Speaker 1: When I wrote, y'all all across the USC conton Motts
Speaker 1: Bay to l A, come on the California around the valley.
Speaker 1: We represent that Kelly County. So if you're keeping it
Speaker 1: real on your side of your town, you tune into
Speaker 1: Gangster Chronicles the goals. He's gonna tell you how we go.
Speaker 1: If I like my nose, a girl like Pinocchio, We're
Speaker 1: gonna tell you to choose and nothing but the Gangster
Speaker 1: chronic goals. This is not your average show. You're now
Speaker 1: tuned into the real m. C A. Bick, James and
Speaker 1: Bi Staires from the streets. Hello, five three two one.
Speaker 1: We'd like to welcome you to another episode Against the
Speaker 1: Chronicles podcast now with my homeboys, Jill Man, it's night man.
Speaker 1: We have um, I don't want to say special guests. Man,
Speaker 1: we have a legend of them this month. You know,
Speaker 1: DJ battle Cat Man. You know it ain't too many
Speaker 1: people that can say they spanned three decades and some
Speaker 1: ship no forth so forth. Do you realize, Dog, that
Speaker 1: you've been making music more than some of our listeners
Speaker 1: been alive longer than some of our listeners been alive.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know now, but I can I definitely haven't.
Speaker 1: I have that thought in mind from time to time.
Speaker 1: But I've just been appreciating the fact that that they
Speaker 1: they're still passionate about what I do, and they want
Speaker 1: to be involved, and they want me to finish what
Speaker 1: I started. So you know, it gives me gasoline to
Speaker 1: keep going, all right, you know, because that's just what
Speaker 1: it is. That's the vibe. Yeah, you know, let me
Speaker 1: give this proper introduction, DC Powder. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: BC Powder Official With DJ battle Cat, I would hit
Speaker 1: the applause, put the little pause through the little clause
Speaker 1: affects me everything. Yeahlause too across the board. That's real ship, though,
Speaker 1: And that's one thing about games, the chronicles. We bring
Speaker 1: brothers on their positive brothers. I'm talking about for real,
Speaker 1: for real, that's doing the thing. You got cats out
Speaker 1: there that say, you know, you come from here, you
Speaker 1: come from there, you're never amounted nothing. They get this
Speaker 1: table here, that ship, and that's crazy that reality. They
Speaker 1: gotta they gotta wake up because you know, divine order's
Speaker 1: a beautiful thing once you understand what it is and
Speaker 1: your purpose, you know. So this is the kind of
Speaker 1: table I'd like to be at. This indeed. You know,
Speaker 1: especially you're coming from the area that you come from,
Speaker 1: you know, choices are limited. You could easily became a
Speaker 1: victim to your circumstances around the community, but you use
Speaker 1: your gifts and talents to elevate. Man, it wasn't even
Speaker 1: so much the darkness. I've seen a lot of light
Speaker 1: that could have brung me in. You know, because I've
Speaker 1: seen some guys from my from my soulio, our neighborhood,
Speaker 1: you want to call it tribe. They was more they
Speaker 1: were there was more like heroes in the sense. And
Speaker 1: I see that they still respect that their family, their
Speaker 1: mothers and fathers. So when I've seen that, you know,
Speaker 1: and I've seen the fun that they was having through
Speaker 1: the the culture and the lifestyle of of doing their thing.
Speaker 1: It that was the part that drew me in. But
Speaker 1: you know, once you spend some time a little bit
Speaker 1: more in debt with them, when you see the other
Speaker 1: other activities that go on, you know, you you know
Speaker 1: your curiosity. You know, if you ain't schooled right, you know,
Speaker 1: you you could be drawn in and you never know
Speaker 1: and you don't you don't know what how you built.
Speaker 1: But some of it has been a blessing. I ain't
Speaker 1: gonna lie to some of the glad of you're to school, said,
Speaker 1: I haven't seen with how to you don't be a
Speaker 1: stand up guy and don't let no one just walk
Speaker 1: over you and stuff like that. You know, I haven't
Speaker 1: had a few means on the block that was like, look,
Speaker 1: if you can't keep your own bike, win't gonna keep
Speaker 1: saving you. You know, we're gonna whoop your ass if
Speaker 1: you ain't uh a standing up guy for your bike.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. We don't do all the
Speaker 1: captains say we will be a big brother, but we
Speaker 1: we can't do this all the time because that ain't
Speaker 1: our get down doing that all the time. We want
Speaker 1: to see some dudes who can stand on their own.
Speaker 1: So next time that situation came around, just toughen up
Speaker 1: and just you know, still still still still strong, do
Speaker 1: the battling. He ran off and I was able to
Speaker 1: go home with my fucking bike. I was very respected
Speaker 1: more that way, and I was like cool, that was
Speaker 1: what iut even being quoted on. But I was quoted
Speaker 1: on in their heart because they see that I had
Speaker 1: heart right exactly exactly. It was all I think it
Speaker 1: was all the path of of living where we grew
Speaker 1: up as young kids, as young adolescence, you know, eleven twelve, um,
Speaker 1: watching the Big Homies was was intriguing to really was
Speaker 1: that was our neighborhood hero so to speak. I mean,
Speaker 1: I know you were taught in school, you know, the
Speaker 1: Malcolm's and the Martins and get you a positive role model.
Speaker 1: But you know, I looked at the big Old Jesus
Speaker 1: and then they was protecting the neighborhood. You know. Uh,
Speaker 1: some of them would school us and then telling us
Speaker 1: what we should and shouldn't be doing or if we
Speaker 1: had since enough to venture off in the music orld,
Speaker 1: do whatever. A lot of the Homies would tell us.
Speaker 1: You know, you should that should be your thing. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. I get it. You want to
Speaker 1: represent the neighborhood. But you got you have choices, you
Speaker 1: know that a lot of dudes didn't have. So it's
Speaker 1: like you said, it was sort of like a teaching
Speaker 1: lesson or those were are heroes so to speak. Kind
Speaker 1: of you You you're basically lucky because in the sixties, seventies,
Speaker 1: and the eighties, the Big Homies were totally different than
Speaker 1: the Big Homies. You had today exactly what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Some of them that grew up in the sixties and seventies,
Speaker 1: now you know, they went off to prison or you know,
Speaker 1: the crack every sucked us up and we lost a
Speaker 1: lot of good big homies. But back then, like my uncle's,
Speaker 1: they were there to teach the little homies, the little cats.
Speaker 1: They wanted to hang around them. So in the backyard
Speaker 1: did show you how to play basketball? They was they
Speaker 1: was teaching you if you if you don't know how
Speaker 1: to fight, then we'll go home. You know, my cousins,
Speaker 1: the Duffies. If I lost the fight over there, sat Pedro,
Speaker 1: the motherfucker's made me dirt. You got the fight, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. But but in today, these kids,
Speaker 1: some of these dudes ain't never had a fight. They
Speaker 1: never had to get down like that. And then you
Speaker 1: know the majority of them are bullies. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. They never had to fighting, didn't here you go, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I seen that hands on and and that's one thing
Speaker 1: that I didn't wanna h add to my repertoire on
Speaker 1: my personality, and you know, and being a young kid
Speaker 1: coming coming into a younger del because I really didn't
Speaker 1: like the feeling afterwards. You know what I'm saying. It
Speaker 1: left an ugly feeling, and you know you will go
Speaker 1: home flashing out on your brother or something you know,
Speaker 1: or family member behind it, you know, because they don't
Speaker 1: understand that that outside world, you know, it's like it is,
Speaker 1: and so you you don't have no one for me.
Speaker 1: For me, I was the oldest, so I still needed
Speaker 1: a big brother even though I was the oldest. So
Speaker 1: you know a lot of my big brothers was the
Speaker 1: brothers on the block. So I get what you're saying.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that for the fullest exactly. You know, you've
Speaker 1: been making rigors for a long time. Like I said
Speaker 1: it before, Right, you come in the studio with Reppert.
Speaker 1: Nowaday you're coming there with a repper Do you already
Speaker 1: kind of have in your mind what you want to
Speaker 1: do with that artist when you come in. Uh, that
Speaker 1: depends on the relationship. Early on, I didn't have they
Speaker 1: didn't have any records out. You know, I was dealing
Speaker 1: with people who was brought into it like I would us.
Speaker 1: So excuse me. All I had was this word of mouth. Uh,
Speaker 1: sometimes of that invitation to to to to make music
Speaker 1: for some for someone. So when they get there, um,
Speaker 1: of course I want to hear where they had, if
Speaker 1: they got some previous work, you know, cassettes or something,
Speaker 1: because that's when when the cassette days was our here's something.
Speaker 1: And if they didn't hand the material, they was just
Speaker 1: wrong on this bus, get down acapella, or I'll put
Speaker 1: an instrumental on. Being a DJ, I would put some
Speaker 1: instrumentals on and just just here their skill setting voice,
Speaker 1: you know, and um, I would just go from there.
Speaker 1: And then one thing about me with words, I was
Speaker 1: like to bring the backdrop to words, you know from
Speaker 1: watching movies, you know, television and going to certain things
Speaker 1: and seeing people speak, or even growing up on records
Speaker 1: like the Last Ports and Ports and the Watts Profits
Speaker 1: and you know, Mom had that plan so that I
Speaker 1: got a chance to appreciate word play early on. So
Speaker 1: by time this hip hop thing came, we're talking about
Speaker 1: eight eight two, you know, I didn't really start getting
Speaker 1: down to about maybe I want to say, uh, eight
Speaker 1: eight eight. So but yeah, that's that's that's my initial thing.
Speaker 1: You know, it's just handing a voice, and then I
Speaker 1: just go from mind. Either they're coming with a specification
Speaker 1: if they're really good with hearing music, you know, knowing
Speaker 1: what they want. Yeah, got this sample. That's that's what
Speaker 1: the hip hop game was when they first started, you know. Um,
Speaker 1: so they were bringing their little twelve inches or forty
Speaker 1: fives or concessing. I played, and you want you want
Speaker 1: to chop up? You want this part right here, chop it,
Speaker 1: loop it and just arrange it. So they sung that
Speaker 1: that song structure to their lyrics and then next thing,
Speaker 1: you know, week we're rocking and rolling. Yeah, because one
Speaker 1: thing I noticed that you do really really well is like,
Speaker 1: let's say you're making the track for eight M. You're
Speaker 1: specifying it to him, but you still got your signature
Speaker 1: battle Cat sound. You can still tell that's a battle
Speaker 1: Cat track. That's a BC Pounder track, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? That's about. And to get to it and
Speaker 1: for those who are polished I do and already have
Speaker 1: a track record a good material out there. Of course
Speaker 1: I listened to it because the thing is just supposed
Speaker 1: topos to bringing things to the table where it feels
Speaker 1: like it's relevant but it's still new and it's and
Speaker 1: it's and you're putting their sound and your sound together.
