http://hiphopruckus.blogspot.com/2008/01/live-interview-badnews-interviews.html
Badnews: Growing up in east Oakland how was the hip hop scene there?
Yukmouth: When I was growing up it was mainly MC Hammer, Too $hort, Dana Dane… the hop hop scene was real laid back, it was dancing, gangsta and pimpin’. Its still the same way instead of people doing the hammer dance people are doing the hyphy dances so it’s still the same way (Laughs).
Badnews: OK cool. Now your one half of the group Luniz, it’s you and Numskull and you had a hit song back in the day “I Got 5 on It” and you went platinum. How did you two hook up?
Yukmouth: Me and Numskull hooked up in Junior high school at Westlake and actually Numb was the rapper at the school and I was the cartoonist, I can draw real good, but I started drawing pictures of them they had a rap group. But they put me in the group not knowing I could rap I was in there because I could draw. But I was in the streets, I kept going in and out of juvenile hall, I was hustling. They like me because I had money, I was the fly dude at the school, and I kept going to jail, but after high school, we went our own way, I was still hustling and he was doing his own thing. Now I want to jail AGAIN. I had to go to jail for a year so I started focusing on rap and I learned how to rap real good in jail, that’s where I made the song “Ice Cream Man”, the song that got me a record deal I made it in jail. So when I get out of jail, I was rappin like a mother fucker, and I was thinking of who else can rap and the first name that came to my mind was Numbskull, so I called the nigga up and I told him my plan that I wanted to make a rap group called the Loony Tunez, I drew the logo and I said your name is going to be Numskull, I’m going to be Yuk lets rock.
Badnews: So you can say jail is the reason why you’re in this business right now.
Yukmouth: Yeah. Jail is where I really learned how to rap and that’s when I stopped fucking around with it and took it serious.
Badnews: Now the next question is from my boy Flo he’s a writer on the site with me, and his question to you is how come the Luniz do not have a major deal.
Yukmouth: We really stopped fucking with it after the last album “Lunitic Music”, and when I got my solo deal, we just stopped. My solo deal really put a sour taste in everybody’s mouth from Numbskull to the nigga that owned the label that signed the Luniz. So after that it was a wrap, we split up after Virgin records mainly because Virgin mishandled the last album they didn’t do the singles we wanted and at the same time I went to Rap-A-Lot, so it was animosity between me and Numb because I got the deal and he aint got a deal. So that fucked everything off and its still that way today, seven years later niggas is saying I got the solo deal and I ended the Luniz. No, I didn’t end the Luniz we just never pursued another deal and I got with Rap-A-Lot so that’s the business.
Badnews: Will there be any chance of you two getting together again if a major signed you two as the Luniz?
Yukmouth: Oh, hell yeah. I aint got no problems with that boy. Niggas have problems with me. Niggas are jealous of me. I don’t need to be jealous of these broke ass niggas (Laughs). If niggas put there pride to the side I wont mind working with them.
Badnews: (Laughs) that’s what’s up. Now going back into your deal, you have your deal with Rap-A-Lot and then you have your own label Smoke-A-Lot. Who’s on your roster right now that you plan to put out, or who on your roster that’s already out?
Yukmouth: It’s basically me and the Regime, and the Thug Lordz, me and C-Bo and that’s basically it. We plan to drop everyone’s solo albums after we drop our group album, were just focusing on our group album so that’s the main line up for Smoke-A-Lot. (Laughs)
Badnews: You worked with everybody from Method Man to Mc eight to even Ray J, are there any artists out that you haven’t worked with and really want to?
Yukmouth: Of course everybody wants to work with Jay-Z. I'd love to get down with Nas it’s a lot of people. Wayne is hot right now, Jeezy, Rick Ross ill tear some shit down with them. I like how hip hop is right now I want to show them that I can hang in the ring with them and the need to respect something you feel me?
Badnews: Yeah. Now what about Oakland? Are there some artists out there that are under the radar that we haven’t heard from that you would like to get on the track with?
Yukmouth: I worked with everyone that I wanted to work with in the town. I haven’t worked with The Federation yet, that would be a good one but I worked with everyone in the bay area especially Oakland everyone gets along out here. I dealt with everyone from Too $hort to MC Hammer, I actually did a song with Hammer and everyone from East Oakland, it was a song called “East Oakland” but he wrote his verse too late and I had to turn the song in he fucked up (Laughs) he could had been on the biggest town representative song EVER, but its good we’ll catch him next time.
Badnews: Now the past couple years, you had you had your name mixed in with a few rappers beef wise, and you squashed most of them, but how important was it for you to end all those beefs.
