Turf Talk
By Black Dog Bone
From Murder Dog Vol. 10 #3
You’re working on your solo album now?
Everything’s comin along real good. I got a lotta little secrets in there, special premiers for everybody. But mostly I’m tryin to make this whole album mostly me, so I can give everybody a little sample of me. We got a lotta songs knocked out right now; we’re tryin to get a whole basket full of ‘em and then we gonna pick and choose.
What I heard of you so far is real good. Have you been doing this for a long time?
Tell you the truth, when I was younger a muthafucka got into so much trouble, so many muthafuckin punishments and getting locked up in a fuckin room and shit, all I would do is write. Then I’d look up, I had a gang of posters of all my older cousins, posters from their albums, so that motivated me to write. I used to write to their music and then look at them on picture. I’d be, “Y’all gonna love this!” Like they there. Basically I been doin it all my life. My first Rap song I was eleven years old.
That’s how it started, getting in trouble and getting punished?
That’s what it was. I spent so much time being punished, stuck in a room, no phone, no TV, no nothing. So I’d just write. Then I had a partner who’d always be tellin me, “I know you can rap. Every time we be rappin you don’t never say nothin, you just be lookin. I know you be havin something on the under.” But really I didn’t, but when he started sayin that I just started writin. And shit, I don’t know, it just came natural.
When you say you had a lot of posters on your walls, what were those posters?
I had a lotta Lil Bruce, Extra Mannish posters up there, Down N Dirty Click posters, Mossie posters, E-40 posters, basically all my posters were Sick Wid’ It posters. I used to brag to my friends and shit, tell ‘em that’s my big cousins. I stayed in Southern California, but I had a lotta Bay Area rappers’ posters on my walls.
You’re not from Vallejo originally?
I was born in Vallejo at the real Kaiser where the kids was dyin, and I survived. I was a warrior from the start. I stayed out here till I was about 3-4 years old, moved to Southern California—little bit of area-wear out there—Pomona, South Central, bounced from Pomona to Rialto. I been around Southern California, all through there. Me and my moms and my pops moved out there so I was raised out there, but I was born up here in the V. I just came back home to get it right.
So you’re E-40’s cousin?
I’m the little cousin. I’m the baby cousin of the family. Real bloodline, on my father’s side, Stevenson side. I’m the young bad muthafucka.
E-40, D-Shot, Mugsie, Suga T must have had a big influence on you?
Yeah and I’m glad that I’m up under ‘em. What it do is it make me strive harder because I see everything that my big cousin done accomplished. Then I see where it came from, I see all the trials and tribulations that they went through. It make me work harder, because if he got it I know I can get it too. I love bein in that position.
When I heard your music I could hear a little of E-40’s influence, but you took it to another level.
My style of Rap, what it is is I listen to a gang of music. I don’t just listen to one set West Coast Rap. I listen to East Coast Rap, West Coast Rap, Southern Rap, Midwest. Everybody that’s rappin, I’m listenin to it. What I do is study they sound, and mix it up with mine. I might bust some shit in a way that some cat from another coast might spit it, but I’m usin our slang and spit how we do it over here. I just mix everything together and that make me. I say I’m from L-Yay, that’s LA and the Bay. I’m from California period, I’m just a Cali nigga.
How long have you been back in Vallejo?
I been back here for about 5 years now. As soon as I got back here I hopped right back into some gangsta shit. My family from turfs out here. My older cousins is from the Hillside of Vallejo, then I got some cousins from Nellasville (the neighborhood we just came from). So I hopped right into it. I got in a fight 45 minutes after I got off the plane out here cause I got a “I don’t give a fuck” typa attitude. But I gained my respect. Everybody love me because they love my family. A lotta reason I made it out here on the streets was because of shit that my family did before I was here.
What inspires you to write the lyrics that you write?
