STIX & NICKEE GEE (October 2007) | Interview By: Eddie Gurrola

       Dubcnn recently linked up with Stix and Nickee Gee, the founders and CEOs of The Pit, for an exclusive interview. The Pit is the biggest hip-hop tournament on the West Coast, and it will only continue to expand as Stix and Nickee Gee arrange their biggest project yet – The “Best In The West Tournament.” In this exclusive interview, you will learn all about the new tournament, and how you can be a part of it if you’re an aspiring rapper or producer. We also discuss how the duo originally crossed paths, and how their vision is steadily coming into fruition with lots of careful planning and hard work.


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

Interview was done in October 2007.

Questions Asked By : Eddie Gurrola

Stix & Nickee Gee Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout : Here (Video: WMV)

Full Interview In Video For Download : Here (Video: WMV)

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Watch The Video Interview (via the Dubcnn Brightcove Channel)
Press Play To Start Streaming Footage: Fast Connection Recommended

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Dubcnn: We’re here with Stix and Nickee Gee, the founders and CEOs of The Pit. How’s it going today guys?

Nickee Gee: Chillin’ man.

Stix: It’s great man. Hey, I’ll tell it like this. I just went and bought me a brand new flying carpet, and I’m about to fly up out of here after this interview. I’m gonna rub the lamp, ask the genie for three more wishes, and I’ma get it in. It’s Stix. He’s Nickee Gee. The Pit!


Dubcnn: A lot of people don’t know what The Pit is yet. For everyone who has been sleeping on it, let us know what it’s all about…

Nickee Gee: The Pit is the biggest West Coast movement right now, period. We, [as The Pit,] essentially create the spotlight for artists [and] producers, and help them get a shot [at recognition.] They get the benefit of [being watched by] industry guests – people like Redman, Young Jeezy, Mistah FAB, [and] Tyrese aka Black Ty. What up Ty! They come and they see what the West Coast has to offer. What it comes down to is that West Coast artists really make good music, so we are essentially just giving them the opportunity to showcase that. That’s really it.

Stix: To bounce off that, it’s just a gateway for artists to make it to the next level because we all know, on the West Coast alone, it’s hard for artists to get any kind of recognition. So we created this [as] a way to connect the artists with labels, a wider consumer base, or just to perfect your craft. It’s just something to help the whole entity [of West Coast music.]


Dubcnn: You guys are business partners, and the CEOs of The Pit. How did you originally link up?

Stix: Nickee Gee [has] been a CEO for 19-20 years already!

Nickee Gee: Since I was two years old!

Stix: He’s going on 40! *Laughs* He was doing this event called “Superstar ’05.” It was this big event, it was on FOX and BET, [and there was] all kinds of write-ups about it and everything. So what happened was, when he was in pre-production, my man came up to him and was like, “Yo, you should let Stix perform.” [Nickee Gee] was like, “Who is Stix?” He tried to play me. He was like, “I don’t know who that is!” He knew who I was, but he had never seen me perform, so he was like, “Why should I let him perform for nothing? Who is he?” My man was like, “No, he’s that dude!” [Nickee Gee] said, “Whatever, I’ll see what I can do.” So he ended up not letting me perform, but he let me host the rap battle of “Superstar ’05.”

Nickee Gee: [He hosted it along] with A1 from The Beat, when it was still hip-hop.

Stix: A1, the radio personality from 100.3 The Beat, let me host it with him. I did a dope job, and then A1 let me spit a freestyle onstage. I did that – ripped it, the crowd went crazy! So Nick went, “Ahh!” I knew everybody there, everybody knew me, and he saw that. Ever since then, we started communicating. We both had the same vision to create this scene of hip-hop on the West Coast for everybody to win off of. We came together, had one meeting, drew it up on paper, [and] boom! Two years later, The Pit is where it’s at today!

Nickee Gee: To piggyback off what he said, I knew who he was, but not really. After I let him do his thing at “Superstar ’05,” his name started popping up everywhere! I was getting branded with Stix, [so] I was like, “Yo, I’ve got to get with this dude!” He was doing music at the time, [and] when krumping was real crazy he was one of the original people who did that, so he was everywhere!

