WEBVTT - Too $hort 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:04.080 All my life, the grinding all my life, second fights, 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:08.520 hustle back price one slice, got theron dice to swap 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:11.600 all my life. I've been grinding all my life, all 0:00:11.680 --> 0:00:15.440 my life, the grinding all my life, sacond fights, hustle 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:18.880 back prices. One a slice, got the ba dice to 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:24.080 swapping all my life. I've been grinding all my life. Hello, 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:26.360 welcome to another edition of Club Shaha. I am your 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:29.040 whole Shan and Sharp, also the proprietor of Club sha Shade. 0:00:29.040 --> 0:00:31.720 The guy that's stopping by for conversation and a drink 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:35.000 today really needs no introduction. He's hip hop royalty and 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:39.120 a rap legend. Golden platinum selling rapper and songwriter, record 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:42.160 producer and executive with almost forty years in the game, 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:45.160 The King of the Bay too short? What did it due? 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:51.000 What's up man? That's a multi platinum, multime multipe multi 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:53.080 Yeah cause I did it. I did it like seven 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:56.200 times in a row. What oh yeah, we talked to 0:00:56.280 --> 0:00:58.600 us about it. I'm just trying to trick you got 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:00.480 a new you got a new single coming out called 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:03.880 Nasty Dance. You'll always seem to have an album coming out. 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:07.280 What number album is this for? You. I lost count, 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:10.240 but it's it's up to like twenty something like twenty one, 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:13.320 so somewhere up there. So you got this tell us 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:15.720 about the single that you got that you're about to drop. Well, 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:17.680 you know, I'm just trying our new platforms and stuff. 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:21.040 I partnered up with a company called Encore, okay, and 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.160 it's just a new style of how they shoot the 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:26.240 videos and how they present it. And I'm just you know, 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:31.520 at this age and with my career accolades, I really 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:35.160 don't have much to prove, right, So you know, you know, 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.080 we formed the Mount Westmore group. That's me, Snoop Cube 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:40.920 and E forty, right, and that's kind of like my thing. 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:44.200 So outside of that, I'm just freelancing a little bit, 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:47.360 doing stuff, right, having fun. I love RAPS, right, I'm 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:51.120 just doing it. You started, you got forty years in 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.440 this game, so you started back in the eighties. Obviously 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:56.800 it's a lot different. What's some of the biggest differences 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:59.680 that you noticed between you rap when you started and 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:02.400 currently where it is now. Probably the platforms is the 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:06.200 biggest thing. The Internet and that changed the game as 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:10.079 far as we were so worried about duplicating CDs, and 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:14.000 copying MP three's and file sharing, and it just went 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:19.640 straight to streaming, and streaming with streaming brought multiple multiple platforms, right, 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:23.079 and you can you can maximize just like a artist 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:25.160 can get one hot song right now, and you make 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.560 a boatload of money right just by the fame you 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:31.359 get and the different opportunities you can send your song, 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.120 all these different platforms paying you. So it's it's a 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:37.200 different ball game, and it's it used to be a 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:39.720 lot about skills and what you can bring to the 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:43.480 table original. Now it's just about popularity. Like the most 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:45.640 popular guys gonna get the money. So he don't listen. 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:48.240 He or she doesn't necessarily have to be good, but 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:50.560 just have a hot soul and a hustle and a 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:53.919 hustle and a hustle. So with the new platform that's out, 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:56.040 you have the streaming, you have the Internet, you have 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:58.760 social media guys, you can go directly. So do you 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.080 really need a record company? Do you really need an 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:05.519 you need a record company? The majors have the airwaves 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:08.240 on lock right. They got you know, the big numbers 0:03:08.280 --> 0:03:11.799 on lock right. Yeah, worldwide, that international's on lock right. 