It doesn’t get any bigger than being dubbed a Dr. Dre & Timbaland protégé throughout the internet world. In the last few months, Detroit MC Earl Hayes has seen what he describes as an “industry only buzz” travel through the walls of the public, as anticipating listeners remain curious to hear what about this latest Interscope signee has not only one legendary Hip Hop icon, but two Hip Hop icons co-signing him.
Furthering the conversation on some of Hayes’ label journeys, he takes us through his previous record deals and why the situations didn’t work out, which ultimately can be taken as advice to any artist or aspiring CEO that is trying to pick up their musical movement off the ground.
SoPrupRadio: We’re right here with Dr. Dre & Timbaland protégé and signee, Earl Hayes. Now is there is a whole lot to talk about with you because you have a lot going on, and we are going to talk about everything. First off, I want to start off with your past, something not a lot of people have paid close attention to – your Young Black Brotha’ Records days…
Earl Hayes: (laughs). That’s like, damn man, a long ass time ago. I was 16 years old when that happened, when I first touched down in California. I came out to Oakland to rap. I bumped into Khayree at a clothing store that I used to go to. I didn’t even know who he was. Me and him just kind of bumped into each other. He asked me what I do; he said I had a certain energy about myself. I told him I rap and he told me well, everybody raps nowadays. I rapped for him and he told me that he wanted to sign me. He brought me down to his studio and I met Mac Mall, Ray Luv – all of those Bay area cats, shout out to the Bay area. That’s basically how it happened.
SoPrupRadio: Being all the way from Detroit, you moved to California, staying in Oakland specifically. What made you want to even attempt to walk into a musical situation all the way in Oakland?
Earl Hayes: I would have walked into a musical situation anywhere.
SoPrupRadio: That’s crazy, seeing your dream come to fruition. Before we get into all of that, as you mentioned, Young Black Brotha’ Records was home to Mac Mall, Mac Dre and others. At such a young age, about 16, what did being around those people teach you?
Earl Hayes: Those guys were dope. I never felt anything but love around them. Every time I spit, they were like “yo, who is this dude? Where did you get him from?” with Khayree, it just used to be all love. I have nothing but good memories.
SoPrupRadio: Speaking of memories, do you have a particular memory about the late great Mac Dre that sticks out in your mind?
Earl Hayes: You know what? Not really any crazy stories about the Mac [Dre]. I only met him a few times; he was cool as a motherfucker though. That’s all I can say. I have good memories but I was so young, we didn’t really bust it up like men.
SoPrupRadio: Ok. From spending so much time in the Bay area scene, because you were based out in Oakland, what difference did you notice between the Bay area and the Los Angeles area?
Earl Hayes: I didn’t even know there was a difference until I got older. I was from Detroit; I didn’t really know California like that. I thought it was all California, I thought it was like Detroit. I figured everything in California was like everything in Michigan. That’s not true obviously. I didn’t know Southern and Northern were far as fuck from each other. I learned about the parts of California that I needed to be in to really do what I wanted to do, which was sign to Dre and get on. I used to tell my friends all the time, I’m about to go California and sign with Dr. Dre. But I was like 14-15 when I used to say that. It’s some freaky shit that you brought that up though.
SoPrupRadio: (laughs) thank you. Being from Detroit and telling all your friends about your plans to get up and go to California, tell us about what life was like in Detroit before you got to California?
Earl Hayes: It was Detroit. I always had a good head on my shoulders. I was bad but I always made due for myself. I always hustled up and kept myself fly. I kept the newest things and money in my pocket. I learned how to do this because my parents wouldn’t give me a lot. I would see things I wanted and I was always great at making realistic plans. I always laid out my goals for my own life. When my mom kicked me out, I really had to learn how to provide myself with shelter and transportation. I looked for guidance to get me through life. I think I did pretty good.
SoPrupRadio: (Laughs) As I was saying, they really dominated Hip Hop and you were around for a period of time. What was that situation like for you?
Earl Hayes: My man Supreme was on the Supreme Team. He was a dude that really brought me into the Wu and introduced me to the Wu life, and how the Wu was moving. That’s the dude that showed me the difference between Los Angeles and the Bay area. When I hooked up with Supreme, he brought me straight out to Los Angeles. He showed me that life when I as about 18 years old. He brought me out to Los Angeles and showed me what it was like out there, on a crazy level. You have to think, they were more advanced than Khayree and them. That’s when I really started getting exposed to the fast life. Then Supreme got locked up for about eight years. He just got out. That’s what happened with The Supreme Team and why it didn’t work out.
SoPrupRadio: Have you spoke with him? You said he just got out.
SoPrupRadio: He must be really impressed with your progress.
Earl Hayes: I spoke to him while he was locked up too. Oh yeah, a lot of people are impressed. A lot of years and I never came up. I refused to do anything but what I wanted to do in life. I never had a job. I looked at working for somebody else as a sign of giving up on what you really want to do. I would never do anything but what I wanted to do, and find a way to support myself at the same time.
Earl Hayes: Supreme showed me a whole other pace of life. It was totally crazy. I was under a lot of real life street dudes and Supreme was a real real real life street dude. That exposed me even more to the outside, the fast life and the quick money, the cars. He wasn’t really a flashy cat but he used to throw that paper around and that was fine.
SoPrupRadio: What was your initial reaction like? It must have been like a culture shock. Even if we’re not talking from a street perspective, just in general. Earl Hayes: I remember the first time I flew out to Los Angeles. It was like an unreal feeling; I can’t even really explain it. It felt like I was about to make it. It reminded me of a scene in a movie when a dude finally makes it in Los Angeles; but it wasn’t time yet.
SoPrupRadio: You’ve been signed to Interscope once before and a number of independents. Touch on some of your label journeys.
Earl Hayes: I’m glad you brought up my previous label deals. I keep reading, I was never signed to Loud Records; people keep saying that but I never signed to Loud. I did have other several situations as you mentioned. It was more about street music and street movements. A lot of street movements don’t last long because not a lot of street dudes last long. All my situations were street affiliated and when that type of money is used to fund projects, not everybody gets to make it. There is too much shit that happens and goes on.
SoPrupRadio: I know you were already rapping and wanted to make it at 14, your still in your mid-20’s now, and “Cash Flow” came out a long time ago. Have you really been rapping that long and making progress like that?
SoPrupRadio: This record you did. I can play it for you. You did it like 1998 I think. It was on a soundtrack or something. Do you know which record I’m talking about?
Earl Hayes: (Laughs) you have this song? That’s it right there. Turn it up, let me hear it. You were able to find that on the internet? Yeah, I remember this record. I didn’t even know it was out there like that. Thank you, I just wanted to hear it.
It doesn’t get any bigger than being dubbed a Dr. Dre & Timbaland protégé throughout the internet world. In the last few months, Detroit MC Earl Hayes has seen what he describes as an “industry only buzz” travel through the walls of the public, as anticipating listeners remain curious to hear what about this latest Interscope signee has not only one legendary Hip Hop icon, but two Hip Hop icons co-signing him.
Raptalk.Net hooked up with Earl Hayes for part two of a two part interview that focuses on the present. Currently on the “Shock Value 2” tour with multi-platinum producer and Hip Hop icon Timbaland, Earl Hayes talks to us about the tour and appearing on “Shock Value 2”, a track alongside R&B songstress JoJo titled “Lose Control.”
With “The First 48” mixtape out now making its rounds, Hayes talks about hooking up with Dr. Dre & Timbaland. Talking to us about the first time he was signed to Interscope, Hayes explains why he’s confident this time around his Interscope situation will work for the better, and what changes he’s made to ensure his success on the label.
Finally, we talk about the “elephant in the room”, the much-anticipated Dr. Dre album, “Detox.” With Hayes working on the project, he gives us the details that he can. With his as of yet untitled debut album in the works, Hayes expects Dr. Dre to produce half of the project, with Timbaland contributing the other half of production. Realizing this is the set up for what could be one of the largest debut albums in the history of Hip Hop; Hayes speaks about the pressure to deliver and what it’s like recording with Dr. Dre & Timbaland.
Earl Hayes: It’s dope. We’re tired right now; me and Timbaland are in the studio working. Today we have the day off, I was sleeping before I called you, as soon as I get all the way up, I’m about to go back to the studio and get to work. I got some stuff I’ve been working on.
Raptalk.Net: Speaking of the tour, have you had any particular spots or cities you’ve really enjoyed rocking?
Earl Hayes: I like them all the same. It’s all love. Every place we’ve been too has been dope. I like the entire show, the whole show is crazy.
Earl Hayes: I’m on “Shock Value 2” but we did the song the night before mastering. The art work was already done so I didn’t get to appear on the credits. That song is me, Timbaland and JoJo. I missed the credits but I’m on that record. I just made the record. The art work was already done when Timbaland called me to come to the studio and lay down my part.
Earl Hayes: I was in the studio with [Dr.] Dre working on “Detox” and we were doing a track. I got a call from Timbaland saying for me to come to the studio, he said I got a song I want to throw you on. We did the “Lose Control” record and that’s it.
Earl Hayes: “The First 48” is like a street album I put out. I don’t even want to call it a mixtape, will call it a street album. I called it “The First 48” because for a lot of people who are just getting into my music, it’s the first 48 songs that there going to hear. It’s really about the first 48 songs people are going to hear from me. This is the first 48 songs I’m giving y’all. The whole thing is on my website, iamhayes.com. All 48 songs are up there. I’m giving out thousands of copies away for free on the tour and people are blown away that I got a double disc with 48 songs in hard copies that I’m just giving them for free. People can go to my websiteiamhayes.com and see all 48 songs.
Raptalk.Net: This is what we’ve really wanted to get into. It doesn’t get any bigger than being signed to, and being co-signed by Dr. Dre & Timbaland. How did each situation come about?
Earl Hayes: Wow, let me think. With Dre, I’ve known Dre since the end of 2003. He was the reason I got signed to Interscope in the first place. He really liked my stuff. At the time, it didn’t work out. There were a lot of people that offered me a lot of stuff. I was signed straight to Jimmy [Iovine] at Interscope. I was working on my album and I met Timbaland. We did some records together way back in the day. Our chemistry was good. Later on when everything didn’t go good with my deal, and I started dealing with Dre, Timbaland came on board.
Raptalk.Net: So if it didn’t work out the first time with Interscope, what makes you think this time will be any different?
Earl Hayes: The first time I signed to Interscope, it was just me and I was signed to Interscope directly. If you know about the Interscope system, nobody signs to just Interscope. Not one artist has ever come off just Interscope; it’s always through affiliations of one of Jimmy’s power teams. I think when Jimmy Iovine signed me, we had planned to work that out later, but we never worked it out. Dre saw me lose my deal and he came with support. He told me “this time, we’re gonna’ make sure that you blow.” We found a way to make it big. Timbaland came in, him and Dre together. It’s as big as it gets.
Raptalk.Net: That happened in about 2003 when you signed to Interscope the first time?
Earl Hayes: We were negotiating since 2003; I think I officially signed in 2004.
Raptalk.Net: So after the deal went sour, why do you think it took so long for Dre & Timbaland to come back in and make it an affiliation deal in order to make it work in the Interscope system?
Raptalk.Net: So it took a long time to get that situation over with?
Earl Hayes: Yeah, and I wasn’t trying to get it over with. We were actually about to put out a single when we ran out of our budget. We spent three million dollars working on the project. I’m gonna’ give out more information as we get closer to the release of my album.
Raptalk.Net: Understood. We want to continue touching on the Dr. Dre & Timbaland connection. In your words, what’s the difference between being in the booth with Dre & Timbaland?
Earl Hayes: I don’t see a difference. They’re both great. What’s the difference between great and great?
Raptalk.Net: There sound is definitely different. How do you approach their sounds and styles differently?
Earl Hayes: I’m never the same. It’s all a challenge to me. We’re all great workers and I don’t approach anything the same way. The change is beautiful. I feel right at home with everything being different all the time. Even if it wasn’t different, I would change to make it different.
