It's August 22, 2025, 11:49:49 AM
I don't Know Dude!1But i'll certainly go googling for his music and all!props Eddie!He worked with SNoop??..coool..
uppin...had to do it...people missing out on some real music: http://myspace.com/khayreemusic
khayree is one of the GOAT producers from the Bay Area.
Damn Raide, Slow down Wit All The Updates..Homie!!!barely gone through sum of the other stuff..Khayree is MAD DOPE!!!!
When we first started Murder Dog and when the Young "D" Boyz album was getting recorded you were in the penn. What happened to take you away for so long?The name speaks for itself, we Young "D" Boyz. Before I started rappin I made my revenue in the streets by hustlin. We’ll just say "hustlin D" to protect the innocent. I got caught up, caught a few cases, caught a "transportation of sales" case. I got sent up to the State for a while.
Thanks for upping the thread, I know Khayree was looking at this and he appreciates everyone's comments.
Khayree Shaheed of Young Black Brotha RecordsInterview by Black Dog Bonehttp://www.murderdog.com/august_2007...ee-Shaheed.htmKhayree@youngBlackBrotha.comwww.Myspace.com/KhayreeMusicWhat made you decide to come forward at this time?If you’re a record label then you gotta put out records, right. Also it bothered me that so many people thought that I’d disappeared. It’s not their fault. If you don’t see someone you think they retired or something. Also the second largest reason other than my love for music was to influence the youth too. Because if I’m involved in what’s happening with Hip Hop they’ll listen a lot stronger. Another reason was I get emails from people. I swear to God, I get emails that’d bring tears to your eyes. Like, "We need your music!" or "That’s my favorite album you did!" A lotta emails. My philosophy has always been: don’t give up. No matter what you go through, whether you’re in the penn or at your lowest point thinking about committing suicide, I swear there’s a glimmer of hope. You can make it through anything. There’s nothing that could stop you once you decide I’m gonna keep pushin. Another philosophy is: You gonna die anyway, so why rush it? When I get those emails of inspiration from people I’m like, Lemme show up. Maybe I might not sell all the records we used to sell, this is a whole new thing. If there’s 500 people that want to hear Khayree music truly, I’d rather have 500 people who like my music me and know what I’m about than trendy’s followin the crowd. They’ll like me today and tomorrow forget me. I’m an artist. I’ma give ‘em something creative and something to think about.You’re about making a change with your music, not just making money. I just want to reach this young generation before it get like that. I’m tellin you, lotta people have no idea what these youngsters is goin through. They in a lotta pain. That’s the result of that shit. Ain’t nobody huggin you and loving you and giving you the real. You can only be hard for so long until you burn out. Either the streets get you or the police get you. One of the reasons I think people should hear this all in one record is the historical significance of it. When I’m dead and gone, when people talk about Mac Dre they should mention my name. How you gonna talk about Michael Jordon, somewhere down the line Phill Jackson gotta come up as being an intricate part of what helped the Bulls win 3 championships in a row? That’s all I’m sayin, I just want my credit. I don’t want nobody to kiss my ass, I don’t want praise every time I walk past. I don’t even want to be known as the producer who helped bring Mac Dre out. All I want is people to recognize that I contributed, I am a pillar of Bay Area Hip Hop. I’ve been a big supporter of Bay Area Hip Hop. True, I kept to myself in my own camp. I used to kinda have an attitude like, I’m just gonna keep my production for my own artists. I think that was a mistake in the past. I have definitely made a whole heap of mistakes. I’m willing to share ‘em cause I think the young generation coming up can learn from dumb shit that I did in terms of how I spent my money. It’s all in the past. It don’t mean that you can unscramble an egg. I always wondered what happened. Young Black Brotha Records had everything going for you, a major deal, a big budget to work with, excellent artists, excellent production. Was the money ultimately your downfall?Blowing money, losing money—that was one of the hardest period in my entire life. We had a deal with Atlantic Records. We got money, I received $70,000 for every album I produced. I had money to run my label. I had money to pay my artists, I had money to be able to pay a staff. I was able to hire people. I could run multiple ads in Murder Dog and pay for it. I had money. Everybody and they mama was my friend. You know, you were there, you seen it. Our office was in Glen Cove. Every minute somebody was knockin on my door, the phone's constantly rung. When you got something people want it. When what I call "the crash of ‘97" hit, when Atlantic said "Dubee’s record, Young Lay’s record and Ray Luv’s record ain’t nothin but 50,000 records. This deal ain’t goin good." Then they looked at the contract and, hey they found an out. Khayree was late in delivering the Dubee