Dubcnn: What’s up y’all it’s Jose with Dubcnn, I’m here with Butch Cassidy.

Butch Cassidy: yeah what’s happening Dubcnn. Always showing me so much love so I gotta give it back.

Dubcnn: You guys all know Butch Cassidy he was on some big tracks, singing hook sand stuff, Snoop Dogg and a bunch of other people. So this is Butch Cassidy and we're gonna talking to him. First of all tell us what’s up first of all. You got a new album that just came out.

Butch: Yeah I got a new record coming out, it’s called Black and Brown coming together. It’s with my homeboy named Spirit. We’re trying to bring the Latinos and blacks together on this project because there’s been a lot of nonsense going on the streets of Long Beach and we’re trying to clean that up. Black and brown need to come together ‘cause once we come together they don’t run shit. So the record’s got, you want me to get all deep into that with the who on the tracks and all that?

Dubcnn: Yeah, you got me, those were the questions I was gonna ask anyways.

Butch: Well I hooked up with spirit and I did a song with him for his last project so we decided to put something together for this record. We was like we need to do a whole album and all that stuff we start working and we was liking what we was hearing and we stuck with it. We got cuts from Focus, Dae One, Camouflage, I can’t start thinking about all of the business now. When I figure out all of y’all I’ll bring y’alls names out, don’t be insulted. We got features from of course Pr1me, y’all know Pr1me been doing a lot of big things out there, we got down from lean like a cholo, we got one with snoop, we got one uncle Isaac on there, we got big tank on there, just a few artists that’s up and coming that wanna do they thang and get they shine, but the first single is Who Got the Girls, and it’s off the chain, featuring Fingaz, and y’all need to check that out. I’m sure y’all love the record.

Dubcnn: So how did you and spirit link up before the album? How did that whole thing come about?

Butch: I hooked up with Spirit at a car show in Oxnard about two years ago. I was doing a show out there, I was performing my song “Cruisin’”, and I hollered at him backstage and he was like, “man I need you on this song, we need to hook up, I’ll take care of you.” You know the same old boom bam stuff. I liked what the dude was bringing to the table so from there we just stayed friends, cause he keep that good smell in the air called that greenery. So you know we just kept going on from there. After we started making the records we dug ‘em so much we just said let’s just do an album, and here we is with the black and brown.

Dubcnn: So you guys work together and got a good vibe and shit. How do you think you complement each other musically to the point where you’re like, “Yeah we should do an album together.” What strengths do you have that he doesn’t have and vice versa.

Butch: Haha. Well the strengths, I don’t lack any strengths, that’s just me. I do whatever’s called for. I feel I’m a B+ rapper, I’ll rap if I have to and I give him some of the knowledge that he need about his rapping and some of his melodies and things that he needs to work on, but as far as me putting my stuff down with the hooks and the verses, that’s no problem. I’ve been doing it so long. We collaborating and coming together, give me that Latino feel. I’ve worked with other Latino artists but not just sat down and did a whole record like that. It feel kinda good. And when we shot the video all the Latinos come out show me a lot of love, you know the Latino crowd they always show me a lot of love, down with everything I do so much love to them. But far as now that we have the whole record done we got a nice little connection going, you never know two years from now we might do a Black and Brown Part 2.

Dubcnn: Is there anyone else that you’d wanna do an album similar to this with, as far as doing collabs, a collab album?

Butch: A collab album? No really I stand alone, nah I’m just playing. Right now I’m, in the process of working on an album. It’s going really slow because my homeboy, he’s so big and he’s such a rockstar and it’s called The Blues Brother

Pr1me: Yeah.

Butch: It’s with my homeboy Pr1me and we about two songs deep.

Pr1me: No, stop lying, cause you already know. I’m waiting on BC to finish up a few hooks we been working on, we already been workin’ on a few records. And BC he, he’s so bombarded with people hittin’ him up, with doing records all of that so he put this on the backburner, so blame BC for the blues brothers record.

Butch: Check it out, this boy right here Pr1me is bad. So we workin’ on a record called the Blues Brother. I did a couple songs with him for my own personal project, “Chillin’ on the West Coast”, Standin’ in the Mirror, what’s that song?