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:14.760 But you can get in there without a major and 0:03:14.800 --> 0:03:16.679 you could be like a young Dolf rest in peace, 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:20.320 young Dolf who was making millions independent. It's still it's 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:23.079 still a lane to get in there and master these 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.360 platforms and make make room for yourself, right without a 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:30.320 major label. Yeah, I recommend that as much as possible. Right, 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.040 it depends on who you are individually and what you 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:35.080 want out of this, right, But there is a way 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:38.680 to have ownership and run your own show and have 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:42.040 your own team and be and be a major artist. Right. 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:44.200 But if you just like you, like I want to 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.680 be that guy, I need to be Drake, You're gonna 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:51.880 need that machine behind exactly. Well, you know what, let's 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:54.760 tost I have my own brand of Carnact. You've been 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:57.720 forty years deep in the game. You did it your way, 0:03:57.880 --> 0:04:00.600 and you'll still continue to do it your way. Sloop 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:07.560 brou here we go. That's my own brand. Tell me 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:09.720 they smooth. We go ahead and talk to me. Sure, No, 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:12.040 it really is good. I was. I wouldn't even watch either. 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:14.720 It's it's because if you could just drink it and 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:17.720 it's not a problem, right, it's smooth, Like I don't. 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:21.200 It's coniac man. This reminds me of the old in 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:23.960 the nineties. Tell the story we was telling off fair 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:26.159 to say, you know what, I used to be a 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:29.200 big conjac drinker. I don't really drink as much as 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:31.400 I want. I don't really partake into connact as much 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:35.039 as I once did, because it reminds me of the 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.279 days before I really made it big, and I was 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:40.320 just a little guy, you know, hanging in the streets 0:04:40.360 --> 0:04:42.640 with the homies, and we get the bottle and pass 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:46.840 it around. On a cold day, you know, Coniac was 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.880 your jacket. Yeah, on a hot day, Coniac was your 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:56.360 air condition. From that, and then I start getting a 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.560 little money going into some different little places and I'm like, 0:04:59.600 --> 0:05:02.039 you know, but let me get a margar read it. Yeah, 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:04.479 if you got poof, you got brand new us. So 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:06.480 I saw all, you know, I just I just swished 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:08.120 it up a little bit. And then when I when 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:09.839 I sip a little bit, as soon as I sip 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:11.600 in a smell of to see it, I'm like, oh, 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:13.800 here we go. I'm back on the street corner in Oakland. 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:17.400 In my mind, you know what I'm so, you know, 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:20.839 I'm a tequila guy, but at the same time, I 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:23.760 have a great coneyak drink that I've I've made many 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.560 people over the years that it's high calorie, but it's 0:05:27.600 --> 0:05:31.000 the bomb. So you take you take an even shot 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:35.440 of the coneyak, the Calua and the Bailey's Irish Cream. 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:37.960 Even they gotta be even shots. Put them on a 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:42.440 lot of ice and let it just get together, stirred up, 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.159 real good. It's like a it's like a separator, but 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:48.080 with a ghetto twist, right, and then the other version 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:51.440 is replaced the ice with ice cream. So a couple 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.400 of scoops of ice cream, one shot of Hennessy, well 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:59.279 notot Hennessy, we want to yeah, one shot of port Yeah, 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:01.840 one shot of u Kalua and one shot of the 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:03.920 Bailey's Irish Cream. Mix it with the ice cream and 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:06.719 let it. Let it turn into a milkshake. I'm trying 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:08.560 to tell you, well, we're going to try that. I'm 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:12.479 telling you it's called a dirty m okay and people 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:15.200 such as uh Alan Ivison used to like it once 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:17.200 fun time, right, it was it was I turned on 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.520 I turned Scarface the rapper onto it, right, and between 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:22.120 me and him, we turned a lot of people onto 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:26.240 the dirty mfs okay. I like that. So what can 0:06:26.279 --> 0:06:29.240 we expect from this album though, Uh, you can expect 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:33.599 hip hop to expand, meaning that every time one of 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:36.560 your legacy artists who have who has been around for 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:40.480 a long time, right and you know Nah still dropping albums, 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:43.520 jay Z still dropping hit. You know, rappers who are 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:46.440 well into their forties are doing good, and some into 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:50.280 their fifties, you know, Snoop Snoop Dog Justify, and it's like, 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:55.200 we're just expanding hip hop. Hip Hop hasn't had, uh, 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:58.680 fifty year old rappers that have any type of success. 