that was sort of a secret. 0:26:30.000 --> 0:26:34.879 And yeah, well but I'm saying, like the level of musicianship, 0:26:35.040 --> 0:26:39.280 especially like with uh like on on life is Too 0:26:39.359 --> 0:26:42.080 Short and all that stuff, Like I could tell like 0:26:42.160 --> 0:26:44.320 these are cats that have actual professional. 0:26:44.040 --> 0:26:48.480 My engineer his name was out Eaton and he he 0:26:48.680 --> 0:26:50.320 he's a guitar player and he played keys, and he 0:26:50.640 --> 0:26:53.760 would I'm sitting here relating to him as an engineer, 0:26:53.920 --> 0:26:56.440 but honestly we're sitting here co producing songs together. We're 0:26:56.480 --> 0:26:58.720 like making shit happen. Like he's the kind of engineer 0:26:58.760 --> 0:27:00.600 who you leave out the room and come back. He 0:27:00.640 --> 0:27:02.439 put a little riff on there and then and then 0:27:02.520 --> 0:27:03.320 looped in and shit. 0:27:03.160 --> 0:27:05.399 You're like, what the fuck? Like I come to the student. 0:27:05.480 --> 0:27:09.680 He literally gave me Life is Too Short the basis 0:27:09.720 --> 0:27:13.159 of the track, which was you know says and and 0:27:13.240 --> 0:27:16.040 the ghetto Donny Hathaway he started those off. He called 0:27:16.080 --> 0:27:18.200 in the guys and totally no, you gotta there good 0:27:18.800 --> 0:27:22.840 something to say, Like he was, you know, super super engineer. 0:27:22.800 --> 0:27:26.680 Didn't you do some work with Bohannan. Uh No, no, 0:27:26.800 --> 0:27:29.719 it wasn't. No, I don't think it was that him. 0:27:31.119 --> 0:27:31.800 Which one was it? 0:27:32.320 --> 0:27:36.399 The Bohannans in my life are uh street guys. Okay, 0:27:38.880 --> 0:27:41.520 let's clear it up, big Tad in a little tea. 0:27:41.880 --> 0:27:43.560 They're pretty popular around around the town. 0:27:43.640 --> 0:27:46.159 But okay, okay, so I gotta ask. And this is 0:27:46.320 --> 0:27:48.959 not even playing the stereotypes. But I mean, if you're 0:27:49.040 --> 0:27:53.359 coming from a two parent household and both are accountants, 0:27:54.080 --> 0:27:59.520 I mean, it's almost like the basis of the Cosby Show. Now, 0:28:00.960 --> 0:28:03.520 I came from a two parent household and got called 0:28:03.520 --> 0:28:06.520 out immediately on the screech because the motherfuckers knew I 0:28:06.680 --> 0:28:08.680 was not street, you know what I'm saying? Like I was, 0:28:09.160 --> 0:28:12.440 I was No, I was adwep and knew it. How 0:28:12.520 --> 0:28:18.240 did you balance, Like, did you keep your your home 0:28:18.320 --> 0:28:18.800 life well? 0:28:18.880 --> 0:28:20.280 To make something like this happen? 0:28:20.359 --> 0:28:23.800 You have to have uh the cars have to line up, 0:28:23.840 --> 0:28:26.040 and then certain shit has to be organic and sh 0:28:26.240 --> 0:28:27.840 just it just can't. You can't just show up from 0:28:28.000 --> 0:28:29.840 l A walking to a city like Oakland, go hey, 0:28:29.840 --> 0:28:31.560 I'm too short the wrapper and they're like, okay, help me. 0:28:31.760 --> 0:28:33.399 It doesn't work like that, So what did you do? 0:28:34.400 --> 0:28:35.760 What did you do to get their respect? 0:28:35.920 --> 0:28:39.000 My brother and my mother moved to Oakland a year 0:28:39.040 --> 0:28:41.440 before I moved there. Okay, So the high school I 0:28:41.480 --> 0:28:43.760 went to in tenth grade, I had an older brother 0:28:44.000 --> 0:28:45.960 who was in twelfth grade and he had already went 0:28:46.000 --> 0:28:46.560 there for a year. 0:28:46.800 --> 0:28:47.560 That makes shit. 0:28:48.680 --> 0:28:50.239 I mean the first day of school, they're like, hey, 0:28:50.240 --> 0:28:51.840 you gotta see this little dude right here. Don't fuck 0:28:51.920 --> 0:28:54.200 with him. I got that my brother and his friend. 0:28:54.280 --> 0:28:57.240 So I was crazy ass school, wild as hell. Motherfucker's 0:28:57.240 --> 0:29:00.120 getting ass kicked every day. I was told people all 0:29:00.120 --> 0:29:02.800 were told not to fuck with me. So little ass motherfucker, 0:29:02.880 --> 0:29:04.680 don't fuck with me. So I got that part. 0:29:04.760 --> 0:29:05.120 And then. 0:29:06.560 --> 0:29:10.560 Around uh, my eleventh grade year, I had I met 0:29:10.600 --> 0:29:14.120 this guy named Freddie b. And he's born and raised 0:29:14.160 --> 0:29:18.000 in West Oakland, grew up in East Oakland. Always was 0:29:18.000 --> 0:29:19.800 a little kid that got in trouble. So he's been 0:29:19.880 --> 0:29:22.600 to juvenile hall, he's been to the little camp, he's 0:29:22.640 --> 0:29:26.120 been to the senior camp. He knew every motherfucker in 0:29:26.240 --> 0:29:29.240 the city because of his where he lived and what 0:29:29.360 --> 0:29:31.719 he'd been through. So when I started rapping with him, 0:29:33.600 --> 0:29:35.960 for one, it was cool to have an older brother. 0:29:36.240 --> 0:29:38.800 But even my older brother, his homies weren't connected to 0:29:38.840 --> 0:29:41.840 Oakland like I ended up being connected. They weren't out 0:29:41.880 --> 0:29:43.040 there in every neighborhood. 0:29:43.080 --> 0:29:43.320 You can't. 0:29:43.320 --> 0:29:44.600 You can't just go from hood to hood like that. 0:29:44.680 --> 0:29:45.000 You can't. 0:29:45.440 --> 0:29:49.400 So here, my rap partner know it's everybody in the 0:29:49.400 --> 0:29:51.880 whole fucking city. So it was his idea for us 0:29:51.920 --> 0:29:53.760 to start to start selling tapes. He was the one 0:29:53.760 --> 0:29:56.600 who said we made a few tapes. He's like, let's 0:29:56.600 --> 0:29:58.120 go sell this shit. I'm like, sell it to who. 0:29:58.160 --> 0:29:59.400 He's like, this calls just go sell it. 0:29:59.640 --> 0:30:00.320 So he start. 0:30:00.760 --> 0:30:04.040 We first went to a spot where they sold weed 0:30:04.880 --> 0:30:07.680 and asked them if they wanted to buy the tape 0:30:07.680 --> 0:30:09.280 and they're like, you want to buy a tape for 0:30:09.800 --> 0:30:11.720 We're like, just listen to it. So somebody put in 0:30:11.800 --> 0:30:14.400 the car and they listened for about ten fifteen minutes 0:30:14.440 --> 0:30:15.560 and one dude we only had one. 0:30:15.480 --> 0:30:17.960 Tape, and one dude was like, I buy it how much? 0:30:18.560 --> 0:30:19.240 Like five dollars? 0:30:19.320 --> 0:30:21.600 As soon as he bought it, that started the whole 0:30:21.640 --> 0:30:23.800 ship because somebody else said I want one too, and 0:30:23.880 --> 0:30:26.880 we were like, we'll only got one, but well, we'll 0:30:26.880 --> 0:30:30.440 be back tomorrow, and then we came back. We sold 0:30:30.440 --> 0:30:33.040 all the drug dealers tapes, and then we said what next. 0:30:33.200 --> 0:30:35.040 That's there's more drug dealers three blocks over. 0:30:35.160 --> 0:30:37.640 You customize it one tape at a time, and would 0:30:37.680 --> 0:30:39.520 you dup and doep and doep and deeper. 0:30:39.640 --> 0:30:43.000 So we go to my little home studio and we 0:30:43.240 --> 0:30:45.080 make a what are you working with? By this point 0:30:46.080 --> 0:30:53.320 I had acquired a radio or radio shack set up. 0:30:53.360 --> 0:30:57.600 I got the realistic hole, the mic, the mixer, and 0:30:57.720 --> 0:31:01.640 the little effecting put a little little, little little double 0:31:01.640 --> 0:31:07.280 effe and a nice cassetteler. So it's going through the 0:31:07.360 --> 0:31:09.680 right channels. Depending on the quality of the cassettes you 0:31:09.760 --> 0:31:13.320 use is the playback. So we selled I can make 0:31:13.360 --> 0:31:15.680 a low, a cheap ass fucking cassette sound good. I 0:31:15.720 --> 0:31:17.960 knew how to set the levels, set them a little 0:31:17.960 --> 0:31:20.000 bit into the red, you know, so it plays louder 0:31:20.000 --> 0:31:20.200 than you know. 0:31:21.000 --> 0:31:23.440 Realy ship figured out and what kind. 0:31:23.360 --> 0:31:26.880 Of did you use for the cheap customers? 0:31:30.080 --> 0:31:31.680 Anything Maxelle memorys TDK. 0:31:32.920 --> 0:31:36.520 It was all together with the cheap ship we used 0:31:36.560 --> 0:31:38.760 to use. Everything was a was a radio shock, all 0:31:38.800 --> 0:31:41.280 the cheap ship radio shack. So three thirty minute concepts 0:31:41.320 --> 0:31:47.000 for a dollar dollars ninety nine for three cassettes and 0:31:47.280 --> 0:31:49.560 fifteen minutes on each side, and we seld them for 0:31:49.640 --> 0:31:52.040 five dollars each, every two dollars, making fifteen dollars. That 0:31:52.120 --> 0:31:57.600 was our hustle. And then and then we started doing 0:31:57.640 --> 0:32:01.720 these customized tapes. We started customized the tape to say, uh, 0:32:02.000 --> 0:32:03.920 your name is so and so you drive this car, 0:32:04.080 --> 0:32:06.680 you from this block, These are your homies this you 0:32:06.760 --> 0:32:09.160 know anything you wanted us to say out a pen 0:32:09.240 --> 0:32:12.480 and paper, like we'll be back tomorrow almost like so, 0:32:12.960 --> 0:32:15.080 we sold those for twenty and that's how I got 0:32:15.240 --> 0:32:19.280 in Oakland that those those tapes were only purchased by 0:32:19.800 --> 0:32:23.000 at first by like the Kingpins. It started with one guy. 0:32:23.400 --> 0:32:26.120 This one guy was he said, I don't give a 0:32:26.160 --> 0:32:27.760 fuck about that rap shit. I don't listen to no 0:32:27.840 --> 0:32:31.880 fucking rap shit like O g right, he's like you, 0:32:32.080 --> 0:32:33.960 he said, if it ain't about me, he listened to 0:32:34.000 --> 0:32:35.960 that ship and we would. He was really like the 0:32:36.040 --> 0:32:39.960 kind of guy that we were scared of, and out 0:32:40.000 --> 0:32:45.720 of fear we went and made him a tape. So 0:32:45.880 --> 0:32:49.040 look so he never he never acknowledged. We just like 0:32:49.080 --> 0:32:51.600 a handoff and then walk away. He never acknowledged that 0:32:51.680 --> 0:32:53.600 he listened to it. He never said he liked it. 0:32:53.720 --> 0:32:57.120 He never said Ship. One day a guy comes up 0:32:57.200 --> 0:32:59.480 to us and we were on I'll never forget. We 0:32:59.520 --> 0:33:01.120 were on eighty like having her. He was like, do 0:33:01.160 --> 0:33:02.680 you know what the fuck I am? My name is 0:33:02.760 --> 0:33:06.160 King D, and I run this block. You on my block, 0:33:06.280 --> 0:33:07.680 And he was like, if you don't make me one 0:33:07.720 --> 0:33:10.400 of them fucking tapes like you made, like you made 0:33:10.440 --> 0:33:13.600 hot lips, that's that other hot lists, hoth lifps was 0:33:13.800 --> 0:33:15.200 it was a It was a tough guy. 0:33:15.240 --> 0:33:16.480 He couldn't have a name like hot lists. 0:33:16.360 --> 0:33:16.800 Not be tough. 0:33:17.320 --> 0:33:20.719 But I'm not laughing, you might be listening. 0:33:21.080 --> 0:33:28.200 I'm just saying that it was his specialty. Was the 0:33:28.240 --> 0:33:29.720 one punch that was a special. 0:33:31.760 --> 0:33:34.760 So King D runs up on us and custs us 0:33:34.800 --> 0:33:36.800 the funk out like straight, like I'm going to funk 0:33:36.920 --> 0:33:37.200 you up. 0:33:37.760 --> 0:33:40.040 You both of y'all fucked up. If I don't get 0:33:40.040 --> 0:33:41.200 one of the tapes like he got and. 0:33:41.280 --> 0:33:45.760 Not the cheap tapes from radio shot tell next day Bam. 0:33:46.120 --> 0:33:47.800 So ship would happen like this. 0:33:47.920 --> 0:33:50.040 We'd be sitting on the bus stop and a fancy 0:33:50.080 --> 0:33:51.920 car pull up and go, hey is it you too 0:33:51.920 --> 0:33:54.040 short and Freddy B. We're like, yeah, like get in 0:33:54.120 --> 0:33:58.320 the car, like what They're like, big Sonny wants to 0:33:58.360 --> 0:34:00.760 meet y'all. Take us some nameborhood and he's like, yeah, 0:34:00.800 --> 0:34:03.960 I want one of those tapes too. So then we 0:34:04.040 --> 0:34:06.680 spread around the city. We went to all the kingpins, everybody. 0:34:06.760 --> 0:34:08.840 It just started being a kingpin thing. All the bosses 0:34:08.880 --> 0:34:12.680 wanted the customer tape, and that led to the trinkle 0:34:12.760 --> 0:34:15.560 down of I remember I had a homily name YoY Yogi. 0:34:15.840 --> 0:34:18.160 Drove us around all these little tough neighborhoods one day 0:34:18.400 --> 0:34:20.759 and he was like, real scary dude. He's like, you 0:34:20.840 --> 0:34:22.920 see this this too shortened, Freddy B. If they come 0:34:22.960 --> 0:34:25.480 over here selling tapes, buy him if you funk with them, 0:34:25.640 --> 0:34:27.400 fucking you up to ship like that was just like 0:34:27.560 --> 0:34:29.680 just because he liked the music. So it was so 0:34:30.800 --> 0:34:33.360 it was just you couldn't. You couldn't plan it, you 0:34:33.440 --> 0:34:35.799 couldn't make it happy, you couldn't. It had to happen 0:34:35.880 --> 0:34:37.279 organically the only way time out. 0:34:38.680 --> 0:34:41.360 Am I the only one that's thinking he needs to 0:34:41.480 --> 0:34:49.480 pitch that story to Netflix. I would even want I 0:34:49.520 --> 0:34:51.880 don't even want to shorts careers. I want. 0:34:53.719 --> 0:34:56.239 It is it's like a snowfall cousin, Yeah, it was. 0:34:56.400 --> 0:34:59.839 It was the same years. Wow, this story is pre 0:35:00.080 --> 0:35:00.680 crack and. 0:35:00.719 --> 0:35:03.480 You're out of high school or you're still inside school. 0:35:03.200 --> 0:35:03.720 In high school. 0:35:04.640 --> 0:35:07.680 That story to me is like I need to see 0:35:07.760 --> 0:35:12.040 this happens no one that has no one I want 0:35:12.120 --> 0:35:16.160 to tape, like I want to tape tape. Are you 0:35:16.400 --> 0:35:19.840 able to want assuming that these are one of the ones, 0:35:19.920 --> 0:35:22.000 did you keep like a version for yourself in case 0:35:22.080 --> 0:35:24.279 they popped it or my tape mess up. 0:35:24.520 --> 0:35:27.960 We did not know we were future stars. We did 0:35:28.040 --> 0:35:29.560 not know we were any kind of famous we were. 0:35:29.880 --> 0:35:30.560 It was the hustle. 0:35:30.640 --> 0:35:33.239 We were like out, have you found anyview joints on 0:35:33.280 --> 0:35:33.680 the eBay? 0:35:33.800 --> 0:35:35.120 Or it would be a fun thing to do. People 0:35:35.200 --> 0:35:36.600 in the bay always coming in and go, man, I 0:35:36.640 --> 0:35:38.560 still got my tape. They have the customized tapes, they 0:35:38.560 --> 0:35:40.239 have the ones they copy there you need. 0:35:40.680 --> 0:35:42.600 It's a guy. Have you ever heard of Mike Mosley? 0:35:42.920 --> 0:35:43.400 Yes? 0:35:44.280 --> 0:35:49.960 Yeah, he uh he personally got had had was on 0:35:50.040 --> 0:35:52.719 a mission back in like the nineties and he was 0:35:53.000 --> 0:35:55.120 taking all the two shirt tapes he can find and 0:35:55.280 --> 0:35:56.839 put them on real real to reserve them. 0:35:57.120 --> 0:35:58.719 And he's like, I still got those reels bro. 0:36:00.680 --> 0:36:02.760 Hot to hear these joints, and it's at an hour. 0:36:02.960 --> 0:36:04.440 It's like a half hour each side. 0:36:04.360 --> 0:36:06.160 Or fifteen minutes on each side most of them. 0:36:06.600 --> 0:36:08.840 Oh, you did the thirty minute joints. You really did 0:36:09.000 --> 0:36:10.040 use the radio seck joints. 0:36:10.080 --> 0:36:12.440 And it was all I was an expert at the polsmics. 0:36:12.520 --> 0:36:17.279 I could stop on the on the fore and hit 0:36:17.360 --> 0:36:19.080 the AM and you'll get no noise when you let 0:36:19.120 --> 0:36:19.960 it back up on the ant. 0:36:20.800 --> 0:36:23.160 So you weren't looping shit and none of that stuff. 0:36:23.320 --> 0:36:25.560 No, we just we were wrapped to the record ends, 0:36:26.120 --> 0:36:27.480 pose it and jump back in. 0:36:28.360 --> 0:36:34.360 So making a transition to studio work, how hard was 0:36:34.440 --> 0:36:38.400 that for you in terms of just like leaving your 0:36:38.440 --> 0:36:39.840 comfort zone, leaving your hustle. 0:36:40.960 --> 0:36:42.160 Wait, no, look, let me tell you how. 0:36:42.320 --> 0:36:45.879 This was the drum machine. It's nineteen eighty four, eighty five. 0:36:45.960 --> 0:36:49.160 It's the drum machine. It's like, you know, heavenly music. 0:36:49.200 --> 0:36:51.560 If you see one, it's like, right, right, right, it's 0:36:51.560 --> 0:36:53.520 a drum machine. If you let me touch one of 0:36:53.560 --> 0:36:55.560 them motherfuckers. First, they just had that one with the time. 0:36:58.320 --> 0:37:00.560 That's cool, that's cool. But when they came with the 0:37:00.719 --> 0:37:02.919 drums like Len drums like drug, Like if you could 0:37:02.960 --> 0:37:07.080 touch that shit, that ship was like, I mean, yeah, 0:37:07.239 --> 0:37:08.719 you're not gonna get me in the studio with a 0:37:08.800 --> 0:37:11.360 drum machine and not you know what I'm saying. And 0:37:11.680 --> 0:37:13.800 I'm listening to everything hip hop, so I'm listening to 0:37:13.920 --> 0:37:16.759 those records that are len drum records and just you 0:37:16.840 --> 0:37:20.920 know it ain't even know music and nothing. I'm like, 0:37:21.120 --> 0:37:23.080 I can do this shit Like it was never ever 0:37:23.239 --> 0:37:28.560 a moment of possibilities. It was like, this is definite, 0:37:28.640 --> 0:37:29.920 this is this is it. 0:37:30.880 --> 0:37:34.000 How did you go from seventy five girls to job? 0:37:34.040 --> 0:37:35.160 When did they come into the picture? 0:37:35.440 --> 0:37:38.880 Well, seventy five girls. Uh, we never did any contracts, 0:37:38.920 --> 0:37:40.879 We never had any agreements. It was like a family thing. 0:37:40.960 --> 0:37:41.120 It was. 0:37:41.239 --> 0:37:43.000 It was the best shit that could ever happen to 0:37:43.040 --> 0:37:45.719 me in the world, because, uh, the guy who ran 0:37:45.800 --> 0:37:48.800 the label, who owned the label, he would literally go 0:37:48.960 --> 0:37:52.120 to the studio, pay for the studio time, he would 0:37:52.200 --> 0:37:54.520 pick up the mix down, you know, pay somebody to 0:37:54.600 --> 0:37:56.400 mix it, pick up to all the shit, take it 0:37:56.440 --> 0:37:59.600 over to a manufacturer, and he'd get the ship manufactured. 0:37:59.640 --> 0:38:01.440 Then he all these boxes and ship and drop them 0:38:01.440 --> 0:38:03.920 off for the distributor. Then he keep checking back the distributor, 0:38:03.960 --> 0:38:05.680 go back and pick up some money, and keep doing 0:38:05.680 --> 0:38:07.239 the ship. And he me and his little brother, we 0:38:07.320 --> 0:38:08.880 hung out with him all the time. So I'm sitting 0:38:08.920 --> 0:38:11.920 there just watching where you go, what you do, the 0:38:11.960 --> 0:38:14.680 whole process, just watching him. He would even tell us 0:38:14.880 --> 0:38:16.239 and then y'all go and pick up some boxes and 0:38:16.320 --> 0:38:18.400 drop off the distributor. So I knew the guy's name. 0:38:18.400 --> 0:38:20.960 What's up, what's up, man, what's up? You know everywhere, 0:38:21.000 --> 0:38:23.719 even to the people that did the graphics, the art, 0:38:23.880 --> 0:38:28.880 artwork and ship. So one day he decided that he 0:38:29.080 --> 0:38:32.520 literally told me and his little brother get the fuck 0:38:32.560 --> 0:38:35.960 out my house. Fuck out my house, saying fuck the 0:38:35.960 --> 0:38:37.719 ship nor he's fuck out of here, and just that 0:38:37.880 --> 0:38:40.319 was it. And then and then we just sitting there 0:38:40.400 --> 0:38:40.920 like on a. 0:38:40.920 --> 0:38:45.520 Whims were going good, I presume, but that was that was. 0:38:45.560 --> 0:38:48.600 Not his hustle, that was not his money. So I 0:38:48.640 --> 0:38:50.600 guess at some point he just was like, I don't 0:38:50.600 --> 0:38:53.319 want y'all in my house anymore, because you know, that's 0:38:53.320 --> 0:38:55.720 what all the fly equipment was, that's where everything gravitating 0:38:55.760 --> 0:38:59.360 around his house, and you know, it was it was 0:38:59.400 --> 0:39:01.080 a hell of expres It's the kind of guy who 0:39:01.960 --> 0:39:04.279 you know, you just walk in the house and it's 0:39:04.320 --> 0:39:07.040 three chicks sitting on the couch and then underwear topless 0:39:07.120 --> 0:39:11.240 and dancing over there, and somebody's at the table smoking cocaine. 0:39:11.320 --> 0:39:14.040 Somebody over there is snorting the line and all kind 0:39:14.040 --> 0:39:15.600 of shit. And it just was that house. It was 0:39:15.920 --> 0:39:16.359 that place. 0:39:16.520 --> 0:39:20.239 Now as you're coming up, is there is there competition? 0:39:21.280 --> 0:39:21.440 You know? 0:39:21.840 --> 0:39:25.960 Are you? I don't know how, Like I know E 0:39:26.120 --> 0:39:28.359 forty was born in the nineties or whatever, but I'm 0:39:28.400 --> 0:39:33.320 just saying that, surely you're not the only horse on 0:39:33.480 --> 0:39:34.640 the on the on the track. 0:39:34.800 --> 0:39:36.880 That's like, so what me and Freddy B did in 0:39:36.960 --> 0:39:39.640 the early eighties put us way ahead of anybody that 0:39:39.719 --> 0:39:43.160 could ever claim any kind of hip hop legacy in 0:39:43.239 --> 0:39:45.960 the Bay. Nothing happened before too short and Freddy be nothing. 0:39:46.600 --> 0:39:50.719 So Freddy B, you know, he's he's a preacher now, 0:39:51.080 --> 0:39:53.279 but he had to go through his journey, right and 0:39:53.400 --> 0:39:56.080 his journey took him right out of high school and 0:39:57.239 --> 0:40:00.000 in the prison. And that's when I started making records 0:40:00.080 --> 0:40:01.880 on a larger scale. So he kind of missed the 0:40:02.000 --> 0:40:05.880 beginning of that. And you know, but fred Fred I 0:40:05.960 --> 0:40:08.080 give him a lot of credit for my journey he 0:40:10.000 --> 0:40:12.160 was when he came to our school, he was coming 0:40:12.320 --> 0:40:14.399 out of jail and had to go to continuation school 0:40:14.440 --> 0:40:16.400 and earn his way back into the regular school system. 