KNOC-TURN'AL  (May 2003) | Interview By: Nima

      Dubcnn.com recently got the chance to speak with Knoc-Turn'Al! In the interview he speaks on the cancelled "Knocs Landin" release, his upcoming full length album "The LP," various Westcoast issues, Detox, 213 and also spending four years in the Pen! We have both the transcript and audio for you to check and please feel free to send any feedback regarding the interview to: nima@dubcnn.com




Huge thanks to Knoc-Turn'Al for taking time out to answer the questions fans wanted to know! (Interview was done by phone on May 2nd 2003)

Questions Asked By : Nima

Knoc-Turn'Al Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here

Knoc-Turn'Al Dropped A Verse! Check That Here

Full Interview In Audio : Here

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dubcnn.com : Let's start off with a simple question. How did you come up with your name?

Uhh, I was in jail, and my homie by the name of Crybaby, he's from Rollin' 20 Crips, he's from Long Beach where I'm originally from, he got life in jail, and I used to work on the back dock in jail, in the pen, they unload pallets and trucks, where the fools would come into the penitentiary and unload the pallets, and I had a night job so basically, like even when I didn't have to work I would stay up late at night and just write raps while I was in the pen, so he was like "man you nocturnal man, you don't ever sleep!"


dubcnn.com : How did it feel to get worldwide recognition after "Bad Intentions"?

Ah man, it was great! It's great to be accepted for who you are in this game. So it's just good to know that people still appreciate genuine and original music!


dubcnn.com : When did you realise your LP would never see the light of day on Aftermath?

I was signed to L.A. Confidential, I came to Dre and I was signed to L.A.
Confidential, and I came to him as a writer, and L.A. Confidential didn't have a distribution deal, and we ended up getting the distribution deal through Elektra Records. And after that happened, we was just gone put a album out on April 23rd last year when we got bootlegged so bad, and I said "hey man we might aswell put a EP out, create a new budget for my album, and use the money from that to get all new songs and then put my album out next year". They thought that was a good idea so we ran wit it. The CEO of Elektra is a good person.


dubcnn.com : So we're going to see a full length Knoc LP..

Of course!! In.. June.

dubcnn.com : What is it called?

The LP! *laughs*

dubcnn.com : And what's on there?

Uh I got Dr. Dre of course, Westside Connection, Mel-Man, Scott Storch, Warren G, DJ Quik, 50 Cent, I got my label mates on L.A. Confidential Slip Capone, Time Bomb, Yikes and Young Timer..

dubcnn.com : That's a crazy line-up right there!

dubcnn.com : Yeah I really took my time on this, I tried to stack the deck to the point where people will understand why it took me so long, you know what I mean?


dubcnn.com : Who did you get as far as production goes?

Uhm, Warren of course, Dre, the song that Warren did for me got on, the song that Quik did for me got on, the song wit Dre and me got on, we got production by L.A. Confidential, we got production by this new guy named Hannon, he got some good shit, one of the songs that he did will probably end up bein' one of my singles, maybe the second or the third single. But it's a good song, he's a great producer I just wanna make sure he gets the recognition. But uhm, who else produced, well just put "and more".. Oh yeah I got Timbaland on there. Just put "and more".


dubcnn.com : Can you describe the vibe of the album for us?

The vibe of the album is basically the lifestyle of Knoc-Turn'Al, the life, the hood and the struggles of one man. Basically, all I tried to do on this album is, grow up, stand on my own two feet and become like a butterfly from a worm, I was Dr. Dre's protégé, now I can stand on my own two feet, still wit the support of Dr. Dre and Ice Cube and the Westside Connection and everybody. And I can actually just stand up and be me, they accept me, on the West Coast so I love that. I mean I thank god for the acceptance that they give me.


dubcnn.com : You didn't mention Hittman.. Isn't he gonna be on there?

Ohh man!! See? There we go, Hittman! He's on my album, rapping and producing
on a song called "Watch Out".

dubcnn.com : Yeah, we already heard that!

You heard that one?

dubcnn.com : Yup.. What about an L.A. Confidential Record? Is that in the making?

