Mista FAB
Interview By Black Dog Bone
From Murder Dog Vol. 12 #3
You have a new album out?
The album is called “Son of a Pimp”. Thizz Entertainment put it out. We been workin together for a while, just building my name up. I dropped an album year before last, 2003, called NigLatin. That one came out through Jazzy J from KMEL. It was a nice little record. I was young, just wanted to get in the studio and get my shit out. This new album really shows my growth. I just turned 23 and I’m ready.
How did you connect with Thizz?
My cousin Noochie was doin a little management for Mac Dre. Mac Dre had been hearin about me for a little bit, seeing me at different events. So he kinda took me under his wing. Dre just let me open up shows for him and perform at a lotta things he was doin. Now after his passing we’re just tryin to keep the legacy alive. So I’m down with Thizz 100%. Mac Dre really embraced me like a little cousin.
Are you from Vallejo?
No, I’m from Oakland. Me and Bavgate are really the only artists on Thizz from Oakland. What Thizz is tryin to do right now is build an opportunity for artists. We got a nice line on distribution. There’s so many artists that are bein slept on, who are very talented but can’t get that exposure that they need. Thizz is tryin to create an outlet for artists.
There are a lot of artists under the Thizz umbrella right now.
We have a bunch and it’s growing. Right now some of the roster would be like Mac Mall, PSD, the Cutthroat Committee, some of the members of Mob Figaz, Bavgate, myself, J-Diggs. It’s a long list.
How did you feel when you heard that Mac Dre had been murdered?
I was in tears. Point blank, I was just cryin. Sometimes I still be tearing up, just thinkin about it. Just the opportunity Mac Dre created for people. This is a man that had did time in jail and all of his close friends and associates did time as well. So when they came home and got together they understood how hard it is. Dre gave people that had no other chance in this society a chance to come up through this music. That’s bigger than giving a person a million dollars—when you create an opportunity for them to do something that will feed their family and continue to do so. There’s an old saying: you can give a man a fish so he can eat for that day, or you can teach a man how to fish and he can feed his family for the rest of his life. That’s what Dre was doing. He was kinda rehabilitating those who were in his clique and lettin ‘em eat, legally. The world won’t be the same without Mac Dre.
What made you decide to do music?
I’m my mom’s only child. I never really had nobody to talk to. When I was young I used to just write how I was feelin about things—life, death, everything. I used to write poetry when I was young, just short little haiku poems. I learned how to be wise. I’d read a lot. A lotta my writing reflected what was going on in my life. People would be shocked that at 8 or 9 the kinda topics that I would write on. My parents were using drugs. When I was 10 found out that my dad had AIDS. Then he died of AIDS a couple of years later. I put all those experiences into my writing. As a Black man growing up in this time when Hip Hop dominates the culture, I just developed and got into rapping. That’s why a lotta my lyrics is like poetry. It’s deep.
How would you describe your style?
I got my own style. I have charisma, just from bein the class clown and joking and shit. But then by goin through a lotta pain in my life, I’m able to touch on that side. Growin up in the city of Oakland amongst so much poverty, you naturally become kinda hard. Not necessarily thugged out, cause I wouldn’t consider myself a thug, but the streets are in me too. Lyrically I got it all. I got all those worlds in me.