0:40:16.800 --> 0:40:19.000 He gets back to the school, he becomes the fucking 0:40:19.120 --> 0:40:22.240 editor of the paper. He becomes the principal's best fucking 0:40:22.280 --> 0:40:26.680 student friend. He acquires the fucking keys to the entire 0:40:26.760 --> 0:40:30.839 school through I don't know, I guess he's fucking stole them, 0:40:30.840 --> 0:40:34.160 copied on the fuck he did. He stole the principals stamp, 0:40:34.360 --> 0:40:36.960 signature stamp, as well as every pass that gets you 0:40:37.320 --> 0:40:40.239 to leave campus, walk around campus, all kinds of ship 0:40:40.480 --> 0:40:43.840 hall passed. He stole them all in the stamp and 0:40:43.960 --> 0:40:44.719 he just he was. 0:40:45.000 --> 0:40:45.440 That's Freddie. 0:40:45.600 --> 0:40:48.600 He was, he was, and he fucking Eddie has school 0:40:48.640 --> 0:40:54.320 y'all as so fast. And then we're going, like, do 0:40:54.440 --> 0:40:57.000 they fucking know who this guy is? We got to 0:40:57.160 --> 0:40:59.480 keep the pass key to every lock at the school, 0:40:59.520 --> 0:41:01.880 every gate, really fucking with Freddie beat And that was 0:41:01.960 --> 0:41:04.640 my rat partner. So he was that guy man, and 0:41:06.320 --> 0:41:11.880 and you know, it was just a no brainer to 0:41:11.920 --> 0:41:14.840 get in the studio and make hits. After the legacy 0:41:14.880 --> 0:41:16.880 that we built, the foundation that we built. 0:41:21.440 --> 0:41:23.920 I mean as you're making this stuff, I mean, eventually 0:41:24.160 --> 0:41:26.720 you're gonna where's the idea that you're going to actually 0:41:26.760 --> 0:41:27.800 start have to perform? 0:41:28.320 --> 0:41:32.000 And well we were getting we had another element. All 0:41:32.040 --> 0:41:33.920 this shit happened by accidents, so we did not plan 0:41:34.040 --> 0:41:37.960 the shit out we were. We taught ourselves to be DJs, 0:41:38.840 --> 0:41:41.720 like we just that's nothing to do, right, teach yourself 0:41:41.760 --> 0:41:44.040 to be a fucking DJ in the early eighties, so 0:41:44.160 --> 0:41:45.520 we wanted dj the house parties. 0:41:45.560 --> 0:41:47.799 We net rhythm, so it couldn't have been that hard. 0:41:48.040 --> 0:41:52.120 So we knew all the fucking gangsters who are our customers, 0:41:52.560 --> 0:41:54.719 and people would throw these house parties in Oakland. You know, 0:41:54.800 --> 0:41:58.359 the index card such and such address, dollar for a drink, 0:41:58.440 --> 0:42:01.200 dollar interurance, all this stuff, those type of parties, and 0:42:01.360 --> 0:42:04.239 we DJ for a hundred bucks something like that. And 0:42:05.160 --> 0:42:09.120 at every house party when midnight hit, we tell everybody 0:42:09.160 --> 0:42:11.279 to come around the turntables and we're gonna rap. And 0:42:11.360 --> 0:42:12.719 they wanted to see it. They was like two Short 0:42:12.719 --> 0:42:15.000 and Freddy B. People wanted two Short and Freddy B 0:42:15.400 --> 0:42:18.120 to DJ air parties. They wanted us to rap. They 0:42:18.160 --> 0:42:20.879 wanted to see the ship. So we're rapping at these 0:42:20.880 --> 0:42:22.879 house parties just in the living room. The fucking DJ 0:42:22.960 --> 0:42:26.120 setup is in the kitchen. The bedroom is the VIP 0:42:26.280 --> 0:42:26.960 or some shit. 0:42:27.200 --> 0:42:28.120 Or the bar. You know what I'm saying. 0:42:28.760 --> 0:42:30.839 You know that shit right right. If it's a fight, 0:42:31.320 --> 0:42:33.600 I got to stop the music. Everybody goes outside. We 0:42:33.680 --> 0:42:38.360 watched the fight and then we come back in those parties, 0:42:38.600 --> 0:42:41.040 take y'all go take that shit outside, you know. So 0:42:41.960 --> 0:42:46.160 most DJs who really were DJ's couldn't go there. They 0:42:46.280 --> 0:42:48.840 probably take your ship, they get your ass whip, you 0:42:48.840 --> 0:42:49.279 know what I'm saying. 0:42:49.520 --> 0:42:51.400 It was DJ wise. 0:42:51.480 --> 0:42:53.920 We probably had two guys who did the hood parties too, 0:42:54.719 --> 0:42:58.120 because they had, you know, the past. But I think 0:42:58.360 --> 0:43:01.520 doing those parties of people who are at those parties 0:43:01.560 --> 0:43:03.880 are like, fuck you know that fuck that shit, like 0:43:03.960 --> 0:43:06.799 you really got a rocket so but you. 0:43:06.880 --> 0:43:10.399 Were protected and so. But I mean, like how rough 0:43:10.440 --> 0:43:12.000 were these were these parties. 0:43:12.120 --> 0:43:14.600 But it was no protection at a random ass house party. 0:43:14.640 --> 0:43:16.319 It was just like you just in that shit. 0:43:16.400 --> 0:43:18.440 Man, ain't no you know, shit bullets and shit start 0:43:18.480 --> 0:43:20.920 flying on a protection. But it was you just got 0:43:20.960 --> 0:43:24.320 the past to beat amongst the amongst the crowd. But 0:43:24.960 --> 0:43:26.680 that was I just I feel like, man, all this 0:43:26.719 --> 0:43:31.279 shit happened two for a reason. We're sitting here rocking 0:43:31.360 --> 0:43:33.640 these house parties all over the city. The first time 0:43:33.680 --> 0:43:37.040 I ever did a show in the city, the whole 0:43:37.120 --> 0:43:38.960 fucking crowd knew the worst of my songs. I never 0:43:39.000 --> 0:43:41.480 had a record out. I've never had a record out there. 0:43:41.480 --> 0:43:44.160 Asked me to open up for UTFO nineteen eighty five, 0:43:44.480 --> 0:43:47.279 Rock Sand Rock Sand. I was like, Okay, I'll do it. 0:43:47.440 --> 0:43:50.520 The promoter was a Lionel B. Bill Graham, and Lionel 0:43:50.560 --> 0:43:52.400 B knew about me because he's from Oakland v. 0:43:52.600 --> 0:43:53.120 Bill Graham. 0:43:53.360 --> 0:43:55.600 Yeah, because you know he had a oh he controls all. Yeah, 0:43:55.600 --> 0:43:57.600 he had a black division called Barrier Productions. 0:44:00.920 --> 0:44:02.839 Y'all tell us Bill. 0:44:03.160 --> 0:44:07.799 Bill Graham is the legendary promoter with he he I mean, 0:44:08.360 --> 0:44:10.520 he is the He was the taste maker of the 0:44:10.600 --> 0:44:12.600 whole hippie love movement. 0:44:12.719 --> 0:44:16.520 So he was the Grateful Day, a never ending concert 0:44:16.640 --> 0:44:17.520 that last till. 0:44:17.400 --> 0:44:20.280 Yeah the fell More East. So he's he made stars 0:44:20.280 --> 0:44:23.760 out of Hendrix. You went through him, then you became 0:44:23.800 --> 0:44:27.880 an international store. So the doors, Hendrix, Jopplin, they all 0:44:28.000 --> 0:44:30.799 had to go through Bill Graham and too Short. Yeah, 0:44:30.920 --> 0:44:34.920 I mean he controlled, he controlled like he's the original 0:44:35.000 --> 0:44:35.520 Al Hayman. 0:44:36.520 --> 0:44:39.600 So I get on a Bill Graham show. It's UTFO 0:44:39.719 --> 0:44:42.839 their headlining Roxanne Roxanes. The head is early nineteen eighty five, 0:44:43.560 --> 0:44:48.160 and it's probably like five thousand people, Oklaudatorium. I've never 0:44:48.239 --> 0:44:51.680 seen a crowd more than one hundred two hundred people 0:44:51.840 --> 0:44:53.200 at the most I've ever seen my life. 0:44:53.680 --> 0:44:55.440 And I mean, I don't care, man. I went out there. 0:44:55.760 --> 0:44:57.880 I put on a black leather suit. I went and 0:44:57.960 --> 0:45:00.640 brought a hat like I can look like rendiems some shit, 0:45:01.360 --> 0:45:03.279 and I got some instruments. I remember one of the 0:45:03.320 --> 0:45:05.879 instruments I did was Friends from Houdini. I can't remember 0:45:05.880 --> 0:45:07.040 what the other one was were it might have been. 0:45:07.600 --> 0:45:10.360 I think I did something off of Rapping Duke instrument. 0:45:13.200 --> 0:45:15.719 And I went out there and sang the lyrics to 0:45:15.840 --> 0:45:17.640 the songs that I would sell on the tapes in 0:45:17.640 --> 0:45:22.279 the streets, and the whole crowd for fifteen minutes sang 0:45:22.360 --> 0:45:24.720 everywhere with me, word for word. I get off stage 0:45:24.719 --> 0:45:26.239 and people are like, who the fuck are you? Like 0:45:26.719 --> 0:45:27.960 who the fuck are you? And how the fuck did 0:45:28.000 --> 0:45:30.759 you do that? But that that was just how That's 0:45:30.800 --> 0:45:32.600 how it happened, man, Like everywhere I went from then 0:45:32.640 --> 0:45:33.840 on everybody knew the. 0:45:33.840 --> 0:45:39.040 Words, so can I ask? I'm in retrospect. I'm trying 0:45:39.080 --> 0:45:42.000 to figure if there's another example of someone that has 0:45:43.239 --> 0:45:48.560 variety in their in their own hometown where they go national. 0:45:48.680 --> 0:45:50.920 It's almost like that Go Go act, you know, like 0:45:51.200 --> 0:45:54.680 Chuck Brown can control the whole d m V area between. 0:45:54.520 --> 0:46:00.680 The Yeah, but even he started out in Richmond. 0:46:00.760 --> 0:46:04.120 Oh yeah, But I'm just saying, like a cat like 0:46:04.600 --> 0:46:05.640 ghetto boys in Houston. 0:46:06.520 --> 0:46:10.439 Yeah, they were, They were famous in Houston doing shit 0:46:10.520 --> 0:46:13.239 and then it broke out and then Houston loved them, 0:46:13.719 --> 0:46:16.120 Like that's the birth of Houston hip hop? 0:46:16.520 --> 0:46:17.719 Is scarfacing Willie Dan. 0:46:18.440 --> 0:46:21.440 Now, usually the narrative is that once someone ramps up 0:46:21.480 --> 0:46:23.440 their situation, the same thing we look at Miami, look 0:46:23.480 --> 0:46:26.520 at Miami. But I'm saying that usually if someone tries 0:46:26.560 --> 0:46:32.680 to ramp up their situation, usually like that's when well, no, 0:46:32.920 --> 0:46:36.920 I'm like, usually, I mean that's when that's the tipping 0:46:36.960 --> 0:46:39.719 point or that sort of diminished returns. But I mean 0:46:39.800 --> 0:46:42.759 that's not that way with you, Like, were you intimidated 0:46:42.800 --> 0:46:45.760 at all? Like Okay, now I gotta take this formula 0:46:46.000 --> 0:46:47.239 and make it national. 0:46:47.040 --> 0:46:47.279 So that. 0:46:50.080 --> 0:46:54.400 I knew I was told in the early days in 0:46:54.520 --> 0:46:56.400 eighty five eighty six, when I got in the studio, 0:46:56.400 --> 0:46:58.640 they were like, you can't do the stuff that you 0:46:58.760 --> 0:47:00.680 do in the streets. You can't curve in the records 0:47:00.719 --> 0:47:03.080 because you can't market them and sell them and give 0:47:03.120 --> 0:47:04.640 them the record store. There's only only people that can 0:47:04.640 --> 0:47:05.880 curse on records are comedians. 0:47:06.560 --> 0:47:08.400 And I took it. 0:47:08.480 --> 0:47:10.960 I was like, okay, I made two albums with no cursing, 0:47:11.760 --> 0:47:15.200 and the two first albums on seventy five Girls, and 0:47:15.360 --> 0:47:17.759 then it came time for us to do our own thing. 0:47:17.840 --> 0:47:19.720 And I had always had this song called Freaky Tales. 0:47:19.800 --> 0:47:22.839 I always had it, I had wrote. I had been 0:47:22.880 --> 0:47:25.000 writing Freaky Tails since I was sixteen. It started off 0:47:25.040 --> 0:47:27.120 with like ten girls and it ended up Yeah, it 0:47:27.200 --> 0:47:30.400 was with seventy five and the official version has like 0:47:30.440 --> 0:47:34.160 about forty something. But I was on seventy five Girls Records, 0:47:34.160 --> 0:47:35.920 so I was gonna make a song about fucking all 0:47:35.960 --> 0:47:40.600 seventy five girls. And by the way, that label was 0:47:40.680 --> 0:47:43.719 named after a Johnny guitar Watson line, I can't take 0:47:43.760 --> 0:47:45.319 the name of the song, but Johnny guitar sitting one 0:47:45.320 --> 0:47:46.800 of his songs I wrote up on a horse and 0:47:46.880 --> 0:47:49.560 kissed seventy five girls at the same time, and my 0:47:49.840 --> 0:47:55.239 man Dean Hodges was like, that's me. Of course, seventy 0:47:55.280 --> 0:47:58.680 five girls at the same time. So I don't know, man, 0:47:58.840 --> 0:47:59.600 I forgot what I'll saying. 0:48:01.160 --> 0:48:05.040 Oh, forty girls, Yeah, your Freaky Tails records. 0:48:05.440 --> 0:48:09.120 And then yeah, I said, just let me record this song, 0:48:09.160 --> 0:48:09.680 Freaky Tails. 0:48:09.719 --> 0:48:12.359 If I record this, I already had the baseline, had 0:48:12.400 --> 0:48:14.400 the drum pattern, I had the lyrics. Just give me 0:48:14.440 --> 0:48:16.760 the studio and record this and watch what happens. 0:48:17.000 --> 0:48:17.440 I knew it. 0:48:17.719 --> 0:48:19.040 I knew it, and I knew it, and we just 0:48:19.160 --> 0:48:22.719 everything that I'm living on right now is started off, 0:48:22.920 --> 0:48:24.359 like financially, started off. 0:48:24.280 --> 0:48:24.879 With Freaky Tails. 0:48:25.200 --> 0:48:26.920 So was that when job came into the picture. 0:48:27.440 --> 0:48:29.480 Joe picked up that album Freak eachaels on the album 0:48:29.520 --> 0:48:34.000 called Born Max and released. We recorded the whole album 0:48:34.040 --> 0:48:36.400 before we released the single. We recorded the album, we 0:48:36.520 --> 0:48:38.560 did the artwork, we had the ship ready to go, 0:48:38.800 --> 0:48:41.040 and we said, we're gonna take this song, Freaky Tails. 0:48:41.280 --> 0:48:44.720 We're gonna press up two thousand cassettes. When we sell those, 0:48:44.840 --> 0:48:47.319 we're gonna press up two thousand more. We're gonna sell 0:48:47.360 --> 0:48:50.279 the cassettes until we get fifteen thousand dollars. We get 0:48:50.320 --> 0:48:55.480 fifteen thousand, we're gonna buy albums and cassettes and we're 0:48:55.480 --> 0:48:57.320 gonna press the whole album up and we're gonna. 0:48:57.120 --> 0:48:58.279 Sell us for five dollars a pop. 0:48:58.480 --> 0:49:01.560 So the first wat we get, you know, the first 0:49:01.640 --> 0:49:05.400 time fifteen thousand is gonna make a sixty grand and 0:49:05.480 --> 0:49:07.040 then we're gonna take that and we're gonna flip another 0:49:07.080 --> 0:49:07.520 fifteen And. 0:49:07.520 --> 0:49:08.800 We did the ship like woo woo woop. 0:49:09.520 --> 0:49:12.000 I mean, Jibe got wind of us. We were probably 0:49:12.120 --> 0:49:13.960 up to about, I don't know, a few hundred thousand, 0:49:14.000 --> 0:49:16.239 and we just kept flipping the ship like because we 0:49:16.320 --> 0:49:17.800 were we were from drug dealers. 0:49:18.200 --> 0:49:20.880 Why stop a good formula where like you own it? 0:49:21.560 --> 0:49:24.960 And I mean did you? Because that puts you in 0:49:25.000 --> 0:49:29.000 the category of being Barry Gordy and Smokie Robinson at 0:49:29.040 --> 0:49:29.520 the same time. 0:49:29.640 --> 0:49:34.160 So I signed up with Jive because Barry Wise called 0:49:34.200 --> 0:49:34.800 me personally. 0:49:35.360 --> 0:49:36.479 I didn't. I didn't. 0:49:36.520 --> 0:49:38.680 I wasn't listening for no dollar amounts, no nothing. I 0:49:38.800 --> 0:49:42.360 wasn't thinking about that. I was thinking about what it 0:49:42.360 --> 0:49:44.200 would be like to get the music to the whole world. 0:49:44.440 --> 0:49:46.600 And then I was thinking like like people signed the 0:49:46.680 --> 0:49:49.800 Jive because Too Short was on job pemp c and 0:49:50.200 --> 0:49:54.439 like they're like forty ike one, Like I'm too short 0:49:54.480 --> 0:49:58.000 of I'm signing. So I signed a Jive because who 0:49:58.040 --> 0:50:01.360 didn't even on that motherfucking right mod was on that motherfucker. 0:50:01.920 --> 0:50:04.439 Karen's wanted just signed up. Will Smith with the Fresh 0:50:04.480 --> 0:50:07.000 Prince was on that motherfucker, like Billy Ocean was on 0:50:07.040 --> 0:50:07.880 that motherfucker was. 0:50:09.760 --> 0:50:12.360 I was like, I like jib you know, so. 0:50:15.560 --> 0:50:17.279 You could you could call it the Gift in the Curse, 0:50:17.360 --> 0:50:19.440 but it would I would not be too short the 0:50:19.520 --> 0:50:23.720 megastar without Jive Records, but also, you know, the independent 0:50:23.800 --> 0:50:26.080 run would have probably been a lot better to do 0:50:26.200 --> 0:50:29.000 it with those albums I gave Jive, But at the 0:50:29.040 --> 0:50:31.399 same time, we never stopped our independent hustle. I put 0:50:31.440 --> 0:50:34.359 Too Short on Jive, but we kept selling independent ship. 0:50:34.400 --> 0:50:35.840 We never stopped, and. 0:50:37.440 --> 0:50:39.520 You know it was it was not I think I 0:50:39.600 --> 0:50:40.440 think we did the right thing. 0:50:40.640 --> 0:50:42.279 Did they still let you do your own thing? You 0:50:42.360 --> 0:50:43.880 still recorded in Oakland and all that. 0:50:44.160 --> 0:50:46.200 Yeah, Jive is a very controlling label. 0:50:46.560 --> 0:50:48.760 Back in those times, they were very controlling with the artists, 0:50:48.760 --> 0:50:51.200 trying to get you to record at Battery studios, and 0:50:51.280 --> 0:50:53.320 then they fucking walking in the back door watching. 0:50:53.160 --> 0:50:55.879 Looking over your shoulders to London over there. 0:50:56.320 --> 0:50:57.440 Never never never never know. 0:50:57.719 --> 0:50:58.640 So this is how I asked you. 0:50:58.719 --> 0:51:00.960 At least never. I never even talked to the job 0:51:01.040 --> 0:51:03.000 that much. We didn't really communicate a lot in the 0:51:03.080 --> 0:51:06.520 early days. Okay, this is how I handled jib. Born 0:51:06.600 --> 0:51:08.719 in Mac was the album that they called me and 0:51:09.080 --> 0:51:10.439 they were like, we wanted to take over this album. 0:51:10.480 --> 0:51:13.040 So they picked up Born and Mac sold a few 0:51:13.120 --> 0:51:17.560 hundred thousand copies and and you know, we got to 0:51:17.600 --> 0:51:20.239 deliver a new album. So when they got Born in Mac, 0:51:20.320 --> 0:51:22.640 it was already an album, so they obviously got it 0:51:22.680 --> 0:51:24.240 all in one, one one delivery. 0:51:24.239 --> 0:51:25.319 Here here's the album. Take over. 0:51:26.000 --> 0:51:28.839 But the next time they were like, okay, we're ready 0:51:28.880 --> 0:51:31.120 to make the new album. We're gonna send you the 0:51:31.320 --> 0:51:34.279 upfront budget to start the album. And I'm like, shit, 0:51:34.320 --> 0:51:38.279 the album's already recorded, everything, we got the artwork, everything's done. Yeah, 0:51:38.360 --> 0:51:40.920 So we sent it to him and they just send 0:51:41.080 --> 0:51:42.719 the front and in the back end at one time, 0:51:42.800 --> 0:51:45.600 just here you go. So I was like, I would 0:51:45.640 --> 0:51:48.960 record an album before the one that's I would play out. 0:51:48.960 --> 0:51:52.080 I'd record the next one. Get the artwork together, and shit, Prince, 0:51:52.560 --> 0:51:55.840 I would send jibs without them ever calling me. I 0:51:56.000 --> 0:51:58.040 was sending them before I even got the first the 0:51:58.120 --> 0:51:59.880 upfront money to start the album. I would sending them 0:52:00.200 --> 0:52:04.000 the artwork that all the songs mixed down, and I 0:52:04.120 --> 0:52:08.520 send them handwritten by handwriting the fucking credits, and I'm like, 0:52:08.920 --> 0:52:09.919 send me the damn checks. 0:52:10.160 --> 0:52:13.240 Here's everything. Because they said they had a thing called delivery. 0:52:13.280 --> 0:52:13.920 What is delivery? 0:52:14.080 --> 0:52:15.680 Right? This the fucking delivery. 0:52:15.760 --> 0:52:17.560 We didn't have to We didn't have to do any 0:52:18.760 --> 0:52:21.520 clearances or any We never sampled nobody's shit. We never 0:52:21.640 --> 0:52:24.720 fucking you know, even even if we did like replays 0:52:24.800 --> 0:52:26.759 or some shit you know less. But a lot of 0:52:26.800 --> 0:52:29.520 our shit was like we were motherfuckers in the studio 0:52:29.640 --> 0:52:32.280 hitting the ship and shooting from scratch. 0:52:32.360 --> 0:52:34.759 So it wasn't a lot of So. 0:52:34.880 --> 0:52:36.960 For the songs that you had to do interpolations on 0:52:37.200 --> 0:52:39.759 like say what life is too short? Or you know 0:52:40.000 --> 0:52:43.560 the ghetto, like how was that handled? Was it just 0:52:43.760 --> 0:52:47.040 like we did the average white band get there on 0:52:47.080 --> 0:52:49.000 the later like wait a minute, that's our shit. 0:52:48.920 --> 0:52:51.240 You know, Like no, we did an advanced job drivers 0:52:51.280 --> 0:52:51.600 on point. 0:52:51.760 --> 0:52:54.560 Oh okay, well, I mean that was just unprecedented. Well, 0:52:54.719 --> 0:52:57.040 I mean, but that also came out like eighty seventy eighty. 0:52:57.080 --> 0:52:59.200 One of the best things happened to me music wise 0:52:59.320 --> 0:53:02.200 was Donnie had to his wife thanking me. I was 0:53:02.239 --> 0:53:04.279 at a Leila halfway concert and it's like her mother 0:53:04.320 --> 0:53:05.960 wants to meet you. She was like, I just want 0:53:06.000 --> 0:53:06.279 to thank you. 0:53:06.400 --> 0:53:07.960 Oh you probably came through like. 0:53:09.960 --> 0:53:11.480 That was college the problem. 0:53:11.719 --> 0:53:12.600 She said, thank you. 0:53:12.719 --> 0:53:15.719 That was a big deal because I remember when that 0:53:16.120 --> 0:53:18.200 record came up on the auction block and I was like, 0:53:18.680 --> 0:53:20.120 I don't I like to take all the publice. 0:53:20.120 --> 0:53:20.919 I don't want another ship. 0:53:20.920 --> 0:53:21.640 I'll take it. 0:53:22.280 --> 0:53:23.200 Have you ever gotten tonight? 0:53:24.040 --> 0:53:25.759 Like hell yeah, hell yeah. 0:53:25.760 --> 0:53:29.359 I can't think of who but who but someone? Yeah? 0:53:29.520 --> 0:53:31.879 Two shirt is not about to butcher my fucking music. 0:53:35.120 --> 0:53:37.799 It has been, it has been said so. 0:53:38.000 --> 0:53:42.120 In promoting I know that you were on the was 0:53:42.400 --> 0:53:45.359 was the n w A tour like your first national tour? 0:53:45.880 --> 0:53:48.799 Like were you ever on any of like the Deaf 0:53:48.920 --> 0:53:50.040 Jam tours or those? 