MISTAH FAB
Mistah FAB
Interview by Black Dog Bone
Continued from Murder Dog vol 14 #2
Hip Hop was first going on in New York, then when we came up with Gangsta and Mobb shit on the West Coast they were saying, "That’s not Hip Hop. That’s no good." You see the same thing happening now with the established artists rejecting Hyphy. Sure, Mobb is not Hip Hop and Hyphy is not Mobb, but why reject it and resist it?
They’re offsprings. Mobb was born off of Hip Hop. Hyphy was born off the Mobb. 5 or 6 years from now it may be something else. Humans have a problem with accepting change. Especially instant change. We have a habitual way of doing things the way we been doing. This is our lifestyle. You never really wanna change what you got goin on.
People get comfortable with something. Then here comes the new thing and they’re afraid of getting swept away. They don’t want you to be the new king of the Bay.
History takes its course. There are kings who have been able to rule for many years. You salute them in their triumphs and for what they’ve accomplished. But it comes a time where a king has to step down from the thrown or share the spot. There can be many kings. It don’t have to just be one king. A significant king is one that realizes that it’s always gonna be somebody better than you. I realize that. A lotta people be tellin me I’m the new King of the Bay. I say it definitely an honor that people look at me like that. But at the same time there comes a lot of responsibility when you take that burden. People always wanna go at the king. They wanna throw shots at you. You just take it for what it is. I salute all the kings of the Bay. As an individual, everybody’s their own king. You got a people’s king, who the people call the king. That’s who they want to sit on the thrown. If that’s what they wanna do for Mistah FAB, then go ahead. I’ll take that responsibility. But at the same time, I’m not sayin I’m better than nobody. I know it’s always gonna be somebody that’s better than me. I can only take responsibility for what I have to do.
Another thing I’ve noticed right now is that as much as the rappers, the producers are shaping the music. Anybody could rap over a Hyphy beat and it’ll be a Hyphy song.
I think they go hand in hand, cause a lotta the producers from the Bay Area have coined a great sound. There’s a certain sound that the industry defines as Hyphy. They think if it has an up-tempo beat it’s Hyphy. But it’s not necessarily that. Tempo plays a big role, but it’s just part of it. Like Keak Da Sneak with "That Go" his new song, that wouldn’t be considered a Hyphy beat, but he turned it into another Hyphy anthem. You have a lotta producer that make Hyphy tracks. You have Rick Rock, Traxamillion, you got Sean T, Lil Droop-E, my in-house producer Rob E, got Roblo, Young L, Bedrock…you got a lotta producers and they definitely take a part in fulfilling this movement. E-A-Ski, Young Mozart, Trackademiks, it’s a houseful of names. It all goes hand in hand. The producers are responsible for creating a noticeable sound. But the artists also have the power to turn any kind of track into a Hyphy song. It’s what you’re sayin and who you are that keeps it Hyphy.
A lot of people in the Bay are surprised by how Mistah FAB just blew up. They’d seen you doing your thing, but never expected you to rise the way you did. That’s the way they saw E-40 when he was starting.
That’s how life it. The minds of men is like this. At first they don’t believe you can do it. You start showing what you can do and then they’re ready for you, they’re waiting and anticipating. Then they cheer for you, they want you to do it. Then when you do it, they wanna see you fall. They’re like, "You can’t do it again. You did it once." That’s the minds of men. Life’s critic is the pitfall of men. People don’t recognize your potential when you first come out, then once you’re on top they wanna see you lose. I’ve always been an underdog in everything I do. No one has ever expected me to be in the position that I’m at right now. It’s funny to me. I like it, I laugh at it. I realize it. I know how the minds of men are. I just ride on it and keep doin what I gotta do to make myself relevant as an artist.
When I first met you 2 or 3 years ago, I knew you were going to be a major player. You were so persistent. I didn’t know you, but you kept pushing to get your interview done. You wouldn’t give up.