Earl Hayes: A typical studio session is like, I come in and hear something, get ready to go and get right to it. I try to make the track the best I could make.
Raptalk.Net: What kind of pointers do they try and give you in the booth? What are the main similarities in terms of things you hear coming out of their mouth a lot?
Earl Hayes: They both hear things that you would never imagine. They both hear these pockets and bounces and these rhythms and tones. To me, it’s one of the best tutorials I’ve had in my life. I’ve never learned in so many different ways. To be able to do such things, I’m having a lot of fun.
Raptalk.Net: How is “Detox” shaping up? How have you contributed thus far?
Earl Hayes: I’ve contributed like a student. I’ve been working with Dre. I can’t say I’ve been writing for Dre – I’ve been working with Dre. He’s guiding me and I’ve been learning. I may make up some words but it’s all in the parameter of what he’s teaching me at that time.
Raptalk.Net: Do you think Dr. Dre is close to having the album completed? Do you think you’ll 100% appear on the record?
Earl Hayes: I’m sure I’ll be on the record when it comes out. I’m sure Dre is going to put it out when he’s finished with it.
Earl Hayes: In the studio, I don’t hear anything but good records. That man is the man. He’s been making great records. I don’t know when it’s coming out.
Earl Hayes: I got to work with Slim The Mobster and that was great. I also got to work with T.I. that was dope. I got to work with a lot of people that is working with Dre.
Earl Hayes: I haven’t had the chance to meet Eminem yet. But when I do, I’m sure it’ll be a nice Detroit moment.
Raptalk.Net: What’s the timeline like for your album? Does it have a title or is there any information on it you can give us at all?
Earl Hayes: Half of this album is supposed to be produced by Timbaland, the other half is supposed to be produced by Dr. Dre. Right now I’m on the road with Timbaland, me and him are recording every day. I’m trying to get his half done. After we get off the road, will go back to Los Angeles and seen if we can get Dre’s half done and that’s it, it’ll be out.
Raptalk.Net: I’m sure you realize, but that could be one of the biggest projects in Hip Hop history. We’re talking about an album half produced by Dr. Dre, and half produced by Timbaland. Do you feel any pressure to make sure you deliver?
Earl Hayes: Nah, I’m straight. I mean, I’m naturally going to come through because coming through is what I do. I definitely think it’s going to have a positive effect on Hip Hop. I think we’re going to give people what they want. You already know what you could expect. You’re not going to be disappointed. I can guarantee that.
Earl Hayes: I don’t know. It depends what we come up with now and what we come up with when I get home.
Raptalk.Net: You’ve been compared to The Notorious B.I.G., especially in the way you tell stories in your raps. That is evident on records like “Block Party.” How do you react to such a comparison?
Earl Hayes: To be honest, I don’t really react to that. Every time I hear that, I just keep on moving. How is that supposed to make me feel? I don’t even know how to feel about that.
Raptalk.Net: Is that because you don’t like being compared to anyone?
Earl Hayes: No, it’s not that I don’t like being compared to anyone, that was one of my biggest influences and favorite artists as far as music goes. To be compared to him before I even drop an album, for people to say that based off a couple mixtapes is phenomenal. I think that might stir up some shit. People are going to say “wait a minute, who is he? What the fuck is going on?” they are going to wanna’ know why I’m being compared to Big [The Notorious B.I.G.]. They might take the time to hear me and like me. What do you think about that comparison to Biggie?
Raptalk.Net: Honestly, I see how people get that, especially on records like “Block Party” where your storytelling is in full effect. The Intro on “The First 48” as well, I see where people are getting it from. I don’t think there are a lot of rappers out right now that are telling stories on records like you are. Do you see where an opinion like that comes from?
Earl Hayes: It’s just more Hayes music. It’s always gonna’ be the same level. As long as I’m behind the mic, you’re always going to hear something you like - I’ll never let you down.
Earl Hayes: Music I’m doing an album with Dr. Dre & Timbaland. That’s the next move. That’s what I’m focused on the most.
Raptalk.Net: There isn’t a bigger or better way to end it than like that, so thanks a whole lot for your time Hayes; I know I took a lot of it so I appreciate it…
Earl Hayes: We had a lot to get straight. You took me way back.
Raptalk.Net: That’s exactly what I had to do. We had a lot to get through so I appreciate your co-operation and your time. Do you have any last words before I let you go?
Earl Hayes: For those who are already anticipating my album, I think for a dude that nobody really ever heard of except for a few people, because I always had a buzz within the industry walls as far as ghost writing and just being a good dude. I think it’s a blessing to have anticipation on what my album is going to be like only a month or two right after you sign, no promotion yet or anything. I like that people are already anticipating the album.
Raptalk.Net: Your buzz was behind the walls and now you’re seeing that come into the public.
Earl Hayes: It’s blowing over to the public and I never had a public buzz. I always had a great buzz throughout the biggest people in the game. Everybody in the industry is very happy for me. They see me finally getting my shot.
In part one of DX's epic convo with the O.G. track-master, Jinx reveals another Jay-Z/Dre track, and nearly signing Souls of Mischief to Ruthless.
If you think nepotism is always a bad thing, you obviously don’t know Dr. Dre’s family history in the music industry. It’s relatively common knowledge that Warren G is Andre Young’s half-brother, but lesser known is that Dre also has a classics creating cousin he helped usher into the game, Sir Jinx.
After the then teenager paid his dues by working on demos for potential Ruthless Records signees, (including a then high school student who would go on to become one of the biggest names in the history of Hip Hop), Jinx branched out on his own and as a grown man music maker crafted tracks for a litany of legendary names including Kool G. Rap, Xzibit, Too Short, Public Enemy, Kurupt, Rage Against The Machine, Sadat X, Yo-Yo, Tone-Loc, Toni Braxton, and as one-fourth of WC And The Maad Circle.
But best known for his early-‘90s contributions to Ice Cube’s first four solo albums, Sir Jinx became a household name in the Rap game as Cube’s right-hand man. Growing up in the same South Central, Los Angeles neighborhood as Cube, the then high schoolers joined forces (along with K-Dee) to form the short-lived mid-‘80s trio, C.I.A. (Cru In Action). Dr. Dre’s befriending of Cube during the C.I.A. days subsequently led to Cube’s inclusion in N.W.A. Once Cube’s well-documented monetary disputes with Ruthless Records reached a boiling point, Jinx decided to step away from his own cousin and bounce from Ruthless with Cube to form The Lench Mob crew. Jinx then worked alongside Cube and Public Enemy’s Bomb Squad beatmakers for Cube’s solo debut, Amerikkka’s Most Wanted, before taking the reigns for 10 tracks on Cube’s controversial classic Death Certificate. But following that astounding album, (which featured Cube’s new Nation Of Islam-driven direction), scant contributions soon followed from Jinx for Cube’s third and fourth solos, The Predator and Lethal Injection, and nearly two decades followed those albums before the onetime musical partners reunited, (sort of), for Cube’s recently-released ninth full-length, I Am The West.
Speaking to HipHopDX last Wednesday, (October 6th), Sir Jinx candidly revealed where his relationship with Cube currently stands, as well as what has come of his newfound working relationship with Dr. Dre, (and if a particular Jinx production featuring Jay-Z will make its way to Detox). And finally, the 20-year vet recalled his dog days at Ruthless Records and how the Hieroglyphics crew nearly became Ruthless’ first Alt-Rap signing.
HipHopDX: So it was 17 years between “Lil’ Ass Gee” on Lethal Injection and “Life In California” on I Am The West. Why did it take so long for you and Cube to reconnect? Sir Jinx: Well…the era had changed. And when [Ice] Cube went to the Lench Mob-type of music, [like] the “Horny [Lil’] Devil” [song on Death Certificate] and stuff like that, I didn’t really wanna do music like that. So, we kinda went our separate ways… It was a lot of things he was getting into that I really wasn’t agreeing with at the time when I was growing as a producer. So, I did other things. I went and [produced for] CeCe Peniston…Gerald Levert and stuff like that, rather than staying locked into that kind of music [Cube was doing at the time]… I assumed that The Lench Mob was gonna be more like the Ruff Ryders, not like the message kinda rhymes. I didn’t think The Lench Mob was gon’ be like that. I thought The Lench Mob was gon’ be like the N.W.A. [stuff]… I didn’t believe that Hip Hop and religion mixed together. So, I [eventually] left that environment.
DX: And so how did y’all reconnect to get that placement on I Am The West?
Sir Jinx: He’s a multi-millionaire, [and] I’m sure you hear [about] the relationships that Jay-Z has with his people and Dr. Dre has with his people and all the people that are really high up in the Rap food chain [have with their people], [so] it’s kinda hard to talk to ‘em like you would talk to any other rapper. So, how we hooked [back] up, it was me just being pursuant at wanting the world to hear more of Ice Cube and Sir Jinx. Because if it wasn’t for that, then he probably wouldn’t care.
DX: Did you consider giving Cube some retro flava and revisit that “No Vaseline” funkiness? Sir Jinx: Well, like I said, when you get with artists that reach that high food chain it’s kinda hard to implement what you want, when they’ll base it on what have you done [to earn that right to advise]. So if you like say, “Hey, Jay-Z, I think you should let your hair grow out.” And he’ll be like, “Who told you that?” …Then it becomes, I don’t want him to come around ‘cause he has ideas that I don’t like.
DX: I was just curious if you know – Hearing that you were gonna be involved in this project I just thought maybe you guys might try to take it back to ’91…
Sir Jinx: He didn’t use any of my influence on his record…whatsoever. I kinda dealt with him through Brother Ron, [Cube’s] guy that he deals with… And Brother Ron wants that [reunion] to happen. He wanted it to happen [for I Am The West]. And actually, me and Brother Ron had our differences back in the day, and who would of thought the person you had your differences with would instantly give your conversation to the person that you used to talk to? So he ended up being the person that talked in between me and Cube. I never talked to Cube, ever.
DX: You don’t wanna go into why you guys don’t speak…?
Sir Jinx: I mean, like I said, when you see how the moguls of today, how they treat everybody, you just gotta get in line. It’s a million people that wanna give him beats. And when I wanna give him a beat maybe my beat might cost a little more… But I don’t know how he makes his music anymore. So I just sit and do what I’m supposed to do as a producer and send him beats - for the love of Hip Hop… And I just wanted to continue that, but I guess the formula that he has around him doesn’t – it’s no room for Sir Jinx… He must have something inside of him that wants to work with Jinx, but it’s just not his faith, body and mind. [Laughs]
DX: Since I asked about you and Cube working together again, it’s mandatory I ask about you and your cousin Dr. Dre working together for the first time, ever. So…how’s that going? [Laughs]
Sir Jinx: Well…I think I already [indirectly] touched on that. [Laughs] Ditto, basically [the same thing as] the Cube environment. These guys are millionaires and they do what they do, and you would have to be a psychic to understand what they go through everyday. That’s why I think inside [of me] I don’t have hate [for them] because I kinda don’t want their position… But, I talked to him, and all the songs that I heard [from Dr. Dre's Detox] was real dope. And the thing that’s funny is, the songs that got leaked were never the songs he was playing [me].
DX: Just out of curiosity…was the stuff you heard the "Ghetto Techno" that we been sort of led to believe the sound is gonna be for the album?
Sir Jinx: Nah… I remember [in] one interview I said it kinda sound like a sinister Kanye West. Some of the songs sounded like that. They don’t sound like Above The Law – [Dre] did Above The Law, and that album, [Livin’ Like Hustlers], was amazing! He also did The Firm’s album, but it don’t sound like that.
DX: I thought after “Under Pressure” that he was going in the sorta Kraftwerk direction?
