MITCHY SLICK  (September 2006) | Interview By: Lil Jay

   

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Interview was done in August 2006

Questions Asked By: Lil Jay

Mitchy Slick Gave Dubcnn A Shoutout! Check That Here

Full Interview Audio Here

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Related Media:

Mitchy Slick - Bass Chasers (Audio)

The Game Feat. Mitchy Slick - One Blood (Street Mix) (Audio)


Mitchy Slick's "Urban Survival Syndrome" Is In Stores September 12

Visit myspace.com/mitchyslick for more info

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Dubcnn: What's the San Diego state of mind as of today?

Mitchy Slick: Really homie, San Diego is so new when it comes to doing the bigger city type of things in the areas. As far as with the other shit, the other music, they been all labeled a blossom because San Diego is a good place for other things. But with us being from San Diego and us making the type of music that we make, it's a lot of shit against us. Because, but not only that, it's a lot of bullshit going on in the town too. It's a whole lot of gangbanging going on and I'm not putting a tent on it. Anybody will tell you San Diego is just 24/7 active gangbanging shit. So the music has a lot to do with how the streets move and a lot of influence on what's going on. The music is from that mindstate, but it's really just to represent us all and trying to make some money. And they with it man, they rollin, they supporting. Even the rival side been supporting, but not all of them. So right now it's a new thing, we got new DJ's in the town, cats is really getting they records played on the radio. It's bubblin'!



Dubcnn: How do you feel it's being represented by the artists?

Mitchy Slick: A lot of the artists they kinda stuck. As far as Mitchy Slick, it's a lot of cats out there from Dago that's really the shit. But it's a lot of cats just jumpin' on cause they see it's going down. The shit is happening, so a lot of cats just jumpin' on trying to get it crackin'. But after they all fall off and all the niggas that really got talent and really start reppin Dago together, we'll be alright.



Dubcnn: The first interview we did with you, back in 2003, you mentioned that you had "Urban Survival Syndrome" dropping soon. Now, 3 years later, it's finally coming. I'm sure it's been a tough journey.

Mitchy Slick: Yea Yea man... well actually, to tell you the truth, it ain't really been no tough journey. I just always knew what I wanted to have behind my next project. The first one was small time shit, but I never got in the game to be small time. So really, I'd just wait for an opportunity. Opportunity came, I released a record. Wasn't no big thang, it's nothin. We can release a hundred records in 2 weeks if that's what I wanted to do. But really it ain't worth my time to be doing it if it ain't on a big big level. Like right now, I ain't on a big big level, but I'm on a step before. A lot of eyes is getting in my direction, I'm being able to rock shows in big places that let folks know that I'm for real. I ain't just some cat that just wanted to stop selling dope and start rapping. So shit, that's what it's about.



Dubcnn: Did it ever get to the point where it was frustrating for you to wait for so long?

Mitchy Slick: Uhhm, you know what man..... not really, not really. Because I'm such a skeptic. I never expect nothing to just fall in my hands that easy. I never would think it would be easy for me just to be able to say 'Fuck it, I'ma put some music down' and do it. I never would believe it. I see a lot of mothafuckas pump theyselves up like that. Some of them maybe even know that they gonna be like that. But I'm a humble cat, I come from an area where so much bad shit took place. I feel like damn, don't feel like nothing that great can happen for me.



Dubcnn: The album has been pushed back a lot. Have politics played a role?

Mitchy Slick: Yeah, a lot of politics. I'm with Angeles Records now, that's with DJ Muggs. So it's a bigger level now. My homeboy Chace doing all the quarterbacking and shit, so we just trying to make something happen.



Dubcnn: Its 2 more weeks till the album drops. Are you getting the right push for the record?

Mitchy Slick: Yeah! All the DJ's got my shit, I'm on the radio in my region. Everybody fuckin' with me, it's all love. I'm doing hella shows, I do at least a couple shows a week, if it ain't with my group it's by myself. I just got off a tour with DJ Quik, I did like 20 shows with Quik 2 months ago. That shit was fabulous!



