Mr. Pookie & Mr. Lucci
Interview By Matt Sonzala
From Murder Dog vol. 12 #4
Where have your travels been taking you recently?
Pookie: We been backtracking really to all of our major markets that we know of. Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, California, Chicago, Ohio, Iowa, everywhere. All through Texas. Everywhere really. In every state somebody know something about us.
Lucci: In Louisiana people throw down. Honestly I don’t think we even touched some of our biggest spots. We go places we never been and people be like “Damn, I been waiting for y’all to come out here.” I’m talking about niggas that look like they older than me telling me they grew up on our shit. I’m like, damn. I didn’t ever think it was out there. It wasn’t on the radio or nothing, it was just word of mouth. People had it in they cars. We was in Pine Bluff Arkansas one night and a nigga pulled up jammin’ our CD right there. He pulled up, rapped with us, we smoked a blunt with him. That’s what I’m talking about. We got love in the streets, my nigga. We hit a city and we ain’t gotta do shit. Niggas come out they pockets. They get a nigga in the club. We don’t even be trying. We be like “Naw we straight,” and they be like “Naw nigga you know who the hell this is? You have to let this nigga in the club.” Or a nigga need some weed, we be trying to buy weed, they won’t let a nigga buy weed. They give us weed. It’s love. I ain’t gonna say nothing about the ladies. It’s just love. They see we street, my nigga.
Pookie: We go to a city and go straight to the hood and holla at them. See what places we can go. See what goes down in that city and hit that place and see what’s up with everybody. Make that connection so we can come back. Just grinding man, in the street trying to do it.
Lucci: Then we give them an invitation to come to Dallas. We’ll treat you the same. Holler at us. Ask Youngbloodz about us, they come to our city we show ‘em love. Ask Layzie Bone, David Banner, Paul Wall, Bun B, ask them cats, they know.
Pookie: Big Sty come to our city we showed them boys love. Love’s supposed to be in the streets if you from the streets.
How is it in Dallas?
Pookie: Good, they steady upgrading. In their own way everybody coming along doing they own thing and making some noise there. We just trying to get them to get out of there. Leave there and hit these other states and these other cities. Not just in Texas.
Lucci: And they doing it my nigga. Gator Main, Bo-Leg, Big Tuck, Big Soc, Young Nino, Big Hurt, they all doing things. JB, Rich Minds. Jack Front. Everybody out there.
Pookie: It’s ready to pop really. Once we do our thing and break through, it’s gonna be over. Folks is gonna be on Dallas.
Lucci: Fire Station, y’all be on the lookout for Squeeky Mac too. Big Grub, we got love for the Grub. Be on the look out for Wolfpak too. Neighborhood Coalitions. Detox, Human Drano, Rally Boys, Kottonmouth, Big Ben, Jizno, it’s about to go down in the D man. I think when it pops there’s gonna be so many from the D. Diamond. So many people man for real. It’s an endless list.
Did you grow up together?
Pookie: We semi-came up together. I met Lucci in ’98. I came up in North Dallas on Audelia Road in the Stoney Brook Apartments. We call it Stoney Crook. Shit, we been together ever since.
Lucci: We both grew up in North Dallas, right down the street. I was on Forest and Green and he was on Audelia. I was 15 when I met him so I grew up with him. That’s when I did most of my stuff.
Did y’all meet up specifically to do the music? Did someone put you together?
Lucci: Somebody put us together and we never thought it would have been what it been. I was in the barber shop rapping and there was a cat who said he made music and had a studio. He heard me rap and said he had an artist named Mr. Pookie and he was about to put an album out. Shit, when he took me to the studio, it was him. I made it to the studio before he did, and I was checking out some beats and Pookie showed up. And it’s been Pookie and Lucci ever since.
Wasn’t that Kevin A? He was a pretty big player in Dallas wasn’t he?
Pookie: He was THE player in Dallas. All the major labels came to him to get their music out to the radio. He knew exactly what to do when it came to our stuff—how to get it to the radio and how to promote it. He was straight in.
Lucci: He was a radio promoter and started his own label, Iconic Records.