Sir Jinx: That was none of the stuff that I heard. Technically, if you wanna feel what the Detox record was – the direction I feel it was going in – was that song that was [in] the Dr. Pepper commercial. Now I heard that one a bunch of times…with the rap on it, with Slim Da Mobster on it, with it being produced better, without T.I. on it – I think that’s the [leak, the Dr. Pepper commercial song, that T.I. is on… So I never even heard the “Under Pressure” song. [I would have remembered if I had] because I have a song with [Dr. Dre for Detox] and it involves Jay-Z as well. So when I heard [about a Dr. Dre song featuring Jay-Z] I said, “Oh shit, my song got leaked.” It was not my song. [But], the song that I did with Dre, Jay-Z had something to do with [that one] as well… The song that I got with Dre, it’s amazing. It’s a dope, dope, dope song.
DX: Are you confident [that song is] gonna make it to the finish line [for Detox]?
Sir Jinx: Um…I’m…I mean, it’s just like what Dre want. He wants something that’s original, he wants something that’s brand new, and that’s definitely our relationship in this time and day.
DX: Can you reveal…any more about the sound of the song?
Sir Jinx: I would hate for me to kill myself.
DX: [Laughs]
Sir Jinx: I’ll just say that I’m glad that [my song] had a little bit to do with Jay-Z, but it wasn’t the [“Under Pressure” record]. It wasn’t that song.
DX: …You guys just did this one song together last year and that was it? Have you guys recorded at all together since?
Sir Jinx: Well, Dre has a process [with] the way he does his music. If you submit a song, it’s not like you gonna give him a track and it’s gonna end up that way. He’s gonna turn it into a Dr. Dre track. So that [process] took some time… Through last year, [for] maybe four or five months - he [wound] up getting different people to help out with the songs. Then he [came] to me and [was] like, “Guess who might be on it? …R. Kelly might be on it. Beyonce might…” – all these different people… [So] I dunno [what he does after I submit a track]. He just takes it. And…I don’t even want a copy of it. I don’t even wanna be the leak - somebody steal my computer and instantly gets a full Dr. Dre album. [So] I don’t want it. I just sit and enjoy it from [a] bird’s eye view.
DX: But you guys haven’t been like in [contact] with each other recently doing any more music…?
Sir Jinx: Well actually, we did like four [tracks]. We did a few songs… I can do as much [music] as I can, but it’s also [other producers already] there in line that’s trying to get on the Eminem thing, trying to get on all the projects that Dr. Dre has. And excluding our relationship as cousins, I still have to produce hot tracks. So it’s no favoritism whatsoever when it comes to getting songs placed over there.
DX: …I’m still a little unclear as to why it took 20 years for you and Dr. Dre to make music together?
Sir Jinx: Well, I’m my own Saddam, man… I got a chip on my shoulder too. I’m racing the game [too]. Just like he racing after Quincy Jones, I’m chasing after Dr. Dre. So sometimes when you don’t want that crutch, you won’t go there. I don’t need that… And now when I go over there, you gotta get in line. There’s no personal nothing about it. It’s all business, not personal. So I can’t go over there and assume that I’m gonna throw my favorite tracks [into] an Aftermath [Entertainment] environment – get ‘em sewed up, I can’t slang ‘em to nobody ‘cause then I’m going behind Aftermath back…it’s hard. If you make a track for Aftermath, it’s designated for Aftermath. You can’t go shop that. That becomes very expensive. So to try to deal with the Dr. Dre environment and make a whole bunch of tracks - I can’t go take them tracks and give ‘em to somebody else, ‘cause then what if Dre call me from Detroit like, “Yo, where that track at?” [And] I’m like, “Oh, I gave it to Snippy D that gave me $1,500 for it.” So, you gotta [deal with that], and I been doing my own thing [all these years]. I had really no reason to go to the Dre environment because I was working with Xzibit [before he worked with Dre]. We did [seven tracks together for] the 40 Dayz & 40 Nightz [album]. We did a lot of stuff. I work with artists that need to prepare themselves for Dr. Dre. Everybody that I worked with always ended up working with Dr. Dre. I even worked with Snoop Dogg before Dre did.
DX: Yeah, I was shocked to learn that from reading your Producer’s Corner feature that you did Snoop Dogg’s demo when he was 15, 16-years-old. How did y’all link up?
Sir Jinx: Warren G is Dre’s stepbrother, [and] me and Warren G is the same age. So [when we were teenagers] we were kinda both getting shunned on in the Audio Achievements [Studios] – [during] the [recordings for] Dr. Dre, Michel’le, N.W.A., Eazy-E, J.J. Fad, all that stuff that was going on then. Me and Warren G were kinda like the scrubs. And it was a place that was uncomfortable. It wasn’t even cool to be a [Ruthless Records] entourage [member] then. [Laughs] They would dump [on you] and do tricks [to you] and do all kinda stuff to you if you [didn’t] have no work over there... I got shunned so much [it motivated] me to [bounce from Ruthless with Ice Cube and] do Amerikkka’s Most [Wanted]... That came from the intensity of what pressure you had [on you] to be accepted over there.
DX: Going back to that demo that you did for Snoop when he was still in high school, did you do that with Warren G?
Sir Jinx: Yeah. I lived in South Central, and of course they lived in Long Beach, and they would catch the bus to my house – ditch [school] and come catch the bus and get to my house [at] maybe three [o'clock in the afternoon], and then we would work on my little four-track… [And] me and Warren [would] go back and forth [talking about our problems with Ruthless], because being in the scrub role over there, that’s like the union at a job, [so] me and him complained to only each other. [Laughs] So, [at] that point we kinda had a connection. And he wanted to see it happen. I wanted to see it happen. Obviously, Snoop Dogg was supposed to happen. And then it was funny, ‘cause back then [Snoop] was shorter than all of us. So it was like a summer or two [and] like he went to jail, [or] he went to camp or some shit, and this nigga come out [and] he’s six [feet] and some change. He was [called] Snoop because of being short. The name Snoop in the gangster world usually comes from short dogs. [Snoopy from Peanuts] is not a tall dog. [Laughs] Now he like Marmaduke.
DX: Did you and Warren try to take Snoop’s demo at that point, like in the late ‘80s, to Dre?
Sir Jinx: Nah, it wasn’t even that [kind of thing]. It was just striking matches, just gettin’ it in, thinking that, “Okay, we can do a good song” – So maybe it was to be presented to Ruthless. Maybe it was, because back then I was even doing demos with Tajai and Adam [A-Plus]. I was trying to get them signed over at Ruthless. And [they’re now known as part of] Souls Of Mischief. They were my group [originally].
DX: Oh wow, you were fuckin’ with them before Del [The Funky Homosapien]?
Sir Jinx: Actually, Del [The Funky Homosapien] and them [came] together. They came as a crew. And Del’s [emcee] name was [his initials], T.D.K., back then… And they [group] name was Rhythm. And they used to come out [to Los Angeles]. Dre used to give me money for them to catch the train from Oakland out here to do demos to get signed to Ruthless. That’s how hot Del was… [But] nobody [else at Ruthless] would fuck with that shit. I was trying my hardest to make ‘em fuck with that shit.
Stay tuned to HipHopDX for the even more revealing conclusion to our conversation with Sir Jinx, in which he takes a further stroll down memory lane and shares more of his Hip Hop stories, including the tale of 2Pac, Kool G. Rap and Jinx driving around during the 1992 L.A. Riots (while ‘Pac busted his gun in between stops to sign autographs for fans). Jinx also explains why you’ve never had a friend like “Uncle Suge,” reveals the historic film project The D.O.C. is currently working on, and much, much more.
Part 2;
In part two of DX's epic convo with the OG track-master, Jinx details his experience rioting with 'Pac, his friendship with Suge, and The D.O.C.'s documentary.
In part one of Sir Jinx’s revealing conversation with HipHopDX the veteran beatmaker revealed that his 17-year delayed reunion with Ice Cube did not come to fruition as it was originally intended for I Am The West, (explaining why the once musical partners no longer speak to one another). Dr. Dre’s cousin also revealed his recent work with the good doctor for Detox, (work that included the assistance of Jay-Z). Additionally, the onetime Ruthless Records “scrub” further revealed his work in the late ‘80s with a then-teenage Snoop Dogg, as well as the work he put in a little over 20 years ago attempting to get the Hieroglyphics crew signed to Ruthless.
Now, in the conclusion to DX’s discussion with Sir Jinx, the man born Anthony Wheaton shares one more story from his historic past, this time recalling his hilarious experience rioting with 2Pac in Los Angeles during the 1992 rebellion. Jinx also reveals if he can ever release the long lost original recordings he made with fellow rioter Kool G. Rap. The producer/emcee additionally explains why “Suge is my friend,” why he is rechristening himself “Tony Villa,” and finally, what his involvement is in the upcoming documentary on the tragically cut-short career of The D.O.C.
HipHopDX: I want to go back to your Producer’s Corner feature for one more bit of information, something you said that grabbed my eye. You’ve got to be the only person in this industry who’s ever been quoted as saying, “Suge is my man…” [Laughs]
Sir Jinx: I don’t know how you grew up…but everybody got either a uncle in they family they don’t like, or a big cousin, or a big brother – you don’t like ‘em until the shit go bad. At all the picnics they fucking up…cursing people out, but soon as that dude run into your car in the supermarket and five dudes jump out, you not calling Auntie Shay Shay, you calling Suge [Knight].
DX: [Laughs] Uncle Suge.
Sir Jinx: Uncle Suge. And if you don’t want it done right, don’t call Suge. So, that’s the cold thing when people say that Suge whatever, whatever - I mean, he did what he did. If everybody was in his shoes, then they could say what kind of person he is. Everybody say [Suge had something to do with] the situation with [2Pac] and all that, but nobody don’t know. I know Suge, and [the conspiracy theory that Suge Knight had 2Pac killed] don’t add up to me like that. And I ain’t in it – don’t put [me in it] – but I see the nigga eye-to-eye and it’s hard [to see him in that way]… I been knowing Suge since he was a limousine driver. And he never swung [at] or hit me or jumped me. [But] then, I never put myself in that position anyway. ‘Cause I always had my other shit going [on]. And he was always happy for me because I didn’t have to follow behind [Dr.] Dre… He was like, “You know I always respected you, man. You went and did your own thing, man. Most of these niggas sideline Dre, kiss Dre ass…” And I’d be like, “Yeah, but he’s still my cousin.” I feel like he can be the king and I can be the prince. I don’t want his world. I don’t want them pressures that he has to deal with…
DX: One more thing I learned from your Producer’s Corner feature is that you produced Kool G. Rap & DJ Polo’s Live and Let Die in its entirety before it was remixed by the Trackmasters and others [due to sample clearance issues]. So would you ever consider reaching out to G. Rap to release those originals?
Sir Jinx: Um…they still got sample infringements in [the tracks]. Because see…we finished that album, [but] they [didn’t release it until] a year later [in 1992]. The Trackmasters…when they went back in and took the samples out, [after] I gave them the masters…I don’t know. They released a whole different [album] than I gave Cold Chillin’ [Records]… I gave Cold Chillin’ something else, and they went back in and remixed a lot of them songs. [But] with [Kool] G. Rap, that’s my nig right there. I would love to work with G. Rap [again], but he gotta wanna do it.
DX: Speaking of G. Rap, when I spoke with him back in ’08 for his DX feature he recounted for me the story of you, he and Tupac “…riding around, poppin’ they burner off out the window” during the ’92 L.A. riots. [Laughs] Just to keep it a hunnid though, was ‘Pac really riding around, shooting out the car window?