Yeah that's done, but we just waitin' on my album to drop first.


dubcnn.com : Is it gonna be ya'll together or is it gonna be solo tracks..

Nah, it's gone be all together you know what I mean? We movin' the units, I love and enjoy workin' with L.A. Confidential, I like the artists, because we grow together.. I mean they just some cool people, they my friends, as well as my business partners and they do they jobs to the fullest, like they keep me sharp, they actually help me stay on top of my talent. You have a bunch of dope MCs around you, you can't help but stay sharp on your talent!


dubcnn.com : Will Slip Capone or Time Bomb come with solo albums?

Yeah, what we tryna do with the L.A. Confidential album is give everybody a fair shot to shine so that we can let the fans decide on who they wanna see next. We don't wanna designate somebody and then they fail, and we shoulda made a different move. We come out wit the L.A. Confidential album, and everybody feelin' Time Bomb more, then of course, natural courses will make you say "ok we gotta go wit Time Bomb", if they feelin' Slip more then we go wit Slip! And when we go on tour, and whoever's verse gets the most attention besides mine, you gone know, people gone be singin' it! Or necessarily the song that's on the radio, who's verse get cut? You know they gone play my verse, but do they cut Slips or do they cut Time Bombs verse? That's who gets more recognition and that's the person that comes next! Everybody is workin' on their solo projects because we got our own studios fully blown, we got everything digital we got pro tools, we got two rooms, we got two vocal booths, I mean we ain't never worried! Each artist is comin' up wit 6 songs a week!


dubcnn.com : We been waitin' on Slip Capone for a long time!

That's my dog!

dubcnn.com : How did you end up hookin' up with Baby Ree Entertainment?

Oh that's Damizza, he a good friend of mine, Damian Young.

dubcnn.com : Do you like working with Shade Sheist, Damizza and them?

Yeah I love it! It's a fun atmosphere when I work wit them, it's like it's all love and family. We don't charge each other nuttin', we done try to worry about it, we just go in and make the music and just try to make it happen. And that's how business should be, if you dealin' amongst friends. And it shouldn't be no pay shit, "well gimme 5 gz back cause I gave you 5 gz the last time". It should just be "lets make the music and collect the money when it comes!"


dubcnn.com : You did a great hook on Westside Connections new track... Will you team up with them again in future?

Yeah they wanna do another one right now! They like "can we get one more??"
*laughs* I have no problem wit givin' it to them, I respect my G's on the West Coast.

dubcnn.com : There's gonna be a video for "Lights Out" too I heard..

Yeah, it's comin' up earlier part of this month.

dubcnn.com : What's gone be the concept of the video?

Uhm they got that all worked out, I just know that I'ma go read the video treatment and if I don't like what I'm doin' I'ma try and help change it!


dubcnn.com : In the song "Rude Awakening", you said you'd be writing for DJ Quik.. did that already go down?

I said I wrote for Dre and Warren G and I'm bout to write for Quik. So now I'ma help him wit his next album comin' up, I wrote for Warren G, 5 songs on his new album that's about to come up, and I wrote his new single wit Raphael Saadiq that's bout to come out...

dubcnn.com : What's the single called?

I can't remember right now, Raphael Saadiq did the hook, so like that's the name of the song, something he said in the hook, so I can't actually remember the name of the song... And of course I'm gone do some work on Detox aswell!

dubcnn.com : Oh yeah, I was about to ask about that..

12 steps to recovery! You know on that album it's gone say Detox, and on the back it's just gone have 12 steps. It ain't even gone be no song titles, it's just gone say Step 1, Step 2, Step 3.. right? So like if I'm rappin' on Step 6, it'll be like "yeah man, did you hear Knocturnal on step 6?", "Yeah but I like Step 2, Step 2 is bangin'!" Like people just in conversations talkin' about it.


dubcnn.com : How much has been recorded for Detox by now?

Uhh.. a few songs.. but you know Dr. Dre ends up makin' 200 songs.. I made 300 songs for my album so I understand him. But he's gone end up makin' alotta songs, you just gotta stay there, you keep workin' you keep grindin' you gone be there!


dubcnn.com : You said you'd be writin' for DJ Quiks new album.. so he's comin' with another one??