Things were really working for you back then because I remember I saw the video and saw your record in a lot of different places.
Lucci: We had signed to Warner after we sold about 70,000 units and after that the deal kind of went sour between us and them.
That was unusual to come out of Dallas and sell that many units. You don’t see a lot of groups coming out of Dallas selling like that.
Pookie: It’s a lot of music. It was all chemistry and timing is all I can tell you just looking back on it now. Our chemistry just worked together.
Were you solo artists before this?
Lucci: We’re still solo artists now. It’s funny because everybody put Pookie and Lucci together. There was more people rapping with us. There was K-Rock, Mr. Montis, C-Pone, everybody was with us. They just took our two names and put them together. So every time I go somewhere I hear people say Mr. Pookie and Mr. Lucci. They put us together, but we solo artists.
What have you released?
Pookie: I had a solo record called The Rippla. Then Luccie came with The Diabolical.
Pookie: And we started our own label after that, Crawl 2 Ball Records. We dropped a double CD called “My Life”, that’s the only one with me and him together. It was really an album with the whole label. That was two years ago.
What’s up with Crawl 2 Ball Records now?
Lucci: We got a roster of about five artists on Crawl 2 Ball Records, right now what we gonna hit y’all with is like about six releases. We got Big Doughski, we got Lil Yo, we got Mr. Montis aka Concussion, Nick Nitty, Hot Rod, it’s about to come down. We got r&b and all other type of shit too. But what you’re gonna see first is all the people I just named. Crawl to Ball just got our venture deal. We doing something with Universal Distribution. We on the road right now. We goin to every city. Don’t be surprised if you see us pop up in the 2-sided van.
How did the deal with Universal come about?
Pookie: I guess by them hearing the noise we were making. We hit the Billboard twice: with “My Life”, the album and the single. They caught wind of that and they called down to a record store in Oakcliff, Da Bomb and they got in touch with us. I go through there on the regular dropping off CD’s. And we just got to talking, negotiating and made it happen.
Lucci: It was a trip because Steven McVea of SME called and asked us to send him some music so we just sent him some music just like we had it and he said he was a manager and he was gonna shop us a distribution deal. And that’s what he did. He shopped it. There was a lot of people that was gonna do it, but when it came down to the people who really put it down, that was the Universal thing. It just all went crazy out of the blue. One day with just a phone call out of nowhere.
What have Mr. Pookie & Mr. Lucci got coming out?
Pookie: We got that Stoney Crook mixtape. We got that DJ Smallz mixtape. We got the Mr. Lucci My Testimony album coming out. And I just dropped Return of the Rippla. And everybody that’s down with the label right now is on there.
Lucci: My shit coming right after Pookie’s.
Pookie: It’s like a one-two punch.
Who do you work with on production?
Pookie: Couple cats from my hood and a couple places out of state. I got some beats from a guy from Texarkana, Miyagi, mostly from Dallas though. Dude in Atlanta, but he from Dallas, Jah. Certified, General, Aliens, you’ll hear of them later on cause they really good. We just went to the streets, to the hood and made an album.
Lucci: That’s how we get music. We be on the road and a nigga might come up saying, “Hey I make beats.” A lot of dudes probably blow them off but we be like “Come on.” Go to his car, hear some shit, go to his crib to his little set up and make something out of it. So as far as you looking for any big name producers on the album, we ain’t got no big name producers on the album, it’s all just people coming up. As well as artists. I worked with some different ones on my album like the Grifters. I worked with Block out of Chattanooga, TN, he was a major part of it. I worked with OZ, Spliff and B.I. The Fire Station, they out of Dallas. I worked with Miyagi too. There’s a lot of different people I just don’t remember what songs I’m using yet.
Pookie: We got people we work with like Lil Yo here, he’s literally like my little brother. He’s been there through the whole thang. He’s seen me doing my thang and got into it then. Then he started doing his thang and I heard him and I got him on a song on my album called “Hold On.” He came to me with that chorus and that’s one of the best choruses I ever heard. We got Big Doughski too. It’s a real dynasty.
