MC REN  (October 2008) | Interview By:

    

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Interview was done by phone in October 2008

Questions Asked By: Chad Kiser & Jonathan Hay
 
MC Ren Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here

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                                                      The MC Ren Intervew
                                                          A Dubcnn Exclusive
                                                     By Chad Kiser aka Noncentz
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Dubcnn: So Ren, where you been at lately?

Enjoying family life. Chillin’ with family; staying away from all the bullsh-t.


Dubcnn: Where are you at right now?

I’m in California at a secret, undislcosed location! *laughs*


Dubcnn: You’re getting ready to come out with another project soon, right?

Yeah that’s right! I’m working on an album called Renincarnated. I’ve got the first single up on the internet, Return of the Villain; the sh-t’s slammin’ too, so that’s what it is.


Dubcnn: Okay, tell us a little about the project. Who do you have producing on it & what features are on it?

Right now we’re in about halfway. I’m doing most of my own production on that sh-t. I don’t want to feature nobody on my sh-t right now because too many records right now be just features on it. Motherf-ckers pay their money to hear you and they hear you spit like a 12 or 16, and that’s it on the whole album, so I don’t want nobody on my sh-t.


Dubcnn: What kind of topics or concepts are you tackling on this project?

Just like everything, from political sh-t to wack fools in the game. I don’t want to say too much sh-t, put my sh-t out there because someone might take my sh-t and run with it.


Dubcnn: I heard at one time there was a group forming wth you, RBX and Big Rocc called the Concrete Criminalz, is that still something that’s in the works?

No, what it is, Rocc is my homeboy and I did a couple tracks for theie project, with some beats and that’s it. I saw that sh-t on the computer one day and was like I’m in a group? Nah, I was never in the group, that’s them, not me. I just did a couple beats for them.


Dubcnn: So, when you say beats, you produce as well?

Yeah, I’m a production head, exactly.


Dubcnn: Are you doing the production on you’re new album?

Yep. I got this other cat I’ve been working with, he’s doing some tracks wth me, too. His name is Apocolypse. He’s like a new cat, but he got fire! But the majority of the tracks, I’m doing all that sh-t.


Dubcnn: Did you do any of the production on any of the N.W.A. songs?

Nah, that was Dre. Couldn’t nobody touch his sh-t when he was doing it like that.


Dubcnn: Now you were writing, and obviously at one point Cube was writing for the group and D.O.C. was writing. How did you decide whose verse was going to get put on and what was the spirit of competition like between you three?

When we was writing sh-t, Dre was doing the track; he’d give Cube a track, it wasn’t like we were competing to write for it. If Cube got a track for E’s album, he’d do the song. Then he’d give me a certain track, I’d write something for this song. It wasn’t like he’d give me a song say write for it then tell somebody else to write for the same track, you see what I’m saying? We’d each handed our individual tracks and we’d write this for these. Whatever he felt was good for that record…..


Dubcnn: Now on the track Always Into Something you had a line that said ‘if Dre didn’t do it then I can’t f-ck with it”. Why haven’t you and Dre hooked up more throughout the years since N.W.A.?

Man, everybodys doing their own sh-t. He has his own sh-t to do, I have my own sh-t to do. I don’t want to be calling people, man, to do this and do that. He’s doing his thing with his artists. For a while I wasn’t even doing sh-t; I wasn’t even thinking about Dre calling. Not like that, but not calling him or whoever because I wasn’t doing nothing. Even when I was doing my albums back when I was on Ruthless it was like Dre was busy doing his sh-t. Everyone was busy so I was like I can just do my sh-t with whoever.


Dubcnn: What was life like on Ruthless after Eazy-E passed and Tomika took over?

Well, sh-t, it wasn’t the same! It wasn’t going to be the same at that time. Even before he passed it wasn’t the same,like how it used to be. They did cool with Bone and all that, but basically it wasn’t the same.


Dubcnn: Do you feel that Tomika messed that situation up?

Well, I ain’t gong to say she messed no situations up. It just ain’t going to be the same. You know, like if someone is running a big company and they pass away, it’s just not the same. It took years to build that sh-t, so after he passed and after he put all that hard work in it, it just start declining because it was too many problems building up in the company.


Dubcnn: So, how does that make you feel as somebody who helped build Ruthless Records, along with Eazy and N.W.A., that it isn’t out there like what Puffy did with Bad Boy, what Suge did with Death Row, Master P and No Limit, Russell Simmons and Def Jam, etc.?

Nothing lasts forever. Def Jam isn’t the Def Jam like it used to be back in the day. No limit, that isn’t around. No record label is going to last forever; no country is going to last forever. Nothing lasts forever, but it is what it is. It was great when it had the run it had, it left its mark in hip-hop history and tht sh-t will never be erased.


