Black C
By Keita Jones
From Murder Dog Vol 14 #3
You just dropped a solo album, “City of Gods”. How does this album differ from the last album “Last Man Standing”?
“Last Man Standing” was still more for some Funk. RBL was always on that Gangsta-Funk vibe, that Mob-Funk. We always had that Funk in our music, that’s what I was bringing on the last album. On this one, I had to come more versatile, I got Third World, South tracks on there, “mic check” tracks on there. You might hear Arabian instruments on there, Island tracks, all type of different supplements. We try to go out the box a little bit on this one. We tried to come with that Third World vibe.
Who do you have doing the production?
I’m dealing more with my underground cats. The only really known producer is Sean T and dude named Grizz, that’s Beyonce’s cousin, he did a track on there. Besides Sean T and Grizz, we got J.P. out of Sac, Hermanata part of my production team, Rome AKA “Slapadelic. Basically I’m dealing with the under dogs. We had always did it like that even with features, we always kept it underground.
Who do you have from your camp that’s on the album?
Moe the Hustla, Hard Headz, this new group we putting out. There’s a few cats we putting out from Hunters Point—Boss Hogg, The Heat Holder, Dangla, Freejack; he was a part of Aftermath, was dealing with Dre and them for a minute. That’s basically our camp.
It’s been about three years since the last album dropped. Why did you wait so long to come back?
It got to a point where I was feeling like it was a waste of time putting out these albums in the Bay. The spotlight wasn’t on the Bay, there weren’t any deals going around, it was hard. A lot of distribution companies went bankrupt and were shutting down. I didn’t feel like I needed to put out any albums so I started dabbling in other thangs, eating off the real estate a little bit. I made a good move back in ’96, I bought my house out in Antioch and got it for a nice little cheap price and started flipping that money and getting away from that music. I was just mainly pushing my catalogue, my old catalogue, not dropping any thing new. But we definitely stayed pushing the music out. It’s just that time now, from the Federations, to the Teams, Keak Da Sneaks, E-40 been putting they hands in the game now as far as the Hyphy movement. That kind of opened it back up and got people interested in on what’s going on in the Bay. I decided let me get back in it so a lot of my young dudes that I was putting out can get back in it and people can realize some of the talent we got out here. That’s the mission right now, that’s the new mission with me, to bring some spark back to RBL.
What are some other RBL projects you have going on? I remember a few years back Military Minded came out. Who else is coming out your camp?
As far as RBL we got “Lesson to be Learned”, “Ruthless By Law”, “Hostel Takeover”, “An Eye For an Eye”. Going to Hitman, we got “Solo Creep”. We also got Hitman’s new album we sittin on since he passed. We got 17 new cuts we finna drop towards the end of the summer, that one’s called “Frisco Legend”. We got NOH Mafia, Moe the Hustla, part of NOH Mafia. We got his solo album dropping: “Grown Mannish”. There’s a lot of back tracks we did with Prime Minister, the “No Compromise” album. He’s out of Sac. Young Thug, dude up out of Frisco, he dropped the “Thug Livin” album, Military Minded, “Ghetto Vietnam”. And we got Hard Headz “Grimy Season” that we droppin towards the end of the summer around the time we droppin Moe the Hustla album. That’s really the whole catalogue right there, besides this new “City of Gods” that we pushing. We also got a book called “Till Death Do Us” that we finna drop. We tryna get publishing for that. We’ve been busy. We also have an RBL documentary “The Ruthless By Law Story” we finna take it from the beginning. You gonna see us from coming together all the way until now just to let them know because nobody really been through what our group been through, all the trials and tribulations. Ain’t too many real ones like us in the game. A lot of people in the game fakin it, we done really been through it. I’m talking about through it for real. From Feds to block stuff. So really you gonna know the story. We gonna put that together, package that up and get it out there.
Who’s directing the documentary?
My boy Sam Stiles. He used to shoot videos back in the day. He’s doing small thirty-minute movies for HBO now. He’s got a movie that he’s putting out called “Black August” about stuff that takes place up in San Quentin. We going over how we gonna attack the RBL story. That’s who looking to put it together for us.
When is an RBL greatest hits gonna finally drop?
We saving that for this “Ruthless By Law Project” we gonna do a couple of remixes, redo this “Bammer Weed”, “Bluebird” and all our hitters that they stay playing on the radio, we gonna do some remixes for them. We sitting on it. We waiting on the right time as far as distribution, production, videos. We want everything to be right. I didn’t want to start on that and have everything be wrong or have the wrong people in place and through together an RBL project. I want that to be right. That’s coming real soon, hopefully we’ll be done by the end of this year around Christmas time.
RBL has gone through a lot of tragedy over the past years. What is it that keeps you going and putting out music?
The Love of music. I was doing this music before I met Mr Cee. I was doing this music before I met Hitman. I was doing it out of love. It’s not about the money or financial gain. That’s why the new Hitman album ain’t out. Puttin it out right after he died and trying to capitalize off that stuff like “He’s gone now”. I laid down on it because I want people to really listen to his music just on the strength of the music. I wasn’t tryna make no gain off his death, that’s why I sat back like “Imma wait until this stuff rest and the focus is back on the Bay again so we can get a real nice distribution deal so we can put out right and reach his fans like it should.” It’s just the music that keeps me going. I eat, sleep and drink this music, we droppin CD’s every night. That’s what we do. That’s why my house is the studio. We constantly making songs and making music, reading up on it. That’s all I really know besides that block thang, and that’s been cut off for years so this is really all I got.