Sir Jinx: Put it like this, we saw a dude in a security guard outfit and ‘Pac pointed the gun at him and laughed. That’s the intensity of the street [on] that day. It was a dude standing at the bus [stop] – ‘Cause we driving down Wilshire [Boulevard], I’m driving my car [and] he letting it loose through the sunroof: boom, boom. I mean, it’s shells in my car. I actually took ‘Pac to my neighborhood over there off of Western [Avenue] & 106th [Street] and that’s where he got more bullets from – ‘cause he emptied his gun in my car. [Laughs] And for some reason it wasn’t wrong. [Laughs] …That was the day I was supposed to work with 2Pac. That was the only day, because after that he got into some shit and then we never went back into the studio… The day before [the Rodney King trial verdict came down] he was working with some other guys in the same studio. [And] so the next day he was off from them, and I was off from working on G. Rap’s shit. [But] that’s why G. Rap was there [in the studio too]. You know how you work with artists [and they’ll] be like, “Let me take a day off [from recording] to write.” So he took a day off, and that day on [for me in the studio] was supposed to be [me working] with 2Pac, but as soon as we [started] going through the beats my homeboys come through the door with like five hats on they head like the Mad Hatter, with arms full of liquor, talking about “L.A. is on fire.” And I’m like, “What are you talking about?” I don’t know nothing. We in the studio…[but] I don’t watch T.V. in the studio. So I turned the T.V. on, [and] L.A.’s on fire. We said, “Okay, we’re gonna come back tomorrow.” [Laughs] So we went down to L.A. to see what the fuck was going on. And then while we was going down there, while we riding down Wilshire, boom, boom, boom, boom, he dumping out the sunroof. So then we go all the way down, we hit L.A., we hit Crenshaw, we in the middle of Crenshaw. I parked my car in the middle of the street, because everybody has just parked sideways like the world coming to an end. We go into Tempo Records – Tempo Records is on fire! In the back, we get in, [and] Tupac [starts] signing autographs…signing his records. I’m like, “C’mon! Let’s go! Let’s go!” …[Then] it’s like…some muthafuckin’ A-Team shit, we jump back in the car, [and then] we go to the bottoms. We go some place that I ain’t never been – ‘cause I grew up on like the Crip side, so I ain’t have no reason to be over there. [Laughs] And they would spot me out by just being from where I lived. So we go over there, the swap meet is up to your shin in water because the sprinkler system came on, because some part of the building is on fire. So we slushing through the water, getting stuff, doing stuff – this nigga [‘Pac is] outside taking pictures. [So finally] we jump in the car and then that was our day of [rioting]. That was my nigga. ‘Pac was my friend…just like Suge is my friend. [Laughs] I know some of the craftiest people on the planet, but…it’s better to have ‘em on your team than against you… [Some people don’t understand] what it takes to do business with people like Suge. And some people didn’t like 2Pac [either]. But at the end of the day, when something go wrong, who you gon’ call?
DX: I appreciate this walk down memory lane, it’s been enjoyable, [Laughs], but I need to go ahead and wrap things up. But before I let you go, I wanna get a rundown of any new projects you got in the works?
Sir Jinx: Well right now I got a couple of things that’s coming out. I done changed my [performing] name… So I got some music that I got coming out [under that name]. And the name is Tony Villa. And that’s just like my alter-ego… I got a bunch of cats that I work with, and now I’m just gon’ come out with some good music [featuring them]. Now you got the Internet, [so] I don’t have to slave myself to a record company… So a lot of the music that I’m working on with the Tony Villa project is just basically using the [new technology of] the time. Like, I would use the [technology of the] time in ’89 [and] use the SP1200 or…the Oberheim to make my world come alive. Now I got Reason…Pro Tools. So it’s just a breath of fresh air. It’s just like my album [back in the mid-‘90s], Chastisement, when I put that record out [with features from] Gerald Levert and Isaac Hayes, I didn’t make music to compete with people. I make music to listen to [and enjoy]. So I got the new project, the Tony Villa project… [The] album [is] called RSVP. That’s gonna be coming out [soon]. It got a lot of cats on it. It got Kurupt on it, Jayo Felony, it got Ya Boy on it, it got Medusa on it, it got…King Tee is on it, Domino’s on it… I’m trying to take that little hand that I got, that [Dr.] Dre gave me, and put together some good hot shit with the artists that might not get no deal. But you still wanna hear Rodney O, you still wanna hear what’s going on with Paperboy, you still wanna hear what’s going on with these other emcees – Candyman – that’s still hot. These dudes is lyricists but maybe the time has changed. But if they get up to date with what’s going on, then they gon’ be on some records.
DX: [And] you’re gonna be rappin’ on this…?
Sir Jinx: Yes, [as] a performer, Tony Villa. And I been holding it back so long because the west coast will make you feel stagnated [creatively], until you go out to Atlanta, until you got out to Detroit, until you go out to places and see what [the] west coast did for the [whole] United States. Then that’s when I [started] figuring out, “Okay, well then there is another world for Sir Jinx.” …Just reinventing yourself is another idea in Hip Hop that you get to do. Now if you wanna ride that [old west] wave of “What’s happenin’ homie?” then that’s good [for you], but I like to deal with the new shit… When the technology caught up [to where it is now], then I was able to be able to produce myself as well as do music closer to the concept that I believe… The song that I gave to [Ice] Cube, [“Life In California”], was a song that was on my album [originally]. I just took my vocals off and gave him the instrumental… So I shot him the [beat] with the hook, and with Jayo Felony [already] on it. And that’s how he got the song. [But] what he did to it after that, that was on him. So that’s why I [explained that] I never talked to him – it was just through the engineer or through Brother Ron.
DX: We all have our personal relationships that aren’t where we want ‘em to be, [but] it’s just kinda disappointing to hear that you guys aren’t like [back] in one room [working] together.
Sir Jinx: I don’t even know how to put it. I guess with…the new people that he have [working with him], he might get a better vibe, a more comfortable vibe. But we actually scheduled time for us to be in one room together, and he didn’t make it. But I don’t want it to [sound] bad. It’s just how life goes… You know [the Atlanta Falcons] got rid of Mike Vick, [but] I’m sure they feel it now.
[Conversation goes off the record before resuming] That’s with me and [The] D.O.C. I been dealing with D.O.C., and D.O.C.’s recreating that day – that day when he came to California [from Texas].
DX: He’s recreating – Like, he’s making a movie or something?
Sir Jinx: He’s making a documentary on him. So he’s getting all the cats together [that were around him in the late ‘80s]. And I’m the only person – See let me tell you something, if Cube never left [Ruthless Records], I probably woulda been D.O.C.’s deejay. Because if you look at the old, funny N.W.A. tapes with them making fun of Cube, I’m actually the deejay. We all in it. It wasn’t meant to be a disrespect. It was [just] that everybody had a video camera and they was making tapes about each other.
The cover of N.W.A. and the Posse, does not look like something released by the most important rap group of all time.
Actually, just looking at the photo, who would believe that some of the guys in this alleyway would change the course of popular music forever less than a year after the flashbulb popped? Who would guess these men were capable of creating their own genre of music, putting their fingerprints on nearly every Hip Hop song written in the past 20 years? Who would imagine that four guys in this picture would go on to record, produce, or market records that have sold hundreds of millions of copies?
Does anyone even know who the hell all these guys are?
Not only does the cover of N.W.A's first album not look anything like the standard image of "The World's Most Dangerous Group," it's such an odd mix of styles it's hard to believe the guys posing together are any sort of group at all. Truly, the cover of N.W.A. and the Posse is a puzzle.
This picture is also, however, a perfect snapshot of one of the most important scenes in the history of popular music. Stare for a moment and you can see a myth about to be born. That myth, Gangster Rap, enabled four guys in this picture -- Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and Eazy E -- to titillate and terrify America as Compton-based rap group Niggaz With Attitude.
The mythical power of N.W.A certainly doesn't come from the clock necklaces, the running pants or the Jehri curls. Look to the left, at the bottles of malt liquor, the plain jeans, and the black ballcaps. Those props (and that's the right word, as we'll see later) hint at what's going on here, which is the gestation of gangster rap. It's a genre that went on to become the most important, influential, and successful innovation in urban music in at least a quarter century.
This photo is a mid-Genesis snapshot.
From a music critic's perspective, N.W.A. and the Posse is nothing special. Certainly not compared to Straight Outta Compton, the culture-changing epic released less than a year later. In fact, Compton has proved so important that it has since supplanted Posse as the group's "first record" in most histories of the group. That's not an altogether-unfair version of things.
Actually, N.W.A. and the Posse, which came out in 1987 and featured songs by N.W.A. and some other groups Dr. Dre did production work for, is just what the name suggests: N.W.A. with a gang of friends and associates destined for bit parts in a grander drama.
As Jerry Heller, the band's famously demonized manager, says in his memoir, it was "the product of a loose amalgamation of DJs, musicians, and MCs."
"N.W.A. and the Posse is unquestionably raw production, not quite ready for prime time," he wrote. "It has elements of greatness, rap songs that later became monsters: 'Boyz-N-the-Hood,'
'Dopeman,'
'8 Ball.'
Listen to the version of 'Boyz' on the Posse album and then compare it with Dre's remix a year later that appears on Eazy-Duz-It, Eric's first solo album. The difference is clear. Posse was a trial run, a rehearsal."
So, if this is a rehearsal, who are all those extras?
Anyone who knows anything about rap can pick out at least two guys in this photo: Dr. Dre and Ice Cube. If you're into the old school, you can probably identify four of the dozen, adding MC Ren and Eazy-E. A true N.W.A. fan could pick out Arabian Prince, who is standing next to Cube.
Pretty much no one not in the photo -- not even the most hardcore Hip Hop heads -- can ID the rest of the posse pictured, other than maybe giving a 20-year-old street name. Until now, that is.
It took a lot of work, but we've tracked down all 12 guys from the Posse record cover. Over the next 12 days we'll be introducing you to all of them, one at a time.
Some of these guys are on Hollywood's A-list, others drive trucks, but they were all once part of the same posse. Each and every one of them played a small but significant role in the history of Hip Hop, as you can read below.
In the Photo: Kid Disaster is just another guy not drinking any of the booze.
"It was funny because everybody brought 40s and no one really drunk 40s back then. We had to make it look like we drank some so we just opened them up and poured a little bit out," he tells me. "We were all virgins, man. We were all virgins that just happened to be in the music business and doing something. We were young, man, we were still in high school. We were just having fun, we never did think it was going to do what it did, and when it did it was like 'wow.'"
He also worked for Cube's Street Knowledge Productions and released a solo album titled, Ass, Gas,or Cash No One Rides For Free, in 1994. He became estranged from Cube in 1997 for reasons he doesn't know.
Now: K-Dee lives in L.A., and is in the trucking business. He's also still doing some radio work and performing live, including a recent concert with Michel'le, who is perhaps the ultimate Hip Hop temptress, Dr. Dre's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his son Marcel. Oddly, Michel'le also has a daughter by Death Row Records founder Suge Knight.
People Don't Know: How hard it is to give up a rap career after getting a taste of success.
"I've tried to give it up a couple times. If it's in your heart, in your blood, it's hard to give it up," he says. "When I walk the streets and people come up to me and are like 'Yo, K-Dee, What happened man? Your album was one of the smoothest albums and we liked that,' 'If my friend knew I was talking to you he'd trip out' and stuff like that and you're like, 'Man, I gotta get back out there!' And you also believe you still have it."
People Don't Know: How low the expectations for N.W.A were in the beginning.
"At the time, what I gathered from it was nobody knew it would be that big. It was just like, we're going to get together and do something. Dre and them were breaking off from World Class Wreckin' Cru and they were just like, 'Let's start a group.' Nobody knew it was going to blow up he way it blew up. And it took off."
People Don't Know: What separated the "N.W.A" members who went on to become famous from "The Posse."
Even at the beginning, the differences between the stars and the supporting cast were obvious, says K-Dee.
"It was for the best anyway, they were the top ones," he says. "Dre was the top producer and Cube was the top writer, so it wasn't a puzzle."
Candyman part 2
This is an installment in The Posse Project, a 12-part series in which www.PHXmusic.com catches up with all 12 guys pictured on the cover of N.W.A's first album, N.W.A. and the Posse. Today, we continue with Candyman, who ironically went on to become a one hit wonder with the single "Knockin' Boots."