Dubcnn: How does it feel to have a dude like Game come through 20 years later repping Compton so hard, knowing that you and N.W.A. and Eazy was a direct influence and he was a direct product of that era?

Man, it feels good! For one, it feels good because he repping Compton harder than when we came out and two, he’s tight, he’s not wack. It’d be different if he was wack, but he’s super tight and he’s repping to the fullest. To know we had an influence on him, that’s the sh-t!


Dubcnn: I’d like to see you and Game do a track together.

Maybe in the future, after I finish up my sh-t.


Dubcnn: Has he ever reached out to you to record?

No, but maybe one day. I ain’t trippin’, but maybe one day.


Dubcnn: You originally had a verse on Dre’s 2001 record, the Bang Bang song, what happened to that?

Man, I don’t know. All I can tell you is that I did it and that sh-t was tight as hell, but my part was taken out so I don’t know. Somebody had told me one time that the guy I had replaced on the song started complaining and crying about it when they found out, so they took me off. I don’t know who the person was.


Dubcnn: What happened to that album Life Sentence that you were working on before you converted to Islam?

Yeah, I scrapped that. That is no more.


Dubcnn: Did you not put that out because of a confliction in beliefs at the time?

No, there was no conflict, I just didn’t like the title no more, it was wack. I just changed my mind.


Dubcnn: I want to take you back to something you eluded to early about no country last forever, no record label last forever. I want to get your thoughts about what is going on today with the U.S., the Middle East and Iraq. What are your thoughts on that?

My thoughts are America needs to mind their own motherf-ckin business abroad. America is the bully of the world. They got f-ckin’ military bases all around the world in other people’s countries like the one in Guantanomo Bay. What other country got a military base in America? So it’s like some world conquest sh-t. These motherf-ckers is just trying to imitate the ancient Greeks, ancient Romans and all that bulllsh-t; how they had all their sh-t all over the place. That’s all they’re doing and it’s going to bite them in the ass. It already bit them in the ass, but it’s going to continue to bite them in the ass if they keep doing that sh-t. The real foreign policy should be to get all the motherf-ckers out of all the military bases around the world! They’re in Japan, Germany, Cuba, Turkey; they’re everywhere, but ain’t nobody here.


Dubcnn: It’s the pride and ego of America. It’s crazy because they’re still holding on to it – we’re dying over there

They got an illusion that we’re like America back in the day when they was just kicking everybodys ass at war, that sh-t over with. America used to be a super power that motherf-cker barely holding on right now, and then the economy and how it's, that’s the number one sign of you’re country dying; the sudden start of you’re economy getting f-cked up. That’s the same sh-t that happened in Russia when all that sh-t f-cked up over there. They better look and learn.


Dubcnn: Do you think we’ll see a full collapse?

It ain’t no telling, especially if motherfuckin’ McCain gets in office. There ain’t no telling what you’re liable to see. That’s the problem, like I was telling you, motherf-ckers be so comfortable being 30, 40, 50 years-old living in America thinking that sh-t we see on the news every day can’t happen to us. Yeah, that sh-t can happen. This ain’t even the worst! The worst is still to come, watch.


Dubcnn: What are your thoughts on Barack Obama?

He’s cool. I’d rather have him in office than McCain. But even with Obama in office, he’s going to have motherf-ckers telling him what to do. A lot of motherf-ckers think he’s going to get in office and he can change things himself, but there’s still going to be advisors telling him what to do. But it’s good for change because it would let black kids know that they could be president because it’s been too long to not have no black president, or latino president. That sh-t could just signal to the world, damn they want a change, a black president. Because McCain coming into that motherf-cker, ain’t no telling what he’s going to do. McCain get in there he liable going to try to f-ck with North Korea; bomb Iran just so he can get his name known. Man he’s been trying to be president since he could walk. He’ll try anything. He’s bullsh-t, dog.


Dubcnn: He’s part of all that Illuminati breed, man.

He’s part of all that sh-t. If that motherf-cker becomes president, watch out for what happens.


Dubcnn: When you started coming out with your solo projects following N.W.A., the content was so different than what N.W.A. was doing, with religious undertones and the political content.

I just started thinking about different sh-t at that time, studying other sh-t, reading about sh-t. I just wanted to go another way with my sh-t. It was kinda the same, but some of the sh-t was different. I like that sh-t though.


Dubcnn: Do you still follow the Muslim faith?

I don’t want to get into it, but I follow a lot of it. The main religions are Christianity, Muslim, and Judaism. I don’t want to label myself as I follow this or that; let’s just say I follow God. I believe in God. I’m all religions wrapped in one. Everybody’s worshipping the same God, just by a different name.