Yukmouth: It just happened. I didn’t go on a mission to find Spida-Loc or to find Game, niggas found me. It was deeper than hip hop it was street shit from the pen to the streets for instance me and Game’s situation it was like the Bloods was getting at his people and telling him you cant fuck with it like that because in the penitentiary the bloods in the bay and the 415’s; there together. So you can’t stop our connection in the pen and the streets over some little rap shit. You young ass niggas better get your shit together and cut that shit out. So Game came to me through one of my homeboys Eastwood, shout out to Eastwood, we got together on three way and squashed it. Now with that Spida-Loc shit, he knows a nigga that I know and he had to cancel a couple shows up north. It was hard for him to do his shows up north ill tell you that. And he realized he can’t do business like that so he got with my people and squashed that. His people that he’s with are with Master P, so one day I was playing pool, and Master P just rolled up and talk to us. There was no loud talking; none of that shit and he respected me and we squashed that shit. Too $hort, he’s on my new album so we squashed that so everything is cool. It was an all out war. If we would had kept it going L.A. niggas wouldn’t be able to come to Oakland and Oakland niggas wouldn’t be able to come to L.A. over two or three rappers so we got together and squashed it to unite Cali and keep everything rolling.
Badnews: I’m glad that worked out.
Yukmouth: Yeah no casualties, C-Bo is working with Young Buck now he’s working with G-Unit, so everything is working out.
Badnews: How did you get into the whole documentary thing you have a series of DVD’s titled United States of Ghetto America.
Yukmouth: Basically it started in 2001, my cousin was putting this DVD together called “Pop Ya Colla” and he’s got all these pimps and celebrities on it and I was like damn if he can do it, I can do it. So I started United Ghettos of America. I travel anyway, east coast, west coast, down south, overseas, so I got a camera and I want to show people what I do. I put a lot of people on Mac Dre was on it, the rebirth of Mac Dre, I showed niggas dancing on cars and hyphy in 2001. niggas was starting the hyphy movement in 2005. Then I show them stuff overseas like in Amsterdam, I take them to the coffee shops and show them everything, then what goes backstage at our shows we give them the real interviews and that are what it is.
Badnews: I caught a piece of it last night and it’s a real crazy DVD
Yukmouth: Have you seen the Eye Candy one yet?
Badnews: Nah! That’s what I was going to ask you about next. (Laughs)
Yukmouth: Whoooooo that eye candy is going to have you beating your meat for about two hours! You’re definitely going to like that one
Badnews: (Laughs) That’s what does up, well ill be on the lookout for that.
Yukmouth: You have a girl and you’re trying to break the ice, just put that eye candy in there and you’ll have her coming out the clothes in 10 minutes trying to emulate what’s on the tape.
Badnews: Yukmouth DVD’s bringing everyone together (Laughs)
Yukmouth: That’s right, bringing everyone together, were united (Laughs)
Badnews: Now here’s a statement that I pulled of one of your fan sites and it reads: “Yukmouth is the realest rapper walking the earth since Pac. How do you fell when you get something like that from a listener?
Yukmouth: That’s big shoes to feel, that a deep comment I make music that touches people, I can never be like Pac. But my music touches people its real; I think he’s saying it in that manner
Badnews: Right.
Yukmouth: But I appreciate that comment, I’m not afraid to put my life out there like that. I’ve been on section 8, broke and homeless. A lot of rappers want to paint this picture of them balling all there life, but I been through pain and suffering and I put that in my music and I’m not afraid to. My fans know how I get down. I can make them cry with my music.
Badnews: That’s a special thing too.
Yukmouth: I heard I got people through there bids with my music and that’s special
Badnews: Now who’s in your top five right now
Yukmouth: I hate to sound like I’m riding the south but down south is running shit. Jeezy, Wayne there coming out with knockers and smackers. I aint listening to Soulja Boy and all that dancing shit, I’m listening to that real shit. I’m listening to the south, shit I’m signed to the south my album sounds like I’m from the south
Badnews: What’s your next album or project coming out?
Yukmouth: The next thing dropping is with me and C-Bo, then The Regime, United Ghettos vol. 3 I got Anna Nicole dancing with Damon Dash and Floyd Mayweather with big bottles raising her skirt up, its crazy. And the cold part about it I film it myself its all me behind the camera. That’s should be out by the summer, then another Yukmouth album.
Badnews: If you could trade everything in that you have right now, what would you trade it for?
Yukmouth: To bring my parents back. My father, I’d do anything to bring him back he missed a lot of my life. He missed his grandkids.
Badnews: Was your father a big influence on your music?
Yukmouth: Yeah, he bought me a trumpet, I guess he thought I was going to be backup in his band (Laughs) then my mom, she raised me as best as she could in the environment I was in. and being in that environment I had a lot to rap about, so they both were a big influence on me.
Badnews: That’s what’s up, well rest in peace to your parents
Yukmouth: Definitely.
Badnews: Okay, well those were all the questions I had thank you for your time and good luck with everything.
Yukmouth: Thank you.
