Turf Talk
Interview by: Scott Bejda
Contact: www.myspace.com/turftalk
How did your last album do?
The last album did real grande and it is close to twenty thousand right now. Actually both of my albums did real good and they are still selling to this day. I released the second album six months after the first one. I had three more lined up, but then we started going through the politics of the business like having major labels starting to holler at us so we pushed that back and that’s why I didn’t keep dropping them.
Are the majors talking anything good?
Their offers are good, but not good enough. We really feel like doing it ourselves independently!
20,000 independently is pretty good! Did that open more doors for you like more shows and features?
After my first album I proved myself. 40 got me into the game but all he could do was take you to the lake—you have to drink yourself. He brought me to the music and after I proved myself a lot of people wanted me for features and I got the shows.
When will your third album come out?
The third one will be out by January ’07 at the latest. The name of it is "West Coast Vaccine". That means I’m the cure but I think we are past now. For a minute Cali was slept on and we were at a state where they were saying the West Coast is dead. We went through that era for a minute! I said "I’m the West Coast vaccine and I want to bring it back like when Cube and them was crackin’, when Death Row was crackin’, and when Ruthless was crackin’." I wanted to bring that feeling back! This album is like a hardcore West album, but it still has the Bay in me. This album is more serious so you can really peep what kind of dude I am.
It’s hard to believe that this is already your third album, what made you want to come out dropping albums so quickly?
What made me do it was I sold crack for so long and I don’t want to sell crack no more. I don’t want to do it! Even when I was out there pitching I still didn’t feel cool just doing it to our people anyway. I didn’t like selling it to our own people, but at the time I had to eat and it was kill or be killed. I always wanted to rap from day one and 40 and them have been rappin’ for 14 years. I was in high school looking up to these niggaz so when I got my chance and got my foot in the door it was time to take advantage. 40 and Mugzi gave me a lot of freedom to do whatever I want to do and they were like, "If you want to kick ’em out, kick ’em out." Artists get paid every six months and I figured if I drop my albums six months after I would be getting my money back to back. I had it lined up for three of them to come!
When you do your shows what states do you hit?
I have been ripping up the whole West Coast from Seattle to San Diego. And I went on tour with DJ Shadow in London, Barcelona, Europe and a whole lot of places in the Europe. Also I have been on the road with 40 before I was rappin’ playing the background. We went on the little Nelly tour. I have been doing hella shows!
How was it to be in Europe?
Man, we are weird to them! We are out there jeweled up and nobody is out there like that. The people were kind of rude, and to tell you the truth the food was nasty. As far as the Hip Hop scene they showed much love to us because we were rocking crowds 6,000 to 8,000. Everything we told to do they did like moving to the left and moving to the right. But the food was disgusting!
At least the Hip Hop crowd showed love, just stay away from the food!
Plus a guy my size is considered obese over there because everyone over there is very little. Their drinks, portions of food, cans of soda and everything over there is smaller. To be a nigga with a little meat on his bones is considered obese! You ain’t gonna want to eat over there! The McDonalds ain’t McDonalds! It ain’t nothing like our shit over here at all. If they came to the States they would love our shit. That’s why they think we are spoiled over here! When they come over here they will not go home and be like "Fuck it, I’m staying here!" When we came back home on that plane we were so happy to see a McDonalds, man!
As far as the music they really got into your shit?
Hell yeah, all they know is "Hyphy" out there! If you say anything about Rap music right now in Europe they will be like "Hyphy"! We gave it to them the real way too!
Right around the time you released your first album there was a resurgence in the Bay!
I’m glad you said that! Me and Feezy sit down and talk about this all of the time! I have respect for all of the groups, but when I came on the scene I was stepping on with the energy smashing. I feel like I made a lot of the groups that have been out here for a long time step up. I have seen cats who have been on the radio for years step their game up and now it’s going to be even more tough because the "West Coast Vaccine" is so different. There is hella songs that people won’t believe I’m even rappin’ on here. I’m switching a million different styles on here! I got muthafuckaz on there with me too! Any kind of little style I can come with I’m busting it and taking the risk.
