Random, lesser known, and rarely known facts, + rumors, about L.A. Rap + culture

[R-Tistic]

I was just addin on to a similar post in Outbound connections, titled "A LOT of rap facts", and I ended up addin enough to where I decided to make this post over on this board. As I stated on there, these are all things that I have learned from various sources, and the only ones that are skeptical and not 100% are those in which I let it be known that I wasn't 100% sure.

Feel free to add on.

-Actor De'Aundre Bonds who played Stacey in The Wood, as well as Three Strikes (the one who got shot in the ass) is currently in jail for stabbing his auntie's boyfriend. My boy heard the story from somebody who knew him, and said that his aunt's boyfriend was drunk and was either hittin his aunt or cussin her out, and they started fightin. He is in jail for 11 years. I donno if he gangbanged, but he grew up and still lived near Avalon and 117th, which is probably considered as Watts or Compton.

-Ray-J is known for bein from Carson Centerview Piru. This set is located in a pretty nice, middle class black neighborhood, but shit still goes down over there. There are hundreds of rumors about him being beat up...everywhere from The Lakewood Mall, Carson Mall, Cerritos Mall, to Gardena High school and Skate Depot in Cerritos. The only one I know is factual is the one at Gardena High, which is where most people in my neighborhood goes to school. One of his younger homeboys from Certerview must have had problems with people at school, and Ray-J came up there to "save him" or whatever, and ended up gettin beat up. I was on the same plane as he was this past weekend, goin from LAX to Tampa. I think he was goin to NY, maybe to film for BET.

-Omarion and Houston went to Hamilton High in LA, which was shown on BET when Ludacris performed there once. Word is that Omarion was coo but was R&B'd and Hollywood as hell when he was there, just as he is now. I hear that Houston was one of those dudes who was "always singin" around campus, and was a simp to whatever girl he was talkin to. A friend of mine saw Omarion at an autograph signing, and said that he did some of the coldest shit he had ever seen from a celebrity. He said that he was signin a CD for this fat girl, and she was like "ooooh Omarion I love you, I have all your CDs and posters....could I please just give you a hug???" and he was like no....but immediately after this girl left, a fine girl was in line, and he stood up and gave her a hug, which caused the fat girl to cry hysterically.

-Lil Fizz from B2K went to the same high school as me, Bishop Montgomery in Torrance, and was only there for 3/4s of his freshman year. To me, he was real coo and we used to clown and he would always wanna battle rap me. He was real good in basketball even though he was only like 4'10 or 5 feet tall. For typical reasons, most people who went to school with him and were in his grade seem to hate on him and tell everybody he was a loser, was weird, and was cocky, but he was always cool with me, maybe because I was older. I know that he fuck'd Meagan Good a few years ago, before she got big at this level.

-Glasses Malone was signed to Sony for 1.7 Million dollars, which is more than Game was signed to by Aftermath. In celebration, he had a party in December and bought out the entire bar at The Grand Niteclub downtown in LA. Although many people hadn't heard of Glasses until recently, he had been in the local rap scene for a few years. Ironically, he personally knew Dr. Dre through Neff-U and Neff's uncle Chuck, and when Dre first told him that he signed a rapper from Compton named "The Game", he had no idea who The Game was.

-First Game....then Bishop...then Glasses....who's next? Word on the streets is that the next LA rapper to be signed to a major might be Quiz, who is down with Glasses's brother Pooh's management company "Firing Squad". If not Quiz, it could possibly be Stix, who is part of Watts City and is always hostin different events throughout the nation. DJ Warior, acclaimed West Coast DJ, is hostin Quiz's next mixtape and is pushin it, so we know that it will make some noise. Producers JR and J-Classic are gonna have some tracks on there.

-Bishop Lamont is from the city of Carson, same place as Ras Kass, Ray J, Brandy, Kyla Pratt, and a few others in the game.

-I don't remember the story, but I remember readin an interview sayin that NWA somehow linked up at The Rodium, a large outdoor flea market in Gardena/Torrance. This is the same place that DJ Quik used to sell his underground tapes around LA.