Dubcnn: You have a lot of A1 producers on the list. Angeles is threating you pretty good huh?

Mitchy Slick: Yeah they doing me good. I got Muggs, you know that dude got over 14 million records sold. Him, Jelly Roll, DJ Khalil, the homie Dub Knoxx, the homie DK who did a lot of shit for Ludacris, the homie Cricet. Shit, we're trying to make it happen!



Dubcnn: Did that whole Angeles situation open a lot of new doors for you?

Mitchy Slick: Fuck it..... Hell yeah man! I'm doing shit I never did before. Come on man, that's a big thing for a cat that's never been on a major record label to be touring the country, rocking the House of Blues on Sunset. Come on man, that's the whole industry right there! Me and Strong Arm Steady we went out to Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Norway. Did a few down that area, so yeah, I'm loving it. I just like to travel and get a way from this terrible shit we see where I'm at. But I went through there just like they was at home. It was good to see how other people think around the world, and it makes you not be so selfish with your perspective. Cause you see it's a lot of shit going on. So it just makes you grow over your eyes and more make you a man.

Dubcnn: What did working with Muggs bring out of you that wasn't there before?

Mitchy Slick: Actually me and Muggs ain't even stepped it to that round yet. Me and Muggs met eachother, Muggs threw some shit at me, I hopped on em. I know the time with me and Muggs gonna come soon when we start really really giving mothafuckas the bidness. Cause I know Muggs now, I mean before I knew Muggs, but we just had our relationship cool like it is right now, as far as being creative together. But now it's getting a lot better. We creating, he asks me my opinion, I ask him his.



Dubcnn: Is that what's special about Mitchy Slick? That you can go do a song with Muggs at Angeles studio and then turn around and do something with an independent cat in Dago?

Mitchy Slick: Oh most definitely, most definitely! That's Mitchy Slick right there all the way, and I'm gonna do that forever no matter how big I get, no matter how small I get. Yeah man, I'm trying to be in the streets man. I'm one of them cats that respect having respect from the cats in your community. A lot of cats say they from the hood, but then I ask them 'But who was you in the hood though? Was you somebody in the hood or was you just in the hood?', because everybody that's black basically grew up in the hood, so what's the big deal about that? I wanna know if you got a real story to tell, and if you're really telling it. Not just a bunch of jewelry and some bullshit ass beats. If you really got some music, that's what I wanna hear.



Dubcnn: Did you tell your whole story on your first album "Trigeration Station"?

Mitchy Slick: Not my whole story, but just a little bit of it, just a few perspectives of it. This ain't nothing but an extension of "Trigeration Station", this just like Part 2 of "Trigeration Station". That's all, it ain't nothing changed. And the next one is gonna be Part 3.



Dubcnn: Are you gonna give them what they expect or come with something different?

Mitchy Slick: Oh no no, it's some shit on there that I know they won't expect, some crazy shit! Me and Jelly Roll got some shit on there that's crazy!



Dubcnn: How do you feel you have progressed since you released "Trigeration Station", musically and business wise?

Mitchy Slick: Man I feel real positive about it and I'm proud of myself to tell you the truth. Because I came in this game with nothing, not knowing shit. Now I kinda feel like I know my way around a little bit, not everything, not what the lawyers gotta step in for. But for the most part I feel like I done grew a lot and I made a lot of fans. When I go out of town people know who I am. I know where that came from, that came from me just being persistent and just having a little bity tiny dream, and a little bit too much pride to fail at anything. Wether it's 5000 flights to fuckin Spokane or Sacramento. Or whether it was poppin at this club, all the homies pullin' out they cars, rocking shows, whatever man. We just been trying to push it forward.



Dubcnn: Talk about the album, take us on a short journey on "Urban Survival Syndrome".