Speaker 1: So what I would do was incorporate uh certain instrumentations
Speaker 1: uh uh, meaning from their previous records. I would incorporate
Speaker 1: some of it. I know that like with eight, he
Speaker 1: like jazz, she's like hip hop, he like R and B,
Speaker 1: and he like funk. So and you know, to work
Speaker 1: with him, I'll just make sure that I got maybe
Speaker 1: two or three of every genre, so I won't I
Speaker 1: won't miss you know what I'm saying. To cover the
Speaker 1: different temples and moves swing, it could be laid back
Speaker 1: and don't want uh our energy jazz track. You might
Speaker 1: want to lay back jazz track. So I would do
Speaker 1: one mid temple smooth and one kind of up temple,
Speaker 1: because that's what you're supposed to do. You gotta go
Speaker 1: outside the box. If he never been on something in
Speaker 1: another style in the vein that he likes, that's that's
Speaker 1: what a producer needs to do to challenge so on
Speaker 1: and show diversity in their in their creativity. That's what
Speaker 1: really creates a longevity relationship with producers and writers in
Speaker 1: this thing called you know, entertainment. I think it's producers
Speaker 1: who are crafted and know they work. Basically, you get
Speaker 1: producers sometimes who just throw you in anything. But then
Speaker 1: there are producers who know the artists, like like like
Speaker 1: like he said, I know what dog raps two, know
Speaker 1: what they eight wraps too. So it ain't like you
Speaker 1: gotta like to build a bear bullshit, like let me
Speaker 1: try to figure out what he likes, or I'm gonna
Speaker 1: come to the studio with this all kind of ship.
Speaker 1: He already know the direction. So that's a good producer
Speaker 1: to me because I don't have to sit up and
Speaker 1: tell him motherfucker life, Well, uh, you should listen to this,
Speaker 1: or you should listen to this, or you should listen
Speaker 1: to that. Then you're kind of get my flavor. Good
Speaker 1: producers already know the artists. Stay working with so off
Speaker 1: the gate. Or if I'm working with this cat, already
Speaker 1: know what type of beat to make him, you give
Speaker 1: me because that's his track record. So just say you're
Speaker 1: walking into the door, you would have expectations of battle Cat.
Speaker 1: You already know what I would have expectations of. He
Speaker 1: already know what I like, So he ain't gonna come
Speaker 1: with no ship that I'd be like, Oh, that's some
Speaker 1: ship that so and so will wrap two or that's
Speaker 1: something that that cat would wrap two and everything he
Speaker 1: probably wore. And and then it's like he said, it's
Speaker 1: good to be diverse. Let you try something different. See
Speaker 1: if he liked that. You get me. You know, I
Speaker 1: ain't just want to mention I'm coming with my bag
Speaker 1: because if his past relationships or anyone, you know, he
Speaker 1: still got his his relationship with us with his jeez,
Speaker 1: are you know whoever he's getting down with. But sometimes
Speaker 1: when you live life, sometimes different things happened to you
Speaker 1: in the inside about your taste of music, and you
Speaker 1: be needing a sound that that is transparent with what
Speaker 1: you're feeling. So you know, you mentioned a couple of
Speaker 1: things that was key now with me being successful, I
Speaker 1: have had these talks with certain artists who really know
Speaker 1: music without composing it and challenged me and said, hey,
Speaker 1: can't you should get back in your bag or let
Speaker 1: me give you this. If they'll say this is what
Speaker 1: what else I've been listening to? And I like that
Speaker 1: because they know I'm gonna know about it once I
Speaker 1: hear it. Because of my instrumentation, I'm gonna musician first
Speaker 1: before the title of a beatmaker. My my first passion's
Speaker 1: drums and percussion, then keys, so I understand rhythm all
Speaker 1: away across. Plus I used to pop blocks, so I
Speaker 1: understand rhythm and dancing. And you know, when you're making
Speaker 1: music and you be and as you being a DJ,
Speaker 1: you know, you really know how to captivate a crowd
Speaker 1: and the audience. And you must be open minded. Because
Speaker 1: when I wasn't open minded, I see where that got me.
Speaker 1: But when I start opening my mind about the different audience,
Speaker 1: I think, I think, uh, Greg mckin uh and Roger
Speaker 1: Clayton from Minchael James on me and k they by
Speaker 1: them being up on the both of those entities, it
Speaker 1: showed me a lot about how to not lose your crowd,
Speaker 1: your audience, you know. And so m once I start
Speaker 1: understanding people as a young kid, they move swings, where
Speaker 1: they come from and what they're looking to do once
Speaker 1: they're getting in a place like a club or or
Speaker 1: house party. Your thing is is to build the momentum
Speaker 1: of of a good time, and so you must listen
Speaker 1: to records that can really captivate and and really move
Speaker 1: the crowd. You have a responsibility to command the audience
Speaker 1: and take them someplace where it feels like an adventure.
Speaker 1: So when they go back home. They're not really thinking
Speaker 1: about their problems. They really more motivated to do something about,
Speaker 1: you know, the situation at hand, and music does that.
Speaker 1: They really bring a lot of you know, different views
Speaker 1: and perspective where you you know you you're you have
Speaker 1: a better chance in life. You know, we heard let
Speaker 1: the Curtis Mayfields. You know when those who say they
Speaker 1: live with this type of music, it's also a lifestyle
Speaker 1: that goes with the music. So you have a responsibility
Speaker 1: to be that. You know, if this if this music
Speaker 1: is your it's the soundtrack to your day. And whether
Speaker 1: you're going to pay a bill or going to see
Speaker 1: a girl or see a family member. You know that
Speaker 1: music and the message in it can set the tone.
Speaker 1: And that's what I always understood early owners as a
Speaker 1: kid being a musician to a world were now producer
Speaker 1: and he was a DJ too, because I noticed all
Speaker 1: the great producers are DJs as well, even the ones
Speaker 1: that don't got DJ in front of the you know,
Speaker 1: in front of the in front of their name, or
Speaker 1: you go back to the day and you find out
Speaker 1: that they did have a DJ at one time, like
Speaker 1: like when I got an invitation to see Jimmy Jammy
Speaker 1: Terry Lewis. Come to find out Jimmy jam was a
Speaker 1: DJ first before he was a full fledged music musician,
Speaker 1: and and and and uh it made so much sense
Speaker 1: abhout his rhythms. It's like it was like they work.
Speaker 1: You know, that's the West Bend, you know, Alexander O'Neil
Speaker 1: sarell or even with the rap uh Homie from Long
Speaker 1: Beach Bad Times that yeah, you know he that's Jimmy
Speaker 1: jam and Terry Lewis early on with hip hop and
Speaker 1: R and B. So you're right. And all the DJs
Speaker 1: that was in the late seventies that I knew that
Speaker 1: was producers. Dre is one of them, uh, Greg Royals
Speaker 1: rest in Peace, Uh, Sidney Thomas, d J. Redge, you know,
Speaker 1: Egypts and Love and Roger dam guys uh and then
Speaker 1: the rest of our crew, you know, the rest of
Speaker 1: my Kady Mixed Masters are end up being producers as well,
Speaker 1: Joe Cooley, uh, Ralph M. Trasky, Romeo, Jam and James.
Speaker 1: There's something in the name, you know. And and and
Speaker 1: it pays It paid off for us doing that. You know,
Speaker 1: we had a sense of responsibility of getting into the
Speaker 1: production world. You know what I'm saying, because we we
Speaker 1: was it was in the man. We needed music that
Speaker 1: was relevant to where we from because we didn't have that.
Speaker 1: My music was kind of all over the place before
Speaker 1: we found an yea and purpose. Yeah, let's pay some
Speaker 1: bills real quick and checking in with our sponsors. Do
Speaker 1: you know what I want to go back to. I
Speaker 1: want to go back to the eighties. Oh okay, we
Speaker 1: can go back to the eighties kind of right. Yes,
Speaker 1: you remember the California Kick. Yes, I was a kid
Speaker 1: they mixed Master as well as um uh California Cat
Speaker 1: Crew remember. And what it was for me is because
Speaker 1: I always always wanted to be a part of a
Speaker 1: crew because, like I said, I was the oldest. So
Speaker 1: if I was blessed not have the hood like E was, say,
Speaker 1: take me under. They really encouraged me to get out
Speaker 1: and do my thing. You know. I was already DJ
Speaker 1: and the host parties and and black tie affairs and
Speaker 1: all of that type of stuff and birthdays, but being
Speaker 1: in the California Cat Crew was gonna I thought would
Speaker 1: be the next best thing to earn Roger Clayton of
Speaker 1: uncle Jim ormaner one of the finals. I would be
Speaker 1: able to earn his trust and respect with a reputation
Speaker 1: because he wasn't really letting people in and he knew
Speaker 1: that certain backgrounds of the neighborhoods we was found to
Speaker 1: come with consequences. And so that's one thing he tried
Speaker 1: to do was not alienate people who come from you know,
Speaker 1: the different parts of the neighborhood. But you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: it's it's a given if they're uh cheerleading your your
Speaker 1: your your craft and your reputation, you know, of course
Speaker 1: they want to come and support, you know, and uh
Speaker 1: having people's skills. But that California Cat crew was me, Bobcat,
Speaker 1: uh kid cat Um scratch Cat, and uh of course
Speaker 1: Bob himself, you know, so you got you know, Pooky
Speaker 1: Pooky uh and Bob was definitely not right down the
Speaker 1: street from me. You know, it was a skip in
Speaker 1: the hop, you know, traveling from the sixties to the fifties,
Speaker 1: you know, we got the ben g s they blood,
Speaker 1: you know, and I used to walk from my hood
Speaker 1: through their hood to get to Bob. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. Because his professional approach and hunger and passion
Speaker 1: for Dejing was at an all time high. I mean,
Speaker 1: and and uh that that was the closest guy I
Speaker 1: could get to to to, you know, to to be
Speaker 1: able to hand this message over to egyps and Lover
Speaker 1: and Roger said, Hey, I got a little you know,
Speaker 1: a little homie. You know, he's on time, he dressed right,
Speaker 1: his records is up to date, and he knew how
Speaker 1: to play. I put him on. I gave him a
Speaker 1: platform to play, and he didn't run the audience you know,
Speaker 1: on the fan, you know, or what not, you know,
Speaker 1: off the floor. He kept him on the dance floor
Speaker 1: his transition and time and was superb because that's one
Speaker 1: thing about the art of DJ, and you still had
Speaker 1: had to represent in a way where you look like business,
Speaker 1: you look like a DJ, and you look like you
Speaker 1: come to captivate, you know, uh, invitation to a club
Speaker 1: or a concert. So that that helped me tremendously to
Speaker 1: be up under his his his crew, and it gave
Speaker 1: me so much game because we end up going I
Speaker 1: end up going to the same high school that he
Speaker 1: went to. Well, I could see him hands on and
Speaker 1: when I seen him play with the Gypsy and Love
Speaker 1: and Roger, it was it was it was incredible, you know,
Speaker 1: because we got principles grown adults there, Jona Church, you
Speaker 1: know that new vibe. So I'm watching the whole demographic
Speaker 1: and demonstration of how they had to take another look
Speaker 1: at Bob and go, you know what, it's not just
Speaker 1: the food for mother, the photos, cripping and acting. Then asshole,
Speaker 1: he really have a skill set that doesn't exist in
Speaker 1: the school because we didn't have that kind of academic
Speaker 1: or whatever in our class, you know, far as DJ.
Speaker 1: But you know, it was something to appreciate, and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: I just followed his footsteps. I filed shout out to
Speaker 1: my big brother, DJ Bob, Big Bob, I'm on you.
Speaker 1: I want to stay during this time period because this
Speaker 1: is important. What was the streets of l a Like?
Speaker 1: Because because one thing about Los Ange, there's one thing
Speaker 1: about music. Period of music pretty much mirrors the community.
Speaker 1: What's going on in the community at that time. What
Speaker 1: was the streets of l a Like during that time?