Yeah!

dubcnn.com : He said he's gone retire!

After this one.. we ain't gone let him do that man! We ain't gone let him retire.. He just frustrated right now, you know what I mean?

dubcnn.com : What do you think of DJ Quik as an artist?

DJ Quik is dope, DJ Quik is one of the pioneers of this game on the West Coast.. He's dope. It's only a few people on the West that I really give credit to, and DJ Quik is one of 'em.


dubcnn.com : You've had a few really creative songs such as "Your Only Son" and "Peepin' Tom". What new aspect are you trying to bring to the West Coast rap scene?

Well people always have their own style of rappin'. I'm more of a narrative type of rapper. I bring you what goes own, from a standpoint where I'm the person outside lookin' in, rather than me bein' involved in everything that's goin' on. But like my diversity, as far as my style.. I rap off beat, I don't know why I rap off beat.. But like Dr. Dre said, I'd put it best by sayin' what he said. "I don't know why you rap off beat, and how you do, but that shit sounds good as fuck!"


dubcnn.com : Will we see you behind the boards again like on "L.A. Nite N Day"?

Yeah! Yeah of course. I got a couple songs on my album that I produced. War, look for a song called War on my album, I produced that track it's a hot song!

dubcnn.com : So you forgot yourself when I asked you about the production...

Yeah.. *laughs* I consider myself a much greater rapper than I'm a producer,
so I ain't really worryin' about the production side right now..


dubcnn.com : There were rumours of you hooking up with Snoop and Doggystyle Records.. was that true?

Uhm what you mean? Like goin' and doin' some work with them?

dubcnn.com : Yeah!

Yeah of course, I mean that's part of my family, like I said I'm from Long Beach, they respect me they love me, I respect them I love them that's all in the making. But right now, what's best for my career is solidifying myself and this is what everybody is telling me. You need to solidify yourself, so that people don't think that you ridin' on nobodies coat tails. Of course you gone do features, you gone do anything that you want to do. But as they got together they started talkin to me like we would sit down, have a conversation. Dre was there, Snoop was there, Warren was there and Nate was there, we sat down and talked, and they were like "Knoc man are you really ready to be rich?" this is what Dre said "Cause you don't understand! Wit the typa shit that you coming with, you gone be here! So you need to really focus your mind on understandin' whats about to happen to you." And this is in preparation for me to release my album, so I understand what he sayin, because it's like, yes I'm a underrated rapper right now. But I'm more of a household name than anything. The name is there, the name is branded. I just gotta get somethin' out there for people to understand who I am!


dubcnn.com : What about 213.. are you gonna be on there?

Yeah, yeah! I did a couple songs for that already, and then Warren G, Nate Dogg and me are gone create something called the West Coast Allstars, new album. We'll have everybody on there. But that's not gone happen till after the summer. And we doin' a movie wit Damizza right now, you got Shade Sheist, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, a buncha people. You got a buncha different people on there. But it's gone be a good one. Shade Sheist of course, Damizza..

dubcnn.com : Is it true that 213 is gone have alotta East Coast production?

Nah, nah! I mean you can get a Just Blaze! track, but you can also make him fit his style of beat into a westcoast lingo, cause if you understand what's goin' on on the East Coast right now anyway, all they doin' is makin' club hits that got West Coast sounds. Over grimy lyrics like East Coast people are.. like Jay-Z and every other person that's out there like that. So I mean it's a beautiful formula. But it's easy to get Just Blaze! or Kayne West to make a good beat that's west coast orientated, or even just universal period. I mean West coast people won't look down upon you cause you did it, because it's still not playin' yourself to be short you know?

dubcnn.com : We want some G-Funk tho!

Of course you gone get that, that's what Warren is there for!

dubcnn.com : How many tracks is he gone produce?

Prolly half the album...

dubcnn.com : That's tight! What about guest appearances? Who are we gone see on there beside yourself?

