DIEGO REDD  (May 2006) | Interview By:

   

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Interview was done by phone in May 2006

Questions Asked By: Inspire

Diego Redd Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here

Full Interview In Audio Here
 

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Dubcnn: Just to start the interview off, could you introduce yourself to the fans and explain where you’re from and if you’ve got any past experiences from your life that they might want to hear about

Okay, I’m Diego Redd from West Side Fresno, California – which is central California, about two hours from L.A and about two hours from San Francisco, right there in the middle.


Dubcnn: Aight, you got comments from Kanye West saying that you’re a hot MC, how did those comments come about?

Okay what happened was, some friends of mine own an independent clothes store called MTK, out here in Fresno, they did some art work for him on his first album cover. They also did some T-Shirt retails with him, and one of the owners of the store was on tour with him and he was working on that joint for the Boost Mobile campaign, and my dude thought it’d be dope if he heard me over it, my dude sent me the instrumental – I laced it, sent it back and my guy from MTK played it to him, and he heard it and thought it was real dope, and he threw it on the mix tape I do believe, and later I went to check my messages on the phone and he had left me a voicemail, just letting me know that he thought I was a dope MC and that I should keep doing my thing.


Dubcnn: How did those comments have an effect on you?

Uhm, it was an honour, from someone at his level in the game, although he’s only been around for two years, he’s most definitely come in and done his thing in the past two or three years and he his held in high regards, so it was really an honour – and it was somebody that I followed, somebody that I listen to, somebody that I admire on the microphone and as a producer, the dudes talented and it was an honour. And at the same time I have always felt the exact same way as his words, it really didn’t solidify anything for me, I’ve always felt the same way about myself. My fans around the area I’m from have always felt that way – it was kind of like another trophy on the shelf, I’ve been acknowledged by someone else’s favourite rapper. There are a lot of people who need some executive, some other rapper, some journalist to say this guy is dope before they can listen themselves and say yeah this guy is dope, there’s a lot of band wagon people who go back and listen to me again and now I get a lot of “Oh yeah! He’s dope!”, but it was honour and I always knew that I’ve put mine down.


Dubcnn: Your only twenty five right now, is that right?

Yeah


Dubcnn: You’ve already been recording for many years with producers such as Scott Storch and artists such as Xzibit and Nate Dogg, which tracks were these and do you have any plans to release any of the unreleased tracks you recorded on Def Jam Records?

Xzibit happened to be a personal friend of a personal friend of mine, I got in the studio with him a few times, he took me out to the club a few times, and it was the stuff that we did hanging out with him, those records weren’t exactly mine to have, a lot of those records were just records that I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to be in the right place at the right time and they liked it, they was like “Ay you know pimp, we don’t mind what your doing, spit a few bars and get on something”, you know? So its really up to these people if those records actually come out.


Dubcnn: Aight. You created “Rebel Music”, tell us about your vision and your goals for this.

Okay, “Rebel Music” is what we call the music we make in my company, which is called “Rebel Entertainment”, my group is “The Rebellion”, were pretty much those individuals who grew up just like everybody else, in poverty, drug abusing parents and single parent homes – even people come from both parents but just have a poor up bringing, struggling to survive, rebelling against the system and what were given for a better way for ourselves, we try to put that in our music – its a lot of that and it goes as far as the sound which was the L.A sound of music, to the sound which is Bay Sound of music, its like right in the middle yet it has a revolutionary type sound to it for people in the ghetto, people in the slums, people who are my friends and people in prison you know what I mean?


Dubcnn: What would you say was the most important factor for you, would it be units sold of your own satisfaction in the final product?

My own satisfaction in the final product. I would hate to sell a bunch of records, but at the same time be unhappy with what I did, or feel like I compromised my beliefs or compromised my people, or my fans who have been behind me up until this point just to sell some records, in the end it would be my final result, I come from nothing and I ain’t never had shit so I’m really not in a rush to be rich, although we’d all like to be rich and have nice things, but I do fine on my own, but I never compromise myself or my integrity to be famous or popular.


Dubcnn: Yeah, I know a lot of people get told what to release at their record companies, but right now you are your own boss, which is something that you wanted in the past, so how does that feel to be in the position where you can take things where you want to take them?

