KRUSHADELIC  (May 2007) | Interview By: Noncentz

      

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Interview was done by phone in May, 2007

Questions Asked By: Noncentz (Guest Contributor)

Krushadelic Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here
 

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www.myspace.com/krushadelic

www.myspace.com/thedangerouscrew
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Dubcnn: For those of us who don’t know, who is Krushadelic?

I started out with the group Underground Rebellion. We was the first group from West Oakland. Like $hort was putting it down for the east, we was the first ones from west oakland to actually come out with records and stuff. So I’m like a 17-year vet. This year marks my 17th year of actually putting out records and stuff. I was actually rapping around and in the game since like ’85. So actually I’m like a 22-year vet, but 17 years of really putting out records.

I’ve put out over 22 projects through my own company. Got 10 videos, I put out movies and DVD’s and stuff like that. A few comedies with people like DC Curry and a lot of comics from ComicView, the Russell Simmons Def Jam comedies and stuff, so I got these connections with that. It’s like an overall entertainment type of company. I been putting it down for the Bay for a long time.


Dubcnn: When did you first realize that music and entertainment is what you wanted to do?

It was already imbedded in me because I come from a long line of musicians in my family. The Pointer Sisters is my cousins, and it go even farther back than them. Louis Armstrong is my cousin, too. My daddy used to be a part of Robert Winters & Fall, you know the old school song “I’m You Magic Man” that was on top of the charts back in the early 80’s and stuff like that. They did the whole Soul Train thing, and tours. That’s what my daddy was doing, and even though I didn’t grow up with him in the household all the time, it was already in me. So naturally, I just followed in his footsteps and grew in to the music.

I just knew that that was what I wanted to do at an early age. I actually thought I was gonna be a singer or something like that, but by the time rap hit around in like ’79 I was getting kind of interested in the hip-hop stuff. Like the record Rapper’s Delight, and then I heard Run-DMC and that’s when I really decided that that’s what I wanted to do.


Dubcnn: What instruments do you get down on and actually play?

I get down on the keyboard. I learned to play the keyboard after I started putting out records. I was already putting out records and was like a typical hip-hop producer that would take records and sample them and scratch them in and stuff like that. And then hip-hop started to evolve and added a lot more live instrumentation into it. I used to bring my daddy and uncle to the studio with me to play the instruments until I had got my chops together. But right now, I play keyboards and stuff. I play everything.


Dubcnn: Who was your inspiration to get in to doing hip-hop or rap music?

Like I was saying before, Run-DMC. They really had it poppin’ and I went all of their shows when I could. That’s why even now I give a high-energy show myself because when I used to go to those hip-hop shows back in the day, those rappers were really performing and giving shows, as opposed to just walking side to side. It was a real show with intros, a middle, and an ending. That era of hip-hop is what inspired me to want to make records and to continue because of course you have to go along with the times.


Dubcnn: Speaking of going along with the times, what are your thoughts on the hyphy movement going on out there in Oakland?

It’s a cool thing, but the whole hyphy thing is actually like a pattern of what I used to do and still do. Cuz when we came out with that Underground Rebellion, we was the hyphy rappers. Everybody was in to the slow-roll funk and Too $hort stuff like that, and we was the ones from West Oakland rapping on the up-tempo beats. We was the ones jumping around, I had dreads and was wearing the big, colorful shades even back then. This whole hyphy movement right now is almost like a mirror image of what I done, back in the early 90’s.

We put our first record out in 1990, and people used to tell us we was ahead of our time. We was the first rappers to sideshows and stuff in our videos. We used to get our videos banned and stuff because they used to say the car tricks was too illegal and they didn’t want to show that to the masses. So we had to go through the point of breaking down all those walls to make this become accepted. We made a video called “Rotten Apples” back in the day, where we talking about us being these hyphy-type of rappers. We wasn’t calling it hyphy then, but we was saying we hype! We hyper. Hyperactive! In the video we was talking about how people was tripping off our “stunna” shades. We called them “stay-highs” back then those were our trademarks back then cuz they was colorful with red, blue and purple ones kind of. They was tripping off our dreads and the whole little get-down.