Uhh, we got Xzibit, Eminem.. oh fuck I got Xzibit on my album!

dubcnn.com : So everythings cool wit Xzibit again?

Nah, but you know.. it's all right.

dubcnn.com : I mean if he's on 213, Snoop's gotta be cool wit him!

Nah, it's like you gone do work wit him because he once was our homie! We kicked it wit him, we done been to places where we all have a family gatherin'.. You can't just turn your back to somebody when you did some stuff like that wit him.. I mean it was a family orientated type of thing... But it's just the type of things that he chose to involve himself in.. the type of things that he chose to say, we just don't agree wit! Cause if we gone be a family, we gotta be family! We can't just be family sometimes when we feel like it, and then when we in a bad mood, "Oh I'm not fuckin' wit ya'll today.." you know what I mean?


dubcnn.com : And who's gone win the Aftermath Murder Inc battle?

Ja Rule might just wanna stop it, I'd advise him to stop it, before he's not even able to come to L.A.!


dubcnn.com : Are you gonna get involved?

Me? Nah! Unless he says somethin' stupid! If I feel personally involved, or he made a comment towards me, then I will be involved.. But I mean I went to this Ja Rule video shoot, or what is that Cadillac Tah video shoot, I talked to Irv, we was up there and he was willin' to me in the video, me and Damizza and Shade Sheist was gone be in the video.. Then later on, we actually shot the scene and everything.. But then later on, when I found out he had a Fuck Eminem shirt on in the video, it say F U C and then it say some other shit.. it say Eminem on it.. I'm like you gotta edit me out homie! I ain't gettin' down like that!


dubcnn.com : Daz Dillinger dissed you on his website a while back.. What do you have to say about that?

You know, people that diss you, that don't even know you, what can you say about that? That just makes him look stupid! He don't even know me! He ain't even seen me before in his life! He just gone go and form an opinion about me, I guess he's right then!

dubcnn.com : Is Daz gone be on Detox?

Hell nah! But then again I don't know, if he come wit some heat, I'm pretty sure Dre will fuck wit him! Heat is heat, you can't deny heat! In music, the conqueror of all failures is heat! Like I said, you can't just exclude somebody man! But he don't even know me! Why would he say somethin' about me? Slip Capone told me about it.. And I'm like shit who cares? Every time Snoop and Warren G would talk to him about it, because he don't know me! If he did, he wouldn't have said what he said! That don't mean I gotta say somethin' bad about him! He just need to learn, who he talkin' bout, that's all! Cause I ain't no fucked up individual. I'm down to earth, I ain't got no ego, no chip on my shoulder nothin! You walk up have a conversation wit me on the streets, and I see you, I'm not gone shine you on, whether you're somebody or you're nobody! It don't matter, I'ma talk to you! I can be walkin' down the street right now, people ask me for a interview.. "Excuse
me are you Knoc-Turn'Al?!" "Yes I am" "Can we have a interview?" "Yes you can"
"We don't have no pen" "Go get one I'll wait for you right here" You know what I mean? I ain't gone be like I gotta go! I'ma go and give them their autograph, that's a record sale right there!


dubcnn.com : What's up with Mel-Man? Is he still around?

Ah man I just seen Mel Man up there producin' for Dre the other day man! He just been doin' some stuff for Governor, he's up there doin' some stuff for a few other people.. Governor has a joint venture thing goin' on with Atlantic and Aftermath. That's the first time Dre stepped outta his company like that. So that's gone be a good thing.. He's a RnB cat, he's dope tho!

dubcnn.com : Where's he from?

I'm not sure, I just talked to the cat a couple times, I ain't really tried to get all into his business, but I know he's not from California.


dubcnn.com : Is there anybody you'd look forward to hookin' up with in future?

Oh yeah, right now Ice Cube again. We tryna do a song and put it on the movie soundtrack that's gone come out.

dubcnn.com : And is there anybody that you ain't worked with you'd like to work with?

Uhm, really.. I don't know man I've been blessed with the privilege of workin' wit all the West Coast legends that I ever wanted to work with, so I really don't have that problem as far as people I wanna work with..

dubcnn.com : That's crazy huh?