record. It took me a long time to finish that Dubee record cause I wasn’t happy with it, the first Dubee album. Atlantic cancelled the contract because you were late with one record?Because I took a long time turning in the record they were able to get out the deal. Now I went from bein able to pay—and we had street teams all over the country, professional photo sessions with Marcus Hanschen, the works—now I have no money, I have a house and the payments are behind. I got a studio and the payments are getting behind. I got an office. So I sell the office. Long story short, it was the hardest period. Now people who admired you start lookin at you like you ain’t shit. Because people mistake power for money. Money ain’t the power. I created the wealth and I continue to create the wealth. It’s my energy that creates the wealth. Money don’t make me, I make the money.People very confused about what it is that makes the money. Money doesn’t make power, it’s power that makes money.I have a sayin: if money is power then when your mama dies hug your money. If that money makes you feel great and makes you feel good about your mama then I agree that money is power. But if money can’t take away your pain then money ain’t shit. Money is only a tool. Money is necessary, but it ain’t a big deal. But anyways, that period was difficult. I didn’t wanna show my face. I was embarrassed. I felt like everybody knew that I had failed. I felt like I had failed. Like I was given the football and I dropped it. I did. I was cocky. Not cocky toward people. But an example is I remember going to Leo’s Audio in Oakland. It’s like 1995 and I had probably spent 30 or 40 racks up in Leo’s for studio equipment. We in there testing microphones, me and The Problem, my partner. We in there and suddenly I wanna smoke some weed. So I pull out a joint right there in Leo’s Audio, light the muthafucka and I’m smokin it in the music store! With the air conditioning system circulating air all throughout the muthafucka. PC looks at me, "You’re gonna smoke that in here?!" I really righteously smoked on it for a minute cause the cat who was helping us had went out to get something. He came back in and he’s lookin at me like…That’s forgetting who you are. That’s forgetting. That’s what I mean when I say cocky. Not with people, I got too many witnesses that’ll tell you, "I couldn’t pay this and Khayree came out his pocket." If I could collect all the money that I gave cats right now, I could buy me something nice. Muthafuckas don’t know that. All they know is they see a picture of me, they think he cocky. Cause I used to always do the mean mug thing and all that phony shit at photo sessions. I was tryin to find myself. I didn’t know.I had no idea what you were going through. Yeah. Nobody fuckin knows what I went through. That’s when I found out who my true friends. My true friends told me, "That ain’t who you are. " I knew who I was, but goddamn I had worked too long to get to this spot for me to overnight just lose it. I thank God everything is beautiful today.People keep asking me what’s going on with Khayree. Is he still making beats? Who’s he working with?Here’s an analogy: I make love. To say I make beats is to say I only kiss on breasts. I make love with my music. I cover every aspect of it. I’m playin bass guitar. I program them drums thoroughly. I play that Les Paul Gibson guitar. I’m playin that Mini Moog bass line. Every nuance in the production that you hear from me to this day I play live. So yeah, a beat is one aspect of it. Does is slap? Of course it slaps. How can it not with the sounds they use nowadays with music. That’s my answer to that question: I’ll never stop makin music. I am the music. It’s as essential to me as breathing. Literally. I wanna let everyone know I haven’t went anywhere. I just stepped off the scene in terms of the business and that whole thing, but now I’m back. I’ve been consistently making music. That’s where people get it wrong. They think if you’re not doing business that you’re not making music. I’m sure that every day you’re in the studio all day long.Every day. That’s all I do! Right now I’ve got so many projects I’m workin on. Then I got my youngsters, the artists on my label, I’m not doing much of the production for them. I might do a song or two, but most of them have their own producers. That’s the way I want it because I’m in another spectrum right now musically.You’re not doing the production for your new artists?Not on them. On their albums most of their production is done by cats they were working with already. Very talented young producers. DJ 61 from its Nothin productions is one of the producers—he does all the Get Money Boyz aka GMB, and Young Mora music. Another producer named Shnook is doin music for Asecard. Young Ray has a producer named Fizz and J-Beez produces most of his own music. All of them make quality music or I wouldn’t put it out.When did you start putting together your new roster and getting active with the label again?About a year ago. It’s been a slow process. I’m not in no rush. We have Asecard’s album done. We’re doin interludes for him and for Young Ray’s new album. All the artists I have with me are very talented. They represent