X-Raided Authentic Article 1/22/09
This article is being posted at the request of X-Raided. Enjoy.
Date: January 22, 2009
Anerae “X-Raided” Brown
Pleasant Valley State Prison
P.O. Box 8501
Coalinga, CA 93210
The Authentic Article
First and foremost, congratulations to everyone who participated in the election of Barack Obama! You did it! I am extremely proud! I have been criticized for having friends of various ethnicities. I have never advocated racism, though I have criticized it and advocated Black pride, and continued to do so. I do not believe that anyone’s pride jeopardizes anyone else’s security. So I sit here proud of you, USA, for proving what Hip Hop has always known: we aren’t trippin about race, we’re trippin about flavor. Whom has and does not have swagger is bigger to us than whom has more melanin than whom. If you’re an asshole, a di*k, or a pu$$y, we don’t care what color you are, you can’t kick it with us. And that’s what George W. Bush and Mr. Chaney proved themselves to be. A Bush and a Dick, respectively.
Are you following me, here? This is too easy.
I’ve been hearing a lot of things about the blog I wrote, on December 16, 2009. You know how it goes, some of its good, some of it’s bad. I love all y’all. I accept whatever you’ve got foe me. Constructive or deconstructive, criticism is good for self-evaluation. Let’s do it.
The status of my case… we are at the Federal level. What I need to do right now is get my bread up, honestly, or get the right kind of backing and support, to be able to buy the right kind of criminal representation to bust me out of here.
As far a Black Market is concerned, I feel like Cedric Singleton did a lot for me, and I am appreciative of that. I believe that he put me in a position where I could have went forward and made all of the money myself, which is what he and I discussed back in 2001. I tried to do that.
I went forward and started Madman Records, and I had a negative experience. Then I tried to do business with Big Hollis on The Sac-A Indo Project, and I had a negative experience with Hollis, and Goldyn “Kingpen” Cooper ended up telling Internal Affiars how I made my music, that I supposedly had a cell phone, and that the officers were bringing drug and technology into the institution for me. He snitched on me, and a Correctional Officer named D.R. Stanley, who was fired, and Kingpen is still at Mule Creek right now, working for Internal Affairs. I sat in the hole for moths because of that, and while I was in the hole, everyone turned around and said “Where is X?” As if I had abandoned them, since I couldn’t call. None of them wrote me or tried to on me, they just said, “Fu*k X, he shook us.” None of that was Cedric Singleton’s fault. Then I started working toward building Bloc Star Entertainment into something waterproof that will take care of me and mine, of which I could operate within comfortably. The infrastructure is perfect, as far as accountant, lawyer and control being where I want it, but the work wasn’t being done. The team I had assembled turned in two masters, the C-way Death Threatz and the Ignition albums, from 2004 to 2008, and expected them to generate enough money to do pay everyone big baler bread, not understanding that it takes waves of projects to feed the system and do anything other than break even. So it became, “Fu*k X, he’s screwing us.” That is not Cedric Singleton’s fault. The worst decision that I ever made besides the stupid sh*t that I got locked up for, was leaving Black Market Records. I should have stayed with Cedric, did a better deal with him, and I would have ten times more money than I have right now, because he would have gotten work done. Cedric Singleton came to visit me, played chess with me in the visiting room, gave me tens of thousands of dollars at a time, upon request, and always answered my calls, and that’s ten times more than anyone has ever done since then, besides talk about how much they love and miss me. So when I hear people speak ill of Cedric Singleton, it bothers me because he was like a father to me, I first got signed with him when I was 16, and he was a part of my life as I went from a boy to a man, and he had my back, I still have Black Market tatted on my arms and the logo, and I don’t regret that period of my life. Anyone speaking about that is doing so out of ignorance, knowing nothing about my relationship with Cedric and refusing to accept my word about it. If I wrote or called Cedric Singleton right now, and asked for $15,000 without even mentioning business or saying that he “owed” me, he would cut the check and it would not bounce. But you can not explain that to someone who doesn’t understand loyalty and dedication on a G level. Cedric Singleton was my DOG, and I was his DOG, and still am. And when you have a dog, no matter what, they will love you, even if you mistreated it. I believe that I mistreated Cedric before he mistreated me, and I have regretted that for years now. Cedric had never betrayed me, but I let my mother step in and manipulate the situation, and I did not realize it was happening at the time, and I allowed it to occur. I think Cedric felt betrayed by that, and I think he was right to feel that way. Real talk. He taught me how to do this shit. Fuck everybody who has a problem with that or with Cedric Singleton, and I will always be Black Market, and these tats will always stay right where they are, even as I move forward with Bloc Star Entertainment.