0:53:50.239 --> 0:53:51.000 Nope, nope, nope. 0:53:52.120 --> 0:53:57.040 Got a couple of little opening at spots through once 0:53:57.040 --> 0:54:00.600 again Bill Graham and Barrier predictions and where I opened 0:54:00.680 --> 0:54:03.560 for uh could have been like who DEENI, and some 0:54:03.640 --> 0:54:05.040 of it wasn't ever fresh Fellow. 0:54:05.080 --> 0:54:07.960 Or none of that stuff, like were you were you 0:54:08.120 --> 0:54:12.399 mixing and chopping it up with your contemporaries of eighty six, 0:54:12.520 --> 0:54:13.719 eighty seven, eighty eight Like. 0:54:14.040 --> 0:54:16.480 In the early days. I remember the show I got 0:54:16.520 --> 0:54:17.040 to open up for. 0:54:17.120 --> 0:54:20.040 It was when it was uh when a check out, 0:54:20.080 --> 0:54:21.840 My melody was the hottest shit, and it was Public 0:54:21.920 --> 0:54:24.400 Enemy had one song and it was you know, Russell 0:54:24.400 --> 0:54:25.279 sent them all out young. 0:54:25.360 --> 0:54:25.960 They were all young. 0:54:26.719 --> 0:54:28.680 I'm not sure if Slick Rick was was there yet, 0:54:29.200 --> 0:54:32.440 but it was the eighty seven eighty seven, eighty eighties 0:54:32.520 --> 0:54:35.279 crew that was under a rush management and it wasn't 0:54:35.360 --> 0:54:37.879 run DMC. Probably who Deni was headlining with run DMC 0:54:38.040 --> 0:54:41.320 was bigger than all that shit. But I remember it 0:54:41.400 --> 0:54:43.960 being Public Enemy Ariban rock camp in the city, just 0:54:44.000 --> 0:54:45.480 being excited to see them for the first time. 0:54:45.719 --> 0:54:47.480 So I probably got to go out and do like 0:54:47.560 --> 0:54:48.120 two songs. 0:54:48.520 --> 0:54:52.800 But I remember back then, motherfucking rappers didn't talk to 0:54:52.800 --> 0:54:54.319 each other a lot, like if you're on the show, 0:54:54.320 --> 0:54:56.920 it another rapper. It wasn't like what's up, homie, Like 0:54:56.960 --> 0:54:58.640 you see the motherfuckers, you just look, you look and 0:54:58.680 --> 0:54:59.880 look away. And don't say shit like. 0:55:01.800 --> 0:55:04.279 No matter where you're from, like no matter where I 0:55:04.320 --> 0:55:07.000 was figuring public in me like they're very diplomatic. 0:55:07.040 --> 0:55:08.319 I was about to say, the only ones to talk 0:55:08.360 --> 0:55:11.080 to you is like Houdini and Chuck d. I wouldn't 0:55:11.360 --> 0:55:13.399 not even flavor fla. Nobody was talking, nobody was saying 0:55:14.120 --> 0:55:18.520 you can't EPMD was on those stewards too. Me and 0:55:18.719 --> 0:55:20.719 Eric Certinon became really good friends. I was like, do 0:55:20.800 --> 0:55:22.239 you realize we used to stand next to each other 0:55:22.280 --> 0:55:22.919 and don't say ship? 0:55:23.120 --> 0:55:23.359 Wow? 0:55:24.880 --> 0:55:25.520 I No, I don't know. 0:55:28.800 --> 0:55:28.840 No. 0:55:29.000 --> 0:55:30.840 If you ever want to embarrass the funk out of 0:55:30.880 --> 0:55:34.239 yourself back in the eighties, walk up to ll cool 0:55:34.320 --> 0:55:35.480 J And say hey, what's up man? 0:55:36.239 --> 0:55:37.640 And watch him ignore the funk out of you. 0:55:40.120 --> 0:55:42.960 Damn he's been a niggas for a long Was he 0:55:43.160 --> 0:55:45.160 just aloof like, oh I didn't see you there? 0:55:45.800 --> 0:55:48.040 No, no, No, L practiced that ship how to stare 0:55:48.120 --> 0:55:50.160 the funk at you and not say ship look at 0:55:50.239 --> 0:55:52.040 you like you are you really talking to me? 0:55:54.880 --> 0:55:56.480 Like you got some nerve niggas. 0:55:57.000 --> 0:55:58.640 I never did it, but I watched people do it. 0:56:01.360 --> 0:56:04.080 Don't don't don't so by. 0:56:04.000 --> 0:56:06.239 The time, the whole time your your accounting parents are 0:56:06.280 --> 0:56:07.720 down with your new endeavors. 0:56:07.880 --> 0:56:12.640 Oh well, that's that's another story. So think about So 0:56:12.880 --> 0:56:14.719 my parents were the last ones to find out I was. 0:56:16.440 --> 0:56:19.200 I was not the only one on this. I knew 0:56:19.719 --> 0:56:22.000 I was not. No one believes me when I told 0:56:22.040 --> 0:56:24.400 my dad found out about the roots, like on our second. 0:56:24.160 --> 0:56:26.960 Album, when did they find out about your about you? 0:56:28.640 --> 0:56:32.000 I probably was album. I hadn't made any albums yet, 0:56:32.040 --> 0:56:33.719 but I probably was. I think I was working on 0:56:33.800 --> 0:56:36.040 the first album and it was that time. They're like, 0:56:36.400 --> 0:56:38.879 all right, college time, and I'm like, I think I'm 0:56:38.920 --> 0:56:40.319 gonna make a few records first. 0:56:41.120 --> 0:56:46.320 Oh my god, I wasn't going to Juilliard. 0:56:46.400 --> 0:56:49.759 Out of record deal props gave me the speech about man, 0:56:49.800 --> 0:56:51.239 it's great what you do. I heard some of it 0:56:51.320 --> 0:56:52.759 is you know it's great, but it's not. But you're 0:56:52.760 --> 0:56:55.360 going to make a living off doing that. I'm like, 0:56:55.360 --> 0:56:56.640 all right, So I had I lied. 0:56:56.680 --> 0:56:56.960 I lied. 0:56:57.280 --> 0:56:57.799 I lied a lot. 0:56:58.560 --> 0:57:01.880 My mother found out I was a rapper by she 0:57:02.080 --> 0:57:07.320 found this this rap book that I had written, and 0:57:07.440 --> 0:57:10.160 she never came to me and said, like, do you 0:57:10.239 --> 0:57:12.200 wrap it? We didn't have a conversation about the rap 0:57:12.480 --> 0:57:14.759 She slipped a note into my rap book. 0:57:15.080 --> 0:57:16.080 It's like a nine. 0:57:15.880 --> 0:57:17.280 Page guilty ass letter. 0:57:18.360 --> 0:57:19.560 Like that's worse. 0:57:19.880 --> 0:57:21.959 She's like, I didn't raise you like this. I didn't 0:57:22.120 --> 0:57:22.680 like I know. 0:57:22.840 --> 0:57:23.560 She was a shock. 0:57:23.760 --> 0:57:27.600 It was like finding the Player's magazine. Yeah, she found 0:57:27.680 --> 0:57:28.160 your lyrics. 0:57:28.240 --> 0:57:32.640 She was disappointed, found freaky tales. She was hurt. When 0:57:32.720 --> 0:57:35.080 did they finally like that house? When did they finally 0:57:35.120 --> 0:57:38.960 be like okay good? When did they finally let up? Well, 0:57:39.080 --> 0:57:39.800 my mother. 0:57:41.240 --> 0:57:44.440 Watched she often. I never talked to her about this, 0:57:44.520 --> 0:57:46.479 but I think that she knew I was full of shit. 0:57:47.120 --> 0:57:50.360 Around nineteen eighty six, I had been fucking with seventy 0:57:50.440 --> 0:57:53.000 five girls and it was it was the time when 0:57:53.040 --> 0:57:56.040 his brother, the owner of the label, Dean, kicked me 0:57:56.080 --> 0:57:58.280 and a little brother out and we had a struggle. Man, 0:57:58.320 --> 0:58:00.640 We struggled for like we went from in the big 0:58:00.720 --> 0:58:04.880 house to like, you know, just can't even fucking afford 0:58:04.920 --> 0:58:07.400 food and shit. Like we was doing bad for about 0:58:07.400 --> 0:58:13.000 six months, really, man. And during that time, I was good. 0:58:13.160 --> 0:58:15.160 I was I was real shabby, man. I was like, 0:58:15.240 --> 0:58:18.000 you know, I wasn't really like fly. And I remember 0:58:18.000 --> 0:58:20.200 my mother came down for my birthday and I didn't 0:58:20.200 --> 0:58:22.720 ask for shit. I was not like nineteen or something, 0:58:23.320 --> 0:58:25.200 and she brought me all these fucking clothes and shoes 0:58:25.200 --> 0:58:27.520 and shit, and I was like I needed it. At 0:58:27.520 --> 0:58:29.200 the time, I was like cool, but I look back 0:58:29.240 --> 0:58:31.880 on it now thinking like my mother probably seen how shabby. 0:58:34.000 --> 0:58:37.680 Get some damn clothes. Wait, So you know, the struggle 0:58:37.760 --> 0:58:38.600 was was real. 0:58:38.680 --> 0:58:42.880 And then later on when I finally could call home, 0:58:42.920 --> 0:58:45.520 because I had called home many times and lied and 0:58:45.600 --> 0:58:48.720 said I'm doing great, like that ship's on the radio. 0:58:48.800 --> 0:58:52.240 I'm balling like I lied like a motherfucker. So when 0:58:52.280 --> 0:58:58.320 it really did do good. I I remember doing the 0:58:58.440 --> 0:59:02.960 show in Phoenix, and of course my mother had to come. 0:59:03.840 --> 0:59:06.480 But then when she really got there because I'm like 0:59:06.560 --> 0:59:08.440 trying to be all proud and ship. But when she 0:59:08.600 --> 0:59:11.200 got there, I was like, fuck, I can't do the 0:59:11.240 --> 0:59:14.880 show in front of her. So I I helped you 0:59:14.920 --> 0:59:17.520 pull it off, I told her, but I was like, 0:59:17.520 --> 0:59:19.760 don't let my mother go in the crowd. They're like, well, 0:59:19.920 --> 0:59:20.200 you go on. 0:59:20.200 --> 0:59:21.840 In five minutes, she's out there like it ain't gonna 0:59:21.840 --> 0:59:23.120 be no show. Somebody to do something. 0:59:23.120 --> 0:59:23.360 I'm not. 0:59:26.560 --> 0:59:28.680 I can't do this in front of her, So we 0:59:28.960 --> 0:59:38.640 got her backstage. It was that type of ship. 0:59:39.120 --> 0:59:41.600 Wait, what was it just on a regular spot date 0:59:41.760 --> 0:59:44.600 or was it like it was w A, I think 0:59:44.640 --> 0:59:48.400 we're on tour. Wait she was backstage and it was safer. 0:59:50.320 --> 0:59:54.200 Well, I'm saying she couldn't. She could not ever see 0:59:54.440 --> 0:59:55.560 me perfom ever. 0:59:55.960 --> 0:59:56.360 I couldn't. 0:59:56.400 --> 0:59:58.880 I can't yet to see a two short show. 0:59:59.480 --> 1:00:00.240 Nah, ye know? 1:00:02.440 --> 1:00:02.680 Wow? 1:00:03.280 --> 1:00:04.160 Had she heard the music? 1:00:04.960 --> 1:00:07.560 You've seen TV stuff, She seen videos. She's seeing the 1:00:07.640 --> 1:00:08.320 clean version. 1:00:08.800 --> 1:00:11.880 Okay, okay, look this is my mother. 1:00:12.600 --> 1:00:15.480 They're like missus Shaw. You know, do you know your 1:00:15.560 --> 1:00:17.800 son is like the dirtiest rapper out there. She's like, 1:00:17.920 --> 1:00:18.760 I never heard him cuss. 1:00:18.880 --> 1:00:19.120 I don't. 1:00:19.680 --> 1:00:23.960 People people say that, People say that, I'm sure he 1:00:24.040 --> 1:00:26.160 does it, but I haven't heard it. And she just 1:00:26.240 --> 1:00:28.320 she wouldn't play it. She had every album I ever 1:00:28.400 --> 1:00:29.200 made in plastic. 1:00:29.440 --> 1:00:31.400 What about your pot? He has heard? 1:00:31.680 --> 1:00:34.920 See your father don't have that conversation with you, you 1:00:34.960 --> 1:00:38.480 know what I mean? Like he he's, uh, we don't. 1:00:38.520 --> 1:00:39.560 We don't talk to you, short man. 1:00:39.600 --> 1:00:40.520 We just don't. Like he's. 1:00:42.160 --> 1:00:43.480 He couldn't come to me and go, you know, I'll 1:00:43.480 --> 1:00:44.280 be bumping that one song. 1:00:44.320 --> 1:00:51.040 He couldn't. This is the long thirty year version of 1:00:51.120 --> 1:00:52.240 the White Olph in the room. 1:00:52.280 --> 1:00:55.760 When I was talking about what about your your brother, 1:00:55.880 --> 1:00:58.840 your older brother that you my older brother is uh 1:00:59.360 --> 1:01:03.000 this is his He's like, I'm like, man, people like 1:01:03.080 --> 1:01:03.479 my music. 1:01:03.560 --> 1:01:06.280 He's like, it's cool, but you'll never be run DMC. 1:01:06.760 --> 1:01:08.640 I'm like, I'm like, well, I ain't trying to be 1:01:08.680 --> 1:01:10.840 run ding Like I'm just saying you ain't never gonna 1:01:10.840 --> 1:01:13.720 be shipp because he's like these little people around here 1:01:13.800 --> 1:01:15.840 like it. Man, it's like this ship's whacked. He's like, 1:01:15.880 --> 1:01:18.240 I'm bumping l I'm bumping like you ain't. 1:01:18.080 --> 1:01:22.200 Like the East Coast playing on the load. He was 1:01:22.280 --> 1:01:23.720 just to this day. 1:01:23.800 --> 1:01:25.840 He would just destroy your dream. If you walked in 1:01:25.960 --> 1:01:28.320 and said I'm gonna be the greatest drummer the world. 1:01:28.320 --> 1:01:30.000 He's like, you're a good drummer, but you're never gonna 1:01:30.000 --> 1:01:35.040 be the greatest. What's that motivation for you? Years later 1:01:36.480 --> 1:01:39.360 we talked ship. I'm like, I'm like i should talking 1:01:39.440 --> 1:01:41.240 right now. It's like I'm your fucking big brother. Like 1:01:41.320 --> 1:01:42.680 I'm the big brother. I'll be looking out for you. 1:01:43.040 --> 1:01:47.880 And he's like he's like, uh, all those years I 1:01:48.040 --> 1:01:50.320 put you down, I was I was making you. I 1:01:50.400 --> 1:01:51.120 was making you strong. 1:01:51.200 --> 1:01:51.320 Man. 1:01:53.800 --> 1:01:55.960 He's like I knew he was dope, like ship he was. 1:01:56.200 --> 1:01:56.400 Hey. 1:01:57.240 --> 1:01:59.600 We used to walk down the street arguing like a motherfucker, 1:02:00.120 --> 1:02:01.439 arguing about everything in the world. 1:02:01.520 --> 1:02:02.000 Me and my brother. 1:02:02.080 --> 1:02:03.840 We would argue to the death. 1:02:04.600 --> 1:02:11.200 That's crazy to this day. Yo. So what was tour 1:02:11.360 --> 1:02:14.120 life like during that period? 1:02:14.520 --> 1:02:18.919 I mean nineteen eighty nine, straight out of Compton, first 1:02:19.000 --> 1:02:19.680 chour I ever went on. 1:02:19.920 --> 1:02:20.520 Tell me about it. 1:02:20.760 --> 1:02:22.640 First start was Nashville, Tennessee. 1:02:23.920 --> 1:02:24.480 I had my. 1:02:24.640 --> 1:02:28.800 Girlfriend take me to the airport in Oakland. I'd been 1:02:28.880 --> 1:02:30.280 with her for like about a year and a half. 1:02:30.400 --> 1:02:33.720 I was really did love her. She was beautiful and 1:02:36.160 --> 1:02:39.600 she was beautiful man. I was so in love it 1:02:39.600 --> 1:02:41.120 with my younger love likes to be with my girlfriend 1:02:41.160 --> 1:02:42.400 every day, and I was like, Babe, I'm about to 1:02:42.440 --> 1:02:47.080 go on tour. When I get there. Every day the 1:02:47.280 --> 1:02:54.240 first night Pandemonian. First night, I didn't call home. The 1:02:54.360 --> 1:02:56.160 first day, I never from called home. 1:02:57.680 --> 1:03:01.080 It's like some shot I've never I had, never coming home. 1:03:02.840 --> 1:03:05.000 And then you know, I did that tour with NWA 1:03:06.080 --> 1:03:08.200 and the very next year Ice Cube quit and he 1:03:08.280 --> 1:03:11.560 went on he did America's Most Wanted and me and him, 1:03:11.800 --> 1:03:12.640 me and ice Cube is right. 1:03:12.920 --> 1:03:15.200 He went on another tour the very next year. So 1:03:15.360 --> 1:03:18.800 for two years, for the ice Cube Tour and the 1:03:18.920 --> 1:03:22.800 NWA tour, everything you could think about young rock star young, 1:03:23.080 --> 1:03:24.120 that was me I did. 1:03:24.200 --> 1:03:27.560 It was that when five thousand girls y'all did the 1:03:27.760 --> 1:03:29.520 nothing but a Word to Me record. 1:03:29.280 --> 1:03:32.600 That was the secondary gotcha, that was my record. 1:03:32.600 --> 1:03:33.200 I love that joint. 1:03:33.800 --> 1:03:38.520 So okay, it would be remiss to say that as 1:03:38.600 --> 1:03:45.240 a Philadelphian growing up on the East Coast, I'll say 1:03:45.280 --> 1:03:48.840 that at least between like in the early nineties, the 1:03:48.960 --> 1:03:54.040 idea of opinions and cultural differences between the coast. I mean, 1:03:54.120 --> 1:03:57.920 it was definitely a thing. What were your feelings like 1:03:58.400 --> 1:04:02.840 when you would read the sort like the critical claim 1:04:02.960 --> 1:04:04.560 or any that stuff being anything to. 1:04:04.880 --> 1:04:09.360 Okay, so early on, I made money early on, I'm 1:04:09.400 --> 1:04:12.160 famous as fuck. Early on, I'm rocking crowds. My self 1:04:12.280 --> 1:04:15.640 esteem is way to fuck up there, I'm rapping. I've 1:04:15.720 --> 1:04:19.400 considered myself nothing of sexy sex symbol, nothing, I'm me, 1:04:19.840 --> 1:04:21.960 I've I got money, and I won't even fix my 1:04:22.040 --> 1:04:24.760 fucking teeth. I'm like, fucking, I'm just I'm just doing it, 1:04:26.720 --> 1:04:28.680 and you know, I'm just doing it. Man, it didn't 1:04:28.720 --> 1:04:30.560 bother me at all to be on TV with a 1:04:30.600 --> 1:04:32.640 fucked up grill. I was like, I had a pool 1:04:32.680 --> 1:04:34.040 in my backyard. I don't give a fuck out of 1:04:34.040 --> 1:04:38.280 a fucking Mercedes and you know. So I would look 1:04:38.360 --> 1:04:44.240 at the media's interpretation of all of hip hop, mainly 1:04:44.360 --> 1:04:46.960 like the Source or something I read the front to back. 1:04:47.720 --> 1:04:49.320 I've been on the cover of the Source early on 1:04:49.440 --> 1:04:52.360 one of the first sources. I wasn't like treated badly 1:04:52.480 --> 1:04:56.000 by the Source, but I would. I would look at 1:04:56.400 --> 1:04:58.560 the reviews that I would get and it'd be like, 1:05:00.000 --> 1:05:02.200 you know, I can't rap, can't rap, meat the beats 1:05:02.240 --> 1:05:04.080 and blah blah blah, and then the shit would go platinum. 1:05:04.080 --> 1:05:06.080 I'm like, like, hai, motherfucker. 1:05:06.480 --> 1:05:11.040 But but I would also watch the media take the 1:05:11.200 --> 1:05:13.480 New York guy and you probably can relate to this 1:05:13.560 --> 1:05:15.840 as a Philly guy, the one guy with the one 1:05:15.960 --> 1:05:19.440 fucking song that we fucking love and make this motherfucker 1:05:19.520 --> 1:05:21.520 make it start for that one song, like he can't 1:05:21.520 --> 1:05:23.800 even proved itself yet, Like and they're like, he's our guy, 1:05:23.880 --> 1:05:26.080 blah blah blah for the whole year, and I just 1:05:26.200 --> 1:05:27.760 I watched that shit over and over again, I'm like, 1:05:28.720 --> 1:05:32.240 I'm like they they to me, they just didn't get it. 1:05:32.880 --> 1:05:36.480 See it's all right. So and I think it was 1:05:36.880 --> 1:05:41.360 when did I come out. I came to California, probably 1:05:41.360 --> 1:05:49.120 the summer of nineteen ninety, and I specifically remember Tarik 1:05:49.240 --> 1:05:54.720 had Short Dogs in the House album and now he's 1:05:54.840 --> 1:05:57.920 he's very particular about like a zimcs or whatever. And 1:05:58.880 --> 1:06:01.560 I was like, well, wait why because I remember like 1:06:02.760 --> 1:06:05.800 something in the Source or whatever and they giving you 1:06:05.920 --> 1:06:08.400 like to two mics or whatever, and I was like, well, 1:06:08.440 --> 1:06:10.120 why would you buy this because it's got a bad 1:06:10.240 --> 1:06:12.040 rate in the source like whatever. And he was just like, 1:06:12.800 --> 1:06:15.520 you don't know, like that was his ship. And I 1:06:15.680 --> 1:06:18.160 was like, all right, well if he says it usually. 1:06:18.200 --> 1:06:19.880 I mean Tweek was always right. I was wrong about 1:06:19.960 --> 1:06:22.440 n w A because that's another thing. Like Tweek had 1:06:23.320 --> 1:06:24.960 straight out of Comps. He was like the only East 1:06:25.000 --> 1:06:28.360 Coaster I knew that, like Odd on West Coast stuff. 1:06:28.440 --> 1:06:32.080 I mean he had Hammer's first record, oh wow, but yeah, 1:06:32.120 --> 1:06:32.479 I mean. 1:06:32.400 --> 1:06:34.560 He which wasn't a bad album, no, it was yeah. 1:06:34.800 --> 1:06:38.240 And that's the thing like he like Tik just because 1:06:38.480 --> 1:06:41.920 he watched yom TV raps. He just purchased everything that 1:06:42.120 --> 1:06:45.160 was ever on yom TV raps, and it's like it's 1:06:45.920 --> 1:06:48.800 like you're you're, you're what I call the flat footed 1:06:49.040 --> 1:06:54.480 approach to him seeing to me, that's like a tuxedo 1:06:55.120 --> 1:06:57.960 or jeans and t shirt like some ship or you know, 1:06:58.080 --> 1:07:01.560 like or chuck easy, which I mean, that's that to 1:07:01.680 --> 1:07:04.440 me is the hardest thing to do now, more than 1:07:04.600 --> 1:07:09.720 any sort of rhyme scheme. Yeah, any iambic pictameter decide. 1:07:09.800 --> 1:07:12.000 You know, it's it's the tortois in the hair shit. 1:07:12.640 --> 1:07:14.440 You know, you have a billion of them seeds that 1:07:14.560 --> 1:07:17.040 do and you just stay flat footed. So at no 1:07:17.200 --> 1:07:19.320 point is no one in your ear like yo, you 1:07:19.360 --> 1:07:22.960 should get dancers like blah blah blah, or you should 1:07:24.680 --> 1:07:27.120 you know, you just basically stayed on your path and 1:07:27.360 --> 1:07:32.320 and tortoised and haired your way through everything hip hop culture. 1:07:32.600 --> 1:07:35.880 Like a microphone and a cassette was all I ever 1:07:36.000 --> 1:07:40.040 needed to make my hip hop world successful. 1:07:40.560 --> 1:07:42.640 Just a blank the set and a microphone. 1:07:42.680 --> 1:07:44.840 But it's weird because when money enters the photo, then 1:07:44.920 --> 1:07:47.800 you start people start switching up. These ship start. 1:07:47.920 --> 1:07:51.640 My counterpart, the first person you know, E forty is 1:07:51.680 --> 1:07:53.720 my homie forever from day one, we've ben hommies. So 1:07:53.840 --> 1:07:56.600 E forty's up the street doing his thing. But when 1:07:56.640 --> 1:08:03.320 we talk about Oakland, my counterpart was Hammer mc hammer. Uh, 1:08:04.000 --> 1:08:07.040 if you let me tell it was going around Oakland. 