It feels good, I still have people around me – my manager, “Hecktik”, my guy Success, my dude Yousan, I got a lot of people around me that still give me ideas and still push me in certain directions, but there’s no strong hold or creative control hold over what I’m doing, so they allow me to speak my mind, they may bring a certain type of beat to the table but I still get out what I want to say, and that’s dope because I’m a big fan of music – I’m an artist but I’m a bigger fan probably, because I buy everything and I listen to everything from everywhere. I go to shows and check dudes out; I’m on the net reading about dudes, im really a fan. There was a time when artists put out albums and you knew that dude, I really don’t know these dudes that I’m hearing today, but im listening to their music and they have formats to their songs, it’s a club records, it’s a dance record, it’s a street record – there’s nothing personal. And I’m really trying to bring back that “Everybody knows this guy” type music. We knew who Pac was, we knew who BIG was, we knew who Ghostface was and we knew who the whole Wu-Tang was, you know what I mean? There’s a lot of dudes who when you listen to them, you knew exactly who they were when you listen to their music and I’m trying to bring that back, not just the same format of “this type of record is what you consider a single”, “this type of record would be the b-side”. It’s not personal no more; I’m trying to bring back that personal.


Dubcnn: How do you feel about all these new movements going on right now, like the Hyphy movement in the bay and things like that?

I admire everybody who stands up and does something to represent themselves; were really all the same from both ends of the United States, you know what I mean? There’s just a different way of doing the same thing, and the Hyphy movement I’m really behind because they show me a lot of love in the Bay, my city is only two hours away from the bay, or less and they are out here a lot and were out there a lot and we do a lot of shows with those dudes. I’m one hundred percent behind the Hyphy movement. The Bay in its entirety isn’t just the Hyphy movement, there is a lot of MC’s in The Bay that do music that you wouldn’t consider Hyphy, they may have one or two songs on there but there is a lot of lyricists in The Bay Area, just like there is a lot of lyricists in L.A who may not have the Snoop Dogg sound or Tupac sound, there is a lot of talented MC’s I hear on the West Coast, that are doing a lot of very creative things, and I’m just waiting for it to come back to the West, and I’m hoping that I am going to have a part in being one of the forerunners of the creative music again from the West Coast.


Dubcnn: A lot of people call Hyphy a copy of Crunk music.

Nah, I’d never say it was a copy of Crunk, if you look back at 40’s previous records, he had beats from Lil Jon, if you look back you’d see that E-40 was on Lil Jon records before now, that sound is the sound that kind of derived from the Bay Area in the first place, you just got to go cop older records, you got to cop some Sean T, some RBL, you gotta cop a lot of the Messy Marv joints. That’s what we’ve been doing out this way, but that’s what it was popularised as and people heard it that way, so they say “Hey, that’s crunk”. We feel that shit and we learn that shit and the South don’t have a problem with us out here and we don’t have a problem with the South out here, so it’s everybody else that called it first, say its Crunk and they’re like “those guys are copying those guys, those guys aren’t copying those guys”, but the culture was already here – you just never heard it , and then if you really listen to it you can really the determine between the two, so I would never call something the same thing or call it a spin off from Crunk.


Dubcnn: Aight. Judging from your music, you seem to absorb your surroundings and speak on some real issues, you’re what some people would call a “Backpack Rapper”, and basically that is something that the industry is lacking right now – how does that feel and what are your thoughts on that?

Uhm, it makes me feel good that they acknowledge me in that way, I know I have a lot of records in the vault that could sit on the radio all day long, so a lot of the time when I had an opportunity to put a record out there, and its not for the media or mainstream publications or whatever, I would rather give them a record where they could see that the dude is a talented lyricist, but to see that this dude has a real heart – he’s a real nigga; he’s saying real things. I’m trying to really, not bring it back because it’s already there, but just being overlooked because a lot of the artists that rock that way, cant rock the other way, and a lot of the artist that rock that way don’t want to rock the other way – I can do both you know, I can meaningful lyrics over the right beat, is what I really think it is that I do, but I’m not here to waste my time; I think god put me here for a purpose, and I think that I’d be cheating not only myself, but my fans if I didn’t say something that meant something on the microphone.


Dubcnn: Yeah, for sure. On your debut album, “Living Proof”, you had features from such people as W.C from Westside Connection, E-40 and Yukmouth. How did those features come about?

Those features are all personal friends of personal friends, who invited them over and hung out, chilled and did some songs, they were compensated for, but at the same time it was more personal on the first album, because it was like the homies introducing me to the homies and we just vibed and did records, I was younger and it was really my first few times actually in a real recording studio and my first time actually meeting anybody I’ve ever listened to, I had all their records and I had all their records, and it was really an honour to be there rocking next to the dudes that I grew up listening to and was probably listening to two days before they came to the studio, but it was really all personal friends who organised all that.


Dubcnn: So it was crazy working with the people that you grew up listening to?