Speaker 1: We can all y'all can all the left right on
Speaker 1: that um Man during the head during that for years
Speaker 1: we're talking about like you know, eighty nine, I'm talking
Speaker 1: about five through like that. That's understand. The streets was vicious,
Speaker 1: um gang Dangan was vicious. Uh drive by New drive
Speaker 1: By was that? I mean, Ship Niggas was getting smoked
Speaker 1: like every every day. I mean especially in content. I
Speaker 1: know Niggas was shoot crazy. So the music to me,
Speaker 1: um and it was all Parliament and George Clinton and
Speaker 1: and you know the wrap Wrap for us was kind
Speaker 1: of off, man, I mean, hood Niggas was used listening
Speaker 1: to or Bounce and motherfucking I heard it through the
Speaker 1: grape vine. Well that was the Gamester rep that was
Speaker 1: there before Rep. That was kind of like the music
Speaker 1: that was. And then you know, you had like you said,
Speaker 1: we had Egyptian Lover, We had l a dream team
Speaker 1: Bobby Jimmy and the Critters and ship like that. Are
Speaker 1: wrapp didn't show neighborhood substance until Todd in Space came
Speaker 1: with the t v K takes and they started they
Speaker 1: started doing the parodies off of like you know, where
Speaker 1: the Al Yankovic would do. He would take motherfucker's music
Speaker 1: and make his own songs. So thus we had the
Speaker 1: battle Ram off the Wrapping Duke. We had motherfucking the
Speaker 1: Clucks come Out at Night off of Whodini's Freaks Come
Speaker 1: Out at Night. You know, we had motherfucking you know,
Speaker 1: just say no and Spade with the Compton posse and
Speaker 1: rapping off the genius of love and um. That was
Speaker 1: our introduction to the neighborhood rap, introduction to nigga selling dope,
Speaker 1: you know in the neighborhoods Our introduction to the battle
Speaker 1: Ram and Darryl Gates and the fund Up l ap
Speaker 1: D and Mayor Tom Bradley and all that ship. That's
Speaker 1: where I learned about all that ship listening to time
Speaker 1: tapes because they talked about all that ship. Ship that
Speaker 1: wasn't being broadcasted or seen. They was giving you the
Speaker 1: information about what was going on in the neighborhood. So
Speaker 1: that was my introduction to ship. You need to bring
Speaker 1: your ass up your another another. That's then that's with
Speaker 1: that transition, we started getting the banging on wax, battle
Speaker 1: Cat and them came along with my nigga Domino and
Speaker 1: all hips. That's what that was. That's that was our
Speaker 1: era of music. It started to transition. I loved I
Speaker 1: like how you put that because all I could do
Speaker 1: is just give you the West side of South Central perspective.
Speaker 1: It was that and then something because uh, the record
Speaker 1: stores and the DJs UH existed existed a lot in
Speaker 1: a lot of the South central areas. We had to
Speaker 1: sloss in the Western DJO down the street right across
Speaker 1: the street from the Slash and Swape met um we had.
Speaker 1: Even in Guardina. It was a couple of other locations
Speaker 1: where we were a lot of the DJs are homies
Speaker 1: from the streets will actually go to these v I
Speaker 1: P and record stores to go get they uh the
Speaker 1: go get their music. But then the mix tape game
Speaker 1: for us UH paid off because I was able to
Speaker 1: start hearing other different neighborhoods uh farther from me, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, like Compton, Long Beach and and Guarden.
Speaker 1: I started hearing people's uh expressions of their experiences of
Speaker 1: life through music. I was all of them tapes was
Speaker 1: coming across. And you know which kind of prepared me
Speaker 1: forebanging on wax, you know, because you had Quick making
Speaker 1: his mix tapes and and and and it was Crypts
Speaker 1: actually playing his tapes. I didn't hear from a blood.
Speaker 1: That was another thing they ignored what you know, wasn't
Speaker 1: the customed to they is because of the where they
Speaker 1: was from. But they saw his gift beyond at and
Speaker 1: so well, now I just incorporated all what was happening
Speaker 1: in the streets and it just groomed me. So when
Speaker 1: Teddy not Teddy, but the homio tweety Bird from Compton
Speaker 1: and U my other boy Red Rum, you know from
Speaker 1: from Inglewood. You know, when them two came together with
Speaker 1: their unique idea to start voicing, uh, the big homies
Speaker 1: who was more in depth what the real things that
Speaker 1: was happening without given too much uh you know insight.
Speaker 1: You know, they was very good. We're talking about the layers,
Speaker 1: light layers or the first layers of the greedy, the
Speaker 1: greediness of cripping and blood and and and uh tribes
Speaker 1: and tripulations and adversities are broken homes and the police
Speaker 1: in the whole nine yards. So it groomed me and
Speaker 1: it prepared me for that. And I think Leon Heywood
Speaker 1: and a couple of other individuals for that opportunity because
Speaker 1: I didn't see that coming. That was like a shock,
Speaker 1: a shock value to my to my craft and what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do better before you doing it? Because you
Speaker 1: want to hold another subject now, because I was gonna
Speaker 1: speak on banging on wax. It's connected to all that
Speaker 1: when he when he said eight, it got close and
Speaker 1: got real super close. That's the only reason why I
Speaker 1: gave you that gym. Yeah, And what I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: is I'm gonna tell y'all a lot there for you'all
Speaker 1: youngsters to go do your research and for the ogs
Speaker 1: to know to know when Banging on Wax hit, it
Speaker 1: was like atomic bomb in the streets that hit because
Speaker 1: you for the first time you had every card that
Speaker 1: you heard go by, whether there was a blood or
Speaker 1: a crypt, it was playing the same music and it
Speaker 1: kind of brought something. And um, that album wouldn't go
Speaker 1: a lot of people radio play. And you know, you
Speaker 1: know how Scandler Ship was back then. If it wind't
Speaker 1: go here to the United States, you know they probably
Speaker 1: sold West Coast music, especially back then at that time.
Speaker 1: Anything West Coast. You go to Japan, it was on.
Speaker 1: We was out there getting We took as Big eight,
Speaker 1: We took we took dads out there. We took me
Speaker 1: and Coke. He took dads and glasses out there they
Speaker 1: first time in Japan. And we was out there setting
Speaker 1: CDs four hundred and fifty dollars dog and in fifty
Speaker 1: dollars so ain't no telling what they sold out there.
Speaker 1: But not to cut you off, I want to get
Speaker 1: back to it. I just wanted to drop the significance
Speaker 1: of that that CD carry. Um excuse but um, you
Speaker 1: know when that happened, you know, it was some question
Speaker 1: marks definitely going across my head because I know these
Speaker 1: it's a it's a g code and how much information
Speaker 1: is going to be you know, expressed over this music. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the thing about it was if we could change the narrative,
Speaker 1: we had to do it first about keeping it raw
Speaker 1: and express why this attitude, why this language, why this
Speaker 1: lifestyle and cultures like it is? Uh? And definitely it
Speaker 1: comes from poverty, stricken in those situations or father not
Speaker 1: there or mother not there and and the block hugging
Speaker 1: you and this is what they're you know, adolescent or
Speaker 1: rules or lifestyle is going to be. So. But if
Speaker 1: the thing was is that that's just embrace it. So
Speaker 1: it felt weird to to perpetuate the genocide aspect of it,
Speaker 1: meaning what we've seen, what we're talking, what we lived
Speaker 1: on the streets, it's now, but to be amplified ten
Speaker 1: times more because it's another thing, you know, how it
Speaker 1: is you take a song, you put your own spin
Speaker 1: on it. But now we're do in the video and
Speaker 1: now we're putting it on cassette for distribution and the
Speaker 1: corporation behind this culture, it's gonna be looked at all
Speaker 1: kind of ways. So I had to find a name
Speaker 1: for myself, and it was Sea Rider. I'm more of
Speaker 1: a rider than a banger. I knew better, you know,
Speaker 1: And I really wanted to be that for numerous of
Speaker 1: reasons because I didn't want to uh tarnish a real
Speaker 1: name that I earned, uh through some heroes and in
Speaker 1: the in the music industry, and that was battle Cat.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be battle Cat from sixties. I
Speaker 1: wanted to be Sea Riders from sixties. So when people
Speaker 1: see that, they're gonna have their own spending perspective. Oh,
Speaker 1: kid from out of the sixties are over there from
Speaker 1: the sixties. It's okay. Because one thing I wanted to
Speaker 1: do was make sure that my own identity personally and
Speaker 1: professional it was was embraced. Like That's one thing I
Speaker 1: did level about I still do about the g from
Speaker 1: my hood day. They they let me be me, and uh,
Speaker 1: that was a beautiful thing to have that so I
Speaker 1: could uh bring that into making the record. But at
Speaker 1: first you know and you know how it is in
Speaker 1: the pind if you going to take uh a name
Speaker 1: that is not on the platform of music and not
Speaker 1: appreciate it at at all, and you and you and
Speaker 1: you say rolling sixty r SC who is this dude
Speaker 1: that's representing us? And when would he win? So it
Speaker 1: got to the top that and this this is it's
Speaker 1: a nigger perpetrating us. And then when they found out
Speaker 1: I was off to a g C and it was
Speaker 1: actually me and my reasons it's because I wasn't the
Speaker 1: one from my hood really rapping. But we had a
Speaker 1: big hooman from my hood who had a brother named
Speaker 1: Banded uh uh. He was He was real good and
Speaker 1: the auto rapping, but he went and did time. So
Speaker 1: I didn't have no one from my hood to be
Speaker 1: a voice. So that's when I became that artist for
Speaker 1: that movement, and the success of it was to really
Speaker 1: like like when it got to ghetto boy, I mean
Speaker 1: not ghetto boy, but I would say that the ghetto
Speaker 1: boys are what the chronic was. I was looking for
Speaker 1: the maturity of cripping and blood and to go to
Speaker 1: another level where We're now not talking about knocking each
Speaker 1: other's all off, because we already got cousins, brothers, sister's
Speaker 1: wife's husband from you know, from that perspective going into it.
Speaker 1: So and then I was looking at it being another
Speaker 1: opportunity to introduce different other barrels or ghettos or tribes
Speaker 1: to another neighborhood. You know what I'm saying, Because in
Speaker 1: the art of Dijon, that's I always had to dress
Speaker 1: neutral and make sure that whoever I was bringing with
Speaker 1: me had an open mind and and didn't bring fear
Speaker 1: to the table by going with me to these different neighborhoods.
Speaker 1: So that was my contribution. They wanted to do this
Speaker 1: thing called banging on wax so we can re educate
Speaker 1: people and uh and get people to know who's who,
Speaker 1: because if you ever go back going across Compton, you
Speaker 1: know you I didn't have no one until I actually
Speaker 1: did banging on banging the wax. It was I was
Speaker 1: able to get someone to help me identify what was
Speaker 1: the lochest dollar or the language or culture of of
Speaker 1: of Compton. And so that helped me tremendously. I thought
Speaker 1: banging on wax when I listened to it it was
Speaker 1: us banging against them and the crips doing them. But
Speaker 1: the way you putting it is like trying to change
Speaker 1: it through music. Um to get to put a different
Speaker 1: spin on it through music. And I didn't look at
Speaker 1: it by listening to uh yeah when yeah. I didn't
Speaker 1: look at it like that like they're trying to change
Speaker 1: something like like but it was just wrong. And let
Speaker 1: me let me I'm glad you jumped in and say that,
Speaker 1: because see, for me, that's why a domino came out
Speaker 1: of it. Feel me. We I don't want I didn't
Speaker 1: want us to be looked at as just that because
Speaker 1: if you take the pillars of it off, you got
Speaker 1: some incredible human beings and we always looked at as
Speaker 1: a fucking animal. So why look at that image as
Speaker 1: a career. See, because a lot of those brothers wasn't
Speaker 1: really active our shot callers from their from their hood.