-Murs and 9th Wonder have finished the sequel to their next CD, "Murray's revenge" and I heard it a few weeks ago. It is definitely soundin like a great CD. One thing interesting about it that I didn't notice til Murs brother said it, is that Murs doesn't even curse on the entire CD. My favorite track on there is called "Silly lil girl" and says somethin bout "you didn't want me when I wanted you!" and talks about how females used to act different to him before he blew up. Even though it is 100% finished, it won't be out for a few months.

-Glasses Malone is one of the smartest rappers around, as far as his scholastic performance. He got a 1400 on his SAT, and was offered scholarships to various colleges when he was in high school. It's evident from some of the lines he uses on his songs, even when talkin about gangsta shit. On one track, he said somethin bout how he reps the same color blood is before oxygen hits.

-From talking to different artists in the LA scene, it may sound weird, but one of the most respected gangstas in the game is Hi-C. It may sound strange because he rarely raps about thug or gangsta shit, and is always about females. But people who grew up around him say that nobody could ever even attempt to knock him for his street rep, and that he put it down durin his day.

-Brazil and Wilmington had an interesting situation with the cops last week, and it will most likely be shown on a DVD that they are likely to release in a few weeks. The incident even had helicopters over the base, and they took a few members of B&W and held them for a while.

-J. Wells is not from L.A....he's actually from somewhere in the south or either Chicago. Jelly Roll is also from the south...I think Alabama.

-Kurupt went to Leuzinger High School, which is in the city of Hawthorne that borders Inglewood and Gardena. I don't think he ever got put on the Rollin 60s set, but he lived in their hood for a good while and was definitely down with many of the dudes from there. Thing is, 60s is such a big set, many people from the set don't get along with each other, and this is probably why you may hear rumors of how he's really not from there, how he got put off, or how he gets no respect from them. The only thing I can say from my own eyes is that I was at a picnic with him and many cats from 60s on July 4 back in 2003 at Kenneth Hahn (same park they filmed Nothin but a g thang), and there were definitely many OGs, YGs, BGs, etc. etc. there who were definitely from 60s. I noticed that he wasn't talkin to many of the younger ones though.

-Many people think Baron and Game went to the same high school, but that's definitely not true. Baron went to Crossroads high, a private school in Santa Monica that costs somethin between 10,000 and 15,000 a year. They may have played together on a traveling team or somethin like that. I remember seein Baron play against Verbum Dei High (Andre Miller's school) from Watts back in 96-97. I remember somebody tellin me Baron got a scholarship to go there, and that he definitely didn't have to pay that 10-15 grand a year. Also, I think Baron grew up somewhere in L.A. City and not Compton.

-Stacey Augmon, best known as "The Plastic Man" during his time on the Atlanta Hawks (wore #2), is supposedly from Pasadena Denver Lane Bloods. I have seen him a few times flamed up, such as havin on a Red Phillies Jacket, and I hear that he used to have parties in LA that used to have nothin but bloods there.

-Reggie Bush hosted a Christmas party for the College Fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi, but he is not a Kappa (well at least he hasn't crossed).

-Word is that Detox was actually finished back in 2003, and that Dre really didn't produce many of the songs, but that he mixed them and added his touch to them all. I hear that the reason it didn't come out is because of somethin behind the scenes with the cats that really did all the beats, who are producers that are known in the rap game but not the ones who may have been expected, such as Scott Storch. I think it was regarding money that Dre was going to pay for their work on the album. I can't certify this as being 100% true, but the person who told me is definitely connected with many people in the game, including Dre.

-Jennifer Lewis, actress from Long Beach most notably from "My wife and Kids" and Neutrogena commercials, is somethin like bi-sexual or even "down low" as a lesbian. I have seen pictures of her hugged up with her ex-girlfriend...and NO, it was not on some buddy buddy friendly shit like many girls do, but was REALLY a homosexual type of picture. Word on the streets is also that she gets around with the opposite sex as well.


