From "Yay Magazine" wit Dre on the cover
Mag: Tell us about how you met Dre
JD:We go back to kids. Basically Dre is from Vallejo and Vallejo is broke into sides. Dre is originally frim a side of Vallejo called Greer side. Even before Dre was really close to me he was close to my little cousin Kilo. We just basically started off running together as youngsters. Grew up running around the neigborhood with radios and became close. You know how kids are, you just start off just as friends in the streets and end up growing up together and becoming a crew. So We've been knowing each other for a long time.
Mag: So you pretty much came up in the Crest
JD: Country Club Crest. Dre is one of the guys that made that neighborhood famous, what it is today. He was the first rapper to put the neighborhood on the map. It was Mac Dre, then came Mac Mall. Me and Dre came from the same crew so we were alot closer. We all had passion for music, but Dre was the rapper in the group. He was the one that really had the heart. I was a rapper too but Dre was the one who was really all that when we were young. So he was like the spokesman of the crew when it came to speaking on the microphone. In '88/'89 Dre dropped his first album "Young Black Brother", that was the one that opened it up. Everbody knew this is Dre, this is the Romper Room Crew, this is where they're from. He opened the door for alot of Bay Area rappers.
Mag: As far as California goes, I think the Crest and maybe South Central Los Angeles have the highest concentration of rappers on the West Coast.
JD: Statistically you probably cant find another neighborhood in this country with as many guys with albums out as the Crest. For a small neighborhood we have somewhere in the teens the number of artist with albums out. It started out from basically one rapper.
Mag: I got a challenge for you, name them.
JD: Crest Side rappers? I'll just go off head. We started orginally with the Mac, Mick Robinson.
Then it was Mac Dre, Mac Mall, Dubee the Sugawolf Pimp, PSD the Driver, Coolio the Undadogg, The Killa Team. Dre was a pioneer. It was funny because Dre turned into a character. When he first came into the game Dre was a more Serious rapper. Prior to jus going to jail, then we came home and Dre kind of loosend up and got more into the party feel. He really turned it into a whole party grove. Thats why people like him. He made the kind of music people could have fun to. He made his own language, his own terminology, he was a pioneer. Thats why so many people loved and respected him. Because he basically set the tone for his own standard of music, his own style. A lot of people lood at E-40 as the Amassador of the Bay period. The truth is Dre is the real pioneer to Vallejo music and 40 got the notoriety because he ended up signing a deal. But in all actuallity that deal was in our face prior to 40 getting it. 40 got the major deal in the early 90's that Mac Dre should have got had we not went to prison, honestly. But it happend. 40 thats my dude and I congratulate him to the fullest. But if you find another artist out thats been in the game as long as Dre, Thats put out literally 26 or 27 albums over a 15 year period. We really showed the music game that we street dudes went to prison, we lost lost our life as a crew. Young dudes, 17, 18, and 19 years old we went to jail. At the time, young dudes realy werent int what we were into. We started robbing banks when we were basically kids. Bank robberies were unheard of, dudes didnt have the heart to even think about runnin into a bank. We were young dudes and said we were going to try something. Dre got caught into somethingand he never got the chance to set the record straight. Dre did 5 years in the federal pen for basically keepin his mouth closed. Dre was a good friend to me.
I gotta take a break, ill finish the rest later, sorry.
Mag: Tell us about how you met Dre
JD:We go back to kids. Basically Dre is from Vallejo and Vallejo is broke into sides. Dre is originally frim a side of Vallejo called Greer side. Even before Dre was really close to me he was close to my little cousin Kilo. We just basically started off running together as youngsters. Grew up running around the neigborhood with radios and became close. You know how kids are, you just start off just as friends in the streets and end up growing up together and becoming a crew. So We've been knowing each other for a long time.
Mag: So you pretty much came up in the Crest
JD: Country Club Crest. Dre is one of the guys that made that neighborhood famous, what it is today. He was the first rapper to put the neighborhood on the map. It was Mac Dre, then came Mac Mall. Me and Dre came from the same crew so we were alot closer. We all had passion for music, but Dre was the rapper in the group. He was the one that really had the heart. I was a rapper too but Dre was the one who was really all that when we were young. So he was like the spokesman of the crew when it came to speaking on the microphone. In '88/'89 Dre dropped his first album "Young Black Brother", that was the one that opened it up. Everbody knew this is Dre, this is the Romper Room Crew, this is where they're from. He opened the door for alot of Bay Area rappers.
Mag: As far as California goes, I think the Crest and maybe South Central Los Angeles have the highest concentration of rappers on the West Coast.
JD: Statistically you probably cant find another neighborhood in this country with as many guys with albums out as the Crest. For a small neighborhood we have somewhere in the teens the number of artist with albums out. It started out from basically one rapper.
Mag: I got a challenge for you, name them.
JD: Crest Side rappers? I'll just go off head. We started orginally with the Mac, Mick Robinson.
Then it was Mac Dre, Mac Mall, Dubee the Sugawolf Pimp, PSD the Driver, Coolio the Undadogg, The Killa Team. Dre was a pioneer. It was funny because Dre turned into a character. When he first came into the game Dre was a more Serious rapper. Prior to jus going to jail, then we came home and Dre kind of loosend up and got more into the party feel. He really turned it into a whole party grove. Thats why people like him. He made the kind of music people could have fun to. He made his own language, his own terminology, he was a pioneer. Thats why so many people loved and respected him. Because he basically set the tone for his own standard of music, his own style. A lot of people lood at E-40 as the Amassador of the Bay period. The truth is Dre is the real pioneer to Vallejo music and 40 got the notoriety because he ended up signing a deal. But in all actuallity that deal was in our face prior to 40 getting it. 40 got the major deal in the early 90's that Mac Dre should have got had we not went to prison, honestly. But it happend. 40 thats my dude and I congratulate him to the fullest. But if you find another artist out thats been in the game as long as Dre, Thats put out literally 26 or 27 albums over a 15 year period. We really showed the music game that we street dudes went to prison, we lost lost our life as a crew. Young dudes, 17, 18, and 19 years old we went to jail. At the time, young dudes realy werent int what we were into. We started robbing banks when we were basically kids. Bank robberies were unheard of, dudes didnt have the heart to even think about runnin into a bank. We were young dudes and said we were going to try something. Dre got caught into somethingand he never got the chance to set the record straight. Dre did 5 years in the federal pen for basically keepin his mouth closed. Dre was a good friend to me.
I gotta take a break, ill finish the rest later, sorry.