Speaker 1: They were just being in a sense like what what
Speaker 1: what what? What? What? What? What? What? Um uh Cube
Speaker 1: in a sense was a messenger and vood for the
Speaker 1: neighborhood and not really active member like me. I wasn't
Speaker 1: an active member. Drake was an active member. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a lot of us in this game. We're not
Speaker 1: active members, but we held a connected understanding the culture
Speaker 1: of the movement. I mean, but listen, I ain't gonna
Speaker 1: say I'm not gonna say that that didn't exist, you know,
Speaker 1: but um, that was my intent. But yeah, that was
Speaker 1: my intent, and and and it worked and in more
Speaker 1: ways than one because I wasn't there to change no one,
Speaker 1: but it would have been incredible to hear what if
Speaker 1: the second one had to be that same level of
Speaker 1: you know this and each other. I still wanted the
Speaker 1: conversation to open up, to show some maturity from both
Speaker 1: both sides, you know what I'm saying. And so when
Speaker 1: you do that, then people can go and say, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's that's the story, and they really who they are,
Speaker 1: but they really human beings underneath all that. Because we're
Speaker 1: dealing with the mayors, the government, we're dealing with police,
Speaker 1: we're dining with sheriffs, were dealing with judge. You know,
Speaker 1: when they heard that music, they're just like, oh ship,
Speaker 1: they're gone wild. They they not for the become nothing
Speaker 1: out of this. So don't you think, uh another you
Speaker 1: have y'all should do this again, because now and everything
Speaker 1: is different than the eighties the nineties, with with all
Speaker 1: this ship that's going on today and and gang members
Speaker 1: crossing over, you know, able to shoot at the table
Speaker 1: with each other. You know what I'm saying. From all
Speaker 1: walks aside now here we are on some total different ship.
Speaker 1: Now we can speak that. Man if I didn't know
Speaker 1: this brother from from from being from Tragnew have been
Speaker 1: working with him a long time ago. Now we can
Speaker 1: write about that ship. You can get your bloods, you
Speaker 1: can get them on the same page and do it.
Speaker 1: And that would be some cold ship, Big James. I
Speaker 1: think it got a lot to do with you know,
Speaker 1: Like I said, the budget that I've seen in the
Speaker 1: maturity of the Brothers. I've seen early on in the
Speaker 1: eighties that was crippling and blood. And they still have
Speaker 1: some morals and principles. But when you got jeeves that
Speaker 1: are ignorant and on the dark side and changing a
Speaker 1: code or whatever that it is, and the perpetuating something
Speaker 1: that doesn't bring value to the lifestyle of crippling and blood,
Speaker 1: and then you got them going uh in the circle
Speaker 1: that they confused. They're like, come on, become me. I
Speaker 1: see you doing good and I see you providing this
Speaker 1: and this in from you, But why won't you bring
Speaker 1: it all the way out across the board. And it's
Speaker 1: just like putting the laundry on the table that the
Speaker 1: ends and the outs of how to will and deal?
Speaker 1: How when when when do I turn this off? You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And and a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of different neighborhoods, a lot of them didn't want
Speaker 1: to turn it off because they glorified it. You know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't you know, I didn't. I didn't. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: privy to see those meetings. And even if I was,
Speaker 1: I know, for me, I didn't want to be in
Speaker 1: the room and I'm not active and that's not my lifestyle.
Speaker 1: And I hear this, and then when ship go wrong,
Speaker 1: then they're looking at who was the who was all
Speaker 1: in the room when this was being talked about. So
Speaker 1: I knew then early on, I didn't really want that.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to be the the what what you
Speaker 1: know the title that they you didn't want to be
Speaker 1: the pup, Yeah, exactly. And there's a lot of brothers
Speaker 1: who who didn't mean to be there, but they was
Speaker 1: there because of certain things that they saw them made
Speaker 1: them comfortable to be there because they wasn't safe at
Speaker 1: their own crib. They just felt like with them, if
Speaker 1: I'm getting this love and he's giving me attention and
Speaker 1: my dad ain't here, on my uncle in here, I
Speaker 1: want to be here. So then you got a lot
Speaker 1: of artists who get inspired to say, funk that I'm
Speaker 1: carpeting the hard rock and you know, on the wall,
Speaker 1: but ain't the one even me enough to value what
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about? So if if that all those pieces
Speaker 1: not there, fucking I'm just gonna go all the way
Speaker 1: this way. And then you've got a lot of g's
Speaker 1: that would laugh at that and think it's entertainment and
Speaker 1: think it's the ship, but really you're sucking up someone
Speaker 1: who could be especial or brilliant or successful to to life.
Speaker 1: So so when when you when Drey was doing records
Speaker 1: like a little gettle boy, I was so fucking happy
Speaker 1: because he spoke from a perspective that the b g
Speaker 1: S are a little homies always wanted to hear was
Speaker 1: a U O G take accountability for the bully ship
Speaker 1: or the destructive ship. He inspired his homie. So when
Speaker 1: he said, uh, I'm bigger than you. What you want
Speaker 1: to do. Didn't know he had you. I cried like
Speaker 1: a kid because I actually seen those scenarios and that's
Speaker 1: when I knew Dre was You know, this is this
Speaker 1: is the type of ship that made even Wonta hug
Speaker 1: him even that much more. You know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: because that's what was going on, big homies was getting
Speaker 1: out of penitentiary, uh, bullying the little homies in the game,
Speaker 1: taking their little sacks, doing all these different types of
Speaker 1: So when the little homies, I'm here to show you
Speaker 1: I'm with it. I'm here to say I'm I'm keep
Speaker 1: funking on day and this is what you're gonna do
Speaker 1: to me being on me. I ain't trying to fight you,
Speaker 1: but to fight back and for everybody else not to
Speaker 1: see you as a punk. Pa pa, Pa pa. That's
Speaker 1: all little ghetto Boys was and and he told it
Speaker 1: the right way and and how this ship actually go down,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. And that's why I say,
Speaker 1: if you did another banging on Wax and and of
Speaker 1: the of the gangsters today, the concept to be way
Speaker 1: wider than what it was at the first time, because
Speaker 1: now you've got the older cats and the younger cats
Speaker 1: kind of linking up and they understand each other, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, because the world is really up now.
Speaker 1: The hoods are not the same no more. Once you
Speaker 1: change the concept of what it was the first time,
Speaker 1: you see what it is now, it's totally different. It's
Speaker 1: it's and and uh, we're quick can wrap together and
Speaker 1: talk about this ship. Yeah. That that that blew my
Speaker 1: mind because I actually witnessed at Snoopy's function. I think
Speaker 1: it was for his birthday or or his wife. And
Speaker 1: I've seen eight until and quick there, and I cheered
Speaker 1: up a little bit because you know, it's not from
Speaker 1: a soft point of view. It's just like I know
Speaker 1: him both, you know, you know, when we don't do
Speaker 1: nothing about it and we don't look outside the box
Speaker 1: about how to be bigger, bigger than these scenarios and situations,
Speaker 1: then all leaders and ship you know, they never get
Speaker 1: uh get going, they never get off the ground and
Speaker 1: never you know, get past it in the first situation.
Speaker 1: So when I seen that, I was like, damn it.
Speaker 1: Then I seen chill with eight and then I seeing
Speaker 1: how humble see this is what it what it is
Speaker 1: when you can see like my real name is Kevin.
Speaker 1: Battle Cat is a brand. Battle Cat can't be two people.
Speaker 1: And when you try to put human perspective with another
Speaker 1: name that ain't really who you are as a person.
Speaker 1: People really don't know the difference. So when you're trying
Speaker 1: to turn off your brand or your name, industry name,
Speaker 1: it's hard to do that because you didn't really from
Speaker 1: the gate, uh separate the two. And sometimes you know what,
Speaker 1: the public is gonna allow you to separate the two
Speaker 1: because you would have like instance like this, like let's say,
Speaker 1: for example, you have eight You just said James mother
Speaker 1: McDonald for ship. Everybody keeps Mom James a brand and
Speaker 1: who But I'm here to bed I'm here to beg
Speaker 1: the different. I'm James McDonald was born James McDonald. Mom
Speaker 1: James was a actor. Mom James, I played a role
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood to be that guy. Ain't that guy
Speaker 1: no more? Because I took myself about the neighborhood. So
Speaker 1: when I why should I continue to be him? If
Speaker 1: I continue to be Mom James, I glorified what I
Speaker 1: did exactly and I can't quit. I'm not there no more.
Speaker 1: So man, you said it, man, You people just people
Speaker 1: just want. It's just sometimes people just don't want to
Speaker 1: get over the fact that you can mature. It's like
Speaker 1: people want to reminisce on on that character. And like
Speaker 1: I said, I hear it every day. Why don't you
Speaker 1: wrap like you did thirty years ago? I come, you
Speaker 1: don't talk about the dry byes? And I'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: I'm not on the block, no more selling crack. What
Speaker 1: the dudes due in my pocket? Trying to you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, like, I don't do that ship anymore?
Speaker 1: What about this? The things we're doing the neighborhood. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna just say on eight the things that they did
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood and accomplishments that he made from Track. Now,
Speaker 1: the little homies from Track now look up to you.
Speaker 1: They don't look at John Wayne and see John Wayne
Speaker 1: as the hero. They're looking at you as being a hero.
Speaker 1: And in the coldest part about the little homies that
Speaker 1: respect us, they don't understand the change, That's all it is.
Speaker 1: They don't understand how can you change? You're supposed to be?
Speaker 1: This is what I what I learned to love, to glorify.
Speaker 1: And then and they don't think you're supposed to grow up.
Speaker 1: But and then at the end of the day, we
Speaker 1: all got to grow up. This man, we gotta grow
Speaker 1: up and we gotta learn how to be man. But
Speaker 1: the little homies and the people in the neighborhood look
Speaker 1: at us as hero The only heroes they know, the
Speaker 1: only real motherfucker's they see, the only fathers that they
Speaker 1: can ever get close to, is the big Homies sitting
Speaker 1: there on the curt would him on the break walk
Speaker 1: telling them the homie, this is how you do this,
Speaker 1: and this is how you do that. But they never
Speaker 1: had that change. Me ask you this, and he mixed
Speaker 1: it earlier that we all go back to this. The
Speaker 1: Big Homie at one point literally took the place of
Speaker 1: the father in the house old huh. Yeah, the homies
Speaker 1: I took. And I can say this from the hood.
Speaker 1: The homies took, not one specific that one individual. The
Speaker 1: homies the hood took pops position. Yeah, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, because once Pops decided to move out of
Speaker 1: the house, now we can do what the funk we
Speaker 1: want to do, how we want to do it. Now
Speaker 1: we can have the homies, and now we can do
Speaker 1: this now that I ain't gotta be questioned or told
Speaker 1: to come home. You know what I'm saying. So once
Speaker 1: Pops was gone, this is the only motherfucker that you're
Speaker 1: supposed to fear. It's Pops, nobody in the streets. But
Speaker 1: once that was gone, these niggas are dude, this is
Speaker 1: just easy right here. I can do the hood. I ain't.
