[BWS]New Clyde Carson Interview! Album coming as well as video!

[bwstakeover]

Money and Clyde

An in-depth interview with Capitol Records artist Clyde Carson

By: Krishtine de Leon

Photos: Amanda Lopez


Clyde Carson is about to get real cinematic with his upcoming summer release through Black Wall Street/ Moe Doe Records, Theater Music. As the frontman of Oakland-based group The Team, and a young, black entrepreneur peddling his own Hyphy Juice energy drink, Carson sits down with ILLERCLIP to discuss girls, gwop, and making it to the top.






K: So where do you think the Bay is in terms of being recognized musically?


CC: I think we’re on the cusp of everyone in the country respecting and knowing what our music is about. That’s where I think we are. We gotta get deals. We need more hit songs. When you have a hit song, that’s what its about. I don’t give a fuck if it’s a crazy hyphy song, or if it’s a slow song. What helped every movement was hit songs.

K: What do you think happened after “Tell Me When to Go”?


CC: People that was supposed to get their deals didn’t get their deals. Everybody who was supposed to get a deal, didn’t get a deal. I don’t think anybody making super-great bread. We’re not selling 100,000 like we used to in the early 90s, in the mid-90s. We don’t do that no more out there. Team sold 10.000 twice, you feel me? I ain’t gotta lie about that shit. We only sold 10. I mean, that’s good independently, but that doesn’t make mothafuckas live comfortably. I think, more than anything, you gotta just hustle your way into a situation like a major. And when you get the major, hustle your way to make yourself a priority. It’s just all about hustle. I see what the rappers I look up to mean when they say it’s so much about hustle. You gotta hustle you way to get signed, and when you get signed, you gotta to make sure, “Ay, I’m a priority up in this building. If ya’ll don’t know, I’m ‘bout to make y’all know. I’m really the shit.” That’s the attitude how you gotta go into it, whether you hustlin’ to get on the radio, or you hustlin’ to get the deal. ‘Cause I could be sittin’ on the shelf. I don’t know if my album is gonna come out in June. Even if they say they love you, or this is gonna happen, you gotta hustle like they ain’t saying that. And I think we all have that hustle from the Bay Area, it’s just taking it to the next level. And quality music.


K: What is it about your particular hustle that got you to where you are at?


CC: I pretty much, gave my life to music. I had a girl. I could have got married or some shit. But I was like, “Yo, I wanna rap. I think I can be a factor out here. I think I can do something big.” I saw it. That right there, off top. I left my girl – I was in a long-term relationship – I left everything I was doing, me and Mayne. Fuck college, fuck all that shit. And I’m not saying that you supposed to say that. But for me, if you asking me what was my hustle? It was rap or die. If this shit don’t work, you’re gonna see me in downtown Oakland. Plus, I felt like I had something. The standard wasn’t so high, man. There wasn’t really a lot of rappers that was hot to me, from where I was at, besides the obvious people that was out. You had the Richie Rich’s and the 3XKrazy – all the people that I looked up to – other than them, anything new and young – I’m talking about I started taking it serious when I was 18 – at that time, it was ’99. I thought, I think I can be a factor.



K: Is it true that every rapper wants to be a singer deep down inside?


CC: Nah. You sing in the shower. You sing even when you can’t sing. I ain’t never took a singing class in my life, but when I heard the Guce and Messy Marv track, I was like, “Fuck that! I’m ‘bout to go ahead and try to sing some shit. I hope they like it.” That’s what music do to you. It’s true that everybody wants to sing but I’m a true MC. I love the art of hip hop, so I’m rapping before I’m singing any day. But then again, it’s music. So wherever the beat take me, nigga, I don’t know what the fuck I’mma do.


K: Is it hard for you to have a personal life in the industry?


CC: It goes deep, man. It makes me hungrier. My hustle got me here. You better not slow down, nigga, you better speed up. Now I ain’t got time for nothing. It’s constant work. There’s no down time. Down time is when you sleep. If you need to take a break, go the fuck to sleep. Take a nap. And when yo ass get up, get the fuck to work. Slaves did it.

K: And that’s what you think in your head when you are complaining about your day. Is that your motivation?


CC: My motivation is counting blessings. My motivation is saying, “You know what, God? Thank you for actually letting me go eat good food, and look fitted every day, and I can get a haircut, and I don’t trip off shit like gas. Thank you for enabling me to hustle.” That’s my motivation, you feel me? Before I sit here and complain about what I don’t got.


K: Do you think it’s hard to make it if you’re from the Bay?


CC: No. Niggas hating on the Bay is not true. Niggas hate on stupid shit. So if you from the Bay, and you look stupid when you do something, niggas is gonna hate on it. (laughs). Niggas didn’t hate on me when I went to New York. I lived out there for a year-and-a-half. I didn’t hear one person hate on me, or hate on nothing about the Bay. There wasn’t no hate. They might not have got the music I was listening to at the time, they might not have been like, “Oh, that shit is crazy,” they might have been like, “Oh, I don’t fuck with that,” but that don’t mean they hatin’. Just ‘cause a nigga don’t like what he hear, don’t mean he hatin’. If that was the case, everybody would be signed. If I make something, and you don’t like it, I’m not gonna be like “Why you hatin’ on me?” I’ma ask you why you didn’t like it. Tell me. Help me. Maybe you can correct the problem. Or maybe you just don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. They don’t hate on the Bay. If your music is good, they’re gonna fuck wit you. And the people that I’m seeing really get their name out there, they’re bonafied hustlers. There’s no room for excuse.