1:08:09.440 --> 1:08:09.560 Uh. 1:08:09.640 --> 1:08:13.160 He was very famous for dancing. He was popular for 1:08:13.360 --> 1:08:16.000 his run with being, you know, around the A's organization 1:08:16.040 --> 1:08:18.719 and stuff. He's popular and a lot of his friends 1:08:18.760 --> 1:08:20.280 were went to high school with me. I knew, I 1:08:20.320 --> 1:08:23.519 knew his whole crew. But Hammer had a dude named 1:08:23.560 --> 1:08:25.960 Ace that they used to dress alike and be at 1:08:26.000 --> 1:08:28.320 the clubs doing the same dance moves and shit. And 1:08:28.360 --> 1:08:29.760 then they get a crowd around him and people like, 1:08:30.200 --> 1:08:33.960 you know, he was. He was popular, So I knew 1:08:34.000 --> 1:08:35.680 who he was as a dancing dude. I knew that 1:08:35.840 --> 1:08:38.120 was Hammer, not I didn't know his fucking name. I 1:08:38.120 --> 1:08:40.280 just knew he was a dancing dude. Him and Ace 1:08:40.360 --> 1:08:44.000 they be dancing, and then he came with these records 1:08:44.840 --> 1:08:47.360 and it's like one day you see him. He's got 1:08:47.439 --> 1:08:51.680 like four bodyguards, he's got like an entourager, like you know, 1:08:51.840 --> 1:08:55.000 like twenty people, and it's like I remember the shit 1:08:55.080 --> 1:08:55.599 clear as day. 1:08:55.640 --> 1:08:57.960 Somebody was like, who fuck is that? I don't know 1:08:58.560 --> 1:08:59.320 who fuck that is? 1:09:00.280 --> 1:09:03.240 Like, you know, I'm popular, I'm famous, We mob deep, 1:09:03.280 --> 1:09:04.960 We like in this motherfucker everywhere we go. 1:09:05.560 --> 1:09:06.519 I don't know who the fuck that is. 1:09:06.560 --> 1:09:06.920 I don't know. 1:09:07.920 --> 1:09:09.800 I heard it a few times. Who are they? 1:09:09.880 --> 1:09:12.920 They like coming through the crowd, bodyguard, skut and skut apartment. 1:09:14.000 --> 1:09:16.200 Then one day somebody said, man, who is that? And 1:09:16.280 --> 1:09:18.960 somebody else said that's Hammer. I was like this, Nick 1:09:19.000 --> 1:09:23.839 ain't got a record nothing, He's like like it became 1:09:24.080 --> 1:09:29.040 more famous for that circumstance and for the music, and 1:09:29.160 --> 1:09:31.800 then the music came with it at the same time. 1:09:31.880 --> 1:09:32.240 Like he was. 1:09:32.800 --> 1:09:35.080 He walked in the fucking door with the Anthize and 1:09:35.160 --> 1:09:37.439 four bodyguards and his first single was just coming out 1:09:37.680 --> 1:09:40.559 and he just that was so having him as an example, 1:09:40.560 --> 1:09:41.560 I'm like, Shore not doing that. 1:09:41.720 --> 1:09:46.080 Can I ask a question, who were you thinking about 1:09:46.120 --> 1:09:48.559 when you wrote short of Funky Well? 1:09:48.680 --> 1:09:49.760 I was doing lines of Hammer. 1:09:49.800 --> 1:09:50.160 We all. 1:09:52.520 --> 1:09:55.879 But a lot of songs that had had Hammer references, 1:09:55.920 --> 1:09:58.000 But it was between me and him, all of. 1:09:58.040 --> 1:10:01.280 Our out right this stuff, like what was your relationship? Like, 1:10:01.560 --> 1:10:02.519 like did you guys? 1:10:02.720 --> 1:10:05.599 Ever, so I'm saying ship like that in the record 1:10:05.920 --> 1:10:08.320 we walking were down the streets and ship talking a 1:10:08.360 --> 1:10:11.320 little shit about each other to our mutual homies, never 1:10:11.520 --> 1:10:14.439 gonna ever be any friction because they thugs and we thugs, 1:10:14.479 --> 1:10:17.320 and we all know each other. But Hammer would do 1:10:17.400 --> 1:10:19.599 shit like sit on the fucking couch with our sineo 1:10:19.720 --> 1:10:23.360 or something and say, like where you from? Hammer from Oakland? Oh, 1:10:23.400 --> 1:10:24.720 how's hip hop about that? Well, you know, I'm the 1:10:24.760 --> 1:10:29.880 only rapper from Oakland, Like, I'm never going on our senio. 1:10:29.880 --> 1:10:31.240 You're gonna sit on there and tell the whole fucking 1:10:31.240 --> 1:10:33.560 world lie Like he would do ship like that, and 1:10:33.640 --> 1:10:36.040 he was just that was that was his character. 1:10:36.160 --> 1:10:37.759 So he poked. 1:10:37.800 --> 1:10:40.639 I poked back, and it ain't got to a point 1:10:40.640 --> 1:10:44.160 where we were like, man, we should just let's just 1:10:44.439 --> 1:10:46.240 let's just go there with him. Let's just go there 1:10:46.280 --> 1:10:49.679 and just all out go there. And Louis Barrell, Hammer's 1:10:49.680 --> 1:10:54.280 big brother, he called us. He said, man, I heard 1:10:54.880 --> 1:10:56.680 you know, I know what's going on. I know I 1:10:56.760 --> 1:10:59.200 know who y'all know, I know all the ship. He's like, man, 1:10:59.280 --> 1:11:01.120 we just got off to r we come, you said, 1:11:01.120 --> 1:11:03.240 we're just getting off to her. Were coming home. We've 1:11:03.280 --> 1:11:04.760 been through hell out here on the road. Somebody had 1:11:04.800 --> 1:11:07.840 got killed all kind of should have happened. He was like, 1:11:08.080 --> 1:11:11.320 he's like like not asking, like, man, we're not coming 1:11:11.360 --> 1:11:14.240 home this bullshit, Like we're not, And it was it 1:11:14.360 --> 1:11:16.479 was so real. What he said was like all right, 1:11:16.520 --> 1:11:21.439 all right, it's all getting so so basically where escalated 1:11:21.479 --> 1:11:24.400 the most. It just took a phone call. It's like, man, 1:11:24.520 --> 1:11:26.680 we want this bullshit and it's because we all be 1:11:26.800 --> 1:11:28.840 We all been from family and friends from day one. 1:11:29.040 --> 1:11:30.320 Man, why couldn't I have it with Search? 1:11:37.920 --> 1:11:42.519 What was the record for for you when you were 1:11:42.600 --> 1:11:46.519 with Jive, which was the biggest selling record, Like when 1:11:46.600 --> 1:11:46.800 did it? 1:11:47.040 --> 1:11:51.880 Kind of because Life is bigger seller one, but it's 1:11:51.960 --> 1:11:55.559 sold I think a lot because of rumors. 1:11:55.880 --> 1:11:58.920 That's that was you get your the rumor where you're 1:11:58.920 --> 1:12:01.200 dead in your young career. I got. 1:12:02.840 --> 1:12:03.680 They thought you were dead. 1:12:04.360 --> 1:12:07.080 The album drop and so three hundred thousand copies out 1:12:07.120 --> 1:12:09.439 the gate. We jump on the tour at three hundred 1:12:09.439 --> 1:12:11.920 thousand sales, and we get off tours at eight hundred thousand. 1:12:12.280 --> 1:12:15.320 So the tour did a lot in that in that case. 1:12:15.600 --> 1:12:15.680 And. 1:12:19.160 --> 1:12:21.560 Get off tour and the sales go up to like 1:12:21.680 --> 1:12:25.400 about maybe like one point three. It's just hot. It's 1:12:25.479 --> 1:12:27.880 just going and then they killed me, they. 1:12:27.840 --> 1:12:28.200 Said to. 1:12:30.040 --> 1:12:32.360 Two Shirts got shot in the in the head in 1:12:32.439 --> 1:12:33.160 the crack house. 1:12:34.040 --> 1:12:37.280 Wow, And I was having I was having memorials in 1:12:37.360 --> 1:12:40.960 Texas and I was going for real, I was I 1:12:41.120 --> 1:12:42.120 was dead to a lot of people. 1:12:42.160 --> 1:12:43.200 And you know, you can't. 1:12:43.439 --> 1:12:45.880 You can't social media back then like you died. And 1:12:46.000 --> 1:12:51.400 it's slowly the story goes slowly. You couldn't put a 1:12:52.400 --> 1:12:55.280 k back calling, you know, to kty wire. 1:12:57.520 --> 1:12:58.320 Sales went out the room. 1:12:58.320 --> 1:12:58.840 Who's going to stop? 1:12:58.880 --> 1:12:59.479 Whos gonna stop? 1:12:59.520 --> 1:13:03.920 The rumor went to two million, But the crack out 1:13:03.960 --> 1:13:06.800 of damn yeah, man. 1:13:07.240 --> 1:13:08.080 Two Shirt is funny. 1:13:08.120 --> 1:13:08.240 Man. 1:13:08.240 --> 1:13:09.600 I've had people walked up to me. 1:13:10.560 --> 1:13:12.479 It's me and my boy standing there, and the dude 1:13:12.520 --> 1:13:14.880 walk up and say, damn man, that's fucked up about 1:13:14.880 --> 1:13:18.000 two Shirts, Like what happened? Like, man, my uncle said, 1:13:18.680 --> 1:13:20.599 was that as a dope house last night? Two Shirts 1:13:20.600 --> 1:13:25.160 said the kitchen table on smoke coke all night. And 1:13:25.720 --> 1:13:27.560 then my boy like do you know what? 1:13:27.800 --> 1:13:28.519 You know what he looked like. 1:13:29.000 --> 1:13:30.559 You're like, man, I don't know what I'm just saying. 1:13:30.760 --> 1:13:30.960 Uncle. 1:13:31.720 --> 1:13:35.920 I'm standing right there, like knowing my uncle so much ship. 1:13:36.880 --> 1:13:39.960 What led to the uh your the retirement. I think 1:13:40.160 --> 1:13:41.680 I guess your first retirement. 1:13:42.160 --> 1:13:43.840 Get short to pimp out short? 1:13:44.080 --> 1:13:45.960 Oh man, we ain't short, we ain't get what the pimp? 1:13:46.080 --> 1:13:48.240 Yeah, yeah, you know, I'm sorry. 1:13:48.560 --> 1:13:48.880 I just. 1:13:50.439 --> 1:13:52.639 Can you tell about the I don't know. I felt 1:13:52.680 --> 1:13:57.160 like that to me is the least where you even 1:13:57.200 --> 1:13:57.559 got more. 1:13:58.320 --> 1:13:58.439 Man. 1:13:58.880 --> 1:14:01.120 I got on board, you know, early, because it's trek, 1:14:01.280 --> 1:14:04.840 but with with with making Jordan the pimp and and 1:14:06.040 --> 1:14:08.800 I guess so getting where you fit in came after that. 1:14:09.120 --> 1:14:09.479 Getting it. 1:14:11.040 --> 1:14:12.680 Shorty the pimp started some new ship with me. 1:14:12.920 --> 1:14:16.320 I had been working with Al Eaton, who was my guitar, 1:14:16.439 --> 1:14:21.519 playing keyboard, playing engineer, and Al It's really good friends 1:14:21.560 --> 1:14:22.360 with Felton Pilot. 1:14:22.800 --> 1:14:26.200 Felton Pilot was Felton Pilot was mc Hammer's guy. 1:14:26.680 --> 1:14:29.240 So they they got got all that money and sold 1:14:29.240 --> 1:14:31.880 all those records and they built this whole compound over 1:14:31.920 --> 1:14:34.720 in Freemont, California. That's when Hammer bought the big house 1:14:34.800 --> 1:14:38.600 up to Hill. They was like, you know, running running Freemont, California, 1:14:39.080 --> 1:14:42.760 and Al my guy. In between two short albums, he 1:14:42.880 --> 1:14:46.840 went over to visit Felton and when he came back, 1:14:46.920 --> 1:14:49.160 he was like, man, I've seen it. I got the vision, 1:14:49.400 --> 1:14:51.439 so I'm coming into our studio to make a new album. 1:14:52.320 --> 1:14:56.240 It's going to be the Shorty the Pimp album. And 1:14:59.000 --> 1:15:02.960 uh al, it's like, here's the new rules. That's the engineer, right, 1:15:03.320 --> 1:15:06.160 here's the new rules. He owns the studio and he 1:15:06.240 --> 1:15:09.000 got new rules. Can't say he got a white girlfriend, 1:15:09.120 --> 1:15:10.760 so he can't say the word nigger in his house 1:15:10.840 --> 1:15:15.479 no more. He's like, he's like, uh, I'm not really 1:15:15.560 --> 1:15:17.560 trying to have any like profanity in my house. He's like, 1:15:18.040 --> 1:15:20.599 he's like, and I'm ah, he's telling me I got 1:15:20.680 --> 1:15:22.800 the fucking deal. I'm the fucking artist. He's like, and 1:15:22.840 --> 1:15:25.519 we're gonna start making records for white people because hammering them. 1:15:25.680 --> 1:15:26.680 You see what they're doing over there. 1:15:26.840 --> 1:15:28.960 He's like, if you ain't making, you ain't making records 1:15:29.000 --> 1:15:30.680 with white people. Man, you gotta make I was like, man, 1:15:30.720 --> 1:15:32.599 how do you make records for white people? 1:15:32.800 --> 1:15:34.160 Like? How do you do that shit? 1:15:34.439 --> 1:15:36.080 And I'm all I can think about it like pop shit. 1:15:36.160 --> 1:15:38.320 I'm like, I'm not making no pop shit. He's playing 1:15:38.360 --> 1:15:39.920 these little beats, he's trying to be like felting and 1:15:39.960 --> 1:15:43.800 hammering them and trying to I'm like, so I called in. 1:15:43.960 --> 1:15:47.759 That's what I'm saying, Like you, I know, the temptation 1:15:47.960 --> 1:15:51.080 was there and you watching by this point, Park's about 1:15:51.120 --> 1:15:54.400 the about the digital underground, like all these these big 1:15:54.479 --> 1:15:59.880 area cats are just coming up and you just tunnel vision. 1:16:00.640 --> 1:16:03.080 Just how did you resist that temptation? 1:16:03.479 --> 1:16:05.040 So I got I had a guy on my team 1:16:05.120 --> 1:16:10.320 named and Banks, and Banks was part of a couple 1:16:10.360 --> 1:16:13.679 of crews. You know, in the early days he being around. 1:16:13.680 --> 1:16:15.599 I knew all about him. He worked at em An, 1:16:15.920 --> 1:16:18.920 then he worked with poor Man, and poor Man was 1:16:19.680 --> 1:16:22.120 to do everybody in the game had to have a 1:16:22.200 --> 1:16:24.640 drug dealer backing you. You had to have a money man. 1:16:25.080 --> 1:16:27.840 So Big Bruce was their money man. And Bruce was 1:16:27.920 --> 1:16:29.799 like my homie Homi because I knew all the kingpins. 1:16:30.280 --> 1:16:34.880 So Bruce got killed and then pooh Man and Banks 1:16:34.920 --> 1:16:36.479 and all and they were just kind of like out 1:16:36.520 --> 1:16:38.160 there a little bit, didn't have that structure. 1:16:38.520 --> 1:16:42.960 And I was on Jive platinum balling. I saw Banks 1:16:43.000 --> 1:16:45.720 at the cable company and he was like, you know, 1:16:45.840 --> 1:16:47.559 he went for it. He was in a little little 1:16:47.560 --> 1:16:49.040 little hoopy whatever. He just went for it. 1:16:49.120 --> 1:16:51.160 He was like, man, you know, I make beats or something. 1:16:51.200 --> 1:16:52.720 I was like, I know, I know you a man, 1:16:53.400 --> 1:16:55.840 and we decided he was gonna link up. This is 1:16:55.920 --> 1:16:59.360 the same exact time. I'm fucking at the cable company, 1:16:59.520 --> 1:17:01.599 probably hand my bill. I'm probably there because the ship 1:17:01.640 --> 1:17:03.120 got cut off or something, and I'm right, and you 1:17:03.200 --> 1:17:05.479 got to go there to get it cut back. Nigga 1:17:05.520 --> 1:17:09.040 wasn't paying bills on time back then. And then I'm 1:17:09.120 --> 1:17:11.439 at the present moment, mad in the fucking car by 1:17:11.479 --> 1:17:13.840 myself about this fucking ship with al and the fucking 1:17:13.920 --> 1:17:16.040 engineers fucking with me, and he won't fun. I'm trying 1:17:16.080 --> 1:17:18.320 to make this music and he's fucking trying to get 1:17:18.360 --> 1:17:20.439 me to work on these white cass tracks and be 1:17:20.600 --> 1:17:24.719 like hammering. I'm like, so, I'm telling Banks the situation. 1:17:24.880 --> 1:17:26.559 He's like, all right, I'm coming to the studio tomorrow. 1:17:26.960 --> 1:17:29.400 Then I find a guy at the same time. This 1:17:29.560 --> 1:17:33.720 motherfucker was riding a tense speed with a backpack with 1:17:33.880 --> 1:17:36.400 a pistol in it, with a bunch of heroin, and 1:17:36.520 --> 1:17:39.920 he fucking he's from d C's from Maryland, from uh, 1:17:40.560 --> 1:17:44.040 from landover Maryland, and he fucking uh is really good 1:17:44.080 --> 1:17:47.400 friends with George Clinton and and and and Michael Hampton 1:17:47.400 --> 1:17:50.519 and all those guys. He's like, he's he's a student 1:17:50.680 --> 1:17:53.479 of you know, he's he got to play with a 1:17:54.760 --> 1:17:57.599 who is the who is the Problem's best fucking guitar player, 1:17:57.600 --> 1:17:58.080 the other one. 1:17:58.000 --> 1:18:00.599 Before Jerry shrind Uh. 1:18:02.800 --> 1:18:05.799 So Shorty B was a student of Eddie and fucking 1:18:06.120 --> 1:18:08.360 Mike Hampton. So he fucking knew all this ship. He 1:18:08.360 --> 1:18:11.680 could play Parliament anything inside out. He was like, I 1:18:11.760 --> 1:18:13.880 knew he was a drug dealer. I knew the crew 1:18:13.960 --> 1:18:16.560 he was, you know whatever. He's like, come over to 1:18:16.600 --> 1:18:19.439 the Acorn Projects. I know it's an Acorn niggas, So 1:18:19.439 --> 1:18:21.679 I'm not wasn't scared to go to Acorns, he said, 1:18:21.680 --> 1:18:23.800 coming to Acorn Projects. He sits in front of his 1:18:23.960 --> 1:18:27.679 fucking uh part projects where he lived, brings an amp 1:18:27.800 --> 1:18:30.639 out on the guitar and the guitar and just sits 1:18:30.680 --> 1:18:31.960 there and shows me all this ship he could do. 1:18:32.360 --> 1:18:34.320 So I'm like, you need to come to the studio. 1:18:34.439 --> 1:18:36.519 Let's go, because I knew the funk. He's playing the funk. 1:18:36.960 --> 1:18:39.680 So I get Shorty B and Banks to come to 1:18:39.760 --> 1:18:41.960 the studio with me at the same time, and I'm like, 1:18:42.000 --> 1:18:43.840 I walk in on al eating like watch this ship. 1:18:45.439 --> 1:18:48.640 And I was at the time he was, he was 1:18:48.720 --> 1:18:51.080 fucking with me, man, because he I wasn't with the ship. 1:18:51.520 --> 1:18:53.760 The niggas was just for more money or just he 1:18:53.920 --> 1:18:56.479 wanted to be like them, man. Really, he wanted to 1:18:56.520 --> 1:18:59.040 be like them bad. He named his fucking dog short Dog, 1:18:59.280 --> 1:18:59.920 and he was sucking. 1:19:00.120 --> 1:19:00.240 Uh. 1:19:00.520 --> 1:19:02.040 I come back to make a new album. He keeps 1:19:02.120 --> 1:19:04.280 saying shit, his dog short, Shit the fuck down. 1:19:04.560 --> 1:19:05.200 I'm like, this is. 1:19:06.680 --> 1:19:08.040 We're about to kill this nigga up in here. 1:19:09.960 --> 1:19:13.720 So on top of that, he's doing this new thing 1:19:14.320 --> 1:19:19.280 and he's going He's like, ah, fuck the fucking computer rebooted. 1:19:19.439 --> 1:19:21.439 And then he says there and does like this. So 1:19:21.560 --> 1:19:23.080 he did that ship to me for like two days. 1:19:23.200 --> 1:19:25.600 I come back with and Banks and Shorty b and 1:19:25.800 --> 1:19:28.400 Banks is like, hey, how you worked this shit and 1:19:28.439 --> 1:19:31.200 something something, And I was trying to resist, and Banks 1:19:31.320 --> 1:19:33.920 is like, look, just sit over here and just I'm 1:19:33.920 --> 1:19:36.280 gonna ask you whenever I can't work. So I'm ask 1:19:37.160 --> 1:19:41.519 no more computer glitches, no more motherfucking working glitch. We 1:19:41.720 --> 1:19:45.040 we made Shorty de PMP and I feel like the 1:19:45.200 --> 1:19:49.360 next albums, Getting Where You Fit In Cocktails, Getting It 1:19:49.479 --> 1:19:52.640 were all a little bit better because we didn't have 1:19:52.800 --> 1:19:55.960 that early fucking battle and Shorty PP probably would have 1:19:56.000 --> 1:19:58.040 been just as great, because that's when we took the 1:19:58.160 --> 1:20:00.760 journey on the fucking freestyle and the guitars and the 1:20:00.880 --> 1:20:04.000 bass and and we and we bought a Digital Underground 1:20:04.120 --> 1:20:07.200 keyboard player pee Weee over could Shorty Be my guitar player? 1:20:07.280 --> 1:20:08.840 Used to go do a lot of tracks with Shot too, 1:20:09.200 --> 1:20:11.320 And a lot of people don't know that Digital Underground too. 1:20:11.320 --> 1:20:14.439 Short We were using the same musicians during the same years, 1:20:14.720 --> 1:20:16.760 two pockeys coming around all the time, hanging around with 1:20:16.760 --> 1:20:19.600 Shorty Be and Pee Wee. It was just, you know, 1:20:19.680 --> 1:20:24.120 we were we were really into the musicianship and we 1:20:24.240 --> 1:20:26.880 fucking we sat out. He set him on the sidelines. 1:20:27.479 --> 1:20:29.360 So what what is he doing now? 1:20:29.600 --> 1:20:30.680 Like in terms of. 1:20:32.320 --> 1:20:36.360 Which one Al, I heard rumors that Al passed away. 1:20:36.360 --> 1:20:39.599 I'm not sure I've had you guys lost contact with each. 1:20:40.320 --> 1:20:41.200 I really. 1:20:43.000 --> 1:20:45.439 I can't remember the reason why I was so fucking 1:20:45.520 --> 1:20:48.200 mad at him, But there was a time where he 1:20:48.320 --> 1:20:50.560 was coming back, going, man, let's work together, and I 1:20:50.680 --> 1:20:53.960 was like, fuck that. And I'm still salty about I'm 1:20:54.000 --> 1:20:55.920 still salty about the old ship man. So is that 1:20:56.080 --> 1:20:58.320 still Okand and Banks is in Arizona. 1:20:58.400 --> 1:21:02.040 No, when I met you when we first started coming out, 1:21:02.360 --> 1:21:06.960 I think you were living in Atlanta at the time, Like, 1:21:07.400 --> 1:21:10.960 why would you choose Atlanta? Like what makes It's just 1:21:11.040 --> 1:21:12.880 a change of pace or scene areas. 1:21:13.000 --> 1:21:16.120 Nineteen ninety two, nineteen ninety three. Checked the stats. Those 1:21:16.160 --> 1:21:19.120 were the most violent years in the history of Oakland 1:21:19.120 --> 1:21:19.479 as far. 1:21:19.400 --> 1:21:19.960 As murders go. 1:21:21.000 --> 1:21:23.960 And it's wild as hell. It's been wild as hell 1:21:24.000 --> 1:21:25.160 some years lately. 1:21:25.479 --> 1:21:26.120 It was so wild. 1:21:26.160 --> 1:21:28.760 At one point I told the young homies. IU was like, man, 1:21:29.040 --> 1:21:32.240 it was way wilder back then. There's like no fucking way. 1:21:32.479 --> 1:21:34.320 So we sat there and looked up the murder stats. 1:21:34.360 --> 1:21:37.360 I'm like, and y'all, y'all ain't we was up in 1:21:37.400 --> 1:21:39.360 the numbers, like niggas, was getting knocked down a lot, 1:21:39.400 --> 1:21:41.719 and it was a very violent city for the reasons 1:21:41.760 --> 1:21:44.720 of That's when they started locking up the kingpins, right 1:21:44.920 --> 1:21:47.760 and then all that, Like, you know, we got Port 1:21:47.760 --> 1:21:49.640 of Oakland, and Port of Oakland is bigger than the 1:21:49.680 --> 1:21:52.200 Port of San Francisco, So you know, wherever you got 1:21:52.240 --> 1:21:55.280 those Baltimore type cities with the port, that motherfucking duck 1:21:55.400 --> 1:21:58.160 was finding his way. So you wonder why a city like, 1:21:58.240 --> 1:22:01.640 Oakland is what it is. It's because we had the 1:22:01.840 --> 1:22:04.240 army base. We had a Navy base right in Alameda, 1:22:04.320 --> 1:22:07.840 right next door. We had all this military shit, all 1:22:07.920 --> 1:22:11.240 this pimp shit, all this fucking dope shit, and it 1:22:11.360 --> 1:22:13.960 just made this little ass town, which was also part 1:22:14.000 --> 1:22:17.000 of a large metropolitan area. The Bay Area is probably 1:22:17.040 --> 1:22:19.840 you know, seven million people or some shit. So even 1:22:19.880 --> 1:22:22.880 though you like Oakland's population is less than five hundred thousand, 1:22:23.080 --> 1:22:25.880 we're still in this big metropolitan area. And Oakland is 1:22:25.920 --> 1:22:28.840 the place where if you fucking thirty miles away you 1:22:28.960 --> 1:22:30.760 want to come get the best dope. You're like, I'm 1:22:30.800 --> 1:22:32.280 about to drive down to Oakland. A lot of times 1:22:32.320 --> 1:22:35.439 when you set up shops selling dope, the customers aren't 1:22:35.479 --> 1:22:38.120 from the city. They come jumping off the freeway from 1:22:38.160 --> 1:22:39.720 the suburbs, come get that get shit, and go right 1:22:39.760 --> 1:22:44.400 back home. So Oakland was that city where there was 1:22:44.439 --> 1:22:46.120 a lot, a lot, a lot of fucking you know, 1:22:46.280 --> 1:22:47.760 just street money, all that shit and all that type 1:22:47.760 --> 1:22:48.000 of shit. 1:22:48.920 --> 1:22:51.800 So for self preservation reasons, you like, I gotta get out. 1:22:52.000 --> 1:22:52.680 I got out of here. 1:22:53.040 --> 1:22:55.040 But you picked Atlanta out of any place. 