Dubcnn: It’s crazy how, in America, people get so caught up on all the titles. When you think about John the Baptist, Paul, Jesus, these people didn’t even speak english. That wasn’t their names. Mary wasn’t Jesus’ mom’s name.

It’s the language. A lot of people think they spoke english back then, they don’t even know that. That’s how dumb a lot of people are, and they’ll argue up & down about sh-t they reading and not even know what language it came out of, or what the meanings of the language when it’s translated.


Dubcnn: As far as your new album, do you have a release date schedule?

Man, I’m going to try to release this sh-t the beginning of the year, on the internet, f-ck record companies. iTunes, Rhapsody, all that, along with my website. Just straight through the internet.


Dubcnn: How many songs deep are you or did you just get started?#

I just got started. I’m like 4 deep. It doesn’t take me long to do songs. It is what it is. This sh-t is going to be knocking. Trust me.


Dubcnn: What’s your process? How do you just get in there and knock them out like that?

If I got the track, I’m just writing to it at home. I don’t want to tell my secret because I don’t want people to know my secret and how my sh-t be done. In the studio, I put the beat up and usually just go through one or two tanks and it’s a wrap. I’ve been doing this so long I can just do that sh-t, boom boom boom and knock a song out real fast. Beginning of the year it’s done. Because I was taking my time, it ain’t like im rushing a lot of motherf-ckers be rushing, I’m just taking my time. If I feel like today going to do this song I will, but if I’m like f-ck it then I ain’t doing sh-t today, I’m going to watch football or do this or that but it’s going to be done by the first of the year.


Dubcnn: A lot of people know that Eazy-E passed away, but what a lot of people don’t know is that you’re DJ, DJ Train also passed away in that house fire. Tell us a little bit about DJ Train and what your relationship was like with him.

Yeah, he did, in ’94. He was like my best friend; he went to the same high school. We had a printing class and our teacher used to let us go in the back room and we paid him to shoot dice. That’s how we got cool back there shooting dice. Then one day he found out I could rhyme and he told me he could DJ. I went over to his house and didn’t even know he stayed right there on the street. I went over there and he was doing all kinds of sh-t, f-ckin it up on the turn tables! I remember taking him over to Eric’s house, and said check him out. He did his sh-t! After that, that’s when Eazy got JJ Fad and he did some sh-t with them, they didn’t have a DJ. Train was my DJ because I was going to be a solo artist, but E put Train with them and then they just start touring all over the world and I was like damn.


Dubcnn: Were you mad about that?

Nah, I wasn’t mad because I knew my turn was going to come because when they did that, that’s when they brought me in N.W.A. So I knew we were going to put some sh-t out. It’s just our sh-t hadn’t blown up, it was just local motherf-ckers.


Dubcnn: Before you guys hit nationally and took over the world, did N.W.A. have a big local following?

Yeah we were kinda big. They used to play our sh-t. The radio station out here at the time, they used to play a lot of records we did. We’d take them up there, call up Greg Mack, they’d play our sh-t like that. It was all over the place out here and we were big out in the bay area.


Dubcnn: What were you doing before N.W.A.?

I was in groups and all that. They had records that they were making I was just in my neighborhood. Believe it or not, I was about to go into the army. Me and my homeboy were about to go into the army and I remember we went and saw that movie Full Metal Jacket and we were like ‘hell no!’. Then easy took me and him some cottage out here and biz marke was doing a show and when I saw that sh-t there ain’t no way I’m going into the army, f-ck that.


Dubcnn: So why didn’t the N.W.A. reunion ever really happen?

Sh-t I don’t know.


Dubcnn: When you go back and listen to the music, Efil4zaggin, the sh-t is that funny; a lot of the content. Was it wild back then with all the women, or did all that just happen in the studio?

Just some crazy sh-t was going on, that’s all I can say. All of us had our way in L.A. It was crazy.


Dubcnn: I remember seeing you on MTV with all the pool parties!

Yeah, Eric used to have some tight pool parties! It was off the hook!


Dubcnn: When all the backlash happened with the government at the height of it all, what was that like being in the circle with the whole world talking about you guys?

Sh-t it was good. We looked at it as more publicity for us when all that came. It did what it did. It gave us some publicity, we was happy.


Dubcnn: What about Jerry Heller? When was the last time you talked to him?

That had to be like 1992 or 1993.


Dubcnn: It’s been that long?

Yeah


Dubcnn: What about Dre and Cube, or Yella, when was the last time you talked with either of them?

Last time I talked to Cube was 6-7 months ago. I haven’t talk to Dre since the Up In Smoke Tour. I talked to Yella probably about 3 years ago.


Dubcnn: You say you haven’t talked to Dre since the Up In Smoke Tour, so I guess we can’t look for you on Detox then?

Nope, but my sh-t is going to be tight though. I’m like Don King, I gotta pump up my sh-t right now!

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