A lotta people don’t realize that the door of opportunity is not open that long. When you see an opportunity, when you see it opening a crack, open the door, man. You never know what the other side of that door holds for you. Some people always want to put things off. I’ll do it later, I’ll wait. But in life, you never know. You gotta get things going. Who would ever know that after we did a photo shoot with Thizz Nation and Mac Dre, that the very next week he would be killed. We coulda said, let’s do it next month. But tomorrow’s not promised. That’s why I always handle my business. Take action today. Today is a gift. That’s why they call it the present. Every day is a gift. You can’t take that gift for granted. Life for that gift and be blessed that you got this day.
I remember I kept trying to get with Mac Dre to do a cover story. I kept scheduling time with him, and he wouldn’t show up. The last time, he showed up but I didn’t show up. Next thing you know, he was gone.
That’s how life is. Much love to big brother. Dre did a lotta stuff. He opened up a lotta opportunities for a lotta people. And people don’t realize the importance of somebody until they’re no longer here. Then you start missing him. That’s unfortunate. That’s why you gotta appreciate everybody. Be thankful for everybody you got in your corner that’s helping you out, everybody that wanna see you do good. Even be thankful and mindful for the haters and the critics, because critics actually sometimes point out the things that you need to work on. If you look at it, you’ll be like, "Maybe he’s right." Even though he put you in an awkward position. You’re like, "Why he have to write it like that though?" But criticism can help you out a lot in the long term. So be thankful of everybody that you have around you. I’m grateful for everything and everybody.
Everything had become very serious in the Bay in the Rap world. People like Mac Dre, and now you, brought the fun back. Music shouldn’t be so serious, it should be fun.
You’re right. Music is like a pizza. Every piece is important. Some pieces got more cheese on it than others. Some pieces got more meat on it. Some pieces got more sauce. But each piece is what scopes the whole pie. With music you’ve got to have it all. You gotta have fun, but then sometimes you’re having a hard time in life and you need a channel to vent through. You could be listening to a song that feels so close to what you’re feeling, that it helps you get through the drama that you’re going through in your life. That one song may help you get through that. A passage, an escape way. There are the songs that we listen to when we’re having a bad day, songs that bring us joy. That’s what music is about. Music is an escape from the worries of the world. Different people have different ways of easing their pain. Just to be versatile in how you get your point across is the main thing for a musician.
A lot of artists, when they start out they’re just wild and they’re creative with their music, but then they get into the business side and get drained out. Because business is shady and it’s hard to keep that fun spirit when you’re in that world.
Right. Like Henry Ford, the founder of Ford car company, he dropped out of school in the 9th or 10th grade. They was like, "You’re not smart enough to run no business like this. How did you do it?" He said, "I may not be smart enough to manufacture the cars, but I’m smart enough to know who I have to hire to handle that business for me." Some of us may not be business moguls. We may not be the greatest savvy business people. The honesty within ourselves can allow us to realize that so you can hire the help that does know. You hire the best help. OJ wouldn’t have been able to get off that case it he hadn’t hired the best help for that situation. When we’re in need and we’re unable to handle certain things, we gotta ask for help. That’s what it’s about. A lotta people try to be renascence men in this music game. They think they know how to do it all, but we have to admit that we don’t know sometimes. We don’t know everything. We would be a threat to society if you knew everything.
That might be a good thing though.
It would, but then it could be too stressful because you see all the woes of life. You see the certain secrets that you don’t need to know that would stress you out just because you know. Like Pandora’s box. You open it and you see all the nightmares and it scares you. That’s why you have people that are so smart that they have reached the level of insanity. They’re so intelligent that it mind-boggles them. So they have to stay high or they have to stay intoxicated to deal with it. It’s too much knowledge.
It’s like a computer getting overloaded.
Some people are so intelligent that it drives them crazy. They have breakdowns.
How do you deal with all the things going on in your life?
Just take it day by day, man. It’s an experience.
People are probably coming at you all day asking for this or that. You could get stressed out.
