Andre Nickatina
Interview by Black Dog Bone
From Murder Dog vol 5 #1
Your sound is totally original and different from anything out in the market--it's hard to categorize you and it's hard to market you too.
I get that a lot. As far as marketing it, it still do cool cause it's still Rap. All I gotta do is make sure the ears hear it and get up on it. Either they like my raps or they don't like my raps. I concentrate on the people that like 'em so I ain't trippin.
Did you have different influences than other rappers? You don't sound like a rapper coming from the Fillmore.
I had the same influences as every other rapper out there, I just go about it different I guess. I never really tripped on bein different from other rappers, cause I hang with all the other rappers. I guess when I go in the studio I'm listening for something different than what other rappers are listening for. I'm just rappin to tell you the truth. I'm just rappin. I never wanted to do something that people could put in a category. Then if you do something else it don't sound good to them cause they already fixed you in their minds as doin that. If you trip on the Bay Area period, from Sacramento to San Jose, everybody's styles is different. You can't really put the Bay Area into one category because it's all different. That's where I got it from, the whole Bay Area is up in me.
Who influenced you a lot when you were growing up?
A big influence was the D.O.C. When he rapped with N.W.A. they rapped a certain way and he rapped in a different way. He wasn't sayin nothing that they was sayin, but it still blended in.
He's from Dallas.
Right, on a whole different vibe. My mom is from Dallas. I was in Dallas recently about a year ago, just visiting family. But I will be goin back and forth to the South soon. The D.O.C. was a big influence, and all solo rappers. I wasn't really into group rappers, I really like solo artists. Too Short, LL Cool J, KRS-1--even though he had Boogie Down Productions. As the years go by there's so many rappers that I can't put my finger on one thing, it was just like everything.
On your first album, Jim Jones, where you were pictured on a cross, what was the concept behind that?
It was just the mood that I was in. It was the scheme of the name to catch your attention. I was using anything to catch your attention, but not to really offend you. I wasn't sayin that I wanted to be Jim Jones or that I was the devil or whatever they were sayin back in the days, because I'm not, it was just the mood of the tape. If I coulda put two tapes out that year the other tape woulda been totally different.
Then you came out with I Hate You With A Passion. That's something that everybody feels sometimes, but nobody wants to come out and say it.
It was the mood of the music. It was the marketing scheme of the tape. When somebody sees that title they naturally want to know what it's about. Then with Cocaine Rap , which was a limited underground tape, I called it that cause I felt that the raps was dope. I felt that this is a dope album. another thing, on all my albums I talk about dope. Not necessarily sellin dope, but I'm from Fillmore and that's all that goes around in Fillmore, damn near in the whole Bay Area, is dope. I feel that my music is dope and I'm tryin to addict you to what I'm doin.
I see you as a rapper's rapper. A lot of rappers appreciate what you're doing whereas the mainstream listeners don't.
Rap right now is so bred, it's runnin through so many people's veins in their bloodstream, they can feel out a fake. In the delivery or in the vibe they can sense that this ain't no real playa or this ain't no real gangsta. Little kids is growin up breeding off the Rap game. If they ain't feelin the passion then not too many people is gonna get into your shit. I don't care what you're talkin about, just make sure that you're sayin to where the people can get with it. If they don't feel that passion, I ain't gonna say give up, but I am gonna say go back to the lab. I would never say give up.
You also changed labels recently?
I did two records with In-A-Minute, and I got a small distribution deal with Dogday right now. I have my own label, Filmoe Coleman Records. It's not really like a record label, it's like a creative entertainment service thing. I'm comin with a lotta surprises off the label.
All the titles of your albums have had a dark feeling. You use dark symbols and dark images. I'm wondering where that comes from.
I don't do that on purpose. I think it's because I'm a night person, I'm an after 7 o'clock person. I'll be out in the day, but shit don't really go down till nighttime. That's what my music is. My music is an after 6 or 7 feel. I create in the night and that effects my music. some people write about barbecues and stuff--that's a daytime thing--I can't rap about no barbecues. I can't.
How would you compare your new album to your past one? Are you happy with where you are?
The only regret I have about bein in the Rap game was bein with In-A-Minute Records. The only only regret that I have about me and about the Rap game is bein on that record label. I won't really get into it, but I will say with a distinct hatred is my only regret about me bein in the Rap game was being on that record label and being associated and having my mind and my soul over at that record label.
Do you make all your beats?
I work with a producer named Nick Peace. He did the Million Dollar Dream album. That's a producer you need to look out for, an up and coming producer. We collaborated on this Raven album. TC worked on my first album with me with another cat named mark Five. Me and Mark Five worked on most of the I Hate You With A Passion album. Now this new album was almost all me and Nick. What's cool about Nick was, like at certain times I feel a rap and I need to do it right now so we'll feel it, and he used to get up in the middle of the night for me and open his studio for me so we could go in and make the beats. He would wake up and we would make beats and raps from like 1 to 6 in the morning just up in there makin a song. It was just a feel at the time.