Yeah that's a blessing man! I thank god for that! Because it's like everybody that I ever thought of workin' wit in life, is willin' to work with me, and I already worked with them, or they are willin to! So it's like I thank god for that one!


dubcnn.com : Are you fed up the radio hardly plays West Coast rap?

I don't know man, we need to make hotter songs! I blame us! I don't blame them! You gotta move wit what's hot, and we ain't doin' what's hot, they ain't gone play it!

dubcnn.com : What are you bumpin' yourself at the moment?

What am I bumpin' in my car? Right now, me! Cause I'm in the process of mixin' my cd for the last month, and it's been nothin' but my songs to make sure this last process on my album is straight. Previously to that, I had a little NWA, the old album, the Chronic old album, Eazy's first album, Rakims first album.. some more old school typa stuff. Tryna get into the texture of how they did how they did, cause it's a key behind that! And if you can be a new person to do what they did, you gone sell a lot more records, cause back then, they were doin' what they did and they were only goin' gold, and now you got the opportunity to go 10x platinum! So it's like, if you can do what they did, you gone be incredible!


dubcnn.com : What you think of 50 Cent..

I love 50 Cent! I talked to him I met him I went to his video shoot wit him and Nate Dogg, holla'd at him.. I was in South Beach wit him just fuckin' wit Scotty Storch that produced some songs for me on my album.. I'm glad to see that there's a real motherfucker that can make it, besides a bunch of these fake motherfuckers that come in here and smile in your face and don't mean a goddamn word they say. Then he said he gone make a song wit me and he arranged it and made the motherfuckin' shit happen. It wasn't no bullshit goin' on!


dubcnn.com : Can you describe Detox some more for us?

Yeah, so like basically, if you've ever been in N.A. or A.A. class, you gone understand that.. whether you relapse whether you do anything, it's a bunch of
steps to any recovery. So it's like you got Chronic 1 Chronic 2 now you got Detox. It's supposed to be a recovery process, but you know you relapse every once in a while. So it's still gone talk about what it usually talk about. But it's gonna be.. You know when you tryna get your damn life together, and shit just don't seem right. Shit just don't go right, nothin' happen right. Shit keeps fuckin' up. And that's kinda ironic I like that.

dubcnn.com : Is Kurupt gone be on it?

Probably.. You understand, we don't hold no hard feelings man. It ain't even like that. If Kurupt come up there, he got the right mind frame, he come wit him and Roscoe, and they come through and they chill, and they lay some heat, they lay some fire, ain't nobody gone deny them!

dubcnn.com : He been dissed quite a lot lately tho...

Yeah, but you know.. people make up.. break ups to make ups. Classic sayin'. He is from the Dogg Pound after all, you can't forget that, you know?


dubcnn.com : I heard you did time in the joint. can you go into that a lil bit?

Shit.. yeah! I did four years and one month! Locked the fuck up! *laughs*

dubcnn.com : What were you in for?

Robbery.. multiple robberies..

dubcnn.com : And did you learn anything from your experiences there?

Yeah, stop takin' these peoples money! *laughs* But then again, I ain't tryna glorify the pen, but it gave me focus. Cause it made me realise that's not a place for me man! I wouldn't want that on my worst enemy, cause the pen is really a place that as a man, you can't do nothin' but just sit there and think you're wastin' time ridin' away. And I don't wish that on nobody, I wish everybody to try and progress with their life. Cause at the end of the day, when the man calls you, and you look back at your life, you gone be real disappointed, and I don't wanna be disappointed wit my life.


dubcnn.com : As a last question.. I'd like to know if your hair is real... Cause on Dr. Dre's 2001 booklet your head was shaved!

Nah I had half a head of hair... And I let my half a head of hair grow back in.

dubcnn.com : So it's real!

Yeah it's real.. My mother is German / Jewish, and my father is black. So that's where my hair is from.. I don't have no perm, no curl, nuttin'.

dubcnn.com : All right that's basically it for the questions, thanks for takin' the time!

No problem man!

dubcnn.com : Aight..

Peace.