It be a lotta people that rap about street shit, but I been noticin that they leave little things out. They leave a lotta important shit, the real shit out. They leave the “wearin the same clothes for 3-4 days straight but havin a pocket fulla money” and “puttin your money in your shoes”. They leave the “tyin the weed to your zipper,” they leave a lotta shit out. Laundry mats, barbershops, pitbull fights, they leave a lotta real shit out. What I wanted to do is I wanted to be the lil homey of the whole Bay. I wanted to speak for every lil’ nigga out here. That’s who I’m speakin for. I’m speakin for the lil’ muthafuckas that’s strivin and they gonna relate to it cause we all go through the same thing. I wanna be the voice for all the lil’ niggaz in neighborhoods that can’t really rap, that be mad when they hear other rappers that ain’t doin shit right. I’ma say what everybody don’t wanna say. I’ma do what everybody don’t wanna do, but what the young muthafuckas want to do. You know how you could sit back and watch a NBA basketball game and be like, “Man why he didn’t do this and why he didn’t do that?” I wanna be the muthafucka that do the stuff that they wanna see.
A lot of people feel that in Rap everything that could be said has been said. What kind of twist are you going to come with that will make you stand out?
Off the jump I’m from a label that’s trendsetters. We start shit and then everybody else bite it and they take it and do what they wanna do. We got our own language. If you got a dumb brain you might not even understand half of the shit we talk about. Nobody on our label ever been following a pattern, we set the pattern.
When did you decide to do music seriously?
For me to get real serious I had to go through a lotta stuff. I had a situation where I was facin a lotta time in jail. I had to fight a case, I got up outta that. They sent me to a program, a drug and alcohol program. I had to stay there for six months. When I was there I had a whole lotta time to just sit back and think and talk to a lotta people and just get my thoughts together. It changed my whole outlook. My family was there supportin me so tough and they showed me that I have something to live for. That’s when I started getting serious. I can really rap, let me use what I got. I’m not gonna be a cat that walks around sayin he can rap all his life but he never really did nothing with it. Now my whole album so far has been recorded sober. I recorded my whole album with no drugs, no alcohol. I’m drinkin now, but my whole album was recorded sober and it’s some of the best stuff that I ever did. I’m takin my shit a lot more serious. I think a lot before I do things. I’m 24 years old, it’s time to foss up.
Were your drinking and using a lot of drugs before? You said you didn’t feel like you had something to live for?
It wasn’t like that. It’s some more turf shit. I can’t really get into it, but I got up outta that. Money talks, bullshit walks, that’s all I can say. When I was feelin like that it wasn’t so much that I was feelin down and out, I was just involved with the turf, the streets. It was fun to me, it was fun bein out all night with my potnas drinkin and smokin weed. But it took other people from the outside lookin in to tell me, “This shit you’re doin ain’t cool. You got a gift, you should use it.” I had to sit down. It took for me to get in trouble, sit down, and really take heed to what everybody was sayin to me. It wasn’t that I was stressin or nothin, I just was in love with the streets. I still am.
Did you leave the streets behind?
Now I’m like straight takin my career like straight business. That’s how you have to be, that’s the only way you gonna make it. Now I see people, I holler at ‘em. Everybody know I’m real—I done knuckled up with muthafuckas, I done shot at muthafuckas—so it ain’t nothing to prove no more, I ain’t got nothing to prove. All I gotta do is just make my music. All my potnas, people that really love me, they want me to make this music.
What I heard of your album sounds really excellent. You’ve got a voice that sounds a little familiar, but then it’s different.
All my family seems to be talented in some kinda way. I don’t know what it is, but going back to our ancestors our family is so talented in so many ways. I always been around either music or sports. All my cousins went to the pros, baseball, football, or they’re doin the music. It’s in the blood. I got a young brother named Trenches, he raw, he hard; he think he’s harder than me right now, but he ain’t really ready for this shit right here. My lil’ brother’s 18 and he’s hard as fuck. He gonna be there. Then we got lil’ cousins that’s rappin. We got a 15 year old that makes beats. I got three tracks by him, Lil E, we call him Droopy, he from the Pharmaceuticals. He’s 15 years old and make knockers. He just made a song for me on Mack 10’s album called “In the Heart of the Ghetto”. 15 year old Droopy, that’s 40’s son.
