ONE-2 (December 2006) | Interview By: Nima

       Dubcnn has long been synonymous with keeping you up to date with the mainstream as well has helping break new talent to the masses. Today we took time to talk with One-2 an artist we have featured on countless occasions over recent years. With his debut mixtape being well received and acclaimed he has been preparing his second release "New Day, New Money" during the past 12 months. We find out about that release, ask what has caused all the delays, find out if Treacherous Records has come to and end, gauge his opinions on the mixtape game as well as finding out how he started out and the path that led him into the industry in this exclusive interview.


As always we have the transcript and the audio for you to check and please feel free to send any feedback regarding the interview to: nima@dubcnn.com



Interview was done by phone in December 2006


Questions Asked By : Nima


One-2 Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here (Audio)

Full One-2 Interview : Here

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dubcnn: We're here with One-2 right now, go ahead and introduce yourself to everybody.

Wassup man this is One-2, repping Xpand, chilling with my man Nima, putting it down for the W, you know what I'm saying? West Coast in the house.


Dubcnn: You were born in Iran, but moved to Sweden at an early age, is that correct?

Yeah, I moved to Sweden when I was two years old, because of the revolution and shit in Iran. Iran was ruled by the King (Shah) back in the day, it was all peaceful, but then the Ayatollah came along and changed the whole system, it became more conservative, and more islamic, so we had to move
out. There was war all over the place, so my mom and my pops moved us out quickly when I was two years old. We moved to Sweden, more peaceful place, where I was raised. Then I came to the States in '99 when I was 13 years old, started a new life, and that's where I picked up rapping.


Dubcnn: When did you first pick up a pen?

The first time I picked up a pen actually was in Sweden, when I got 2Pac's "All Eyez On Me". My cousin bought it for me on Christmas, and I really got into it. It wasn't serious back then, I was just a kid, scribbling some thoughts down, I wasn't really serious, just doing it for fun back then. But
when I came here, the first year I came to the States, I was shy and shit. I wasn't really mentioning that I was a MC and what not, I was 13 years old, but then one of my cousins heard me bust some shit and he was like "Yo man, you're pretty tight, you should make a career out of this." So I gave it a shot. I made a few demo tapes, stacked up a few shows at my school, I noticed that people were giving me attention, people liked it, so I just pursued it.


Dubcnn: Your first mixtape was called "High School Dropout". How was your time at school?

It was aight man. Around 10-11th grade, shit just started falling apart. I was a good kid in 9th grade, but then 10th grade I don't know what happened man. Komplex and a few other of my homies started going to my school, and we just started chillin' in the music room all day, cause they had a MPC, and we started fuckin' around with the MPC, making beats. I started writing rhymes and we made songs all day instead of going to class. We used to bring liquor to school and we used to get drunk in the music room and make tracks, by lunchtime we were wasted, just fuckin' walkin' around campus and shit. But we'd have some hot ass tracks in the music room, that's what we'd do all
day. Our music teacher would let us, he didn't care, cause he loved the fact that we were so passionate about it and we were making music all day. So he'd let us fuck around all day instead of going class, and that's basically how everything fell apart and I became a high school dropout, which is how the first mixtape came along.


Dubcnn: Who are your influences, who do you look up to?

The regular legends, I look up to 'Pac, I look up to Biggie, Jigga, Nas, the regular people. I look up to a lot of heads man, Mobb Deep, I love Damian Marley, it's not only Hip-Hop, I have a lot of influences. Bob of course, Bob Marley. Hip-Hop wise, I like old school cats like EPMD, I like Def Squad (Redman, Erick Sermon & Keith Murray), I like Black Moon's old stuff, Ice Cube, Ice-T, W-Tang, Dead Prez, Tha Liks, Dogg Pound, Rakim, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Big L, a lot of people.


Dubcnn: Describe yourself as an MC. What makes you stand out?

I got a different story to tell. It's kind of different from the regular things you hear, I lived a different lifestyle, something Hip-Hop has never seen. I mean any MC you ask this will tell you "Yeah I'm different, I stand out." but most of them don't. I feel like my background is kind of different, and maybe my way of writing, my way of expressing myself, capturing my pain on a track is different than a lot of cats. I like to really express pain, and really make the listener feel what I'm saying,
which is something I feel nowadays a lot of MC's aren't focusing on. All they're focusing on is irrelevent and ignorant topics, that's what most of these MC's are talking on. But I try to have concepts and shit on songs. Lately all the tracks I've put out is mixtape tracks, but right now what I'm
trying to focus on is no more mixtape tracks, I'm focusing on tracks with concepts, fully complete songs with deep topics.


Dubcnn: How did the connection with Treacherous Records happen?

There was this dude named Super Sako, back in the days when I was in high school, we'd have shows ands hit like that, and he'd always come check me out, always standing in the corner. I remember I'd always give him a shoutout too while I was on the mic, and this cat, in the Armenian
community, I guess he was like a big shot, and he basically introduced me to Treacherous. One day I was just working, I was a lil kid, like 16 years old, and Super Sako came and picked me up from work, and he was with Tico, which is the owner of Treacherous. He picked me up and gave me the 411, "We're starting a label, we're interested in you." They took me to the studio like a week later to record a song with Big Syke. As soon as they brought out Big Syke, that was enough for me, I was like "Aight man, you got me. If you got connections to Big Syke, shit it must be serious." So that's how that happened.