Pr1me: The Felli Fel track…”I’m rollin”

Butch: Yeah but we ain’t workin’ with that.

Pr1me: Dirty Mind.

Butch: There was Dirty Mind, what’s that one we did?

Pr1me: Which one, who did the beat, Focus? The Focus track.

Butch: Yeah, “No matter what you talkin’ ‘bout”

Pr1me: Yeah, “Keep Doin’ What You Do” produced by Focus. Shouts out to Focus, you know what it is.

Butch: What’s up Focus, you know you hot, you real hot. So we just got a bunch of stuff goin’ on and we gon’ finish this record, and we gon’ drop that as soon as it’s done and we gon’ have a single that’s so fire.

Pr1me: It’s gonna be so cold. The tracks that we been workin’ on have been ice cold. Me and BC about to go in real hard, we just got the budget for the studio time and all of that so be checkin’ for that, we doin’ it real big.

Butch: Yeah it’s a real big thing. Long beach come together. And we do need to come together, and don’t act like we together just because we from Long Beach and I can speak on a few things but long beach do need to come together.

Pr1me: and you do know that but I’mma let the big homie speak on that. Bang!

Dubcnn: I saw an interview and you were talking about your “First and Last” project that album and stuff, and you were talking about how you wanted to retire your butch Cassidy name. Is that still going on? Explain that.

Butch: That’s real serious. I counted from the first time people actually heard butch Cassidy, that was in 1999 with G’d up. So I take it that that’s when Butch Cassidy was born, in 1999 with his first single Gangster’d up and it’s been ten years of nonstop hooks and verses. And all my fans have been hittin’ me telling me they really want that record so hard. So what I’mma do, what I’ve already done, I’ve put the record together, I’m gon’ figure out which single I’mma do, cause I got so many hot singles I just don’ t know which one to pick. I got thirty of forty songs for the record, and it’s just so fire, and it got so much different stuff on it that I’m just losing my mind now, because we’re gettin’ bombarded by people poppin’ in during my interviews. Thanks a lot. Everybody that’s Aaron.

Aaron: Hi everybody. Just had to grab some of your music.

Butch: Alright buddy. Talk to you in a minute, keep it unlocked. Sorry fans I don’t know where I left off with. I’m gonna give you the Butch Cassidy, you know what, I got so many songs it might be the first and last, it might be the Butch Cassidy First and Last Vol. 1 and then drop Vol. 2, and then come with a new name and a whole different style of music that’s gon’ be more R&B and grown folks. We’ll give a little something for the kids, but I’m going to another level for it. I’m not that young kid anymore that’s bouncin’ around droppin’ these little kiddie singles. It’s time to be that grown man that I am. So I’mma give the fans what they want. I’m not sayin’ that I’m close to forty but no one wants to be rapping on the mic at forty, it get’s kinda old, kids can see. Rap is changing, there’s a new sound, new stuff that they comin’ with. I mean it’s cool but I really ain’t feelin’ it. So what I’m gon’ do is change it up and start doing my singing and stuff that I know I should‘ve been doing a while back. But when I came into the game I had to get in where I fit in, to do what was needed, so I did that. If you put me in any situation I’m gon’ prevail. So now I’m gon’ take my career to the next level, retire butch Cassidy, and I’m sure y’all gonna be excited about it, I’m not gonna let you down.

Dubcnn: You obviously sing a lot of hooks on songs. Do you have anything that’s coming out in the near future that we should look out for?

Butch: Right now I’m really excited because I got, besides the Black and brown stuff, I’m excited about that. I got something going on with Bishop. What’s the name of the song?

Pr1me: It’s a track, Battlecat did it, Chevy Jones’ featured on it, Bokie’s featured on it, Nothing Could be Better is the name of the track. It’s with Bishop Lamont.

Butch: It’s a bishop lamont song featuring me, Sugar Free, Chevy Jones, Bokie. Produced by Battlecat. Bokie, I never met you Bokie, phenomenal, I heard your stuff, but maybe one day we’ll meet. But the song is incredible and it should be dropping real soon. So all of y’all look forward to that because that’s gonna set off some stuff that’s ridiculous. I might just use that and just keep droppin’ and droppin’ songs right after that and just never stop. So just be lookin’ forward to that, I got The Black and Brown and I got this.