You hear it all day. That’s part of life. Everybody ain’t gonna be happy for you. It’s gonna be people that don’t wanna see you lose. It’s gonna be people that don’t wanna see you open up opportunities for other people. There’s gonna be people that are acting like they’re cheering for you, but really they want your spot. You have to realize that you won’t be able to please everybody. Everybody’s not gonna be a fan of Mistah FAB. I don’t need to worry myself about the negativity out there. I just surround myself with positivity. I realize that dealing with negativity, you begin to do things that take you away from who you are. The main thing is to stick to the original vision that you had. My vision is to take my dreams to the highest level I can take them, to continue to push in the direction I been pushing.
How did you start working with Mac Dre and the Thizz movement?
I had been doing a lotta shows with some of my family members in Sacramento. Rupe Dog is my mama’s sister’s son. That’s my first cousin. That’s one of the people that influenced me to rap. He actually has a new album coming out. You gotta hear that, that shit’s incredible. And my cousin Lucci, that’s his brother, he was managing Mac Dre at the time. He was like, "You need to start coming to do shows with us." Dre let me come and open up some shows for him. We got kinda cool. We did a DVD called "23109" about the sideshows and the cars. Dre got a chance to see my personality and he was like, "Dude cool, man. I like dude." We had started kickin it. That’s how I got brought in. He was asking me what I wanted to do with my next album, how I wanted to put it out. I was already cool with Thizz so I like, "Should I go somewhere else or should I do it here?" Me and Kilo Curt sat down. Kilo knew the love Dre had for me, so he set me up. It’s on since then.
At that time was Mac Dre involved in running the Thizz label?
It was already on. Dre had already laid the groundwork and the footwork to get it goin. It was already on. "Trill TV" put it on. Thizz was already on the rise. It’s was good. Everybody was expecting a lot from the label. Dre was gonna drop a new album. He already had the whole Bay. What he was doin is getting his team together. The Husalah, Rydah J. Clyde, myself, J. Diggs, Dubee. Dubee was one of the frontrunner of the Thizz movement. PSD, the whole Cutthroat Committee. Dubee was really a pioneer out here. Dubee’s one of my favorite rappers. We was all lining up, getting ready to be the next label to reckon with. Unfortunately when he passed it brought a whole lotta attention to it. People was like, what they gonna do now? It’s sad that it takes somebody to pass for the attention and recognition to come. Sometimes the dots get connected in a funny way. Now we’re taking the nation by storm.
I don’t think anybody ever thought Thizz would become such a huge organization. I don’t think you even thought it was going to happen.
Not at all. I knew that we had the potential to be a major force, not only in the Bay Area but worldwide. Because of the character that we brought to the table, the lyrical ability, the swag. And everybody plays their part. You got somebody like Rydah J. Clyde who got swag, he’s got a cold style. You got Husalah and Mac Mall who got the personality, that charisma. Mac Dre, he’s the character, he brings the humor. J. Diggs got the street credibility. Dubee, street credibility and character. Myself, an animated character with lyrical ability. You put all those people together, that’s a great team. That’s a force to be reckoned with. You take 505 and we can go get any team out there. That’s how we was lookin at it, we can go get any team, let’s do it. But we never woulda thought the movement would get to where it is now. You just seen that elderly man pull up in the yellow bus with Mac Dre’s face all over their shit. That’s crazy! Everything, the whole yellow bus movement! Everywhere you go people are singing it.
That song was a big opener for you. How did it come to you? You probably didn’t even think too much about it.
A great door opener. I just had the inside connection over to Droop-E. My homey hooked it up with Droop-E and I got me a Droop-E beat. The beat was like ill! I was like, "40, why don’t you get on that beat for me?" He did it for me. 40 got on there. Then I was like, "Put Turf Talk on there." And we did the song. We didn’t think the song was gonna do what it did. It was a cool song, that’s all. But that song really sparked off the movement, for both parties—Thizz and Sick Wid It. It brought 40 back to the attention of the youth. He hadn’t really never gone nowhere, but it got him back real current again. And it got me to the attention of everybody. That one song sparked the yellow bus movement. I was the driver, the inventor of the yellow bus movement. I ain’t sayin I started Hyphy but I started that whole yellow bus movement.
