Guilty (February 2008)| Interview By: Eddie Gurrola

       Dubcnn linked up with Baby Ree group Guilty for an exclusive video interview. We start by talking about how the group formed and how they linked up with Damizza. After this, we discuss their new street album "No Contest" that is dropping exclusively on Dubcnn on February 13th, and will feature appearances from Damizza, Young De, and PR1ME. Guilty also tell us about being mentored by the likes of Bishop Lamont, Taje, and Warren G, and how those experiences have helped them learn more about the game. Read on to find out more about Guilty.


As always we have both the transcript and the audio for you to check and please feel free to send any feedback regarding the interview to: eddie@dubcnn.com

 

Interview was done in January 2008.

Questions Asked By : Eddie Gurrola

Full Video Interview: Download Here (Windows Media)

Video Stream (YouTube): Part 1 | Part 2

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Dubcnn: We’re here with Guilty – Silas, Los, Sly, & Dopey Loco!

Sly: Guilty – guilty as f*ck!

Dopey Loco: We started out as C4, but now we’re Guilty.


Dubcnn: How did you guys first form as a group?

Silas: That was in high school man! We had ideas of putting a rap group together. Dopey Loco knew Los…

Dopey: And I grew up with Silas.

Sly: We all went to the same high school together…

Silas: We all knew each other, but we didn’t know what exactly what we were doing.

Los: These guys rapped, and I had been making beats, but we never talked about anything musically. One day, we were talking and I was like, “You guys rap, I make beats, [so] why don’t we link up and make music?”

Dopey Loco: We had all the elements; everything was real smooth. Everybody linked together real nicely and blended.

Silas: It’s a good feel of music. It’s four different corners coming together – completely different elements, but together on a track, it makes it real whole.

Sly: And then Damizza came along, and we were Guilty as f*ck!


Dubcnn: So how did you guys link up with Damizza?

Silas: Actually, I knew his little brother. We went to school with him, and I gave a couple of our songs to him. He showed them to Damizza, he heard the sh*t, and…I don’t know, what did you think man?

Damizza: This is their time to shine! Go ahead man!

Silas: I guess [he saw] that he could f*ck with us and mold us a little bit.

Dopey Loco: He thought we were SO hot…

Damizza: All right, well the truth of the matter is…nah man! *Laughs* As a producer, I heard the DNA of good voice and the rough beat of it. To hear my little brother say, “My friend wants to rap with his group,” I was like, “What the hell are you talking about? I’ve gotta see this sh*t!” I heard it, they were dope, but it was really rough. So I was like, this is a perfect opportunity in my retirement to really throw the kitchen sink at something brand new and give it all the tools that I knew I could give it.

My little brother’s exact quote was, “You do it for other people. Why won’t you do it for this?” I said, “Why wouldn’t I? They’re from my hometown, and I’ve known Silas since [he was young].” So I hit them up, and I was like, “Yo, let me hear what you’ve got!” They gave me the stuff, and I asked Silas, “Who did the beat?” He goes, “My producer.” I said, “My producer! You have a producer?” He goes, “Yeah.” I said, “All right man, I’ve gotta see this now. Take me to his house.” He’s like, “You can’t put him on blast like that. You can’t just show up to his house like that, that’s f*cked up!” I was like, “No dogg, I’ll help you out. Take me to his house right now.”

Los: That’s when I got them phone call. I remember [Silas] told me about this guy named “Damizza”. I remembered I’d heard of him, like the stuff he did with Mariah and all that. So I was like, “Let me find out more about this guy.” I saw his Myspace, and he’s got pictures with Dre, Timbaland, Mariah Carey, and all this sh*t. I’m like, “Damn! This guy is a star!” So I get the phone call, and Silas is like, “Yeah, he’s ready to see you. He heard the CD of the stuff.” I was like, “Oh sh*t.”

Silas: He’s coming to your pad right now…

Los: Wait, right now? So, I was kind of pissing my pants. This guy’s coming to my house, I’ve obviously heard his work, but I’m like, “This guy’s crazy!” He gets to my house, he goes to my room, and pretty much the first thing he’s like, “Make a beat.” He puts me on the spot. I was like, “OK”. I did something, and then he was like, “If you have any questions, ask away!” I couldn’t think of one single question! Then he was leaving, and I was like, “Is there any way I can get your number?” and he was like, “Yeah sure, ask Silas, he has my number. Anything you need!” He left, and I was like, “That’s the last time I’m ever gonna see Damizza.”

[Later], I hit him on Myspace and asked, “Is it cool if we could come down to the studio and just learn? We’ll just sit and the back and watch.” He was like, “Dude, come down anytime!”

Sly: He’s the coolest motherf*cker you’ll ever meet!

Los: But ever since that day, we went to Studio 9 actually, and it blew me away.

Silas: Yeah, we went from recording in a closet, literally a closet with clothes right next to you, to [a big studio].

Los: Yeah, he gave us a tour, and gave us an opportunity to see how he does his music, which was completely different from how we were doing it.

Silas: Everything that we’ve done has all been one big learning process. We’ve got [Damizza] steering us in the right direction. We do something, and he goes, “Nah, you’ve gotta do it like this.” We’re learning the sh*t a lot quicker.

