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10/25/2006 What's up? I'm feeling great, man. I got up a little earlier today. There's some business calls coming in and it's another great day on the West. What have you been up to lately? I've been up to a lot. I've been trying to get my business swagger together and really show the corporate side of the music industry that I can communicate with them just as well as I can communicate with the streets. I've been doing that and trying to strategize the best ways to win in the business. I just released a DVD called Life After Death Row. It's in stores now. It's doing pretty good. We're about to start a real promo run on that. It's a good piece. I got Master P, Loon, W.C. and Russell Simmons. It's a tight documentary and you get The Young Boss mixtape hosted by DJ Skee with it. What exactly happened between you and Death Row? What happened was I was over there repping and I was trying to resurrect one of the biggest hip-hop labels on the West and in the industry, period. I was in there banging out joints, doing what I had to do and spreading the word in the streets. To be honest with you, I think the problem was that with Suge Knight being the CEO and the way he was after he got out of jail, he couldn't even jaywalk without them throwing him back in. Every time he got thrown in, the label would suffer. It got to the point where it was time for me to pack up and put my destiny in my own hands. I decided to step out. I've been out here holding it down. Being on Death Row isn't like being on one of the average hip-hop labels. It's a boot camp and it's a survival course. After being through everything you could be on Death Row, it was time to go. The industry gave me a lot of love and I have no bad feelings towards Suge. 2Pac had the throne over there and Suge put me in position to be the heir to that throne. I can't be upset with a dude who's willing to put me in that position. It just didn't work out so it was time for me to dip and go get some cake. Are you the heir to the throne on the West? To be honest with you, there are a lot of cats on the West talking about being the King of the West Coast. We could look at it like 2Pac took the crown with him because he definitely made his mark as a historical rapper. The way I look at it is you got Game. Game is the only new artist on the West that's really pushing units right now. To me, people like Dr. Dre and Ice Cube will always be kings of the West. Dr. Dre built three labels from the ground up into something historical. I always give props to Dr. Dre for being one of the kings. I always give props to Ice Cube and I always give props to all the O.G.'s. As far as these new cats trying to be king, they have to do some work. I have no doubt that after my debut album, people will decide if I'm trying to go for the throne. Me personally, I'm just trying to be a boss. A boss is going to have morals, principles, honor and that's what I represent. I'm not really tripping on that crown, but I do spectate and I do laugh when I hear people saying they're the King of the West. They're not really built like that and they need to focus on getting their career together instead of using a marketing plan to try to fool consumers. Game is definitely the Prince of the West. Are you speaking about Ras Kass? First of all, I got love for Ras Kass. I've known Ras a long time. He's not the only one that says that. I hear it on countless mixtapes. You listen to all these mixtapes and everybody's the King of the West. I'm speaking to everybody who's claiming that title. Ras Kass has a reputation for fierce lyricism. He has that reputation and I love Ras Kass. If you were to ask me straight up if he was the King of the West, I would say no. You have to sell a lot of records. If you're the King, how come you haven't sold those records? Now if you say you're the King of Spitting, then I still have another problem with you because really when it comes to the West Coast underground scene, it's really all me, and it has been like that. The thing is, I'm not out here saying "I'm the King of the Underground." That's cool, but all these titles and all that can go out the window. I'm here to put out dope, gangsta hip-hop. I'm here to put out street music. I'm here to put out my product. I hear countless artists saying they're the King of the West but what have you done? If you haven't done anything for the West than how can you say you're the King? And if you haven't served me on the microphone, how can you be the King of Spitting? That's just my opinion. What do you think about the Ras Kass/Game situation? To be honest with you, I wish they would just squash that. I got love for Game. I remember Game when he came to Death Row. I've done joints with Game and he's a cool dude. Of course I've done joints with Ras Kass and I love Ras Kass. I really wish they wouldn't beef but sometimes it has to be war. If they keep it on wax, it's cool, but they already went further than wax. I wouldn't approach it from a spectator point