Kamakaze
Interview By Black Dog Bone
From Murder Dog Vol. 9# 4
When did you start getting serious about Hip Hop?
It didn’t get serious for me until my senior year in college. I had entered some talent shows at Jackson State and I had got into a lotta freestyle sessions with people. I finally got up the courage to go into the studio with my original called Da Network with my brother and another cat named MC Blaze. We went into the studio for the first time and made a record. That’s when I began to realize that I could make a living rapping. I liked the attention that rapping got for you. I saw the kinda attention and the kinda notoriety that they got and I thought that I was pretty good at it. And by me being a Mass Communications major and English minor that kinda helped me out, being able to go in depth with my lyrics. I always try to be lyrical with my rhyme schemes and my techniques. I’m a real stickler for lyrics. But it wasn’t until my senior year that I really started thinking that I could do this as a career. So I started getting back into the studio and trying to produce more songs.
What was the name of the record that Da Network recorded?
The Network never really put out a record because at the time we were new to the game and we got shysted by the shysters in the time around 87, 88, 89. Everybody in Jackson knew who we were, but we never really put a record out. We had put out a single called “Ya Get’s None” and we performed it at different places like the Châteaux, where everybody remembers. We performed at the Club UG and Inez, all around town. The only radio play that we got was on 90.1 when Too Black, Too Strong…my man Tony B and the 602 Click was doing it back in the day. Big up to them for doing it back in the day because that was the only thing that we had back in the day.
Weren’t you also part of the Stewpot Stowaways?
Yeah. The Stewpot Stowaways was basically a collective of people from different parts of the country. When you go to college you gone run into different people from different parts of the country. We had people from Atlanta, Chicago, Flint, Michigan. We had people in the click from Nigeria, Mississippi, California…all parts of the country. And basically the whole premise was that we was going to get together and become a melting pot of MC’s. We had freestyle sessions, we had battle sessions and we collaborated on a lotta songs. And we became pretty popular in Jackson. We put out a record on Finesse records. DJ Finesse, Chris Carr, was the first person that we convinced of the vision, because at the time we were doing something different from what was going on. A lotta cats were doing gangsta rap, and we were a little more hip hop. He took a chance on us and put a record out and we got a little notoriety around here. We didn’t really sell no records, but we did get our name in a couple of national publications like Rap Sheet and Rap Pages did something too. So basically that was the click that jump started all of the things for me.
That was the click that Crooked Lettaz grew out of too?
David Banner was a part of the click, he was one of the last ones to get down with the click. We had been kinda bumping our heads for a minute as far as where we were gonna go. We were trying to get somebody from the click a deal. We were sending out demos to different labels trying to get a deal so we all could get out there and do what we had planned to do, which was assault the industry. David Banner had the idea that since we’re both from Mississippi and Mississippi isn’t represented in the industry and Mississippi isn’t really represented with a particular group, let’s put together a group and rep Mississippi. So we put together a group. At the time we were just David Banner & Kamakaze. And the name grew and evolved into Crooked Lettaz. We put our demo together and the rest, as they say, is history.
What year was this?
This was 95. I remember going into the studio in December 95 and putting together the first demo and by June of 96 we was in Unsigned Hype in the Source. Things happened kinda fast.
That’s when you chose the name Crooked Lettaz?
Yep, because we were in the Source as David Banner & Kamakaze; after that Banner suggested the name Crooked Lettaz as a moniker to give homage to Mississippi and I agreed and we took it and we ran with it.
How did you all get the deal with Penalty Records?
We were on an indie label called Correct outta LA that folded before our album was supposed to drop. The publicist from that label left and went to Penalty Records, which was distributed by Tommy Boy at the time. I said, “you know about us from Correct, I’ll send you a package and you try to help us get a deal over there were you at.” So I sent her a package and I sent a package over to the people at Penalty, and the next thing you know some calls were made and the CEO and A & R of Penalty came down to Jackson. We put together a little showcase on for them at Club Tiffany’s, which was own by DJ Finesse at the time. And we got signed. That was in 1997.
And you went on to release the critically acclaimed record Grey Skys. What’s the status of Crooked Lettaz now?
The status of Crooked Lettaz is unknown right now because of the success of the solo projects that we’ve had. We’ve gotten our release from Tommy Boy and we trying to attack the industry from a new angle with the solo projects. I’d say that the future of Crooked Lettaz is undecided and unknown at this point. Crooked Lettaz is such an important project and such to an important cog in the hip hop game that we both would have to get back in the mind state that we were in when we first out that Crooked Lettaz project together. Fans expect a Crooked Lettaz album to sound and be a certain way. Now we’re not exactly in a mind-state for doing a Crooked Lettaz record the way it needs to be done, and if we can’t do it the right way then it’s no need to do it right now.
Let’s talk about your solo project AKA Mr. Sho Nuff: Firewater Boy No. 2?
It took me close to two years to work on that project. I started out working on the project really fast. I recorded a lotta songs and I was really pleased with what I had come up with, so I started getting really tedious with the project. I took my time with it. I recorded songs at a really slower pace. I looked for the right songs that would establish me as a solo artist because even with the Crooked Lettaz project being so strong in Mississippi and the rest of the South people really didn’t know us as individuals. They knew us as a collective. So coming out solo was an opportunity for us to introduce ourselves to the public. I knew that the songs that I used in this album were going to be songs that was going to fit a niche for me and be right for me as a solo artist. So I took time to finish this record, because this is going to be a very important record as far as the future of Jackson and Mississippi and Crooked Lettaz was concerned. Banner had just dropped his record and it did real, real well, and I knew that my record was going to be a big record so I really took my time with it. There were a lotta people that did not think that I would be able to pull it off. There was a lotta people that doubted that I could even finish the record. There was a lotta people that that thought that since Banner had put his record out and he was successful, they thought that I would just gone fold up and just really get out the game and just sit back and wait for him to make the next move. So it was really important that I came out with a record that was gone just take all the nay-sayers and doubters out the game and really prove them wrong. Basically my entire solo career up to this point has been one of proving people wrong or one of proving to people what I can do. It took me about a year and half to finish this record so I could get it exactly like I wanted it.