Sly: He’s put many teachers in front of us, from Warren G…

Silas: Bishop Lamont has spent many long hours talking to us. That’s somebody who’s really been [an influence].

Sly: Taje, PR1ME…

Silas: Taje has taught us about the street hustle, promotion-wise. Shouts to Triple too. We’ve been handing out a lot of sh*t in different areas because the dude’s telling us how to do it right.

Sly: Street team, we’ve done it! He showed us how to do that…

Los: Yeah, it’s not just all about music…

Silas: It’s the business!

Sly: Networking was f*cking big!

Dopey Loco: That was the first tool. Networking! If you want it done the right way, you’ve gotta hustle. Just like with any other f*ckin’ job that you’ve got. I’ve worked at a Michael’s Arts and Crafts. Come on. I’m trying to hustle to get that paper, and now we’re doing it with the music.


Dubcnn: So you’ve got the street album “No Contest” dropping February 13th. Tell us about it…

Los: We’re Guilty, so it’s pretty much self-explanatory. It’s an introduction to all of us – the first track is featuring PR1ME, shouts out to PR1ME, he’s doing his thing! We’ve all got a solo song on there, so people can actually listen to it and get to know us. We’re putting everything we’ve learned from Mizz to the Bishops to the Tajes to the PR1MEs, Ronnie King, Warren G, just putting it all into one mixtape and meshing it all together.

Silas: It’s definitely a Cali feel.

Sly: But it hits everything, from Gs to ladies…

Los: …to police! Every day, being 19 years old, day to day living sh*t.

Sly: That’s what’s crazy about the group. Give us a task, we’ll put our heads together and it’ll come out somehow.


Dubcnn: You guys are doing a single called “Cupid”, which sounds like a radio single…

Silas: It’s a little softer than the rest of the mixtape. The mixtape’s kind of in-your-face…

Sly: So Mizz challenged us!

Dopey Loco: He’s like, “Bang on these fools! Now, f*ck the hoes.”

Sly: Exactly. It’s a girls track. We’ve got to lay it down for the girls.

Dopey Loco: Girls buy records. Motherf*ckers download!

Los: Sh*t, I download!

Silas: Who doesn’t download?

Los: It’s a 112 remake. It’s just crazy. We’ve got Becca on the hook, shouts out Becca. We slowed it down for the ladies, it’s very radio friendly, so we think it’s gonna do its thing.


Dubcnn: What do you hope everyone’s going to get out of the “No Contest” project when it drops?

Dopey Loco: A broken neck from banging their head!

Sly: It describes us. It describes Guilty.

Los: It’s just an introduction to us for the whole West Coast…

Dopey Loco: …just to get to know us and what our sound is like.

Silas: A lot of the tracks are chill tracks. You can cruise with them. A lot of them have the slower beat, but they’re hard. It’s something you can bump in your ride when you’re chillin’.

Dopey Loco: Chillin’, smokin’, crusin’!

Silas: It’s gonna be mean. I can see people chillin’ to that sh*t.

Sly: You’ve got a bunch of producers that are on the mixtape too.

Silas: Los, Jedi Jared Moore is on some of the tracks…

Sly: Amplified [Battlecat’s protégé]. Shout outs to Amplified!


Dubcnn: Cool! Is there anything else you want to say?

Sly: Damizza is a crazy motherf*cker! Shout out to DJ Overtone for all the mixing, and Sjoko.

Los: Shout out to Bishop Lamont…

Sly: That guy is crazy too!

Los: We’ve gotta tell him about the story in his car…

Silas: OK, we’re at Studio 9 one night, and we’re ready to leave.

Los: It was like five in the morning, and we had to come back up here, so it was like a two hour drive.

Silas: We’re walking out the door, and Bishop’s right in front of us. He’s like, “Hold up! Lil’ pimps, what the f*ck do you think you’re doing? Get in the car!” We jump in his ride and he puts on some beats. He’s like, “Go!”

Sly: Then he starts it over. “Freestyle. Go!”

Los: I’m like, “I don’t really even rap,” and he’s telling me, “All right, bust a freestyle.”

Dopey Loco: Yeah, Los was first…

Los: I was like, “What are you doing?” So pretty much, he wanted to teach us the art of freestyling. Bishop is one of those cats that’s all about hip-hop. I have a lot of respect for him. He’s a busy guy, and just spending time with us, teaching us the ropes and giving us advice [was great]. That night, he actually freestyled himself for probably like 20 minutes straight without even stopping. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen before! He just had us learn that we’ve gotta keep working, because that guy never stops working.

Sly: That’s the best thing. They break it down at the end. Everything ends up with a lesson.

Silas: Bishop’s a busy dude, and that session lasted well over an hour. Right before that session, he was sitting down with us talking for like two hours. For a dude like that to spend some time with us…and Taje’s had some talks with us too, they spend time! Dae One…

Los: …and Young De!

Silas: Young De’s been here a lot, he’s spent a lot of time with us.

Los: Young De’s taught us so much. I think that’s what’s so cool about Mizz. He’s put us around the greatest people that you can ever put yourself with. They’re taking time out of their busy schedules and teaching us stuff that can help us down the road, which is a blessing.