1:22:55.160 --> 1:22:58.560 Well, ninety ninety three, it was a whole lot of 1:22:58.600 --> 1:23:01.200 money and a lot of king pins getting put away. 1:23:01.240 --> 1:23:03.680 So when the king pins get put away, second in 1:23:03.800 --> 1:23:06.200 charge might not be the same leader. Third in charge 1:23:06.280 --> 1:23:08.240 might not be the same kind of leader. And then 1:23:08.280 --> 1:23:10.280 you start fighting for leadership and it gets it just 1:23:10.920 --> 1:23:13.760 the little armies break off in the little factions, and 1:23:13.840 --> 1:23:16.000 who once were homies are now knocking each other down. 1:23:16.520 --> 1:23:20.040 So I'm sitting here hanging with the homies. I'm getting 1:23:20.080 --> 1:23:22.280 phone calls like you still hanging around the niggas. 1:23:22.320 --> 1:23:22.479 Huh. 1:23:22.800 --> 1:23:24.640 I'm like whatever, we all used to be homies, Like 1:23:24.680 --> 1:23:27.439 when nigga ain't the homies now and I'm taking right now, Nigga, 1:23:27.800 --> 1:23:28.640 I'm not trying to miss you. 1:23:28.680 --> 1:23:29.920 If you with them, I ain't trying to miss you. 1:23:30.600 --> 1:23:32.799 So this is my friends telling me that whoa. 1:23:33.320 --> 1:23:39.040 Okay, So just saying that once you get established, do 1:23:39.160 --> 1:23:41.280 you still stay in the same area that you were, 1:23:41.320 --> 1:23:43.400 I mean, by the point you were too short. 1:23:43.720 --> 1:23:46.080 I bought a house sixty miles outside the city with 1:23:46.200 --> 1:23:47.720 the pool and all that shit. But then we had 1:23:47.760 --> 1:23:49.960 a house in the city with the studio in it, 1:23:50.400 --> 1:23:51.800 and you know, right on the corner right and the 1:23:51.840 --> 1:23:54.400 open everything, you know, and then I fucking I every 1:23:54.479 --> 1:23:56.240 day of my life was just in the streets. Even 1:23:56.280 --> 1:23:58.439 when I was platinum, I was standing on the corner 1:23:58.520 --> 1:24:00.759 with the drug dealers and I hadn't. 1:24:00.880 --> 1:24:03.439 It took a long time. Kind of Atlanta kind of 1:24:03.479 --> 1:24:04.000 got me out of that. 1:24:04.360 --> 1:24:07.040 Like before I moved to Atlanta, I knew for a fact, 1:24:07.520 --> 1:24:09.640 in the midst of the drug war, which was a 1:24:09.920 --> 1:24:12.760 major drug war, in the midst of it, I was 1:24:12.880 --> 1:24:15.040 so close to it that it is no way I 1:24:15.080 --> 1:24:17.519 could I could have avoided it. Well, you know, what 1:24:17.640 --> 1:24:19.360 was a everything to happen. I was gonna either be 1:24:19.520 --> 1:24:23.320 real close to something or it's gonna happen. And I 1:24:23.400 --> 1:24:26.120 didn't pick Atlanta. I didn't choose to move. I didn't 1:24:26.120 --> 1:24:28.360 say I'm leaving this ship. You know, we all played 1:24:28.400 --> 1:24:29.600 it like it's supposed to play it. 1:24:29.680 --> 1:24:30.320 During the war. 1:24:30.400 --> 1:24:32.360 You kind of play it low key and watch your 1:24:32.400 --> 1:24:35.760 fucking back as much as possible. But I went to 1:24:35.840 --> 1:24:44.400 the Freaknik. The Freaknick is the time that Freaknick was 1:24:44.439 --> 1:24:47.519 my birthday weekend, So I get to Freaknik. 1:24:49.960 --> 1:24:54.439 What is college is a black college? Marty Gry Yeah, 1:24:54.640 --> 1:24:55.920 in Atlanta, in. 1:24:55.920 --> 1:24:57.519 Atlanta, but this already used to me. 1:24:57.640 --> 1:25:00.559 I think the last year was what ninety five they 1:25:00.640 --> 1:25:04.000 tried to bring it back in like nineties. Ninety five 1:25:04.160 --> 1:25:07.080 was terrible, ninety six was vacant, and yeah, they tried 1:25:07.080 --> 1:25:07.639 to bring it back. 1:25:07.680 --> 1:25:10.280 And so the Freaknik in. 1:25:10.360 --> 1:25:12.519 Nineteen ninety two, which I didn't go, was this big 1:25:12.560 --> 1:25:14.680 ass picnic that just was the best picnic anybody ever 1:25:14.680 --> 1:25:15.120 fucking went to. 1:25:15.600 --> 1:25:18.880 So in ninety three the word was out, you gotta 1:25:18.920 --> 1:25:19.479 go to Freaknik. 1:25:19.560 --> 1:25:20.080 It got to me. 1:25:20.240 --> 1:25:21.680 I'm like, we're going to see what this shit is. 1:25:21.760 --> 1:25:24.799 And it shuts Atlanta down, like it's shut the certain pockets. 1:25:24.840 --> 1:25:26.080 You just you can't drive. 1:25:26.479 --> 1:25:29.160 Yeah, So I leave violin ass Oakland and pop up 1:25:29.200 --> 1:25:32.360 in Atlanta. And Atlanta is so much different. In Oakland 1:25:32.360 --> 1:25:34.840 and Oakland. If I see a police officer, if we 1:25:35.040 --> 1:25:37.280 just make eye contact, we're gonna have it. 1:25:37.320 --> 1:25:39.559 We gotta have a conversation. He's got to pull me over, 1:25:40.520 --> 1:25:44.200 fuck with me, right, fake ticket, real ticket, whatever ticket, 1:25:44.240 --> 1:25:46.720 and we just just fuck with you. In Atlanta, you 1:25:46.800 --> 1:25:49.960 pull up next to the cop, he's like, man, Wow. 1:25:50.280 --> 1:25:54.800 So I'm like experiencing all this fucking shit that ain't 1:25:54.840 --> 1:25:57.519 happening at home, and it's like parties and shit, with 1:25:57.600 --> 1:25:59.680 people really partying. Ain't nobody getting shot, and it's like 1:26:00.240 --> 1:26:02.160 people in the streets just having a good time at 1:26:02.160 --> 1:26:03.759 all these college campuses and shitting. 1:26:04.040 --> 1:26:07.200 And I was just like, fuck, well, the freaknik ended. 1:26:08.280 --> 1:26:08.840 I didn't leave. 1:26:08.920 --> 1:26:12.400 I stayed for another two weeks, and then I told 1:26:12.400 --> 1:26:14.559 one of my homies who is from Oakland living in Atlanta. 1:26:14.560 --> 1:26:16.040 I said, man, I'm about to go buy a house 1:26:16.760 --> 1:26:19.360 in Oakland, probably gonna spend sid I'm probably spending about 1:26:19.400 --> 1:26:21.320 five hundred thousand and get something up in the hill somewhere. 1:26:21.960 --> 1:26:24.439 And he was like, let me show you what you 1:26:24.520 --> 1:26:25.920 get for five hundred thousand in Atlanta. 1:26:28.280 --> 1:26:29.240 So in a state. 1:26:29.560 --> 1:26:31.200 We just looked at the houses and shit. And I 1:26:31.280 --> 1:26:36.640 went back to Oakland. Funerals, shootouts, all this shit. Not mean, 1:26:36.680 --> 1:26:39.040 but I'm saying, but it's just going down. 1:26:39.120 --> 1:26:39.200 Man. 1:26:39.240 --> 1:26:41.600 I'm like literally, like the homies that I know, like 1:26:41.720 --> 1:26:43.760 we all were a big click of homies. They're killing 1:26:43.800 --> 1:26:46.240 each other. And it's a small as city, so it's 1:26:46.280 --> 1:26:49.160 real easy to kill them, motherfucking the small ast city 1:26:49.400 --> 1:26:54.080 because they ain't nowhere to hide. So I wait till August, 1:26:54.760 --> 1:26:56.920 and we prepped to go to were prepared to go 1:26:57.000 --> 1:27:02.160 to Jack the Rapper in Atlanta, and it just was 1:27:02.439 --> 1:27:04.439 I didn't I wasn't going out there to buy a house, 1:27:04.760 --> 1:27:07.439 but I was just so in love with the freaking 1:27:07.760 --> 1:27:11.200 experience and so looking forward to the Jack the Rapper experience. 1:27:11.600 --> 1:27:14.000 When I get there, I just snuck off from everybody 1:27:14.080 --> 1:27:15.240 and literally went and bought a house. 1:27:16.479 --> 1:27:16.800 And just. 1:27:20.840 --> 1:27:26.160 Southwest Atlanta, So I snuck and bought a house. It 1:27:26.400 --> 1:27:28.439 just was like I gave him three thousand, picked out 1:27:28.479 --> 1:27:30.320 my live picked out the house I wanted, and started 1:27:30.320 --> 1:27:34.200 the processing ship and didn't tell anybody. I didn't tell 1:27:34.320 --> 1:27:38.360 nobody until the ship was like really gonna happen and 1:27:38.520 --> 1:27:41.720 I started putting my crew together. Man, I was like 1:27:42.160 --> 1:27:44.479 telling y'all, fuck with me. With me, I helped a 1:27:44.520 --> 1:27:45.280 lot of people Relokay. 1:27:45.320 --> 1:27:48.320 I was gonna say, were you rolling in your Oakland years? 1:27:48.479 --> 1:27:51.240 Like how deep were you rolling? As far as like 1:27:52.960 --> 1:27:56.080 when there's a too short show? Whatever are you you 1:27:56.200 --> 1:28:01.760 never heard? I mean, were you ten deep? Nine hundred deep? 1:28:02.400 --> 1:28:04.519 You're like, I bring like two hundred niggas everywhere I go. 1:28:04.640 --> 1:28:06.599 I'm everywhere. 1:28:07.160 --> 1:28:08.240 Why too short? 1:28:08.400 --> 1:28:10.680 Why we would go to shows and I would like 1:28:10.760 --> 1:28:12.760 we would do shows like maybe like drive an hour 1:28:12.840 --> 1:28:15.639 outside of Oakland, and I'm like, all right, look man. 1:28:15.760 --> 1:28:18.280 How would you get them there? We all drive overhead. 1:28:18.560 --> 1:28:19.880 How do you remember everybody's name? 1:28:21.320 --> 1:28:23.200 I have homies I've been knowing for twenty five years. 1:28:23.200 --> 1:28:26.400 I don't know they fucking name Homey, Homey Homie. 1:28:26.400 --> 1:28:27.439 I'm like, you can't. 1:28:27.880 --> 1:28:31.560 So look, everybody had cars, everybody had money, and a 1:28:31.640 --> 1:28:33.400 two short shows like a field trip. It was like, 1:28:33.439 --> 1:28:35.840 We're gonna drive fast on the freeway. The highway patrol 1:28:35.840 --> 1:28:38.679 aint gonna catch us because they gonna see fifty cars speeding. 1:28:39.000 --> 1:28:39.840 Who's gonna get caught? 1:28:39.920 --> 1:28:40.120 Not me? 1:28:40.760 --> 1:28:41.479 That was that was our thing. 1:28:41.560 --> 1:28:43.200 To get on the freeway, do one hundred something miles 1:28:43.240 --> 1:28:46.000 an hour and lawless and just we were all twenty 1:28:46.000 --> 1:28:48.040 three years old and fucking with a bunch of crack money. 1:28:48.800 --> 1:28:49.040 I was. 1:28:49.200 --> 1:28:51.160 I was the rapper selling a million records, and I 1:28:51.240 --> 1:28:54.200 was the brokenst one in the crew. So I was, 1:28:54.240 --> 1:28:54.760 you know what I'm saying. 1:28:54.840 --> 1:28:55.040 I was. 1:28:55.600 --> 1:28:57.840 I wasn't nothing. I was nowhere up in status in 1:28:57.880 --> 1:29:00.160 the crew. I was the rapper, like the mascot. So 1:29:00.280 --> 1:29:02.040 we go to the show and I'd be like, look man, 1:29:03.680 --> 1:29:05.240 and one thing about our crew is we didn't have 1:29:05.280 --> 1:29:07.080 a leader. Nobody could ever say they was a leader. 1:29:07.160 --> 1:29:10.360 So everybody was fucking just like I'm gonna do the 1:29:10.400 --> 1:29:12.599 fuck I want to do. You could reason with some people, 1:29:12.640 --> 1:29:16.400 but you can't. Nobody could boss anybody. So I'd be like, look, man, 1:29:16.840 --> 1:29:18.800 we're going to do this show. These people, look at 1:29:18.920 --> 1:29:21.320 the crowd is here. I'm like, let's not beat up 1:29:21.360 --> 1:29:24.200 the people that came to see too short because some 1:29:24.360 --> 1:29:27.200 shows they'd be like, man, so and so got disrespected, 1:29:27.320 --> 1:29:30.559 and I be on stage watching my guys beat up 1:29:30.600 --> 1:29:31.000 my fans. 1:29:31.040 --> 1:29:31.799 I'm like stop. 1:29:35.000 --> 1:29:36.439 And then I was the promoter. 1:29:36.640 --> 1:29:39.120 I give the promoter hell, like I didn't even say 1:29:39.120 --> 1:29:43.760 some shit like, man, let us all in this motherfucker. 1:29:44.880 --> 1:29:46.719 We don't have to all be backstage. Let my guys 1:29:46.760 --> 1:29:48.360 in the crowd. That was my thing. 1:29:48.520 --> 1:29:50.519 Just let them all in because I was like I 1:29:50.640 --> 1:29:54.000 can't go in, like it can't happen. And then to 1:29:54.040 --> 1:29:55.760 be crying, oh blah blah. I'm like, dude, okay, man, 1:29:55.840 --> 1:29:57.559 just check a thousand off my prices and we're all 1:29:57.640 --> 1:29:57.880 going in. 1:29:58.200 --> 1:29:58.720 We're going in. 1:29:59.240 --> 1:30:02.080 I used to push push security out the way all 1:30:02.120 --> 1:30:05.040 that ship just like this, like guess the. 1:30:05.040 --> 1:30:06.800 Funk out the way we're going anyway, and we just walking. 1:30:07.560 --> 1:30:08.519 I had a bad rap at. 1:30:08.479 --> 1:30:10.439 First, Yeah, cause y'all took up all the space in 1:30:10.479 --> 1:30:10.800 the club. 1:30:11.320 --> 1:30:12.840 I had a bad rap at first. It was bad. 1:30:14.400 --> 1:30:17.599 So how did they take you? Just not being there? 1:30:19.080 --> 1:30:19.640 So look at this. 1:30:19.760 --> 1:30:23.960 So when I moved to Atlanta, I literally I was. 1:30:24.080 --> 1:30:26.400 It was not a move, it was a movement. I 1:30:26.600 --> 1:30:29.200 rallied up a whole bunch of motherfuckers. I brought a 1:30:29.320 --> 1:30:32.120 whole I brought my immediate staff. I had everybody relocated. 1:30:32.120 --> 1:30:34.519 I helped everybody get you got a place, you gotta move, 1:30:34.560 --> 1:30:36.000 we gotta get your car, like whatever the fuck you 1:30:36.040 --> 1:30:36.360 need to do. 1:30:36.760 --> 1:30:37.519 And banks came. 1:30:37.600 --> 1:30:40.719 We all came, We we came. We showed up literally 1:30:40.880 --> 1:30:43.000 literally with like a mob. And then we recruited a 1:30:43.040 --> 1:30:46.080 bunch of our college kids who were out there already. 1:30:46.320 --> 1:30:48.240 We found the homies that have been living out there already. 1:30:48.280 --> 1:30:50.200 We just started a whole click. We linked up with 1:30:50.280 --> 1:30:52.320 the l A crew because you know, I got a 1:30:52.360 --> 1:30:56.280 bunch of cousins and family. Man vill tell you how 1:30:56.360 --> 1:30:58.640 Deeple was in Atlanta. We had a we had a 1:30:58.680 --> 1:31:01.559 fucking army Johns from day one. 1:31:01.720 --> 1:31:02.559 So so. 1:31:04.040 --> 1:31:09.160 I mean, I showed up in Atlanta with a cause, man, 1:31:09.200 --> 1:31:11.280 like you know, I was fucking I had already been 1:31:11.320 --> 1:31:13.920 coming out there since like eighty nine and shit, doing 1:31:14.160 --> 1:31:18.280 shows and signing autographs and records, record in stores and 1:31:18.320 --> 1:31:20.640 ship and coming back to go to Magic City when 1:31:20.680 --> 1:31:22.439 I when I get when I do the show, we 1:31:22.520 --> 1:31:24.439 go to Magic City after the You know, I knew 1:31:24.439 --> 1:31:25.040 that Atlanta style. 1:31:25.080 --> 1:31:27.000 I had friends in Atlanta. People don't even know I 1:31:27.120 --> 1:31:28.200 lived in Atlanta for a year. 1:31:28.320 --> 1:31:29.920 Wait, so can we talk about that right there though, 1:31:30.040 --> 1:31:31.920 right just right there to being in Atlanta, the strip 1:31:32.000 --> 1:31:35.320 culture and the difference between that and in the Oakland scene. 1:31:35.920 --> 1:31:36.920 We didn't have no strip clubs. 1:31:37.240 --> 1:31:41.160 I mean, I figured so when you got to Atlanta, clubs. 1:31:40.920 --> 1:31:44.080 And strip clubs in San Francisco are like really just 1:31:44.320 --> 1:31:46.120 for prostitution, right. 1:31:46.080 --> 1:31:47.600 So, but when you got to Atlanta, it was like, 1:31:47.640 --> 1:31:49.439 I mean, I know from living in Atlanta different I. 1:31:49.439 --> 1:31:50.080 Got to Atlanta. 1:31:50.479 --> 1:31:54.280 You get a table dance of five dollars, and fucking uh, 1:31:54.400 --> 1:31:55.840 you can go to spend one hundred dollars bill all 1:31:55.960 --> 1:31:58.839 night and get dances all night for five dollars. 1:31:58.880 --> 1:32:01.320 Them days over though, days over days over. 1:32:01.600 --> 1:32:04.599 When I got that, you could be like every strip 1:32:04.640 --> 1:32:07.280 club had a photographer with a polaroid and you could 1:32:07.280 --> 1:32:09.560 be like, I want a picture with that bitch, and 1:32:09.680 --> 1:32:12.639 then she would come over and she'ld be butt ass 1:32:12.720 --> 1:32:14.360 naked and he's like, just put one hand on her 1:32:14.400 --> 1:32:15.080 vagina or something. 1:32:15.240 --> 1:32:15.840 Take a picture. 1:32:16.880 --> 1:32:18.960 That's like before NIS before gentleman club. 1:32:19.280 --> 1:32:22.240 All right, look, no, bend over and spread your pussy 1:32:22.320 --> 1:32:24.240 for my picture. Wow, And they do it. That was 1:32:24.320 --> 1:32:24.960 that was like normal. 1:32:26.000 --> 1:32:26.920 How much? How much? 1:32:30.640 --> 1:32:33.960 Okay, I'm just pricing things out, he said, how much? 1:32:34.000 --> 1:32:42.080 For the say about it. 1:32:42.160 --> 1:32:46.120 Back then, the pussy was uh, some caliweed and some 1:32:46.520 --> 1:32:48.920 probably like some food. 1:32:50.160 --> 1:32:51.280 It's not like another country. 1:32:51.360 --> 1:32:51.599 Wow. 1:32:54.520 --> 1:32:57.080 Strippers used to tell me I heard you got that caliweed. 1:32:57.439 --> 1:33:02.160 I'm like, yeah, we're going to kick and smoked. I 1:33:02.240 --> 1:33:03.960 used to keep something on me, let him smell the bag, 1:33:04.360 --> 1:33:06.240 like nigga, where are you going after this? 1:33:08.120 --> 1:33:08.360 Wow? 1:33:08.920 --> 1:33:09.760 Not anymore. 1:33:13.880 --> 1:33:19.080 Now. I mean Month was made about the album number ten, 1:33:19.880 --> 1:33:25.800 getting it record as a retirement record. And if we 1:33:25.960 --> 1:33:28.400 know anything about life, black people. 1:33:28.200 --> 1:33:32.960 Don't ever time, especially that rappers, especially not rappers. 1:33:33.040 --> 1:33:34.960 But of course, my sucker, I think that might be 1:33:35.080 --> 1:33:38.640 my favorite record. That's my I love that record. I 1:33:38.840 --> 1:33:42.240 was like, oh man, it's this last record. Damn. But 1:33:42.600 --> 1:33:45.160 I mean, what made you start that campaign knowing that 1:33:45.240 --> 1:33:46.040 you weren't gonna get out? 1:33:46.040 --> 1:33:48.519 It was it was a numbers It was my tenth album, right, 1:33:48.880 --> 1:33:51.720 it was. I was thirty years old and at the time, 1:33:53.200 --> 1:33:55.080 thirty something year old rapper was like, oh. 1:33:55.120 --> 1:33:56.120 Last nigga rapper that was. 1:33:57.000 --> 1:33:59.320 That was like, man, you're really about to be a 1:33:59.320 --> 1:34:03.240 granddadd rapp. So it was just a play on the numbers. 1:34:03.760 --> 1:34:07.320 I felt like at that time, in nineteen ninety six, 1:34:08.360 --> 1:34:12.280 you could not find rappers that had ten albums, even 1:34:12.320 --> 1:34:14.920 your favorite rappers and have ten albums and then just 1:34:15.000 --> 1:34:16.760 to make that statement album number ten. 1:34:16.800 --> 1:34:17.560 That's why I named it that. 1:34:18.840 --> 1:34:21.680 It was like I was just sitting there saying, you know, look, man, 1:34:21.720 --> 1:34:24.000 I've been and out of the ten I got plaques. 1:34:24.040 --> 1:34:27.439 I was really just bragging. And the whole retirement was 1:34:27.560 --> 1:34:30.839 like some big willy shit, you know, cigar shit, yah retired, 1:34:31.000 --> 1:34:33.360 throw the retirement party. We thought it out as a 1:34:33.439 --> 1:34:36.360 promo thing that the retirement party would be the dopest 1:34:36.360 --> 1:34:39.280 album release party ever, you know, and it was. It 1:34:39.400 --> 1:34:42.120 got a lot of fucking attention. Like I've heard about it. 1:34:42.720 --> 1:34:46.719 So saying I retired was probably like the best marketing plan. 1:34:46.600 --> 1:34:47.080 I ever had. 1:34:47.240 --> 1:34:49.080 What was your deal with job? How many albums did 1:34:49.120 --> 1:34:49.920 you have on your contract? 1:34:50.080 --> 1:34:52.800 I had like one album after that, And part of 1:34:52.840 --> 1:34:54.680 the reason was to wake the motherfucker's up too. I 1:34:54.760 --> 1:34:57.120 was like, if I'm hanging around, I want a whole 1:34:57.240 --> 1:34:58.240 lot of more money. 1:35:00.080 --> 1:35:00.680 And this it was. 1:35:00.840 --> 1:35:03.360 You know. But I fucked up though, because at that 1:35:03.520 --> 1:35:05.599 point I could have got the funk out of there, 1:35:06.000 --> 1:35:08.200 and I had no idea that in a couple of 1:35:08.280 --> 1:35:10.480 years the jive was gonna fucking. 1:35:11.720 --> 1:35:14.479 Stick that Dick and Britney Spears and forget all about. 1:35:14.280 --> 1:35:17.120 Hip hop wow for a long time. 1:35:18.360 --> 1:35:21.080 And they stole in sync from R C A Records 1:35:21.080 --> 1:35:22.679 and they was like, fuck hip hop. 1:35:22.960 --> 1:35:25.120 I remember an a n R guy, a n R lawyer. 1:35:25.160 --> 1:35:27.639 I'm gonna say what was like dealing with Barry Wiss 1:35:27.840 --> 1:35:30.759 and just in general. 1:35:30.880 --> 1:35:32.120 I remember a n R lawyer. 1:35:32.640 --> 1:35:34.000 I think his name is Peter Thea. 1:35:34.080 --> 1:35:38.360 Peter. I hated Peter the Peter. They tried to sign us. 1:35:38.360 --> 1:35:39.280 They try to sign a little brother. 