Dubcnn: Dubcnn.com Im here with Danny from Cage vs Cons and Felony Fights. What's going on man?
Danny: Just kicking it. About to take off to a Too Short show tonight and promote Cage vs Cons.
Dubcnn: Awesome man. First of give us a little background about yourself. I know you were involved in the underground DVD series that was very successful, Felony Fights.
Danny: Yeah me and my partner Michael Lynch kicked of a series called Felony Fights. Its basically convicts coming out of prison getting down in different locations with nunchuks, kendo sticks, one on ones, two on twos. Pretty much no rules, kind of like how they get down in prison. That did real well, we're on Direct TV, pay per view, Dish Network. Got about 7 different DVDs out, best selling at best buy. Our last DVD came out a couple of years ago. During that time period we've been working on another project called Cage vs. Cons. It's like UFC where they got glove sand they got rues, but it has a theme. We're having a cop fight a convict in the ring. And we're kind of going back in depth with the fighters, what they've done, what they've been locked up for. Now it's about redemption, they're transforming their lives against professional MMA fighters. So we matched the hip-hop with it. We got an all day music festival, a tattoo expo, we got Too Short, E-40, Dogg Pound, B-Real from Cypress Hill, Shabazz Disciple, Killah Priest, Tragedy Kadafi, Big Twinz, mob deep affiliate, I'm gonna do a few cuts up there myself, Agallah. We got a few hard hitters dudes up there on the lineup. So its like the most ultra violent fight experience and also the musicians are o the same tip.
Dubcnn: Where'd you come up with the idea for this and also for Felony Fights. It's a little unconventional to come up with that. How did these things come together?
Danny: Well we've been doing the Felony Fights thing for years. It's always been a dream of mine to do cage fighting, tattoo expo, MMA and hip-hop combined. What we've always wanted to do is this festival, this show where you have fighting going on then hip-hop, touring it across the nation. This is going to be our first one, it's going to be about 16000 people. I've been to a lot of hip-hop shows and the lineups they have some a quality artists and a lot of B grade bunk stuff. I always wanted to put on something with every single artist A plus quality caliber and hard MCs, not a lot of soft hip-hop hippie type stuff. That's what we did with this - we have the hardest MCs, the hardest fighters and joined them under one arena to get it on.
Dubcnn: How'd you find some of these guys, the fighters that just got out of prison and some of the law enforcement guys that are wiling to get into the ring with these guys.
Danny: For Felony Fights it's just family and friends. It's not that hard to find people that want to get down. For the professional MMA which we're doing, Herve Estrada, he's; one of the best matchmakers for boxing & MMA in America, he's on our team. He's looking for all the fighters, he found the LAPD officers, he found the ex-convicts. We have a huge assortment to pick from with the MMA fighters. They're all professional but we kind of go through them and say we want that guy we want that guy and match them up together.
Dubcnn: I know you guys were talking about rehabilitation and all that stuff, have you talked to anyone part of the system and gotten their feedback as far as being a positive force?
Danny: Yeah, all these guys that are fighting, they're not only ex cons but they've transformed their lives for the better. They're out there in watts and all these bad neighborhood and helping out the kids. Also we are, part of the proceeds are going toward the Flores Foundation. What we're doing is helping kids coming out of the juvenile hall youth authority get out, transition back into society by learning how to do different skills like tattooing. Some dudes don't think it's a job there are people making 500 dollars a day. Where; the conventional type skills would be learn how to do this learn how to do that. We're saying hey if you want to draw want to be a tattoo artist, we're teaching them how to do that. They wanna be fighters, hey we're throwing them in the ring. We're kind of catering to what they want to do with the music and all that stuff rolled into one. And help them make money off something they love and have passion for.
Dubcnn: I know you mentioned the event is very eclectic as far has having music and having the tattoo stuff and on top of that having the fights. How do you think those three different components mesh together and form that lifestyle, cause there is a lifestyle that involves all of that.