Dubcnn: How was it working with Crooked I, Jayo Felony and Big Syke on the mixtape?

It was beautiful man, I learned a lot from them. I learned a lot from Crooked man, Jayo, Big Syke, all of them. Cause they're vets, they've been in the game for years. We just recently had a meeting too, I was chilling with them, and they teached me a lot. When I came in the game I didn't have
any knowledge on how you're supposed to carry yourself, how you're supposed to handle your business, Crooked always tells me, stay on top of your game! Nowadays as an MC, you gotta be able to cover all aspects, you gotta be your own manager, be a part of the corporate world as well as the entertainment world. You can't only be a rapper, you gotta be able to take care of your business and shit too, stay on top of your game. They put me on game, taught me how to be a complete artist.


Dubcnn: You were featured on K-Young's "Happy Together". That song got a lot of play overseas, did you get some good feedback off that?

Yeah yeah, I got a lot of love for that. It ain't really my cup of tea, all that R&B stuff, but my man K-Young had a hot ass track and he wanted me to hop on it, so I did it! We even shot a video for that, it was a fun experience, stuff you learn from. I got a lot of feedback for that, a lot of girls liked that. It was good, it got some radio play too, I liked it.


Dubcnn: Let's get to the new mixtape, "New Day, New Money". Tell us about the title.

"New Day, New Money" is basically like a follow up to High School Dropout. It's basically the dropout that got out of school, and he doesn't have a steady job, he doesn't really have a future planned out for him, he doesn't really know where his life is going, so he lives life by the day. Everyday he wakes up with a "New Day, New Money". The high school dropout wakes up everyday, and focuses on accomplishing something in that day. What the title states is that you take life by the day, day by day, and you just hustle hard everyday and try to make the best of it.


Dubcnn: It's been pushed back quite a few times, why is that?

It got pushed back for a lot of different reasons. First time it got pushed back was cause the music wasn't really there, I didn't have all the guest appearances I wanted, it just wasn't complete. These past months it's been pushed back cause of some politics, label problems here and there, but it's
coming out on the 20th, and that's for sure. It was supposed to come out early in the year, but it didn't unfortunately, but it's coming out now and it's pretty updated, it's got some new joints on it, so people who get it are not gonna be disappointed. I got some new shit on it, like the track with me and Crooked I "Shoot To Kill", it's some fresh stuff. It's gonna be hot.


Dubcnn: There were rumours of Treacherous Records shutting down, what's up with that?

That's not true man, that's not true! The thing is, sometimes Treacherous is on freeze, they don't really do shit, and people just start talking, thinking they're shutting down. They're not shutting down, they're actually active, it's really just a lot of stuff that I can't talk about cause it's confidential, but the main heads behind Treacherous, I guess there were some issues, some people wanted to leave, some people wanted to stay, some people are buying out other people, but at the end of the day, Treacherous still stands. It might just be on freeze sometimes, but it's still there, doing their thing.


Dubcnn: What's the current roster?

The current roster is me, Crooked I, Big Syke and Knoc'Turnal.


Dubcnn: Who can we expect on "New Day, New Money" as far as guest appearances?

The thing is, at the time when I was recording the mixtape, Big Syke couldn't do any music cause of legal issues that he had, and Jayo's been gone, he lives in Diego, he wasn't around during the time I was recording, so Jayo and Big Syke are not on it, so the only person I got is Crooked. But I'm still gonna make tracks with Jayo and Big Syke, it ain't like we ain't cool or nothin'.


Dubcnn: What about the production?

Production wise, it's the same cats, MG, Komplex, and I got this cat Maestro, he made this beat "Guess Who", I don't know if you heard it, he's pretty hot. But it's the same cats as "High School Dropout" pretty much.


Dubcnn: Why not drop an album instead of another mixtape? Because your mixtape is like an album, right?

Yeah, to tell you the truth Nima, the reason I don't drop an album is because I don't want to drop an album unless it's distributed, marketed, everything is done the right way. I don't wanna drop an album that gets pushed halfway. I want it to reach every angle in the world, I want everybody to have access to my album, I want a machine behind my album, everything has to be on point. I just feel like it's not the timing right now. But to tell you the truth, I'm sick of making mixtapes too, I'm sick of this whole mixtape shit, this is probably my last mixtape that I'm making, for now. I just felt like I had to make a follow up to "High School Dropout", it just took longer than expected. There are talks about making an EP, but I don't know man, I don't know about EP, that's too much in the 90's. But I don't know what I'ma do next, so we'll see.


Dubcnn: So when is "New Day, New Money" dropping?

On the 20th. I'ma have the mixtape earlier, but we're releasing it on the 20th. We're having a big ass release party in Hollywood at Forbidden City, everybody is gonna come out, Big Syke, Crooked I, we're doing it big, red carpet event, all that shit, it's gonna be popping.


Dubcnn: I think we've cornered everything there is to know, is there anything else you'd like to let everybody know?

Just go get that "New Day, New Money", it's fresh to death. And if you can, come out and support me on December 20th at Forbidden City. That's about it man!







 

..........................................................................................