Speaker 1: I've never been a follower that because it's one thing
Speaker 1: I've learned. I'm not gonna follow you just because I
Speaker 1: don't hear that type of ship. We're gonna do it
Speaker 1: this way. And if they don't want to do it
Speaker 1: this way, I learned I know how to go my
Speaker 1: way and do my thing. But without all of that, yeah,
Speaker 1: man uh, the hood became family, especially for a lot
Speaker 1: of young a lot of young brothers who fathers was
Speaker 1: in in the house hall. I'm talking about being deep
Speaker 1: in the hood. And and Mama say them boys ain't
Speaker 1: your friends. And I can honestly say this, Mama's listed
Speaker 1: in peace. And since all the way until the day
Speaker 1: she died, I took care of her. And and because
Speaker 1: I felt older, because I used to tell my mom
Speaker 1: shut the funk up. These the homies get the funk
Speaker 1: out of here. I mean, very disrespectful to my mother.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't until I went to prison when a
Speaker 1: man told me, when you know your mama everything, and
Speaker 1: you're gonna learn to appreciate. If you don't appreciate now,
Speaker 1: you're gonna appreciate one day. And I appreciate my mother
Speaker 1: more than anything, Yeah, I ever did, since she's been
Speaker 1: going real ship. So but I was just that ignorant
Speaker 1: into believing that the homies had my back, that the
Speaker 1: homies loved me, that the homies gonna make sure everything
Speaker 1: is good. When I sucked up, They're gonna be there.
Speaker 1: If I get kicked out the house, I'm a I'm
Speaker 1: at the Homie house. I got somewhere to sleep. But
Speaker 1: then at the end of the day, it just blew
Speaker 1: me away when I found that that all of it
Speaker 1: was just a fucking game. It was a joke. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because like you said, when the father left, they put
Speaker 1: their own spin and definition and rules, but didn't understand
Speaker 1: that people that they was putting on, you know, they
Speaker 1: wasn't built for that. They didn't think about the mental
Speaker 1: state of mind. They didn't think about a spirit, that
Speaker 1: there's a spirit in that body. And and when you uh,
Speaker 1: putting your own spin on it, and it's it's cold custody.
Speaker 1: See they caught between seeing glory and successive finances and
Speaker 1: parties and a girl getting sicked on them or giving
Speaker 1: them some some bread. You know, everything is not really
Speaker 1: earned and understood with some sense of rules that that
Speaker 1: that they can use for corporate America, Right you feel me?
Speaker 1: So what happens when that mentality come to a dead
Speaker 1: end and you try to sure this is I've been
Speaker 1: seeing how they burned the streets to the to the sweets.
Speaker 1: It started early on and uh like that's why I
Speaker 1: was asking earlier about when the big homes that never
Speaker 1: teach us when to turn it off and not it
Speaker 1: being looked at, its being soft, like just don't belong
Speaker 1: here because cripping and blood and it is not in
Speaker 1: corporate America, but really it is. When you look at
Speaker 1: the job description they gotta do. That's a lot of
Speaker 1: them that crypton blood had good ass jobs at uh
Speaker 1: something a lot of places, so they knew they had
Speaker 1: to put a suit on. I've seen a few of
Speaker 1: my g's come home with soups and ship on our
Speaker 1: janitorial outfits on some ship. So it was it was.
Speaker 1: It was confusing in the sense and some of it wasn't.
Speaker 1: Some of it was like wow, uh looked at him
Speaker 1: this way, but you didn't know he had a responsibility
Speaker 1: outside that where he was still respected but not soft.
Speaker 1: But he knew when to bring the the g G
Speaker 1: hand to a certain situation. Because we've got a lot
Speaker 1: of people in corporate America who don't have street skills,
Speaker 1: reality skills, and know how to talk and learn how
Speaker 1: to read body language, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: that's why for me, I was really fortunate and blessed
Speaker 1: to have some gs that wasn't demonic trying to pull
Speaker 1: me in. But it was challenging a lot of times,
Speaker 1: especially seeing certain homies get killed that love that it
Speaker 1: was built like that and something that wasn't built like that.
Speaker 1: You know how that the total package I'm I know
Speaker 1: the streets, I know how to talk with this, I
Speaker 1: know how to talk and then corporate American, I know
Speaker 1: how to talk to you whomever it was in front
Speaker 1: of me, and I know how to talk to the the
Speaker 1: street ship. I know to talk to the package dog.
Speaker 1: All right, Phyllis, let's pay some bills real quick. We'll
Speaker 1: be right back. So when you talk about the artists
Speaker 1: today and when we you know, I mean our gis
Speaker 1: that built this ship, when they have to step away
Speaker 1: because that's not what they get down is and the
Speaker 1: benefits is not there and none of that. It's still
Speaker 1: being looked at like, oh, you ain't sure your buster.
Speaker 1: You just left us and you won't give us no
Speaker 1: next level what it is. You know, it's because a
Speaker 1: lot of the Gez did so much ship without turning
Speaker 1: it around that by the time you do want to
Speaker 1: say something that makes sense because you can see yourself
Speaker 1: in them. They just just got a whole different outlook
Speaker 1: on life and a mentals and spirit and perspective of
Speaker 1: life is com bro so. But the thing is, I'm
Speaker 1: understanding that I see eight everyone is here. They just
Speaker 1: grab a few. You ain't gonna be able to get them.
Speaker 1: All the ones who wanted to get them make a difference,
Speaker 1: and that and and and the rest is gonna do
Speaker 1: what it's gonna do, because that good book is the
Speaker 1: same way. Everybody ain't going. Okay, I can honestly say
Speaker 1: I'm trying like a mug to grab all the ones
Speaker 1: I can and help all the ones I can, and
Speaker 1: I tell you I've been doing it. Uh. I ain't
Speaker 1: even want to bring that up. But I had a
Speaker 1: cat that really felt like he didn't want to be
Speaker 1: here no more. I had to call norm. I be
Speaker 1: in the position I'm in and it's easy to talk
Speaker 1: to somebody, but if I say something fun up down,
Speaker 1: it's on a different level. And I talked to his well,
Speaker 1: his uncle pray from me. Once his uncle said that
Speaker 1: prayer from me. He blessed my words to come out
Speaker 1: of my mouth for this man to receive it. That's
Speaker 1: what I asked for, and it was good, and not
Speaker 1: only him, but quite an other few. I had a
Speaker 1: brother sent me a picture of his son with it
Speaker 1: with a cap and he graduated. And he said, because
Speaker 1: of you, my son graduated. And I didn't bury it
Speaker 1: that I knew. I'm I'm doing good exactly. So just
Speaker 1: like you said, we can't take everybody because everybody don't
Speaker 1: want to go. And now they gotta a calling that's
Speaker 1: beyond our control because of what they feel that's important
Speaker 1: that they want to stand on. They married day day rules,
Speaker 1: they go, they see something totally different. So all you
Speaker 1: can do is, you know, be there for him but
Speaker 1: don't totally alienate yourself from it, because so you'll be
Speaker 1: surprised another over talking of you, James, you'll be surprised
Speaker 1: what your your your influence or another period of time
Speaker 1: in your life where you're gonna play something that you
Speaker 1: can't even imagine or you really you know you have
Speaker 1: something about yourself, but you never know you're gonna play
Speaker 1: this role. So when you start to look at life
Speaker 1: on a whole, another spectrum, a whole, another frequency, a whole,
Speaker 1: another purpose than than than than what you've been doing,
Speaker 1: that's amazing to see. Who are the faces one? This
Speaker 1: miraculous thing happened? Was this miracle thing happened? I hadn't
Speaker 1: been in. I hadn't been in some crazy things like
Speaker 1: I should I say this? I was very instant a
Speaker 1: mental and conveying the message for Mr Harris Harry y'all,
Speaker 1: for me being who I am as a producer and
Speaker 1: the man and the father and the husband. I never
Speaker 1: thought that my input, in my tone of voice and
Speaker 1: everything about me would help someone else take it serious
Speaker 1: and do their part to make sure that this message
Speaker 1: got you know, delivered, and and it had an effected
Speaker 1: him coming home a man God is good all the time,
Speaker 1: you know. And let me ask you this because we're
Speaker 1: talking about help from people, right, Yes, you can answer
Speaker 1: this to eight. You can answer this, James. You all
Speaker 1: kind of feel it, you know, being people. Anytimes you
Speaker 1: get in the public eye, how do you tell because
Speaker 1: one thing about the homies, you could tell him yeah
Speaker 1: fifty million times, but one time you say no, they
Speaker 1: forget about the other fifty million times. When do you
Speaker 1: eventually just say? When do you eventually cut it off?
Speaker 1: You know, I think what it is when you for
Speaker 1: me um, if you're support and your contribution to saying
Speaker 1: something to him. I guess when they see it as
Speaker 1: like Dracula, you know he can't stand the light. You
Speaker 1: feel me. So when you see them like wanting to
Speaker 1: be real dark and don't want to value you on
Speaker 1: a whole another level where they're talking to you in
Speaker 1: a very disrespectful way, you know what I'm saying, then, Dan,
Speaker 1: then you just gotta just smile and go Okay, that's
Speaker 1: where he that's where he had ain't gonna make you weak.
Speaker 1: It's you know you're keen. You're a man if you
Speaker 1: can really pay attention to knowing that you know what
Speaker 1: even if he's disrespecting me and from the others that
Speaker 1: respect me, I still know the difference without being looked
Speaker 1: at as a wheenie, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 1: I know I know how to walk away and just
Speaker 1: smile about it and go on. But some people feel
Speaker 1: like if they're in front of their peers and you're
Speaker 1: trying to give someone something, you know, and the little
Speaker 1: homie or whatever you know, act like you want to
Speaker 1: get off on you because he don't feel nothing about you.
Speaker 1: He just was for some reason to day you just
Speaker 1: he was the strong that broke the camel's back, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, And you're in front of your
Speaker 1: peers when this is happening. Sometimes you know, some guys
Speaker 1: gotta just go there. But it really don't. It doesn't
Speaker 1: answer the situation, you know what I'm saying. You know,
Speaker 1: it's just I hope, I'm hope I'm getting to it.
Speaker 1: You know, I just know when I've been in situations
Speaker 1: like that, I just know, you know, when I see
Speaker 1: it and it's overbearing and it's gonna take you, it's
Speaker 1: about to take you out of character, and you feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta just sit back and just small
Speaker 1: sometimes when I smiled, because the first thing the motherfucker
Speaker 1: gonna do is tell you if they really know you
Speaker 1: and know the type of person you are, the first
Speaker 1: thing you do was gonna tell you, man, don't trip
Speaker 1: off that ship. Yeah, I mean, because if you are
Speaker 1: that changed person that the motherfucker has seen, then no,
Speaker 1: because if they know what you come from, they respect
Speaker 1: you more for being that motherfucker. Go just smile and
Speaker 1: be like you know something. It shows that you have
Speaker 1: changed your character and not that motherfucker you give me
Speaker 1: and a lot of maturity comes with that for deeper,
Speaker 1: they respect you more. Hang around just taking my kind
Speaker 1: of weakness. And I'm telling you all right down against chronics,
Speaker 1: I ain't appreciating that ship. And I'm gonna slapping the
Speaker 1: funk out of one of your motherfucker's that keep playing
Speaker 1: with James funck Mom, James. I keep telling you all that,
Speaker 1: but mess with James. James McDonald's gonna slap your ship out,
Speaker 1: you ja. And you know I think that is when
Speaker 1: I hear you reach out like that, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I'm not going to just laugh and stay
Speaker 1: to the sun like and say that's James. I think
Speaker 1: for me, when I hear you speak like that, it's
Speaker 1: just say just remove yourself, stay in the name that
Speaker 1: you've been in. And because it don't matter if you've
Speaker 1: got a good thing or a bad thing, they're still
Speaker 1: gonna say fuck fuck James because we're seeing that well Park,
Speaker 1: that's not here, Biggie or anyone who's been here, uh,
Speaker 1: Nipsy the whole nine yards, you know. So it's like, um,
Speaker 1: it's almost like giving them a sense you're giving them
Speaker 1: power that it touches you that much and that words
Speaker 1: can affect you, you know. Um, And I ain't gonna
Speaker 1: say that's that makes you soft at all because it
Speaker 1: touched you because see, really you have a heart and
Speaker 1: you really just want them to look at the light
Speaker 1: of what you didn't put out and what it and
Speaker 1: and the benefits that can come with it. So for
Speaker 1: those who is on the opposite, it is what it is.