Source: BadNews - Writer for HipHopRuckus
Badnews: Growing up in east Oakland how was the hip hop scene there?
Yukmouth: When I was growing up it was mainly MC Hammer, Too $hort, Dana Dane… the hop hop scene was real laid back, it was dancing, gangsta and pimpin’. Its still the same way instead of people doing the hammer dance people are doing the hyphy dances so it’s still the same way (Laughs).
Badnews: OK cool. Now your one half of the group Luniz, it’s you and Numskull and you had a hit song back in the day “I Got 5 on It” and you went platinum. How did you two hook up?
Yukmouth: Me and Numskull hooked up in Junior high school at Westlake and actually Numb was the rapper at the school and I was the cartoonist, I can draw real good, but I started drawing pictures of them they had a rap group. But they put me in the group not knowing I could rap I was in there because I could draw. But I was in the streets, I kept going in and out of juvenile hall, I was hustling. They like me because I had money, I was the fly dude at the school, and I kept going to jail, but after high school, we went our own way, I was still hustling and he was doing his own thing. Now I want to jail AGAIN. I had to go to jail for a year so I started focusing on rap and I learned how to rap real good in jail, that’s where I made the song “Ice Cream Man”, the song that got me a record deal I made it in jail. So when I get out of jail, I was rappin like a mother fucker, and I was thinking of who else can rap and the first name that came to my mind was Numbskull, so I called the nigga up and I told him my plan that I wanted to make a rap group called the Loony Tunez, I drew the logo and I said your name is going to be Numskull, I’m going to be Yuk lets rock.
Badnews: So you can say jail is the reason why you’re in this business right now.
Yukmouth: Yeah. Jail is where I really learned how to rap and that’s when I stopped fucking around with it and took it serious.
Badnews: Now the next question is from my boy Flo he’s a writer on the site with me, and his question to you is how come the Luniz do not have a major deal.
Yukmouth: We really stopped fucking with it after the last album “Lunitic Music”, and when I got my solo deal, we just stopped. My solo deal really put a sour taste in everybody’s mouth from Numbskull to the nigga that owned the label that signed the Luniz. So after that it was a wrap, we split up after Virgin records mainly because Virgin mishandled the last album they didn’t do the singles we wanted and at the same time I went to Rap-A-Lot, so it was animosity between me and Numb because I got the deal and he aint got a deal. So that fucked everything off and its still that way today, seven years later niggas is saying I got the solo deal and I ended the Luniz. No, I didn’t end the Luniz we just never pursued another deal and I got with Rap-A-Lot so that’s the business.
Badnews: Will there be any chance of you two getting together again if a major signed you two as the Luniz?
Yukmouth: Oh, hell yeah. I aint got no problems with that boy. Niggas have problems with me. Niggas are jealous of me. I don’t need to be jealous of these broke ass niggas (Laughs). If niggas put there pride to the side I wont mind working with them.
Badnews: (Laughs) that’s what’s up. Now going back into your deal, you have your deal with Rap-A-Lot and then you have your own label Smoke-A-Lot. Who’s on your roster right now that you plan to put out, or who on your roster that’s already out?
Yukmouth: It’s basically me and the Regime, and the Thug Lordz, me and C-Bo and that’s basically it. We plan to drop everyone’s solo albums after we drop our group album, were just focusing on our group album so that’s the main line up for Smoke-A-Lot. (Laughs)
Badnews: You worked with everybody from Method Man to Mc eight to even Ray J, are there any artists out that you haven’t worked with and really want to?
Yukmouth: Of course everybody wants to work with Jay-Z. I'd love to get down with Nas it’s a lot of people. Wayne is hot right now, Jeezy, Rick Ross ill tear some shit down with them. I like how hip hop is right now I want to show them that I can hang in the ring with them and the need to respect something you feel me?
Badnews: Yeah. Now what about Oakland? Are there some artists out there that are under the radar that we haven’t heard from that you would like to get on the track with?
Yukmouth: I worked with everyone that I wanted to work with in the town. I haven’t worked with The Federation yet, that would be a good one but I worked with everyone in the bay area especially Oakland everyone gets along out here. I dealt with everyone from Too $hort to MC Hammer, I actually did a song with Hammer and everyone from East Oakland, it was a song called “East Oakland” but he wrote his verse too late and I had to turn the song in he fucked up (Laughs) he could had been on the biggest town representative song EVER, but its good we’ll catch him next time.
Badnews: Now the past couple years, you had you had your name mixed in with a few rappers beef wise, and you squashed most of them, but how important was it for you to end all those beefs.
