CUSTOM MADE  (August 2008) | Interview By: Javon Adams

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Interview was done in July 2008

Questions Asked By: Javon Adams

Custom Made Interview Audio: Listen Here
 

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Dubcnn: Alright, what’s going on fellas?

Scoobs: Chillin’. Out here enjoying the L.A. weather. This dude Six just got out of prison today so…

Six: Yup yup


Dubcnn: Well, dubcnn with Custom Made. So, it’s good that you made it home man but I wanted to kind of get into it and everything to let the folks…I’m sure they already know about you anyway, but give them a little more insight into what Custom Made is all about. So, before I get started, who is all in the group? Go ahead and break it down for me?

Scoobs: Well it’s me, Skoobs, Six, Bluff, Element and Aneek. That was the main five then we got the whole extended fam which is X-Max, P Dot…

Six: What’s that b*tch name?

Scoobs: Who, Lex?

Six: Yeah, Lex

Scoobs: And my man from Three Disciples and our own production squad too which is Abstract, my man JM, THX, my man K from Australia and my man Finesse from Gardena. So we got the L.A. producers and we got the overseas producers so we got a whole big unit man. It’s not just the starting five. We got everybody and a whole extended fam so it’s a good line up, you know?


Dubcnn: I can’t complain about that. It sounds good and diverse and balanced and everything man.

Scoobs: Definitely


Dubcnn: Well, Scoobs I wanted to start off with you. I read where you said that the whole ‘bringing back the west’ thing sounds so cliché and I agree with that but why do you think there is so much importance placed on being the ‘next’ as opposed to just enjoying the music?

Scoobs: Well, I guess everybody is so focused on being the next because the West Coast hasn’t really had much shine in the past decade. We’ve had like little glimpses of hope and opportunity that the full mainstream focus was going to come back on the West Coast but…That’s the problem to me that everybody is focusing too much on trying to bring the West back. Everybody thinks that we need all the attention on the West Coast. But to me why does one coast or one specific region have to be running sh*t? Why can’t it just be everybody from every region making good music? I don’t see why it has be ‘Oh, East Coast is lockin’ it down for this specific amount of time.’ Or West Coast or Down South has had it locked for the past six or seven years. Why does it have to be like that? Why can’t it be just anybody who’s dope coming out?


Dubcnn: I agree with you man? That leads me into my next question. I can definitely hear some of those East Coast influences in your music and I think that’s a good thing. But how hard is it to be a well balanced group and embrace both coasts? Or do you ever feel stuck between a rock and a hard place? Or do you feel it makes you more flexible?

Six: Let me answer this one man. All of that ‘we sound like East Coast cats’ and all that sh*t. I’m from Watts. I’m as West Coast as it is. I never left L.A. County until I went to the pen, you feel me? What I can say is that there ain’t no East Coast or West Coast sound. If you got spit you got spit if you got that crack then it’s that crack. Ain’t nothin’ else, you feel me?

F*ck all that, ‘he sound like East Coast, he sound like West Coast’. No, this is just real sh*t just coming out of our mouths. You feel me, this is gift of gab and there ain’t no ‘this or that’. It’s not that black and white. It is what it is, you feel me, but muhf*ckas just feel like they can put a label on everything. You can’t put a label on Custom Made that’s why its Custom Made. This is what we do. This is us and it is given to you from the way we see it not the way muhf*ckas want it to be, you feel me? This is C. Made.


Dubcnn: Right. And I see where you are coming from but I’m just curious do you ever…obviously you feel its like a universal, this is who we are, Custom Made but do you ever encounter people that have those preconceived notions like, ‘Oh, you gotta sound like this.’ You know what I mean?

Six: Muhf*ckas think everybody should sound like Game, you feel me? Game’s flow is even East Coast…I’m from Watts and muhf*ckas think we should sound like ‘kill, kill’ or Ice Cube or somebody from around that area. No, f*ck that man! And I don’t feel no pressure to be more West Coast or none of that. The sh*t I spit is as real as it’s gonna get, man. Always will be.

Scoobs: Too many preconceptions man. That’s what’s wrong with the game right now. That’s whats wrong with hip hop is that too many people are trying to put it in a box. And that’s what is holding us back because it’s all about making good music. If you make good music that’s really what matters and that’s really what it is with us. We speak on real life experiences. This is reality rap so its like we might have an East Coast flow or however you want to put it but this is hip hop.

You listen to the music and the stuff we talk about and the music that we make and it doesn’t get any more West Coast then the sh*t we talk about.


Dubcnn: I got you. Along those same lines, you were mentioning the music…Scoobs, once again I saw where you mentioned before that some of the music you make is over people’s heads a little bit. Do you guys ever feel that in order to reach greater levels of success that you might have to simplify your music at all? Or is this Custom Made, take or love it?

