RBX

RBX

by Scott Bejda

RBX! How are you doing brother?

Man, I’m well, I’m striving, ya dig! There’s a lot going on in the industry so I stay focused on what I learned as a youth with turn tables, graffiti, and trying to look fly for the sisters. The whole elements I stay attached to that because that’s where the love of hip hop came from in the first place so I just stay doing that.

Most Definitely! Also congratulations on the new album Hibernation Shivers.

Thank you sir!

I like the fact that you pressed up CDs for us collectors!

They gone! I got a couple left. I told the homie Siavash, I told him when he first said he was gonna  grab a number that I used to do that out the trunk, you might wanna get more. He said we’re gonna see what happens. They pressed up a few and they jumped just like I told him they was gonna do. I think he is gonna try to repress some more. I got a few but for the most part they jumped out the box!

I remember you telling us you had some stuff coming out. The last one was in ‘07, how does it feel to get this project finally out?

I wasn’t so caught up in the album thing because the game had switched and I was on the block so I was doing things catered to the block as opposed to a formal album or EP-type jump-off. We was keepin’ the block hot and some of that didn’t register as far as me doing EP’s, but I’ve been workin’ all the time. I just haven’t stopped and put a collective of some joints together and put it out under the banner of an album.

You did a lot of mixtapes!

Right! Daddy V was up there with Snoop and it all jumped off with Welcome To The Church, then Church 2, Church 3, we just kept going Church 5, 8, 9 and Daddy V pulled me into it and we started doing our little thing. We was just keeping hope and music alive. Like I said the industry was changing and they got a bunch of new A & R cats in the game that don’t really know what the fuck the streets

are doing because they are not coming down there. They are trying to dictate to us what we should be sounding like and I ain’t with that shit at all so I just kept doing what I was doing.

Everyone was putting out mixtapes for years, it was hot everywhere and it kinda stopped. What do you think happened? Why did they disappear and what took the place of the mixtapes?

Well I think when you got something that is going on like that, I wouldn’t say it’s a bad thing for the industry or some of the major labels, but it was a nuisance. You got cats that was working on something for 6 months and put it out and the next day some cat is knocking your head in. A prime example was “Ridin’ in my car, listening to the radio!” That was a Monica song but Nate took it and mixtaped it and turned it into his shit! That’s what happened! The industry didn’t like it so they put a frown on it and made it look like it wasn’t much. What took it’s place is all the trash we are hearing now.

What happened to the music?

I don’t wanna disrespect the young folk because that is not what we are doing but some of that shit don’t take no effort. Cat, hat, rat, bat…..They get out there and do a little shake shake shimmy shimmy and that’s what replaced it. So now we gotta get back to the bars. Also brothers doing conscious shit or stuff with background, the foundation stuff, the boom bap. That gets me going!

You were on many classics. On the Snoop song Serial Killa who came up with the hook, you, Snoop or Dre?

The DOC! To be honest with you I really can’t break down the way the atmosphere was but everyone in there had maximum skills. I’m right next to Snoop Dogg, right next to DOC, right next to Daz and Kurupt, right next to Lady of Rage, right next to Warren. We were just all in there doing our thing. The vibe was there! I might just blurt something out and someone would say, “Nigga that’s dope” and then we might write something.

When you were recording The Chronic did you get to hang with Mr. 3-2 and Big Mike when they came up from Rap-A-Lot?

I sho did, them is my cats! Big Baby better pump them brakes! Lord 3-2! We even had a few battles!

Those must have been incredible! What was your impression of 3-2?

That was my brother! He was loud and rambunctious but so was all my elders, my cousins and my folks so I blended right on in. Bushwick came through, it was Rap-A-Loy coming through. That’s family!

With the new album I see some familiar names like Cold 187um, Project Pat, Spice-1 but on the mastering I see Brian Big Bass Gardener who mastered classics like Straight Outta Compton, Eazy Duz It and so many classics!

Oh yeah, I’m in the neighborhood! You gonna see some names on there yeah! These are foundation relationships that you form when you get on monumental projects. If you are out there in the water you

don’t want to get too far from the buoys. You always gotta know where the hell you are at and stay around the folks you started with. You don’t want to get too far away.

You mentioned you sold out of CDs proving they still sell but you got sites like Spotify, Apple and others. What are your thoughts on streaming music sites?

I think the G shit that we always speak on is the ones that slow the change. The Internet is fast high speed getting it but when I talk to some of the real music enthusiasts they would rather put a CD

in a component set and listen to it the old school way because they are getting all the rough edges and all the thing is they get from a CD. Sometimes when you go extra digital you are missing something. I

have always been told by my boys in rock bands that digital is cool but they need a CD.

Before we go tell us about the title track to Hibernation Shivers featuring Ras Kass. Very dope song and video!

What had happened was I think it was Krazie Bone, Ras Kass, MC Eiht and pretty much everybody that you see and hear on here saw me doing my thing. The homie Sccit saw what I was trying to do. They hit me with a track and I think Ras was already on there when I got the track. I had to just jump in and put the RBX twist on it.