That was an offshoot of Hyphy.
It’s the same thing. Like Keak can say he said "hyphy" first. I can say I said "yellow bus" first. But it ain’t about who said it first, whatever. It’s bigger than that. It’s bigger than me. It’s just about the movement that we all stand behind and we’re pushing. We’re pushing the Baydestrian movement. If you’re a Baydestrian, that means you’re from the Bay and you got the right of way to do whatever you wanna do. You’re from the Bay and just go.
I heard you’re dropping an independent album in April and then the Atlantic album will come later. What’s the story behind that?
The new album that I’m dropping right now is called "The Baydestrian". It’s the pre-quel to "Da Yellow Bus Rydah". We decided to do this because Atlantic Records, they got a lotta artists on their chains right now. It’s only so many people to push the product, so if I came out now I wouldn’t get the attention that I needed, that I felt that my product deserved. What me and my team did was we decided to drop an album through the anticipation, cause everybody been waitin on "Da Yellow Bus Rydah". We have a video right now on MTV. We got crazy hits on the Myspace, crazy hits on YouTube. Everybody’s just waitin. You don’t wanna keep ‘em waitin too long, cause the anticipation would die down. They’ll be like, "Whatever, it ain’t gonna never come out." So we just put together a new album for ‘em just to give ‘em something When they’re waitin at the bus stop for the bus to come we gonna give ‘em that. Believe it or not, I can bet you it’s gonna do something crazy, cause the album is hot!
Is there any material from "Da Yellow Bus" on "Da Baydestrian"?
No. That album is all done. The Atlantic album I got stuff that I ain’t even touchin. I’m just gonna leave that there. I made sure that I didn’t do no songs that was just gonna get old. I did some timeless songs that I could drop 2 years from now and it’ll still be fresh. "Da Baydestrian" is definitely gonna show the people that I’m for real, I’m showin my growth. I feel that I’m getting better with each album and each project. "Da Baydestrian", the production is all Bay.
Who did the production on "Da Baydestrian"?
Sean T. Sean T’s one of my favorite producers, that’s my big brother. He looked out for me when nobody else wanted to give me a chance. I was just rappin over any beat I could get. Sean T came to me, "I like your style. You’re talented, man. Let’s work." I been workin with him ever since. Also my in-house producer, Rob E. Rob E has potential to be one of the greatest producers ever. He could be up there with the Dr. Dre’s and the Alchemists, the Timbaland’s. The reason why I say that is because he has a variety of sounds that he does. You could never know what sound is his. He’s a young cat and he’s a hard worker. He in the studio right now probably makin beats. Droop-E is on the album. Everybody the story with us. He gave me that beat that got me into the movement. Traxamillion did some. Hell yeah! You can’t do an album without Traxamillion. You gotta get at least one Traxamillion. Young L’s on my album too, from The Pack. His beats is ridiculous, he’s gonna be big. I got Bedrock. Bedrock is hot. He’s one of the most slept on hot producers. When you go see him you go to a different planet. His studio just feels like some other world. I call him Planet Bedrock.
What’s so different about Bedrock?
He’s just got a style of his own. It’s like you got to take a rocket to go to where he at. His beats is so futuristic, you just gotta be ready for it. It’s just Planet Bedrock! Bedrock is gonna be a problem. He gonna be a real problem. He’s got some on my Atlantic album too. Who else we workin with? Gennessee, who did a lotta stuff with Dre. He did the "Dregonomics", he did a lotta stuff for Mac Dre. And I got The Bizniz. The Bizniz is the only production I got that’s not from the Bay. They from Seattle. They just signed with 50 Cent, they on G-Unit. It was a blessin workin with them. My boy Dow Jones and J. Henn, they blessed me with those beats. And Politics, an up and coming producer. He’s from San Francisco, young dude, like 19. Hot producer! He did the song with Keak Da Sneak and Spice 1 on my album. It’s a Bay album so I had to put the real Bay pioneers on there. Keak Da Sneak and Spice 1, that was an honor for me to get on a song with them. It’s called "Lemme See Your Pink Slip", about your cars. You in a race, you think you got something hot, if you lose you gotta give me your car. You lose, you give me the car. It’s like that.
