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8/22/2005 What's good? I'm doing lovely man. I just had a little incident and got a couple soldier wounds, but I'm back, stronger than ever. What are you working on right now? My new project is called "West Coast Vaccine: The Cure." I named it that, because they say the West Coast is dead, so I'm the vaccine of the coast. And I also got two albums I put out in the last year. How have you grown since your first album "Street Novelist?" I had to go through my little incidents with my old neighborhood, the transition of being in the hood to trying to do the legal business. I went through a lot of little ups and downs, but it made me stronger and my sense of business is a lot stronger now What was your state of mind recording "The West Coast Vaccine?" My state of mind in recording the vaccine is to try to have the dopest West Coast album to drop. And it's not on no West Coast East Coast shit. Right now, we're looking for somebody, looking for a face of someone to represent us, and I'm hoping it could be me. I'm concentrating real hard on this album. What do you need to do to make sure everyone knows about your music? I think right now, all I have to do is stay loyal to my big cousin. He lets me shine, he lets me be his young pitbull. As long as I stick around with him, I think he's going to give me that exposure I need. I've been making a name for myself out here, so it's looking pretty good. Who is putting out "The West Coast Vaccine?" I think right now, our distribution is through Navarre. But there's a few people trying to sign us right now too, so there ain't no telling. With E-40 at BME with Lil Jon, would you follow suit? Right now, I can't say. If that happens, that will be a blessing. Right now, my big cousin, my manager, they all have a marketing plan for me and we're just looking out for my best interests. Where do you fit in with the bay? Right now, in the Bay, Turf Talk fits in as the young hyena, the next up-and-comer. I'm right under 40. Everybody talks about 40 because he's the don, he's been doing this for 15 years. People out here look at me as the next one coming, as soon as 40's tiured and ready to settle down, they look at me as the next one to represent the Bay. How important is your voice in what you do? To me, it's the most important thing. The people want to hear a character, so you have to build a character of yourself and sell yourself. I try to make my raps like a movie, so when you listen to them, you might hear some crazy ad-libs, you'll hear all kinds of stuff because it's all fun. I like to make people laugh as well as take me seriously. I've got a little character in me. You've got that style too… I think that's the passion of me just really loving Hip Hop. I don't just rap, I really, really love the music, and I think that comes into play. You switch up your flow a lot, how important is that and how much time do you spend working on it? I think that's one of the most important things to me. The reason why I switch it up like that is because I'm trying to show these major labels and other cats that they can market me in different ways. I'm not just one kind of rapper. I try to switch it up all the time. I'm always thinking about new ways to rap on different beats and new sounds, just something different to the human ear. On your compilation that you put out, you had a lot of innovative beats, what do you look for in beats? Me and my cousin E-40 call it "new millennium mob music." It's OG gangster music, but it has a new futuristic twist to it too, where you could dance to it. That's what we call it. I like my beats to be kind of off-beat a little bit, to have weird noises in them, but not distorted, and not too many instruments. Where did you grow up? I was born in Vallehjo, but I was grew up in Southern California and Rialto, and then in '99 I moved back to the Bay, so I claim El-Yay, California, that's for LA and the Bay. I'm a Cali nigga, When did you and E-40 get down musically? Musically, we got down in '99 when I got back out here. I always rapped, but when I was younger, they used to say I wasn't ready. I was a youngster just trying to make it. I hadn't really mastered my craft. When I got older and got my skills together, I did a song with Mack Shine. E-40 was also featured on that CD, and he didn't know it was his little cousin rapping. When they brought it to his attention, he was like "c'mon, we've got to get him, that's family." What do you learn working side-by-side with E-40? He helps me, each one teach one, just by setting a good example with everything that he's doing. He's a business man. We was thugs when we was growing up, but now we're corporate thugs. It's time to get this good legal money and move on and set things up for our kid's kids. He's setting a good example just by leading the way how he's doing. What's the biggest lesson that 40's taught you? The biggest lesson 40's taught me is to stay humble and hungry. That's the biggest lesson, stay humble. Don't burn your bridges with nobody, because that person could be the next one. That person may sound like garbage, but the next week get a $5 million deal, and you can't never burn your bridges with nobody in this business. And that's the best advice that he's given me, stay humble and hungry. What does the Bay represent in music? The Bay right now, out here, we like to party. There's head busters out here, but the Bay really likes to party, so a lot of people are making party songs, which is cool. But I'm really trying to separate myself from everybody else the way Ice Cube separated himself when everybody was in the 2Pac craze. He never made an album with 2Pac on it because he felt like he was the big fish. When everybody's trying to do the dance thing, I'll do the lady thing. When everybody wants to do the ladies thing, I'll do the dance thing. You've done a lot of work with Rick Rock, do you think he gets the respect he deserves? To a certain extent. I think he deserves a lot more respect. That's one of my favorite producers, I'm going to do a lot of work with him on the "Vaccine" album. The thing is, everybody