Telly Mac
Interview by Black Dog Bone
You’re getting ready to release another album? What’s it called?
The title of the album is “You’re Nobody until Somebody Kills You”. I came up with the concept because a muthafucka don’t really recognize you until something happens to you.
It’s good that you bring that up. I can remember talking to people like Biggie and DJ Screw when they were living, and they were struggling.
It is the same exact thing with Mac Dre. He was a diamond in the rough in the Bay Area. Nobody really tripped off of him until the tragic accident. Then everybody acted like they believed in his music and they were rockin with him, but people wasn’t really rockin with him like that until he passed away. That’s kind of like what I am going through right now, except the only thing with me is that I am still alive and I am able to pick my head up. It ain’t too late.
You are young still. You can do a lot with your music. You can see that about your situation. It’s important to be able to see it in other people as well. You also need to be able to recognize the talent of the young up and coming artists. How do you feel about all the new music coming out at this time?
It is a pretty good wave of new music coming in. Some of the shit I like and some of the shit I don’t. I like the feel good music that makes you dance in the clubs. The music some of the artists are making is okay, it’s some feel good music that you could dance to in the club. Me myself I like the actual reality music and shit that I can relate to some shit that I might be going through myself. When you listen to my album I pretty much touch on a lot of that type of shit. There is a lot of hardcore type of street music, but inside the music there is some bars that you could probably relate to in your own life and your own situations. I got some grown up music on there too, like this one called “Make Me Feel” where I have a sample on there from Freddy Jackson. My little cousin Coleone produced it and it is hot and has a nice sample to it. It is some feel good music where you could ride out on a nice sunny day. It will present a good positive vibe for you.
On the album you shift from feel good music to Gangsta stories?
It is kind of like a mixture. I got a couple that is feel good music you could turn it up and ride to it and clean your house to it. Then I got that shit that the gangstas like to hang out the window to and act stupid to it. It’s a well rounded album and it is just me pretty much getting active and showing my fans and the people who got their ears open that I am making good music and I can still rap.
If you were coming out 15 years ago everybody would be playing your CD. Now there are so many artists out, it’s hard to make an impression.
There is a lot of competition out there and you have to have the stomach for this shit. This shit is hard! If I was on 15 years ago then I probably wouldn’t know what I know now or probably wouldn’t know what I had a chance to learn in the game coming up. I was a part of a million dollar corporation early in my career dealing with Get Low Records and JT the Bigga Figga and everything they had going on. San Quinn is one of the biggest artists to come out of Northern California next to Messy Marv and Guce. I came up under all of them, so I had a chance to really learn some shit and be observant. I know the moves to be made and the moves that is not to be made. I am on that because I had a chance to experience that early on.
When you were with JT and Get Low Records how old were you?
I was thirteen years old when I first started rappin and that was in 1996 when I got on my first album on Get Low Records.
You had another partner?
It was three of us. It was me, Sky Baller, and Devo. We were originally Tha Gamblaz, but unfortunately we had some early disputes in our group that led us to have people going into different directions. Sky Baller was a member of our group and we had some domestic disputes and that kind of pushed him in another direction from the group. We are all still cool today, but everybody is doing their own thing right now.
I met you when we were doing a photo shoot for Murder Dog with JT a long time ago. Do you remember that?
I remember that. I was a young dude back then just trying to get in where I fit in.
At that time there was a lot going on in the Fillmore.
Growing up in the ‘Moe back in those days was crazy. We got a big neighborhood full of a lot of cats. It was a good feeling growing up back in those days because we still had a little bit of unity left in our hood and niggaz was believing in the movement. We was running around rippin’ and runnin. JT was making a lot of cool moves and we were making some cool music. We had a lot of followers and there was a little more support back then than nowadays.
What other rappers were around at that time?
We got a million rappers in Fillmore! We got Fully Loaded, Tha Gamblaz, Click Clack Gang, Messy Marv, Willie Hen, San Quinn, JT, Seff Da Gaffla, Young Rome, I could go on for days.
Messy Marv was living in Fillmore back in those days?
Messy Marv was in Fillmore for real back in them days. He was sleeping in our studio!
You were probably working out of JT’s studio then?
I would say I was working out of JT’s studio from about 1996 until around 2002.
What happened between you, JT and Tha Gamblaz?
To be honest, we are still like brothers and we got a family bond that we uphold. But as far as business, everybody got their own mind and opinions. On certain shit we just wasn’t seeing eye to eye. For me being a young dude maturing and getting older, I started seeing stuff that I thought should be done differently, and dude thought it shouldn’t be that way. You know how it is in business, if you are not seeing eye to eye then it is time to part and go your separate ways. Then take some of those creations and visions that you might have as far as being an artist, a CEO or whatever you are and take those visions and put them into perspective by doing your own thing.