Mitchy Slick: Man the album is just like a day taking you through different situations that take place in the process of growing up in a community we grew up in. You gonna hear it from a kids perspective, you hear it from a gangbanger's perspective, you hear the shit from the news and people on TV perspective. I just show you all the aspects of looking at the type of shit that takes place where I'm from. And to me, I just think it's just a good story. Cause one, I get to tell mothafuckas what I know the best. I know me the best. So I ain't tryin preach to nobody, I'm just trying to make some good music and at the same time rep my neighborhood and let them know that niggas in San Diego is some special niggas.



Dubcnn: You've been working a lot with L.A. artists lately. Is there some L.A. in you now?

Mitchy Slick: Oh yeah, L.A. been showing me love. The blue side and the red side. I got homies from Compton, I got homies from Watts, the homie Jay Rock. He fuck with Game, you know Game cool. Even Game's brother, we hella cool. G. Malone, 40 Glocc, Kurupt, I really done studied this game so I know everybody. Sir Jinx, Dre. I even know Dre, I met Dre before. I ain't had no real interactions with him, but I really been around this game. DJ Quik, DJ Jam, Xzibit, Alkaholiks. I studied the game through the eyes of them.



Dubcnn: You mentioned Quik. Did you have a chance to hit the studio with him?

Mitchy Slick: Actually I had already been to the studio with DJ Quik when he was fucking with Xzibit's last album. And what we actually did homie, he just took me on the road and showed me what's happening. It wasn't a whole lot of interaction at first, and then at the 2nd or 3rd show when they started feeling that we was the truth, me and Quik started having some real conversations. Quik done spent a lot of time in our town, he knows a lot of people that I know. So we just chopped it up, I don't wanna say spiritual or no shit like that, but it was just something that let me know that I was supposed to be right there talking to that legend.



Dubcnn: You recently spit a verse on Game's "One Blood" Remix. How did that combination come about?

Mitchy Slick: I just did a show not long ago with DJ Skee, the Envy Expo. So Skee had the Envy Expo crackin', my man Janky been keepin' in touch with them cats, we been choppin' up game. Everybody trying to get it together out here for the most part homie. So DJ Skee was like 'Check it out, we got this Street Remix that we want you to hop on!' I hopped on and shit, and that shit is getting like 60 spins a week in San Diego.



Dubcnn: You got a nice mix of artists on "Urban Survival Syndrome".

Mitchy Slick: I got WC on there, Xzibit, my homeboy Tiny Doo, my homeboy Damu. And after that everything else is basically homegrown work. Krondon, Phil da Agony, they gonna be on everything I do. Strong Arm Steady, Xzibit, they gonna be around. Whenever you hear me, you basically gonna know it's the people I really fuck with. I ain't gonna try to rap with everybody, I don't even know why I feel like that. I just try to be real about it. If you somebody who really got a connection, then it gotta be somebody involved.



Dubcnn: Yeah it's cool to see people like Damu and WC on the same album.

Mitchy Slick: Riiiight! That's what I told you before in the interview. That's what I'm about, that's what I'm trying to do. That's what my mission is.



Dubcnn: But the song selection has been pretty much set for a while, right?

Mitchy Slick: Nah nah, not some of the old tracks.



Dubcnn: Did "Ice Cream Muzik" make the cut?

Mitchy Slick: Naw, see that's the old list. We had a lot of new songs take place of some of them.



Dubcnn: There's been some leakings here and there. Did that hurt the album at all?

Mitchy Slick: Yeah a few leakings here and there. We put a couple little shits out to let the streets buzzing. But if we was broke we'd be trippin. But at the same time if I catch a muthafucka doing the shit, I'ma fuck they ass up. If I catch a muthafucka bootlegging my shit, they probably were my fan, but they not gonna be my fan when I get through. But it didn't hurt the album. If what Dago gonna get it's gonna hurt it, shit then. You know I'm trying to go big.



Dubcnn: Did the word get out to the majors about the tracks that hit the streets?