You feel happy with the way the album came out?
The album is great. The reason I say it’s great is because I’m getting a chance to do me. I’m lettin people see what’s going on in the Bay Area, that’s why I call it "Da Baydestrian". I represent for all the Bay Area. This album is gonna be for every person in the Bay.
The beats you’re using are Hyphy beats?
I got Hyphy beats, I got up-tempo beats, got some laid-back beats. I got the whole collective of what the Bay represents, from Hyphy to the street to the political to conscious to animated. Anything that you ever knew the Bay Area to be, it’s on this album. The cars play a big part in our culture. I got the car songs, the lifestyle, the pimpin shit, everything. I ain’t disclaiming my Bayness. A lotta artists tryin to act like they ain’t from the Bay, they’re disclaiming their Bayness. I’m embracing my Bayness, I’m embracing the Hyphy movement.
I don’t know why anybody would want to act like they’re not from the Bay. Right now all eyes are on the Bay. I get calls all day from people wanting to hear what’s going on with the Hyphy movement. I finally had enough of explaining to people and decided to do this feature on Hyphy.
Murder Dog sets the standards for a lotta these major magazines. the super big magazines see what y’all got goin on and they be like, "Alright, that’s what’s next!" Y’all tell them what’s next. You see it in Murder Dog, next thing you see it in those other magazines. As a magazine or as an artist you have the opportunity to take ideas. Like you could be at a show and some no-name dude come up to you and give you a CD. A lotta these guys could be taking ideas from some of these young dudes. I know I done got ideas taken from me. That’s just how it is. Trendsetters, the big people ain’t ever the ones who start shit. It be the underdogs that start this stuff. And when the underdog do it people be like, "That ain’t tight, you can’t do that." Then you see somebody big do it, they be like, "Ah, that’s cool! Cool cool!" Like somebody might be like, "Black Dog dresses crazy, man." But let me put that on me and everybody gonna start wearin it. They gonna get on that shit. That’s how life is. People don’t never understand or give credit to the underdogs. Give people their credit.
A lot of people like you because you keep it funny. You’re not too serious with it.
I have a good time when I make my music. But I also cover a wide range of subjects. If you listen to my "Son of a Pimp" album I got all kinds of songs. I got songs where I give it up to all the single mothers who have to raise their children in the heart of the ghetto with no help from no man, no help from the government. I got songs that talk about all the people that we done lost in the game. Songs where I’m showin love to my mom, thanking her for all she done for me. Songs like "Where’s My Daddy" about all the inner city kids, when they get to an age and they’ve never met their father before. They just wanna know where their daddy at and their mother, she don’t even know. Them is serious songs. It’s a good thing everybody wanna have fun. I take nothing outa havin fun. But we also gotta talk about that shit. Talk about your homeboy that just got 67 years. Let’s talk about him. Those are songs that people don’t always give me credit for.
You can talk about all of those things in a Hyphy song too. Hyphy doesn’t have to be about going dumb. The track is upbeat, but you can talk about the streets or a love song in a Hyphy song.
You could turn a slow beat to a Hyphy song. The Hyphy is just the movement that’s gonna get us in the door. That’s the new thing. It’s got the door open for us. Now we just gotta walk through. It’s up to the artists that’s involved in it to define what Hyphy is. We can take it anywhere we want. The question we gotta ask is, "How can Hyphy work for me?"
Hyphy is an opportunity for Bay Area artists and they need to be with it now. That door will one day close.
Whatever it is, when the door open I’m gonna go on through it. I’m an artist. I write all my songs, I write screenplays, I got a lot of things I can do. I have my own radio show on Clear Channel. Jazzy Jim give me a great opportunity on Wild 94.9, a crossover station, a Pop station. I have my own show over there. I’m a radio personality at the BARS Awards. This is what the Hyphy movement has done for me. It’s given me the opportunity to be on Atlantic Records.