It’s better for me if everyone buys the X-Filez Volumes 1-3 because they are worth more money from royalties. The Black Market Stuff is artist deal agreements only worth 12.5% of the sales royalties. The Mechanicals are a different thing, but my belief is that if it doesn’t make sense for me to go backward when I have such a bright future. I will go backward when my present is in a condition that allows me to look back without missing money. Until then, I’m not worried about yesterday. God bless everyone, God bless Cedric Singleton for trying to get me out of the streets when everyone else was encouraging me to bang, and for coming to see me and try to help me clean up the mess I made even after I chose not to heed his advice. God bless him.
I don’t think, as far as present relationships go, that people intend to fuck up relationships with me, I just think that everyone believes that they know what they are doing, and they want to do things the way that they wan to do them. And all of us can’t be right. All of us aren’t the CEO of Bloc Star Entertainment. There are only one of those, and his name is Anerae. So anyone doing and thinking anything other than what I want to be doing and thinking, under the banner of X-raided or Bloc Star, is incorrect. Do you think Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton will be running the White House, or Barack Obama, it’s the same thing. So if someone is trying what they want to do, and it’s your situation they are trying to do that within, as a man, and as the boss, you have to shut that down. If they do not understand, that is not your problem. You have to keep going, with or with out them.
I wish the C-Way projects would have dropped too. Have no doubt about it, I love and have huge respect Big No Love. I put him in the game. I gave him his name and wrote rhymes for him and taught them to him. I mean him the best, always. But the fact is that his work ethic is suspect. They want to talk more than they want to work. They should be flooding me with masters, but they do not, and that’s why their money isn’t right. One project, with any distributor, is not going to be profitable 2005-2009. You have to give one distributor multiple projects to actually see money and release those return reserves and recoup them advances. You can’t explain that to someone that doesn’t understand, so, even when you love them, you have to move on at some point. Why don’t they have numbers where I can call them directly? Why do I have to three-way you? Why do I have to write you? I don’t need your help, you need mine. Make sure I can call you, accept my call, write to me, be in touch with me. It’s absurd that I am in prison and everyone is complaining that I don’t be at them right. These dudes are high and insane, and I am not biting my tongue in 2009, come what may.
There are those that just want to make a buck off my name, and then there are those that just have terrible work ethics, and as a leader, it’s good to know the difference. No Love hasn’t given me a solo or any of his artists’ solo projects, and he hasn’t given himself that either, and that says something about the big homie. I put him in the game when we made Unforgiven I, back in 1998. That’s 11 years and we still don’t have a Big No Love solo CD. You can’t blame that on X-Raided. I love him, but that ain’t on me, and I’m not wearing that coat because it don’t fit. Anyone who says the number don’t add up, it’s because you don’t know how to do the math.
The only the way the money can add up is by turning in multiple masters, if it’s a label deal. Y’all wannabe rappers and label owners need to go to rapcoalition.com and read Wendy Day’s reports and instructions, because that is who taught me, along with the staff, at the Weintraub Law Corporation for 350 dollars an hour. I don’t even know how it can be a question of if it’s my way or anyone’s way if they want to deal with me. To this day, if No Love gave me three masters, with in a month, I could give him a nice check and about ninety days after the first release, he would be fully recouped and every dime after that would be 100% profit. But if you give me one CD, then someone else one CD, then someone else one CD, that’s not going to work. Now you have three of your own projects competing against each other and the retailers are confused because they are being solicited by three different distributors, plus each album has to recoup and has a return reserve, and without cross-collateralization, your projects can’t help each other recoup. You you sold out your artist and your label for what? $2500 per master? And only because my name is on it? Even then, that’s weak. But if you packaged all three masters to one distributor, through someone they trusted, like X-Raided, I could get you $21,000 when you sign it and turn everything in another $14,000 in promo money, on about $5 per unit to keep down the price of the disk. Move 60,000 of those and it is $250,000 to the face with deduction already subtracted. How can I explain this to you any better? SO Fu*k that, don’t blame it on me. Nobody is making money off of one CD of a distributor in 2009. You need multiple, with one company, period. Ask any educated person in the game.