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:00.840 If I had told you in your twenties and your 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:03.880 early twenties that you still be doing this in your fifties, 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:06.839 what would you have saying? I would have said you're crazy, 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:09.640 because I was like at my early twenties, I would saying, 0:07:09.960 --> 0:07:13.320 anybody that's thirty two is an old man. Right, you're 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:15.480 calling me an old man rapper. And the young rappers 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:16.960 right now and see it the same way. They're like 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:19.160 maybe old dudes, and I'm like, dude, you're gonna be 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:21.920 an old dude one day. Yeah, and your old wish, 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:24.600 you're gonna wish. If you're a twenty two year old rapper, 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:27.280 you're gonna wish that you could be a forty two 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:29.360 year old rapper on stage and they love you, because 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:31.560 that's hard to do. You know what My grandfather's say, Hey, 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.520 I've been your age, you've never been mind. Yeah forty 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:37.440 forty just said that in the Rapper saying that you 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:41.560 keep you keep living. So yeah, man, you know, I 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:45.480 just think it's a beautiful thing that to do what 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:48.920 you do. What I'm doing right in my fifties, right 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:50.960 that I did when I was a teenager, and it's 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:54.800 still something I love and it's still getting me money. Right, 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:56.880 Is that why you do it? Because you still love it. 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:59.240 You don't have to do it, obviously, if you've made money, 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.560 you still made your money. But I do it because 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:09.160 once upon a time I announced that I was retiring. 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:12.600 It's thirty years old, and it was a big promotional 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:15.440 push behind Too Short retiring. I was on my tenth 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:19.160 album at the time, and I remember DJ Red Alert 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:24.200 said to me, he was like, you don't ever see 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:28.160 jazz musicians retiring or blues You know what I'm saying, 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:32.199 Yanna Ross and smoking in him they on the stage. 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:35.760 Stephen doesn't rapper have to stop. So when he said that, 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:40.800 I never ever considered retirement ever again. And I think 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:44.240 that the more I get older and wiser, I'm like, 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:48.000 somebody's gotta keep doing. Is Doctor Dre is older than 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:50.640 me and he's about to perform at the super Bowl. 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:55.280 It be lit too. They didn't go get a young 0:08:55.360 --> 0:08:58.200 thug and gunner. They didn't go get you know, money 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:01.440 bag out, They got I go the Dre. Whether you're 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:03.760 in LA, I mean you got to How you come 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:05.640 to LA and don't get Drake? How you don't get 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:09.560 sloop you? I mean you can't. But agism is a 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:14.520 real thing in entertainment. It is. And they got doctor Drake. 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:18.080 So that's like that that is the host narrative of 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:21.240 what I'm trying to be a part of. Is every 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:25.320 time jay Z steps up to the plate, we accept it. 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.880 And ever since he was twenty something, right, you know. 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:32.320 So it's like, this is saying, not for me, look 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:34.760 what I did. This is saying for my young homie, 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.240 Look what I can do? Right? Look what is Tom 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:40.959 Brady doing right now? Quarterbacks? Right? You know what I'm saying. 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:42.760 He's saying it can't be done, right, I don't know 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:44.439 if you could do it? Who are some of the 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:48.560 features you have on this album. Features I'm trying to 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:51.920 think right now, because you know, I really don't know. 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:56.360 I really don't like value that that much. So if 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:58.760 I got like like say Geasy was on there, and 0:09:58.880 --> 0:10:01.200 my mind is just the homie easy, It's like it's 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:03.360 like nothing I can really like brag on it, right, 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:05.800 But I definitely have some features. I always go out 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:07.880 there and get some homies. I just I do so 0:10:07.920 --> 0:10:11.640 many projects, right, you know, like my westmore like, I'm 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:15.480 not really focused on the bragging part of it. When 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:18.520 it comes out, you're gonna see. How do you determine 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:22.240 who you hop on a track with? Obviously, if Snoop 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:26.280 come gon h forty waterco you gonna It's basically it's 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:30.320 based on friendships relationships. I could have a relationship with 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.800 the label or somebody at the label and not the artist, 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:36.439 and they call me and say I need one, Need 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:37.719 you do one? And I do it. I got a 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:40.400 call from jazz Fai last night about the artists they 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:43.080 were working with Atlanta, and they sent me the song. 