Speaker 1: It's like them showing you they left from their right. Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: that's where you at. Good. I didn't have to spend
Speaker 1: a lot of time with you to find out that's
Speaker 1: where you're at, and that's that's what you want. Good Now,
Speaker 1: I have the upp a hand and how to move
Speaker 1: for my define order in life, like how you are today.
Speaker 1: I didn't know what it takes for James, Big James
Speaker 1: to get here. But whatever James did, he didn't value
Speaker 1: the opposite. He didn't give him He didn't give light
Speaker 1: life to it at all enough to get here. So
Speaker 1: I salute you for whatever process you had to take
Speaker 1: to get And that's the thing, man, you know what,
Speaker 1: I look at it like this. I don't give my
Speaker 1: emotions to somebody. I don't care about it. If you're
Speaker 1: sitting up there telling me you know you feed me this,
Speaker 1: I'm just go now. If me and this man have
Speaker 1: a disagreement, that's go bother because he's a friend of U.
Speaker 1: Yeah he me and let me have a disagreement and
Speaker 1: you have a disagreement. If I'm in the wrong, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna reach out and apologize about it because somebody that's
Speaker 1: not edifying to me or whatever, it's like, good, I'm
Speaker 1: glad you're shooting your heads now. That way, I don't
Speaker 1: have to mess with you at all. I try to
Speaker 1: show everybody that I am human and there's multiple size
Speaker 1: to all of us. Regardless if I announced mym James H.
Speaker 1: James McDonald still carries some of those traits that dude had.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, which is I can go
Speaker 1: from zero to a huntred and be violent at any
Speaker 1: time because that's something I learned in the hood, in
Speaker 1: the streets. I know how to do that, so and
Speaker 1: I can't throw that away. So that's one of the
Speaker 1: that's very valuable to me. But just being on a
Speaker 1: different level, you know, I thought people should would appreciate
Speaker 1: the fact that I'm not there. I'm not in the
Speaker 1: street being self destruction, self destructive, but I'm I'm sitting
Speaker 1: at a table talking to men, you know, on some
Speaker 1: productive ship, you know, teaching these young cats that we
Speaker 1: don't have to be fools and stupid and ignorant. We
Speaker 1: can We can grow up at fourteen. We can learn
Speaker 1: the difference and know the difference at fourteen fifteen years old.
Speaker 1: We don't have to wait and say if I knew
Speaker 1: what I know now at the age of thirty five,
Speaker 1: if I knew what I knew then at I would
Speaker 1: have been a better person. That's funny that because see,
Speaker 1: if you you we all know the demonstration is in
Speaker 1: front of the world and then and it should be
Speaker 1: enough to see the dudes and the dumps. But because
Speaker 1: they doesn't they I guess they don't see enough for
Speaker 1: them to want to be right and appreciate that that
Speaker 1: they saw that they feel it's it's it's only pure
Speaker 1: pressure if you're weak, that's what I'm looking I'm looking
Speaker 1: at it. It's only pure pressure when you don't really
Speaker 1: want to value anything that's gonna take you and yours
Speaker 1: to that next level. So and we've seen that before us.
Speaker 1: It's a choice at the end of the day and
Speaker 1: the beginning of the day, that's where you're at. That's cool. Uh.
Speaker 1: If I come and see you, I see you, but
Speaker 1: don't be mad if I'm not there. But then I
Speaker 1: learned not even tell them that because they're gonna do
Speaker 1: what whatever they want to do regardless. But my thing
Speaker 1: is just learning not to put myself in the situation
Speaker 1: where I have to be approached. You know, if I
Speaker 1: don't want that serenity and peace, I know where not
Speaker 1: to be. And sometimes it's just hard because when you
Speaker 1: come from a place where you love you, it's almost
Speaker 1: like you you become a fucking uh tourist. Now you're
Speaker 1: going to visit where you used to be and and damn,
Speaker 1: I'm motherfucker that's gotta say something about it. But I'm
Speaker 1: learning a lot. Just let it be. If there's nothing
Speaker 1: there and your mom ain't there, you're unto, your brother
Speaker 1: ain't there, don't go. Don't let it be, because you
Speaker 1: the mink should inherit the earth. It's can't be just
Speaker 1: the block of tract. Knew where I started at. If
Speaker 1: I got a passport, if I got folks who I know,
Speaker 1: they got property and in a different life oversees him.
Speaker 1: How is my only uh purpose? It's it's just to
Speaker 1: be right here, right it's crew. Yes, that's being a
Speaker 1: grown man because there's no benefits. We don't know a
Speaker 1: lot of people who are really winning. Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: our in the city where we come from, where people
Speaker 1: really have to understand the other agenda at him, politics,
Speaker 1: everything they want us out, okay, well the ones they
Speaker 1: want to be here and you want to buy up
Speaker 1: the block. It's a certain thing that has to go on,
Speaker 1: and you have to really know yourself and you really
Speaker 1: got to know the people that's in your community and
Speaker 1: really try to help provide something where they are really
Speaker 1: strong mentally, physically, the whole nine yards, so they can
Speaker 1: maintain if we're conceiving kids and bringing them into the earth.
Speaker 1: I don't know, minds all the minds. They love where
Speaker 1: they come from, but they want to get out exactly.
Speaker 1: I love the fact that I've seen that them, you
Speaker 1: know that in them when they turn into television on
Speaker 1: looking at geographic channels, looking at mechanics and the other
Speaker 1: different ships that these networks provided, and then seeing that damn, oh,
Speaker 1: that's just what they they they they they they passion
Speaker 1: is what ship. If this music ship don't go all
Speaker 1: the way, then I'm for to take the best of
Speaker 1: what I do got and put that in there them
Speaker 1: and just live with them and live through them. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do that then, And that's why my adults who
Speaker 1: step outside the box, you know you no Snoop is
Speaker 1: one of them. I mean I see him creating jobs
Speaker 1: and opportunities from different walks of life. Um. Only only
Speaker 1: I have to say the entertainment aspect of who these
Speaker 1: people are, it is because I hadn't seen them with
Speaker 1: my own eyes, not because I'm friends with them. It's
Speaker 1: just the stuff that come across my radar without even asking,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna tell you what Snoop man. No, you
Speaker 1: can't come up to Snoop on those Snoop Dogs ship
Speaker 1: or eight on the m C eight ship when they're
Speaker 1: doing the football field with them kids. You're wrong to
Speaker 1: get rolled about that. Motherfucker'xactly that this is this is
Speaker 1: says a man that non this, this is what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about, Jams. Now we're seeing like the platform that
Speaker 1: you have right here. I never heard and never seen
Speaker 1: your voice until the day that that You've decided to
Speaker 1: bring Chames to this platform. It was very very intriguing
Speaker 1: to hear. Jeez from that perspective, right A wrong because
Speaker 1: you hear so much talk. I don't hear no one
Speaker 1: trying to challenge you and say that these things it's
Speaker 1: not solid and not real. I And then it goes
Speaker 1: hand in hand. If your lifestyle, meaning the fruits of
Speaker 1: your labor, is solid and consistent and you're bearing the
Speaker 1: fruits of what you putting into it, now, who in
Speaker 1: the hill is going to doubt that? Now? They don't
Speaker 1: have no weight, you know what I'm saying. So that's
Speaker 1: another thing that made me respect, you know, against the chronicles.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying because it's hero is that
Speaker 1: that are gainst us that's been killers, that's been murderous.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Because I don't condone all
Speaker 1: is the circumstances of it. But it's just amazing because
Speaker 1: when you look at that good book and it's it's
Speaker 1: killing and has been some kind of way rewarded. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, When you're doing it for righteousness,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. So it's not to be glorified.
Speaker 1: But you know, just like when we we when we
Speaker 1: watched certain Italians and they got a bad blood that's
Speaker 1: sucking up the organization and the structure of how it is.
Speaker 1: And then they gotta go grab one of the members
Speaker 1: and send him off and knock him off. You know,
Speaker 1: we kind of embrace that, but it got took him
Speaker 1: the wrong way. It's another way where they can live
Speaker 1: where it's like it's like if we could use that
Speaker 1: power that's so hard and so dark and and dominic demanded,
Speaker 1: and and and and and say, nigga, you're going to
Speaker 1: school today, Nigga you for to learn something? Are you
Speaker 1: for the get beat the funk up? I never had,
Speaker 1: I never seen enough of that perspective, like taking that
Speaker 1: power and saying no, nigga, nigga, you're gonna dress right
Speaker 1: to that nigga or you can't even be from the
Speaker 1: set everything that we did, yes, and now now we're
Speaker 1: talking about some some gritty ship. Now we could do that.
Speaker 1: We could do that. We if we want to bring
Speaker 1: the upper excellence of our hood that we love so much.
Speaker 1: What you know, how what goes with that? You know
Speaker 1: you're gonna be it's gonna be some rebellion us and
Speaker 1: it's gonna be possibly some darkness and something if you'll
Speaker 1: tell you something happy. What are you seeing is powerful
Speaker 1: because what we're doing right here, we ain't supposed to
Speaker 1: be popular. You know what's supposed to be properly, We're
Speaker 1: supposed to be on here this and something some nine
Speaker 1: times bigger than you know what I'm saying, biggest we
Speaker 1: we kind of have the amount of people listening to
Speaker 1: this show wherevery we that we have is actually amazing.
Speaker 1: It shows that people still want to hear real ship.
Speaker 1: Because my thing is this, I have brothers sometimes in
Speaker 1: box met oh man, I know this about such a sex.
Speaker 1: I know this about sex because we're not here to
Speaker 1: put down no other person. Yeah we're not here just
Speaker 1: like what America is doing. But we just one of them.
Speaker 1: We couldn't then, we couldn't say ship. We better not
Speaker 1: have it in our mothers our thing is the uplift
Speaker 1: ningggers who have been through struggle and who have been
Speaker 1: through those those transitions of changing themselves, like like James saying,
Speaker 1: I'm not mile, James, don't warm James McDonald. So respect
Speaker 1: that transition of who I am Now. You just think
Speaker 1: about the last time Snoop seen this man. He was
Speaker 1: at the trial with him. So just imagining that transition
Speaker 1: that somebody would have came in both of their ears
Speaker 1: back then and say, hey man, Snoop James Mark James,
Speaker 1: we have a podcast. One day He'd I'm like, what
Speaker 1: the hell not that you know what I'm saying. Just
Speaker 1: think And you would have told Snoop back then, hey man,
Speaker 1: you can be the biggest rapper, the most recognized rapper
Speaker 1: in the world. One day they both have been like,
Speaker 1: don't do something. Look at it though, mask the way
Speaker 1: the universe work In's funny that you said. And and
Speaker 1: a lot of people have a lot of complaints about
Speaker 1: why artists are magnified and big like they are or whatever.
