Frontline interview
Interview By Saeed
From Murder Dog Vol. 10 #3
Your mix CD, “Bootleg 2.1”, how is that doing?
It’s doing well, we ain’t did no advertising and it’s sellin on its own based on word of mouth and just good music. We did a single called “What Is It” produced by E-A-Ski and CMT which was fortunate enough to get radio play. A lot of club play and radio play throughout northern California got our name buzzing. We understand the importance of mixtapes and what it does as far as exposure for an artist. We not one of those people that believe mix tapes is stealing from the artist. Bootlegging someone’s album is stealing. Mixtapes is a good thang for promotion. DJ’s wanted to use our song for they mix tapes because it was a popular song. Those mixtapes starting selling well so we said we should capitalize on this being tha
t
our album won’t be out ‘til this summer. We put “What Is It” on the album,
added some freestyles and original songs and now it's movin out of all the mom
and pop local stores, on the internet and it’s getting a good response. “Bootleg
2.1” gets people familiar with frontline and what were capable of doing as artists. You
can get that album of our website : www.thefrontlineonline.com.
Who’s featured on the album?
Left: The albums called “Who Are You” and it’s mostly in the family. Not too many features we wanna show that we are good artists not jus battle rappers or artists that jus do singles.
Who’s doing the production?
I’m doing some of the production with E-A-Ski and CMT is doing the rest. We don’t wanna disclose the features but E-A-Ski, Balance. 15 songs at best cause we don’t wanna overdo it and have 25 songs and at the end they heard too much of the artist.
How is it working with E-A-Ski and CMT?
Working with a talented veteran is a plus, a lot of the mistakes and falls an artist could make is cautioned because he’s seen them all. He forewarns us about things that you go through as a Bay Area artist. Plus they are creative producers when we get our brains flowin there’s no telling what we can do. We workin with E-A-Ski and CMT under the Infa Read Music Group/Landmark Entertainment.
What’s the vibe going on in the Bay right now?
I think the Bay is supporting they artists again which will in turn make the nation have to deal with us. The Bay Area is a large market. We’ve been fooled into thinkin that we are a small market, thinkin all we can do is this and be independent but we one of the biggest markets in the country period. That’s why the big name artists always bring they ass out here. They know they have to come do business with us. We gotta make our own stars in this area so we don’t have to go beg a Chingy or Jay-Z to come do our shows because we can do our own shows with our own local artists.
How did growing up in Richmond affect you musically?
Richmond is one of the smallest cities in the Bay and it never got the mainstream recognition like Oakland, San Francisco, or Vallejo, where it had all these artists known. In Richmond you got a lot of artists that was coming with tight music but never got recognized. Being that we were from that disadvantage it makes us hungry. That hunger is now at the boiling point and is boiling over into the music. You got a lot of tight artists from back in the day and new ones like Lil Ric, Laroo, Frontline, and a lot of other artists coming out of Richmond. This situation created what you have now, a lot of talent. Richmond is notorious for the violence, and although it’s small we known for a lot of negative things and those negatives things affect our lyrics. Richmond is isolated; you gotta come to Richmond you don’t jus stumble on it. It’s in the Bay but it’s away from the Bay at the same time and it’s a different culture.
What were some of key influences that helped you get in the game?
Left: My uncle is Jay Joana from the group C.I.N. seeing him work on 94 Mobstas before he went to the pen was my first taste into seeing how music really works. Studio time, buying vinyl and posters coming home with reel to reels every night. Seeing the grind, seeing him round up the people in his group to go make a session. All that type of shit helped me get familiar with the behind the scenes, helped me know some shit before I even got into the music. That made it an easy transition for me to get into the music as a musician and a business person.
Locksmith: My sister was a MC, she was overseas doing a lot of touring in front of 10,000 people. We got to see that side of the business. So when we started our group she helped us learn how to perform how to project words and be clear. She coached us way back in 98 when we did the cut on MTV.
You were on the MTV battle?
Locksmith: The MTV battle was another thang. I was doin several battles in the Bay Area. I was fortunate enough to win the one that sent me to NY to battle 1,000 MC’s. I was the only dude from Cali in the thang. It’s a whole different attitude out there so once I was able to get out there and rep I repped for the Bay well. I got to the finals and it was a positive thang. It got the Bay and us a lot of exposure. A lot of people even to this day come up and say “You were robbed you shoulda won.” We used that momentum to come back home and get it going.
What’s the New Bay movement about?
The New Bay is a term that us and Balance came up with. It’s simply the artists in the Bay coming with something new, reinventing themselves. If you a new dude and you comin with something new out of the norm that the public ain’t used to hearin from the Bay then you doing it. If you an OG and you doin something new then that’s New Bay shit, something new from the Bay. A lot of people get it confused like it’s one big click or group and it’s not. It’s a movement it’s a mind state.