How a nigga gonna run a label and not know none of that? What’s the mechanical royalty rate right now, nigga, you smarter than me? It’s like this. A dude goes to Harvard school of Law. How many years does it take to graduate? Let’s say five years. How many hours does he put in? Eight hours a day? Then he has to go be distracted by Family and entertainment and just living.
Now look at me. I have been in prison since 1996. That’s 13 years. I have been studying Hip Hop 101 for how many hours a day? Twenty motha Fuc*in four, seven days a week. I eat, sh*t and sleep Hip Hop. I am the real Watcher, no disrespect to Dre, but I can tell you all about everything in Hip Hop since Eazy E dropped Boyz in the Hood precisely, and things before it, on any coast. I have not been distracted by family, entertainment, or anything else. Every waking moment of my life and all of my dreams are about Hip Hop and everything else is secondary whether it knows so or not. Now, you wouldn’t question a dude who graduated from Harvard School of Law when he talked about the law, yet here it is, I’ve put in more hours learning about Hip Hop than that guy put into learning the law, yet you question me. In that case, I think you are a fool, who ever you may be.
At all Costs definitely has a hot track we did together. Check it out. I definitely approve of that. I didn’t have a hand in the production, I just gave them the vocals and they got it done. My stuff for my album sounds a lot different, Rich’s production and his arrangement and laying of my vocals. I love this guy, Filthy Rich. He’s professional and loyal, and I will always work with him. He’s my Mannie Fresh. Me and Rich are going to release upwards of 60 songs this year!
But as far as At all Costs is concerned, I gave them the vocals and they did the track, and I definitely co-sign the single and their album. They kept their word to me and got their master done, and I am pulling for them to succeed.
Loki is definitely still Bloc Star. We’ve been having long talks. Loki and I are bigger than business. Loki is my best friend. Jesse Caverly and Anerae Brown, as men. He comes to see me, drives for hours just to talk about life and buy me burgers and chips. He writes me, he makes sure I have his numbers, he comes down here to talk to me. I love the dude, beyond music. He is a 100% good dude, and he’s a rider. Now, I still have a problem with his lack of productivity, on a business level, but that is minor compared to our friendship. Loki never has to make another song for me, even though he will, but we would still be friends, regardless.
When I say I’m not fu*king with niggas….. I mean…. Yeah, I’m talking about Lynch, T-Nutty, No Love and everyone else. At the same time, them niggas ain’t fu*king with me either. It’s not like they’re jumping through hoops to fu*k with X-Raided. So I’m saying, Hey, I accept that. But I know that I am the only one you will see in the places that my name will be in the next few months, in the Source, in XXL, and Vibe. I am the only one out of them who gets that kind of attention, or who allhiphop.com picks up a blog I wrote. They don’t have it like that. So when I say I’m not fu*king with them, what I’m saying is that I don’t need them. So, yes, I am saying most respectfully, that I don’t need Lynch, C-Bo, T-Nutty, No Love, Luni Coleone, or any one else, and I existed as the first national Sac-Town hiphop artist before they came out and every last one of them came out after me, or through me, which means that I never needed them, and if you go back to the beginning and put the cd’s in the order they were released, you would know that’s true.
I love Lynch. He was like a brother to me. Our history is what it is. But I don’t understand how Max Kunitz, who was a brother to me and Lynch, I’m talking about Sicx, how he could molest and rape 3 little girls and they found pictures of it on his computer, and Lynch is still shouting him out on his cd’s and giving it up for him, saying he loves him. I didn’t do anything to Lynch that’s remotely close to a nigga rapin a baby, molesting little girls, so there’s something wrong with this niggas soul if he has a problem with me, and I’m not playing games this year. No question is off limits, it’s do or die in 2009. You tell me why he don’t shout me out or rep me but he shouts out and reps a convicted child molester who pleaded guilty to all charges to avoid a trial? You tell me what that mean, because I have not done Lynch any harm or done anything on a level equal to that. I don’t have a desire to fu*k with a nigga that would openly advocate a man who plead guilty to child molestation. Fu*k that.