Was it a musical difference that split you?
It was kind of like a music interest and a financial interest. We were doing a lot of business as That Gamblaz and we were putting out a lot of music and generating a lot of dollars, and some of them dollars that got generated we never really had too much of nothing to do with that shit. But what I can say is JT is a good dude and he put us on. Sometimes there would be financial disputes, but he always made sure that we was learning as we were going along. That is something I always take my hat off to him, because without him I wouldn’t know what I know right now.
How different are you from other rappers from Fillmore? Do you have a different sound?
What made our sound different as Tha Gamblaz is we were some young grimy dudes off the streets of Fillmore. If you are familiar with Fillmore Rap, a lot of the music before my time was party music. They used to rap to up-tempo fast type beats. You heard Rappin’ 4-Tay who had records like “Playaz Club” and “I’ll Be Around”, and JT had songs like “Game Recognize Game”. Those were songs that got rotation on the radio and spins in the clubs, but what made us different is we were the grimy dudes from the streets with the hard lyrics. When we got in the studio it wasn’t about the music it was about what you really had to say when you walked in that booth and came out. We focused a lot on our lyrics. I think that is what is changing Fillmore music right now—it ain’t the beats like it used to be back in the day like how we use to break dance and the up-tempo was fashionable for that era. When my generation started coming up in music it wasn’t about dancing no more. It was about getting whatever you had on your chest or mind and getting it off. That is what we bring to the table. We started focusing on our lyrics and being real lyrical and getting in that booth trying to flame something.
You are a rapper and you write lyrics, but some people don’t want to just listen to lyrics. You have to have a balance of the lyrics and music.
I agree, you have to balance it out. Life is just about dancing and partying in the club. When the bullets get to flying in the club the music stops. When the bullets start firing in the club there ain’t no music; it stops. It is just something about me and where I come from, because I be more into the Reality Rap. I was into listening to Tupac and Biggie. Listen to their music and you hear that the majority of that music there wasn’t no dancing. Them boys had lyrics and got over them beats talking about how they really feel. It had nothing to do with dancing and being in the club. It was real life.
At this time people are looking for a new sound in the Bay as far as the music goes.
We need some hot producers to come out here to this West Coast. We got a lot of good producers form Down South and the East Coast that has yet to come in and tap into these Bay Area super stars floating around over here. I think that would be something real big for the Bay if we could get these cats from other parts of the country and network and start reaching out to people like the Jazzy Pha’s and who is ever making hot beats. They need to come here and fuck with this talent because there is a million Rap niggaz out here that ain’t never even had a fair chance getting on some hot music. We have some good producers out here in the Bay like Sean T and Rick Rock. We deal with them type of people and they be busy making their moves so we don’t find no in-house producers like that out here in the Bay Area.
There are a lot of talented producers in the Bay. When you listen to what’s happening in the South now, they were heavily influenced by Bay Area Rap.
Down South and New York comes out here and soaks up all this game and take it back where they are from and utilize it. I don’t blame them or hate them because they are eating off that and doing what is right. People in the Bay Area need to pick their head up and pay attention to how them dudes are moving and start moving, because at the end of the day we are the ones with the game and the slang. We don’t have no money and no unity out here; that’s why they are beating our ass at in the South and wherever else. No matter how much they steal from us and they get back to where they need to get back to, they open up and they share with their people. That’s why they are winning.
We need to work together as a community. If we get some cool Bay Area artists together and get a club and a space and have a license and have shows every night, we can make something happen here.
I completely understand that, but like you said the people have to want to do it. The problem with us in the Bay Area is everybody wants to shine and everybody wants to be the star, but don’t nobody want to put in the ground work to be that star. Even with me, I’m a cool dude and I have been around for a minute fuckin with the music, but I am very humble and I don’t have to be the nigga on the radio or the TV. My album doesn’t even have to come out; you could put one of my niggaz out and I will support that. I am still gonna buy the music and support it. I’m not gonna buy it just because it’s my nigga. The problem out here in the Bay Area is if you don’t know someone who might be on or be the face in the city for us, then people don’t support him because they haven’t seen him before and his music don’t sound like your homie music.
You’ve got the music and you’ve got the looks. You could really fly.
I just have to get that opportunity. I deserve it but like they say at the end of the day hard work pays off. I’m just trying to stay busy to keep myself consistent. I am still young and I still got the look I am just out here just waiting on a chance. When they call my number I am going to be ready. I got a gang of albums in the works or already done and I’m gonna stay tappin’ in with Black Dog all day. I’m thanking Murder Dog for all the love I have been getting. Ya’ll have been keeping my name out there and I’m gonna stay fuckin’ wit y’all networking. I know this music can take me where I have been wanting to go for the last ten years.