Yeah, real crazy


Dubcnn: In 2005, you released your second album, “Dog Eat Dog” and includes production from people such as Kanye West. On the track “The Whole City Behind Us”, you replaced The Game with Kanye’s approval, how was that?

It wasn’t necessarily me replacing The Game with Kanye’s approval, it was a mix tape records, and he approved the fact that I used it and that I got on there like I said, they sent it to me earlier, and he allowed me to put a verse on there and he listened to it, I wasn’t on the commercial or anything for the ?? campaign, I wasn’t a part of that. But it was just approval that I used it on the mix tape. The “Dog Eat Dog” was half album, half mix tape, I never really do mix tapes where its just me rapping over a whole bunch of beats because a lot of people wont ride or listen to that, so what ill do is get ten hot records that I got for myself and then in between those records, ill put small mix tape records, but usually lesser known records, I don’t take top forty and do mix tape songs over them because everybody knows the song, I try to find those beats that everybody slept on and ??, San Quinn does a lot of stuff that people have overlooked and then I rock on them and people are like whoa that joint is hot, and then it’s a plus for me and the artists who’s beat that is was, because now and again I throw in one of their verses or something and it becomes a hot record, but that was a mix tape slash album, it was half mix tape half album.


Dubcnn: Aight. We reported on Dubcnn a while back that you were working with RnB artist, Ne-Yo and Remy Ma, how did that come about and how did it go? What was recorded?

Okay actually, I haven’t made that session yet, my management spoke too soon, I’m on my way to do that, we have the same manager so I’m going to be working with the RnB cat, Ne-Yo


Dubcnn: Ok, do you have anything you’re going to record?

Oh yeah, we already have a couple of joints planned in the process, and I do believe that he’s going to lay that stuff down, but I’m not actually one hundred percent sure; but I do plan on working with him real soon.


Dubcnn: Tight, we believe you worked with GLC, which is Kanye West’s new artist, as well as San Quinn, how were they to work with?

First of all, let me say that GLC is my homeboy, we met him at an autograph signing for Kanye, he was a real cool dude, every time that were in L.A, we just hit him, he’s my homeboy, we hang out and chill, blow something. He gives me a lot of good advice on things that are not necessarily to do with music, you feel me? He’s just a cool dude, so in order to get him on a song wasn’t hard at all, but it was still an honour because I really admire that man, he’s got a lot of heat coming, be on the lookout for GLC’s record because my dude got a lot of heat coming out of that South side of Chicago, and San Quinn is a real good dude, I’ve been following his career for a long time and it was a blessing once again, with a friend of a friend calling me like “Yo, Quinn’s in town man, come get down”, we go over there and we chill, fire something up and lay something down. Its always like that for me usually because, I’m really personal with my music, so in order for me to get on a track with somebody, its personal; so even if I’m double platinum next year, you wont just see me having a bunch of records with a lot of different people, if I really don’t know a dude, cant sit in a room with a dude for a couple of hours and judge their character, I’m not really judging, but if we don’t vibe then I’m not going to force a record, but working with both GLC and San Quinn was a blessing to me, and they both real good dudes and I consider both of them friends of mine.


Dubcnn: So it’s the same with Hecktik, you linked up with him?

Yeah, actually Hecktik is my manager, and one of the cats that produces a lot on my projects and mix tapes, I actually met him through a few of my friends who told me about a website called centralcali.com, which is a website for artists from the central Cali area, which is where I’m from, and I checked it out and had some fans that I didn’t know about that were living in L.A, so I started joining in on the site and met a few people and met the dude, he was introduced to me by a friend of mine from “The Schoolyard Massive”, which is another group out here in central California, he introduced me to Hecktik. He played me some beats, we laid a few songs and from there, we just kept vibing and the songs got better, he has an incredible mouth piece, so he became like my personal manager, me and him are like a one man army – we handle a lot of business ourselves, and then there’s my other partner, “Money Boss”, he handles a lot of the hands on stuff, but really Hecktik is like a one man machine, he does a lot of the beats, he does a lot of the management stuff, he’s also my DJ – you see me rocking on stage, the dude behind me probably arranged the show you feel me?


Dubcnn: Yeah. So you’re happy with a lot of the recent material that you’ve worked on?

Yeah, I got a lot of new material coming man, a lot of new material, I’ve been working with these new producers, “Gutta Fam” – And I just got some stuff from Needlz, my dude Hecktiks been coming with it and I’ve been working on some stuff myself a little bit. I’m really just getting together to put out a well rounded album, really looking to secure a nice new deal, and really get up to where I’m supposed to be this time, I’m very happy with what I’ve been coming with and I believe that the West Coast will also, as well as the rest of the world but I’m really sure that the West Coast will be pleased with someone as my like will be representing them.