different things, that’s what’s great about it. GMB’s record is done. Probably the late person, as usual, is Khayree. But I know it will be worth their wait. That’s gonna be 2 "Blackalations". I’m still looking to connect with more talented new youngsters who will go well with my production. On the "Blackalation" I’m gonna have some of the older cats that I had on there like Young Dre from LA, as well as some of the new cats that I’d like to work with, like The Jacka and cats like that. I’m sure we’d get along good cause we have the same basic philosophy, same way of seeing things. I wanna work with some of them cats.How old are your new artists?When I say "youngsters", they are. Ase just turned 18, Ray just turned 18, Alki from GMB is 19, Wanno Bo is 19. Ted is 19, Mora just turned 19, JB is 25 outa Sacramento. All of these people are Young Black Brotha artists. This is my new roster. We’re still here. You can purchase music right here on I-Tunes. You can fuck with us in the stores. It’s a slow process, cause I don’t have bread like I used to have. No fronting. Now it's: how can I take a few pennies and make something happen. But I’ve done it so many times it’s easy for me. I came from nothing. For me to make something outa nothing again is actually a pleasure, by the grace of God.No money could replace what you have, the talent of music.You could basically take all of the top producers, put them in the studio for an hour and put me in the studio for an hour, let’s see what happens. Without sequencers and all that they’d be lost. Me, I’m not sequencing. I’m playin it from beginning to the end, and I really don’t even need drums. I’ll play some percussions, and I can play a drum beat live on the drum set. I’m in a whole ‘nother category. Don’t get me wrong, there are some young producers I dig. For example, I like Rob Lo’s production. But a lot of these hot new producers, I know all they’re doing is getting the latest sequencer/software. If I take that shit from them they’re lost. Here’s a piano man, go! What are they gonna do? They’re sequencing. I got a four year old nephew Jalem, he can do that. I have literally watched Jalem make a drum beat. He starts hittin pads and it synchronizes itself. That sounds pretty cool! He’s four years old! We’re looking at a situation where Hip Hop music has been reduced to teeny bopper music. Especially the radio, all they play is music that a 14-15-16 can relate to. The music is geared to that mentality. If I’m 16 years old all I’m thinking about is pussy, some weed, where the next party at, hangin with my potnas. I’m not thinkin about the struggle. Real life situations that Hip Hop/Rap music used to address, we’re not addressing that now because the rappers are so desperate to be on the radio. Bay Area rappers are so focused on the radio so everyone thinks they have to follow a certain sound, a certain topic, in order to get on the radio. I say, Fuck the radio! I’m not gonna try to dance for the radio in order to be heard. Do you have a different plan? What are the other options that you see?I have seen enough to know that there is literally a "conspiracy" to make the populations of Oakland, Vallejo, Richmond, and all the rest of our urban centers, very ignorant so that we are unable to organize or improve our situations. We got people that’s not really paying attention to what’s happening so they will never grab their power. They’ll never realize that instead of begging people to play our music on the radio—if 20 of the most popular rappers in the Bay band together and started a campaign saying, "We’re not fuckin with the radio station cause they’re not supporting us or our community." They didn’t play Mac Dre. KMEL didn’t play Mac Dre. Like I say in my song, "KMEL pretends to love Dre, but they never played Dre till he passed away. I was there, I seen the whole thing. In fact, I helped create it." KMEL didn’t give a fuck about Mac Dre. We started makin records in 1989, where was KMEL? 20 years later, now you wanna start actin like you down?You’ve been dealing with KMEL for many years. You see more than most people in this business.Talk about DJ’s! I used to lace their pockets with money. They’re still at the radio station. Now they wanna act like they don’t remember nobody. If people listen to me they might say, "He’s bitter." I’m not bitter. I’m just speakin the truth. I don’t like what’s happening right now. What’s happening is not cool because it creates a situation where you starve. What do I mean by that? If I’m a 25 year old artist and I depend on music to feed myself, and I got a really good album, a balanced album. I got songs for the clubs, I got songs your grandmother would love, I got songs for cats in the streets out there tryin to make a living, I got music everybody would love, but the radio don’t wanna play me because I’m not in with the latest clique. I’m not in with the DJ who’s the new hottest thing. They’ve reversed it. It used to come from the streets, we created what happened. Me and Mac Dre, me and Mac Mall, me and Dubee, we created a sound that the streets could feel cause we was reflecting how they living. Now the radio is dictating what's "hip" because these youngsters don’t know their history. I