Danny: I think they go hand in hand. The fight fans, the hip-hop fans, the tattoo fans, it's all kind of the same crowd - I know MMA's a rough sport, it's one of the roughest, its one of the biggest sport, surpassing boxing, it's bloody, it's exciting. All of the artists I picked, what better artists to make music about a cage fighting even than them? Buck 50, Agallah, Shabazz, Killah Priest, they're nothing but the hardest MCs. What I have them doing is making Cage vs. Cons anthems. So when the fighters walk out onto the ring they're playing Buck 50, Agallah, Psycho Realm all that stuff, they're playing that music. It's real sick, its' really cool how the whole thing lined up.
Dubcnn: Do you have any notable tattoo artists that are going to be there?
Danny: Yeah Steve Soto's going to be there tattooing. We got Under the Gun Ink, Louie's going to be there. Mike Avena's going to be there. Tommy from Ink Slingers' going to be there. He just got flown to New York, he's part of New York Ink. He did my tattoos and is going to be flying to our event from New York and is going to be filming part of his reality show at Cage vs. Cons.
Dubcnn: Obviously you personally have some experience with the tattoo world. What are some of the tattoos that you have that are significant or some of the artists you've gotten tattoos from?
Danny: I'll show you some of the work that I've had done. I've always been a big tattoo fan and I've done tattoo expos for most of my life. I've got a clothing line called Sicfuc. And that's where I launched it at tattoo expos. So I know everyone on the westside that does tatooos. Mike Avena did this tattoo right there, it's snake eyes, and he did a Transformer Decepticon, he sliced off Optimus Prime's head like he's holding it like he's taking over the earth below him hover above. We got cobra commander, GI Joe, he's got a bloody palm sitting on a throne of bones. Brian from Inkslingers did my last name, Laughlin, mike form Inkslingers, the one that's in New York Ink, he did the Sicfuc and Felony Fights skull with two uzis. What you see behind me is a mural, that's the same one right there, my homeboy Grafik did that. That's the Sicfuc tat, my homeboy Dave did this, s-i-c-f-u-c. It's a clothing line I started. We give these for free at our tattoo shop. We actually have about a 1000 people girls and guys, that got it blasted on their head sand necks. So it's kind of like something we offer to the fans out there, so far so good. Cartoon did my back. I'm into art, I'm into tattooing, I've always been. Next I'mma have Steve Soto do some artwork o me, do this badass broad, real pretty girl with a little beanie on me. I'll probably have him blast it on here. This is another Sicfuc logo, it's an S with a little baby F for sicfuc.
Dubcnn: Are there gonna be any other people that are gonna be there to show support?
Danny: Danny Trejo's hosting the event, Deebo from Friday's hosting the event, Freeway Rick Ross is hosting it. We're gonna have tons of celebrities, the Rock's gonna be there, we're gonna have Matt Damon. There's gonna be tons of celebrities showing support.
Dubcnn: How'd you get some of those guys involved?
Danny: The people that we deal with are some of the biggest players in Hollywood. Our lawyers are Robert DeNiro's lawyers and Matt Damon's lawyers. We made a few phone call sand they're gathering people to attend the event. And people are into it, a cop fighting a convict, no one's ever done that. Everybody's into UFC, but how about a theme, how about a storyline. It's a little bit different, a little bit more savage.
Dubcnn: So tell people where they can learn more and check out the event and where it's going to be and when it's going to be.
Danny: Yeah if you want to buy tickets, they're on sale right now for 25 dollars for a full day event, 11 am to 11pm. Al hip-hop all day and towards the night we have the cage fights kicking off and the tattoo expo. You can get them at cagevscons.com or at ticketmaster.com. 25 dollars and the promo code is fightfest. So when you type in that number it's gonna knock off 5 dollars off your ticket price. So for all the fans that are watching I recommend you plug that in. They go up if you wanna be ringside, it's a little bit more expensive but all the seats are nice. We're expecting 16000 people. If you go to Cagevscons.com you can also download the soundtrack with Dogg Pound, Too Short, E40, Psycho Realm, Cypress Hill, you can download it for free, its got about 20 songs on it. Everybody's on that motherfucker. We're throwing that out to the fans too. Saturday May 21st at the LA Sports Arena, Cage vs Cons, the biggest MMA, hip-hop and tattoo festival ever. Our second one's coming in September and we're gonna start moving this shit all over the USA. We're gonna be touring it pretty sick.