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:44.559 I don't know the artist, but I'm gonna do the 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:47.600 song because it's a jazzy fake production right beat. It's hot. So. 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:50.160 A lot of times it could be is a song 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:52.439 hot right? A lot of times it could be who's 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:54.640 the artist, right, and it's an artist I don't know. 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:56.480 I might check the numbers and go a little homie 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:58.719 doing it right, I'm gonna get down so and it 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:03.160 could be family. I mean, like I all my cousins 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:06.800 get one favorite and after that, like cause you want 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:08.800 your favorite to do be a show, you want me 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:11.240 to show me at your party, you need to help 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:13.679 with a car, right, you get one favorite? Right in 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:17.520 a lifetime. When I look at some of the guys 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:20.400 that you've been up with, too big at jay Z's 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.400 the best, I mean yeah, I mean dray T I. 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:27.520 I'm the big homie though, because you eat while you 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:29.280 boyd you have you been at it the longest. I'm 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:31.960 the big homie. A lot of people get at me 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:34.120 and they ask me these stats and these numbers in 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:35.840 this what was happening in and there? I was like, 0:11:35.920 --> 0:11:39.240 all these stories you're telling me, I'm the big homie 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:42.600 and in these stories, in these situations you're talking about 0:11:42.640 --> 0:11:46.800 big pot name all these people. I was plattingum when 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.439 these dudes in high school and middle school and stuff, 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:51.720 I was out there and living in kicking and so 0:11:51.800 --> 0:11:53.959 when they came to the party, I was already the 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:56.240 big dog at the party, like you know, Snoop Dog 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:58.719 was in middle school bumping too short. They all I'm 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:03.560 old g man. So you know, these this list of 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:07.520 artists I've collaborated with a lot of times, a lot 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:09.480 of times. Majority of the times they were getting at 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:11.719 me right now, like I need too short on the song. 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:14.760 I brought a whole lot with me and you know, 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:17.920 I'm proud of it. But at the same time, when 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:19.360 you look back on it, you look like all of 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:21.560 us were right there. But nah, when jay Z first 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:25.000 got at me, I had way more platinums than that 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:28.000 was established all that. So it's it's cool, man. I 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:30.800 love where it all, the way it all played out. 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:33.679 I love that when I look back at it, you know, 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:36.480 I'm a part of an elite group, right and and 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:39.040 you know, and it's history. It's it's hip hop history. 0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:41.280 I mean, it's it's it's I mean, when you think 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.640 about it, think about when you started. I was live. 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:48.680 Look at where we are now. I'm still on the scene. 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:51.199 Like you said, you just mentioned Tom Brady. Tom Brady 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:53.880 said look, I'm three generations. Rod did the two thousand, 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:55.880 I did twenty ten. Here I'm in twenty twenties, still 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:58.920 doing work. He's playing against quarterbacks that wasn't born when 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:01.319 you got to the league, that was two years old 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:04.240 when he got to the league. Did you did you 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.719 think you would have this kind of success, this kind 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.360 of staying power when you started. So when you're a 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:13.800 legend and you're breaking records and you blazing trails, you 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:16.200 don't care about that or even know that, right because 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:18.839 you're a trailblazer. That means you're in front, right, and 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:21.840 you you're the one burning the trail, right. You don't 0:13:21.880 --> 0:13:24.520 realize it till it's a paved road. You look back 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:27.319 and go, I started that. So I'm saying, and you 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:32.480 were in that status of of of just like you're 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:36.240 doing greatness, right, You can't think I'm doing greatness. While 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:38.760 you're doing greatness, you're like just trying to outdo the 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.120 