As far as who’s hitting me up for lyrics… man, I’ve written for No Love, Luni Coleone, Lil Cyco, and C-BO, among others. Right after he signed the deal with Young Buck, C -Bo got at me and asked me to write something for his new album, Ready for the World. We recorded those conversations. I have all those conversations saved on disc. I sent Bo 20 songs to choose from. It’s an honor. I hope he uses them. I gave him fire, that old C-Bo I’d want to hear as a fan. I think there were great songs on that batch. I wrote for him before, back in 1997, on Till My Casket Drops. His biggest song, Deadly Game, was written entirely by me. Not co-written. That ain’t real. I wrote every lyric, every grunt. I put that on my mama and dead homies, so help me God. That song was meant for my album, The Unforgiven I, and so was Boo-yow and Mr. .357, but I gave the, to C-Bo because he asked for them. I love C-Bo. I respect him. I don’t, however, think he’s treated me with the respect I deserve, for the contribution I’ve made to his career. East coast cats know C-Bo for the Deadly Game as much as they know him for the work he did with Pac. If he could write on that level and always could, then ask yourself socio-conscious lyrics with a gangster lean to beef and bling raps if you have the skill to maintain an elite level of writing. C-Bo is great at yelling “Fu*k you” to someone and talking about his money, but that’s not our legacy. And the answer to why he hasn’t been at the elite level is that he was never at that level, that was my level, my lyrics, my flow. I believe that C-Bo would help me in whatever way I asked of him, but I don’t ask, because I don’t feel like I should have to. Why doesn’t he send me letters, pictures here and there, make sure I’m good? I feel like these dudes are in competition with me in their minds, and from that perspective, the less X-raided there is, the better. But I don’t think he knows I feel this way. So, in this case, it’s just business, not Garden Blocc homies doing each other million dollar favors. If he uses any of the songs I submitted to him, or he uses pieces of them, or if he even uses my swag, I’m getting paid, because business is business and we’re all lawyered up at this point. We don’t have to talk, our firms can. But I’m getting paid. I have copyrights to every song, and we recorded the conversations where he called my home requesting my attention, and where I called him back and he asked me to write him some rhymes. So we will see how it goes. I definitely wish him the best, but at this point, I’m not doing any lying or accepting any losses. Use the songs, my nig@a, and pay me what is due to me, like a real businessman is supposed to do. I can’t eat you love or appreciation, I need money.
No matter what, I have to do what I have to do, so Eternally Unforgiven is on the way! We still haven’t gotten the artwork done yet, but I’m trying. I cut the check, took the pictures and wrote the credits, so I have done as much of it as I can do. Someone has to push things for me after I set it all up, but I have a hard time with that, just because people question everything and have opinions about everything and are distracted by everything. So it goes slow sometimes and I can’t do anything about it. But I am trying, and it will get done, and things can speed up after that, because the next people to get the ball are much quicker with what they do. The master and artwork go to Walter Zelnick next, and he will handle his business.
I love all of my people, everyone who helps me, and I think maybe I just have unrealistic expectations of people. Yet I don’t think my people are stupid, so I approach them with things that should be understood but aren’t always. And even then, what is there to understand besides the need to just do what I ask you to do? I don’t know how hard that can be, but I am not in there shoes. And that’s fair. God knows my heart, I love them and respect them, and I appreciate them more than they know. It is the leader’s fault if he uses his personnel incorrectly. A coach shouldn’t make his best running back play quarterback and his best cornerback play running back. I accept that and am trying to reorganize. I just need the players to understand that they can’t play the positions they want to play, they have to play the position they are best at performing, as decided by the coach, in practice and preseason exhibition games. I’ll let you know how it goes. It’s almost time to kick off the new season.
Stay safe, stay free.