So the kids that grew up listen to our sounds, seeing our energy, and doing our dances, they done took it to another level by being energized, doing turf dances, and going dumb with it. And if you talk to $hort and any of them, they’ll tell you that Krush is the first one. Like if you look at that “Parlayin’” video with Banks and Goldy that’s on your site [referring the the Dangerous Crew MySpace page] , that’s me in there with the dreads doing all those crazy dances. And that was back in ’94. So history don’t lie.


Dubcnn: So the hyphy movement is really an extension of what you was doing 15 to 20 years ago.

Yeah, it’s an exact extension of it. I mean it’s all about researching where it came from. Everything starts with somebody. Somebody gotta be the first one to do it, and then people come after that to take it to their own different levels so the game can evolve into different things. Where people can put their own twists, styles and spins on the situation. So as this hyphy movement continues, and people start really looking in to it and researching, my name is popping up a lot more. People get interviewed and get asked where this “hyphy” thing came from, and my name would have to come up.

People talk about the Keak’s, the Mac Dre’s and they all my dogs, and I been knowing these cats for a very long time. I had gotten down with Mac Dre doing some touring and things before he had got killed. I was with him like 2 weeks before had got killed. Keak Da Sneak, when he was 14-15 years old, I was putting out records back then. All that Fa Sheezy stuff? All that developed from me. On my first record that came out in 1990, if you read the credits on there, you’ll see us talking about Breezy, and Fa Sheezy came about cuz it was another way for us to rhyme talking about we going to see our breezy fa sheezy. My boy Keak was hanging around us, so of course they was gonna be going around saying it too. And then he and E-40 get on record with E-40 saying 3xKrazy talking about they taught him how to say Fa Sheezy, and he was on a major label, compared to us. So he put it out there on a bigger platform. Then Snoop got a hold of it, and he put it on an even bigger platform.

Now the word is what it is to this day. I even had a record out years an years ago called “The Inventor of Fa Sheezy”. I don’t cry about the situation cuz all it does is prove all the hard work I’ve been putting in is in the fabric of hip-hop.


Dubcnn: How did Underground Rebllion come to be?

We started out rapping in like ’85. We was just some of the locals around. It wasn’t like it is now, with rap being over-saturated. So if you was a rapper and had made any kind of noise, then you was somebody in the hood. And they used to have a local station out here that helped blow-up a lot of the independent artists, such as the Too $hort’s, the Hammer’s, the Dru Down’s, the Master P’s and so on. Master P used to be originally be up out of here when he first started rapping. He was from Richmond and everything. We all used to do these talent shows together. That’s kind of how the hip-hop community was building up in Oakland, you know, with Dangerous Dame, Ant Banks, MC Ant, Terry T and all that. So everybody knew everybody.

So eventually as it kept growing in ’85-’86, by the time ’88-90 came in, people started finding ways to get these records out. Like mine came out in 1990. So how we came to be (Underground Rebellion), I used to produce other artists out here in the Bay Area who was also trying to get their first record out too. Me and my cousin was already a group, and we was in the studio during this time and ended up putting a record down. And with our lunch money came up with a 12” called “Let’s Get Funky”. We got it to some of these DJ’s and stuff, and from there, we established our name and our group as artists actually coming out of the Bay Area, not just some locals with a demo tape. So that kind of put us on the map.

A few months later we came back with another called “They Ain’t Diggin’ The Way We Came At’em”, and we put that one on 12” and cassettes. And that was our first one that actually got distributed to all the stores and all around. We wound up selling like 20,000 of those. From there, we dropped another one called “Don’t Tweak”. And we came out with a video for that one, which was the song “Rotten Apples” that I was telling you about earlier. And that was in ’93. I had another group called S.N.O.P. that I worked with and we ended up selling like 30,000 with them. All that kind of opened our company up and we started rolling then. And all that was a year later in ’94.


Dubcnn: And about that time is when you hooked up with Too $hort and The Dangerous Crew?

Stay tuned for Part 2 with Krushadelic, where we get answers to this question and much more...