Yukmouth: It just happened. I didn’t go on a mission to find Spida-Loc or to find Game, niggas found me. It was deeper than hip hop it was street shit from the pen to the streets for instance me and Game’s situation it was like the Bloods was getting at his people and telling him you cant fuck with it like that because in the penitentiary the bloods in the bay and the 415’s; there together. So you can’t stop our connection in the pen and the streets over some little rap shit. You young ass niggas better get your shit together and cut that shit out. So Game came to me through one of my homeboys Eastwood, shout out to Eastwood, we got together on three way and squashed it. Now with that Spida-Loc shit, he knows a nigga that I know and he had to cancel a couple shows up north. It was hard for him to do his shows up north ill tell you that. And he realized he can’t do business like that so he got with my people and squashed that. His people that he’s with are with Master P, so one day I was playing pool, and Master P just rolled up and talk to us. There was no loud talking; none of that shit and he respected me and we squashed that shit. Too $hort, he’s on my new album so we squashed that so everything is cool. It was an all out war. If we would had kept it going L.A. niggas wouldn’t be able to come to Oakland and Oakland niggas wouldn’t be able to come to L.A. over two or three rappers so we got together and squashed it to unite Cali and keep everything rolling.
Badnews: I’m glad that worked out.
Yukmouth: Yeah no casualties, C-Bo is working with Young Buck now he’s working with G-Unit, so everything is working out.
Badnews: How did you get into the whole documentary thing you have a series of DVD’s titled United States of Ghetto America.
Yukmouth: Basically it started in 2001, my cousin was putting this DVD together called “Pop Ya Colla” and he’s got all these pimps and celebrities on it and I was like damn if he can do it, I can do it. So I started United Ghettos of America. I travel anyway, east coast, west coast, down south, overseas, so I got a camera and I want to show people what I do. I put a lot of people on Mac Dre was on it, the rebirth of Mac Dre, I showed niggas dancing on cars and hyphy in 2001. niggas was starting the hyphy movement in 2005. Then I show them stuff overseas like in Amsterdam, I take them to the coffee shops and show them everything, then what goes backstage at our shows we give them the real interviews and that are what it is.
Badnews: I caught a piece of it last night and it’s a real crazy DVD
Yukmouth: Have you seen the Eye Candy one yet?
Badnews: Nah! That’s what I was going to ask you about next. (Laughs)
Yukmouth: Whoooooo that eye candy is going to have you beating your meat for about two hours! You’re definitely going to like that one
Badnews: (Laughs) That’s what does up, well ill be on the lookout for that.
Yukmouth: You have a girl and you’re trying to break the ice, just put that eye candy in there and you’ll have her coming out the clothes in 10 minutes trying to emulate what’s on the tape.
Badnews: Yukmouth DVD’s bringing everyone together (Laughs)
Yukmouth: That’s right, bringing everyone together, were united (Laughs)
Badnews: Now here’s a statement that I pulled of one of your fan sites and it reads: “Yukmouth is the realest rapper walking the earth since Pac. How do you fell when you get something like that from a listener?
Yukmouth: That’s big shoes to feel, that a deep comment I make music that touches people, I can never be like Pac. But my music touches people its real; I think he’s saying it in that manner
Badnews: Right.
Yukmouth: But I appreciate that comment, I’m not afraid to put my life out there like that. I’ve been on section 8, broke and homeless. A lot of rappers want to paint this picture of them balling all there life, but I been through pain and suffering and I put that in my music and I’m not afraid to. My fans know how I get down. I can make them cry with my music.
Badnews: That’s a special thing too.
Yukmouth: I heard I got people through there bids with my music and that’s special
Badnews: Now who’s in your top five right now
Yukmouth: I hate to sound like I’m riding the south but down south is running shit. Jeezy, Wayne there coming out with knockers and smackers. I aint listening to Soulja Boy and all that dancing shit, I’m listening to that real shit. I’m listening to the south, shit I’m signed to the south my album sounds like I’m from the south
Badnews: What’s your next album or project coming out?
Yukmouth: The next thing dropping is with me and C-Bo, then The Regime, United Ghettos vol. 3 I got Anna Nicole dancing with Damon Dash and Floyd Mayweather with big bottles raising her skirt up, its crazy. And the cold part about it I film it myself its all me behind the camera. That’s should be out by the summer, then another Yukmouth album.
Badnews: If you could trade everything in that you have right now, what would you trade it for?
Yukmouth: To bring my parents back. My father, I’d do anything to bring him back he missed a lot of my life. He missed his grandkids.
Badnews: Was your father a big influence on your music?
Yukmouth: Yeah, he bought me a trumpet, I guess he thought I was going to be backup in his band (Laughs) then my mom, she raised me as best as she could in the environment I was in. and being in that environment I had a lot to rap about, so they both were a big influence on me.
Badnews: That’s what’s up, well rest in peace to your parents
Yukmouth: Definitely.
Badnews: Okay, well those were all the questions I had thank you for your time and good luck with everything.
Yukmouth: Thank you.
Source: BadNews - Writer for HipHopRuckus