Dubcnn: The next thing I wanna ask you about is Nate Dogg. Obviously you and him are really close and stuff.

Butch: Yeah that’s my first cousin.

Dubcnn: I was actually hangin’ out with Dae One and there were rumors that he passed away. So tell us that’s he’s okay and give an update what’s going on and stuff.

Butch: well first of all, whoever was starting those rumors, whoever it is that just wakes up in the morning and decides to say that Nate Dogg passed away you need a bullet in your head, ‘cause that’s some nonsense that no one needs to play with. I don’t know why people just wake up in the morning just sayin’, “I’m finna start a rumor to get everybody all stirred up.” But you don’t make rumors about death ‘cause it’ll flip around and turn on you, and if we find out who it is, it just might come…whatever. But, I just wanted everybody to stay prayin’ for Nate Dogg. He fightin’ and he trying to pull through this situation that he has goin’ on. I know the lord’ll bring him through, It’s all in the lord’s hands. I mean whatever he want to do then we just can’t do nothing but ride with it and just trust it. But Nate Dogg has been really strong, he’s just been fighting for the last year and I feel he gon’ pull through and come back and just do what he got to do.

Dubcnn: I hope so too. A couple of years ago you took a little break from the music, ‘cause a bunch of other stuff was goin’ on outside your music stuff. What caused you to go on that break and what caused you to come back and say I need to get back in this?

Butch: Well it depends on what you’re talking about break.

Dubcnn: You never actually stopped you just kinda slowed down.

Butch: Yeah, just slowed down then came back with the “Cruisin’” thing. I hit ‘em really hard with that. As far as the radio thing, radio is what makes artists right now on the West Coast take breaks. Because it’s just so much stuff, what’s going on at the radio stations that, a lot of the fans don’t know about. It’s not that we not giving you West Coast stuff, and when you go to radio they’ll say that you guys don’t wanna hear when I know y’all do, it’s just that they don’t wanna play it. We keep trying to bring these songs and all that but they don’t wanna play it. I don’t give a damn who gets offended ‘cause if you’re offended then you know that it’s you. So stop hating and trying to stop West Coast ‘cause you’re never gonna stop. I mean you can sit here and say all day that no one wants to hear the gangster music when actually they do, because this is what’s going on in the streets. It’s a way of life. I mean we wanna stop it, but everyday we gotta get up everyday and watch our backs and see what’s going on in the streets. You can change your life and say, “Oh I don’t gangbang no more and I don’t do this and all that stuff.” That still don’t mean that somebody might not blow your head off one day when you go to the liquor store or something. So all this stuff is going on and they don’t care if you’re a square or not. So if I wanna talk about that stuff in my music and put it out there, these youngsters understand at the schools and stuff ‘cause they dealing with the gangbang stuff inside the schools, fighting and all this racial stuff. That’s why we doin’ the Black and Brown thing, trying to bring ‘em together, this stuff is still going on. Don’t think that because you stop playing the West Coast music, that it’s gonna make a change. It’s not gonna make a change. They wanna hear this stuff and wanna hear what we talkin’ about ‘cause they still livin’ that stuff out there. It’s just the personal DJs inside the business that’s saying they don’t wanna hear it no more, ‘cause half of those faggots they can’t do it anyway, so they kinda jealous of what’s goin’ on. And I don’t really care no more ‘cause I’m flat out tired of y’all. So whoever get offended call me and we’ll deal with it. But, something has to come to an end. Most of the people that’s not playing the West Coast music at they station, they ratings is probably low, real low. I mean on the south on the East Coast, they don’t have no restrictions on they music. They can talk about they streets, claim out scream out Brooklyn Southside, name their blocks and all this stuff; and it get played all day, even out here. The minute we say something LBC, “Oh no, no you can’t tell us where you’re from, we don’t wanna know nothing about that.” But then a Southside record come out and they be like, “Oh this record so hot, this be the record that I love. Everyone blast it, drop the sirens on this one.” You know who I’m talking about. So we never gonna stop. And the music is just gonna come out, and we gon’ drop gangsta shit. If Dr. Dre, it’s just like Crack a Bottle. That’s a street record, it’s gangsta stuff goin’ on on that record. But you know it’s just, I already know what it is. It’s just coming from a place that has money so you suckas end up playing it. So let’s just keep it real. Why don’t you just tell us the truth and just say, “Oh look, check this out. You don’t have the right finances to come along and give us what we want to play your record.” So I don’t wanna even get too deep into that y’all know what I’m talking about. But I’mma keep doing gangsta stuff, and you suckas ain’t gonna stop it. What’s next?