By Black Dog Bone
From Murder Dog Vol. 10 #3
You’re working on your solo album now?
Everything’s comin along real good. I got a lotta little secrets in there, special premiers for everybody. But mostly I’m tryin to make this whole album mostly me, so I can give everybody a little sample of me. We got a lotta songs knocked out right now; we’re tryin to get a whole basket full of ‘em and then we gonna pick and choose.
What I heard of you so far is real good. Have you been doing this for a long time?
Tell you the truth, when I was younger a muthafucka got into so much trouble, so many muthafuckin punishments and getting locked up in a fuckin room and shit, all I would do is write. Then I’d look up, I had a gang of posters of all my older cousins, posters from their albums, so that motivated me to write. I used to write to their music and then look at them on picture. I’d be, “Y’all gonna love this!” Like they there. Basically I been doin it all my life. My first Rap song I was eleven years old.
That’s how it started, getting in trouble and getting punished?
That’s what it was. I spent so much time being punished, stuck in a room, no phone, no TV, no nothing. So I’d just write. Then I had a partner who’d always be tellin me, “I know you can rap. Every time we be rappin you don’t never say nothin, you just be lookin. I know you be havin something on the under.” But really I didn’t, but when he started sayin that I just started writin. And shit, I don’t know, it just came natural.
When you say you had a lot of posters on your walls, what were those posters?
I had a lotta Lil Bruce, Extra Mannish posters up there, Down N Dirty Click posters, Mossie posters, E-40 posters, basically all my posters were Sick Wid’ It posters. I used to brag to my friends and shit, tell ‘em that’s my big cousins. I stayed in Southern California, but I had a lotta Bay Area rappers’ posters on my walls.
You’re not from Vallejo originally?
I was born in Vallejo at the real Kaiser where the kids was dyin, and I survived. I was a warrior from the start. I stayed out here till I was about 3-4 years old, moved to Southern California—little bit of area-wear out there—Pomona, South Central, bounced from Pomona to Rialto. I been around Southern California, all through there. Me and my moms and my pops moved out there so I was raised out there, but I was born up here in the V. I just came back home to get it right.
So you’re E-40’s cousin?
I’m the little cousin. I’m the baby cousin of the family. Real bloodline, on my father’s side, Stevenson side. I’m the young bad muthafucka.
E-40, D-Shot, Mugsie, Suga T must have had a big influence on you?
Yeah and I’m glad that I’m up under ‘em. What it do is it make me strive harder because I see everything that my big cousin done accomplished. Then I see where it came from, I see all the trials and tribulations that they went through. It make me work harder, because if he got it I know I can get it too. I love bein in that position.
When I heard your music I could hear a little of E-40’s influence, but you took it to another level.
My style of Rap, what it is is I listen to a gang of music. I don’t just listen to one set West Coast Rap. I listen to East Coast Rap, West Coast Rap, Southern Rap, Midwest. Everybody that’s rappin, I’m listenin to it. What I do is study they sound, and mix it up with mine. I might bust some shit in a way that some cat from another coast might spit it, but I’m usin our slang and spit how we do it over here. I just mix everything together and that make me. I say I’m from L-Yay, that’s LA and the Bay. I’m from California period, I’m just a Cali nigga.
How long have you been back in Vallejo?
I been back here for about 5 years now. As soon as I got back here I hopped right back into some gangsta shit. My family from turfs out here. My older cousins is from the Hillside of Vallejo, then I got some cousins from Nellasville (the neighborhood we just came from). So I hopped right into it. I got in a fight 45 minutes after I got off the plane out here cause I got a “I don’t give a fuck” typa attitude. But I gained my respect. Everybody love me because they love my family. A lotta reason I made it out here on the streets was because of shit that my family did before I was here.
What inspires you to write the lyrics that you write?