Interview by Black Dog Bone
From Murder Dog vol 5 #1
Your sound is totally original and different from anything out in the market--it's hard to categorize you and it's hard to market you too.
I get that a lot. As far as marketing it, it still do cool cause it's still Rap. All I gotta do is make sure the ears hear it and get up on it. Either they like my raps or they don't like my raps. I concentrate on the people that like 'em so I ain't trippin.
Did you have different influences than other rappers? You don't sound like a rapper coming from the Fillmore.
I had the same influences as every other rapper out there, I just go about it different I guess. I never really tripped on bein different from other rappers, cause I hang with all the other rappers. I guess when I go in the studio I'm listening for something different than what other rappers are listening for. I'm just rappin to tell you the truth. I'm just rappin. I never wanted to do something that people could put in a category. Then if you do something else it don't sound good to them cause they already fixed you in their minds as doin that. If you trip on the Bay Area period, from Sacramento to San Jose, everybody's styles is different. You can't really put the Bay Area into one category because it's all different. That's where I got it from, the whole Bay Area is up in me.
Who influenced you a lot when you were growing up?
A big influence was the D.O.C. When he rapped with N.W.A. they rapped a certain way and he rapped in a different way. He wasn't sayin nothing that they was sayin, but it still blended in.
He's from Dallas.
Right, on a whole different vibe. My mom is from Dallas. I was in Dallas recently about a year ago, just visiting family. But I will be goin back and forth to the South soon. The D.O.C. was a big influence, and all solo rappers. I wasn't really into group rappers, I really like solo artists. Too Short, LL Cool J, KRS-1--even though he had Boogie Down Productions. As the years go by there's so many rappers that I can't put my finger on one thing, it was just like everything.
On your first album, Jim Jones, where you were pictured on a cross, what was the concept behind that?
It was just the mood that I was in. It was the scheme of the name to catch your attention. I was using anything to catch your attention, but not to really offend you. I wasn't sayin that I wanted to be Jim Jones or that I was the devil or whatever they were sayin back in the days, because I'm not, it was just the mood of the tape. If I coulda put two tapes out that year the other tape woulda been totally different.
Then you came out with I Hate You With A Passion. That's something that everybody feels sometimes, but nobody wants to come out and say it.
It was the mood of the music. It was the marketing scheme of the tape. When somebody sees that title they naturally want to know what it's about. Then with Cocaine Rap , which was a limited underground tape, I called it that cause I felt that the raps was dope. I felt that this is a dope album. another thing, on all my albums I talk about dope. Not necessarily sellin dope, but I'm from Fillmore and that's all that goes around in Fillmore, damn near in the whole Bay Area, is dope. I feel that my music is dope and I'm tryin to addict you to what I'm doin.
I see you as a rapper's rapper. A lot of rappers appreciate what you're doing whereas the mainstream listeners don't.
Rap right now is so bred, it's runnin through so many people's veins in their bloodstream, they can feel out a fake. In the delivery or in the vibe they can sense that this ain't no real playa or this ain't no real gangsta. Little kids is growin up breeding off the Rap game. If they ain't feelin the passion then not too many people is gonna get into your shit. I don't care what you're talkin about, just make sure that you're sayin to where the people can get with it. If they don't feel that passion, I ain't gonna say give up, but I am gonna say go back to the lab. I would never say give up.
You also changed labels recently?
I did two records with In-A-Minute, and I got a small distribution deal with Dogday right now. I have my own label, Filmoe Coleman Records. It's not really like a record label, it's like a creative entertainment service thing. I'm comin with a lotta surprises off the label.
All the titles of your albums have had a dark feeling. You use dark symbols and dark images. I'm wondering where that comes from.
I don't do that on purpose. I think it's because I'm a night person, I'm an after 7 o'clock person. I'll be out in the day, but shit don't really go down till nighttime. That's what my music is. My music is an after 6 or 7 feel. I create in the night and that effects my music. some people write about barbecues and stuff--that's a daytime thing--I can't rap about no barbecues. I can't.
How would you compare your new album to your past one? Are you happy with where you are?
The only regret I have about bein in the Rap game was bein with In-A-Minute Records. The only only regret that I have about me and about the Rap game is bein on that record label. I won't really get into it, but I will say with a distinct hatred is my only regret about me bein in the Rap game was being on that record label and being associated and having my mind and my soul over at that record label.
Do you make all your beats?
I work with a producer named Nick Peace. He did the Million Dollar Dream album. That's a producer you need to look out for, an up and coming producer. We collaborated on this Raven album. TC worked on my first album with me with another cat named mark Five. Me and Mark Five worked on most of the I Hate You With A Passion album. Now this new album was almost all me and Nick. What's cool about Nick was, like at certain times I feel a rap and I need to do it right now so we'll feel it, and he used to get up in the middle of the night for me and open his studio for me so we could go in and make the beats. He would wake up and we would make beats and raps from like 1 to 6 in the morning just up in there makin a song. It was just a feel at the time.