Before the Photo: If anyone caught a break because of his place on the Posse record cover, it's Candyman. A classmate of Ice Cube during his time at Washington Preparatory he was unaffiliated with the group at the time. DJ Scratch and Sir Jinx report Candell Manson was splitting time between their couches when he caught a ride to the photo shoot, and somehow landed a prime spot in the front row.
Though Candyman ignored requests to be interviewed for The Posse Project, he has talked extensively about the N.W.A. and the Posse cover before, insinuating that there was already a conspiracy behind the group when the photo was taken, contradicting others, who say the success the group's classic lineup had came as a surprise.
"It was kind of top secret, the whole NWA project, they kept it under wraps real well," he told raptalk.net. "They knew that they were on to something big. They knew that they had a concept that we didn't know anything about."
If that's true, why did they put Candyman right up front? We're left to wonder. Later in that interview Candyman claimed he wrote his big single "Knockin' Boots" around that time but at least one actual N.W.A member contradicts that, saying Candyman had no involvement in the music business until he landed on the cover of Posse.
In the Photo: Candyman has said the cover represents the group at it's realest, before the development of the styles commonly associated with gangster rap.
That's why you see MC Ren as the only member of the group's classic lineup who's wearing the black ballcap and white t-shirt while Ice Cube has a clock around his neck, he says.
"That was a 'real' cover. That was an honest cover. That was without no perpetrating. You saw how Cube looked. You saw how Dre looked.
Everybody was being who they really were," he said in the raptalk.net interview. "That cover means a lot to me. I was right in the middle. There were times in the Swapmeets that people thought that 'I' was Eazy E because I was right there in the middle of the picture."
Actually, Candyman later used the confusion about who was who on the Posse cover to his advantage, says Arabian Prince.
"Candyman got lucky," Arabian Prince tells me. "At the time, honestly, we used to actually get mad at Candyman because we'd be out on tour and we'd come back in town and sometimes he'd be representing N.W.A. and we were like 'Eh, eh, eh, you're not actually in the group. You're on the cover but... "
After the Photo: Candyman's story is possibly the ultimate irony of the N.W.A. and the Posse cover. Three years after the photo was taken, around the time N.W.A was releasing its hard-hitting 100 Miles and Runnin' EP, Candell had a top ten hit with "Knockin' Boots," a fun little bit of early 90s pop-rap.
The album was more Zeppelin than blimp, however, failing both commercially and critically. The longest review available simply reads: "The third Candyman CD, his first for I.R.S., lacked either the pop charm of his debut or the leering insolence of the followup."
"Knockin Boots Pt. 2" wasn't Candyman's last variation on the boot meme. Five years later Candell got back to his pop-rap roots with an album called Knockin' Boots 2001: A Sex Odyssey. Candyman's fourth album, "Phuck Whatcha Goin' Thru," phlopped.
Things got worse a year later when Candy dropped Platinum Hits. Despite what the name implies, it wasn't a greatest hits album -- Candyman only had a singular hit -- but another try at gangsta rap. Songs like "Dear Mama" and "Thug Life" weren't a success, perhaps sparing him a lawsuit from the estate of Tupac Shakur.
Now: Candyman lives in Vegas and books parties. Considering the heated public feuds which divided loyalties between the superstars on the Posse cover -- Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Eazy E -- it's surprising that Candyman is probably the least popular person in this photo, dissed by several others pictured when he was mentioned.
"Candyman always kinda thought his shit didn't stink," said one of the other guys from the cover. "He's still that way."
People Don't Know: That Candyman plays both sides of the gangsta card, alternating between 'pop-rapper' and 'streetwise thug' every couple albums. He's currently doing the pop thing and criticizing the others for not being real enough. He also claims to be one of two people actually drinking on the N.W.A. and the Posse cover.
People Don't Know: That Notorious B.I.G was inspired by Candyman -- or so Candyman claims.
"I came out before Pac and Biggie. Biggie gave me props! I met Biggie! Biggie came right up to me and gave me props when him and Craig Mack was out. I remember that like yesterday. When Biggie did that song 'One More Chance' that was a Candyman type of song," Candyman said in the extensive raptalk.net interview. "People was watching the blue-print. You can put that in writing!"
In the Photo: Sir Jinx is in the top right, wearing all black.
"All that writing on the picture? I did all that," Jinx tells me. "Eric went and bought a bunch of neon spray cans. He knew I did graffiti, so I did as much as I could... If you look at the picture, and you look at me, my name is right next to me, you see 'J-I-N.' Everybody then kinda grabbed a spray can and the neon cans and wrote on the wall behind us."
People Don't Know: N.W.A. was not originally supposed to be a 'rap group.'
At the time N.W.A. and the Posse was planned for release the group wasn't intended to be a full-time thing. Actually, N.W.A. was supposed to use the model later perfected by Wu-Tang Clan, where each member was either a solo artist or part of another group, but after the first few songs under the N.W.A. title became hits, that plan was scrapped.
"It's all about the money, it's all about what people want to buy. I never thought bad about my cousin, I never thought bad about anybody. Cube kind of went light him. We had to change it a few times 'cuz 'No Vaseline' was really made for [Ice Cube's solo debut] AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted but we didn't put it out there, then we didn't put it out on [Ice Cube's second record] Kill At Will. But then when they came out with 'Here's what they think about you' thing and we put it out. That song was being perfected for two years."
"There was no answer to 'No Vaseline' that's the difference, to be honest with you. The best diss record is when nobody responds. When you have something like when Nas came out with 'Ether' and Jay couldn't come back after that, I think he did 'Mr. Ugly' or something like that but it didn't work. He did it to him. 'No Vaseline' was like that."
People Don't Know: N.W.A. was pretty much straight-edge in the early days.
"There wasn't anybody on drugs, we didn't drink, we didn't do weed, we didn't do coke, we didn't do nothing. Nothing! When we went on the road they used to chance Eazy's eight ball to apple juice. He'd sit there and down it on stage and the crowd would go berzerk, but Eazy didn't even drink. None of us drank."
The name "Eazy E" came out of necessity when Eric accidentally started rapping, Jinx says.
"What it was, was Cube had written the song for the guys from H.B.O., a group called Home Boys Only. They were trying to be like N.W.A. but one of the guys, he didn't want to do the rap. Eric rode around with the tape for a couple days in his Jeep until he started saying it, and Dre was like 'You need to go in there and say that on the mic' and then it was like a big thing. And when he went in to do it on the mic he didn't even have a rap name. '8 Ball Rollin' and 'Boyz-N-The-Hood' don't have Eazy E in it. He just didn't have a name, he wasn't a rapper, he was the CEO."
"Bum Rush The Show was not out when we started wearing them, so who took it from who? They wasn't wearing no clocks or no stop watches or nothing. We got the clocks because they has ropes on them and you could hang them in the shower. The rope on them gave it that look, not the clock. It was waterproof so you could hang it in the shower and we liked the look of the rope."
Arabian Prince part 4
This is an installment in The Posse Project, a 12-part series in which www.PHXmusic.com catches up with all 12 guys pictured on the cover of N.W.A's first album, N.W.A. and the Posse. Today, we start things off with Arabian Prince, a producer who was an original member of N.W.A.
In the Photo: Arabian Prince is in the middle row, second from the right. He's making no pretense to wear "gangster" clothing, instead favoring an unbuttoned shirt, tight jeans, and lots of jewelry. He's also got a Jerhi Curl and mustache, a look that always fit his style better than baggy jeans and a Raiders hat.
"I've always been a club cat," Prince tells me. "I want to make people hype, I want to make people party. And when we did the N.W.A thing, I was cool with it because I grew up in the hood as well, but I've never been gangster. My uncles was gangster, my cousins was gangster, and I'm like, 'I'm not really gangster.'"
After the Photo: Arabian was an actual member of N.W.A. He's pictured on the back of the record with Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy E, the core of the group at the time. He left the group while Straight Outta Compton was being recorded, releasing a solo record called Brother Arab in 1989.
Like the others who later left the group -- including Cube and Dre -- Arabian cites financial improprieties as the main motivator behind his departure.
"I'm a businessman first and foremost, and I was a solo artist before, so I knew how much money we were making," he says. "And I'm like, 'Well, we just sold a million records,' I knew we were supposed to get X amount of money we weren't getting. And you know what, we've gotta split the money anyway, and we're still not getting paid what we're supposed to get paid. I'm going to go back and do my own thing, and I'll make more money than all ya'll, myself."
"Everywhere we went, we had problems with the police, we had problems with other gang members. And it was like, 'It's cool, I'm cool with it, but let me get paid for it.' If I'm not going to get paid, and I'm out here just for the fame, I ain't with it. I need to get paid."
What He's Doing Now: Professor X is Prince's old/new identity. The Professor X stuff, which started before his time in N.W.A, has an electro-funk sound. Arabian Prince is also working on a cartoon/music project called Funky Lil Anime.
"It's gonna be pretty hot, man. It's kinda like an animated Black Eyed Peas kinda thing, where it's gonna be Hip Hop and dance with just animated characters."
People Don't Know: A lot of guys in the picture weren't actually making music at the time they posed on the cover.
"A lot of them, they were just homies from the neighborhood and we were like, 'Hey, we taking a photo. Y'all wanna go?' And they were like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah,'" he says. "It was just a random photo. None of the cats, at that time, were doing anything. And any of those guys who moved on to do music after that . . . It was probably a direct thing from being on that album cover."
In fact, these dudes were put together so randomly that Arabian can't even identify the guy standing on his right.
"The guy next to me, I don't even know."
People Don't Know: "Panic Zone" was N.W.A's first single only because the group was scared to go gangster right off the bat.
"'Panic Zone' was the first single because me and Dre came from the electro background and we knew that there was no way in hell that we were going to get any of that gangsta stuff played on the radio, and we wanted to make sure we got it to the DJs and got some radio play just so people would know we were there. And so, we were like, 'Hey, let's do some dance records' because we knew we could get this played because that's what people knew us from before," he says. "So we did 'Panic Zone' and that's what got us on KDAY [AM 1580, Los Angeles]. And, after that, once the gangster stuff blew up, KDAY was like, 'Eh, well I guess we gotta play it if you've got the clean versions.' So we had to go back and do clean versions, and that's how it got on the radio."
People Don't Know: N.W.A. and the Posse was pretty much a scam by the group's first record company, Macola.
"The first record we ever did was called N.W.A. -- it wasn't called N.W.A and the Posse, it was just called N.W.A. -- and it was an EP with four or five songs on it. Then we left Macola Records to go to Priority Records. Macola, they were thieves at the time; they ripped everybody off. So when we left, they went back and took our EP and put a bunch of other crap on there -- that wasn't even us -- and called it N.W.A. and the Posse and turned it into an album."
"Eazy was the only one in the hood who was really a real gangster -- doing the drug thing, doing everything else. All the rest of us were just DJs. We were producers, we had done a lot of records, and that's how the whole thing came together. Cube wasn't actually doing anything. He was in school [in Phoenix] until we brought him back. Ren was just Eazy's boy; he lived down the street from him. And, I mean, Ren wasn't really banging, but he was probably the next closest thing to Eric (Eazy). If you had to go in order it would be Eric, Ren, then probably me and Dre because he grew up in Compton. So did I. It wasn't like we were pushovers, but we weren't no gangsters. Then I would go probably Ice Cube, then Yella. Yella was about as far from gangster as you could possibly get. He was more close to freakin' Morris Day and the Time."
People Don't Know: Being famous is over-rated.
Arabian Prince is, was, and always will be a businessman. Unlike a lot of guys involved in the loose early days of the group -- when everyone contributed what they could in the studio (often without getting a writing credit) -- he filed lawsuits to collect his share of the group's royalties.