Six: Let me answer that man. Look, a lot of these cats are dummying down their raps and sh*t, right? But you got dudes that are dummying their sh*t down but after a while your soul, your ‘self’ is going to feel f*cked up. Look at J (Jay Z), he’s been dummying down his sh*t for the longest. The dude is intelligent, you feel me but he dummied that sh*t down and then when he tried to come with that Kingdom Come muhf*ckas wasn’t feeling it because he got on some ‘Grown Man’ real intellectual sh*t. And they was like, ‘That sh*t is garbage.’ But at the same time he felt bad in his soul and you could see the way he reacted to that. Then he went back on some ignorant sh*t…he even got a song called ‘Ignorant Sh*t’ with Beanie Sigel. At the same time you feel that inside of yourself. It’s not about what everybody thinks, you feel me?

At the same time, I want to reach a greater level of success but I want to do it my way. I want to do it like…I don’t want to be what everybody wants me to be. F*ck the bullsh*t.

Scoobs: And that’s exactly how Custom Made feels. If it goes over your head then ‘whatever’, you know? Its going to take you time to adjust to it. You might have to go back and listen to it a couple of times. But we do hip hop how we do hip hop. This is really the only way we know how to make music. So we’re going to do it our way and we ain’t going to do no sell out sh*t. And that’s what you can expect from Custom Made man. We bring that real 100% of the time. We all musical and creative people so when we get in the lab we make music and we really put our hearts and soul into this music and it shows.

I mean we could have done the sell out sh*t. We could have been making club bangers and doing all this gay fag*ot music that most of these cats is doing but we ain’t chose to go that route man. You listen to all the tapes of everything we’ve done man and its all real for the hip hop culture man. We could have gone the other route but we chose to do it how it’s supposed to be done man. Like I said on the tracks, “It’s f*ck props!” It ain’t about props or being the best or whatever…it ain’t about that. It’s about making real music for the hip hop…we trying to preserve the culture man because so many cats is f*ckin’ it up.


Dubcnn: Gotcha. Well, kinda along those same lines, you mentioned the props. I know where you’ve got a great deal of critical acclaim throughout the independent circuit. How important is it to be well received by your peers and labels? Or is it, ‘hey, you’re going to respect us because of what we do.’

Six: Well, you gotta move units regardless no matter if you’re underground or not. A lot of dudes be thinking like underground rappers don’t get paid and sh*t. Muhf*ckas is making livings off of this sh*t whether they go big or not. Especially off of an indie label like Babygrande. You know what I’m sayin? It’s different man.

Scoobs: We like the fact that we have the critcally acclaimed releases and all that. It’s the fact that people are acknowledging the talent and the skills and all that but at the end of the day whether the critics like it or whatever it is really just for the fans and the streets.

Six: We like it.

Scoobs: Exactly. Cuz we’re going to do what we like so when we go into the lab to make music we don’t have any pressure thinking about what the critics are going to think or what the fans or going to think or whatever. We’re just really making music for us.

Six: It’s like you’re a product of your environment and it’s the same with music. I come out of the gutter so I am gutter. I come from underground rap so I am underground rap, you feel me? I’m not going to change. It is what it is.


Dubcnn: You mentioned how underground artists are able to eat and be successful…I read where one of you guys said that one of the negative aspects of being on an independent can be the financial end of things. Does it ever get frustrating when the level of skill that you have as a group doesn’t match up with the bank statements? Do you feel that you should be better financially compensated for what you do or do you think that will come in time and everything will balance out?

Six: I think it does come in time and at the same time in the meanwhile we got other capers. We doin’ other sh*t, you feel me? We ain’t just hittin’ this rap lick and stickin’ to that. We robbin’ other sh*t, you feel me? We sellin’ other sh*t. We movin’ units without movin’ cds, you feel me?

I mean, I just got out the pen and I ain’t doin’ sh*t right now but I will be soon. You can tell my P.O. that too but at the same time we’re gonna do what we’re gonna do. Whether they like it or not it’s gonna move eventually homie cuz muhf*ckas are going to see that real.

Scoobs: And that’s exactly what it is. Sometimes I feel that the game is really not built for us just because of what we do. I feel like cats really don’t wanna see a group like Custom Made come out right now. They don’t want to see a group like Custom Made come out just because of the type of music we make. Custom Made is a threat…and it’s not just a threat because you know to us man its not about movin’ units or how many units you can move.

I hate when people say, ‘Oh, he’s the dopest rapper alive’ because he went 10x platinum. Rap skill has nothing to do with how many units you sell. Rap skill has to do with your flow, with your concepts, with you skill and your talent man.

Six: I say Custom Made is about to blow regardless because if you can look back at our sh*t and see from out point of view and our eyes and sh*t…before certain muhf*ckas was doin’ that sh*t we were doin’ that sh*t! Before muhf*ckas was doing that battle rap type sh*t and all that underground spit on the mainstream level we were doing that sh*t! Before muhf*ckas was rockin’ Vans and sh*t and The Pack came with that sh*t we was rockin’ Vans and sh*t, you feel me?