You’re still with Thizz and Atlantic both? What is the deal?
We got our own company called Faeva Afta. Thizz is like a fraternity. You know how you got the clubs on the campus. Thizz is like that. Thizz is our brotherhood. Atlantic Records, like all the other major labels, when the Hyphy movement was on the verge of doing something big, every label wanted to get a Hyphy artist. Just like when the South was blowin up the labels all went out and signed a South artist. Atlantic got an artist from the Bay. My lawyer allowed us to set up a beautiful deal, shot out to Jennifer Justice, who is also Jay Z’s lawyer. She structured a deal and stuck with it. The beauty of it is I don’t gotta wait around for y’all. I can drop this album with SMC. I got great friends over there, Will Bronson. We put together some big stuff. I’m just gonna stay productive, stay growin and stay learnin as an artist. I realize that I don’t know everything. I’m 25 years old, just turned 25 last month. I’m still a learner. I may be a veteran in the Bay, but when it comes to nationwide I’m still a rookie. I haven’t hit my prime yet. I’m just anticipating the ride.
Atlantic should have released you album for this summer. It’s the right time. Luckily you can do your independent thing and keep the momentum up.
That’s what it is. We’re gonna drop the album May 8. It’s gonna be a win-win situation for us. We’ll make more money and we get to show them what we can do on our own. It’s whatever. It’s up to them to release that album at the right time, in the meantime I’m gonna make some money. I ain’t gonna be writin on an empty stomach or writin with no lights in your house. Stay hungry, stay humble, stay dedicated, stay focused, stay determined. With these qualities you can be successful in life in anything that you do. You could be a singer, a basketball player, a lawyer, a manager at McDonalds. If you don’t set goals for yourself, then you’ll never accomplish anything. You’re just goin back and forth. You’re goin nowhere hella fast.
Not only the music, but the styles and clothing in Hyphy are really creative. It looks like people are making their own clothes.
It’s like a rebirth of Hip Hop. The culture includes the styles, the cars, the beats, the dancing. People are expressing themselves. It’s just your soul, your style, how you wanna come with it. It’s called turf dancing, what they do in the streets. It’s like break dancing back in the day. They didn’t have no outlets so they’d get a linoleum pad and go break dancing. Now they just dance anywhere, in the middle of the streets. That’s what life is about. You just gotta keep creating. The Hyphy movement is creating something new. The audience becomes a member of the crew. It’s almost like a crazy mosh pit, that kind of energy. And it ain’t just the Black folks either. Everybody’s in this. You got every nationality in this movement. You got Mexicans, you got Filipinos, White kids, Indians. It’s like crazy. That’s what makes it beautiful.
All of these people love Rap music, and now they’ve found an open door to come into it. Everybody is welcome and everybody is having a good time.
That’s when you know that it’s a movement. When you’ve tapped all cultures, that’s a real movement. You got everybody involved. It’s beautiful. I just like the feel of the movement. The camaraderie of the rappers, a lotta people stickin together. We’re workin together. Like Jacka, that’s my favorite artist in the Bay. I love all the Mob Figaz, but Jacka, I just love his style, always have. He’s in my top ten period.
Who else are you listening to?
I like Eddy Projects. He’s a hot dude right now. I love Messy Marv, gotta listen to some Messy. Keak’s one of my favorite artists of all time. Mac Dre, that goes without saying. Mac Dre had it down period. Dubee, Dubee got that flavor. Turf Talk. Turf got a great style. He brought a lotta flavor to the movement too. I had a chance to go around the world with Turf. We was in England and Spain and Portugal together. Me, Turf Talk. Me and Turf really clicked. I got a chance to get to know him and Turf is a good dude. I hope that he gets the credit that he deserves. He definitely hot. And he’s a spiritual dude. He got a good heart. Sometimes in the flesh we do things that we can’t control, but you gotta judge people by their heart. He got a great heart. He comes from a great family—E-40 and Droop—they’re great people. That’s what it’s about. I like people who got heart. Some people just got with the wrong people and it turned their heart cold. San Quinn told me that one day. He said, "FAB, you a good dude, you got a good heart. Don’t let these people tarnish your soul. Negative people surround you." San Quinn has been a mentor to me and a big brother. I love that dude, him and Lil Quinn. Lil Quinn is one rapper to look out for, San Quinn’s son. I grew up off Bay music. I love it.