men in the room with you, and and and you, 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:46.800 like we talked this stuff about sports heiress, who would 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.880 have been who? And what error? And I'm like, a 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:53.440 grown man is a grown man side strength, speed? You 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:56.679 put that grown man in any putting back in Africa 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.480 five hundred years ago. He gonna be a man amongst 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:04.000 men because that's who he is. And I think, you know, 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:05.760 you drop me off in any era, you drop me 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:08.280 off in this era hip hop, I'm gonna shine. I 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:11.080 just feel that confident about who I am as an 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:16.600 individ drop me off in the hood in Baltimore, Maryland. Right, 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:19.560 I'm gonna get home. You know what I'm saying. Everybody 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:20.960 ain't gonna make it home. I'm gonna make it home. 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:23.360 Your style, how did you come up with the way 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:29.000 you were gonna rap? I was mimicking New York rappers. 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.760 It's early eighties, okay. And when I say mimicing New 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:35.280 York rappers, I just mean party rap. You know, you 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:37.400 know the girl in the blue dress, well, you know, 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:39.560 you know, just just it was like a shot out 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:41.680 thing and the fun thing. You just kind of rhyming 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:44.000 little simple words and and just trying to get your 0:14:44.040 --> 0:14:47.200 cadence and your patterns together. And then I heard the message, 0:14:47.960 --> 0:14:49.920 and the message is one of those songs that came 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:52.920 out in nineteen eighty two. I was in eleventh grade. 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:55.440 I was one of them little kids that had the 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.720 beat box my big boom box and I'm walking down 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:01.560 the street bu this day. I always remember this day 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:04.800 because I was by myself and had no car. Probably 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.440 was walking from somewhere to the bus stop or something 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:10.320 coming from the bus or something, and the song came on. 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:14.320 I stopped in my tracks by myself on the I was. 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:15.680 I wasn't even on the main street. I was in 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:18.000 like a neighborhood and the song come on and I'm like, 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:19.920 I put the bright away up to my ears. He's 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:24.880 like broken glass everywhere. I'm like what, And I'm I'm 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:27.960 in the streets of Oakland. I'm a rapper. I'm pretty popular. 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:32.240 I'm like little baby popular, right, And I think to myself, 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:35.720 oh my god, I gotta start rapping about Oakland, right, 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:39.160 And literally at that moment, that's what it turned into. 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:43.480 And everything from that point on has been like it's 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:45.480 just been like a match made in heaven. Like when 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:47.720 I put the pen to the paper, I just think 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:50.160 about Oakland, right, and I write songs, and it's just 0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:53.160 it's the message gave me that. Yeah, but you write 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:56.960 about Oakland. Obviously Oakland is in you, but you were 0:15:57.000 --> 0:16:00.240 able to branch out because it wasn't just that Bay 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:02.440 Rappers that we wanted to do too short on the hook. 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:07.280 So so I spent my early years born in LA, right, 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:11.200 and I moved to Oakland right after ninth grade. Okay, 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:14.600 so I'm of that age where if I was in 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:18.000 LA probably could have been trying to dip and dodge 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:20.960 and with gangs. If I get to Oakland and it's 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:23.360 a different thing. It's not the street gangs, blue and red. 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:26.800 It's not like that. It's to me, Oakland looked like 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:29.680 a movie. It looked like a Black Spoyltation movie that 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:32.280 came to life, like I'm on set in the movie. 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:35.800 Everything was colorful. It was the cars, it was the lifestyle. 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:37.880 It just I'm looking at it. It It was totally different 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:43.400 in LA and it just you know it just really 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:46.840 like I think that me telling the story of my 0:16:46.920 --> 0:16:49.560 experiences and what Oakland taught me and brought to me 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:57.200 was partially because of my outside influences. I spent every 0:16:57.200 --> 0:17:01.000 summer in my childhood in New Orleans. My mother couldn't 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:05.000 wait till May junior schools out. You're like, oh, being 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:07.600 my brother, You're on the plane, like come back sea 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:09.679 in August, right, Like you don't get rid of us 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:13.239 for two months every summer. Yeah, y'all, go stay with 0:17:13.240 --> 0:17:16.120 my sister, Go stay with my mama. And I think 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:19.640 that that music in New Orleans gave me a whole 0:17:19.640 --> 0:17:25.800 different cultural thing. That West Coast represent half my knowing, 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:28.240 and the streets of LA and coming up and being 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:30.640 around and Blue and the red and and the hood 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:32.679 stuff out here and the music influence out here. When 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:35.280 I get to Oakland, I bring all this with me, 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:40.040 like subconsciously, and then I absorb all this Bay stuff. 