Dubcnn: So you are a singer, you’re kind of a street singer, you’re not just doing straight up hooks and R&B. Do you think you’re part of a dying breed? Cause I ain’t seen too many singers that have that West Coast and street vibe that are now. Do you think there’s anyone that’s still doing that that’s part of the next generation or do you think you’re the last of that breed?

Butch: As far as the street singers, well no. When Akon dropped, he came out doing the street stuff wit the Locked Up song, it was a penitentiary song. They talking about the streets. And you know T-Pain doing his thang. And those guys are very talented and I give them they props, it’s still going on. It’s just something about what they tryin’ to stop on the West Coast. But you know I’m gon’ leave it to God, he gon’ deal with it. He know the fake from the real. So I’mma keep it going on. But see I don’t only do the street stuff, I love the ladies too. That’s what I’m talkin’ about on my other side with the different styles of music that I come with. ‘Cause I don’t only do that so when they hear, I love the ladies. I’m not gon’ sit up here and talk I don’t love them hoes because I do. Not tryin’ to call y’all hoes, but I love y’all. If you tell me one cat I mean when we be doin’ these songs all day, “Fuck a bitch, I don’t love them hoes,” And the first thing we do when we get through with the homies is call somebody and tell ‘em, “I love you baby. Why don’t you come by tonight?” You know what I’m talkin’ about? We just wanna try and act like we ain’t real and half of everybody talkin’ “We don’t love them hoes” these guys is married. So it’s just nonsense. It’s gon’ be some new records and new stuff from me. I’m still gonna do some street music, I’mma do some R&B music, you might hear a little bit of jazz, you might hear something with a little rock sound to it. It’s just gon’ be a variety of stuff and I’m gon’ let everybody know what I do all around.

Dubcnn: Before you started releasing your own stuff you were just singing hooks and guest spots. Was there ever a difficulty making a transition? How was that transition?

Butch: It was never like that because from the first time when I hooked up with Snoop, Snoop contacted me because I had an R&B song on the radio that my DJ friend was playing Killa Slow Jammin’ James, which was like a love song. Snoop heard it and liked it. I was singin’ love music, so he contacted me and told me that he was workin;’ on a record called the Eastsida Project and I jumped in on it. But you know I just had to change the style because it was street music. But when I was found I was doing R&B. It’s just I know how to get in where I fit in. I mean you could put me in there with a rock group and I’mma figure out what to do. Country western and I’ll put down something that’s hot. If it’s gon’ make a check, I’ll deliver. I like all music, I like it all. I got country songs that I like, rock, heavy metal, jazz, I like it all. So it’s no problem to me, I was raised all around music so if I have to make a transition it’s no problem for me.

Dubcnn: I guess you started singing in the church choir. I guess religion played a big part in how you got into the game and in your life obviously. Does that ever conflict with the street life and the hip-hop lifestyle personally?

Butch: No, it’s because I’m singin’ about what I’m goin’ through now. At the end of the day it’s just like every artist. We all gon’ end up goin’ back singin’ church songs at the end of the day. It’s just a part of your life that you in right now and you just speakin’ on it. That’s all it is, you just makin’ music on what you goin’ through right now. But when the lord come callin’ you back home you gon’ be right back in the church leading solo and it’s gon‘ be like you never left, and you goin’ home, no matter what.

Dubcnn: So you’ve been part of a lot of really big songs, songs that have gone platinum and what not. In your opinion, what’s the formula for a platinum hook or something that’s gonna be really successful? How do you know?