During “Superstar ’05,” I found this artist named Duke Gutta out of New York. He was in San Diego, because he was in the Marine Core, so he came out to battle at the auditions. I was like, “This dude is crazy,” so I wanted to manage him to get his buzz up. He was really, really talented. So I was like, “Yo, I need to create some type of event where he can essentially get his name out.” So me and Stix were talking about it: talking about the West Coast, the hip-hop movement, and how we can put our little touch on it to make it bigger and get more exposure for [the] West. From there, we’ve got a soon to be empire.


Dubcnn: A lot of people think that putting these events together is nothing more than handing out flyers and finding a venue, but there is a lot more to it. Tell us what you guys do on a daily basis to put these events together…

Nickee Gee: Oh man, it’s crazy. Well first, like any business, you’ve got to have a business plan. Draw up your vision, [your] keys to success, [and] your mission. That is essentially the bread and butter of who you are, so whatever you do in life, or whatever you do with your business, that lets you know what path you need to go to get where you want to go. So we had a vision with The Pit. We had to write that out first [and] be on the same page. [Then we] got the company incorporated, [it’s] an LLC in the state of Nevada, so look us up! The Pit, LLC - that shit is a real business! [Next we] got The Pit bank account.

Then [we looked at,] “OK, how do we get the word out?” Of course you do flyers, you do Myspace, you do Facebook. [Then] you get in contact with other people from the same demographic like Dubcnn. Project Blow was pretty poppin’ at the time, so we were there to pass out flyers. [Then we] got Pit street team members to pass out flyers, [and] Pit models to bring a new side of entertainment to the actual Pit. Get a DJ involved to make the whole scene alive.

The biggest thing with this shit is [that] we get a lot of artists to get involved. We did Redman’s event for Def Jam. Mistah FAB called us and said, “The Pit shit’s poppin, I want to come and do my thing. I’ve got this album dropping.” Black Ty been there, Jeezy been there. So that shit don’t pop off unless you’ve got a vision of what you want to do with your business. Then as you do your thing, people hear about it, word of mouth kicks in, and then you get what we’ve got today.

Stix: Not only that, [but] you’ve got to deal with the knucklehead artists. Everybody thinks they’re the best rapper in the world, everybody thinks they deserve the most recognition, everybody wants their face posted on the Myspace, [and] everybody wants their battle up. It’s just another headache that you’ve got to deal with, especially when you’re doing it on our level. We deal with hundreds of artists - different races, shapes, styles, all that - and everybody thinks they’re the best. So right now we’re at the point where we’ve got to make ourselves real accessible to them, [until] we build a complete staff to where we can have people taking care of different areas of business.

Right now it’s just me and Nick, and we’ve got a couple other people that work with us. Our boy, Adib, J West, Eo, shout outs Ray. We’ve got different divisions, but it’s really just us, and we’ve got cater to everybody – see what they want, keep them happy, keep them bringing their fans to The Pit, keep them continuously battling at The Pit. We’re figuring out how to reach out to new artists, [and] figuring out different avenues because now The Pit is a little bit more than just The Pit. Like he said, it’s a business, and we’ve got The Pit models, we’re starting The Pit management team, we’ve got Pit DJs…

Nickee Gee: The Pit everything! We’re just branding The Pit right now. That’s what it is we’re doing. To give you a day in the life of what it is we do, just yesterday we had to go door to door damn near like a salesman to every single record shop on Melrose Ave. out here in LA, give them a business proposal, tell them that we share the exact demographic, and that they can benefit from this West Coast tournament that we’re doing. I showed them The Pit trailer on a mini DVD player, I shopped the Pit sponsorship packets, and then we just do what we do. We grind hard, every single day. The biggest thing with The Pit is we just give a lot of validity because we bring industry guests to come and judge battles. This ain’t just some mom and pop battle shit, this is some real shit to get your name out there and to really represent this West Coast movement man!


Dubcnn: For an up-and-coming artist that wants to be a part of the battle, what are some of the key things they should know you’re looking for when you’re listening to their music?