Mitchy Slick: Yeah that's what happened! A lot of majors started calling, I won't say no names, but big companies been calling the last few weeks. I mean really calling, coming through, having meetings and everything. So shit is changing.



Dubcnn: Has New York been showing you love?

Mitchy Slick: A little bit, I haven't got to see it as much as I think they have. But when I read the reviews or when I go out there it's always good shit. We goin out there this week with my labelmates and the CEO of my label, the Blacksmith camp, do a show with Kweli. We gonna do radio, stores, but I'ma hit the block though. I'm finna go to Queens, Harlem, I'm trying to hit all the spots.



Dubcnn: Is there gonna be a proper introduction as far as videos and taking over TV?

Mitchy Slick: Yeah, we about to do a video right now for my single "Bass Chasers". Yeah we gonna do the video, and for sure we finna go for the late night or something. It's a lot of different video channels across the country other than just BET, even though we'd love to be there. We just gotta see what it looks like, we might pull it off!



Dubcnn: It seems as if you have been grindin harder for the new album than the first one!

Mitchy Slick: Nah, nah. Same shit, only thing is back then I was grinding a different way. Now I got more rap shit to do. The main difference is just having that hope. Just knowing that you're doing something for a reaosn. Being able to see it working, big cats at big companies. Thinking what you do is good and just be confident and make you think everything ain't all bad. So even though it ain't a hundred million dollars sitting up nowhere that got my name on it, I'm still positive seeing other cats successful at this shit. And I know I'm just as fly as them.



Dubcnn: How would you compare your solo grind to what you do with Strong Arm Steady?

Mitchy Slick: Mitchy Slick is a little bit more hood, more streeter. The shit I do with Strong Arm Steady is real street, but rhymes are competitive. We're making music to compete on a high high level, not just on some hood shit. We're talking on some creative Hip Hop shit, and that's what I say.



Dubcnn: Have you been getting and flack for working with the Steady gang? Some people say you're too different to be working with them.

Mitchy Slick: Yeah, but when you hear the songs you don't say that. It's just 3 mothafuckas and the crazy shit about is that I got a open ear man. I'm into all the Hip Hop elements. Your boy really studied the Hip Hop shit, I'm really a student of this shit from the beginning of West Coast Hip Hop. I heard Ice Cube, Sir Jinx, and K-Dee's demo tapes from when they were like 14 or 15. I done been drilled with all this shit. Even the Yo-Yo and Cube days. I done seen it all, all the time I been took back on a mission. So I really understand what's happening out here.

All I can say homie, we finna get this money. Can't none really stop us, cause everybody making money now. It ain't just one side, we making money too. It's a crazy transition. It's gonna better, it's gonna be more fun, it's gonna be bigger. Mothafuckas ain't trying to be out here doing nothing illegal. We're trying to keep it all legal. Mothafuckas don't wanna blow up shit, fuck up nothing, don't want nobody to die. None of that shit, because we're done already been through that shit for years man. Everybody. Somebody gotta ball, somebody trying to eat. I see a lot of other people eating, so we gotta eat too.



Dubcnn: But have you been getting any flack on a personal level?

Mitchy Slick: Yeah, but I don't care about that. I haven't gotten no flack, but I don't really care. We're trying to get this money. When we put the record out and mothafuckas don't like the record, then whatever. I'm not worried about what mothafuckas gonna say about a group. Cause when we go to New York they don't say that, they fuckin' with it. When we're on the West Coast they gonna say that everybody try to stay the same on the West Coast. And I understand it too, I'm the same way, you gotta keep it G. Yea dat! Whatever.

But at the same time, it's some new shit out here, it's some other shit crackin' too. I mean the Black Eyes Peas, we ain't nothing like the Black Eyes Peas. But just to let you know that you ain't gotta be the same all the time with everything. The Black Eyes Peas is probably one of the biggest selling groups from the West Coast right now, if not the biggest. So everytime you hear me with them, it's gonna be gangsta as fuck. It just ain't conventional Southern California gangsta, it's global gangsta. It's some shit where everybody can feel it. And if you can't feel Ag then you feel me, and if you can't feel Kron then you feel Ag. But then at the same time it mesh, you gotta hear the music.



