By Black Dog Bone
So, Telly Mac, tell me about where you are from and how you came up.
Man, I’m born and raised in the Fillmore, San Francisco, Bay Area you know what I’m sayin’? I started my rap career back in 1996 on Get Low Records, JT tha Bigga Figga you know what I’m sayin’? I was in a group called The Gamblaz, I’m one half of the Gamblaz. We about to be going on a mini tour. Gamblaz and Fully Loaded we bout to get that going. Trying to fill up a few spots and sell out some buildings. We got new music, White Tees/Styrofoam Cups coming soon, Volume 1 and Volume 2, all brand new exclusive tracks produced by Lord Kush. Pushing this Diamond Gang, my label my brand. That’s what I got going on.
You came up with Get Low Playaz and you and the Gamblaz…
Yes, GLP the Get Low Playaz started my rap career and had a very strong impact on the independent rap game. We did at least ten albums together it might be a little more than that. We did some good music together and we built a nice fan base in the process of doing those records.
And then you went solo?
Yeah I went solo. I want to say around 2005, 2006, I went from being in a group to being a solo artist. I kind of did some bouncing around a little bit. Shout out to Juice Get Paid I was with Juice about 2006 and then I was with A-Wax for a minute during the Pyrex days and then I got with my brother Dirty J in 2008 and we put together the play for the DLK Enterprise and it been history from there.
OK so I really started hearing about you from Dirty J, and Dirty J was always talking about you.
Me and Dirt grew up together. That’s my big bro. We got a childhood upbringing. We was born in the same city and raised in the same buildings. As he was one of my older homeys he looked out for me during the times when I was going through some trials and tribulations. I was kind of giving up on my career and he pulled me aside and kind of was just checking me out. Like I said we grew up together and he had been following my music and asking me what I was doing at the time and I wasn’t really doing nothing so we got together and started putting together some plays and that’s what got me back into the music. He got me back into the studio in late 2007, early 2008 Dirt linked me up with V-Town and we was brought back and forth to the studio on this DLK wave and we created the brand a label a family that really like you know, this Bay Area music scene when it seemed like it was dead and dying down, we kind of was like the revival for Northern California from the aspect of there wasn’t no labels pushing no lines and doing nothing and once we got together we formed a little bit of unity showing other labels and artists how we was working together and working with other artists and bringing artists together that y’all probably wouldn’t have ever even imagined being in the same studio or on the same song together. Working, shout out to all the artists from Rick Daddy Rest in Peace to Dubee to man Miami the Most to all the Vallejo artists. We did the Fillmoe to the Crest album that made a real impact and we just been putting in work from street teams to dropping relentless music back to back to back and just pushing different artists from V-Town to Young Robbery and we got other artists like Chino Montana and other artists doing their thing.
Who was making the beats at that time?
Well, we got V-Town in house doing beats, making slaps. We had DLP in the H-Town of Houston, Rest in Peace Dex Beats, we met through San Quinn and Dex had a real creative, unique sound. Rest in Peace to Dex Beats, he produced a lot of records on my first solo album on DLK called Project Celebrity. That’s my classic, that was my first album when I got back in the booth after ten years in the game. That was me as a solo artist after ten years in a group. That was the first album we put out collectively as a unit. Me as an artist, V-Town in the studio, picking me up we came together on some brotherhood type shit making it official, making it a play. To where it didn’t just benefit me, it benefitted everyone around us.
It seems like you have many albums from Gamblaz on…
Yes indeed, many albums just exhibiting our passion for music. I got a passion to record so I’m always in the booth. From being a group artist to being a solo individual artist I put out a lot of music and I’m still putting out music collectively as we speak I’ve got albums coming, I’ve got albums out, I’ve been building a catalog on my own, even with DLK Enterprises 2008 and even not stepping away but even just venturing off and creating my own label and my own brand Diamond Gang now I would say shit I’m probably about ten albums down myself on my own with my own label. I’ve put out numerous singles on iTunes and social media platforms so if y’all looking for me and checking for my music check me out on Spotify, you can find my music, YouTube music, Google Play wherever y’all search for music at put my name in that search bank and something gonna pop up for you fa sho. It’s 25 years to date today I’m celebrating my 25th anniversary for contributing music to the independent rap game. Shout out Murder Dog.
I talk to many people and everytime I talk to many people they always say you know, right now you need to listen to Telly Mac you know?
I appreciate that. I appreciate the support and everybody that been sticking with me from day one. Hanging in there with me through all the trials and tribulations, the ups and downs, even the midrange I appreciate you for sticking with me and believing in my while I believe in myself and continue to chase my dreams and be the best that I can be as a person an artist a father a brother all that stuff.
I’m out here pushing. I’m still looking for that big break. I really want to while I’m doing this interview I want to give a special, special shout out to my bro Dirty J because you know, he go the extra mile for me. Like as far as how I get in the studio, record my music and when it’s done like, I can go to my brother and turn my music in and he gone make sure it get turned in on time to the distributor with the street date and all that stuff so you know. I commend my brother on that because this ain’t no over night success story or none of that we been doing this like we been DOING IT! Unencountered hours, days, months, just putting in work and like I say I know every time when I’m pushing a record, completing a new single or whatever it may be Dirt always got my back making sure we get it to the distribution on time and making sure it get out to the universe so we all can hear what I got to serve ya.