Interview By Saeed
From Murder Dog Vol. 10 #3
Your mix CD, “Bootleg 2.1”, how is that doing?
It’s doing well, we ain’t did no advertising and it’s sellin on its own based on word of mouth and just good music. We did a single called “What Is It” produced by E-A-Ski and CMT which was fortunate enough to get radio play. A lot of club play and radio play throughout northern California got our name buzzing. We understand the importance of mixtapes and what it does as far as exposure for an artist. We not one of those people that believe mix tapes is stealing from the artist. Bootlegging someone’s album is stealing. Mixtapes is a good thang for promotion. DJ’s wanted to use our song for they mix tapes because it was a popular song. Those mixtapes starting selling well so we said we should capitalize on this being tha
t
our album won’t be out ‘til this summer. We put “What Is It” on the album,
added some freestyles and original songs and now it's movin out of all the mom
and pop local stores, on the internet and it’s getting a good response. “Bootleg
2.1” gets people familiar with frontline and what were capable of doing as artists. You
can get that album of our website : www.thefrontlineonline.com.Who’s featured on the album?
Left: The albums called “Who Are You” and it’s mostly in the family. Not too many features we wanna show that we are good artists not jus battle rappers or artists that jus do singles.
Who’s doing the production?
I’m doing some of the production with E-A-Ski and CMT is doing the rest. We don’t wanna disclose the features but E-A-Ski, Balance. 15 songs at best cause we don’t wanna overdo it and have 25 songs and at the end they heard too much of the artist.
How is it working with E-A-Ski and CMT?
Working with a talented veteran is a plus, a lot of the mistakes and falls an artist could make is cautioned because he’s seen them all. He forewarns us about things that you go through as a Bay Area artist. Plus they are creative producers when we get our brains flowin there’s no telling what we can do. We workin with E-A-Ski and CMT under the Infa Read Music Group/Landmark Entertainment.
What’s the vibe going on in the Bay right now?
I think the Bay is supporting they artists again which will in turn make the nation have to deal with us. The Bay Area is a large market. We’ve been fooled into thinkin that we are a small market, thinkin all we can do is this and be independent but we one of the biggest markets in the country period. That’s why the big name artists always bring they ass out here. They know they have to come do business with us. We gotta make our own stars in this area so we don’t have to go beg a Chingy or Jay-Z to come do our shows because we can do our own shows with our own local artists.
How did growing up in Richmond affect you musically?
Richmond is one of the smallest cities in the Bay and it never got the mainstream recognition like Oakland, San Francisco, or Vallejo, where it had all these artists known. In Richmond you got a lot of artists that was coming with tight music but never got recognized. Being that we were from that disadvantage it makes us hungry. That hunger is now at the boiling point and is boiling over into the music. You got a lot of tight artists from back in the day and new ones like Lil Ric, Laroo, Frontline, and a lot of other artists coming out of Richmond. This situation created what you have now, a lot of talent. Richmond is notorious for the violence, and although it’s small we known for a lot of negative things and those negatives things affect our lyrics. Richmond is isolated; you gotta come to Richmond you don’t jus stumble on it. It’s in the Bay but it’s away from the Bay at the same time and it’s a different culture.
What were some of key influences that helped you get in the game?
Left: My uncle is Jay Joana from the group C.I.N. seeing him work on 94 Mobstas before he went to the pen was my first taste into seeing how music really works. Studio time, buying vinyl and posters coming home with reel to reels every night. Seeing the grind, seeing him round up the people in his group to go make a session. All that type of shit helped me get familiar with the behind the scenes, helped me know some shit before I even got into the music. That made it an easy transition for me to get into the music as a musician and a business person.
Locksmith: My sister was a MC, she was overseas doing a lot of touring in front of 10,000 people. We got to see that side of the business. So when we started our group she helped us learn how to perform how to project words and be clear. She coached us way back in 98 when we did the cut on MTV.
You were on the MTV battle?
Locksmith: The MTV battle was another thang. I was doin several battles in the Bay Area. I was fortunate enough to win the one that sent me to NY to battle 1,000 MC’s. I was the only dude from Cali in the thang. It’s a whole different attitude out there so once I was able to get out there and rep I repped for the Bay well. I got to the finals and it was a positive thang. It got the Bay and us a lot of exposure. A lot of people even to this day come up and say “You were robbed you shoulda won.” We used that momentum to come back home and get it going.
What’s the New Bay movement about?
The New Bay is a term that us and Balance came up with. It’s simply the artists in the Bay coming with something new, reinventing themselves. If you a new dude and you comin with something new out of the norm that the public ain’t used to hearin from the Bay then you doing it. If you an OG and you doin something new then that’s New Bay shit, something new from the Bay. A lot of people get it confused like it’s one big click or group and it’s not. It’s a movement it’s a mind state.