"I made so much money back then 'cuz I still got all my royalties off of everything. I had to sue them and do some other stuff, but I got it," he says. "I never was the cat that wanted the fame -- I've been making records since I was in school -- so I always wanted to behind the scenes. And so when I had the opportunity to kinda duck back behind the scenes, that's what I did."
Prince says he has plenty of money as a result but also doesn't fear for his safety the way so many guys from the gangster rap scene do.
"I have no enemies. I can go anywhere, walk down the street, play golf. I can go to the mall, I can go to these events with these cats. I DJ all around the world. I just have fun, man. I think that's the life, man. You've got to be able to enjoy your money and your success and not [have] TMZ is all up in your face every time you get out of your car. Or every time you go to the club, you've got to have a bodyguard because people are trying to get after you."
DJ Scratch part 5
This is an installment in The Posse Project, a 12-part series in which www.PHXmusic.com catches up with all 12 guys pictured on the cover of N.W.A's first album, N.W.A. and the Posse. Today, we continue with DJ Scratch, a DJ who may have gone on to become an actual member of N.W.A if he had not passed up an opportunity to work with Eazy E out of loyalty to his friend Candyman.
Before the Photo: Scratch was part of a tight-knit clique that includes Sir Jinx, whom he was friends with, as well as Candyman (bottom right in the Posse photo) and Tupac's future producer, the late Johnny "J."
In the Photo: Scratch didn't want to have his photo taken because he hadn't had his hair done properly but was persuaded to jump into the shot by Eazy E, who said Scratch looked like part of the Ruthless Records gang.
"The picture was going to be taken later in the day, and we all had to get Jehri curls done and all that. Dre called early and said, 'We're gonna take the picture,' so I wasn't even going to get in the picture at all. I jumped in the car and I took Jinx and Candyman down there,"Scratch tells me. "We went up there, and I wasn't in the picture. I actually had another camera, and I was just snapping them. And Eazy was like, 'Come on, get in the picture. You look Ruthless. Get in the picture.'"
"I look like a fool. I've got on two different types of pants and crazy hair and glasses and all that, but Eazy kept being like, 'You look Ruthless. Come get in it, come get in it.' So I jumped in."
After the Photo: Scratch says Eazy E once asked him to be his DJ, but he refused, out of loyalty to Candyman. Candyman had a huge hit with "Knockin' Boots," which went to No. 1 on the Hot Rap Singles and No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, but he proved to be a one-hit wonder.
"Eazy wanted me to be his DJ, but I didn't want to leave Candyman, because I was his DJ and he was my MC. Then Candyman's thing blew up too. But then Candyman's stuff fell off, and Eazy and Ren's just kept going up," Scratch says.
He has no regrets though: "Everything happens for a reason."
Now: Scratch lives in Barstow, California, which is between L.A. and Vegas. Scratch says it's a place where he has a house that's "nice and cheap and big." He's a family man with children and grandchildren.
Scratch has recorded some new music, which you can hear on his MySpace page. He also work for a company that does merch for other musicians.
^King Scratch now designs products for other rappers. This is a sample he did for himself.^
"Tru West Entertainment: We do everything. We do the video editing, posters, the MySpace page, web pages, everything. It's a one-stop shop. Once you come in, you don't need to go nowhere to get your CD covers designed. You don't have to go nowhere to get your T-shirts done. You can just bring all your money right here."
Another DJ Scratch, an associate of the late Jam-Master Jay became prominent as a member of Long Island Hip Hop group EPMD right around the same time Scratch was starting to come to the forefront with Candyman and N.W.A.
"[DJ Scratches] were coming out the woodwork. So I was like, okay, I'll change. But I was the original Scratch. I was doing it first. I've been DJ Scratch since I was 14. I used to do parties and my system would piss out on me, so people would say, 'He DJ's all right, but he scratches better than anything else.' So that's where I got the name from,"
"Somebody killed Johnny. He didn't kill himself, I know that," Scratch says. "At his funeral people were saying all sorts of false things, like he was platinum at the age of 16. At 16, he was working at McDonald's. We didn't hit platinum until the Candyman thing, when we were, like, 21."
MC Ren part 6
This is an installment in The Posse Project, a 12-part series in which www.PHXmusic.com catches up with all 12 guys pictured on the cover of N.W.A's first album, N.W.A. and the Posse. Today, we continue with MC Ren, a rapper/writer who joined N.W.A just before the group's meteoric rise and stayed loyal to his childhood friend Eazy E until Eazy's death.
Before the Photo: Though he's lined up right next to Eazy, Cube, Dre, and Arabian Prince -- rounding out the so-called classic lineup of N.W.A -- Ren was not actually a member of the the group when this record cover was shot, he says. Rather, he was just another solo rapper signed to Eric "Eazy E" Wright's record label.
"I was with Ruthless, signed right out of high school as a solo artist, so I was with Eric every day," Ren tells me. "I was going to do a song for Eric, but I wasn't in the group at that time. He just told me to come up there and get in the picture with him because everybody was having their homies hooked up."
In the Photo: MC Ren, like his friend MC Chip (standing to his left), is wearing the traditional N.W.A uniform, which is a black baseball hat, T-shirt, and jeans.
"If you look at the picture, it don't even look how N.W.A. look, you know what I mean?" Ren says. "If you look on that album cover, you'll see that me and my homie Chip got on the Raiders hats. That was my thing -- the Raiders hats and all that. That was before I even got in the group."
After the Photo: MC Ren has released six solo records, the most recent coming out in 2009. His first solo record, Kizz My Black Azz, went platinum and peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Top 200. He's also done verses on solo records released by both Dr. Dre and Ice Cube.
Now: In addition to having a new EP in the works, Ren is rumored to be part of the N.W.A. movie project that Cube and Dre are working on.
People Don't Know: Eazy E was a laid-back practical joker, not a thug.
"Eric was more like a hustler in the streets. He wasn't really no gang banger, you know what I'm saying? People always trip out when I say that because they think he just a straight gang banger. But he wasn't like that at all," Ren says. "He was funny -- always trying to pull practical jokes and shit. A funny dude. A cool dude, you know what I'm saying? He handled business, but after he handled business -- or even while he handled business -- he always had a joke."
"A lot of people have other thoughts about him, how they think he was, from the records and all that shit. A lot of people think he would just straight-up shoot somebody. You know, trippin', mean, gangstered out and all that shit. But, you know, he was the total opposite. He was just like one of the coolest motherfuckers you'd want to meet. Just cool."
People Don't Know: MC Ren got into N.W.A. only because Ice Cube briefly left the group to go to college in Phoenix, and because Eazy couldn't rap to fast beats.
"Ice Cube had wrote 'Boyz-N-The-Hood' and all that shit, and he went out to Phoenix. And when he went out to Phoenix, they wanted me to write songs for E, so I wrote 'Eazy Does It,' 'Radio,' and 'Ruthless Villan.' I don't know if you remember that song. It was called 'Ruthless Villan' and it was on Eazy's shit. He couldn't rap it because it was too fast. When he tried to go in there and do it, that shit was too fast. So Dre was like, 'You just go in there and do that shit,' and Eazy was like, 'Yeah, you do it, man,' because it was upbeat and he was used to rapping slow. And so when I did that and it was on his record, everbody was just like, 'Well, you might as well be in the group.' And from there, I was in the group."
People Don't Know: Eazy's feelings were really hurt by Dr. Dre's defection to the upstart Death Row records, which was begun by Suge Knight, a bodyguard Eazy had hired for Ruthless.
"[Eric] was hurt by all that shit. And he was hurt because him and Dre started out back in the day, back in Compton. Before all the record company shit, they were a DJ crew, High-Powered Productions, doing house parties and shit like that. Dre was the tightest producer ever, putting out hits on him, and he was hurting like a motherfucker. Especially when them records came out -- hurt like a motherfucker."
DJ Train part 7
This is an installment in The Posse Project, a 12-part series in which www.PHXmusic.com catches up with all 12 guys pictured on the cover of N.W.A's first album, N.W.A. and the Posse. Today, we continue with DJ Train, one of two people in this photo who are now deceased.
^DJ Train then^
^DJ Train in the studio before his death in 1994.^ (Photo courtesy of Tootie)
DJ Train
Also Known As: Clarence Lars.
Before the Photo: DJ Train was a childhood friend of MC Ren (read MC Ren's entry in the Posse Project here) and Eazy E who became one of Ruthless Records top DJs, working with J.J. Fad and other acts on the label.
In the Photo: Train is blocked out by the letters Macola stamped on the front.
Now: DJ Train was killed in a house fire on July 26, 1994.
His brother, Jesse "Tootie" Lars -- who produced MC Ren's single, "Same Ol' Shit," which peaked at #90 on the Billboard Hot 100 -- said his brother saved the lives of several family members.
"He went back in because he thought some of our family was still in there. He passed out in the living room, right in front of the TV, and they found him right there when they went back in," Lars said. "He was a really cool guy. A lot of people don't know that when him and Dre and Eazy went on tour they'd come back at like 1 a.m. and leave their stuff at our house so we could practice on it, learn how to make music. That's just the kind of guys they were, people don't know that."
Articles about about Train's death ran appeared in Vibe (click here and search for "Train" and) in the Long Beach Press-Telegram on Wednesday June 27.
Here's an excerpt from the Press-Telegram story:
Replicas of the million-selling rap records he helped create hung, melted, on the wall of his apartment Tuesday, a vivid summary of the life and death of Clarence Lars - better known to music fans as DJ Train.
Lars was 23 when died just before 8 a.m. on July 26. He passed in the burn unit of a California hospital from injuries sustained early Sunday morning in a fire that charred the kitchen and living room.
Train's mother, two sisters and a niece were in the apartment when the blaze began, and all made it out alive.
"He could have been selfish and got out himself,'' said his father, Jesse Lars Sr. at the time. "But he helped get two people out and thought the other two were still trapped, so he went back in.''
As word of Train's death spread Tuesday, the neighborhood where he was raised became the site of a spontaneous wake. Family, friends, fellow rappers and fans parked their cars outside the home, listened to music and shared memories over bottles of malt liquor.
"Train was a big man - over 6 feet, over 200 pounds - but he was a peaceful man, a spiritual man," said Rebecca Morfin, the mother of his 5-year-old son, Sean. "He was courageous, too. When the paramedics were putting him into the ambulance and we were all screaming that we loved him, he signaled to us that it was all right."
Krazy D part 8
This is an installment in The Posse Project, a 12-part series in which www.PHXmusic.com catches up with all 12 guys pictured on the cover of N.W.A's first album, N.W.A. and the Posse. Today, we continue with Krazy D -- the mysterious Mexican guy in the front row.
^Krazy D then^
^Krazy D today^
Krazy D
Also Known As: Damon Trujillo, Culo Popper, Crazy D, Krazy Dee.
Before the Photo: Krazy D is from Huntington Park, a heavily Hispanic and very poor suburb southeast of LA. He was a friend of Eric "Eazy E" Wright.
"I met Eazy the same day I met Dre [at Skateland in Compton where Dre's old group the The World Class performed]. Eazy and I became real good friends" Krazy D tells me. "Bottom line, I started selling dope. I was a rapper who became a dope dealer and he was a dope dealer who became a rapper, so we just kind of blended. Eazy and I were connected on the street, and it was pretty much that way even after I left the group."
Krazy D calls himself an "original member" of N.W.A. and has a writing credit on "Panic Zone," N.W.A's first single. He is also namechecked in "8 Ball:" "Krazy D is down and in effect. We make hardcore jams, so fuck respect."
^Krazy D has a writing credit on N.W.A's "Panic Zone," as you can see on the vinyl.^
In the Photo: As the only Latino ever photographed on an Niggaz With Attitude record, Krazy D stands out. Unlike MC Ren, Krazy D says he was actually a member of the group when the photo was taken.