bet half the people reading this don’t even know who the hell I am. That’s like a muthafucka got a crucifix and don’t know who Jesus is. I am a pillar of Bay Area Hip Hop. To ignore me, to not return my phone call like these cats from radio do, to hope I’ll go away—you muthafuckas, I’ll never go away! I’m here. I’m still youthful, fresh, intelligent, charismatic, and talented. You cannot stop me. Even if you ignore me, can you ignore my new artists? We will not be ignored.You’re referring the people at the radio stations, right? Because as for the Bay area rappers and producers, they have nothing but love for you.I’m speaking on radio right now because this is a pet peeve of mine because it affects how we make our living. Let’s say there’s a crowd of a thousand people and those people you depend on to make your living. If the thousand people are tuned in to this radio station to find out what’s happening, that means I gotta get the radio station to play my record to let those thousand people know what we’re doing. If the radio station ignores you—at the same time they continue to play my music. You still hear "Too Hard for the Fuckin Radio", you still hear "It’s Rainin Game ", you still hear "Wide Open". Why you playin songs that I made in 1991, in 1995, in 1999? You’re playin them cause I make great music. How many times have I brought KMEL artists that they didn’t believe in, and they ended up playin and their still playin? Now I got to go through the same shit! It’s not cool. I want the streets to know what’s happening with radio.A lot of people are afraid to stand up and speak about these things. They don’t want to get on the bad side of the radio stations.I’m gonna let people know. As soon as I finish my documentary film on my music career, which will be done by the end of this year, I’m going to put my filmmaking talents to work. You’re making a documentary? What’s the film going to be called?Right now I call it "Who Is Khayree?" The title might change. Because of my intelligence and my awareness, I’m a threat. That’s why they don’t fuck with me at KMEL. Clear Channel owns KMEL and they’re not fuckin with intelligent people. They’re not fuckin with Black men who say, "I ain’t tryin to call a sister a bitch and slap women around and do ignorant shit." I’m tryin to let brothers know that you got a future out there and the penitentiary ain’t a part of your future. I’m bringing something different. It’s not that all my rappers are "save the world" rappers. They’re rappin about all the shit that’s happening out there in the streets. I don’t limit what they do. But as a label owner, I’m coming from a different place. You’ve been involved in the creative and the business sides of Rap since the early days. You can see right through the bullshit.Open up the magazines, it’s the "who can be the hardest contest". How many guns, who can be the hardest. Shit, I should come down here with my 6 guns. What would that prove? I got guns, you got guns, and? So now I gotta get in the magazine and make the dumbest, most ignorant, meanest lookin face. It’s a kit. It’s a rapper kit, me and Mall used to call it, that rappers gotta put on in order to be accepted and be a part of the clique. Fuck your rappers kit! Fuck your party. I don’t wanna be a part of the clique. I don’t give a fuck if you never ever let me in. I hope that what I say personally won’t destroy my artists. But the truth is, it’s gotta change. We need to take the power back. I believe that soon some of us are gonna come together and start our own. Start our own radio station. Think about this: we’re talkin about a radio station that’s owned and run—all the major decisions are made by White men who don’t come from California, from Texas someplace, and all of them over 50. You think they grew up on Hip Hop? You think they know who KRS-One, Mac Dre, Cougnut, you think they know who these people are? Fuck no, they could care less. Their whole thing is: we want to control Rap. They started firing DJ’s who were intelligent like Davy D. They hired one DJ to do the job of 5. Now you got one DJ in Arizona doing 5 stations. He’s doin one in the Bay, one in Vegas, one in Arizona, one in Denver and one in New York. They own 12 hundred radio stations. It’s not right. Why the hell should we beg these muthafuckas to play our music? We are the foundation of this! And we’re not making the majority of the money off this billion dollar industry. I was out in Oakland yesterday working with young people at Dewey High school. They’re not doin good, man. Money is low. Cats is bein killed every day. When I was there 20 students had to leave to go to another funeral. They’re goin to funerals every week.A few days ago I was standing here with Johnny Cash doing an interview and takin photos. Two days later he was shot dead.Today you’re talkin to me, tomorrow I could get shot by some knucklehead over nothing. At what point do we say we’re gonna take our power, man? And our power is our money. Our power is our destiny. As long as we let somebody else control it we’re gonna be slaves. Exactly what has been going on with you and KMEL? They’ve closed the doors on you?Before I decided to talk about this in an interview I really tried to