Anerae Brown restricted 2009
This article is being posted at the request of X-Raided. Enjoy.
Date: January 22, 2009
Anerae “X-Raided” Brown
Pleasant Valley State Prison
P.O. Box 8501
Coalinga, CA 93210
The Authentic Article
First and foremost, congratulations to everyone who participated in the election of Barack Obama! You did it! I am extremely proud! I have been criticized for having friends of various ethnicities. I have never advocated racism, though I have criticized it and advocated Black pride, and continued to do so. I do not believe that anyone’s pride jeopardizes anyone else’s security. So I sit here proud of you, USA, for proving what Hip Hop has always known: we aren’t trippin about race, we’re trippin about flavor. Whom has and does not have swagger is bigger to us than whom has more melanin than whom. If you’re an asshole, a di*k, or a pu$$y, we don’t care what color you are, you can’t kick it with us. And that’s what George W. Bush and Mr. Chaney proved themselves to be. A Bush and a Dick, respectively.
Are you following me, here? This is too easy.
I’ve been hearing a lot of things about the blog I wrote, on December 16, 2009. You know how it goes, some of its good, some of it’s bad. I love all y’all. I accept whatever you’ve got foe me. Constructive or deconstructive, criticism is good for self-evaluation. Let’s do it.
The status of my case… we are at the Federal level. What I need to do right now is get my bread up, honestly, or get the right kind of backing and support, to be able to buy the right kind of criminal representation to bust me out of here.
As far a Black Market is concerned, I feel like Cedric Singleton did a lot for me, and I am appreciative of that. I believe that he put me in a position where I could have went forward and made all of the money myself, which is what he and I discussed back in 2001. I tried to do that.
I went forward and started Madman Records, and I had a negative experience. Then I tried to do business with Big Hollis on The Sac-A Indo Project, and I had a negative experience with Hollis, and Goldyn “Kingpen” Cooper ended up telling Internal Affiars how I made my music, that I supposedly had a cell phone, and that the officers were bringing drug and technology into the institution for me. He snitched on me, and a Correctional Officer named D.R. Stanley, who was fired, and Kingpen is still at Mule Creek right now, working for Internal Affairs. I sat in the hole for moths because of that, and while I was in the hole, everyone turned around and said “Where is X?” As if I had abandoned them, since I couldn’t call. None of them wrote me or tried to on me, they just said, “Fu*k X, he shook us.” None of that was Cedric Singleton’s fault. Then I started working toward building Bloc Star Entertainment into something waterproof that will take care of me and mine, of which I could operate within comfortably. The infrastructure is perfect, as far as accountant, lawyer and control being where I want it, but the work wasn’t being done. The team I had assembled turned in two masters, the C-way Death Threatz and the Ignition albums, from 2004 to 2008, and expected them to generate enough money to do pay everyone big baler bread, not understanding that it takes waves of projects to feed the system and do anything other than break even. So it became, “Fu*k X, he’s screwing us.” That is not Cedric Singleton’s fault. The worst decision that I ever made besides the stupid sh*t that I got locked up for, was leaving Black Market Records. I should have stayed with Cedric, did a better deal with him, and I would have ten times more money than I have right now, because he would have gotten work done. Cedric Singleton came to visit me, played chess with me in the visiting room, gave me tens of thousands of dollars at a time, upon request, and always answered my calls, and that’s ten times more than anyone has ever done since then, besides talk about how much they love and miss me. So when I hear people speak ill of Cedric Singleton, it bothers me because he was like a father to me, I first got signed with him when I was 16, and he was a part of my life as I went from a boy to a man, and he had my back, I still have Black Market tatted on my arms and the logo, and I don’t regret that period of my life. Anyone speaking about that is doing so out of ignorance, knowing nothing about my relationship with Cedric and refusing to accept my word about it. If I wrote or called Cedric Singleton right now, and asked for $15,000 without even mentioning business or saying that he “owed” me, he would cut the check and it would not bounce. But you can not explain that to someone who doesn’t understand loyalty and dedication on a G level. Cedric Singleton was my DOG, and I was his DOG, and still am. And when you have a dog, no matter what, they will love you, even if you mistreated it. I believe that I mistreated Cedric before he mistreated me, and I have regretted that for years now. Cedric had never betrayed me, but I let my mother step in and manipulate the situation, and I did not realize it was happening at the time, and I allowed it to occur. I think Cedric felt betrayed by that, and I think he was right to feel that way. Real talk. He taught me how to do this shit. Fuck everybody who has a problem with that or with Cedric Singleton, and I will always be Black Market, and these tats will always stay right where they are, even as I move forward with Bloc Star Entertainment.