of view. Forget Crooked I the hip-hop MC, let's look at me as a hip-hop consumer. I wouldn't have made the moves that Ras made as far as that beef goes. The thing about it is you have to make an impact when you're beefing with somebody. You have to make sure they feel you and you have to make sure the whole world feels you. I don't feel he made the impact he could have made. You have to understand Game is a multi-platinum artist and he's going to be on all the magazine covers and he's going to go on an incredible promo run. You can't throw rocks at a tank. You have to make sure you're in a tank too. You have to be more strategic when you go up against somebody of Game's caliber. I think a lot of times we get lost in the fact that we're dope lyricists. That's just my opinion as a consumer. I've followed both of them and I've been following hip-hop since Kool Moe Dee and KRS-One. Beefs keep the hot joints coming like "No Vaseline" or "Hit 'Em Up." The beefs are usually on equal level but when they're not, the person lower has to be more strategic than the other person. That's just my opinion from being a consumer. From me as an MC, I wish they would squash that. Is Game a good representation of the West Coast? Yeah, he's a good representation of the West Coast to me. A lot of people like to say Game sounds too East Coast or that he raps over East Coast beats. The thing is, hip-hop is a culture and it's supposed to be like that. The East is supposed to have an influence over the West and the West is supposed to have an influence over the East. That's how we communicate. NWA had a lot of breakbeats in their production and they had a lot of influences that people could have said stemmed from New York in certain aspects. I see Game as a good representation of the West. I can see Game sitting out there in Compton. Compton is right next to Long Beach. Were your mixtapes a success? No doubt. I got an XL for my first one and I didn't even send out my second one like that. We just hit the streets with it. The hip-hop consumer changes over generations and you have to stay fresh in the minds of everyone because a hip-hop fan is born every minute. If you're hitting the mixtapes and you're grinding it out and reaching the new fans with some raw material, that's a great thing. I know a lot of people like to say stuff about how they don't write, but on some real shit, I did my first mixtape in two days and the second mixtape in three days. That's about nineteen, twenty joints in three days. I was in that zone where I could do that in three days. When people say that was dope, I'm like, If they only knew I did that in three days. Have you started your album? The album is definitely going to change the West. I know people have heard all of us artists say that before, but I just feel like I'm a different artist and I'm adding something to the puzzle. The album is off the chain and I can't wait to get it to the people. I'm one brother that had a lot of obstacles when it came to putting something out. If it ain't right, I ain't rolling with it. I'm not going to put an album out where it can't do well because we're missing a piece of the puzzle. If we're missing a piece of the puzzle, I'm not putting that shit out. Fuck it. I want my fans to see the whole picture of me and I want to be able to hear it on every radio station and I want to be able to see it on every music program. It's not a cake thing right now because I'll get my money regardless. It's an artistic thing where it has to be right. The album is incredible. I have songs on there that will make grown men cry and young men think. I have songs that will change the perspective of the gangsta rapper. Me and my crew, we're not gangsta rappers. We're gangsta MC's. I'm going to explain what that means on the album. The album is banging. When will it come out? I'm going to run this DVD through the fourth quarter. I'm going to keep it 100. My fans get on me on my forum and get mad that the album isn't coming out 'til the first quarter of '07. I'm pushing this DVD and I'm doing some touring, trying to shut down stages from here to Massachusetts. That's what I'm trying to do from here on out. Right now it's C.O.B., the Circle of Bosses. I started that boss thing in California. I see a lot of people trying to bite my style and bite my swag, but they know what it is. We're coming in '07 and it's going to be interesting. You've been in the game for awhile. Is this album overdue? I feel like the album is way overdue but it's a blessing for me to still be relevant. I got my first deal when I was 16 and I was a baby-baby. The album is way overdue but I've been dropping joints on the internet almost bi-weekly. I got a new mixtape with DJ Warrior and DJ Strong and then we have Volume 4 coming after that. I feel good with the amount of music I'm giving to the people. The album is the atomic bomb. I'm a different type of cat from the other rappers that represent the West and that's a good thing because you have to have A, B, C and D. Crook is going to speak