Dubcnn: Aight, when you do plan to release this new material?

Uhm, I got a new mix tape dropping, “Get Money, Get Paid, Let Me Count The Wage, Mix tape Volume 1”, I’m releasing that in July and I’m going to reveal maybe the first single from this new album and a few other classic joints along with some unreleased stuff on this new mix tape. Right now I’m just trying to close a few deals, I got a few offers from a few labels right now, I’m really trying to close the deal so I really can’t say when the album will be out, I’m really just trying to do the record and close the deal. Were pretty much self sufficient, so we have a couple of hot records from big producers, a couple of hot features – so we really don’t need the label to shell out much cash, we pretty much have a hit record already. So were just trying to close the deal and see who wants to release this record and see if they’re talking the right way with us when they do so, so I really don’t have a release date but hopefully it’ll be the end of this year or early next year.


Dubcnn: How do you feel about the West Coast right now and how things seem to be panning out?

I love what the West Coast is doing right now, in the public eye, the mainstream eye it may look like were really not winning, I love that I can see my guy E-40, like I say who was on my first album – and its great to see my dude on MTV now, see him on BET now and see him in the magazines and not just the underground magazines, I feel good about the West Coast, I’m networking a lot, I travel a lot. So I’m hearing what the artists you guys haven’t heard yet have to offer, and we got a lot of heat coming out of this West Coast, peace to all my dudes also out in San Diego, there’s a lot of hot MC’s coming out San Diego and also coming out of Fresno, California which is where I’m from and we all know that there’s a lot of hot artists coming out The Bay and L.A, like always.


Dubcnn: Yeah, what would you say was lacking in all of Hip-Hop right now, not just the West Coast?

What’s lacking, like I said – that would most definitely be personal feeling, that personal feeling that you get when you listen to an artist; you’ve got to really relate and let the people know. There’s not any rappers that you would wear on a t-shirt nowadays. There are rappers who have t-shirts with little slogans on them but there’s not really anybody that I want a poster up of on my wall right now, growing up – I had posters of all of my favourite rappers on my wall. My little cousins are going to have posters of none of these nigga’s on their wall. There’s not too many rappers that you’d want on your wall, its that personal feeling that if you’re a fan of this dude. Its not the same anymore, you listen to an album for two weeks and your back to the bootleg man trying to cop another one and its like, that feeling of running into the record store to cop a record, tear it open and read the credits; that feeling is kind of gone right now. There’s a few artists that came with heat this year, and they’re doing it live man, on a major scale, all over the game.


Dubcnn: Yeah definitely. Okay, when your new projects drop, are you going to be touring?

Yeah, I’m always doing shows, always opening for somebody, always headlining – throwing my money into the game and putting on my own shows, I have a show out here in Fresno, for anybody who’s in the area with Too Short on June 3rd, out here at Club Soho. I just had a show the other night; I’m trying to put a tour right now with some artists out of Sacramento and a few artists out of the bay right now, so I’m trying to put on a small show. So yeah, just look for me soon, check me out on www.Rebel247.com and ill keep you posted on where I’m appearing next.


Dubcnn: Cool. What artists and producers would you like to work with in the future?

I really don’t know, there’s so many artists, really as far as producers, I’m looking for all new and up and coming producers. I like that new sound, I’m always looking to sound different from what another artist has, so really the producer I’m looking for; nobodies heard him yet, but as far as producers that I believe are doing their thing, the cat Proof from Atlanta, who does a lot of stuff for T.I, I really admire his work right now, Rick Rock from out of The Bay, I admire his work right now. E.A Ski, of course everybody would love to have a Dr. Dre beat, as far as artists that I’d like to work with, all my favourites; E-40, Keek Tha Sneak. I’d like to do something with the cat, Papoose from New York. I’m really feeling my guy papoose. From Atlanta, I’m really feeling T.I, I’d love to work with Lil Wayne and really anybody that I can vibe with like I said, its just on some personal shit – if we vibe then id love to work with anybody, even if the nigga has never heard of you in his life you know what I mean? Holla at me.


Dubcnn: Aight well that’s just about it for the questions, thanks for your time and before you go; do you have any last words for the fans?

Stay down with your guy Young Diego Redd, check for me – I got a lot of big shit coming soon, www.Rebel247.com. Peace, put god first – get money, get paid. Young Diego Redd man!