BIG HUTCH  (June 2010) | Interview By: Jon Hay & Chad Kiser

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Interview was done in June 2010

Questions Asked By: Jonathan Hay & Chad Kiser

Interview Assistance: Raina Webber

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Dubcnn Exclusive – Big Hutch aka Cold 187um on Hood Star by Crooked I
By: Jonathan Hay and Chad Kiser



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Dubcnn: “Hood Star” -- the controversial, forthcoming Crooked I album is dropping June 15th from the WIDEawake Entertainment/Death Row vaults. So let’s jump right in… You’ve spent a lot of time around Crooked I. How do you think the diehard Crooked I fans should view this project?

Lyrically, it’s right where you see his foundation is from… If you’re really into him as a lyricist, you’re really gonna get an earful. It’s vintage stuff. It’s not like a short effort. It’s a full effort, it’s vintage. You’re gonna dig it because of that.

His focus has always been the same. For me, I feel it was always good. Crooked I has always been the type of artist where he was never on an amateur level of being developed. He always was really focused. You’re gonna see that focus come June 15. It’s great to see that. If you don’t respect his focus now, this will do it for you because this is Crooked I at the beginning.


Dubcnn: No doubt. As the former VP of Death Row Records, you were the supervising producer for the Crooked I project that is coming out now, almost a decade later. Why wasn’t this material released then?

The strange thing about that was, with Crooked I -- when we first started working on his record he was actually developing his focus. Certain people at the label didn’t understand how they could really bottle him and put him in the loop. It was very hard to get to a medium as far as how the promotion and marketing should go. I always felt like how he is now, a lyrical genius -- a killer on that microphone and so on… I thought that’s what we should have promoted him as. They really didn’t see that at that time. Death Row was more like a gangsta rap label. Crooked was more of a lyricist basically. He wasn’t about being a crip or blood, or being from this hood or block. It was more about his skill level as an MC.

He didn’t look like a Snoop [Dogg] who was about his swag and what not. Crooked’s swag was just about how lyrically sharp he was. At that point, the label couldn’t see that while trying to transition. You have to realize, that’s at the time when the label started going into a transition where Dre wasn’t there anymore, and Snoop wasn’t there anymore. We were developing new things. I thought it was good because I really believed that’s how they would perceive it, but at times, we didn’t see eye to eye on the Crooked I project.


Dubcnn: Who do you think in particular dropped the ball? Was it a specific department?

I think that at that particular time, we just couldn’t get on the same page. When you can’t agree and it starts showing, we don’t want to put the record out if the marketing team doesn’t believe in it. It has to be a joint thing. If they don’t believe in what we could do with it, and that’s not to say they didn’t believe in us, they just had their reasons based upon how it was back then. Suge [Knight] was never anti-Crooked I -- he just listened to his staff. It was always a diplomatic thing. It’s not like I could just come over and say “let’s do it!” even though I always felt good about it.

You had people asking what about radio? What about this and that? We don’t have this club joint -- but we did have it. When you look at marketing people and how they look at it from a numbers situation, me personally, I’m a creative businessman… if it sounds good, it’s gonna sell. You have people in marketing who think we don’t have a radio record and it wasn’t about Crooked I being a radio artist. It was about him being true to the bone -- a true hip-hop artist.


Dubcnn: Do you think Crooked I fans should view this as his official debut retail album?

Yes and let me explain why. Anytime you make music, when you made it, you made it to come out to the world. I don’t understand when people ask me if he should be proud of it as his debut album. Is that what you’re saying?


Dubcnn: Not about being proud

Well this is his first record as far as his thing goes. It’s not a mixtape. It’s not him on other people’s beats. It is his thing. If you ask me [if it should be seen as his debut album], yes because anytime you go into that studio and do stuff, you put yourself on that mic and you put yourself to the world, yes because it’s his work.


Dubcnn: You’re obviously the one who brought Crooked I to Death Row in the first place…

I was the person who when he left the situation he was at, I brought him under my wing basically. I helped him out and I was the main person. I was focused to make Crooked I the corner piece for the label. I wanted him to be the new movement there.


Dubcnn: Where exactly did you find him and what did you see in him?

Well when I first heard about him, I didn’t find him because he already was signed to Big C-Style at the time. I had heard some of the stuff he was doing with C-Style and I thought he was dope. Suge wanted me to go in and check out the stuff he was doing. It was like Batman and Robin (laughs).

What I liked about him is that he was serious at a young age. That’s what I liked. I respected that. When I heard him, he had so much focus and passion.


Dubcnn: Great. You’ve been very open to working with WIDEawake and their Death Row vaults. Why?

To me, I feel like this and I said this to you earlier. Anytime you do something and you put your all into it, the world deserves to hear it. They need to hear the story behind it. The world deserves it. If I do music and people don’t hear it, it’s like I’m not giving you my gift from God. That’s the way I feel. Whether you believe that or not, that’s the way I look at it. That’s why I support anything that I’ve ever done.


Dubcnn: How do you think WIDEawake is handling the catalogue?

From what I’ve seen, this is one of the first releases they’ve done. I haven’t really seen a lot on it. I’m fine with it. Talking to the people at the company, there focus is trying to protect the legacy, this, and that. They want do the right thing by doing what there trying to do. I can’t do anything but respect that. As long as they’re sticking to the music part, they’ll be alright. If they go into other things, its not gonna be right. I feel like the world deserves to hear anything we’re doing as artists because that’s what we’re here to do – to give people music, song and poetry.


Dubcnn: For the record, I believe this is there fourth or fifth release. What do you have to say to those who have been negative towards the WIDEawake/Death Row releases thus far?

I want to say why first of all. Why would you be negative to someone trying to put something positive forth in this music? Why? It’s not like there putting out music trying to slander somebody. I don’t understand that concept my man. That’s like you’re gonna be mad at Ruthless [Records] for putting out the old Above the Law record that was never released. Why would you be mad? Why give the music that kind of backlash?

That’s what they do, put out music. What would be your problem with a dude putting out a record? I don’t really understand it. That’s a question I can’t answer my man. I don’t really understand what the backlash is about. I just don’t get it. I would say, Ok well, what’s your problem with it? Maybe it’s because certain people aren’t affiliated with it, but here is the music. You are on a franchise team and they trade a player you like, don’t you still like that franchise?


Dubcnn: Thanks so much Hutch for speaking to Dubcnn about this!

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