2006 was a big year for San Francisco. It was San Francisco’s year in terms of music coming out the Bay. But a lot of that success came from Fillmore artists and Mission District artists. What do you think was missing in getting Hunters Point name out there and HP getting some recognition?
Fillmore always had its talent. San Quinn had his crew, Messy had his crew. They had a support system. Hunters Point lost its support system once we lost Mr Cee. Once Mr Cee died it messed up the whole Hunters Point Rap game, it tore it up because we stopped supporting over there. We weren’t supporting anybody over there and nobody over there was supporting us. That’s how the game is over here, just like crabs in a bucket. Everybody wanna be the one, everybody wanna be the next one from Hunter’s Point so that ruined it. It was really like RBL was the back bone of Hunters Point and everybody that came out after that was through our pipeline. We had from the TC, the 11-5, UDI, Cold World Hustlers, all them. They was all part of that TC garage group, the RBL scene. The game tore up over there. We lost our support system. A lot of the turfs split up. It used to be just Hunters Point. Then Hunters Point, went to Harbor against Oakdale and West Point. Then Harbor went to “Up the Hill” and “Down the Hill”. So all that split just broke the whole turf and the togetherness up. And that all started from Mr Cee’s death. And that’s what the whole album is about. “The City of Gods”. We gods from The City, the concrete jungle, and also we can relate to the movie with the snake effect. It’s time for me to go and try to bring the Hunters Point Rap scene back and do my part by dropping this album. I got dudes on there from different parts: West Point, Oakdale, Harbor. We got two dudes from each set spittin and rappin. It’s going to take that to show the togetherness and help bring back The City and make our presence felt and really represent that Hunters Point. Because the dudes out there now ain’t really Hunter’s Point dudes. We got dudes like Guce reppin for us but he’s not officially from Hunters Point, so Hunters Point didn’t rep him like that. We had flaws and all that stuff is taken care of like the drama between us and the other labels like Big Block. All that stuff is out the window. So we doing our part to bring back Hunters Point. And the Fillmore situation didn’t help too much. I talk to a lot of dudes and its like Fillmore make themselves seem like a separate city, they just rep Fillmore. We like, “What’s up with Hunters Point?”
Over the years Hunters Point and San Francisco had a definite Black community. Due to gentrification we’ve seen that diminish. Now that San Francisco is only 8% black, how do you think gentrification has affected the spirit of Hip-Hop in San Francisco?
I don’t think it has affected hip-hop. It’s just that we lost a lot of valuable dudes with these laws they putting together. These gang injunction laws and all this different bullshit. Rebuilding the back all in the Navy yard, back there hitting on the yard putting all that asbestos up in the air killin our folk. That’s not all the stuff killing off the Rap scene. It’s them tryna take over with new laws sending good dudes with Rap skills that was really a part of the community that people looked up to, they gone now. It used to be 20-30 dudes out there on the block that would go to all the parties and throw picnics and now it’s really like five that be hanging around and they real young and they need guidance. Right now, I don’t know. We just have to come together and end all that crime and that fake gangbanging over. We killing ourselves over there. That’s one of the things that’s tearing us up and like you said, they moving in to Hill. They want that Hill. The City wants that Hill. Hunters Point is already sitting on a prime piece of real estate. We have a view of the whole Bay. They want that anyway so they’re getting rid of us quick, fast. That right there with them tryna take over the Hill is all a part of it.
How do you think rappers can get more involved in helping preserve a historical community like Hunters Point, Fillmore, Western Addition and other areas that are being affected by gangs gentrification and things that are destroying the Black community?
Just get involved. I’m dealing with Brother Christopher from over there, the Muslims, Uhuru, part of Fillmore and Bayview. I’m just tryna get involved like “let me know what I can do.” I just don’t want to keep coming to meetings. Don’t nobody wanna just sit around and keep talking and talking about it. We know what’s going on. We know what they doing. We know they keep making these bogus laws to set us up. But ain’t nobody moving, ain’t nobody doing nothing, ain’t nobody marching to City Hall and doing what they used to back in the 60’s, getting watered down with water hoses for what they believe in. Ain’t nobody doing that now, everybody hella scary now. That’s the problem, ain’t no OG’s around no more. They don’t wanna talk to the youngstas because they scared of the youngstas. Sometimes you gotta put your life on the line and God protects you when you out there for the right thing. You don’t have to worry about that because your date is already set in stone anyway. You got get involved. We can sit and talk and rap and make a song about it but that don’t really help. Actions speak louder than words, you have to get involved somehow or someway. We need people from Fillmore, Lakeview and community leaders from other cities too to get involved. It ain’t gonna be just Frisco, they gonna start doing the same thang in Oakland, and Antioch and EPA until they get us all bottled up in one city. “Let’s get them all over there in Vallejo. Let’s push them all up there in Sac”. We gotta wake up.