"The crazy part about that photo is that everybody that was there was there because they just kinda showed up, whether it was just giving someone a ride or whatever. I know MC Chip, him and Train had took Ren up there to be in the photo shoot. And Ren wasn't even in the group at the time of the photo shoot. There's this big whole thing about original members, with Ren and Yella, they came way after."
"Not to discredit them, I think Ren's an incredible talent, a dopeass MC and he had a lotta flow and he earned his part and he did what he had to do and he's a cool cat too," D says. "Yella just kinda snuck in, even Dre could tell you too. Yella was basically there because he had an extra set of hands that knew how to run the boards, that's the only reason he came in the picture, to kinda be Dre's assistant."
After the Photo: Krazy D is probably best known for his very memorable singing part in "Dopeman," where he plays the part of an overdosed junkie's angry brother, threatening Eazy E: "Yo, Mr. Dopeman, you think you're slick..."
Unlike Arabian Prince, Krazy D never sued to collect royalties.
"I wrote half of 'Eazy-Duz-It,' I wrote my little thing on 'Dopeman,' I never got credit for it... I read little things on the internet, people trying to say that was Eazy trying to sound like a Mexican, no, that was me," he says.
Even the "Dopeman" entry on Wikipedia says Eazy did the vocals himself -- a statement offered without attribution, of course. After listening to Krazy D rap the part to me over the phone, I have absolutely no doubt it's him.
Actually, Wikipedia has been especially hard on Krazy D. Volunteer editors took his entry down after a brutal deletion discussion: "A cover is not a source. Even I can make such shit and make it a source. Who knows if it's not photoshopped," said one editor.
"If appearing in a music video made one notable, think of all the anonymous booty dancers who'd have articles here," said another, apparently unaware Krazy D is credited as the first writer on "Panic Zone," the first single by the most important rap group of all time.
^Krazy D and Dr. Dre in the studio.^
Now: Krazy D lives in Las Vegas and does real estate appraisals for a living. He's been working on a wide variety of new music but hasn't released anything lately. He also says he's working on a documentary about his time in N.W.A called Ghetto Godz.
People Don't Know: A rap group known as Niggaz With Attitude originally had a Latino member.
Krazy D says the subject of the group's name, and his ethnicity, came up early on, and he had no problem with the name.
"People say that, 'Hey, well, you ain't no nigga' and it's like you don't understand the definition behind N.W.A. It was 'Niggaz with Attitude,' a Nigga is a homie, you know what I mean? So when we came up with that name they were like 'Yo, D, whatcha think?' and I was like 'I don't give a fuck, I'm just as much of a nigga as you motherfuckers. ' And I didn't care, it is what it is," he says.
People Don't Know: That "Panic Zone," a song that Krazy D is listed as the first writer on, started out as "Hispanic Zone," he says.
"I basically wrote 'Panic Zone.' 'Panic Zone' wasn't even 'Panic Zone' when I wrote it. I wrote 'Hispanic Zone.' I was doing a song called 'Hispanic Zone' and Dre and I were talking about it and he was like 'Nobody's gonna buy a song called 'Hispanic Zone,' 'this and that, and I was like, 'Yeah, well, maybe' and I thought about it and I was like, 'Yeah, that makes sense overall.'"
People Don't Know: Krazy D had a run-in with Suge Knight long before the bodyguard-turned-label boss became a legend.
Suge Knight, a former N.W.A bodyguard went on found Death Row records, where he coerced Eazy E and Jerry Heller into turning over the rights to Dr. Dre, who went on to record the critically-beloved The Chronic. Knight also supposedly dangled Vanilla Ice off a hotel balcony to get him to sign over royalties to "Ice Ice Baby." Eventually, Knight hooked up with Michel'le Toussaint, the mother of Dr. Dre's son Marcel, fathered a daughter by her and then welshed on child support payments, completing the circle of backstabbery.
Long before all that, D found himself on the outs after getting into a fight with Suge.
"Suge and I went toe-to-toe one time... It wasn't much of a fight, it was like a three-hit fight. He hit me and I think I bounced off the floor twice... because of that fight Eazy wanted me to sue him. And I was like 'Naw, fuck that.' Dre talked me out of it. He said 'You don't wanna do that.'"
People Don't Know: Just how much of N.W.A's early stuff random guys like Krazy D contributed to without getting credit or royalties.
"I got very little money from them, bro. If you add it all up it was very little, probably somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000 total. And I feel like Eazy probably thought he could get away with not giving me credit or paying with me because of my connection on the street. I made a lot of money selling dope, and, you know, I'm not proud of that, but I was doing well back then. So it is what it is."
D takes solace in the fact that he's not the only one ignored by history.
"I probably wouldn't be talking to you right now if I was the only one who got fucked over because I would have probably went on a rampage, probably smoked some motherfuckers," he says. "I believe things happen for a reason and I feel like I'm going to have some redemption moment once everything comes out, and I'll feel a lot better."
Ice Cube part 9
This is an installment in The Posse Project, a 12-part series in which www.PHXmusic.com catches up with all 12 guys pictured on the cover of N.W.A's first album, N.W.A. and the Posse. Today, we continue with Ice Cube, N.W.A's main lyricist who went on to become a superstar solo rapper and later an actor.
^Îce Cube then^
Ice Cube
Also Known As: O'Shea Jackson, Purple Ice.
Before the Picture: The product of a middle-class nuclear family, Ice Cube started rapping in high school and former a group called C.I.A (Cru' In Action) with Sir Jinx and Kid Disaster. He was tapped by Eric "Eazy-E" Wright to write rhymes for Ruthless Records' acts and wrote classics like "Boyz-n-The-Hood" before leaving Los Angeles to attend technical school in Phoenix for a year. Cube earned a degree in architectural drafting at the Phoenix Institute of Technology, a school at the corner of 24th Street and University, south of the airport, which closed in 1993 without being absorbed by another institution. Unfortunately, the only records the state maintains on the school are student files protected by federal privacy laws.
"The rap game wasn't looking too solid at that time so I decided to go ahead and go to school," he was quoted as saying.
In the Photo: Details about Cube's early career are hard enough to come by without adding on the extra challenge of sorting out the minutia involved in an old record cover. For example, even Joel McIver, the author of Ice Cube: Attitude, a biography of the rapper, has details about the photo wrong.
McIver, a Brit more famous for his best-seller, Justice For All: The Truth About Metallica, writes that "the cover was a generic shot of the band, plus the other rappers who appeared on the record (Dr Rock, the Fila Fresh Crew, Ron-De-Vu - a sometime rapping partner of Eazy-E in his early days - among them) in a typically urban graffiti-wall setting."
Not only is not one of the artists McIver namechecks in the photo, hopefully the past 10 days of The Posse Project have shown this photo is anything but "generic," though it was seemingly designed to appear that way. That's less a reflection on McIver's book, which is very good, than on difficulty tracking these guys down, and on the myths developed around N.W.A in the following years. No one has more to gain from those myths than Ice Cube, who is probably N.W.A's most image-conscious member.
However, if a guy who wrote a 270-page book on Cube can't sort out the rapper's role in the photo, I won't try to do it here. Cube's publicist declined an interview request so his part in The Posse will remain a mystery a little longer.
^This is a photo of an old Phoenix Institute of Technology drafting tool case. Ice Cube would have used something very similar to this while attending school in Phoenix.^
After the Photo: After returning from school Cube stuck with N.W.A through Straight Outta Compton before leaving over a financial dispute with the group's manager, Jerry Heller, and with Eazy E.
"Heller gave me this contract, and I said I wanted a lawyer to see it. He almost fell out of his chair. I guess he figured, how this young muthafucka turn down all this money? Everybody else signed," McIver quotes him as saying. "I told them I wanted to make sure my shit was right first."
Cube quickly established himself as a huge solo star. His first four solo records became classics as he dropped tracks like the intensely controversial "Cave Bitch," the famous N.W.A diss track "No Vaseline" and "It Was A Good Day," possibly the greatest rap song ever recorded.
Now: Ice Cube's career could be a series in itself. Though his music career has fallen off over the years, he wrote the classic Friday films and has starred in flicks like Higher Learning, Three Kings, and Barbershop.
Just last week Cube announced he'll be releasing a new album, called I Am The West in July. Interestingly, he's said to be using beats from fellow Posse photo veteran Sir Jinx for the first time in nearly 20 years.
People Don't Know: Some of Ice Cube's most famous songs are 'parodies' of a sort.
Though he says the idea to wear clocks didn't come from Public Enemy, Sir Jinx also says N.W.A's habit of parodying songs rubbed off on Cube's writing process. Listen to the cadence of some of Cube's best work and you'll hear clear influences, Jinx says.
"Now, those songs played a part in Cube's career. [PE's] 'So-phisticated'] is 'Dopeman.' It's the same song... "I Ain't Tha 1' is [Boogie Down Production's] 'My Philosophy.' ...that's coming from the parody thing. But the number one parody that went across the motherfucking world was 'Boyz N The Hood', it was a parody of [Schoolly D's] 'PSK.' Listen and you can hear it."
People Don't Know: Ice Cube's street cred is a hot topic of debate. Some people think his acting career started earlier than IMDB indicates; others says he legitimately picked up his stories of street life from people he knew.
How real is Ice Cube? Here are three perspectives on him from people interviewed for this series.
Krazy D: "He grew up in a bad area but that still didn't make him authentic. He lived in an upper-class neighborhood, nice home, parents had money, he's always had it made. Not to take anything away from him but he's an actor, right? He was acting like a gangster and he was good at it. You can't take anything away from it, he's an incredible talent, but just he ain't the real deal."
Jerry Heller: "Eazy had the ability to influence you to be better than you were. Even though Ice Cube went to a really good upper middle class high school in the San Fernando Valley, and was a great lyricist, he would write the verse and Eric would say to him, 'You know, that's really corny.' He would make him change it to where it had some street credibility."
MC Ren: "Cube grew up around a lot of people like Eric so he saw that shit too. Even though they didn't live that shit, they lived in that shit."
MC Chip part 10
This is an installment in The Posse Project, a 12-part series in which www.PHXmusic.com catches up with all 12 guys pictured on the cover of N.W.A's first album, N.W.A. and the Posse. Today, we continue with MC Chip, who proved to be the hardest person to track down of anyone in the photo.
Before the Photo: Chip was one of MC Ren's best friends and also hung out with Eric "Eazy E" Wright, who grew up around the corner from him.
In The Photo: Along with Ren, Chip actually looks like he's part of N.W.A as the group later looked -- Kings hat, white t-shirt, jeans, black sneakers. Within a few months Chip and Ren's style became the group's style.
"Early, early West Coast hip-hop, before it became gangsta, we were looking for an identity," Chip tells me. "That was just how we, Ren and I, dressed. We were from the C.P.T. so that's how we dressed -- t-shirt, khakis -- we dressed like the G's. That's how the G's did it, so that's how we did it."
After the Photo: Chip went on to record a couple verses for Ren's solo records, including a spot on "One False Move" from Ren's 1993's 2nd album, Shock of the Hour.
and "Bang Wit Me." He was namechecked in the first verse of Ren's "Old Times," which is probably the best solo tracks Ren has released recently. (Ren actually mentions several other guys profiled for The Posse Project in the song -- can you pick them out?)
Now: Chip isn't doing anything with music and keeps a low profile online. His only web presence is a BlackPlanet account. He lives in L.A. and works in transportation for an aerospace company.
"I still write a little bit, but I'm just working, man, just basically taking care of wifey. I can still do it, I'm still sick with it, but the reality of life, it didn't crack the way it was supposed to crack."
People Don't Know: Cursing on records was a huge novelty when gangster rap first started.
"It's a trip, I still remember when Eazy let me hear 'Boyz-n-the-Hood' for the first time," he says. "That was some crazy shit, man, because you're sitting there listening to it and you're like 'Man, he's cussing on this rap!' You're thinking, like, 'Damn, how's he gonna get radio play?' But one thing you knew about it was that shit was tight. There wasn't nobody else on that level doing that type of thing."
