DJ PIZO (PART 2) (June 2007) | Interview By: Noncentz

      

Please note that this interview was conducted by a Dubcnn Community (Dubcc.com) forum member. He and a team of members have been heavily discussing and promoting the work of the Dangerous Crew as a whole. Thanks go out to; Lamont, Raiders, Akcranker, SJ, GP and EazyE for their help and support in bringing the Dangerous Crew back into relevance. There will be more from the Dangerous Crew on dubcnn over the coming weeks.

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Interview was done by phone in May, 2007

Questions Asked By: Noncentz (Guest Contributor)

DJ Pizo Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here
 

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www.myspace.com/djpizo

www.myspace.com/thedangerouscrew
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Read Part 1 of this exclusive DJ Pizo Interview here

Dubcnn: Now, you were still around when Rappin’ Ron and Ant Diddley had come into the picture as well, right?

I was there for that. I was there that night that Ant Diddley and Rappin’ Ron tore the head off of Numskull and them. The niggaz rapped that night and I was there that night. Yeah, you gotta understand that when $hort wasn’t getting too much money, I was with him. His transition from 75 Girls to Dangerous Music, he lost a lot of money on “Girl, That’s Your Life” and some of them songs is still big today. After he made that transition to Dangerous Music, with “Born To Mack” and all of that, I was there. Wasn’t nobody else there. Like I said, who was the original Dangerous Crew? I was there. It goes back that far. Too Clean. Too Clean still get down with Too $hort today. You talking about a dancer who has been dancing for $hort for damn near 20 years! And he still doing his thing.


Dubcnn: What about $hort’s OG partner, Freddy B?

I don’t know, man. See, in that 75 Girls transition, that’s where Freddy B kind of lost out. I actually did a track with Freddy B that’s so dope and I can’t even find it. It’s called “Old Mack-Donald”. It was just that Freddy B style. You know, “Old Mack-Donald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O / And on his farm he did have a whole stable of hoes”. That was the $hort & Freddy B style. $hort kept reinventing himself. Freddy B kind of stayed in that same style. Whereas $hort reinvented himself and got more fluent with his raps. So, I don’t know, Freddy B just got lost in the middle somewhere.


Dubcnn: He did pop up on the Cocktails album..

For a quick minute! See, at points in people’s careers when they start getting their money, it’s like they’ll get with people they was with before and give them some help. Like $hort was wanting to bring back old school Freddy B, but if the people ain’t feeling them, then what can you do? You give some royalties and put a little money in their pocket, but obviously it’s not happening this way. It sounds fucked up, but that’s the way the business is.


Dubcnn: Now, I want to hear some more about this night that Bad N-Fluenz was taking on the Luniz. Pee-Wee touched on it a little bit, but…

It’s kind of a touchy subject becuz Yuk is real big now. You gotta look at the careers, and the ways that people’s careers went. Like when I told you that Richie Rich tore up Spice. Look at the careers. With the Bad N-Fluenz click, it was a battle. Let me just say that. It was a helluva battle. And the outcome of it, some people say this and some people say that. I’m neither nor, but I know who was up there getting their ass chewed up. I know. And I know who was spittin’ back and I’m not talking about groups, I’m talking about individuals. So, yeah I was there. Like I said though, look at the careers. Look where the Luniz went. Look where Yuk is. Yuk is so big right now. He’s one of the smartest niggas out of the bay in this game. They underestimate that man’s brain power. He’s a helluva businessman.


Dubcnn: I see what you’re saying about the careers, but I see it like Bad N’Fluenz had such an early demise becuz of the passing of Ron (RIP). And I feel like that had that accident not happened, Bad N-Fluenz would have came up in the game and been the bay’s version of Run-DMC.

I used to talk them and talk to their manager cuz I was up at Dangerous Music all week. And what I would tell them was that they needed to handle their business. Get you a lawyer and make sure your business is together. When they shoot you a contract, make sure it’s good. Don’t end up in the same boat as these other muthafuckaz who got caught up in the game. I think they got a couple contracts, and I don’t know if they rejected them or what, cuz that really wasn’t my business. But I was just telling them that they had a lot of potential if they took care of their business.

They were ahead of their time, as was a lot of the shit $hort did. Everything that came out of that camp was ahead of it’s time. When they really started putting things out, people wasn’t ready for it. They wasn’t ready for what I call sub-groups, where you have the major artist, and then the group that come out under the artist. The industry wasn’t ready for that, they was really only trying to hear that artist. There’s a way that you have to introduce those groups or other artists. That’s the way they do it NOW, but that’s the way $hort was doing it 15 years ago. It’s just that these muthafuckaz was ahead of their time.