reach out to DJ Rick Lee. You can print his name, he’s fronting. Rick Lee is popular because the popular rappers of the day put Rick Lee on. Why did the popular rappers of the day put Rick Lee on? Because Rick Lee has permission from the plantation owner at Clear Channel to play certain records. So they pump Rick Lee up, he makes money with "Rick Lee Presents". The truth of the matter is he’s still not really in touch with the streets. You’re only playing one or two cats, connecting with maybe 5 or 6 cats. It’s tons of us out here. How are you gonna not return my phone call? If you read the emails that I received from him, you would think, "How could this cat even talk to me like that?" I sent Rick Lee at least 10 songs of my youngsters. His email was like, "Almost it, Khayree. Keep tryin." What the fuck are you talkin about? All I’m asking is you to give it a shot in your mix. I’m not asking you to add a record. But you’re supposed to be my friend. You’re supposed to be somebody that I go way back with. You know me! After months, literally months, of goin through this with them—DJ Mind Motion, no response from Big Vaughn whatsoever. I emailed them and told them: it is this kind of closed mindedness that keeps the Bay Area in a small musical box. Let’s be real: we got something new. It ain’t like my artists are makin songs from the nineties or something. It ain’t like we’re bringin some ol’ bullshit music. It ain’t about that. First of all, it’s about the name, Young Black Brotha. We’re not tryin to have racial consciousness in Hip Hop no more. We don’t want Black youth to start thinkin of themselves as Black. Once they start thinkin of themselves as Black they’re gonna look at their history and say, wait a minute. Next thing you know there’ll be a hundred youths in Oakland puttin their minds together and startin their own radio station. Or they might say, "We’re not gonna buy no more tacos and telephones or fuckin AT&T commercials that KMEL shoves down our throat every 30 seconds. We don’t wanna be on that phony shit. We’re gonna do our own thing and get our own advertising!" Could you imagine the power of that? See my point? This is what we’re dealin with. It’s bigger than Rap. It's bigger than Khayree. It’s bigger than Rick Lee, it’s bigger than DJ Mind Motion. I don’t personally have anything against them. What I have against the system of radio is this corporate control. They stole our shit. The airways belong to the people. They stole it. When the war happened anything that’s antiwar, they got rid of it. How you gonna say you’re street soldiers if you ain’t talkin about that? There’s young African Americans and Latinos right now dying. 18, 19 years old, male, female—dying. For what? Behind a punk-ass president that lies? They got us over there ducking bombs and shit. What’s up? At the same time they’re passing laws that if you get arrested they can keep your ass locked up. All they gotta do is label you enemy combatant or whatever and you’re locked up without no trial. This is in the "home of the free, land of the brave". Muthafuckas ain’t aware of it. People don’t know what’s goin on because they’re so hyped up on what they see on BET, MTV and on the radio. By the time they wake up shit’s gonna be way worse. Might be too late.Good to see you back on your feet with a whole roster of fresh new artists. It’s incredible.I’m really blessed. I feel God is using me as an instrument of inspiration. That’s why I say it’s bigger than me. None of this stuff is about me or you. It’s millions of young people out there that need some love and inspiration and an opportunity. How they gonna get it unless they get the real? They can’t get it from this fake music right now. My heart is calling me to serve, to give back. The only reason our youngsters are dying, our Rap artists included, is because of the mentality in the streets. We all know it, but nobody’s willing step forward and say: we gotta be the change. Make the change! Just imagine if twenty rappers out of the Bay start making different kinda albums. You start making different kinda albums like we used to make in the nineties that was more balanced. Make it really uncool to start shootin each other. We start lookin at a cat who pull out the gun like a little punk. That’s what you really are. Who can’t pull a trigger? How hard is it to get a gun and stick it towards somebody and pull a trigger? It don’t take no courage to do that. But to put ‘em up, get your ass whooped, that takes something. I don’t respect the whole Gangsta philosophy. Shoot real quick. You did something I don’t like, I’m gonna get at you with my gun. It ain’t even fair. At least in the Wild West they took 20 paces and then turned around and started shootin. These muthafuckas is catchin you when you’re chillin with your daughter or you grandmother and comin through shootin. That ain’t hard. It’s as soft as you can get. Soft is when you’re a sissy and you’re scared to be men. I’m tired of seeing young Black men and young Latino men die for no reason. May we all be blessed in these turbulent times.You can purchase Khayree Hip Hop Instrumental albums on Itunes. Khayree Music Podcast on Itunes.
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