-Trevor Ariza and Hassan Adams went to the same High School, Basketball powerhouse Westchester. Many celebrities went to this school, mostly 30+ year old black actors and actresses, as well as deceased actor Phil Hartman.

-Cedar Block, the piru set most known because of Game's affiliation, is a very small-knit set in Compton that is also small in territory size, but is considered to some as part of The Westside Piru alliance or "tree" of sets. Bordering neighborhood sets are such as Treetop, which is most known because of DJ Quik, and Quik grew up a few blocks away from Big Fase.

-Although I have heard some people say that there are some small blood sets or either individual bloods who live in Long Beach, it is still seen as being a city that is 100% crip. Gardena is definitely 100% crip, even though there always seem to be a number of bloods who attend Gardena High. People may see Inglewood as having 100% bloods, but there are actually a number of crip sets located in Inglewood.

-In L.A., there has to be a good 10,000 people who have a story that sounds somethin like this....."I really know Game", "I knew Game", "I used to always see Game", and the list keeps goin and goin. I would never really say I knew him, because I met him and was around him 5-6 times, but I never held a conversation with him. One account that I have heard comes from several people who went to college with him at Cerritos JC. Most of their stories actually sound the same. They all say that he was pretty coo overall, but was not gangsta in any way and that he never wore red or talked about gangbangin. They said he was the best dressed dude there, and that he used to rap but his style was a lot different. One of them told me that he was suprised when he found out he got shot, and when they told him that he was a blood, he was like "for real? I never knew that." This must not have been too much eariler than when he got signed to Aftermath. I have heard many other stories about Game, from him sockin people out on basketball courts, to him bein jumped by crips at Compton, but I heard them all from skeptical sources.

-Murs had a bit of a situation with Xzibit a few years ago, but he said that he killed it before it coulda turned into anything, and that he didn't sweat it because he knew Xzibit was shermed outta his mind when it occured. He knew Xzibit when he first moved from Arizona, and told me that somebody was like "have you met Alvin from Arizona yet?" back in the early 90s.

-According to Suga Free, he didn't steal and sell that DJ Quik beat to Rappin 4-Tay. I heard this story from somebody who's down with Free. He said that he got the beat from Quik, which had Nate on it, and he added a verse to it. I donno if Rappin 4-Tay really stole the CD or whatever, but he added his verses to it and made a song of it, and he definitely didn't intend for it to get out there the way that it did. I donno if he gave it to somebody at a radio station or what, but it got played on radio, and Quik had no idea that 4-Tay was even on it or usin it, and I guess he figured that Free sold the beat to him. Now that is the story Free told his boy, and I donno if that's true or not. So is Free really not gonna diss Quik on his album??? Hmm...we'll seee. The album is already finished, but is not bein released just yet.

-Game and Chingy have apparently killed their "beef", if you want to call it that. There was a time back in 04 when Game arrived to a party that Chingy was havin in LA, and Chingy ran out the back door before it was over. I donno if he felt threatened or what the deal was.

-A certain East Coast rapper got their chain jacked by Rollin 30 Crips (no it wasn't Cam'ron), and Loon is the one who got it back for them.

-John Singleton and the people in charge of writing Baby Boy and Boyz n da hood purposely left out the names of the sets in both movies. But most people in LA knew what sets and hoods everything was located in, and what sets those were supposed to be. In Boyz N da hood, many people feel that there was somewhat of a joke or hidden meaning in the name....boyz N da Hood = N Hood = Neighborhood crips, and the main street Doughboy and the rest of them lived on was definitely in Rollin 60 Crips hood, and they are Neighborhood Crips. The spot that they were posted on Crenshaw at when the bloods started shootin in the air was either near 54th and Crenshaw, or somewhere in the 30s area on Crenshaw. In Baby Boy, the apartments that Jody lived in was located in Neighborhood Rollin 40 crips territory, as was The Liquor Bank where Jody got jumped at. The way they dressed, as well as the "ritual" where Omar Gooding lined up the youngstaz up and bombed on them at the park, closely resembles the way that Neighborhood crips conduct theirselves. Also...Melvin, who was Jody's mom's boyfriend in there, had a big Hoover tattoo on his back. Contrary to popular belief, Hoovers are not Crips anymore, aside from one set (I think 52 Hoovers are still crips), and this could have been one of the underlying reasons that Jody and Melvin didn't get along in the movie. Most Hoovers don't get along with Neighborhood crips. Also, the gay dude from the salon in that movie is really gay in real life, and he works in the same building as me in Culver City.