It be a lotta people that rap about street shit, but I been noticin that they leave little things out. They leave a lotta important shit, the real shit out. They leave the “wearin the same clothes for 3-4 days straight but havin a pocket fulla money” and “puttin your money in your shoes”. They leave the “tyin the weed to your zipper,” they leave a lotta shit out. Laundry mats, barbershops, pitbull fights, they leave a lotta real shit out. What I wanted to do is I wanted to be the lil homey of the whole Bay. I wanted to speak for every lil’ nigga out here. That’s who I’m speakin for. I’m speakin for the lil’ muthafuckas that’s strivin and they gonna relate to it cause we all go through the same thing. I wanna be the voice for all the lil’ niggaz in neighborhoods that can’t really rap, that be mad when they hear other rappers that ain’t doin shit right. I’ma say what everybody don’t wanna say. I’ma do what everybody don’t wanna do, but what the young muthafuckas want to do. You know how you could sit back and watch a NBA basketball game and be like, “Man why he didn’t do this and why he didn’t do that?” I wanna be the muthafucka that do the stuff that they wanna see.
A lot of people feel that in Rap everything that could be said has been said. What kind of twist are you going to come with that will make you stand out?
Off the jump I’m from a label that’s trendsetters. We start shit and then everybody else bite it and they take it and do what they wanna do. We got our own language. If you got a dumb brain you might not even understand half of the shit we talk about. Nobody on our label ever been following a pattern, we set the pattern.
When did you decide to do music seriously?
For me to get real serious I had to go through a lotta stuff. I had a situation where I was facin a lotta time in jail. I had to fight a case, I got up outta that. They sent me to a program, a drug and alcohol program. I had to stay there for six months. When I was there I had a whole lotta time to just sit back and think and talk to a lotta people and just get my thoughts together. It changed my whole outlook. My family was there supportin me so tough and they showed me that I have something to live for. That’s when I started getting serious. I can really rap, let me use what I got. I’m not gonna be a cat that walks around sayin he can rap all his life but he never really did nothing with it. Now my whole album so far has been recorded sober. I recorded my whole album with no drugs, no alcohol. I’m drinkin now, but my whole album was recorded sober and it’s some of the best stuff that I ever did. I’m takin my shit a lot more serious. I think a lot before I do things. I’m 24 years old, it’s time to foss up.
Were your drinking and using a lot of drugs before? You said you didn’t feel like you had something to live for?
It wasn’t like that. It’s some more turf shit. I can’t really get into it, but I got up outta that. Money talks, bullshit walks, that’s all I can say. When I was feelin like that it wasn’t so much that I was feelin down and out, I was just involved with the turf, the streets. It was fun to me, it was fun bein out all night with my potnas drinkin and smokin weed. But it took other people from the outside lookin in to tell me, “This shit you’re doin ain’t cool. You got a gift, you should use it.” I had to sit down. It took for me to get in trouble, sit down, and really take heed to what everybody was sayin to me. It wasn’t that I was stressin or nothin, I just was in love with the streets. I still am.
Did you leave the streets behind?
Now I’m like straight takin my career like straight business. That’s how you have to be, that’s the only way you gonna make it. Now I see people, I holler at ‘em. Everybody know I’m real—I done knuckled up with muthafuckas, I done shot at muthafuckas—so it ain’t nothing to prove no more, I ain’t got nothing to prove. All I gotta do is just make my music. All my potnas, people that really love me, they want me to make this music.
What I heard of your album sounds really excellent. You’ve got a voice that sounds a little familiar, but then it’s different.
All my family seems to be talented in some kinda way. I don’t know what it is, but going back to our ancestors our family is so talented in so many ways. I always been around either music or sports. All my cousins went to the pros, baseball, football, or they’re doin the music. It’s in the blood. I got a young brother named Trenches, he raw, he hard; he think he’s harder than me right now, but he ain’t really ready for this shit right here. My lil’ brother’s 18 and he’s hard as fuck. He gonna be there. Then we got lil’ cousins that’s rappin. We got a 15 year old that makes beats. I got three tracks by him, Lil E, we call him Droopy, he from the Pharmaceuticals. He’s 15 years old and make knockers. He just made a song for me on Mack 10’s album called “In the Heart of the Ghetto”. 15 year old Droopy, that’s 40’s son.
