Dem Hoodstarz
Interview by Scott Bejda
www.myspace.com/demhoodstarz
What have you been up to since the last time we talked?
Scoot: We have just been grinding real hard up and down the Coast letting them know about this whole Hoodstar movement.
Band Aide: Since the last time we talked we have gotten a whole lot more radio support too. We have got in a few more states. We got a hot single out right now on the airwaves called "Ugh".
Scoot: We got a radio promo tour ready to go for this new album. We have been really grinding, putting in work. We also did a couple movie rolls.
Band Aide: We have performed in front of 15 and 18,000 people for the Strike Force, which is an Ultimate Fighting sports thing. We went down to the octagon and rocked "Get Yo Grown Man On" and they went crazy!
The only thing left to do is to run for president?
Band Aide: We are ready to pop some Cris and us and B-Legit might run for president. Scoot: Now the word is out and we have been at the HP Pavilion and witnessed 18,000 people singing our song. It is going down!
Band Aide: We have also done shows with some really big names such as Christina Milian, Bone Thugs, Bubba Sparxxx, Young Bloodz, and Dem Franchise Boyz, just to name a few. Too Short and E-40 too. Also Scoot was a player and I was a coach for the And 1 Basketball game and they went crazy on that. You will probably see that on ESPN. We have just been grinding to the extreme letting them know what time it is. We just hosted like four or five mixtapes too. We are working and showing them what work is.
Sounds like it should be time for the majors to start coming.
Band Aide: Right now the whole Bay Area is making real good top quality music and the whole world is looking at this Hyphy Movement and we are proud to be a part in it and proud to be instrumental in front-lining it.
What is the name of the first single?
Band Aide: "I Get My Grown Man On". We even did a video but we didn’t like the way it turned out so we are going to reedit it and try to get that back out. It came back and it didn’t look good and we are real judgmental about our stuff. We felt it looked like bullshit so we thought everybody else would feel the same way. We are our hardest critics!
When you record a lot of songs how do you narrow it down for the final cut of the album?
Scoot: We give it to the DJ’s and we keep our ear to the streets. We let the DJ choose because nine times out of ten the songs that I like are not the songs that get picked. We make all around music and I will write to my best ability. We let it ride because at the end of the day it ain’t about what we like, it’s about what the people like. We know that and we are not stubborn like that or insecure.
Band Aide: At the end of the day that is what it is about because me and Scoot have been rappin’ for ourselves for years. All we rapped for was ourselves and it took a lot of trial and error before we realized that we can’t just do this for us. Otherwise we will be the only ones rockin this shit. We decided to grow!
A lot of people are just getting up on you now, but you are by no means rookies!
Scoot: Me and Band Aide have been doing this shit for many years. I was in a group called Totally Insane, and Band Aide was in a group called Neva Legal back in the ‘94-95 era.
Band Aide: Due to unfortunate events a lot of the members went to the Feds and the penitentiary and I was one of them. I went in and didn’t come home for another five years later. When I came home is when me and Scoot started this Hoodstar shit and everybody else was locked up.
When you were locked up were you planning and strategizing what you wanted to do once you got out?
Band Aide: Yeah, because a lot of times if you don’t plan then you plan to fail. A lot of this has been from trial and error because we have put out other stuff and we know how we fucked up before. We didn’t know how to be successful but we did know we fucked up and that is pretty much how we got our good niche. We have been doing it, but we always just fucked it up. We knew we could not take the same routes because we knew they got us nowhere. We had a little bit of planning but I can’t leak out everything. Some stuff we’re going to use for the up and coming artists on our label. We don’t want everybody else to steal our plan because then we won’t be effective anymore.
What about the other members from both groups who are still locked up? Are any of them coming home soon?
Scoot: Some of them are on their way home and some of them are still in there for a while. We are pushing right now and how well we concentrate on this Hoodstar movement everything will fall right in line and we will have this structured for them to fall right into place with everything. Right now we are trying to show the whole world what this Hoodstar is all about.
What about before Totally Insane and Neva Legal? Did you record anything before that?
Band Aide: We have been doing this shit since junior high. We were in a group called YDB, there was about ten of us in that group. We have always had a passion for this and we just never had the money from this shit. It was like a hobby for us and we loved it so much that we didn’t want to let go, but at the same time we had to eat too. It took for a muthafucka to go to prison to realize! You can sell them CD’s the same way you sell coke, but you don’t have to worry about being locked up because it’s all legit money.
What is the title of your upcoming album?
