Squeak Ru (April 2009) | Interview By:
Javon Adams
Success in music is all about connecting with the listener and Squeak Ru wants to be your Big Homie.
He’s not in it just for record sales. He wants to share his hood experiences and make you party with
infectious West Coast lyrics and production. Javon recently hooked up with Squeak Ru who many of you
will recall from his AllfrumthaI days.
They talked about what does into making a balanced album and how he went about creating his head nodding
ode to the California, ‘Cali Boy’ that features West Coast legend Ice Cube. Taking a few minutes to check
out the interview and learn a little bit about your Big Homie Squeak Ru.
As always you can contact javon@dubcnn.com with comments. Enjoy.
Dubcnn: What’s going on? We have Squeak Ru coming to Dubcnn. How are you doing this evening?
Squeak Ru: I’m chillin’ man. What’s the word?
Dubcnn: You tell me! I’m glad we got a chance to hook up with you. I have a couple
of things I wanted to talk to you about. Now, first of you were in the group AllfrumthaI,
right?
Squeak Ru: Yeah, me and my man Binky Mack.
Dubcnn: What made the group no longer be in existence?
Squeak Ru: Well, its not that we’re no longer in existence because we still hang out
and work together. Its just that you come to a point where you want to do something else
on your own. We had reached that mark in our career and I just wanted to venture out and
do my own project and do some things. We still collab as a group and we are still involved
in each other’s projects. He had a hand in some of my project that I have out right now
called Fatworld.
Dubcnn: I’m just curious…in terms of a group dynamic was it a hard decision to make.
Saying, “Ok man, we’re still going to work together and we’re still partners but we’re
just not going to be a group.” Was it hard coming to that decision?
Squeak Ru: No, it wasn’t hard because we are both pulling for each other and we know
that if one gains success than the other gains success. We’re just tight like that and
we’ve been friends since our childhood. So it wasn’t hard at all.
Dubcnn: Cool. You were signed to Mack 10’s Hoo Banging label, right?
Squeak Ru: Well, I was actually signed to One-Oh Productions which was a production
company through Priority.
Dubcnn: Here’s a question that I like to ask because I’m always interested in the response.
I know that a lot of artists tend to believe that when they get signed, whether it be a production
deal or regular artist deal that all of a sudden riches are guaranteed. What’s the biggest
misconception about getting signed?
Squeak Ru: What you just said, that you immediately gain riches. That’s not what it is. That
up front money or budget money is just a loan. Believe me they are going to get it back from you.
The main thing is not to mess up your budget.
Dubcnn: I was looking over your bio and it struck me that Marvin Gaye is one of your musical
inspirations. So what about Marvin Gay inspired you to write music?
Squeak Ru: Marvin was real soulful with it. You could feel him in his music, you know?
Even production wise because a lot of people don’t know that a lot of that production and
background vocals were Marvin. He was just phenomenal.
Dubcnn: You’ve been in the game for over ten years. You’ve seen the industry change and
obviously cd sales have gone down and there is a change in how people consume music. So, how
do you define success and how does that change your goals of being able to generate revenue
from music? How does that change what you do these days?
Squeak Ru: Well you have to adapt with the times. The world changes everyday. Sometimes
if you can’t beat ‘em you have to join ‘em in certain phases of it. My main thing is making
sure that the material is good and I always feel that the streets are going to tell you the
truth. If you have good music then someone is always going to listen.
The game is so corporate now…certain artists are just put in your face so much that they just
brainwash you to the point that you can’t tell what’s whack and what’s not. So I just let my
music speak for itself. There may not be 100,000 people up on it but that 20,000 that are
digging it are who I’m going to cater to. I’m going to keep giving them that Squeak Ru.
Dubcnn: You mentioned quality music and one of the quality songs you have out right now is
‘Cali Boy’ with Ice Cube. How did that song come about? When you put the song together did you
envision Ice Cube on it? Tell us a little about that.
Squeak Ru: The beat is produced by my man Mr. Payback. We collabed on the beat from scratch
and once I came up with the hook I knew that the feature I needed on there was Cube. I feel like
Cube is one of the Cali pioneers when it comes to this game and no one could express being a Cali
Boy like him.
Dubcnn: Tell me a little about the project. It’s called Fatworld, right?
Squeak Ru: Yeah, Fatworld and it’s just my take on everything. I like everything fat
or big. You can take the word fat and turn it into anything you want to and I tried to create a
record that was balanced and I tried to cover all the bases when it comes to hip hop.
Dubcnn: When you go into a project do you do whatever you’re in the mood for or do you say that
I need to have a couple of songs like ‘this’ and a couple of songs like ‘this’? Or do you let it
take on it’s on life?
Squeak Ru: Exactly, you do that but the beat brings it out of me. You might do 30 songs and
then you pick the 12 or 13 that you’re going to put on there. I might be in the mood and I might
get 4 or 5 club songs at one time. Then you get 3 or 4 hardcore songs. Once you start putting the
record together you start saying, ‘I need some of this on there and I need some of that on there.’
That’s basically how you come up with a record or at least that’s what I do.
Dubcnn: For the folks that are reading and listening to this interview what is Squeak Ru’s best
quality? What does Squeak bring to the table to make people check for it and download it, legally
of course or go to the store? What’s the ‘It’ factor with Squeak?
Squeak Ru: Music, man. I feel like my music is good. Some of the songs I have could be classics
one day. I try to talk about what’s going on in life and I try to reach out to everybody. From the
person that’s ‘down and out’ and also touch on what’s good about life at times. I just try to grab
a hold of you. I want to be your Big Homie so I want to build a bond with the fans. So if you pick
my record up it’s like we already know each other.
Dubcnn: I got you. How can fans get in touch with you?