Dubcnn: How much involvement did you have with Bad N-Fluenz, and are there any instances that stand out to you about them from that time?

I just knew them. I didn’t do no songs for them, or put no scratches on none of their records. I didn’t really DJ for them. I was strictly doing Dangerous Music and shit with Raphael. You gotta understand, at this time I’m on 2 platinum albums as a producer. So what they were fixing to do showed no interest to me. I’m doing my own thing. You gotta think too, Spice is just getting started at this point to really take off. So that was my main focus because I knew once Spice took off that the money was gonna be in our neighborhood and that was going to be a good thing. Spice took the fuck off and I mean he was up out of here quickly.


Dubcnn: Ok. Now what happened with Pooh-Man?

From what I seen, Pooh-Man was the biggest shit on Jive after Too $hort. That was Barry’s new Oakland baby. Pooh-man with that “Fuckin’ Wit Dank” song was big. Ant Banks did that whole album on him. “Them niggas ain’t playin’, them niggas ain’t playin’ was all out of my crate. All them little samples like that on there, that’s all my shit. When Pooh-Man got signed, that’s when I sent the Spice-1 shit to Barry Wise. And Barry called me back and said he wanted to sign him. So after we had got that call from Barry, and you can see on the DVD where Spice is saying that he was there when Barry had called back, Spice got signed to Jive and had that 187 Proof song. That song took off so muthafuckin’ fast!

By the time I got back off tour with $hort, I had a call on my answering machine that said Spice-1’s album just took off! They had been putting a whole bunch of money into Pooh-Man up until that point. But once Spice took off, man them funds to Pooh-Man got redirected. Pooh-Man was second on the shelf now. It was over. And Pooh-Man was from Oakland. Spice is from where I’m from. Hayward. Back then, Hayward wasn’t shit. It is now, but back then it wasn’t nothing. Hayward wasn’t a threat. Freemont wasn’t a threat. These is just different cities outside of Oakland. But when Spice took off, Pooh-Man kind of took it personal becuz he was no longer first priority.

So after Chico signed to Jive, it was a wrap! There was nothing that was going to hold that boy back. Nothing! And his flow and his style was so ridiculous, and his delivery was so on point that you was like who the fuck is this muthafucka! So that shit just blew up.


Dubcnn: Cuz I’m looking at Get In Where You Fit In and Amerikkka’z Nightmare, and it seemed that those albums were tailored to be going at Pooh-Man.

That’s becuz after Pooh had done that album on Jive, that album didn’t do shit cuz Jive had really stopped putting the funds behind him. If you’re on a label, you’re going to have a contact person that you can talk to. So you can call them and say I need $10,000. Depending on the label and your situation with that label, if you need the money they’re going to send it to you. But, you got to realize that they’re going to recoup that money too. So when it comes to check time every six months, and you see the statements of the advances you took out, video costs, posters, etc., you end up owing them money.

So Pooh-Man was kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place cuz he was taking money, not doing too many shows, and then he did a video I think, so I mean come on. Barry seen what had to happen, and what happened is what happened. Spice took off, and Pooh got kind of left in the dust. Nothing against Pooh or anything like that, but that’s just what happened. Spice took off like an MX missle! I couldn’t even get a phone call through to Spice. And I’m Too $hort’s DJ! That’s how big the shit got.


Dubcnn: Now on that DVD, I seen Goldy on stage in the background at that KMEL show. How did Goldy come into the picture?

Randy Austin used to be Too $hort’s manager. And on the DVD you’ll see 3 dudes in a car. Me, $hort and a light-skinned dude. That was Randy Austin. Goldy was actually with Randy Austin. Goldy’s first name was Mhisani. That was his first album, and I’ll never forget it cuz he had a tight-ass poster with him sitting on a chair, but it was at an upward angle that I had never seen. The he had switched his name up to Goldy and got more into that pimp thang. That’s where he came from, Randy Austin.


Dubcnn: Talking about all these guys, what’s your relationship to any of them now?