1:35:39.400 --> 1:35:42.160 Okay, Peter THEA told me one day. 1:35:43.680 --> 1:35:51.479 R C Now, well, he's he's our status of person 1:35:51.600 --> 1:35:52.240 like he knews. 1:35:52.400 --> 1:35:56.960 Every Jive was selling tons of in sync Backstreet and 1:35:57.040 --> 1:35:59.479 Britney Spears, and they were totally neglecting R. 1:35:59.600 --> 1:36:01.920 Kelly and everything R and B and hip hop. And 1:36:02.960 --> 1:36:03.960 I'm sitting there having a. 1:36:03.960 --> 1:36:06.800 Conversation with Peter Thea about the next thing, and you know, 1:36:06.960 --> 1:36:10.320 every everything, So uh us not in the budget. I know, 1:36:10.400 --> 1:36:13.320 mother fuck you guys got the biggest groups in the business. 1:36:13.360 --> 1:36:16.280 How do you have a budget? So Peter THEA said 1:36:16.320 --> 1:36:19.240 to me one day, it's today. I totally stopped liking 1:36:19.320 --> 1:36:21.920 Jive Records. I went from like just dealing with it 1:36:22.040 --> 1:36:24.839 and doing the business and like, I don't like you anymore. 1:36:25.320 --> 1:36:29.519 He said, we're getting back in the rap game. I said, 1:36:29.840 --> 1:36:34.559 when did you get out? Like, what the did that happen? 1:36:34.720 --> 1:36:37.040 I was like, whoa they they got out the rap game. 1:36:37.160 --> 1:36:37.720 I didn't even know. 1:36:38.120 --> 1:36:38.400 Wow. 1:36:39.000 --> 1:36:46.800 So it's as far as like movement to concern and stuff. Well, 1:36:46.840 --> 1:36:52.840 first of all, I mean, first of all, buy you something, Yeah, man, 1:36:52.840 --> 1:36:55.800 I love that record, favorite joints ever. But I mean 1:36:55.840 --> 1:36:59.960 you've also done like historical collaborations with. 1:37:01.880 --> 1:37:04.000 By you something as dope as fuck. Because we're at 1:37:04.040 --> 1:37:06.840 the studio, there's a felt like it was done just 1:37:07.000 --> 1:37:09.479 further move a drum set in the studio that only 1:37:09.640 --> 1:37:12.160 has and I always kept the set in there miked 1:37:12.240 --> 1:37:14.160 up because I like to get like a little feel 1:37:14.240 --> 1:37:17.280 or a little like a little snare the loop or something. No, 1:37:17.400 --> 1:37:22.880 that wasn't me, So I think I think we always 1:37:22.920 --> 1:37:24.200 had a lot of drummer around. Don't know if it 1:37:24.240 --> 1:37:26.200 could have been Tony t from DC, it could have been, 1:37:26.800 --> 1:37:28.560 could have been Pee we Pee. We played drums and 1:37:28.640 --> 1:37:31.080 Shorty we played drums. They all can play anything. So 1:37:32.240 --> 1:37:35.000 somebody saund the drums to start kicking that beat and 1:37:35.080 --> 1:37:37.160 it's only like a little ass set with like maybe 1:37:37.240 --> 1:37:42.120 one time one one crash and I had snare bass 1:37:42.200 --> 1:37:45.920 drum and fucking guitar only had like two strings on it. 1:37:46.240 --> 1:37:51.200 So somebody starts kicking the drum and then Shorty b 1:37:51.360 --> 1:37:58.880 hiss the bassline right boom, hitting the chord he likes 1:37:58.880 --> 1:38:01.280 played the chords on the base. Got that from a 1:38:01.880 --> 1:38:05.519 Eddie Hazel. So really that's the Parliament thing that the 1:38:05.600 --> 1:38:07.559 base chorus all soulf all blooesy and shit. 1:38:07.840 --> 1:38:08.439 Yeah, so. 1:38:10.960 --> 1:38:13.439 They start playing that beat and then fucking Eric Sermon 1:38:13.560 --> 1:38:17.479 freestyle diverse, which y'all know ha ha I no pen, 1:38:17.600 --> 1:38:21.080 no paper. So it was instantly that song, his first verse, 1:38:21.400 --> 1:38:24.040 that beat, that baseline, it was like, that's the ship 1:38:24.160 --> 1:38:27.320 that like, just leave that that that I wrote my 1:38:27.479 --> 1:38:28.479 rap and it was a song. 1:38:28.520 --> 1:38:30.040 It was just it was two minutes and something long. 1:38:30.080 --> 1:38:31.120 It was where did y'all recorded? 1:38:31.520 --> 1:38:32.639 At my studio and Atlanta. 1:38:33.400 --> 1:38:35.160 I literally always thought that song was too short night 1:38:35.240 --> 1:38:37.200 even being funny, but that's just funny that you said that. 1:38:37.400 --> 1:38:39.439 Yeah, because it just happened like that. 1:38:39.560 --> 1:38:43.040 And then we immediately we took the rough copy to 1:38:43.160 --> 1:38:46.439 the club, the fucking staticky copy, and it just instantly, 1:38:46.600 --> 1:38:47.760 just instantly did it. 1:38:48.240 --> 1:38:48.400 You know. 1:38:48.760 --> 1:38:50.080 Eric Simon played a trick on me too. 1:38:50.240 --> 1:38:53.280 I never really had a lot of New York love, 1:38:53.680 --> 1:38:55.160 not a lot of a lot of fans or anything, like, 1:38:55.280 --> 1:38:58.439 not a sales or anything. And he asked me, would 1:38:58.479 --> 1:39:01.640 I come fly up to the Apollo and do that 1:39:02.000 --> 1:39:03.400 to do that song? During the show they were doing 1:39:03.439 --> 1:39:05.960 a Death Squad show, you know, not the ex sermon 1:39:05.960 --> 1:39:07.040 show with Death Squad with all him. 1:39:08.720 --> 1:39:09.839 Yeah, so you're gonna. 1:39:09.800 --> 1:39:12.000 Gonna bring you out, so you know, I'm cool, I'm 1:39:12.080 --> 1:39:14.160 I'm chilling, and you know, I'm just gonna do the 1:39:14.200 --> 1:39:14.679 ship whatever. 1:39:15.120 --> 1:39:17.200 But he didn't tell me that the record had broke 1:39:17.280 --> 1:39:19.120 in New York and that they were loving it. 1:39:19.240 --> 1:39:19.640 You didn't know. 1:39:19.800 --> 1:39:22.800 I didn't know. I was in Atlanta. I didn't know. 1:39:23.520 --> 1:39:25.240 Played the trick on me. Man put me out on stage. 1:39:25.240 --> 1:39:27.720 The motherfuckers. The song came on, they went crazy. I 1:39:27.800 --> 1:39:31.200 came out. They went even crazier, and I'm like, when 1:39:31.240 --> 1:39:34.640 did this time? I remember arguing with a dude on 1:39:34.720 --> 1:39:37.680 the elevator that I told him. He was like, he's 1:39:37.720 --> 1:39:40.600 the He's the bellman in New York City and he 1:39:40.720 --> 1:39:43.000 was like, so what do you do? I'm like, I rap, 1:39:43.680 --> 1:39:46.559 Like where you're rapping wrap everywhere. You're like, what's your 1:39:46.600 --> 1:39:48.120 rapp name? Too short? 1:39:48.360 --> 1:39:49.479 Like oh yeah, you know. 1:39:49.760 --> 1:39:50.479 He asked us a question. 1:39:50.560 --> 1:39:53.639 Somehow it gets to I do shows with a big 1:39:53.720 --> 1:39:57.040 Daddy came. He's like the funk out of here. I'm like, 1:39:58.360 --> 1:39:59.920 I'm like, shit, Big Day can't open. 1:39:59.760 --> 1:40:03.639 For me, and he's like out here now You're. 1:40:03.520 --> 1:40:04.439 Like, now you bullshit? 1:40:04.840 --> 1:40:06.599 Yeah, That's why I wanted to ask you because when 1:40:06.600 --> 1:40:08.640 you moved to Atlanta. That kind of makes sense to 1:40:08.720 --> 1:40:11.320 me because I'm from the South, from North Carolina, but 1:40:11.520 --> 1:40:14.439 like the South and the Bay always seem to have 1:40:14.640 --> 1:40:17.640 some kind of kinshit, like y'all some country niggas, and 1:40:17.800 --> 1:40:20.360 like we always got it. But like in the South, 1:40:20.520 --> 1:40:24.320 like your records always ran so like did you at 1:40:24.360 --> 1:40:25.880 the time when you w on job and just throughout 1:40:25.920 --> 1:40:28.640 your career, had you generally sell more records in the 1:40:28.720 --> 1:40:29.760 South than like in the North. 1:40:29.800 --> 1:40:33.000 For I'm also one of them kids who spent every 1:40:33.000 --> 1:40:38.519 summer in New Orleans. So I'm there for the sound 1:40:38.600 --> 1:40:41.360 of New Orleans, the whole second line, vibe the mighty 1:40:41.400 --> 1:40:44.200 grass and buy you classics. I'm there for that ship 1:40:44.280 --> 1:40:46.600 to bellow the bands. I'm a kid looking at that 1:40:46.640 --> 1:40:49.680 shit the whole way. The marching band's going by Mardi Gras, 1:40:49.760 --> 1:40:52.040 Paris and all the shit. My cousin's marching the band. 1:40:52.120 --> 1:40:55.759 I'm marching the band. But we played and stepped and turned. 1:40:55.880 --> 1:40:58.400 Then niggas marching the band. They danced and doing everything already, 1:40:59.320 --> 1:41:05.639 So so uh, I just think I when I started 1:41:05.720 --> 1:41:09.200 making records, there was a bounce in New Orleans. It's 1:41:09.240 --> 1:41:10.960 like to you swing the beat and they like do 1:41:11.080 --> 1:41:13.400 a little different dance. And I made a song called 1:41:13.400 --> 1:41:15.240 Iron't Tripping, just trying to do that New Orleans bounce, 1:41:15.880 --> 1:41:18.760 and I would always go in there and try to 1:41:18.840 --> 1:41:21.439 do something that on my rag. I'm like, they're gonna 1:41:21.479 --> 1:41:22.680 like this in New or they're gonna like this in 1:41:22.800 --> 1:41:26.000 in in Texas or something. I would know about certain 1:41:26.160 --> 1:41:30.360 sounds in certain places my way on, not like not 1:41:30.600 --> 1:41:33.519 like pandering exactly right. So I always like knew how 1:41:33.560 --> 1:41:35.720 to just work the drums to you know, you know, 1:41:35.800 --> 1:41:37.320 when you got go go drums, You're like, oh, that's 1:41:37.320 --> 1:41:40.120 go go drums, you know what I mean. So that 1:41:40.320 --> 1:41:41.920 was that I was in tune with the South, and 1:41:41.960 --> 1:41:44.200 I think a lot of rappers who jumped on the 1:41:44.320 --> 1:41:48.720 bandwagon later, producers, rappers, whatever, they kind of adapted to 1:41:48.840 --> 1:41:49.599 it as it became. 1:41:49.880 --> 1:41:52.880 I was there from day one on the South Ship. 1:41:52.920 --> 1:41:53.160 I was. 1:41:53.479 --> 1:41:56.360 They had records that they had dances that just went 1:41:56.439 --> 1:41:58.680 with two short songs, you know, So I was. I 1:41:58.800 --> 1:42:02.920 fucking came to Myths Coliseum and came out on stage. 1:42:02.960 --> 1:42:05.120 The first song was I Ain't Tripping Them motherfuckers jumped 1:42:05.120 --> 1:42:09.200 out their seats and started dancing like ant Farm doing 1:42:09.280 --> 1:42:11.840 some shit called the gangster Walk. I'm like, what the fuck? 1:42:12.280 --> 1:42:13.240 That ship looks crazy? 1:42:13.280 --> 1:42:13.960 To a performer? 1:42:14.080 --> 1:42:19.080 Were you were? You genuinely shocked at as far as 1:42:19.200 --> 1:42:22.679 like the well the cameos that you later did. 1:42:25.200 --> 1:42:29.200 Stuff, and the retirement also brought that. On the retirement announcement, 1:42:29.360 --> 1:42:31.080 they were like, well before you go, let me get averse. 1:42:31.160 --> 1:42:34.080 Let me get averse. And then it was Eric Sermon. 1:42:34.560 --> 1:42:39.160 It was me being on uh big East Biggie song, 1:42:39.520 --> 1:42:42.599 and then jay Z because I had this that was big, 1:42:43.000 --> 1:42:45.880 jay Z was like, you gotta do something. So then 1:42:45.960 --> 1:42:48.280 jay Z, I got on jay Z and then Foxy Brown, 1:42:48.360 --> 1:42:49.680 so I don't have another fucking start car. And I 1:42:49.760 --> 1:42:52.400 was like, but I also figured something else out to 1:42:52.560 --> 1:42:57.160 Living in Atlanta, we had a friendly East Coast West 1:42:57.200 --> 1:43:00.960 coast rivalry on you know, hej play certain songs. We 1:43:01.000 --> 1:43:04.200 try to see who turned up the most. And I 1:43:04.320 --> 1:43:07.840 actually started making friends with New York people so. 1:43:08.240 --> 1:43:10.080 Because they was out of the element too, so. 1:43:10.400 --> 1:43:11.320 It's neutral ground. 1:43:12.000 --> 1:43:13.680 So when I got to Atlanta, I started taking more 1:43:13.720 --> 1:43:14.439 trips to New York. 1:43:14.479 --> 1:43:16.639 It started, you know, I'm hanging out in fucking Washington 1:43:16.680 --> 1:43:18.920 Heights and I'm doing different ship and it's not so 1:43:19.680 --> 1:43:22.559 isolated to me anymore. And Trench is taking me around 1:43:22.640 --> 1:43:25.719 New York to fucking crazy ass areas at four o'clock 1:43:25.720 --> 1:43:26.639 in the morning and ship, I'm. 1:43:29.160 --> 1:43:29.360 Wrong? 1:43:31.600 --> 1:43:33.000 When did how did the record? 1:43:33.040 --> 1:43:34.439 You did call Me? 1:43:34.520 --> 1:43:36.480 Record with Little Kim for the Booty. 1:43:36.200 --> 1:43:40.560 Call Me was a Jives idea for they got the 1:43:41.280 --> 1:43:44.080 Booty Calls soundtrack. They're like, it'd be double if you 1:43:44.120 --> 1:43:45.439 did it. It's Booty called You used to do a 1:43:45.479 --> 1:43:47.960 record Little Kim. So they parlayd the ship, probably gave 1:43:48.000 --> 1:43:49.599 her a nice little chunck of chain started to come 1:43:49.680 --> 1:43:51.800 do the ship. We get in the studio in New York. 1:43:53.040 --> 1:43:55.640 We worked at Battery Studios, and we we came up 1:43:55.680 --> 1:43:57.960 with the idea to call me. It was originally the 1:43:58.040 --> 1:44:02.320 sample actually you know if you that's where it started, 1:44:02.920 --> 1:44:06.000 and we later determined we didn't want to use the 1:44:06.000 --> 1:44:07.920 sample and we changed the melody a little bit, but 1:44:08.040 --> 1:44:11.640 just kept calling me. We sat in the studio, we 1:44:11.760 --> 1:44:14.360 got the vibe and we're like, cool, we owned something. 1:44:14.520 --> 1:44:15.840 So this is what we're gonna do. I got a 1:44:15.880 --> 1:44:17.960 dope ass studio in Atlanta. We're gonna fly you on 1:44:18.040 --> 1:44:19.720 your folks down. This this meet a Little Kim. We're 1:44:19.720 --> 1:44:21.920 gonna fly you on your folks down, and we're gonna 1:44:21.960 --> 1:44:24.320 finish the song up and get the money whatever. 1:44:24.840 --> 1:44:28.760 So Jiver is in on the play. I'm in on 1:44:28.840 --> 1:44:29.200 the ship. 1:44:29.320 --> 1:44:31.920 We booked the flights for Kim and her manager, get 1:44:32.000 --> 1:44:35.640 them first class New York to Atlanta. I'm like, this 1:44:35.840 --> 1:44:39.439 little Kim, you know, I know, Biggie's my homie and 1:44:40.240 --> 1:44:43.519 Kim is his chick, So I'm respectful. I'm not gonna 1:44:43.800 --> 1:44:45.640 there's no plan to try to fuck little Kim. And 1:44:46.200 --> 1:44:48.920 I'm like, I'm gonna treat her like royalty. She's gonna 1:44:48.960 --> 1:44:51.920 get you know, to the help, to the studio, she's 1:44:52.040 --> 1:44:54.759 gonna get back home, sa nigga. 1:44:54.880 --> 1:44:58.679 I'm there to pick her up. And Biggie comes walking 1:44:58.720 --> 1:45:05.160 out the airport. No Kim, Oh, And he's like, and so, 1:45:05.280 --> 1:45:08.000 what's up with you? And what y'all doing? Like we're 1:45:08.000 --> 1:45:08.519 doing what. 1:45:10.760 --> 1:45:10.880 You know? 1:45:11.280 --> 1:45:13.200 But he played it cool though. He's like they're doing 1:45:13.240 --> 1:45:15.439 a song for the Booty Calls soundtrack. He's like, Oh, yeah, 1:45:15.560 --> 1:45:17.120 she missed her plane. Shes gonna be in the next plane. 1:45:17.240 --> 1:45:20.360 He kind of screamed me if I had the right answers. 1:45:20.360 --> 1:45:25.320 Wow wow. But she did finally come. She came in 1:45:25.439 --> 1:45:25.800 next fight. 1:45:26.400 --> 1:45:28.120 I took him to my mama's house, fed him some 1:45:28.200 --> 1:45:31.280 some U some some some soul food dinner from that night. 1:45:32.760 --> 1:45:34.960 I had just got a shipment of two answers of 1:45:35.040 --> 1:45:37.080 some good ass California weed, which was really hard to 1:45:37.120 --> 1:45:39.200 get at the time, and I sold him one. I 1:45:39.200 --> 1:45:44.760 didn't give it to him, that's right, and everything was cool. 1:45:44.840 --> 1:45:46.160 She got on, She got on the next plane. We 1:45:46.400 --> 1:45:47.599 worked on the song and it was cool. 1:45:47.920 --> 1:45:52.560 Another soundtrack question, the Juice soundtrack, mc pool, Who was 1:45:52.640 --> 1:45:55.479 that you? That's my artist? It was, but it wasn't. 1:45:55.600 --> 1:45:58.240 I thought that's pooh Man and he was poor. 1:45:58.080 --> 1:46:02.120 Man, yeah, and he he always I thought murder him. 1:46:02.160 --> 1:46:02.720 I thought it was you. 1:46:02.880 --> 1:46:04.320 He tried to make my voices. 1:46:04.360 --> 1:46:04.680 He was young. 1:46:04.720 --> 1:46:06.200 He tried to do my voice like a lot of 1:46:06.840 --> 1:46:10.160 you know, he tried to do two short voices. Poor 1:46:10.200 --> 1:46:11.799 Man is a big motherfucker to to be trying. 1:46:11.680 --> 1:46:13.840 To because I thought I saw pictures of him in 1:46:13.920 --> 1:46:16.040 the sores, but I didn't know if it was you know, 1:46:16.160 --> 1:46:18.799 I didn't know if that was covered thought. 1:46:18.680 --> 1:46:24.519 That sucks bunny. Murder was damn, we're right here, right here. 1:46:25.280 --> 1:46:27.840 So he was someone. He was a totally different guy. 1:46:28.439 --> 1:46:32.080 Poor Man is he he's uh, he's still around, Okay. 1:46:32.120 --> 1:46:34.400 I brought him on stage I did a thirtieth anniversary 1:46:34.400 --> 1:46:35.559 show my band and brought him out. 1:46:36.400 --> 1:46:41.680 Gotcha, gotcha? So with with with the rise of Okay. 1:46:43.400 --> 1:46:43.960 With with? 1:46:46.600 --> 1:46:50.920 When I heard you on uh the Van's joint h 1:46:52.439 --> 1:46:56.920 and someone was like, I forgot who it was. It's like, yeah, man, 1:46:57.000 --> 1:46:59.639 you know short used to be in the skate parts 1:46:59.680 --> 1:47:03.120 and on you were just so. 1:47:04.840 --> 1:47:08.320 The group that did the pack. So these were some 1:47:08.479 --> 1:47:10.360 kids that just were from Berkeley, Man. 1:47:12.920 --> 1:47:15.840 So I was going to do a show up in 1:47:15.960 --> 1:47:18.200 the way up north cast somewhere where we had to 1:47:18.479 --> 1:47:20.280 leave from the Bay and drive three hours in. The 1:47:20.360 --> 1:47:24.600 promoter had a driver, you know, come get us in 1:47:24.680 --> 1:47:27.240 a van, and this motherfucker played the Pack on their 1:47:27.280 --> 1:47:29.880 little mixtapes and he played and I was like, I 1:47:29.960 --> 1:47:31.040 was like, what is that you listen to? 1:47:31.280 --> 1:47:31.920 He said the Pack. 1:47:32.479 --> 1:47:34.280 I was like, play it again. We had long ass ride. 1:47:34.280 --> 1:47:36.519 We listened to it two times. I was like, you 1:47:36.600 --> 1:47:40.120 know then he was like yeah, I know him, and uh. 1:47:40.800 --> 1:47:42.880 I was like, man, I need to meet them. So 1:47:43.080 --> 1:47:46.439 the van dude, he was like, I'm gonna hook you 1:47:46.520 --> 1:47:48.479 up with him. So we talking and ship and he's 1:47:48.479 --> 1:47:50.400 gonna hook me up with the Pack. So we were 1:47:50.400 --> 1:47:54.439 planning on meeting at a Hamburger stand and four dudes 1:47:54.479 --> 1:47:56.240 showed up, but they wasn't. 1:47:56.080 --> 1:47:56.600 A pack and. 1:47:58.600 --> 1:47:59.599 Screening you before. 1:48:00.280 --> 1:48:02.680 So the dudes is like then it's like, so, look, man, 1:48:02.720 --> 1:48:04.080 we just want to know how we're gonna get paid 1:48:04.320 --> 1:48:05.960 and what you know when we're gonna get in the studio. 1:48:06.080 --> 1:48:08.519 And I'm like, I'm like, dude, what the. 1:48:08.560 --> 1:48:11.000 Fuck are you talking about? You got a Hennessy bottle 1:48:11.000 --> 1:48:14.120 in his hand. He's like, man, he's talking to you right. 1:48:14.840 --> 1:48:16.720 And I happened to borrow my Homies Bentley that day. 1:48:16.760 --> 1:48:18.679 I never buy Bentley's and Rolls, races and ship because 1:48:18.680 --> 1:48:20.519 I just I'm just like a Porsche of Mercedes with 1:48:21.000 --> 1:48:23.080 I mean, my homies Bentley. I'm pulling up like Big 1:48:23.120 --> 1:48:25.719 Willie at the Hamburger staying and these motherfuckers are barking 1:48:25.760 --> 1:48:27.840 out orders to me on how this relationship is gonna work. 1:48:29.560 --> 1:48:32.240 And then he's like, I'm like, so, which one of 1:48:32.280 --> 1:48:32.760 y'all is the pack? 1:48:32.800 --> 1:48:33.280 Who's the pack? 1:48:33.320 --> 1:48:35.840 He's like, look, man, we're from Berkeley, like the pack, 1:48:35.920 --> 1:48:36.599 but we ain't the pack. 1:48:36.680 --> 1:48:38.400 The pack first, before you can get to the pack, 1:48:38.439 --> 1:48:39.439 you gotta go through us first. 1:48:39.520 --> 1:48:42.000 I'm like, how, what the fuck uh. 1:48:43.080 --> 1:48:45.800 So I get a phone call from my homeboy from 1:48:45.880 --> 1:48:47.840 Frisco and he's like, man, I heard just looking for 1:48:47.920 --> 1:48:51.200 my son. I'm like the son. He's like, my son's 1:48:51.240 --> 1:48:54.280 in the pack. So I cut the middleman out. My 1:48:54.400 --> 1:48:57.560 homie is uh, little UNO's daddy. I get them to 1:48:57.600 --> 1:48:59.479 come over to his house. Then we get it going 1:48:59.520 --> 1:49:01.720 in and it's like like you know, the pack. I 1:49:01.800 --> 1:49:05.600 think two of them skate, l the producer, young l 1:49:05.720 --> 1:49:09.680 and uh and stunning. They skate and then Little Bee 1:49:09.840 --> 1:49:11.960 was just when I met them, a Little Bee, I 1:49:11.960 --> 1:49:13.720 don't know what the fuck his little image is now 1:49:13.800 --> 1:49:16.800 with the base guy crazy when I met him. When 1:49:16.800 --> 1:49:18.120 I met him, he was like a little thug. He 1:49:18.240 --> 1:49:20.320 was like a little street cadgy. We had to actually 1:49:20.880 --> 1:49:22.760 wait for him to get out of jail to start 1:49:22.800 --> 1:49:25.320 the project. He was, Oh wow, he was in Juni 1:49:25.439 --> 1:49:26.720 Hall when when I met him. 1:49:26.920 --> 1:49:29.479 A Little Bee is like the Dalai Lama of the 1:49:29.560 --> 1:49:32.519 internet round now, like no, he's he set the trends 1:49:32.560 --> 1:49:35.760 for all that ship, like Maconey and like all those 1:49:35.800 --> 1:49:37.280 guys made it cool to not. 1:49:39.920 --> 1:49:44.839 Not be good and but you're not being good on purpose. 