It’s better for me if everyone buys the X-Filez Volumes 1-3 because they are worth more money from royalties. The Black Market Stuff is artist deal agreements only worth 12.5% of the sales royalties. The Mechanicals are a different thing, but my belief is that if it doesn’t make sense for me to go backward when I have such a bright future. I will go backward when my present is in a condition that allows me to look back without missing money. Until then, I’m not worried about yesterday. God bless everyone, God bless Cedric Singleton for trying to get me out of the streets when everyone else was encouraging me to bang, and for coming to see me and try to help me clean up the mess I made even after I chose not to heed his advice. God bless him.
I don’t think, as far as present relationships go, that people intend to fuck up relationships with me, I just think that everyone believes that they know what they are doing, and they want to do things the way that they wan to do them. And all of us can’t be right. All of us aren’t the CEO of Bloc Star Entertainment. There are only one of those, and his name is Anerae. So anyone doing and thinking anything other than what I want to be doing and thinking, under the banner of X-raided or Bloc Star, is incorrect. Do you think Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton will be running the White House, or Barack Obama, it’s the same thing. So if someone is trying what they want to do, and it’s your situation they are trying to do that within, as a man, and as the boss, you have to shut that down. If they do not understand, that is not your problem. You have to keep going, with or with out them.
I wish the C-Way projects would have dropped too. Have no doubt about it, I love and have huge respect Big No Love. I put him in the game. I gave him his name and wrote rhymes for him and taught them to him. I mean him the best, always. But the fact is that his work ethic is suspect. They want to talk more than they want to work. They should be flooding me with masters, but they do not, and that’s why their money isn’t right. One project, with any distributor, is not going to be profitable 2005-2009. You have to give one distributor multiple projects to actually see money and release those return reserves and recoup them advances. You can’t explain that to someone that doesn’t understand, so, even when you love them, you have to move on at some point. Why don’t they have numbers where I can call them directly? Why do I have to three-way you? Why do I have to write you? I don’t need your help, you need mine. Make sure I can call you, accept my call, write to me, be in touch with me. It’s absurd that I am in prison and everyone is complaining that I don’t be at them right. These dudes are high and insane, and I am not biting my tongue in 2009, come what may.
There are those that just want to make a buck off my name, and then there are those that just have terrible work ethics, and as a leader, it’s good to know the difference. No Love hasn’t given me a solo or any of his artists’ solo projects, and he hasn’t given himself that either, and that says something about the big homie. I put him in the game when we made Unforgiven I, back in 1998. That’s 11 years and we still don’t have a Big No Love solo CD. You can’t blame that on X-Raided. I love him, but that ain’t on me, and I’m not wearing that coat because it don’t fit. Anyone who says the number don’t add up, it’s because you don’t know how to do the math.
The only the way the money can add up is by turning in multiple masters, if it’s a label deal. Y’all wannabe rappers and label owners need to go to rapcoalition.com and read Wendy Day’s reports and instructions, because that is who taught me, along with the staff, at the Weintraub Law Corporation for 350 dollars an hour. I don’t even know how it can be a question of if it’s my way or anyone’s way if they want to deal with me. To this day, if No Love gave me three masters, with in a month, I could give him a nice check and about ninety days after the first release, he would be fully recouped and every dime after that would be 100% profit. But if you give me one CD, then someone else one CD, then someone else one CD, that’s not going to work. Now you have three of your own projects competing against each other and the retailers are confused because they are being solicited by three different distributors, plus each album has to recoup and has a return reserve, and without cross-collateralization, your projects can’t help each other recoup. You you sold out your artist and your label for what? $2500 per master? And only because my name is on it? Even then, that’s weak. But if you packaged all three masters to one distributor, through someone they trusted, like X-Raided, I could get you $21,000 when you sign it and turn everything in another $14,000 in promo money, on about $5 per unit to keep down the price of the disk. Move 60,000 of those and it is $250,000 to the face with deduction already subtracted. How can I explain this to you any better? SO Fu*k that, don’t blame it on me. Nobody is making money off of one CD of a distributor in 2009. You need multiple, with one company, period. Ask any educated person in the game.