Telly tell me something about how you know everything was in the streets. You make your CDs you sell it in the streets but now everything has changed. Do you like it or do you like the old times?
I mean I’m not gonna say I dislike it because I’m a part of it. I learned to adapt and adjust to the new game. I remember my first album came out on cassette tape and that might be something that this new generation may not even be familiarized with or know anything about. But my first album came out on a cassette so we had boxes with 100 tapes in a box and going to them record stores whether you was getting a 30 day consignment or you was getting $7 a tape and getting cash on delivery, it was a lucrative situation for artists trying to come up and put out music not really even knowing how you could actually make a dollar off rap. It’s 99 ways that you can get paid off this rap besides just taking a cassette tape or a CD to a mom and pops retail store or a chain store and do some over the counter transactions.
Are you making more money now because there’s so many outlets?
No! It’s been cut and it’s a lot. The money has been cut as far as taking the product to the retailer and receiving the over the counter cash. Now there’s no physical, everything is ran by the internet, digital, so you know, it’s different. You gotta turn your music in to the distributor now and upload it and wait for the streams to catch the network and generate money from however many downloads and streams your music attracts after you load it up and put it into the system.
Yeah it looks like a lot of people are getting hits…
And they give them less! Like I said a few minutes ago we used to get $7 a cassette and CD’s used to be like $18 so we was getting like $9-10 a CD. Maybe $12. So now there is no more tapes and no more discs, they giving you – how many cents do you make off a stream? Not even 25 cent huh? It’s lower than that so just imagine that. We went from getting $7 cash flat out to now you lucky if you get 25 cent a download. It’s a big difference now so unfortunately that put a dent into the economy a little bit and what not but we still out here grinding trying to figure it out and make a way.
As far as all your albums was there a certain album that was like really, a certain one that people really liked or a certain song that people really liked?
Well I haven’t really put out no hit records yet even though I feel like if you put a ear to my music it’s a lot of good music I’m sure I do got some hit records, but I would say that me personally my personal favorite album with probably my best music I think I created it during the pandemic. I did an album called Humble Pie. And it’s only like eight songs, ten songs but I really took my time making the music. I wasn’t into recording like harmonizing and melodic tunes and sounds so I used my creativity and tried to do that with that album and a lot of those songs came out really good, they came out great. It’s a song on the Humble Pie album called “Slow Down” that I would present to the world as one of my hit records. If I had to pick a record that to call a hit I would say “Slow Down.”
As far as the new artists coming out who do you like?
Man the new wave is the new way. I’m not against nothing that these new cats is oding coming out in the same game I came up in trying to make a way for theyself to survive. At one point in time we was the new wave and nobody liked nothing we was doing and then I slowly but surely watched the rap game transform because when I was coming into the game back in 1996, rappers rapped, did hip hop but it was more on a party type vibe. It wasn’t really into being super lyrical or nothing like that so when we came in the game as the young cats on this independent status and level we was more about not really into the beat aspect of the music. You know when you listen to down south music they serious about they tune. Like a down south song might not be hella lyrical but that beat is gone grab you. That hook is gone grab you and pull you in to what they trying to have you vibe on. Just like in New York, they more hip hop based. You go to the east coast they gonna pull you into some hip hop. Me, I’m with this west coast not really club but kind of more like, a reality street type so I kind of give a different kind of feel maybe like a 2Pac type of vibe without all the antics and poetics behind it. But like I say, lyrics, I’m a lyricist so rhyming, bars, and content like that is what mean a lot to me when I’m sitting down trying to put together a record. It’s more like I want to have some shit that’s catchy but at the same time I want to say some shit to you that you gone have to think about. I want to hit your brain.
What do you remember about the time you started like as a youngster you were probably real excited, what do you remember from then?
What I remember and never forget is being in the studio with JT, San Quinn, my group members the Gamblaz and we was working on a song that was being presented for a compilation that Master P put out that represents some of the up and coming artists and things like that on the West Coast. It was called West Coast Bad Boys. At the time we was working on Volume 2. He did three volumes. Being that Part 2 came out around that time when Master P was doing some real extravagant things with his label, No Limit Records, which ended up becoming one of the biggest independent labels ever, he gave us an invite as a label to get on West Coast Bad Bays. So JT had us all in the studio while we was working on the song he was trying to put every artist a part of the movement on the song. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough space for every artist to fit so it came down to me being one of the youngest group members and artists on the label I had to basically battle my way on the song. All I remember is we was in the lab and everybody had their raps and the beat was playing and JT had us in a competition going against each other and I just tell this story to say at the end of it all when y;all hear my voice on that last verse on that song on West Coast Bad Boys Part 2 the Unexpected just know that I earned that. I worked for that and that’s why I’m the last verse on the song. I wasn’t finna be on that song. Saying that to say that now in 2025 that one competition, that one verse got me standing right here with y’all today 25 years later talking about my rap career and who I am as a person. Shout out Murder Dog Magazine! Black Dog that’s my Dog for Life! Diamond Gang!
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