1:49:46.000 --> 1:49:48.840 Yeah, he's definitely these motherfuckers are now wrapping off beating, 1:49:48.880 --> 1:49:50.519 rapping like they can't wrap and that's the style. 1:49:51.640 --> 1:49:52.599 Yeah, it's. 1:49:54.080 --> 1:49:55.080 But it goes, it goes. 1:49:55.320 --> 1:49:58.920 So yeah, the Pack came to me. 1:49:59.680 --> 1:50:02.000 They were were kind of like working the skater image 1:50:02.000 --> 1:50:06.559 a little bit, and I just, you know, I'm an 1:50:06.560 --> 1:50:09.000 opportunist man. When I met Little John, I was like, 1:50:09.360 --> 1:50:12.000 that's the wave and I knew that Little John had 1:50:12.000 --> 1:50:14.559 a sound that was hot, and I was like, I'll 1:50:14.640 --> 1:50:15.800 help you do everything. 1:50:15.520 --> 1:50:17.600 You can in the world if you promise me that 1:50:17.720 --> 1:50:19.120 you keep giving me those beats you make. 1:50:20.840 --> 1:50:22.719 Did you meet him more house days in Atlanta? 1:50:22.920 --> 1:50:25.240 Or I met a Little John. He was already working 1:50:25.280 --> 1:50:27.960 for So So Deaf. He was doing some producing with 1:50:28.040 --> 1:50:30.360 the like Booty Shake music, and he was DJing a 1:50:30.400 --> 1:50:32.880 lot in Atlanta. I love the way he dj because 1:50:32.920 --> 1:50:35.560 he DJs and he worked the crowd up in a 1:50:35.600 --> 1:50:37.960 frenzy with what he's saying and the music. So I 1:50:38.120 --> 1:50:40.760 was like a little Johnt fan as a DJ, and 1:50:40.920 --> 1:50:43.479 I approached him. That's how I started working house. I 1:50:43.520 --> 1:50:44.680 was like, man, you need to let me wrap on 1:50:45.200 --> 1:50:46.120 your beats. 1:50:46.640 --> 1:50:48.799 Like when you got on that Pack record. And suddenly 1:50:49.040 --> 1:50:51.439 just all these rumors I'm like, yeah, two Short, you 1:50:51.520 --> 1:50:53.200 used to skate back in the day and all that stuff. 1:50:53.680 --> 1:50:55.000 I did the same thing with the pack. I knew 1:50:55.040 --> 1:50:57.280 Young L had these beats. I went over the house. 1:50:57.360 --> 1:50:59.600 I went over to Young L's house. He lived with 1:50:59.680 --> 1:51:02.000 his mind. He had the coke closet. When you first 1:51:02.040 --> 1:51:04.160 come in the house, they opened the coat closet and 1:51:04.240 --> 1:51:06.800 it's his studio microphone booth. Nope, not the mic. 1:51:06.840 --> 1:51:09.439 It was the studio studio, the studio, the mic. 1:51:09.600 --> 1:51:12.240 The microphone was wired from the coat closet to his 1:51:12.360 --> 1:51:14.479 bedroom closet. So you go in the bedroom and you 1:51:14.600 --> 1:51:17.639 wrap in there with his clothes. And I was impressed. 1:51:17.760 --> 1:51:20.400 I was not impressed by the fact that they figured 1:51:20.400 --> 1:51:20.639 it out. 1:51:20.680 --> 1:51:22.200 Did they know about the legend the too Short, that 1:51:22.280 --> 1:51:26.800 they knew who was amongst them? Or we heard about you? Okay? 1:51:27.640 --> 1:51:31.800 And I was really impressed that they had no track record. 1:51:31.880 --> 1:51:34.080 But every time they would bounce down the song, it'd 1:51:34.120 --> 1:51:36.439 be a really good mix, like this shit sounded good, 1:51:36.439 --> 1:51:38.240 And I'm like, who's doing this shit for y'all? They 1:51:38.360 --> 1:51:39.760 like they took me to the setup. They're like, we 1:51:39.880 --> 1:51:42.000 do it ourselves. Like, man, y'all got some help from 1:51:42.000 --> 1:51:44.320 somewhere and they just elle just had that earround like 1:51:44.360 --> 1:51:46.519 some people just get it immediately, and a little beat 1:51:46.520 --> 1:51:48.840 would write the hooks l make the beat, and then 1:51:49.040 --> 1:51:50.720 the other two dudes just had to come with the 1:51:50.840 --> 1:51:52.120 twelve or sixteen word verse. 1:51:52.160 --> 1:51:52.320 It was. 1:51:52.720 --> 1:51:55.120 It was magic when I met him beat. When I 1:51:55.280 --> 1:51:57.519 met him, they had sixty songs. I'm like, what that fuck? 1:51:58.160 --> 1:52:03.000 So it was almost like seeing you recontextualized for you know, 1:52:03.400 --> 1:52:06.400 the new arts, and then you know, like so when 1:52:06.439 --> 1:52:10.439 blow the Whistle comes along, then it's like, can you 1:52:10.600 --> 1:52:14.040 explain what the Hyphie movement was supposed to be or 1:52:14.320 --> 1:52:15.519 was it just okay? 1:52:15.720 --> 1:52:20.880 So so now you got you got too short, you 1:52:21.000 --> 1:52:24.559 got forty, and you got mac Drer. Now nobody from 1:52:24.600 --> 1:52:27.320 the Bay with every dispute, all rap, all Bay rap 1:52:27.760 --> 1:52:28.920 comes from these three people. 1:52:29.439 --> 1:52:32.479 Can you before you go, can you explain the legend 1:52:32.560 --> 1:52:34.040 of mac dre for those. 1:52:34.479 --> 1:52:37.439 This is the part of it, him and forty from 1:52:38.320 --> 1:52:42.360 so I get ahead started everybody. I'm like, they never 1:52:42.479 --> 1:52:45.000 get me on sales, they never get me on who 1:52:45.120 --> 1:52:47.599 came first, They never get me on the biggest records. 1:52:47.840 --> 1:52:49.800 I got them. I set the fucking tongue. 1:52:50.360 --> 1:52:52.720 So now you got me and you got mac Dre 1:52:52.840 --> 1:52:55.120 and E forty and they come out of Valayo with 1:52:55.240 --> 1:53:02.400 all homies and mac Dre is to the bay. He's 1:53:02.520 --> 1:53:05.559 the one that gets up, does the dances. He's he's 1:53:05.680 --> 1:53:08.479 amongst the people. He's he touches them, he's one of them. 1:53:08.520 --> 1:53:10.360 He hugs him and he's They love and they like. 1:53:10.439 --> 1:53:10.559 Man. 1:53:10.680 --> 1:53:15.320 Dre's my guy. Forty is the kingpin. He's like, you 1:53:15.400 --> 1:53:18.400 can't get past the security. He lives in big gated house. 1:53:18.640 --> 1:53:21.120 He's always been his rap image. His real life image 1:53:21.120 --> 1:53:23.840 has always been I'm a boss and in me, I'm 1:53:23.920 --> 1:53:24.679 the Oakland nigga. 1:53:24.720 --> 1:53:26.720 You know, I'm just you know, short dog. You know, 1:53:26.800 --> 1:53:28.559 I talk shit out do the pimp image. 1:53:28.600 --> 1:53:31.439 I do all this shit and everything Bayry rap comes 1:53:31.479 --> 1:53:33.880 from the pimp that E forty the boss and Mac 1:53:34.000 --> 1:53:36.400 Dre clowning and just being, you know, really's hell. 1:53:36.680 --> 1:53:40.719 So Oakland had a thing called the Side Show. 1:53:41.360 --> 1:53:43.640 The side Show was just a bunch of people in 1:53:43.680 --> 1:53:47.080 their customized cars hanging out in Taco Bell parking lot 1:53:47.160 --> 1:53:51.320 that's adjacent to the East Oakland East myt Mall, and 1:53:52.040 --> 1:53:53.400 we just come out there Saturday night and. 1:53:53.439 --> 1:53:53.920 Just hang out. 1:53:54.479 --> 1:53:57.600 The side show evolved into the ship. You might have 1:53:57.640 --> 1:53:59.960 seen on DVD's when they're doing the donuts and shade up. 1:54:00.000 --> 1:54:02.519 Fuckers is racking allow and all this ship and jumping 1:54:02.520 --> 1:54:05.760 out the car and all that. So the side show 1:54:06.560 --> 1:54:09.680 evolved from one parking lot to the next generation was 1:54:09.720 --> 1:54:12.080 like probably like the early two thousands. They were like, 1:54:13.000 --> 1:54:16.880 wherever we're at, if we stop and we liked the music, 1:54:16.920 --> 1:54:19.000 were about to have a fucking party. And then they 1:54:19.040 --> 1:54:23.679 would just block off main intersections, backstreets, freeways. They didn't 1:54:23.680 --> 1:54:28.080 give a fuck, and it's like hundreds of kids, you know, 1:54:28.320 --> 1:54:31.240 like not and don't picture kids. These motherfuckers like gangsters, 1:54:31.320 --> 1:54:34.480 like just wilding they got. If you want to if 1:54:34.520 --> 1:54:37.360 you want to see it, go to YouTube and look 1:54:37.440 --> 1:54:40.920 up go dumb Usa some Oakland ship. Go dumb Usa 1:54:41.160 --> 1:54:42.840 is to it is what it says. 1:54:42.960 --> 1:54:43.400 It's dumb. 1:54:44.800 --> 1:54:47.080 Motherfucker's on top of the public bus and the bus 1:54:47.480 --> 1:54:49.040 is ride and they just dance on top of the bus. 1:54:49.480 --> 1:54:54.080 So Mac Dre and the Vallejo Boys, how all these 1:54:54.200 --> 1:54:56.880 dances they do? They like, you go to Vallejo. They're 1:54:57.040 --> 1:55:00.240 very colorful, they're very originally they're very not o when 1:55:00.240 --> 1:55:04.080 they're very not san Francisco Valao is Valao always has been. 1:55:04.520 --> 1:55:06.800 So they do all these fucking dances and all this 1:55:06.880 --> 1:55:08.560 ship and they got their own slang words and they 1:55:08.600 --> 1:55:11.680 got their own they are. They're thirty miles away from 1:55:11.760 --> 1:55:13.080 us and they're fucking They might as well be on 1:55:13.080 --> 1:55:16.520 the island, right because they are not copying anybody. 1:55:16.680 --> 1:55:21.240 For Leaho is original. So mac Drake brings that element 1:55:21.600 --> 1:55:23.320 to what a side show would be. 1:55:23.400 --> 1:55:25.840 You know, I even want to say the ghost riding 1:55:25.840 --> 1:55:27.800 the whip park probably came from Dre and them like 1:55:27.920 --> 1:55:29.560 they they seem to be more like the ones that 1:55:29.680 --> 1:55:31.960 jumped out the car and knew that the car would 1:55:32.000 --> 1:55:34.240 go at a certain speed without you touching the gas 1:55:34.360 --> 1:55:36.000 or the break and then they dance at that same 1:55:36.040 --> 1:55:39.520 speed and you never lose car. That's whoever was and 1:55:41.000 --> 1:55:44.160 to like them, Yeah, I think I think not kick 1:55:44.240 --> 1:55:48.200 Sink Kickink from ok but uh, turf talk is that's 1:55:48.200 --> 1:55:51.160 the forties fan. I think I think turf is from Valeo, 1:55:51.360 --> 1:55:52.080 but I might be wrong. 1:55:52.680 --> 1:55:53.320 I might be wrong. 1:55:56.880 --> 1:55:59.600 So the high fee movement starts. The high fee movement 1:55:59.680 --> 1:56:02.720 to me is what Kick the Sneak was doing in 1:56:02.880 --> 1:56:06.280 Oakland with the side shows and just the whole Oakland 1:56:06.560 --> 1:56:09.160 vibe of what Keith was talking about. And then mac 1:56:09.240 --> 1:56:13.440 dre with the pimp silly shit dancing and clown and 1:56:13.560 --> 1:56:16.040 shit and ghost riding and all this shit. So they 1:56:16.080 --> 1:56:18.960 took the ghost riding and dancing of v Leo, mixed 1:56:19.000 --> 1:56:21.839 it with the burning rubber and crazy car driving to Oakland, 1:56:21.840 --> 1:56:23.640 and they messed it into one thing. And I don't 1:56:23.680 --> 1:56:26.320 know where Hyphie came from, because it could have been 1:56:26.360 --> 1:56:29.080 called anything, because you know, really it was a real 1:56:29.120 --> 1:56:33.840 street culture thing, And the reason why it couldn't be 1:56:34.120 --> 1:56:39.440 a hip hop, solid solidified movement is because the Hyphee 1:56:39.480 --> 1:56:42.440 movement was you gotta be high. You gotta be fucking 1:56:42.520 --> 1:56:46.280 high on the drugs. The drugs were was ecstasy and 1:56:46.600 --> 1:56:49.680 cocaine and fucking them little niggas snort heroin and shit and. 1:56:50.320 --> 1:56:54.800 Getting in the car, you gotta be drinking. 1:56:54.920 --> 1:56:56.960 So it's d u I right off the rip, it's 1:56:58.240 --> 1:57:01.240 it's fucking a lot of lot of weapons, you know 1:57:01.240 --> 1:57:01.640 what I'm saying. 1:57:01.640 --> 1:57:04.800 It's always a violent act to go with it. And 1:57:04.880 --> 1:57:06.440 then it's I'm wanting it right now? 1:57:06.520 --> 1:57:07.240 Is you talking about it? 1:57:07.640 --> 1:57:10.640 And then it's like extremely overall, it's just hell of disrespectful, 1:57:10.720 --> 1:57:11.200 just overall. 1:57:11.240 --> 1:57:13.440 Yeah, yea some female stuff going on and you don't 1:57:13.440 --> 1:57:16.080 look like it might be right, but it looked like 1:57:16.120 --> 1:57:20.880 it's exciting, you know, to watch it's like some want 1:57:20.920 --> 1:57:22.360 to get free throwing in some dope they gonna get 1:57:22.360 --> 1:57:22.960 free thrown anyway. 1:57:23.000 --> 1:57:26.400 You know, that's that's freakingin gone bad. That's like freaking 1:57:27.280 --> 1:57:33.520 that's Freaknik's fucked up cousin. So so the music was great, 1:57:33.640 --> 1:57:37.280 by the way. The music was hip hop, street ship, 1:57:37.440 --> 1:57:39.400 but it made you want to dance, and it was 1:57:39.480 --> 1:57:41.800 really big in the clubs. And the Hyphee movie was like, 1:57:42.600 --> 1:57:44.560 if it was just about the dancing the music, I 1:57:44.640 --> 1:57:46.520 think it would have been something for the world. But 1:57:46.600 --> 1:57:50.080 when you gotta be Yeah, And I talked to Big 1:57:50.200 --> 1:57:51.720 Vin over at the radio stations. She was like, man, 1:57:51.760 --> 1:57:55.080 it was really hard to promote it on a commercial 1:57:55.200 --> 1:57:58.280 level because it's not It was not commercial. So everybody 1:57:58.400 --> 1:58:02.680 involved was expected and the next crunk movement, you know 1:58:02.680 --> 1:58:05.600 what I'm saying, And if it came short of that, 1:58:05.920 --> 1:58:08.440 they weren't happy. And when they stopped doing it, the 1:58:08.560 --> 1:58:10.680 music kept going. It was the same music. It's still 1:58:10.680 --> 1:58:13.600 the same music right now. And I'm like, why are 1:58:13.680 --> 1:58:16.440 y'all letting go, y'all ship It's like, man, it ain't 1:58:16.440 --> 1:58:17.240 blowing up like you. 1:58:17.720 --> 1:58:17.920 Yeah. 1:58:18.440 --> 1:58:20.240 I felt like they gave up too early on the 1:58:20.320 --> 1:58:22.760 joint exactly. It's almost like it was their Neil soul, 1:58:22.880 --> 1:58:25.120 Like they gave it a two year run and just 1:58:25.320 --> 1:58:25.840 like and. 1:58:25.880 --> 1:58:28.320 You know, you know who picked it up right lest 1:58:28.400 --> 1:58:32.960 it on the meat. Yeah, got that tempo. 1:58:33.480 --> 1:58:37.320 All his early beats was like straight Bay influenced Tiger 1:58:37.400 --> 1:58:40.960 came out on that bas sound right, Yeah it was. 1:58:41.080 --> 1:58:44.080 It was oh yeah, yeah. 1:58:45.680 --> 1:58:49.240 Yeah, because mostly it was more to tempo for it 1:58:49.360 --> 1:58:52.280 because like, just for me personally, I liked my hip 1:58:52.320 --> 1:58:59.120 hop somewhere between ninety one ten bpms just a little bit, 1:58:59.160 --> 1:58:59.640 you know what I mean. 1:59:00.040 --> 1:59:01.840 He was one of ten. 1:59:02.000 --> 1:59:02.240 I know. 1:59:02.400 --> 1:59:07.200 It's like great energy. Wow, it's still it's still alive. 1:59:07.240 --> 1:59:09.040 It's just it's just it's just not named that anymore. 1:59:09.040 --> 1:59:09.640 It's still alive. 1:59:10.120 --> 1:59:12.520 They still do the same exact dances, they still act 1:59:12.520 --> 1:59:15.400 the same guy. Damn way, it just don't call it Hyvey. 1:59:16.000 --> 1:59:18.640 Did you ever have any do any work or have 1:59:18.800 --> 1:59:21.680 any any kind of deals with JT the Bigger Figure? 1:59:22.080 --> 1:59:24.200 Well, me and j T we like minded, so you know, 1:59:24.320 --> 1:59:27.040 we we don't we don't do agreements together and ship 1:59:27.120 --> 1:59:29.520 and we work together and we uh you know, he's 1:59:29.560 --> 1:59:31.480 family like you talk to guys like Snooper Ship. We 1:59:31.480 --> 1:59:33.640 love j T mancause JT can make something out of 1:59:33.720 --> 1:59:36.440 nothing in a minute. He uh, he never comes with 1:59:36.520 --> 1:59:40.080 his hand out. And the last time I last time 1:59:40.120 --> 1:59:45.440 I heard the fig he was in Africa. He was 1:59:45.560 --> 1:59:48.800 in Africa buying up property or some ship. He put 1:59:48.880 --> 1:59:54.400 something out real yes for this is recently too. Then 1:59:54.440 --> 1:59:55.920 I heard it got shot in Atlanta. That's the last 1:59:55.920 --> 1:59:56.200 thing I heard. 1:59:56.240 --> 1:59:56.520 I don't know. 1:59:59.520 --> 1:59:59.960 He's the one. 2:00:00.120 --> 2:00:01.760 When the game came out, he's like, oh, I got 2:00:02.240 --> 2:00:06.880 albums on the game, like yeah, figures, He's just He's just. 2:00:07.960 --> 2:00:11.920 Who like who I mean? And now he asking journalists question, 2:00:12.560 --> 2:00:15.520 who do you still listen to? Like okay for for 2:00:15.680 --> 2:00:17.840 you even if it's ould shit whatever, like what is 2:00:18.000 --> 2:00:21.240 just your go to? You in the car are you driving? 2:00:21.320 --> 2:00:25.440 Like what what's what's in your well? I'm I'm I'm 2:00:25.480 --> 2:00:26.160 about the funk. 2:00:26.480 --> 2:00:29.880 I was a I'm officially no doubt about it, one 2:00:29.920 --> 2:00:32.200 of the clones of doctor Fungustein And then when they 2:00:32.360 --> 2:00:34.880 were cloning him, I'm one of those and. 2:00:36.680 --> 2:00:37.440 I hear the funk. 2:00:37.520 --> 2:00:37.920 I hear it. 2:00:38.280 --> 2:00:40.360 The funk is and the drums is in basslines, just 2:00:40.480 --> 2:00:44.640 in rap cadences, and the way people sing is it's it's, 2:00:44.840 --> 2:00:45.280 it's there. 2:00:45.760 --> 2:00:47.520 It's in pop music, you know, the funk is there. 2:00:48.000 --> 2:00:51.360 So I love a lot of that new funky ship 2:00:51.480 --> 2:00:54.360 that Mike will produce type ship that fucking you know, 2:00:55.200 --> 2:00:57.720 even if it's fucking uh, what's my man? 2:00:57.760 --> 2:00:58.720 Who's been killing him lately? 2:00:58.800 --> 2:01:00.720 Metro boom and he got this the funk like you 2:01:00.840 --> 2:01:03.400 hear that little funky The Migos as funky as fuck, 2:01:03.880 --> 2:01:06.080 like the way they work the auto tune. They bring 2:01:06.160 --> 2:01:08.400 the funk to a song that wasn't even funky. And 2:01:08.480 --> 2:01:12.760 I think that's another thing that autotune was misinterpreted about, 2:01:12.920 --> 2:01:16.720 was that it wasn't so much as how skillful is 2:01:16.800 --> 2:01:20.680 the person working it. It just they got these beats 2:01:20.720 --> 2:01:22.720 that they do that aren't very melodic. But then if 2:01:22.720 --> 2:01:24.520 you listen to it, and why it's so catchy. It's 2:01:24.560 --> 2:01:26.560 that little melody that they're dealing with the auto tune. 2:01:26.600 --> 2:01:28.920 No matter how stupid what they're saying could be. Shit, 2:01:29.080 --> 2:01:31.880 just it feels good, and shit feels good. It's a 2:01:31.920 --> 2:01:32.440 good vible. 2:01:32.880 --> 2:01:36.760 And what was I saying? 2:01:36.840 --> 2:01:38.200 Because I smoke a lot of wead of the. 2:01:40.760 --> 2:01:41.000 Funk. 2:01:41.960 --> 2:01:45.400 So what I'm listening to now is I'm just the funk. 2:01:45.440 --> 2:01:48.840 I'm so prejudiced against all other music. Like I love 2:01:48.920 --> 2:01:51.960 the blues, the funky blues, I don't like all blues. 2:01:52.240 --> 2:01:54.280 I love jazz when it got the funking. I just 2:01:54.440 --> 2:01:57.680 I'm just that guy who. But I feel like I 2:01:57.880 --> 2:02:01.040 was so safe of me, so sad to have a 2:02:01.120 --> 2:02:04.280 career and say if it ain't funky, we can't it 2:02:04.360 --> 2:02:05.280 can't leave it, can't. 2:02:05.200 --> 2:02:05.760 Leave out this room. 2:02:05.800 --> 2:02:07.720 It's gotta be funky. I was in the studio with 2:02:07.800 --> 2:02:10.560 Puffy in the early days and he walked in the studio. 2:02:10.840 --> 2:02:13.560 I was in there, a whole bunch of motherfuckers in there. 2:02:13.800 --> 2:02:15.960 It was smoking, it was drinking, everybody's having a good 2:02:15.960 --> 2:02:18.360 time enjoying the song that was on. Puff walked in 2:02:18.440 --> 2:02:21.760 and said, I can't dance this ship. Scrapped, threw it off, 2:02:22.440 --> 2:02:24.800 killed the whole session. It was old reason I can't 2:02:24.840 --> 2:02:26.760 dance to that ship, and it was it ain't bad boy. 2:02:26.840 --> 2:02:29.040 So how did the world is Fueled come about? Because 2:02:29.040 --> 2:02:31.040 I love that song, but it's not danceable, but I 2:02:31.120 --> 2:02:35.480 mean is a jam. It's a slow nice I mean, 2:02:35.720 --> 2:02:37.800 I'm thinking like Puffy dancing with the fucking. 2:02:39.560 --> 2:02:41.960 I can tell you why I didn't get chopped off, 2:02:42.000 --> 2:02:44.600 the kicked off, the chopping block, whatever I'm trying to say. Okay, 2:02:44.920 --> 2:02:47.480 I can tell you why, because the beat had been made, 2:02:48.360 --> 2:02:50.160 the hook was on there. The hook is Carl Thomas, 2:02:50.680 --> 2:02:54.800 and Puffy's verse was already on there. He's on the 2:02:54.880 --> 2:02:57.160 first verse. So when me and Big went to the 2:02:57.200 --> 2:02:59.320 studio we did our versus the same day, it was 2:02:59.440 --> 2:03:01.960 already beat hook, Puffy's verse. 2:03:02.040 --> 2:03:03.880 Already, he could already dance to it, so he was cool, 2:03:05.320 --> 2:03:05.560 so he. 2:03:05.600 --> 2:03:06.080 Set it off. 2:03:06.080 --> 2:03:09.960 So that's why he probably he probably conceived the concept 2:03:10.040 --> 2:03:12.520 of the song and you know, the world pencil House 2:03:12.520 --> 2:03:12.800 and all that. 2:03:12.880 --> 2:03:15.880 But yeah, I don't know, like I used that was 2:03:15.920 --> 2:03:17.640 a song I used to always play on the album 2:03:17.840 --> 2:03:20.160 because I don't know. If you notice, at the end 2:03:20.200 --> 2:03:23.400 of the song you say bitch, crazy ass man, bitch, 2:03:25.200 --> 2:03:26.520 and it starts right back over. 2:03:26.560 --> 2:03:28.720 If you put this song on repeat, it starts right 2:03:28.760 --> 2:03:33.480 back and rhythm is amazing, all right, which leads to 2:03:33.680 --> 2:03:40.920 my last question, Sure, Dunk, what is your favorite no, no, no, 2:03:43.040 --> 2:03:50.360 you have revolutionized the word bitch? Would not you make 2:03:50.480 --> 2:03:52.760 saying the word bitch the funnest thing on earth? I 2:03:52.800 --> 2:03:56.280 mean to the point where, like you know, even with 2:03:57.560 --> 2:04:00.280 Chappelle taking it to the next levels and all that 2:04:01.440 --> 2:04:04.640 he was and beyond. Yeah, I mean you, like, how 2:04:04.680 --> 2:04:08.840 did you feel when people started taking your inflections? I mean, yes, 2:04:08.920 --> 2:04:10.960 I know that you know E forty can claim all 2:04:11.000 --> 2:04:12.800 this language or whatever, but it's like you. 2:04:15.040 --> 2:04:16.200 Bach is like. 2:04:17.720 --> 2:04:21.360 It was exclusively uh, something that was only said by 2:04:21.600 --> 2:04:22.800 myself and Freddy B. 2:04:23.400 --> 2:04:25.560 Freddy did you feel some way like once you heard 2:04:25.640 --> 2:04:28.680 death throwing those guys like taking and I. 2:04:28.800 --> 2:04:32.960 Tell you, Freddy B went to jail, My career blows up. 2:04:33.040 --> 2:04:35.720 He kind of didn't get to have the glory. 