How a nigga gonna run a label and not know none of that? What’s the mechanical royalty rate right now, nigga, you smarter than me? It’s like this. A dude goes to Harvard school of Law. How many years does it take to graduate? Let’s say five years. How many hours does he put in? Eight hours a day? Then he has to go be distracted by Family and entertainment and just living.
Now look at me. I have been in prison since 1996. That’s 13 years. I have been studying Hip Hop 101 for how many hours a day? Twenty motha Fuc*in four, seven days a week. I eat, sh*t and sleep Hip Hop. I am the real Watcher, no disrespect to Dre, but I can tell you all about everything in Hip Hop since Eazy E dropped Boyz in the Hood precisely, and things before it, on any coast. I have not been distracted by family, entertainment, or anything else. Every waking moment of my life and all of my dreams are about Hip Hop and everything else is secondary whether it knows so or not. Now, you wouldn’t question a dude who graduated from Harvard School of Law when he talked about the law, yet here it is, I’ve put in more hours learning about Hip Hop than that guy put into learning the law, yet you question me. In that case, I think you are a fool, who ever you may be.
At all Costs definitely has a hot track we did together. Check it out. I definitely approve of that. I didn’t have a hand in the production, I just gave them the vocals and they got it done. My stuff for my album sounds a lot different, Rich’s production and his arrangement and laying of my vocals. I love this guy, Filthy Rich. He’s professional and loyal, and I will always work with him. He’s my Mannie Fresh. Me and Rich are going to release upwards of 60 songs this year!
But as far as At all Costs is concerned, I gave them the vocals and they did the track, and I definitely co-sign the single and their album. They kept their word to me and got their master done, and I am pulling for them to succeed.
Loki is definitely still Bloc Star. We’ve been having long talks. Loki and I are bigger than business. Loki is my best friend. Jesse Caverly and Anerae Brown, as men. He comes to see me, drives for hours just to talk about life and buy me burgers and chips. He writes me, he makes sure I have his numbers, he comes down here to talk to me. I love the dude, beyond music. He is a 100% good dude, and he’s a rider. Now, I still have a problem with his lack of productivity, on a business level, but that is minor compared to our friendship. Loki never has to make another song for me, even though he will, but we would still be friends, regardless.
When I say I’m not fu*king with niggas….. I mean…. Yeah, I’m talking about Lynch, T-Nutty, No Love and everyone else. At the same time, them niggas ain’t fu*king with me either. It’s not like they’re jumping through hoops to fu*k with X-Raided. So I’m saying, Hey, I accept that. But I know that I am the only one you will see in the places that my name will be in the next few months, in the Source, in XXL, and Vibe. I am the only one out of them who gets that kind of attention, or who allhiphop.com picks up a blog I wrote. They don’t have it like that. So when I say I’m not fu*king with them, what I’m saying is that I don’t need them. So, yes, I am saying most respectfully, that I don’t need Lynch, C-Bo, T-Nutty, No Love, Luni Coleone, or any one else, and I existed as the first national Sac-Town hiphop artist before they came out and every last one of them came out after me, or through me, which means that I never needed them, and if you go back to the beginning and put the cd’s in the order they were released, you would know that’s true.
I love Lynch. He was like a brother to me. Our history is what it is. But I don’t understand how Max Kunitz, who was a brother to me and Lynch, I’m talking about Sicx, how he could molest and rape 3 little girls and they found pictures of it on his computer, and Lynch is still shouting him out on his cd’s and giving it up for him, saying he loves him. I didn’t do anything to Lynch that’s remotely close to a nigga rapin a baby, molesting little girls, so there’s something wrong with this niggas soul if he has a problem with me, and I’m not playing games this year. No question is off limits, it’s do or die in 2009. You tell me why he don’t shout me out or rep me but he shouts out and reps a convicted child molester who pleaded guilty to all charges to avoid a trial? You tell me what that mean, because I have not done Lynch any harm or done anything on a level equal to that. I don’t have a desire to fu*k with a nigga that would openly advocate a man who plead guilty to child molestation. Fu*k that.
