KOKANE (PART 1)  (April 2008) | Interview By:

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Interview was done in April 2008

Questions Asked By: Yash

Full Audio Interview Here

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Related Media

Kokane - Check Out My Melody
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Dubcnn: We are sitting here with Kokane the legend and it's a pleasure man talking to you again. It's been awhile since you were on Dubcnn. What have you been doing?

Man it's a whole lot that's been on plate, it's been good for the last year and a half I just been extremely working hard in the studio and boy we got a whole list of things to talk about...


Dubcnn: Alright but before we get into what you been doing lately I'd like to go back in time with you. What was it like growing up being the son of the famous Motown composer Jerry Long senior?

Well in likeness of my dad Jerry Long senior, you know that was his thang. Because it's like just my son, you got to grow up and get your own thing going. But it was good though because I didn't understand it until I started really getting trued and good with the music and was like; wow this right here it's in the blood and it was a good thing man because he made some very good hits back in the days "Just My Imagination", "Waters Run Deep" and working with Quincy Jones and all that so it was a good thing to let me know that I came from that type of backing and it just inspired me more too go out there and hack it like I do.


Dubcnn: How old were you when you first started singing and finding interest in music?

Well like 5 years old.


Dubcnn: Wow that's young but when did you make that transition into becoming a full-fledged musician?

When I seen Grand Master Flash, Furious Five and back in those days when I was into Curtis Blow and all that. I'm a hip-hopper to the fullest and you know my cousin had a group called "Wizards Of Rock" in the mid eighties and they transformed over to Above The Law.

So that really hyped me extra too see different things and too also see George Clinton (Parliament) Bob Marley and Grand Master Flash it had overall a big impact and also seeing Cold 187 (Big Hutch) and seeing how he get down on stage. I learned a lot from that dude right there who is my cousin.

He was the one who really pushed me to like do it because you know when Eazy and them came around; it was like wow because they was the first to really touch on something. It was really like a movement and then when I found out Above The Law signed...Because you know I was always rhyming and back then you know my name used to be Jay Golden and we was on some Hip-Hop to the fullest.

After seeing Cold 187 and them I said it was time to get with it because it wasn't Gangsta Rap then it was Reality Rap. That really pertained me to really do it and when he gave me the name it was over with.


Dubcnn: Who gave you the name? Eric?

No Cold 187.


Dubcnn: Okay, how did you hook up with Eric "Eazy E" Wright at first?

I went through Above The Law's Lay Law. Who had a thing called Law House Records. You know Lay Law is one of the founding members of NWA. After Cold 187 did the tracks we did 2 song demos and after we did that Eazy heard it and after 2 songs he said "man I got my George Clinton!"


Dubcnn: What was the atmosphere like in the studio back then? Was it different from now?

It was beautiful because you gotta realize anything that is part of a movement; social and economically it has a big impact. It's like when Bob Marley first did or it's like when Marvin Gaye first did. It's the same you gotta realize when NWA touched on that line and opened up their can of worms...Of course Ice T was the first one to set the foundation but when NWA put the house on it, it was over with!

So in the mist of everything that was going on it was a culture shock. Not only that it was like Beatle mania homie. Throughout Jerry Long Kokane being in this game there has never been in my opinion a hands on experience an impact like NWA had period! It was bananas homie it was crazy!


Dubcnn: What was it like when you saw Ice Cube leaving first then soon after Dr Dre left. What did you think about that?

Well I was loyal regardless. The first people on Death Row...I mean people have to realise this see; back then the whole history was this when we was running around Suge just came out of college from UNLV so he used to bodyguard for D.O.C. He was his bodyguard and then when we started hanging out everybody was knowing each other. Then D.O.C lost his voice, Above The Law was doing their thang and back during the time when everybody fell off was because of one thing.

I don't want to say his name but I'd just say it like this; Jerry Heller was in the mist of brain washing the whole situation and Ice Cube in his opinion was the first one to leave. So when Dre, Above The Law and Kokane was getting the idea then that Eric is janky so we decided to all band up together and start our own company.