2:04:35.960 --> 2:04:36.120 Yeah. 2:04:36.680 --> 2:04:38.960 And I carried it on and. 2:04:41.120 --> 2:04:44.560 The first person I heard say it was uh, ice 2:04:44.640 --> 2:04:47.040 Cube said it on A bitch's a bitch at the 2:04:47.160 --> 2:04:49.920 end he goes bers And then and then a MG 2:04:50.120 --> 2:04:54.800 sampled it, well, DJ quick sample, that's the same thing. 2:04:55.160 --> 2:04:58.240 And that that opened up the like curiosity like, well 2:04:58.320 --> 2:05:01.240 maybe I can use the of it because you know, 2:05:01.360 --> 2:05:05.280 it just slid by. And then I had a friend 2:05:05.360 --> 2:05:07.240 of mine who we were in the bathroom smoking some 2:05:07.320 --> 2:05:09.680 weed at a party one night and with a dog 2:05:09.760 --> 2:05:11.440 pound we there smoking with Dazz and Crup and Stop 2:05:11.480 --> 2:05:12.960 were smoking at my Humby was like, man. 2:05:13.440 --> 2:05:15.960 I just got to ask, man, what made y'all say bitch? 2:05:16.040 --> 2:05:16.600 Like too Short? 2:05:16.920 --> 2:05:20.040 And Snoop told the story. He said, he said in 2:05:20.120 --> 2:05:20.520 front of you. 2:05:20.840 --> 2:05:23.080 Yeah, he said, when I first time I got in 2:05:23.160 --> 2:05:26.640 the studio and they just put me in there, he 2:05:26.840 --> 2:05:28.200 was like, man, we grew up on two shows. We 2:05:28.200 --> 2:05:30.480 grew up listening too Shorts. Like, first time I got 2:05:30.480 --> 2:05:31.600 in the studio, they turned the mic on. 2:05:31.680 --> 2:05:32.640 I just said bitch. 2:05:35.640 --> 2:05:39.520 When he said that, I mean, there's no anger, there's 2:05:39.560 --> 2:05:44.760 no there's no bad vibe. So basically I look at. 2:05:44.760 --> 2:05:45.200 It like this. 2:05:47.040 --> 2:05:52.680 Cube opened the floodgates death ro They they kind of 2:05:52.760 --> 2:05:54.040 gave it to the world. 2:05:54.280 --> 2:05:56.600 They did, because for a seconds I really thought it 2:05:56.720 --> 2:05:56.960 was there. 2:05:57.080 --> 2:05:59.040 So they gave it to the world. 2:05:59.280 --> 2:06:01.560 And then when I I heard an argument one day 2:06:02.360 --> 2:06:07.640 that too Short got bitch from Snoop what That's why 2:06:07.720 --> 2:06:08.600 I wrote blow to Ustle. 2:06:08.640 --> 2:06:10.880 The way I wrote it, it was almost like just 2:06:11.000 --> 2:06:12.240 the taking back of it. 2:06:12.880 --> 2:06:16.680 I was saying some things that nobody could dispute as 2:06:16.720 --> 2:06:18.720 far as the numbers, like the whole first verse is 2:06:18.800 --> 2:06:21.520 mathema is mathematics. And I'm like, when I just say 2:06:21.600 --> 2:06:23.600 I've been rapping for two hundred twenty five thousand hours, 2:06:23.640 --> 2:06:27.680 that was ten years ago, and anybody who would stopped 2:06:27.760 --> 2:06:30.480 and put that on a calculator and could even figure 2:06:30.520 --> 2:06:33.200 out how to would realize that average is about twenty 2:06:33.280 --> 2:06:35.000 years somewhere in there. And I was just like, I've 2:06:35.040 --> 2:06:37.480 been rapping longer than you, motherfuckers. I've been rapping more 2:06:37.640 --> 2:06:40.080 and just talking shit. And then I put the what's 2:06:40.120 --> 2:06:41.600 my favorite word in there, the bitch, And I'm like, 2:06:41.680 --> 2:06:44.600 I'm just I'm reclaiming ownership of my shit. I'm like, 2:06:44.720 --> 2:06:47.560 I leased it out when all around the world everybody 2:06:47.600 --> 2:06:50.160 gets to say it, it's my gift to pop cultuler, 2:06:50.240 --> 2:06:55.080 but it's mine and we know it now. So if 2:06:55.120 --> 2:06:57.480 you notice, I love Snoop to death, hang out with 2:06:57.520 --> 2:06:59.200 him a lot, But if you notice, you don't say 2:06:59.240 --> 2:06:59.920 it that much anymore. 2:07:00.040 --> 2:07:09.360 Right, Well, sure do we cover everything I think we got? 2:07:09.720 --> 2:07:12.400 I'm trying to sure there's not an obscure, beastie. I 2:07:12.480 --> 2:07:14.720 know we're going to be like, why did we ask 2:07:15.080 --> 2:07:15.960 I got no movies? 2:07:16.040 --> 2:07:18.000 Right? Yeah, oh, well, you know he was a mini 2:07:19.280 --> 2:07:21.720 cooking the ribs. You really know how to grill? 2:07:21.920 --> 2:07:24.920 Really, no, And if you go back and look at 2:07:24.920 --> 2:07:28.880 in society, them fucking ribs was burnt. I did say 2:07:28.960 --> 2:07:32.640 so many cooking out that I'm the only motherfucker in 2:07:33.000 --> 2:07:34.920 Minn society. I'm the only mother fucking that. That pointed 2:07:34.960 --> 2:07:37.400 again that old dog. Old Dog was a savage, and 2:07:37.520 --> 2:07:39.120 they gave me the role where I got to put 2:07:39.160 --> 2:07:39.680 the shotgun on. 2:07:39.800 --> 2:07:39.960 Yeah. 2:07:40.040 --> 2:07:43.080 Yeah, And you know back then that was like folklore, 2:07:43.840 --> 2:07:45.720 like like people thought old Dog was real. 2:07:48.200 --> 2:07:48.640 Somebody. 2:07:49.520 --> 2:07:51.840 You're right, he was the hummy. But you know, fifty 2:07:51.880 --> 2:07:52.480 one years old. 2:07:53.640 --> 2:07:58.280 Yeah, I was gonna say, yo, you you are no 2:07:58.560 --> 2:08:00.840 way going to convince me that you're fifty one years 2:08:00.880 --> 2:08:01.400 old right. 2:08:01.320 --> 2:08:03.600 Now, because and you ain't tired. You ain't tired of 2:08:03.680 --> 2:08:04.000 the party. 2:08:04.080 --> 2:08:06.840 But I mean not the last two nights, all know. 2:08:06.920 --> 2:08:09.120 I mean it's a lifestyle, I know, but. 2:08:09.160 --> 2:08:12.080 This is amazing to me. I take naps, okay, thank you, 2:08:12.320 --> 2:08:15.200 thank you for keeping it real. Thank you you say vitamin. 2:08:15.000 --> 2:08:16.680 Suit or is that just yeah? 2:08:16.960 --> 2:08:17.400 I do all? 2:08:17.400 --> 2:08:20.080 I guess Okay, you listen, we want to be like 2:08:20.400 --> 2:08:21.000 semi healthy. 2:08:21.040 --> 2:08:23.560 But you know, I'm fifty one years old, and I 2:08:23.680 --> 2:08:26.080 got a lot of new music coming out, and I 2:08:26.240 --> 2:08:29.879 just I feel like I'm not making records to compete 2:08:30.320 --> 2:08:35.200 in hip hop. I'm making records to compete with the 2:08:36.000 --> 2:08:40.400 definition of hip hop. People keep as as old as 2:08:40.400 --> 2:08:42.960 I keep getting. They keep saying that number, like, man, 2:08:43.000 --> 2:08:45.280 you can't wrap when you're thirty. Then I turned forty, 2:08:45.280 --> 2:08:47.400 They're like, man, forty old ast rapper. Like it's like, 2:08:47.640 --> 2:08:49.560 my age is the age they keep saying it's too old. 2:08:49.880 --> 2:08:51.839 So I'm like, I'm going to do this shit. 2:08:52.160 --> 2:08:52.760 Barrier this year. 2:08:52.840 --> 2:08:55.760 Yeah, I think, yeah, you might be the oldest in 2:08:55.880 --> 2:08:58.760 terms of like the competition to me right now is 2:08:59.160 --> 2:09:01.120 I want to know and I want to be in 2:09:01.200 --> 2:09:04.440 the race of who's going to be the oldest rapper 2:09:05.200 --> 2:09:07.200 to make a relevant hit record. 2:09:07.520 --> 2:09:10.400 Oh it's hard and not be like this Nigga sixty 2:09:10.440 --> 2:09:12.560 two and they not be like, oh, that's old ass Johnny, 2:09:12.680 --> 2:09:14.200 Like no, like like that's my ship, Like. 2:09:14.160 --> 2:09:15.680 Who's gonna be relevant? 2:09:15.720 --> 2:09:18.360 I mean that's relevant though, like because. 2:09:18.160 --> 2:09:20.680 I'm like four four four, But it can happen. It 2:09:20.720 --> 2:09:24.280 can happen. I feel like I feel like it definitely 2:09:24.320 --> 2:09:27.800 happened with him. Because you're again it's he's going proven 2:09:27.880 --> 2:09:32.920 formuly its flat footed tuxedo jeans and T shirt style 2:09:33.040 --> 2:09:36.160 will never ever go out of style. You know what 2:09:36.200 --> 2:09:39.400 I mean? It will never ever go on stop. Thank 2:09:39.440 --> 2:09:42.880 you too short for coming on Quest Love Supreme. Yes, sorry, 2:09:46.080 --> 2:09:49.640 we ain't done reflections in a minute. So Fran, take 2:09:49.680 --> 2:09:51.480 a look. What did you What did you learn to day? 2:09:51.640 --> 2:09:54.120 I learned that pool Man was a totally different guy 2:09:54.160 --> 2:09:57.320 from straight up and we even made it. 2:09:57.440 --> 2:10:00.920 We made a dis record about him called getting Away Fitting. 2:10:00.960 --> 2:10:04.280 It's on the hours on Really we ripped his ass 2:10:04.320 --> 2:10:06.320 because he went and made a record and talked about 2:10:06.320 --> 2:10:07.200 a few of us on a record. 2:10:07.280 --> 2:10:10.440 So we did you not get him on job records? 2:10:10.480 --> 2:10:10.840 Like did you? 2:10:11.040 --> 2:10:12.080 I got him to deal personally. 2:10:12.320 --> 2:10:14.360 I was going to say, like these are cats on job. 2:10:14.920 --> 2:10:17.880 He has a somewhat success and comes to us after 2:10:17.960 --> 2:10:20.920 one album, goes man, I think I'm want to get 2:10:20.960 --> 2:10:21.480 off the label. 2:10:23.040 --> 2:10:27.000 We're just like, okay, damn, you're off here. 2:10:27.720 --> 2:10:31.960 Okay, So two things I learned. Number one about your 2:10:32.000 --> 2:10:35.560 parents being accountants. That's banging and being together. That just 2:10:35.600 --> 2:10:38.800 says a lot about a man. Period. Oh have you 2:10:38.880 --> 2:10:39.640 been married before? 2:10:40.520 --> 2:10:40.920 No wife? 2:10:40.960 --> 2:10:41.360 No kids. 2:10:41.960 --> 2:10:44.400 No, that's why. Yeah, that's. 2:10:45.960 --> 2:10:46.440 Hold up. 2:10:46.560 --> 2:10:47.839 No, No, it's a lifestyle. 2:10:48.120 --> 2:10:51.200 But sty, I do have somebody that keeps putting on 2:10:51.240 --> 2:10:53.080 Wikipedia that I have a wife and kids, but I don't. 2:10:53.120 --> 2:10:55.560 You have any kids. And I got something that I 2:10:55.640 --> 2:10:56.720 want to learn. You said you got a lot of 2:10:56.720 --> 2:10:58.160 stuff coming down the pike, and I know you've been 2:10:58.200 --> 2:11:00.320 doing like some interesting other kind of stuff. Can you 2:11:00.440 --> 2:11:02.480 just give us a little tat which. 2:11:02.280 --> 2:11:03.400 I wrote a book. 2:11:04.280 --> 2:11:08.960 I got a thirtieth anniversary documentary dropping just just highlighting 2:11:09.000 --> 2:11:11.480 the thirty year career. I got an album coming out 2:11:11.600 --> 2:11:15.040 called the Pimp Tape, and it is exactly what it says. 2:11:15.120 --> 2:11:18.560 It's a pimp tape. And then uh, preceding the Pimp 2:11:18.600 --> 2:11:21.080 Tape will be a mixtape called Hella disrespectful. 2:11:24.600 --> 2:11:28.080 We're talking to Mark right now. You feel like we're 2:11:28.120 --> 2:11:29.000 talking to Mark right now. 2:11:29.400 --> 2:11:31.400 Of all the of all the years of like stuff 2:11:31.440 --> 2:11:33.520 that you've done, and like all the ladies and everything, 2:11:33.560 --> 2:11:35.880 like how do you escape kids? How you make it 2:11:36.000 --> 2:11:37.040 by easy? 2:11:37.480 --> 2:11:40.960 Little John said it in from the Window to the Wall. 2:11:41.880 --> 2:11:46.080 He said, I sk skap, not every. 2:11:46.000 --> 2:11:48.040 Time everybody make a mistake and get lost up in 2:11:48.160 --> 2:11:49.240 sometime I've. 2:11:49.120 --> 2:11:50.960 Been a skeater from day one. You know, see the 2:11:51.000 --> 2:11:53.720 strap up. We're aiming at something. 2:11:54.640 --> 2:12:00.360 Well, look, all I asked you read your do your 2:12:00.400 --> 2:12:02.720 own audiobook. That's what I ask you for the people 2:12:02.840 --> 2:12:04.200 do your own audio audio. 2:12:04.480 --> 2:12:07.840 Yeah, that would be please, Steve Sugar. 2:12:07.920 --> 2:12:11.640 Steve you learn I learned the entire history of Oakland 2:12:12.360 --> 2:12:15.440 hip hop, and from the beginning it sounds like you 2:12:15.520 --> 2:12:17.080 could have been in the studio with me and you. 2:12:17.120 --> 2:12:20.920 Are essentially the same age. Awesome, married, unmarried, no. 2:12:21.000 --> 2:12:30.040 Kids, he's never been married, what I do, and in. 2:12:30.320 --> 2:12:33.600 Atlanta, and a whole bunch of stuff I didn't know, 2:12:33.680 --> 2:12:36.320 but I like. I like your bounce as a person. 2:12:36.360 --> 2:12:38.720 I don't know if that sounds weird, but you you 2:12:39.320 --> 2:12:43.280 seem like you know the right percentages of things I've never. 2:12:43.200 --> 2:12:46.320 Been in love with. Famous like that. I'm the first 2:12:46.360 --> 2:12:49.360 person you walk up to say are you too short? 2:12:49.440 --> 2:12:54.080 I'm like, I look like that's you. 2:12:58.680 --> 2:13:02.520 Man invest in Vegas. Hey, that's been going on for 2:13:02.560 --> 2:13:04.800 a long I mean, take your Hamilton money man. Yeah, 2:13:05.080 --> 2:13:05.520 yeah all that. 2:13:09.680 --> 2:13:14.640 By the way, my book was written completely in jail. 2:13:16.440 --> 2:13:21.600 Oh are some questions we didn't you were in jail. 2:13:21.760 --> 2:13:23.720 Twenty fifteen June and July. 2:13:23.960 --> 2:13:27.320 I went to court on June fifteenth to go show 2:13:27.400 --> 2:13:29.400 him the proof of my community service for a DUI 2:13:29.400 --> 2:13:33.080 I got, and the prosecutor lady bullied me and she 2:13:33.280 --> 2:13:35.720 was like, if you fucking present that paper to the judge, 2:13:35.880 --> 2:13:39.120 I'm going to make sure that he knows that there's 2:13:39.160 --> 2:13:42.240 some false entries on there, and I'm gonna make sure 2:13:42.240 --> 2:13:44.520 you do it. You're in jail, and don't charge you 2:13:44.560 --> 2:13:46.520 with felonies and all kind of shit. So I had 2:13:46.520 --> 2:13:48.080 to go in there and lie to the judge and 2:13:48.120 --> 2:13:51.120 say I didn't have the paperwork, and the judges like, 2:13:51.920 --> 2:13:54.120 you lied to me and told me that you weren't 2:13:54.280 --> 2:13:55.760 that you were bringing this paper and you didn't bring it. 2:13:56.120 --> 2:13:58.440 And he asked the prosecutor what should we do with him? 2:13:58.440 --> 2:14:00.440 She said, give him thirty days. Do you know who 2:14:00.480 --> 2:14:01.720 he was the judge? 2:14:01.840 --> 2:14:02.040 Yeah? 2:14:02.440 --> 2:14:02.480 No? 2:14:02.760 --> 2:14:03.960 Or did the judge know who you were? 2:14:04.160 --> 2:14:04.360 Yeah? 2:14:04.560 --> 2:14:06.880 It was it was a high profile case. And he 2:14:07.000 --> 2:14:09.400 said she said thirty days. 2:14:09.440 --> 2:14:11.800 He said, well, I'm gonna give him ninety and then said, 2:14:11.800 --> 2:14:15.360 bailiff take him right now, and I can't do it. 2:14:15.720 --> 2:14:18.880 That's the fucked that he kept me in there five 2:14:18.920 --> 2:14:20.000 fucking weeks to the day. 2:14:21.080 --> 2:14:23.400 And so you just finished your book that way started 2:14:23.440 --> 2:14:24.200 and finished your book. 2:14:24.280 --> 2:14:26.800 Well, if jail was such so full of ship, with 2:14:26.960 --> 2:14:29.320 the fucking the ship that went on in there, like 2:14:29.520 --> 2:14:32.320 La County jail is like it's not humane at all, 2:14:32.440 --> 2:14:34.320 it's fucked up. So during the day it was so 2:14:34.400 --> 2:14:36.920 much bullshit going on that I would sleep all day 2:14:37.640 --> 2:14:39.960 and then I when they lights oute of night, I'd 2:14:40.040 --> 2:14:42.240 wake up and like write to like this little light, 2:14:42.960 --> 2:14:44.880 and I was just right all night. So I did 2:14:45.040 --> 2:14:48.200 my time away from everybody else, like I slept all 2:14:48.240 --> 2:14:48.640 day every day. 2:14:48.640 --> 2:14:50.920 I'm so glad you were remind I would have been mad. 2:14:53.840 --> 2:14:55.440 I was thinking about naming the books some ship I 2:14:55.520 --> 2:14:55.880 wrote in. 2:14:55.920 --> 2:15:02.600 Jail where like you got love in there was we 2:15:02.960 --> 2:15:06.400 know it was good. I was. 2:15:06.560 --> 2:15:08.240 I was man. I was in the high power section. Man. 2:15:08.400 --> 2:15:09.240 I was in the cell next. 2:15:11.000 --> 2:15:11.640 Yeah you can't. 2:15:11.880 --> 2:15:13.480 You couldn't come in contact any other prisons. 2:15:13.480 --> 2:15:13.640 I was. 2:15:13.680 --> 2:15:14.880 I was in the cell next to where they had 2:15:14.920 --> 2:15:16.720 Chris Brown, next where. 2:15:16.520 --> 2:15:19.600 They had like, So, what was the meals like in 2:15:19.680 --> 2:15:21.040 that section? I know it was a little. 2:15:20.800 --> 2:15:22.680 Different slice the garlic, real sin. 2:15:26.720 --> 2:15:29.480 If you're not a snacker, if you don't like snacks, 2:15:29.480 --> 2:15:31.560 because they you will not eat the meals. 2:15:31.680 --> 2:15:32.040 You will not. 2:15:32.200 --> 2:15:34.520 They asked some ship in their common series, some ship 2:15:34.560 --> 2:15:37.720 in there called cal Rains. Wait what and you couldn't. 2:15:37.880 --> 2:15:40.160 They had this one thing that they gave it to 2:15:40.280 --> 2:15:42.080 me and I was like, I'm cool, I don't want that. 2:15:42.360 --> 2:15:43.640 And I was like, but just curious. 2:15:43.760 --> 2:15:47.000 I was like, what is that? And the guard said 2:15:47.040 --> 2:15:48.480 it's ship. I was like no. I was like, no, 2:15:48.640 --> 2:15:51.560 for bro in the kitchen when they cooking it, what 2:15:51.720 --> 2:15:53.120 do they think they make it? What is it called? 2:15:53.160 --> 2:15:53.720 He said ship? 2:15:56.360 --> 2:15:59.440 No, that's sloppy Joe, right, they've started. 2:15:59.440 --> 2:16:00.680 They started purple spaghetti. 2:16:02.520 --> 2:16:03.440 Why would it be that color? 2:16:04.320 --> 2:16:06.160 You asked these questions, there are no answers. 2:16:08.520 --> 2:16:09.600 Purple spaghetti. 2:16:09.960 --> 2:16:10.760 La County ain't right? 2:16:10.800 --> 2:16:10.920 Man? 2:16:11.480 --> 2:16:14.320 Wait? Why did our episode just get lit in the last. 2:16:16.160 --> 2:16:17.720 No? I didn't know. I didn't know he was locked up. 2:16:17.760 --> 2:16:18.200 That's crazy. 2:16:18.320 --> 2:16:20.400 Five weeks. I wrote every night down there. Every night 2:16:20.440 --> 2:16:22.720 I wrote and that wrote. It's all in pencil. It's 2:16:22.720 --> 2:16:24.640 about three hundred pages and I don't know what the 2:16:24.720 --> 2:16:25.880 fund I haven't read it back yet. 2:16:26.520 --> 2:16:29.360 Wow, okay, has anybody read it? 2:16:29.880 --> 2:16:31.400 I let one peris of reading there was like, it's 2:16:31.440 --> 2:16:34.040 pretty good. I don't know, but they might be gassing 2:16:34.120 --> 2:16:36.400 my people. I don't but I just feel like I 2:16:36.440 --> 2:16:38.000 don't give a fuck this good or not. It's some 2:16:38.080 --> 2:16:40.560 ship I wrote in jail, and I might I might 2:16:40.600 --> 2:16:43.680 even release it in the handwritten in pencil. It's in pencil, 2:16:43.680 --> 2:16:44.800 because you can't have a pen in jail. 2:16:45.240 --> 2:16:46.600 Look, this is all I'm gonna say. 2:16:49.000 --> 2:16:49.040 This. 2:16:49.680 --> 2:16:52.760 This is all I'm gonna say as far as what 2:16:52.920 --> 2:17:01.240 you learned today that you really really should get an 2:17:01.320 --> 2:17:08.480 agent two for you to pitch to either Amazon or 2:17:09.240 --> 2:17:14.360 I can't even say that the N word Amazon. You really, 2:17:14.480 --> 2:17:20.680 I'm telling you there is an engaging, motherfucking story of 2:17:20.879 --> 2:17:25.160 your childhood hustling these tapes, and we. 2:17:25.240 --> 2:17:26.440 Hear Disney has a new platform. 2:17:26.480 --> 2:17:28.680 I do have a offer on the table to do 2:17:28.760 --> 2:17:31.120 a mini series, like like a three prime mini series. 2:17:32.000 --> 2:17:35.920 I feel I think there's youth streaming. 2:17:37.040 --> 2:17:37.640 Before the career. 2:17:38.959 --> 2:17:41.760 Well, thank you very much for coming on like Snowfall 2:17:41.800 --> 2:17:48.120 by the way to It's awesome, uh on behalf of 2:17:49.120 --> 2:17:53.920 Boss Bill, Unpaid Bill, Sugar, Steve take Aloa and the 2:17:54.240 --> 2:17:57.960 Light here and our guest today to be sure as 2:17:57.959 --> 2:17:59.880 giving a lad. 2:18:00.080 --> 2:18:01.560 But I'm something about the way you call me a 2:18:01.600 --> 2:18:03.560 fucking lady, sound old and I've got a birthday coming up. 2:18:03.560 --> 2:18:04.040 I don't like it. 2:18:04.800 --> 2:18:05.040 Thank you. 2:18:05.400 --> 2:18:07.440 We were born on the same day, so not in 2:18:07.520 --> 2:18:12.080 the same year and on the half of the Team Supreme. Y'all. 2:18:12.160 --> 2:18:15.840 This is Quest Love. See you next go around only 2:18:15.920 --> 2:18:20.360 one Pandora Thank You. Quest Love Supreme is a production 2:18:20.520 --> 2:18:24.240 of iHeartRadio. This classic episode was produced by the team 2:18:24.520 --> 2:18:31.959 at Pandora. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 2:18:32.200 --> 2:18:35.240 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.