Are you experimenting with different beats?
Definitely. I got Rick Rock cooking up seven slaps, I got Droop-E cooking up a few, I got Trax-A-Million cooking up some, and I’m going out to LA and get some stuff from Jelly Roll and Dow Jones.
I don’t think I heard your second album. What was it called?
My second album was called "Turf Talk Brings The Hood". It’s not really an album, it’s a collaboration. What I did was took cats I fool with in the industry and cats from the hood; that’s why I call it "Turf Talk Brings The Hood". Nobody can say that I got on and didn’t try to help bring somebody on from the hood. What I did was let my partners from my group The Cabinet shine on there because we are trying to come up together. I also had A-Wax, Young Dru, Under Flow and The Federation. I got a lot of cats that is raw to me and I put them on there to show people who I fool with and who I think is the dopest cats in the Bay.
So many people get on and forget about everybody they came up with, so that shows your heart is in this!
I really want the whole Bay to shine so we can all have money and be around here making noise. I love how it is in the Bay with this independent hustle. This shit is lovely and other rappers from out of town come here and see how we do it and how we got our own DVD’s, clothing lines, and we got our own awards. The Bay is the thing right now, it’s crackin’ out here!
A lot of other places don’t have such a good structure.
I really don’t know what it is. You could look at it like the Black Panther movement and how a lot of shit went down out here with the mouthpieces. I lived in Southern California for half of my life and it’s not like that down there. Niggaz is networking but it is completely different to me what I see out there. What I have been doing lately is going out to LA and networking with Mitchy Slick and Black Wall Street trying to see what they got going on down there. To me this is the closest that Cali has ever been to just connecting as one. Everybody is excepting the Hyphy Movement and you would think niggaz from LA would not be fuckin’ with that but they are pushing it too. Plus Hyphy has been around for a long time because the Bay has been hyphy. We just learned how to turn it from our everyday lifestyle into the limelight. We just figured out how to turn it into something corporate. We have been here doing this but now we just learned how to make money off of it. The niggaz been going stupid, going dumb, been hyphy, and been doing that but we turned it all the way 360 around into something positive when everybody was making it look negative. People in Oakland was throwing parties and jumping on cars and everyone thought we was going wild and we turned it around into something positive. We turned it into something that made them love it.
Plus when someone drops an album in the Bay they have a whole list of artists on there doing features!
That’s because everyone is getting along with each other. That is why our movement is moving because everybody is getting along. If everyone wasn’t getting along the Hyphy movement would not be moving like this. The key thing is if all the hardest crews, or whoever think they are the hardest, comes together and make slaps and not worry about what this nigga is doing then things run smoothly and that is how it is in The Bay. Everybody understands that there is enough money out here for us all. All everybody is worrying about is trying to make slapping music and throw it on the radio. That’s what makes the Hyphy movement so good. We are just making sure this radio keeps supporting us.
A lot of artists need to follow that formula and just focus on the green!
Everybody gotta have that weed and money!
Do you like to smoke when you are in the booth?
I may toke on a couple blunts but I don’t like to get too fucked up in my studio session until towards the end when I am doing the hooks or the adlibs.
A lot people say weed helps them make music, but some say it blocks their concentration.
I’m a drinker. Before I would come to the studio session with a bottle and start drinking and next thing I know I’m ripped and I still have to do two or three verses and it never comes out right. Now I get what I need to get done and when I get the three verses laid then let’s pop the first bottle and start the party.
Do you have a lot of guest features lined up for this new album?
I don’t want to tell because it is a game of chess right now and niggaz will be like "Okay he got such and such on his album, so I will come with this one and that one." I got Freeway on there and a couple other people. He just signed with G-Unit/Rocafella and he is coming slapping right around the same time as my shit so that will work out beautiful.
I’m surprised to see you working with an artist from the East Coast!
With the name "The West Coast Vaccine" I didn’t want anyone to think I’m biased. Really the name of the album is for our own Coast. It is about waking us up and I’m going to make sure that I got some heaters from the East Coast on this album.