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:43.200 In the Bay Area, the Bay Area music is sliding 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:46.439 the family stone, you know, the whispers, the point of sisters, 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:53.200 power power, and this is before rap and you know confunction. 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:55.520 It's like the Bay has as a I can name 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:58.560 a lot of groups. The Bay has a very rich 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:01.760 music heritage, even the gospel, the Hawkins family. You know, 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:04.800 like it's a lot. And when I come up as 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:07.160 a rapper, I'm the first rapper. I'm the first guy 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:10.760 who steps up to the plate. And I'm looking at 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:13.080 it like because people are you know, the people that 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:14.840 were I was working with when I first came up, 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:18.000 some of them have been around Rick James, They had 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:21.240 been around Power Power, they had been around sly Larry 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:25.920 Graham right, and I'm like, okay, I gotta they telling 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.639 me me, o, you taking big way back. Lar Graham 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:32.040 wanted the men you convunct your love trade, but you 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:36.439 love trade. But I'm saying these old Jesus telling me, look, youngster, 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:38.320 you know this is what we did. This we you know, 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:41.520 they telling me the greatness. I'm like, I gotta live 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:44.720 up to this. So from the start, it's quality man, 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:47.600 It's it's it's it's gotta be quality. And you gonna 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:49.760 listen to the early two short songs and I'm this 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:52.960 musicianship man. It's I got real like musicians on there 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:57.600 trying to uphold the legacy. So you know, how did 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:04.639 you live with forty? Me? Forty have street ties? Okay, 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:08.040 So E forty is definitely a street guy from the streets. 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:11.840 And my whole influence on how I came to be 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:16.879 was from street guys. Like literally, I had a hustle 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:20.800 where I sold cassette tapes in the streets and one 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:25.680 of our clientele I had a rap partner named Freddie Bent. 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:29.600 Of our clientele was street level drug dealers who was 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:36.400 on the street selling drugs. And through that, through those relationships. 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:40.400 When I started the label, the first thing I went 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:42.720 to I didn't go to Wells Fargo. I went to 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:45.119 the street dudes to start the label. If you go 0:19:45.200 --> 0:19:50.399 back and check almost the entire hip hop industry, a 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:53.119 lot of us got bankrolled by the streets, right and 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:57.000 because when you couldn't get along, So what's your occupation 0:19:57.160 --> 0:20:01.240 on the aspiring rep? Get out of here? So E 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:05.600 Forty and his cousins and brother, they's some street dudes 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:08.159 who financed themselves. They wouldn't got the game from their 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:12.280 uncle Charles, who was affiliated with the music scene around 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:15.800 Vallejo to confunction around it. And I got the game 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:18.760 from a guy named Dean Hodges, who was also a 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:22.480 street dude who was dabbling with a lot. He I 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:23.960 feel like he wanted to be a rock star, but 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:26.480 he really didn't. Couldn't play guitar, as a drums or saying. 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:29.639 So he surrounded himself by all these music making people 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:31.119 and he learned a lot. He taught me how to 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:33.360 run an independent label. He taught me how to make 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:36.400 music in a studio and mix it down and put 0:20:36.440 --> 0:20:41.000 it out. And me and Forty was on the same 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:46.000 trajectory he's in Vallejo. I started rapping and getting popular 0:20:46.080 --> 0:20:49.280 before him. He's motivated by me, but he's like on 0:20:49.320 --> 0:20:53.480 a whole nother island thirty miles away and he's doing 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:55.720 it on his own. He's like, I'm getting out there. 0:20:56.040 --> 0:21:01.879 And I think the way we connected was his immediate 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:06.680 crew was literally doing street business with my immediate crew, 0:21:06.960 --> 0:21:10.479 right and at the same time they mixing in England 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:13.280