Speaker 1: It's only temporarily. But one thing I do admire about them,
Speaker 1: they believe in themselves. Even if the ship is off
Speaker 1: and it will make a lot of sense, it's still
Speaker 1: the word integrity, integrity, it's still trust, it's still confidence,
Speaker 1: it's still something. They turned that into something. Now the
Speaker 1: content it's another thing. Like I was remember what Dre
Speaker 1: was saying, like, look, I get it what the content is.
Speaker 1: That's because he lived it two this and't bit just
Speaker 1: orgies the whole nine yards. He didn't done it already,
Speaker 1: but he wants some ship with some substance. And to him,
Speaker 1: that's what longevity is. Because we really ain't doing a
Speaker 1: service to the people we say we preach. We if
Speaker 1: you say you grew up on the al Greens and
Speaker 1: the Curtis Man and the Dotty half the Ways and
Speaker 1: or even the Parliament, I mean, listen, even with the phone,
Speaker 1: at least Roger was saying on so rugh, so tough,
Speaker 1: don't worry about your troubles, just get on down. So
Speaker 1: it's always been a message with the phone. That's why
Speaker 1: I gravitated to the phone. They wasn't talking about no
Speaker 1: genocide and fucking their own home me up and taking
Speaker 1: their own bitches or wives and cousins and nieces and daughters.
Speaker 1: They weren't doing that with the music, so I know
Speaker 1: they had so many challenges and like, damn, letok listen
Speaker 1: to this content. But then we need the money, you know.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure Legends has been in those those kind
Speaker 1: of scenarios and had to allow it to go. But
Speaker 1: the ones that didn't clear it, I understand. It's because
Speaker 1: if you're gonna do us as this is our skin,
Speaker 1: this is us So why are we gonna depreciate all
Speaker 1: this great message and music that they did? So once
Speaker 1: you changed to perspective, that's like when when you did
Speaker 1: Growing Up in the Hood over more Box of the Ounds,
Speaker 1: it was, man, we loved it. Everything that you blong
Speaker 1: to the table. Y'all you did was give us a
Speaker 1: perspective from Compton, how women can be, our niggers can be.
Speaker 1: What was challenging and how you got through it. That's
Speaker 1: why I don't like to hear a song where it's
Speaker 1: the first and second third verse. It's like, can we
Speaker 1: get a song where if you if you come from
Speaker 1: a dark place, speak on it now? What was the
Speaker 1: the changing point? That could be the second verse? Okay,
Speaker 1: the third versus another perspective you got, So you don't
Speaker 1: have to continue where you was on the first verse.
Speaker 1: That's what we gotta do it now. Don't do a
Speaker 1: whole song where you just this nigga did me wrong
Speaker 1: and I sucked him over, and this and this and
Speaker 1: that he got to me. You okay, you let your
Speaker 1: guards down? Can you take accountability? Can you say in
Speaker 1: that verse that I understand now why that energy was
Speaker 1: in my circle because I allowed it. My perspective of
Speaker 1: perception about it was was was cloudy. I put my
Speaker 1: own spin on what I thought this relationship was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he gave me the body language like he was with
Speaker 1: it and he understood me, and then we departed from
Speaker 1: each other. But really he didn't look at it like
Speaker 1: I did. He just got alone to get alone. But
Speaker 1: really he had a hit and agenda. So what is
Speaker 1: that call? You know? And what those those titles you got, conrads,
Speaker 1: you got, uh, you got uh you know, uh, all
Speaker 1: those different titles A confidant, you know, you know, it
Speaker 1: really makes you want to pick up a book and
Speaker 1: go back and look at the true definition of what
Speaker 1: the words is, so you can understand, you can understand
Speaker 1: the body language when you see it without putting your
Speaker 1: emotions all the time on the front line with things.
Speaker 1: But if we're gonna go on our own understanding and
Speaker 1: putting definitions into words that don't really mean anything, then
Speaker 1: you can't be mad at the person on the other
Speaker 1: end that is gonna, you know, not really get where
Speaker 1: you're coming from, because you really the access has got
Speaker 1: to show that they really can can appreciate and they
Speaker 1: understood where you was coming from. Hold that thought, brother,
Speaker 1: We'll be right back, And I got one question, one
Speaker 1: more question for you, bro, And I appreciate you being here.
Speaker 1: It's long. You've been working with Dr Drake for over
Speaker 1: twenty five years, right, that's personally and profession personally, professionally, right,
Speaker 1: what is it about him? I know what it is.
Speaker 1: I got an idea what it is. But what did
Speaker 1: you think about him? It makes him so special? The
Speaker 1: upper extra. I would take the special outum, even though
Speaker 1: I looked at the definition of what it is. I
Speaker 1: think the special part though, if I had to keep
Speaker 1: it in there, knowing what the definition is is when
Speaker 1: he's not thinking for self and he's uh, unpredictable and
Speaker 1: how he wants to give with no intentions. That's the
Speaker 1: special part. Then the other part is he's not I
Speaker 1: wasn't raised with him, so I have to have an
Speaker 1: open mind every time I come across him, and it's
Speaker 1: always positive energy. I think, what it is? What what
Speaker 1: my bro is? If you bring something to the table
Speaker 1: and you put it in you put it in that
Speaker 1: circle into a conversation, you really have to be about it,
Speaker 1: know about it, and bring the history of how relevant
Speaker 1: and powerful it is that you're putting meaning information in
Speaker 1: his in his presence, because if you're saying some ship
Speaker 1: that can't stand the test of time, let alone for
Speaker 1: yourself and it's nothing, it's you know, how could you
Speaker 1: put this into his his presence? Like it holds value?
Speaker 1: You know, So know what you're saying and and live
Speaker 1: what you you know what you know you know, and
Speaker 1: so if you don't, then he's not really enthused. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's why you get a little ghetto boy because he
Speaker 1: was so detailed and so descriptive with it. It's like
Speaker 1: you watch the movie when you listen to some of
Speaker 1: them songs, listen I admire the fact that you know
Speaker 1: your ego and pride can act like I'm with this
Speaker 1: that I don't come from. But once you recognize that
Speaker 1: it's not your cup of tea and that's really not
Speaker 1: how you made up and now you're tired of manifesting
Speaker 1: that personality or vibal whatnot. You know, when you don't
Speaker 1: uh find when you don't find a way, you know,
Speaker 1: I guess with dre like I don't, I'm not he
Speaker 1: He's not going to do a lot of explaining why
Speaker 1: this and why that and why this unless it's something
Speaker 1: about you where he would bring something special to the
Speaker 1: table or something personal from the table, or you know,
Speaker 1: from his perspective, where cat this and this and this
Speaker 1: and this happened And this is why I was inspired,
Speaker 1: This is why I did this. I get those gems
Speaker 1: every once in a while without having a long conversation.
Speaker 1: It's just the right energy and the right situation. Would
Speaker 1: you be surprised how it's going to come out? And
Speaker 1: if he feels in his heart that you trustworthy, I think,
Speaker 1: because you know he's in his own lane. But you know,
Speaker 1: you know how it is like I don't see eight
Speaker 1: all the time. I don't see James all the time.
Speaker 1: But whatever you're doing to not be on the funk
Speaker 1: up radar says a lot about how I could confining
Speaker 1: you and give you a jeweler two. And that's that's
Speaker 1: that's kind of like what I see with him right now.
Speaker 1: He just he's still fine tuning him. That's because you're successful.
Speaker 1: Don't mean you still are you through with learning all
Speaker 1: you threw We're going through ship, And he was. He
Speaker 1: was smart enough to walk away from certain things in
Speaker 1: his life. Like you said, he knew wasn't right. He
Speaker 1: got to that point where he had to think about
Speaker 1: at the beginning, it is all good because this this, this,
Speaker 1: this platform, this just print out that you put in
Speaker 1: front of me sound like we've been making. We're there.
Speaker 1: So you drew out the right ship. But then at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, when I see your true colors,
Speaker 1: I see what ship is. Damn it's just really for me,
Speaker 1: it's just kind of ship I want to be. I'm
Speaker 1: going down with you, goddamn ship. I don't want to
Speaker 1: be a part of this ship. And and because he
Speaker 1: wanted to be a human being without saying that the ego,
Speaker 1: the ego and pride, the ego, and pride is thrown
Speaker 1: out the wonder the dumb ship. I can give you
Speaker 1: an example, and I can say that because I'm just
Speaker 1: I'm just saying if I'm a consumer point of view,
Speaker 1: just like when Uh at the Source of Wars, I've
Speaker 1: seen how the audience was of that entourage was responded
Speaker 1: when he said what he had to say. Yeah, a
Speaker 1: few that could and shoot or would spoke their perspective
Speaker 1: about Damn. I didn't understand what it was and why
Speaker 1: it had to be that when I heard the young man.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know the brothers said what he said
Speaker 1: on the stage. You know, they didn't know that was
Speaker 1: gonna come with it. They thought he was gonna get
Speaker 1: his award and go a different route. So when that
Speaker 1: was said, and then I watched the cameras to be
Speaker 1: put on the entourage, I'll sing what that is, and
Speaker 1: it's not me judging. We know what that is. It's pride,
Speaker 1: It's funny, it's it's the same ship what I was
Speaker 1: saying with the gang Bang. You know the same thing.
Speaker 1: When we don't want to point it out, ain't no
Speaker 1: men in the room. Everybody just gonna roll because if
Speaker 1: it's an expression being seen like you you don't you
Speaker 1: don't like that, and you got something to say about it? Dan,
Speaker 1: you you you feel to be done in the way
Speaker 1: you can't even imagine. You know what kind of ship
Speaker 1: is that you know? And and and and in the
Speaker 1: corporate America or just as a people we looked at like, damn,
Speaker 1: where's the values, Who's a man? Who's a stand up guy?
Speaker 1: It isn't as somebody got to be So imagine how
Speaker 1: many years that was, and the and the and the
Speaker 1: and the first man we've seen that needed that had
Speaker 1: to be a man was Andrea Young. And I heard
Speaker 1: he was in an easy situation when he when he
Speaker 1: made this decision, but he survived. And you gotta understand
Speaker 1: that man is a is a big brother to me
Speaker 1: because the O G s of and big brothers of
Speaker 1: this music game and as a producer is the Sleps,
Speaker 1: is the Pools, is the dres is the Egyptian Lover,
Speaker 1: is the Bob Cat and is the l A Posse
Speaker 1: l A Posse, did l L Cool J Ship Muffler,
Speaker 1: Durroll Pool and Bob and name Niggas is still here
Speaker 1: to this day. And they got a better perspective for life.
Speaker 1: So when I could have been encouraged to go the
Speaker 1: same way exactly what Drey was going. When I seen
Speaker 1: him doing all that, I was just like, I couldn't judge,
Speaker 1: and I think got some black a bits talking about
Speaker 1: my perspective or my appreciation that I had for him,
Speaker 1: and then I've seen this and then this ain't him.