Butch: Of course it starts off with the track. The track has to be… Once you hear the music, if it grabs you like that, soon as the beats come on it’s just like boom everybody’s like “Oh God”, then right there you already know. And the way I grab it is, if I think of a melody right away, like in the first twenty seconds of the song, or should I say thirty, the first thirty seconds of the song, then I know it’s something there, I’m like, “We gotta do this.” And then after that, if I’m just gon’ drop a hook, drop a fire hook, then it’s up to the rapper to deliver a hell of a verse, to bring it all home. And we just sit there, start with the beat, the hooks, the verses, put it all together, gumbo. (Laughing). I had to laugh for a minute.

Dubcnn: Tell us about the video off the album you guys did. The video that came out a little while ago. How was that?

Butch: It was real cool. You know I really like what’s going on right now, ‘cause it’s giving me a chance to really really start and build from the bottom up. Before I did a demo, I just had it all lined up. I knew the guy at the radio, he played my R&B song, Snoop called and from right then it was just the big stage. Once you come in with Snoop it’s just like you there already. You doin’ the big shows, you doin’ MTV, BET, just quick. And now, you get a chance to just build bottom up by yourself, you and your homies, everybody new, just building and creatin’ new stuff. So now when you get to that point that you wanna be at, and you get that award you gon’ know what it’s really about, you gon’ feel it from the heart. Cause you gon’ say, “I worked so hard for this shit.” And we been doin’ this and we been grindin’ and it’s gon’ be more appreciated. Before we didn’t have to do nothing. We knew who the superstar was, it was Snoop Dogg, we just had to play our part. You sing the hook, you do the raps, y’all do what y’all suppose to do and we all gon’ eat, simple. The crowd is already there. He got fans already so we just step onstage and everybody start screaming. Now you gotta build you a crowd, you not walking out there with Snoop no more. So now the people that come to see you is comin’ to see Butch Cassidy. It ain’t ’bout no more you already got 100,000 in the Staples Center and just ready to rock already. No, now you build it from the ground up. So all this work we doin’ it’s makin’ me good ‘cause it’s like we startin’ from scratch. And when it pop off that’s when you’ll just see me on stage with my grammy cryin’ and stuff, ‘cause you’ll know what I been through.

Dubcnn: So is there anything else you wanna say before we sign off?

Butch: I just wanna tell everybody just get prepared for al the things that’s about to happen. We got with the Black and Brown, with my personal project, with the Blues Brothers project that I’m doing with Pr1me. Stay looking forward for Pr1me’s solo stuff, the kid is crazy, his flow is phenomenal, I don’t know what to say.

Pr1me: Bang TV.

Butch: So, Bang TV yeah. When I heard the dude rap, I met the guy in the studio and I was just like, “Who is this side busta that’s in my session?” I didn’t know nothin’ about the dude so we talked and I was like, “Lemme hear what this dude got.” And when he spit on the song called “Chillin’ on the West Coast” he blew me away. I was like, “this dude is really talented.” Right then I knew I wanted to work with him and we started doing song after song. And now we gon’ give everybody a record that I know they gon’ love. So check for that, check for my record First and Last of course the Black and Brown, check for the Blues Brothers record, check for Pr1me’s record (Optimus), check for the song that I’m doin’ right now with Bishop that single’ll be out, call and request that. What’s the name of it?

Pr1me: Nothing Can be Better.

Butch:  Nothing can Be Better, Bishop Lamont featuring me, Sugar Free, Chevy, Chevy Jones, Bokie.

Pr1me:  Chevy Jones, Bokie, shouts out to Bokie, shouts out to Chevy, shouts out to Bishop, shouts out to Battlecat for lacing that beautiful track.

Butch: So that’s what we doin’ we got so much comin’ yall just stick with us and we gon’ please yall. We out.

Dubcnn: Where can people find you online?

Butch: Butchcassidywestcoast, that’s my myspace and my twitter is Butchcassidylbc. And just check me out and that’ll keep you informed with everything that’s goin’ on and keep you up to date cause we got shows and stuff that we finnin’ ta drop, and as far as my case goes, I’m innocent, and I’m signing off.