-Friday was filmed on 126th between Normandie and I think Halldale...if not Halldale, it's whatever Street is parallel with Normandie and is a block west of it. The block still looks similar, although the houses have been painted a different color. This is located in Raymond Crips territory, and is two blocks from El Segundo, which is the bordering street that separates Los Angeles (considered South LA or even South Central right there) and Gardena. For whatever reason, the crips in Gardena (Shotguns, Paybacks, Dragnet) don't get along with Raymond crips, or any Neighborhood crips.

[R-Tistic]

Just a few more.....

-Khakis and chucks are the stereotypical wear for L.A. cats, mainly gangbangers, but you rarely see these nowadays. You do see cats wearin dickies, but not a whole lot, and u see chucks but only in the hoods and not too often. You rarely see those old school pendleton or plaid shirts that you always see in rap videos, pictures, and movies. You rarely see cats sportin bandanas.

-The whole Clown dancin/krumpin thing was HUMONGOUS between 2001-2003, and it died off a bit and came back due to the movie, "Rize". It was pioneered by Tommy the clown, who is from L.A. and I THINK went to Gardena High school. He used to always do kids parties, and he used to always be on my block in Gardena doin parties in like 94-95, and this evolved into the dance culture. When this was big, many cats in high school and middle school saw this as an alternative to gangbangin, and only a few cats did both (who could take a clown banger serious anyway?). One of the most known, if not the most known clown dancer other than Tommy himself, is named Larry Berry, and he went to Gardena and grew up in or near the Nickerson Gardens in Watts. He is in the movie Rize, and he pioneered a lot of dances, some which have even made it to mainstream videos such as Chris Brown Run it and Missy Elliot "I'm really hot". He is also a comedian and hosts different events and shows in L.A. I wouldn't be suprised at all if he blows up.

 

[We Fly High]

great post. i'll add some when i think of them. murrays revenge is sounding great too. murs got some great things ahead of him. thats crazy that g malone got a 1400 on SAT.

[Teddy Roosevelt]

Like http://www.dubcnn.com/connect/index.php?topic=99227.0 a lot of it is speculation or cannot be proved. Therefore not making it a fact. But there are some interseting ones.

Although many people hadn't heard of Glasses until recently, he had been in the local rap scene for a few years. Ironically, he personally knew Dr. Dre through Neff-U and Neff's uncle Chuck, and when Dre first told him that he signed a rapper from Compton named "The Game", he had no idea who The Game was.

This contradicts a G-Malone interview I read a while back when he was talking about first meeting game. He said that a friend introduced them a while back at some sort of gathering and that he was surrounded by dozens of bloods.

[JMan]

really good read r'tistic.. props 

[R-Tistic]

Like http://www.dubcnn.com/connect/index.php?topic=99227.0 a lot of it is speculation or cannot be proved. Therefore not making it a fact. But there are some interseting ones.

Although many people hadn't heard of Glasses until recently, he had been in the local rap scene for a few years. Ironically, he personally knew Dr. Dre through Neff-U and Neff's uncle Chuck, and when Dre first told him that he signed a rapper from Compton named "The Game", he had no idea who The Game was.

This contradicts a G-Malone interview I read a while back when he was talking about first meeting game. He said that a friend introduced them a while back at some sort of gathering and that he was surrounded by dozens of bloods.

I might have read that interview a while ago but I'm not sure. His brother told me about this, and both things could be true...maybe Dre told him and he didn't know who he was at the time, but he met him later. Otherwise, I can't call it.