Scoot: The name of the new album is just "Band Aide and Scoot Dem Hoodstarz". We did the first album and we had a whole lot of input but this time it was just me and Band Aide.
Band Aide: On this album we showed a whole bunch of maturity and growth. We are real proud of this album right here and we think that this one is going to do it. Also is comes with a free DVD!
What is on the DVD?
Band Aide: It’s us on the road with performances in front of 15,000 and 18,000 people. For the people who think we are woofin’ when we tell you how we rock, we put it all on video camera. For all the people who have not been out to a Hoodstarz show we want to entice you to come out to a show. This DVD is showing us performing live in a state penitentiary,
Scoot: It’s also showing behind the scenes of "The Yadada Mean Movie". And it’s showing us at the AND 1 game playing basketball.
What kind of beats do you have on there?
Band Aide: We got crazy beats on there from everybody like some Tone Capone, Sean T, Droop-E, Traxamillion, E.A. Ski. We really went out there and touched everybody who was hot in the Bay and they all blessed us with some heat.
Scoot: They can be expecting all kinds of music like they always get from Dem Hoodstarz.
How is your overall sound?
Band Aide: We got hood stories, hood tales, and what is going on in the hood over the Hyphy beats, but not all of our beats is Hyphy. The reason people relate to us is that we are talking about the hood elements and it’s over the bass and the drums over this new movement.
How does it feel to have all eyes back on the West Coast again?
Scoot: It’s a beautiful thing right now. We have a lot of eyes already on the Bay Area, but we need more because for a long time when someone would mention the West Coast all they would think about is L.A. because they were the ones that was making the most noise. There is a whole lot more to California than just L.A. because there is a Northern California too. I’m not hating on Southern California or nothing like that, it’s just that it was like that and now we are trying to get all eyes on The Bay.
I have been bumping The Bay for years! I always liked the Bay stuff over the L.A. stuff.
Band Aide: A lot of them weren’t up on the Chunk’s, The JT’s, The Cool Nutz, The RBL’s, and they were at the forefront of this shit. The E-40’s and the Mac Dre’s have been putting out mad albums!
Do you have guest features on your album?
Band Aide: We are pushing this Band Aide and Scoot but we got some Hoodstars on there like Mistah F.A.B., Messy Marv, Game, Mike Marshal, Goldy from Federation. And we got the re-mix on there and it has San Quin, FAB, Clyde Carson, and Turf Talk. We also got "Bull Shit", which consists of E-40 and Turf Talk. We got some features, but most of the album is me and Scoot because we wanted to show them what we got.
What is next for Hoodstarz?
Scoot: Right now we are just pushing this album and try to take it to the next level. We are doing movies too! We are trying to do it all around.
Was acting a hard transition?
Band Aide: I think I can speak for both of us when I say that acting was pretty natural for us. They told us a part and we could just imagine ourselves as that person working in a pizza parlor or working inside of a record store. It was pretty much natural and it was nothing for us to knock out. We are not camera shy and it’s all good.
What can we look forward to seeing you act in?
Scoot: The movie that we were in is supposed to come in late December or early January. It’s called "The Yadada Movie". It is almost like a comedy based on the Bay Area. It stars Choppa from The Band, The Federation, F.A.B. and a lot of people came through showing love. You can go to www.youtube.com and go to "The Yadada Movie" and you can see a nice trailer on there.
You had some pretty good sized parts in the film?
Band Aide: It started with a little part and they ended up having us come every day until the film was over doing different things for the movie. They gave us thumbs up and they want us to actually work in another film.
Scoot: Everybody better get used to us. Anything that has to do with this entertainment business we are trying to do it. It is way bigger than just Rap right now. When we got together and started doing this thing we were a lot younger, right now it is all or nothing!
To hear about your recent success is a beautiful thing because way back in the day I had Totally Insane and Neva Legal albums.
Band Aide: There are a whole lot of artists out here smashing right now. The Bay is here now and we have been here.
Scoot: Plus we are from one of the smallest cities in the Bay Area which is a two and a half square mile city: East Palo Alto. My little city is smaller than East Oakland and we just have to get that extra push. We are working as hard as we can right to get that extra push!
How many people are in East Palo Alto?
Scoot: There is 33,000 people here. We are about twenty minutes from a lot of places like San Jose, Frisco, and Oakland. We are right in the middle of the whole Bay!
Band Aide: Our fans support 110 %. Whatever the Hoodstarz have going they are there and whatever we don’t have going they want to know why. We love our town! They all show support and love!