People Don't Know: Not everyone involved in N.W.A dislikes Jerry Heller, N.W.A's manager, who Ice Cube and Dr. Dre have attacked in song several times.
"[Jerry] was an important part of what happened, because, really, he took his business sense, and saw something in Eazy E, a street dude with a lot of intelligence, and he made it so he could get his records out to the world."
People Don't Know: N.W.A was it's own street team back in the day.
"I can remember jumping in the truck with Eric, we would just go grab some records from Macola and just go out to the swap meets and just give them to people. We would just hand them out, and that gave Eric a lot of street buzz,"says Chip.
This is an installment in The Posse Project, a 12-part series in which www.PHXmusic.com catches up with all 12 guys pictured on the cover of N.W.A's first album, N.W.A. and the Posse. Today, we continue with Dr. Dre the superstar rapper/producer who has had the most success since this photo was taken.
^Dr. Dre then^
^Dr. Dre today^
Dr. Dre
Also Known As: Andre Romelle Young, Dr. J
Before the Photo: Dr. Dre was already a notable musician, at least in Los Angeles, prior to his N.W.A days. As "Dr. J," the house DJ at Eve's After Dark (Compton's answer to the Cavern Club) and a member of World Class Wreckin' Cru, Dre had already established himself, landing a regular radio gig and selling an estimated 50,000 copies of the Cru's records through unofficial channels.
In the Photo: Dre -- positioned between Ice Cube and Eazy E -- almost blends into the background of the Posse record cover. He's neither wearing any sort of distinctive clothing nor taking any sort stance in particular. It's almost as though he knows the picture will go on an album that the group will not promote in earnest. And he very well may have.
Dre's longtime publicist did not return a phone call or e-mail for The Posse Project, but Ronin Ro's excellent biography on Dr. Dre makes an important point about the cover: Macola, the group's first label, likely knew the group was shopping for another label at the time it commissioned the picture.
As Arabian Prince noted in Ro's book, when a band got a deal with a new label, Macola's M.O. was to quickly release every song the group had done. Dre, ever the savvy businessman, may have wanted to play ball with Macola as long as he needed to until N.W.A's deal with Priority was done, without laying all the group's cards on the table by stylizing the cover. Dre didn't talk to us, so we don't know for sure, but it seems possible.
After the Photo: The early days of N.W.A are filled with great ironies: One original member of Niggaz With Attitude was a Latino, and pop-rapper Candyman is on the cover of Posse. Another hilarious coincidence concerns the group's label, Priority Records.
When N.W.A signed with Priority the group became only the label's second signed act. The other was The California Raisins.
That's right: The first non-compilation album released by Priority was The California Raisins Sing the Hit Songs. The second was Straight Outta Compton.
As Ro writes, the label's bosses made a mint on the Raisins and wanted to re-invest the cash in something edgy. N.W.A certainly fit the bill. So not only did Eazy E put in the old tape, Marvin Gaye's Greatest Hits, Eazy and Dre got a leg up in the music business because of a cartoon band's cover of Gaye's "Heard It Through the Grapevine."
From there, Dr. Dre's career has had only the most minor of setbacks. His work with N.W.A was stellar, his solo debut, The Chronic, is regarded as one of the best rap albums of all time, and nearly everyone he's produced (Eminem, 50 Cent, The Game) has had success.
People Don't Know: Despite being the most important musician of the past quarter-century, Dr. Dre is not a musician, says N.W.A's former manager Jerry Heller.
"Something more significant than the fact that Dre wasn't a real gangster was the fact that he wasn't a real musician," Heller tells me. "Dre, only recently, has learned how to fool around on the piano. None of the guys in the group was a musician. I mean, Yella played a little drums, but none of them were musicians, which is part of the whole genre with gangster rap. Rather than being a creator of music, Dre was an assembler of music. It's a very interesting genre, unlike anything that came before. We've never had really successful musicians before that weren't real musicians."
People Don't Know: Dr. Dre's departure from N.W.A hurt Eazy E emotionally, says MC Ren.
"[Eazy] was hurt by all that shit," Ren tells me. "He was hurt because him and Dre started out back in the day, back in Compton. Before all the record company shit, they were a DJ crew, High-Powered Productions, doing house parties and shit like that. Dre was the tightest producer ever, putting out hits on him, and he was hurting like a motherfucker. Especially when them [dis] records came out -- [hurt Eazy] like a motherfucker."
People Don't Know: Dr. Dre's departure spelled the end of N.W.A in a way Ice Cube's didn't, says Jerry Heller.
"The significant thing about the end of N.W.A was really when Dre left. After Cube left, there was still an N.W.A, but when Dre left, there was no N.W.A," Heller says. "He was certainly the most integral part of the group, and the most valuable asset Ruthless Records had."
People Don't Know: Dre's first effort for his own label, Aftermath Entertainment, suffered because Dre was too busy with the business side of things to do the production work he normally excelled at, says Jerry Heller.
"That's why the first Aftermath record was so bad. He did become distracted, and that Aftermath record is really the only bad thing Dre ever did in his life," Heller says. "When you look at Dre, he did World Class Wreckin' Crue, Turn Out The Lights . . . This guy has been at the very top of his game since 1986. He certainly is the most important producer of the entire rap period."
Eazy-E part 12
This is the final installment in The Posse Project, a 12-part series in which www.PHXmusic.com caught up with all 12 guys pictured on the cover of N.W.A's first album, N.W.A. and the Posse. Today's post is on Eric "Eazy E" Wright, who passed away 15 years ago today.
^Êazy-E then^
^Bates AIO painted a tribute to Eazy-E in Hamburg, Germany for the Exchange project.^ (Sketch by Sever MSK)
Before the Photo: Nearly everyone in the Posse photo was either involved in the Compton club music scene with (a DJ crew, a rap group or an electro-funk outfit) or just a hanger-on. Eazy-E was the exception.
A drug dealer, a high school dropout, and a member of the Kelly Park Compton Crips, Eric Wright aspired to get involved in the music business by starting his own record label with the help of Jerry Heller, a down-on-his luck former manager to stars like Elton John and Marvin Gaye. As this photo was taken, the pair's business had just started to build up enough steam to engineer a major coup: N.W.A's jump from Macola Records to the upstart Priority Records where the group would record their true debut album, Straight Outta Compton.
In the Photo: No one we talked to for The Posse Project could identify everyone else on the Posse cover by real name or by anything beyond a 20-year-old street name. Eazy likely would have been the one exception, since he was well-acquainted with even the hardest guys to track down: the mysterious Mexican Krazy D, the DJ Scratch who isn't EPMD's DJ Scratch and "Ren's Homie" MC Chip.
After the Photo: Eazy E was at the center of the development of N.W.A and gangsta rap. Though he originally did not intend to be a rapper himself, his fluke success rapping "Boyz-n-the-Hood" (when another group on his label refused) made him officially join N.W.A for Compton.
As Jerry Heller tells me: "Eric used to say it best. He would say he was the conceptualizer, Dre was the musicalizer, Cube was the verbalizer, and Jerry was the finanicalizer."
That system worked for a while -- long enough to change popular music forever, anyway. Things went well for N.W.A until financial disputes drove Ice Cube, then later Dr. Dre, away from the group.
Following the dissolution of N.W.A, Eazy continued on a solo career and signed new acts to Ruthless Record. Ruthless' most successful post-N.W.A group was Cleveland's Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, which later eulogized Eazy with their #1 hit "Tha Crossroads."
Anthony "Krayzie Bone" Henderson tells me his group called Ruthless Records 100 times before a receptionist finally persuaded Eazy to call them back. Eazy's rapping style was famously slow, which is probably part of the reason why the rapid-fire Bone Thugs crew blew him away when he finally heard it.
"One day he called us back, and I answered the phone and he was like, 'Can I speak to Bone?' and I was like, 'That's us!' and he was like, 'Yeah, I'm just returning your call cuz I heard ya'll were calling up here saying you can rap, so let me hear something,' so I got to rapping to him on the phone and he was like 'Man!' he was blown away. He said that it was crazy, he was putting other people on the phone saying, 'Listen to them rap!" Eazy-ECPT.com
From there, it was on. Bone rose to success while Eazy finally played the behind-the-scenes role he'd originally planned to take in the music business. Just after Bone's single "Foe Tha Love of $," which featured Eazy, was released, Eazy fell ill. Then, just like that, he was gone. He didn't live long enough to see Bone hit it big with "1st of the Month," a song so influential it was skewered in possibly the most infamous comedy bit of all time.
To put things in perspective: The 11 days between when Eazy was admitted to the hospital for health problems he thought were tied to asthma and when he died was one day shorter than The Posse Project has lasted.
Now: Eazy-E passed away at age 31 on March 26, 1995, after issuing a statement to fans:
I may not seem like a guy you would pick to preach a sermon. But I feel it is now time to testify because I do have folks who care about me hearing all kinds of stuff about what's up.
Yeah, I was a brother on the streets of Compton doing a lot of things most people look down on -- but it did pay off. Then we started rapping about real stuff that shook up the LAPD and the FBI. But we got our message across big time, and everyone in America started paying attention to the boys in the 'hood.' Soon our anger and hope got everyone riled up. There were great rewards for me personally, like fancy cars, gorgeous women and good living. Like real non-stop excitement. I'm not religious, but wrong or right, that's me. I'm not saying this because I'm looking for a soft cushion wherever I'm heading, I just feel that I've got thousands and thousands of young fans that have to learn about what's real when it comes to AIDS. Like the others before me, I would like to turn my own problem into something good that will reach out to all my homeboys and their kin. Because I want to save their asses before it's too late.
I'm not looking to blame anyone except myself. I have learned in the last week that this thing is real, and it doesn't discriminate. It affects everyone. My girl Tomika and I have been together for four years and we recently got married. She's good, she's kind and a wonderful mother. We have a little boy who's a year old. Before Tomika, I had other women. I have seven children by six different mothers. Maybe success was too good to me. I love all my kids and always took care of them. Now I'm in the biggest fight of my life, and it ain't easy. But I want to say much love to those who have been down to me. And thanks for your support. Just remember: It's YOUR real time and YOUR real life.
People Don't Know: Eazy-E was the Greatest Gangsta.
Though he's certainly not ignored by the media, there are a lot of people who believe Eazy has never gotten his due -- myself included. The guys at Eazy-ECPT.com, a tribute site that's been running since 2005, do their best to change that by paying tribute to him.
"Eazy-E is a big deal and it bothers me that he doesn't get the props he deserves," says the site's head honcho, Sergio. "It's obvious that because he died due to complications of AIDS that his death is not celebrated like those who got shot. That's the only reason why I can imagine he does not get the attention he deserves."
It's the people who knew Eazy the best who miss him the most.
There are all sorts of crazy conspiracy theories out there about Jerry Heller, but no one who has ever talked to Jerry about Eazy can question the man's love for his lost business partner and friend. Talking on the phone from his home near the California coast, the former N.W.A manager gets emotional talking about Eric.
"He was the best. He was like my flesh and blood son," Heller tells me. "I was proud of him. He was a good guy. We always got along. I don't think we ever had a disagreement about anything meaningful. We may have had a disagreement about him showing up two days late to a meeting, but we never had a disagreement about anything meaningful."
MC Ren, the N.W.A member who grew up around the corner from Eazy, says his mind often turns to memories of his friend: hanging at the swapmeet, listening to music in the garage, cruising around Compton. Eazy wasn't the glock-toting thug people think, Ren says. He was just a cool dude. "A real cool dude."
"Eazy be in my dreams sometimes. It's like he's still alive, the dream be so real," Ren said.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I don't normally publicly thank people who provide information for my stories, but this project really depended on the passion, knowledge, and kindness of several people who not only gave me information, but harassed their homies into calling to me. Big thanks to Paulie Classic, Sergio from Eazy-ECPT.com, and Arcyn Al.