Dubcnn: What role has the crew played in all of your success? Or is this mostly a Mitchy Slick grind?

Mitchy Slick: Umm, what I'm saying is what them niggas did was teach me how to be this rapper tha I am today, teach me how to work your way through the streets being an artist, cause in San Diego you won't learn that. And then even on a musical level, sitting up in the house rapping. I don't give a fuck what nobody say, ain't too many mothafuckas on the West Coast, if any, that can outrap Krondon and Phil the Agony. Simple as that. I don't know what level you gonna look at, I don't care if you don't like it. On a competitive music making level, that's the A-Team right there. I wouldn't give a fuck what nobody got to say. When you hear that shit, we ain't trying to act like we a real street mafia or some shit like that, we make music!



Dubcnn: Do you feel more comfortable working in a group or being solo and involved in every step of the process, even the small details?

Mitchy Slick: It's crazy, because.... I'ma tell you like this: Krondon got a vision for the crew, he got us in a matrix with him. Everyboy doing they own thing, but at the same time, Phil gonna come do his thing lay it down everytime, but Kron was the mothafucka that though that Strong Arm Steady would be a great idea cause he had a vision. And we pretty much felt that vision and rolled with that. And the homie is such a hard worker to where he gonna make it hard for you. If you don't get your shit done, he gonna have some shit done already.



Dubcnn: How's the "Arms & Hammers" group album coming?

Mitchy Slick: It's cracking like a mothafucka! It's killin! Jelly Roll on there, we got some Denaun Porter shit on there. We got a lot of shit we're putting together right now. The next few months will tell. We'll release it like February or March.



Dubcnn: You got a situation with Talib Kweli, is that right?

Mitchy Slick: Yeah yeah, it's coming out through Blacksmith and that's through Warner Brothers. So it's real monstrous push going down right now.



Dubcnn: There was a timeframe when the Steady gang dropped one mixtape a week, but it's been pretty quite lately. What's the game plan right now?

Mitchy Slick: Well we did our thing with the mixtapes, but we trying to go for the big time. That's what I been telling you. We didn't get in the game to stay on no mixtape shit. Not like we too big to do mixtapes, cause I just released a mixtape with DJ Warrior, the "Cali Untouchable Radio". So we're still releasing shit. But not the group. And that's not because of no reason. We've just been making real songs now. Now it's real heaters, shit that can be slump forever, classics and shit. That's what we're making.



Dubcnn: How important has working with Xzibit been to you?

Mitchy Slick: X tought me a lot too. I watched X all the way through the game, from "Paparazzi" and all that shit, all the way to now. I done seen just about every mood. So I learned from a lot of that shit. So hell yeah, being able to go to places seeing new shit, he helped a lot. He gave me an understanding of what the game is really like. From a real level and not from an independent level, cause the independent level is cool, but it ain't cool for us right now. It ain't cool enough.



Dubcnn: What can we expect after the album drops?

Mitchy Slick: On the road! I'm doing shows. You gonna see me on BET. I got an album about to come up with the homie Damu called "New Era". We're about to put that out. It's crazy, it's like a hood album, from my hood to his hood. We're putting it together. Most of Damu's gonna feel the record and all through San Diego niggas gonna feel the record. Like I told you, we're trying to keep it real street. Cause that's where it's at, it's in the streets. Everything is controlled by the streets, no matter what level you're at. If the streets ain't fucking with you, you can't come home.



Dubcnn: Anything we left out?

Mitchy Slick: Nah that's about it. Just tell everybody to go get that album. It's all real, it ain't nothing regular, it's some next level shit. When you see us in traffic, just give it up and we gonna give it up back. Wrongkind Records is trying to make some new shit happen for the people in my community for 06 and 07. Yea dat. Klack Klack!