At the age that I’m at now, I can look back, reflect, and appreciate those times becuz it was a pivotal point for the Bay. And to know that I was a part of that movement and had my hand in there. We were young men and grew up to be men together in this business like brothers. I love all of them! I’d do anything for any of them dudes. I love $hort to death! I love Shorty B to death! I mean, how can you not love Shorty B? Any time you talk to Shorty B I bet you’re going to have a smile on your face cuz he’s just always going to say something to tickle your funny bone. And Pee-Wee is just the most humblest dude, man. You don’t want to get him on your wrong side though! I love all them dudes man! Like I said, I’m an older adult now, and to be a young adult and be able to share parts of my life with them, man, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.


Dubcnn: I talk with Shorty B pretty regularly, and you’re right, man, it’s hard to have a smile on your face when you talk to him cuz he’s just one of the coolest and most genuine person you’d ever meet.

Yeah, Shorty B has always looked at the positive. Even in a negative situation. Shorty B will always find the light and that’s why he’s successful. If it’s a very, very negative situation, Shorty B will make the best out of it, and not even worry about the negativity. He will just make the best out of it. You gotta love that cat, man! His fingers are worth $50 million dollars!!


Dubcnn: Now, let’s switch gears a little bit. Let me get your opinion on west coast music today.

There’s a lot of groups on the west coast that just don’t get the exposure that they should. But it’s always been like that. It’s always been a fight. If you look down south, and even back east, they’re always producing new artists. There’s always somebody new. Lil’ Scrappy, Paul Wall or whoever. And these are people who are coming out and doing independent shit which $hort was doing back in the day, and now they’re doing it in the south. For what $hort sold out of his trunk in the Bay area, you got to think how big Oakland is compared to a Texas. You got hundreds of thousands of people in Texas in one small city and the surrounding cities it might be a million or two people. Then you got little-ass Oakland. So the notoriety for those artists is bigger.

Texas is the breaking point. It can fall either way once it gets to Texas. That’s how it used to be. We would sell all the way up to Texas, and then it would go a little bit further than Texas, and then New York wouldn’t touch us. But they always produce new groups. On the west coast, who have we had in the past 20 years that’s really made some noise? Dre, NWA, you can say NWA just to cover the whole thing, Ice-T was doing his thing, Spice, 40, $hort, and Humpty and them, Pac. The main people that were there 15 years ago, are still there today. Too $hort & E-40. Where you at right now, a lot of people heard Turf Talk on Muscle Cars, but they really don’t know who Turf Talk is. And that muthafucka shoulda sold so large, that it’s pathetic!

It’s always been a struggle to stand out. Especially being from the Bay area and being artists. Becuz if you can’t stand up to what $hort, 40, and Spice-1 did then it’s not gonna happen for you. You got a lot of people up here now moving a lot of records, but what’s the staying power? That’s what we’re known for is staying power. We been here. As Dre was with NWA, Too $hort was Too $hort. As Dre went to Death Row, Too $hort was Too $hort. As Dre went to Aftermath, Too $hort been Too $hort. E-40 has been E-40. They been doing constant numbers every year! Every year!


Dubcnn: What’s the difference between what the east coast and down south is doing to push new artists, and how $hort & 40 or whoever could push out Keak Da Sneak, Turf Talk, Fatha Dom, Goldy or whoever? Why can’t these guys have blown up?

I don’t know. We’ve always had that problem. I mean, this internet shit is fucking off niggaz album sales. All these downloads and shit. This is how we feed our kids! Thank God for shows becuz the way the checks used to be back in the day, unless you was moving a whole bunch of units them royalty checks would be kind of thin. You got to put your hustle on it now. It just depends on the hustle that you have in yourself. It just so happened that $hort and 40 was part of that era where they had to be out doing what they had to do to get rich. So if you have that type of work ethic, you can apply that to any business venture that you get in to. So they just applied it to their career. And they continue to do it becuz they know how to sell themselves or reinvent themselves.

When the times change, they’re still going to have their core audience, but they’re also going to grab a couple new people on the way. Keak and all them, they been putting in work for years, and all they need is that ONE single. What really helped Keak out was “Tell Me When To Go” cuz that was a major, major national hit. And for him to be on there, it just solidified the Bay area’s position. It let people know that this is nothing. We do this! It’s just really all timing, and having business on your mind, and being able to separate the artist form the businessman.


Dubcnn: The one difference to me, regarding the Bay, is that the Bay had its own sound. That funk-heavy sound. The Ant Banks and/or Shorty B sound. Sampling or influences from all the funk heavyweights like George Clinton, Bootsy Collins, and others. The east coast had their sounds, and now the south has their sound. It seems to me, that the Bay Area has lost its sound. Like Ant Banks, where the hell did he go??