At the same time it’s jus that we gotta get our timing right because sooner or later it’s going to all get in one niche and we gonna blow.


Dubcnn: Ok. I feel you. With having multiple guys in the group how hard is it to deal with those different personalities? Do you guys clash on concepts or beats or how often do you guys encounter those conflicts?

Scoobs: Man, to tell you the truth it’s the easiest thing in the world. There’s no difficulties making music at all. We’ve been making music together since we were like 15 years old. Since 2002 and its ’08 right now about to be ’09 you know and we’ve been doing it for years together. We go in the lab man and its like magic. I’m telling you we have the dopest chemistry together so we can make tracks in our sleep.

Six: It’s lke having a whole house full of brothers and sh*t. It’s mad competition but at the end of the day its all love homie. And nobody is mad or sour or none of that. If Bluff wanna go f*ck one of my bi*ches then he can go f*ck one of my bi*ches! If E wanna go have a baby by one of my bi*ches then do so! We gonna all have love at the end of the day we’re still brothers.


Dubcnn: Ok, nothing wrong with that. What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned since your 1st album came out?

Scoobs: The biggest thing is just how hard the game is and how f*cked up the whole hip hop industry is and how much politics it is. There is a lot of politics in the game and it takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of effort and determination. You have to really be consistent and be on the grind. This isn’t something that just comes overnight. Especially for a group like us who keeps it authentic and sticks to making real hip hop. Real hip hop groups, you don’t get that coming out and for us to come out being so young in our early 20’s and really be doing this for real hip hop. You don’t see too many kids in their early 20’s that are trying to keep this real hip hop sh*t alive.

Its just been a lot of learning experiences man because if you really listen to the albums you’re going to see how we’ve grown together through our whole career. We put our lives on wax. Everything from Element having a kid to Paradox murdering 3 dudes that ran up in his crib and being acquitted to Six going to prison to the rest of us struggling to get on in the rap game and make a name for ourselves. All of these life experiences build up. Dealing with the politics of the rap game and seeing how everything works…that’s the biggest thing we learned, taking all the life experiences and being able to adjust and put all of this into music and really just come out on top. I wouldn’t change anything for the world. I have no regrets its going to just keep getting better so I can’t complain.


Dubcnn: If you had to come up with a mission statement for Custom Made that summed up what you are and where you want to go as a collective what would that be?

Scoobs: Custom Made is the future. We’ve been here. We’ve been putting it down and we’ve been doing this. The thing is, you don’t have to like Custom Made but you gotta respect this sh*t for what we do. You may not feel the music and you may not ride with us but you gotta respect us. How can you not respect it for all the hard work? We’ve been in the streets doing this for years and cats know us in L.A. because we’re everywhere in L.A. We’re in every hood, every street and we’re doing it.

Cats see us from back in the day doing this mixtape grind Man, we’ve moved over 100,000 mixtapes in the streets so it’s like…cats see us from growing up as kids man, from all the open mics to the ciphers to the battles to the Project Blowed scene to all that. You can’t say that we aren’t emcees. We are emcees man. We’re not just rappers, we’re actual emcees. Custom Made is going to be here forever. Like they say Wu Tang is forever…I’m not trying to compare us to Wu Tang or none of that but Custom Made is forever.

Custom Made is the future. And that’s real talk we are the future of real hip hop music man. We’re helping bring West Coast lyricism back to the forefront. We’re helping to keep it alive man and keep it bubbling out here man. Shout out to cats like Kurupt and Ras Kass and Cali Agents and Xzibit and Crooked I. Cats like that paved the way for cats like us to be able to do what we want to do and be able to come from L.A. and be on some emcee sh*t. So that is what Custom Made represents. We represent that real hip hop music. We represent hip hop at its finest

Six: Madlib’s crazy as*. Custom Made is the sh*t man regardless. I think in the near future though if muhf*ckas ain’t heard about us then they know somebody that’s f*ckin’ with us. Cuz we gonna be out there networkin’ like a muhf*cka homie. That’s what we do. So until the future comes we’re just going to go our hardest.


Dubcnn: Any last words for dubcnn? Tell ‘em what the name of the album is and where to go get it all that good stuff. The floor is yours

Scoobs: Original Dynasty is the new LP. It’s in stores now. You can get that everywhere. I wanna say shout out to the whole West Coast. Shout out to the whole L.A. hip hop scene. Shout out to everybody in L.A. period that is putting it down. And shout out to everybody that has been showing us love and support through all the years.

Six: Shout out to all the ni*gas locked down and sh*t. Shout out to all y’all ni*gas, much love.

Scoobs: Shout out to everybody man. Everybody that supports the movement and real hip hop and what we have been doing. I definitely appreciate that. We got the Original Dynasty in stores right now. Make sure you pick up the Sidewalk Mindtalk too. That’s also in stores. Element’s working on a project and one with NY Oil so you can expect that coming soon. Shout out to dubcnn too because y’all definitely always been showing us love and support

Six: Dubcnn. Much love dub!