[Suga Foot]

woooo good post!

I got a stroy about Suge Knight but it's really long and not really that exciting so whatever.

[Teddy Roosevelt]

Like http://www.dubcnn.com/connect/index.php?topic=99227.0 a lot of it is speculation or cannot be proved. Therefore not making it a fact. But there are some interseting ones.

Although many people hadn't heard of Glasses until recently, he had been in the local rap scene for a few years. Ironically, he personally knew Dr. Dre through Neff-U and Neff's uncle Chuck, and when Dre first told him that he signed a rapper from Compton named "The Game", he had no idea who The Game was.

This contradicts a G-Malone interview I read a while back when he was talking about first meeting game. He said that a friend introduced them a while back at some sort of gathering and that he was surrounded by dozens of bloods.

I might have read that interview a while ago but I'm not sure. His brother told me about this, and both things could be true...maybe Dre told him and he didn't know who he was at the time, but he met him later. Otherwise, I can't call it.

That might be it.
How did you get all this info? A lot of this is coming directly from your mouth. You got a shit load of connections huh?

[R-Tistic]

Like http://www.dubcnn.com/connect/index.php?topic=99227.0 a lot of it is speculation or cannot be proved. Therefore not making it a fact. But there are some interseting ones.

Although many people hadn't heard of Glasses until recently, he had been in the local rap scene for a few years. Ironically, he personally knew Dr. Dre through Neff-U and Neff's uncle Chuck, and when Dre first told him that he signed a rapper from Compton named "The Game", he had no idea who The Game was.

This contradicts a G-Malone interview I read a while back when he was talking about first meeting game. He said that a friend introduced them a while back at some sort of gathering and that he was surrounded by dozens of bloods.

I might have read that interview a while ago but I'm not sure. His brother told me about this, and both things could be true...maybe Dre told him and he didn't know who he was at the time, but he met him later. Otherwise, I can't call it.

That might be it.
How did you get all this info? A lot of this is coming directly from your mouth. You got a shit load of connections huh?

Yeah it's all comin from my mouth, definitely with no bullshit. I stay a bit connected around LA, nothin major though.

LOL Adon, yeah post it if you want to. Shit I have heard a few about him myself from credible sources, and some are VERY disturbing...

[WestCoasta]

From talking to different artists in the LA scene, it may sound weird, but one of the most respected gangstas in the game is Hi-C. It may sound strange because he rarely raps about thug or gangsta shit, and is always about females. But people who grew up around him say that nobody could ever even attempt to knock him for his street rep, and that he put it down durin his day.

doesn't surprise me, Hi-C is dope!

[wcsoldier]

Propz R-Tistic. Never know for Augmon . At least he wore Red when he played for the Hawks too

[You Ain't Shit]

propz to r-tistic, good post, got any more post em up

[Intriago33]

-Jennifer Lewis, actress from Long Beach most notably from "My wife and Kids" and Neutrogena commercials, is somethin like bi-sexual or even "down low" as a lesbian. I have seen pictures of her hugged up with her ex-girlfriend...and NO, it was not on some buddy buddy friendly shit like many girls do, but was REALLY a homosexual type of picture. Word on the streets is also that she gets around with the opposite sex as well.

Which characters that, Claire Kyle?

BTW, good read.

[R-Tistic]

-Jennifer Lewis, actress from Long Beach most notably from "My wife and Kids" and Neutrogena commercials, is somethin like bi-sexual or even "down low" as a lesbian. I have seen pictures of her hugged up with her ex-girlfriend...and NO, it was not on some buddy buddy friendly shit like many girls do, but was REALLY a homosexual type of picture. Word on the streets is also that she gets around with the opposite sex as well.

Which characters that, Claire Kyle?

BTW, good read.

Yea that's her

[Addicted To Cake]

very good read. btw, when is murs's album coming out? does he still live in Mid City or did he move outta the hood?

and do u still talk to the bws camp?