K: How do you feel about the Hyphy Movement?


CC: I feel like I’m the biggest part of the Hyphy Movement. I got Hyphy Juice…mothafucka! (laughs) I did the unthinkable. I’m 100% behind it. I need hyphy to be as big as it can be. As a businessman, and somebody coming up out the Bay. I’m a rapper, man, I’m an MC. I got a movement behind me. We just did the House of Blues. We said, “I’m from Oakland, I represent the Hyphy Movement.” Them mothafuckas went crazy. So that’s big. Where you can go somewhere else, and tell someone about a movement, and they with it. Before I say that, I do gotta say, shout out to E-40. It really was 40 though, straight up. Everyone plays their part. You got mothafuckas like Big Von, who broke and started the Hyphy Movement playing records. He started the Battle of the Bays, to get the Bay movin’ Then you got the artists, like Keak Da Sneak, Frontline, all the mothafuckas who was making music. Then you got 40, who took it over the top who said, “You know what? I see what you doing. I’m involved in it. I’ma take it to that next level and put it on t.v.” And then you got mothafuckas like me, who benefited off of what that great Ambassador did. Because he did that, now you got A&Rs staying at Emeryville looking for the next big act to hear on KMEL. Now I benefited off that, now I gotta do the same thing. Let’s all network together. No beefing. Let’s all eat. Let’s do it like the South. I respect the South because they got hip hop in a fucking headlock and they not letting it go. I’m like, “Nigga, y’all been down for too long, I feel you! Fuck the world!” But that’s the same way we feel in the Bay.


K: What’s your relationship with Game?


CC: We got a great relationship. When we first hooked up, I came down, he played me his album, I was like, “Man, that shit was crazy.” I let him know what I was doing, and he was with everything, he was juiced on it. He was super cool though. Everything he didn’t use for his album, he was just sending me producers. He wanna see me win, he wanna see everything that I’m doing work. A black man that wants to see another black man win. Instead of competing, let’s join forces together. Some Eminem, 50 Cent shit. Plus it unifies the West Coast. You got a nigga from Oakland and a nigga from Compton. Both trying to do very huge shit. That makes us that much stronger. Now Game got a piece of hyphy. Now I got a piece of what Game got, that gangsta shit. But we both don’t do each other’s music, but I can tap into his fans, and he can tap into mine, or the fans that I’m gonna get, because I ain’t even gonna front, that nigga way bigger than me.


K: If there were three people you could work with in the future, who would you work with.


CC: Dr. Dre, Andre Nickatina, and John Mayer.


K: How do you feel about hip hop being so mainstream that most of the fans are young white kids from the Bible belt buying the records.


CC: I ain’t trippin. I just want to give them a better image to look at. I’ll put it like this – everybody watch BET with it on mute. Then ask, “Is that a good look?” Now am I finna do the same thing to get the money?
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Go to www.myspace.com/clydecarson to hear a New Dope ass Track "You see It", as well as "Doing that" feat Sean Kingston, a video is coming Too!

[You Ain't Shit]

cant wait for his album to drop, he dope 

[Dubb Montana]

I think he has a better chance to blow because he can crossover unlike his labelmates Juice & Black Boy

[Tay]

I think he has a better chance to blow because he can crossover unlike his labelmates Juice & Black Boy

Yeah, he has that smooth style where he can do hooks, but his album needs to actually drop this time. I remember it was supposed to last May, and "2 Step" had a nice buzz around the Bay, and it got pushed back, and then "Doin' That" didn't seem to make as big a splash as they were hoping, but it was a nice track. If he don't drop, at least give me another Team album, "World Premiere" was dope.

[LongBeachsFinest]

PROPS CLYDE HAS A GOOD COMMERCIAL SIDE, AND GAME SEE'S THAT IN HIM . . . HE'S HAD HIM WORKING WITH SOME DOPE PRODUCERS

[LongBeachsFinest]

The only reason why Doin' That didn't do that well is because label issues with Sean Kingston's label. They didn't wanna market him as a gangster type of artist so I guess Clyde's label stopped pushing the single since Kingston's label wanted it stopped. Hopefully he does a track with Andre Nickatina, don't give a fuck about the other two.

if they would of created a video for either of them they both would of been hits, the albums been pushed back to when Games dropping though so he can give juice and clyde as much exposure as possible

[conqueso34]

thats dope he wants to work with andre nickatina, hope that happens

[points]

I enjoy his honesty and his modesty.

I am a fan of several tracks (Don't get your hood stomped out, Two Step) not his major single feat Sean Kingston.

Hopefully, he'll find some more success.  He seems like an earnest cat and BWS needs the success.