There was a time that even Bay Area buyers were not supporting the Bay artists. We were not selling well even in the Bay. But now sales have soared. Bay Area people are not buying anything but the Bay artists.
I know what you mean. They were listening to everybody else’s shit in the Bay. But now we got our own representatives. We got our Keak Da Sneak’s, the Jacka’s, the Messy Marv’s, the Mistah FAB’s, the Federation’s. They’re like, "Fuck all that other shit. We’re gonna buy our own shit now." The Bay Area is self-supporting now and that’s a beautiful thing. It just keeps growing too.
You don’t think releasing an album now will take anything away from your Atlantic release?
No. So many people wanna hear that Atlantic. When I tell them that’s gonna be an even better album, then they’re gonna be goin crazy. However this one sells, I know the Atlantic album is gonna sell way better. You got critics that just wanna judge something. I ain’t dropped an album in 2 years. So this is gonna be a chance for them to see what I can do. It’s gonna be exciting. I’m working with SMC, and they give all their records a great push. They’re giving me an opportunity to sell some records. I’m gonna shoot a video over there and we’re just gonna keep pushin it. I know it’s gonna sell, I’m in the position to make a major impact.
No matter what, it’ll be great promotion to set you up for the next release. People are gonna bootleg…
They’re gonna bootleg, but if people really want the album they’ll buy it regardless. They’re gonna have the bootleg copy and they’ll buy it. That’s why in my album I’m puttin a dialog card. So if you buy the album you get a chance download some songs off the new album. You can download all of the "Son of a Pimp". You get certain bonuses with that album. It’s a package deal. We’re givin the people some stuff.
People are wondering where you’re gonna take this Yellow Bus movement. Where is it heading?
I’m gonna take it as far as it can go. Take it Wall Street. I got my own show on Clear Channel. I’m talkin about doing a cartoon right now. Gonna do the Yellow Bus juice for the kids. I’ma pimp it as far as I can go.
Question??
Basically the music is just like a soundscape. You have certain artists who can make the transition into new eras. The beats are really different. If you hear a beat like "Sideways" E-40 and then you hear "Tell Me When To Go" they’re really different. The producer is super important. It’s actually the best when you have a rapper that understands music. That’s why some of them are able to make that jump. In the Bay Area rap styles have changed so much. One of my favorite styles is a style in East Oakland where you used to double up your words a lot. You have that influence put into Rappin Ron, 3 X Krazy when they first came out. It was really quick. Now you don’t hear that style of rappin anymore because they don’t make those kinds of beats no more. The tempos have changed. Mobb was a little bit slower and you could do that easier. When you have rappers that know how to ride the beats it’s gonna inevitably change because everything’s changed. Everything changes.
Last time we talked you were feeling like an underdog. Now you’re a major force in the Bay. You’ve become one of the biggest artists of this time. How do you feel?
I still feel like I’m an underdog. It’s a feeling. It’s just an underdog feeling. Although people be cheerin for you and shit, in their minds they be thinking, "He can’t do it. He ain’t gonna do it."
I don’t see that. People love you. They want you to win.
I get love. It be cool. But even though people be sayin, "He be next," they still don’t want me to make it. We done all gave credit to people, some of our adversaries, some of our enemies. That’s your competition, but you don’t wanna be sounding like you hatin to the open. That’s how people be doin. They say "he next", but in the back of their minds they’re hoping I don’t be next. That’s why I still feel like I’m an underdog because there’s so much stuff to myself that I gotta prove. If I don’t see no records, if I don’t open up no opportunities, invest into something bigger, then what was it all worth? I know there’s a bigger picture out there. You never know where I might be going.