Speaker 1: That's one thing I learned is to keep my perspective
Speaker 1: to myself. Now I did have loose lips, but thank
Speaker 1: god it didn't sink sink my boat. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I have to say that I had to
Speaker 1: look at it a different perspective because someone can take
Speaker 1: what I say and if they got a strong enough
Speaker 1: reputation with the person that I love, that can go
Speaker 1: and turn that turn that ship around, and then next thing,
Speaker 1: you know, he ain't feeling me. But one thing I
Speaker 1: do know, man, No man is my savior. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, You're not my God. You know, if
Speaker 1: I bring something life altering and disrespectful where you feel
Speaker 1: like you gotta take me out and I was the
Speaker 1: cause of it, so be it. But if it's not,
Speaker 1: I'm really ain't gonna feel you fear you for Ship,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do that, you know. And that's one
Speaker 1: thing I think it is with Dre. Just to sum
Speaker 1: it up, he can't stand yes or no, sir niggers
Speaker 1: and he and you might get talked to in a
Speaker 1: way if you don't know what you're talking about that way,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, because if you study someone
Speaker 1: outside looking in, it should be enough for you to go.
Speaker 1: You know what. I only need to brain what is
Speaker 1: needed in this in this room. If I get a
Speaker 1: phone call or if I come across the path, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying this, do that and keep it pushing.
Speaker 1: Other than that, don't be having a question mark really
Speaker 1: with him like that. It's called the vine order. So
Speaker 1: the only thing I bring to anyone eight y'ard when
Speaker 1: I see y'alls that that's like when I pulled up
Speaker 1: with him, my personality and my vibe was so free spirit.
Speaker 1: That's the first thing I said, Ship, I'm yeah, I
Speaker 1: ain't gonna let you'll put an ap be on me.
Speaker 1: That was an atonement thing or endearing, daring thing to
Speaker 1: say that. I appreciate the time y'all here, and y'all
Speaker 1: were sitting outside. So I'm like, damn, and I'm so
Speaker 1: super late. I knew I wasn't because it was seven
Speaker 1: thirt so so, but I wanted to show that as
Speaker 1: a form of greeting my brothers who are really taking
Speaker 1: time out for the individual's lives to talk with me,
Speaker 1: you know what, saying, We're gonna make sure. I always
Speaker 1: want to make sure that at least one of us
Speaker 1: is here before the guests get here. You know, asked them,
Speaker 1: and I always asked them, do you have any particular
Speaker 1: needs or wants? Do you have anything? Do you want?
Speaker 1: Some people might want water, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: Some people might need you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: you know that's what I love about now besides the
Speaker 1: title of being gangster. Chronicles, Well, I'm sitting at the
Speaker 1: table with men who are passionate with principles and morals.
Speaker 1: So that should be the new evolution of the gangster
Speaker 1: is to have a chronicle, have chronicle things to share
Speaker 1: with the world. You feeling, That's what it is right there,
Speaker 1: that part right, You hit it right in the head. Man.
Speaker 1: But before we go, we can't leave without you talking
Speaker 1: about this man. The word in the streets seals man
Speaker 1: that you're working on the album right now. Man, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be out towards it one. I heard it everybody
Speaker 1: on their dog. So what's the news, and we break
Speaker 1: some news on this mother, Yes we can. I have
Speaker 1: a song called I'm from Around the Way. And when
Speaker 1: you look at your purpose and your gift is bigger
Speaker 1: than the block. And the fact that I seen early
Speaker 1: on in my career royalty statements from records being distributed
Speaker 1: and sold and played on all different platforms that you
Speaker 1: can never imagine. When I started seeing that I was
Speaker 1: being appreciated from South central California and Japan, Canada, Detroit,
Speaker 1: It's like, Okay, now, this must be a gift that
Speaker 1: guy gave me that my mother and father didn't see coming,
Speaker 1: that I would have the ability to touch the masses
Speaker 1: of the world. Now, how can I continue that? Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, I understood what this thing was, It's
Speaker 1: called hip hop. Then I understood the entertainment business. Then
Speaker 1: I understood that it's life, hardships and good that goes
Speaker 1: with it that can really be appreciated, like in the
Speaker 1: form of a movie or anything. So I said, you
Speaker 1: know what, I gotta tell my story because everyone got
Speaker 1: there um stories about battle Cat, but they really don't
Speaker 1: know how battle Cat came about. So they need to
Speaker 1: introduce to the world through battle Cat who Kevin is
Speaker 1: that helped battle Cat become who he is, which is
Speaker 1: a voice for the on song and heard of life
Speaker 1: not just entertainment. So I got a single call I'm
Speaker 1: from around the way because I'm from everywhere, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. And Uh, I did a EP. I
Speaker 1: have an album and to have, but I got an
Speaker 1: EP where I think everyone is gonna be able to
Speaker 1: appreciate my story. Uh. The song is being mixed now.
Speaker 1: Um the singles should be out maybe U sometime the
Speaker 1: first two weeks uh of July. Um, I get a
Speaker 1: chance to this give the world my perspective as a man,
Speaker 1: as a father, as a husband, as a musician, as
Speaker 1: a producer. Uh and uh and and and someone who's
Speaker 1: who's loved you know, I even speaking on the things
Speaker 1: A little bit of people not appreciate me. But one
Speaker 1: thing I did bring was accountability, so it won't be
Speaker 1: looking like I'm just trying to be bigger than someone
Speaker 1: or you know, my life was just perfect like that. No,
Speaker 1: I took the imperfection and turning into perfection. So I
Speaker 1: ain't here to judge. I'm here to just love. I'm
Speaker 1: here to bring some good music. I'm here to finish
Speaker 1: what I started. You know. Um having my brothers on
Speaker 1: the West Coast that are producers slash artists like Quick
Speaker 1: and Dre, They've both been such an inspiration to us all,
Speaker 1: but they don't have to be the only two remaining
Speaker 1: that could uh fulfill being a voice for their coast
Speaker 1: in the world. So that's what I'm doing. And uh yeah,
Speaker 1: we we can't wait to play some of them records
Speaker 1: because you know, we got the radio show man. You know,
Speaker 1: wake your punk ass up, man, Let's go. Let's gonna
Speaker 1: be on. Let's gonna be on every Friday nights, you know,
Speaker 1: every Friday nights. Luck, every Friday night. On that note,
Speaker 1: I did leave y'all, uh uh, I think about thirty
Speaker 1: to thirty five minutes, not forty five minutes of my
Speaker 1: classic hits. Uh. I just need to get your email
Speaker 1: and forward. That makes I did that before I got here,
Speaker 1: for sure. I got so much ship. Yeah, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have to do part two, three and four and give
Speaker 1: a whole catalog of records and from artists independent to
Speaker 1: the majors that I ever worked with. I never did
Speaker 1: that for anyone, but gainst the Chronicle seemed like it's
Speaker 1: one of the homes I can plant that seed. And
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you, and I'm gonna tell you one
Speaker 1: of the things that we're doing. I promise you wanta
Speaker 1: lect you bouty here. You know, I got the battle
Speaker 1: up in there, so you know I'm spoiler right, Let's
Speaker 1: time is wasted. One thing I'm gonna say is this man,
Speaker 1: we gotta call it wy up for the you know,
Speaker 1: for the thing you know, but it's what your punk
Speaker 1: asked up radio. One of the things we are gonna
Speaker 1: do is you can hear those classic Battlect records, but
Speaker 1: you go hear the new heat the battle Cat. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because my thing is this and I love the other
Speaker 1: radio stations to play the old stuff. My thing is this.
Speaker 1: Eight didn't stop making records. He's still got stuff that
Speaker 1: like to meet. The stuff he putting out the day
Speaker 1: it's killing the stuff he used to put up. Wow,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. He's making that music. Back then,
Speaker 1: we know what that was. It was great music. But
Speaker 1: this new stuff is even more positive than the time
Speaker 1: of where he is right now exactly. So that's what
Speaker 1: I want to show. Yeah, we're playing as far as
Speaker 1: the music person to show that brothers are still out here.
Speaker 1: Actor and if you were on the West Coast and
Speaker 1: you got a home, we're looking off for home first,
Speaker 1: not no, no, officially nobody else, but we been with it.
Speaker 1: I was told that my age is the same around
Speaker 1: the same time when Quenche Jones did the did the Thriller.
Speaker 1: So I feel like when I'm at now, I'm in
Speaker 1: my thriller moment right now exactly. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So I got something to say. Big shout out to
Speaker 1: stand Shepherd, big shout out to postar Entertainment, big shout
Speaker 1: out to me and wife is get down new shoes entertainment.
Speaker 1: And um, I just got a bunch of beautiful things
Speaker 1: happening that really involved y'all too as well. So don't
Speaker 1: be don't be surprised when I I get to hitting
Speaker 1: y'all doorbell for something that's that's out of your comfort zone.
Speaker 1: But it's gonna be definitely something that I think is
Speaker 1: rewarding to such a platform called against the chronicles, you know,
Speaker 1: And that's one thing when you do these interviews, you
Speaker 1: know a lot of people you know, need they status,
Speaker 1: core rep or you don't need to be validated. I
Speaker 1: don't need none of those in the above. I'm here
Speaker 1: to give. I came with my with my hand uh
Speaker 1: to bear gifts, not when my hands open looking to receive.
Speaker 1: You know. So y'all already did that by creating this platform.
Speaker 1: I think the world it's gonna really appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: twenty thirty years from now from having us because this
Speaker 1: we never had this before and have people for these
Speaker 1: from these authentic walks of life. It's just amazing. So
Speaker 1: you know, um, we ain't tripping to what the numbers is.
Speaker 1: They're gonna climb anyway, because when people get tired of
Speaker 1: the boys shit like preatures behind the pool kit and
Speaker 1: they want something real that's gonna stand the test of time,
Speaker 1: they're gonna they're gonna say, damn, thanks the Chronicles. It
Speaker 1: was this. Damn that was that was something we didn't
Speaker 1: see coming, you know, And so I'm glad we're putting
Speaker 1: y'all putting the work in and having me a part
Speaker 1: of this. Man, Thank you, again a time. Man. It's
Speaker 1: so when they have no fellers another way before we
Speaker 1: go out of here, man, I wanna I want to say, uh,
Speaker 1: I'm you know, share prayer from my uncle Malcolm. But Dad, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: right down, and we're going through it every day. But
Speaker 1: we're there as family. Yes, and uh, we're gonna give
Speaker 1: a shout outs to Monster Cody. Wow, you know, and
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be Gangster Chronicles if you didn't do that right.
Speaker 1: And I gotta give a shout out to my whole girl,
Speaker 1: big Mama Backstreet. You know, she just passed away. She's
Speaker 1: a right to die. And I'm with a big time
Speaker 1: and uh that was my girls show man, love your
Speaker 1: family while they're here, and let's not fight each other
Speaker 1: and let's embraced each other a piece of positivity. We
Speaker 1: gotta here. Well. That concludes another episode of Against the
Speaker 1: Chronicles podcast. Be sure to download the I Heard Happen.
Speaker 1: Subscribe to The Gangster Chronicles podcast for Apple users. Find
Speaker 1: that Purple Michael the front screening your phone. Subscribe to
Speaker 1: the show, leave for comment and a rating. Executive producers
Speaker 1: for The Gangster Chronicles of Norm Steele, James McDonald and
Speaker 1: Aaron M. C taylor, our visual media directors Brian Watt, shows,
Speaker 1: audio editors Taylor Hayes. The Gangster Chronicles here's the production
Speaker 1: of the Black Affect podcast Network and I Heart Media.
Speaker 1: Any questions to comments hit us up The Gangster Chronicles
Speaker 1: Podcasts at gmail dot com. Peace be safe out there.