out here that wants a Rick Rock track wants a certain sound from him, but they don't really know that he's capable of a lot of other things. So they may get a Rick Rock track that sounds like someone else's Rick Rock track. If they'll let him be himself, he'll make them a song that sounds different and exclusive. But I think he's one of the best producers, he needs to be in more magazines, he's made a lot of hits. How is it working with Keak da Sneak? Aw, Keak is cool. We come from the same background, so when we bumped heads, he was already friends with E-40. It was love as soon as we seen each other, like a real nigga meets another real nigga. How do Bay fans support their artists? Fans support the artists in the Bay as long as you keep it real. The Bay is united right now. There's no beef on wax, nobody's dissing nobody. Everybody is working together right now. As long as the radio stations support us out here, the fans support us. How does radio support you in the Bay? The radio supports me real good. The thing is, you've got to come with a knock. If you come with a song that's banging, if you come with a song that's banging man, they're going to play the shit out of your song. You've just got to come with the heat. Now if you come with something that doesn't sound good, they're not going to play you. If you come with they heat, they'll play you all day. What's up with the New Bay Movement? That's with a couple of cats named Frontline. They have their own little organization going on called New Bay. I don't know too much about it because I don't be checking in. I'm just focusing on my career, so I can't really tell you too much, but it's new artists and they claim the New Bay, but I don't really know too much about what's going on over there. Can you explain Hyphy music? The word hyphy is just when you're feeling yourself. When you're going out to a party and you've got a couple gallons of Hennessey in your system and you've got that good weed and that music is just knocking in your ears and you're just dancing all out your windows. And you might stop at a stop light and jump on top of your car and start dancing. If you dance on top of a car, that's going hyphy. Going hyphy is just wilding out. Just going wild. Having a good time. That's basically what hyphy means. It's like Mardi Gras. Can you talk about the sideshows? Sideshows are kind of like a Los Angeles / Crenshaw Boulevard. After a party's over in the late night, everybody pulls up to a designated spot and spin donuts, show their hot motors in their car, show their new candy paint, their new Perillis, new gold rims, that's the sideshow. You show off to the ladies and let them know who's who. Who is at the forefront of the Hyphy Movement in the Bay? The Hyphy Movement is Sic Wid It and the Federation. We're the ones that started the Hyphy Movement. We make the party move, we make the party jump. We make a boring party turn into a cracking party. It's like a sorority party! We're two different labels, and we came together and we make "go" music, where you just go and rock the crowd and don't stop, that's the Hyphy Movement right there. Who are the originators of the Hyphy Movement? The originators of the Hyphy Movement is the Federation, E-40, and Sic Wid It. It's not a one-man-team. It's a word that's been used in the Bay for years. Like if a person was acting ignorant, you'd say "that dude was acting ignorant," you'd say "man, that dude was at the front door of the club acting real hyphy like he wanted to knock someone out." That's hyphy, when you're wild. It's a word that's been used, but we really started the movement. Can the Bay be the next city to blow? I'm not sure man. I hope it will, but right now, I'm looking for Turf Talk to really blow up like Houston. And my fans are really pushing for me, and I love the Bay for that, I got a lot of fans really pushing for me. Do you feel like you have to get the East Coast behind you? I actually had a song on my first album that I wanted to push to the East Coast, but an independent budget is not that big. I got flavor for New York. I love Talib Kweli and Mos Def, 50 Cent and them. But my favorite New York artists are the Dip Set. I love the Dip Set. I'm ready to reach the world. I have a video coming soon to BET. Hopefully I can reach the world. The sky's the limit right now. What should we look for you after "The Vaccine?" After I drop my new album, I'm just going to lay back. Like I said, we've got some major labels looking at us. After "The West Coast Vaccine" album, there's going to be a lot of people looking at us because I'm putting my heart and soul into this album. I'm going to have Lil Jon tracks on there, Rick Rock tracks. This is going to be a major album. What does Lil Jon bring to the table for you? Lil Jon brings a whole 'nother piece of power in the music business, and he knows that club music. If you want that good club music that everyone's on now, you've got to go to the best that does it, and right now he's the best that does it. What's a normal day like for you? A typical day for Turf Talk, Turf Talk has changed. A typical day used to be him hitting the hood and chilling with the homies, because we never had money like we have now. We'd drive around the city and talk to women, but I learned that wasn't the life for me. The new and improved Turf Talk is a straight business man. I'll go handle my business and come home to my wife and kids. I went through a whole change through this rap game. And all my life as a little kid, I knew I was going to be rapping. I'm not on nothing cocky, but when I'm writing, I want to be the best. I want to be somebody that when they mention my name, they're like "that cat is dope." What do you want to say to everyone out there reading this? I just want to say to everybody, if you never heard of me, just cop one of them CD's and give me a chance and check me out, and know that I really got some flavor and I got rap in me. Hip Hop is in my blood. I really can rap. I don't just rap about killing and all that, it's some soulful music.

By Brian Kayser

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