Nickee Gee: In regards to artists, not only is it battling, but it’s a segue for you to promote yourself as an artist. The biggest thing, I think, is marketability. If record labels come to see you on stage, they want to see how quick and how witty you are. How marketable can you really be? When you’re on the stage, can you really bring in the attention of the people looking at you? Can you really demand that presence? Anybody who have that…like my man Stix, he’s an artist too! Rock and hop, that’s what he do! Everybody don’t have that. But to me, that’s one of the biggest things. Can you really demand the presence when people are looking at you on stage?


Dubcnn: The Best In The West Tournament is going to be four months long, starting in November. Tell us about how the tournament is going to unfold…

Stix: November 3rd at Rehab [Record Store on Cotner Ave.] is gonna be the next date for the Best In The West Tournament. Basically, we’re searching for the best MCs and best producers, period. I was just saying on the West Coast, but actually I want to see the best, period! Who’s the best out there? We just so happen to be holding this on the West Coast.

Each night, we’re going to do an elite-8 man tournament to pool the best MCs to compete in February, which we’re holding at The Knitting Factory. How that breaks down [is like this]: November, December and January will be an elite-8 [battle.] They’ll break themselves down, tournament style, go from the eight to the final four, and the people that make it to the finals, [which are] the last two people to battle, automatically get inserted into the February event. So we’re doing that [in] November, December, January, [and] that’ll fill up six slots. Then we have a secret panel of celebrity judges who will choose a wild card of two people they think deserve the right to be there as well.

We’re doing submissions. We’re having rappers and producers send their emails to us [here]. They’ll send in their mp3s, send in their contact info, send every bit of details so we can contact them back to let them know if they made it [and] submit them in the tournament. We’re also doing a waiting list, [an] on-call kind of sign up. So you can come and sign up, but then we’ll put you in the list of those who submitted their mp3s, and sort it out and take care of everybody.

But it’s real big man. November’s already pretty much filled up, December is halfway there, and we’re only in October. It’s real big, we’re getting a lot of submission, we’re getting a lot of comments just on Myspace [with] people talking about it. Once again artists, it’s tournament style, elite-8, they’re breakin’ it down each night in November, December, and January. The people that make it to the finals each month automatically get inserted into the finals which will be in February, and that’s for the whole she-bang. It’s 3,000 dollars in cash and prizes, a write-up on Dubcnn [and] Jumpoff.tv, a championship belt, [and] a slot on The Pit mixtape. It’s just perks galore, and they don’t even have to pay to sign up! You can just send an mp3, and if you win, you win all this stuff. Come on man!

Nickee Gee: This shit is big homie. Anybody out here watching this – rapper [or] producer - if you can make your way out to Santa Monica, wherever the fuck you are, come out here man! This Pit thing is crazy right now. We’re changing lives right now, I’m telling you! Go to [our] MySpace so you can see all about it. Go to Dubcnn, where you can read up about The Pit. This shit is crazy! We’re not bullshitting, this shit is real crazy man!

Stix: Last week, Eddie won a battle against Duncan. Eddie won, he ripped him, Duncan had the first round, but Eddie came with the next two rounds. The battle was dope, they’re gonna post it on Dubcnn! *Laughs* Nah, I’m just playin’! Shout outs Duncan...

Nickee Gee: It was an audio battle, because this man is way out in the UK! What up mayne!

Stix: Shout outs Duncan, shout outs Eddie, the whole Dubcnn staff.

Nickee Gee: West Coast man. UK, West Coast movement baby!

Stix: Y’all been showing love since day one. Once again, The Pit, “Best In The West” Tournament. Send in your info, via email, go to MySpace. We’re looking for the best MC [and] the best producer. You must [be available to] battle [in] November, December, and January to even qualify for the finals and all the money, the belt, and all the extra perks. Hope to see you November 3rd, December 1st, and January 5th. The big date is February 10th at The Knitting Factory in Hollywood. You’ve got all the details, you’ve got all the info. If you need more info, just keep logging on to Dubcnn.com! Click the banner, or go to MySpace or email us. I had to say it 1000 times because it’s all about branding and marketing. Get it right! Peace.