his mind on whatever he wants to and I'm not going to water down my style for nobody. Some of my views might upset people but that goes back to the boss thing. A boss is going to ride for what he believes in and the album is going to reflect that. We're taking this gangsta MC thing to a whole new level. Don't be surprised if you hear a gangsta-ass spoken word piece on this bitch. Do you pay attention to what the fans want? I pay attention to what the fans think. I go in the studio with the mindset of making some good music. A lot of times it happens to be the stuff they want. There's a market for it. You just have to learn how to market it to people who might not like those songs and open them up to it. I think the consumers right now want something brand new from the West Coast and want something that's going to raise the skill level and is a representation of the new era. We're in a whole new zone right now and that zone isn't really being shown because there are a lot of older artists that are still in the spotlight. It's hard for the new artists to show the hip-hop world what zone we're in now. We're not in that same zone that the older artists who were repping the West were in. We're in something totally different. You're going to be surprised with how big the response is going to be. We're the evolution of the old West and once we show the world what we've evolved to, the world is going to love it. The world already loves it. New York, St. Louis and Miami already love it. I'm anxious to show the world what the new West looks like. "Boom Boom Clap" was your single and then Jeezy dropped a very similar song. Are things cool between you and Jeezy? I met him at a Russell Simmons party one time. I think that was a coincidence because who thinks of "Boom Boom Clap"? For two people to have that was a coincidence. It would have probably got a little more controversy if we had pushed that on our end as a major release. Really, what I was doing was trying to keep that street buzz right when I was tending to some other business that was holding me up from putting the next project out. I wanted to throw the streets a little banger real quick and do a video for it. It did its job and the people in the streets loved it. What's going on with you and Treacherous Records? That's my label but I'm not an artist there. We have a joint venture. We sit at the roundtable together and I make all the decisions on my label, Dynasty. Sometimes it's a little more complicated because I do everything myself. I walk in the studio, do my thing and take it from there. I wear a lot of hats. It's a beautiful thing. I tell a lot of young cats to get their business mindset early. Make sure you get your business together early and you might be able to get that imprint or that label venture deal and boost your deal up. We are business partners and I have nothing but respect for them. They weren't asking to sign me as an artist. They wanted to be business partners. What's your next move? Bending some corners in the GT trying to find some new ways to make money in this rap game. I'm putting my money on the Horseshoe Gang. Battling is still a sport to us. We write songs but we'll still engage in some combat on the street in a cipher because that's a hobby for us. We are songwriters by nature because we want to show what's going on where we're at, but we battle as a hobby and my Horseshoe Gang is ready to lay anybody down. I got the 0-1 Squad. It's a Blood and a Crip together in the same group. I'm also working on Dynasty Films. We already have Life After Death Row and we're going to shoot a film. I have to bring the West into a direction that I want to take it. I think a lot of people want to see it move in that direction. It's been a minute since someone's said "Fuck Arnold Schwarzenegger." What do you want to say to everybody? Support hip-hop as a whole and keep supporting these artists. I appreciate it and we can't keep giving the power to these suckers. If they don't come back to the community and they're not giving out computers and football uniforms to the kids or turkeys on Thanksgiving, then fuck them. You don't have to pay for their records. Download those bitch niggas. They're turning their backs on the hood and then they say they're hood on MTV but they have all the police around them when they're shooting their video. You're protecting yourself from your own people when you say you're hood. We have to really start looking into these artists because that's what's going to make us thrive and that's what's going to make our generation straight. We have to show them a positive figure now because there's not a lot of positive images now from pimps, dealers and thieves. Y'all motherfuckers better get on your P's and Q's because when we hit the streets, we're going to do it how it's supposed to be done and we're going to bring up the next generation. Everybody, keep your hip-hop hat on. It's not about East, West or South. It's one culture.

By Brian Kayser

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