Crooked I: The Life & Times Of Crooked I, Pt. 1

[MOB]

By Tim “Styles” Sanchez
Long Beach rapper Crooked I was first heard by rap fans on the 1997 West Coast underground release The 19th Street Compilation and since then has been tearing up microphones and recording booths from L.A. to New York. This pure-rap thoroughbred ended up taking his skills to the controversial and feared rap mogul, Suge Knight, in hopes of taking the Death Row label to new heights after the loss of its major rap stars. Some call it a huge mistake that put the talented rapper on a long detour to his hopes and dreams. Nevertheless, Crooked I took his career in to his own hands and after four years of service to the Death Row label and after a long court battle, won the freedom of joining up with up-start West Coast label, Treacherous Records.

Was that a mistake too? AllHipHop.com caught up with Kingpin the Crooked Individual (dubbed Crooked I by his older brother) to hear his side of the story about these things. We not only discuss that, but everything else about Crooked I that you should know about – from his start all of the way to the 52 week Hip-Hop Weekly series that he unleashed upon the Internet. Oh yeah – we didn’t leave out the Snoop Dogg situation. It’s well known that the two don’t see eye to eye, so we gave Crooked the chance to speak his peace about it. Crooked also gives us his thoughts on seeing the infamous pictures of his former boss being laid out on that Hollywood sidewalk. Enjoy the read.


AllHipHop.com: It seems like you were born to be a rhymer. At what age did you discover that you actually had this gift?

Crooked I: My mother used to write R & B songs and poetry. I started writing poetry at age five and she put together a little book of my poems. My mom used to encourage me a lot and that is one of the important things in my career because when I told her that I wanted to rap, she went out and bought albums from artists like Run-DMC and let me hear them at a young age.

I would write about me and my family riding the bus, stuff like that. I had one where I talked about being in kindergarten. I can remember it like it was yesterday. My mom kept books of those writings and would always show them to me when I was growing up like, “Remember you wrote this two years ago?” I was talking about the average kid stuff; Hot Wheels and Match Box.

We had a little game that we played in Kindergarten called the Rhyming Game. I liked it so much that when I went home I started making my own rhymes. I believe I was born for this. When [my mother] was pregnant with me, she was in the recording booth singing.

AllHipHop.com: When did you start developing the rhyme skill that we know from today’s Crooked I?

Crooked I: At eight years old I wrote a song called “Microphone Controller.” That’s when I knew that this was what I was going to do for the rest of my life. My mother and her twin sister took me to the studio and I recorded it. [Crooked I raps part of the song: The rhyme is my hammer. The beat is the nail – I’m driving it in to your rhythm cell.] That was the rhymes from that song when I was eight. I was a B-Boy with a Kangol. I only wore suede Puma’s and shell-toe Adidas. When I was in the 3rd grade, 4th grade and 5th grade – I was rapping and everybody knew it. They were like, “There goes Crooked. He raps.” I was around Hip-Hop at such a young age that I feel that I am part of the Old School mentality of Hip-Hop even though I am not as old as the founders. I feel like I am a part of it because I was serious about it back when people thought that rap was just a trend.



To read the full interview:
http://allhiphop.com/stories/features/archive/2008/05/28/19961609.aspx

[Styles1]

thanks for making the thread.. .

this is the Crooked I interview that I told some of you about a few weeks ago....

[bullet_wrongkind]

he made a track wit lunizback in 97, if im not wrong

[EFFeX]

Thanks for this interview homie... A lot of information we already know in here, hope part 2 got some new stuff in it.

[Bch]

good shit styles, u should ask him if he could ever link up with eminem, fat joe, ludacris, t.i. big name rappers it would expose him to so many ppl and let everyone take notice of him coming out the west coast and he could still do his thing helping bring up the new west movement 2

[COMPTONRIDA1]

REALLY WANNA HEAR HIS ALBUM.. CROOKED I IS UNDER RATED

[AnybodyKilla]

Dont really care for all the jibberish hes talkin bout. Just waiting for some new shit, like his mixtapes and B.O.S.S!!!

[h2k4]

A new interview, wow.  Never saw that coming.

[Styles1]

Thanks for this interview homie... A lot of information we already know in here, hope part 2 got some new stuff in it.

a lot of this is geared for the mass audience that's still learning about him. if you've been following Crooked I super close for a real long time, there probably isn't anything new that you will learn. There might be though... you will just have to wait for part 2.

[1234]

Props! Crooked is doin it really big right now. Even outside of the West! 

[KURUPTION-81]

thought this was a pretty good interview.

[1234]

That interview was the best Crooked I interview I ever read! Good shit Styles!

[Styles1]

^ yeah, he's really getting a lot of good feedback from the fans on AHH.

[Lunatic]

props styles, cant wait for pt2!

[EFFeX]

Thanks for this interview homie... A lot of information we already know in here, hope part 2 got some new stuff in it.

a lot of this is geared for the mass audience that's still learning about him. if you've been following Crooked I super close for a real long time, there probably isn't anything new that you will learn. There might be though... you will just have to wait for part 2.

No doubt, I'm going to check for part 2 regardless. The interview is much appreciated by new and old fans alike.