As far as who’s hitting me up for lyrics… man, I’ve written for No Love, Luni Coleone, Lil Cyco, and C-BO, among others. Right after he signed the deal with Young Buck, C -Bo got at me and asked me to write something for his new album, Ready for the World. We recorded those conversations. I have all those conversations saved on disc. I sent Bo 20 songs to choose from. It’s an honor. I hope he uses them. I gave him fire, that old C-Bo I’d want to hear as a fan. I think there were great songs on that batch. I wrote for him before, back in 1997, on Till My Casket Drops. His biggest song, Deadly Game, was written entirely by me. Not co-written. That ain’t real. I wrote every lyric, every grunt. I put that on my mama and dead homies, so help me God. That song was meant for my album, The Unforgiven I, and so was Boo-yow and Mr. .357, but I gave the, to C-Bo because he asked for them. I love C-Bo. I respect him. I don’t, however, think he’s treated me with the respect I deserve, for the contribution I’ve made to his career. East coast cats know C-Bo for the Deadly Game as much as they know him for the work he did with Pac. If he could write on that level and always could, then ask yourself socio-conscious lyrics with a gangster lean to beef and bling raps if you have the skill to maintain an elite level of writing. C-Bo is great at yelling “Fu*k you” to someone and talking about his money, but that’s not our legacy. And the answer to why he hasn’t been at the elite level is that he was never at that level, that was my level, my lyrics, my flow. I believe that C-Bo would help me in whatever way I asked of him, but I don’t ask, because I don’t feel like I should have to. Why doesn’t he send me letters, pictures here and there, make sure I’m good? I feel like these dudes are in competition with me in their minds, and from that perspective, the less X-raided there is, the better. But I don’t think he knows I feel this way. So, in this case, it’s just business, not Garden Blocc homies doing each other million dollar favors. If he uses any of the songs I submitted to him, or he uses pieces of them, or if he even uses my swag, I’m getting paid, because business is business and we’re all lawyered up at this point. We don’t have to talk, our firms can. But I’m getting paid. I have copyrights to every song, and we recorded the conversations where he called my home requesting my attention, and where I called him back and he asked me to write him some rhymes. So we will see how it goes. I definitely wish him the best, but at this point, I’m not doing any lying or accepting any losses. Use the songs, my nig@a, and pay me what is due to me, like a real businessman is supposed to do. I can’t eat you love or appreciation, I need money.
No matter what, I have to do what I have to do, so Eternally Unforgiven is on the way! We still haven’t gotten the artwork done yet, but I’m trying. I cut the check, took the pictures and wrote the credits, so I have done as much of it as I can do. Someone has to push things for me after I set it all up, but I have a hard time with that, just because people question everything and have opinions about everything and are distracted by everything. So it goes slow sometimes and I can’t do anything about it. But I am trying, and it will get done, and things can speed up after that, because the next people to get the ball are much quicker with what they do. The master and artwork go to Walter Zelnick next, and he will handle his business.
I love all of my people, everyone who helps me, and I think maybe I just have unrealistic expectations of people. Yet I don’t think my people are stupid, so I approach them with things that should be understood but aren’t always. And even then, what is there to understand besides the need to just do what I ask you to do? I don’t know how hard that can be, but I am not in there shoes. And that’s fair. God knows my heart, I love them and respect them, and I appreciate them more than they know. It is the leader’s fault if he uses his personnel incorrectly. A coach shouldn’t make his best running back play quarterback and his best cornerback play running back. I accept that and am trying to reorganize. I just need the players to understand that they can’t play the positions they want to play, they have to play the position they are best at performing, as decided by the coach, in practice and preseason exhibition games. I’ll let you know how it goes. It’s almost time to kick off the new season.
Stay safe, stay free.
Anerae Brown restricted 2009