Suge was in the forefront of it because Suge used to be around Above The Law and Kokane all the time. So we had came up with something we used to call ourselves The Aftermath in 1992! Before it was even happening. We used to call this thing that we made up because Above The Law and Kokane made up that in 1990 we said we wanted to do our Funk called G-Funk!

Yea so we started that man and during that time that we thought Eazy was trippin' so we came up to the studio it was in Inglewood. It was Dre, me and Snoop of course was there; because the people to found the talent and really put it on was Cold 187.


Dubcnn: Yea I heard that he found Snoop and you guys had Snoop before he signed to Deathrow.

Yes exactly.


Dubcnn: What happened to that why did he leave with Dre?

What happened to that was this; we was working on my album "Funk Upon a Rhyme" so let me finish telling you that when we met up at the studio "we was like Eazy trippin' Dre. " Dre Hutch and everybody was in the room and then Suge was like "what y'all want to do?" So we wanted to start this thing called Death Row Records right?


Dubcnn: Right.

So we went to Hollywood it was at the Solar building Dig Griffio built it and we had came up with a couple of things. The first people that were going to come out on Death Row was going to be Above The Law and Kokane with Dre behind the stuff doing what he was going to do. That was when Deep Cover was finna come out. But what had happened was Eazy had called us because "We was like man we ain't just like going to leave like that, we finna talk it out with this brother and see what the hell is going on." So what we did was this:

We had a meeting with Eazy E and Dre was supposed to be there but Dre never did show up at all. So we ended up renegotiating with Eazy and we stayed with him. So during that time Snoop Dogg and Warren G - who was Snoop Dogg's DJ at that time - said they got a dude named Nate Dogg who sings straight from the Church so they all came up there. So during that time when we wanted to work on Snoop Dogg's album we couldn't because we had to work on my second album which was called "Funk Upon A Rhyme".

So it put Snoop in a situation where he was like "Well what the hell am I going to do? I can't wait on Kokane all day to do his thang".

So Warren G called Dre and them and said look "Hutch and them can't work on Snoop and my album so can we come over there? " That's when Snoop Dogg made the transition between Above The Law and Death Row. So when he made that transition it was a movie coming out called "Deep Cover" and I'm on that soundtrack too with a song called "Nickle Slick Nigga" so that move right there landed Snoop career. I'm going to tell you something and this is real talk if at the time I wasn't working on that album Snoop would have never been over there at Death Row right away. But everything happened for a reason. Because he went over there at a time when Dre was hot, Dre had this new thing and it just opened up a can of worms.

You know Snoop Dogg was one of the best freestylers I had ever heard in this game real talk! So he went over there and it was like that's when the beef started. You know Dre never renegotiated with Eazy E and them so it was Death Row against Ruthless. That's why on "Funk Upon A Rhyme" I'm saying certain things at the time we was on each other like y'all stole our shit.

G-Funk, Aftermath and everything y'all stole our shit period so it was a difference of opinions then he had Kurupt diss me on something called "Blunts and Tangueray" me and Hutch so we replied back "Don't Bite The Funk That Feed You" and keep in mind this too "The Chronic" album completely almost sounds exactly like "Black Mafia Life" (Above The Law's album) because I'ma tell you the real Hutch showed Dre a lot of things which Dre is a genius if Hutch never did show him.

Dre is one of the biggest persons in the game but Hutch showed him a lot of stuff, Hutch gave him break beats on NWA and all kind of stuff but didn't get the credit. I'm telling it like it is for the whole world to know. This is how it go down so that was what started the beef between Ruthless and Death Row.


Dubcnn: We all know the beef was going on for a long period of time but was the beef ever taken to a street level?

Well of course it was taken to the street level and I'ma tell you this nobody wanted to see parts of Eazy because I'ma say it like this Eazy was Cooonneeeecteeed!

Real talk! And I'm telling it like it is...that Daz and Kurupt was dissing him and doing certain things because Daz and them are my boys. Daz and Kurupt they are my homies for life we put all that past us but at that time Eazy was basically telling them "you can do this Dre and you can do that but I get more money on your own project so you can diss me and that's why Eazy was slow to diss them back because he was getting paid more money than them.

So Eazy was the first one to really P.Iing it on a number scale, contract skills because see Eazy was intellectually putting it down so they couldn't really mess with him.