He’s out there in the sunshine on the golf course doing his thing. He’s really heavy in the real estate. He came by actually, and me and him sat up and chopped it up. I always thought that Banks always had, not animosity, but I always thought me and him always had a problem. And he was like, “nah, man. Pizo, at that time you just wasn’t handling your business. You was letting people beat you. The things you were doing and the ideas you were coming with was needed at that time. That’s what you were good for to put that on the table. It wasn’t necessarily the beats that you was making, but it was the way you were putting shit together.”

So, he’s out there doing his thing. He’s fixing to actually get back in to this. He did a track for my dude Zo, 40, Richie Rich and with Spice on the hook. It’s called “The Bay Is back.” It’s a slapper too! But he wants to get back in. I know he’s been doing some independent stuff. When Ant banks and Shorty B hooked up it was like the big bang theory, man! You had Shorty B who just knew the funk. Shorty B knew so much funk he was stinky! And Ant Banks knew how to make it come to life. He’d make materialize. But that sound, see the east coast is heavy drum orientated. We had a heavy 808 and deep basses and synth basses and stuff like that. License plate rattlers. Schmob music. That’s the type of shit the Bay Area do.

Me, as these niggaz be sampling George Clinton and all that shit, I been doing that since the Dangerous Crew. Like if you listen to that Dangerosu Crew album, with Spice-1, I think it’s a sample of the Mothership Connection. $hort got that right out of my crates. I had made a track and they re-laid it and put it on that album. I didn’t even know they had done that until I heard it and I was like that’s my shit. I always took the funk, but I always made sure my drums moved like the east coast drums becuz I just loved the way their drums moved. I mean, I put the 808’s and the 909’s on there, but I would have 3 different loops of drums. That way when you mix it and I drop shit out when somebody says something, you still got something up under there subliminally. It makes the track move.

DJ Quik came up to me once, just after Shortdog’s In The House had dropped, and said that I used to make him nervous becuz I could put them drums together so hella good. But he said, “you can’t fuck with me now though!” *laughs* Quik is a good friend of mine. Been knowing him for years, man. But to hear somebody say that about my drums, man. But I don’t know, man. The sound I guess maybe just had its time. It’ll come back. These niggaz out here is hyphy, and we was more into smoking and just riding. Just kind of laid back.


Dubcnn: It’s good to hear about Banks wanting to come back in the game cuz he’a got a lot of fans that been wondering where he went. It’s like he just left.

Well, Banks is a business man first and foremost. He was very good and talented, but he was a business man and he made sure he got his loot. He wasn’t stupid with his money. He made the right investments and he knew how to save a dollar. I mean, he had his gold and a benz or two, but he was a moderate spender from what I saw. I didn’t hang around him, but when he came around he had a nice Rolex piece and a nice car with a nice sound. Banks was really about his business, man. He might come over to Dangerous Music, but he was so hot that he might have to go to San Francisco or fly to L.A. to mix somebody’s track and do all of this becuz he was sought after.


Dubcnn: Ok. Well, Pizo, tell us what you’re working on now. What’s Pizo got going on?

DJing for E-40 mainly. That muthafucka keep me busy, man. We got all kinds of shit happening. I got my album in the stores, “Built 4 This”. I just did a compilation on Spice. I think I’m going to call it Spice-1: Lost & Found. There’s a lot of tracks on there that people never heard or haven’t heard in a long time. And then there’s some new tracks on there that I know they haven’t heard. I got a web store that’s e-40djpizo.com. that’s my web store and I’m just getting that up.

You get a bunch old stuff up off there like some old Spice-1 t-shirts and just other old, throwback, vintage shit. Mix CD’s, DVD's, and other original shit from myself, Spice, and E-40. Even autographs, like if you want an E-40 autograph on a t-shirt I’m going to do it where your name is actually on there. A lot of people just want some shit like this. And I got so much unreleased shit from major bay artists, that I just hold on to for myself, you know what I’m saying? But that’s about it. I want to share some of this shit with the fans.

Dubcnn: That all sounds really good, Pizo. I’ll be checking for all that and keeping the fans over at dubcnn.com posted on all this. But, I appreciate your time and talking with me about all this wonderful stuff. We’ll keep in touch!

Aight, cool, man. You doing me a favor and I appreciate it too!