Guerilla Black interview @ ThaFormula

[jtothai]

http://www.thaformula.com/guerilla_black_guerilla_city.htm

Guerilla Black: Guerilla City
 
ThaFormula.Com - First off Black I would like to say sorry about your wife passing man as I know that was a bad time for you.  As someone who lost his moms at a very young age I can relate to that.  Sometimes people need to know that rappers live a regular life just like anyone else and that this is just music.  So I was hoping you can explain what exactly went down with you wife man?   
Guerilla Black - Yeah you know what it was man was my wife she was working at this place for mentally challenged children.  One day she had went to work, and usually she wouldn't drink out of objects that they have there at the home but she ended up drinking out of one of the cups or whatever.  Unfortunately, you know I guess it was the bacteria meningitis and usually your stomach acids kill it but it past and went to her spine.  Eventually the first signs started and she was just really throwing up real bad and she was just crazy hurtin' and next thing you know I took her to tha hospital and then tha hospital in Gardena didn't do no diagnostics the correct way so she just suffered on until uh...

ThaFormula.Com - Yo Black what Hospital was this?

Guerilla Black - This was Gardena Memorial.

ThaFormula.Com - Yo that's tha same hospital my moms died in man and we had tha same type of problem with tha doctors up in that shit?

Guerilla Black - Yep and they didn't even do tha diagnosis like uh we had to call an ambulance and they wouldn't take her until they knew that she didn't know her address.  She didn't even know her own name because you gotta remember, tha same fluid that is in your spine is the same fluid that's in your brain so whenever it would start inflaming, it was inflaming tha fluid around her brain so it was driving her delirious. So tha people at tha Gardena Memorial Man just didn't know what tha hell they was doing.  So we took her to Harbor UCLA by Carson and they pulled tha fluid out her spine and I finally found out she had spinal meningitis and then by that time it was blinding her and it had paralyzed her from tha waist down.

ThaFormula.Com - Damn that's horrible man.  How long were you guys married?

Guerilla Black - For about 3 years you know but we knew each other a long time before that.

ThaFormula.Com - So now that you got you deal, video and all that does it make it tougher for you to enjoy it without her?

Guerilla Black - You know it's funny man cause I have suffered alot this year man.  First I lost my uncle, then I lost my step father and last week I lost my grandmother.  I know that they are all in heaven and they looking out for me.  It's real crazy but I carry on with life man because they live in me.

ThaFormula.Com - Many people never really heard of you before Black and people wonder has Black paid his dues to get here?

Guerilla Black - Well you can say I'm paying my dues now.  I cut 50 songs for this new album and I'm on my 4th mixtape and I've done shows all across the country you know just running around, and I'm getting ready to go out again for 30 days straight and run around everywhere and you know still jump on shows, do the drops, stay on tha radio and jump on the mix tapes.  So I'm still paying my dues and everyday is a blessing cause I could see that my work is paying off everyday more and more.

ThaFormula.Com - How many years have you been in this man?

Guerilla Black - I been in this for a while.  I always was rhymin' and stuff like that since I been real crazy young.  So you know all of these years to see all of these artists go past you and  finally be at a point where I'm here it's crazy and it trips me out.  I've always been a student of tha game and bought everybody's album from tha first Mobb Deep to Raekwon, Snoop, D.O.C.  I been a fan for so long and to basically be at tha point where I'm an artist making music for people to enjoy is a beautiful thing.

ThaFormula.Com - Now I heard you were discovered by Ice-T.  How did that come about Black?

Guerilla Black - My mother was working at a telemarketing company and she came down to where I was staying at and told me that while she was at work, she had ran into Ice-T.  So next day she hooked me up with a job up there and that same day I met Big Rich and he walked me in there to meet Ice-T.  So Ice T let me go up to record in the studio.  At that time I was still trying to discover myself and figure out myself.  I've always been a heavy deep voiced person so I was just experimenting and trying not to sound so much tha way that I do sound. I was doing alot of screaming and stuff like that trying to experiment and just trying to stay away from sounding tha way I sound.  When my wife passed though it was just like yo I can only do me now. So I just started going with what I know.  About my life, my reality.  It's no longer the fun raps and stuff like that.  It was just more about reality and it's just lately that I been loosening up.

ThaFormula.Com - Now you had a record deal before this right?

Guerilla Black - Yeah I had a deal that fell through.  It just fell to tha side and when my wife passed I didn't even wanna rap anymore so I took a hiatus.  Before then I was screaming on records and all kind of crazy stuff and after my wife passed I didn't wanna deal with tha dudes that I dealt with, I didn't wanna scream trying to disguise my voice from tha way that it is.  I just wanted tha people to know who I am and speak about tha things that are going on in my life. 

ThaFormula.Com - Now I wanna ask you about this thing that the relatives said about you on wcrydaz.com.  They claim that you are not an official representation of the West Coast & that a couple of years ago you were down south rappin' like Mystikal.  Did you hear about this?

Guerilla Black - Yeah I heard about this but you know what, at tha end of tha day how official are they.  They don't have any legit beef with me.  if they did, why they don't come to me and address it like a man.  Otherwise they get on tracks and my web site and you know talk all kind of crazy madness.  Why those dudes don't come to me and talk like a man.  If there is an issue, I'm a man I can sit down with any man.  I'm a grown man, I don't do childish things.  They still children in a sense because they got childish ways.  All they got to do is grow up and be a man and come holla at Guerilla B-L-A-C-K.  I could sit down with them like men.  I could have a drink with them and talk about my differences.  Whatever it may be that they feel they wanna get off of their chest or however, definitely we can get there.  I still have love for them because you know I'm tha type of person that at tha end of tha day, I'm about bettering tha West Coast.  If them dudes wanna be on negativity and let they mind run crazy because they don't have any light around them or anything going on that's really big and positive, and they mad at my movement and tha things that I'm doing, then you know they could be labeled as haters or they could be cats that join tha movement and get down with me, and get on mixtapes with me, and get on tha grind with me.

ThaFormula.Com - What was tha thing that surprised you most about tha industry?

Guerilla Black - When I got in tha industry man, I really didn't have half of tha knowledge that I have today.  Tha big surprise about it was how much knowledge I didn't have.  That was tha biggest surprise about how much I didn't really have about tha game in general and which I needed definitely to get to tha point where I'm at now.  Going through all of tha different things and learning.  Just how on tha daily how much grind is involved. One thing about this industry man is that you got to be a continuous hard worker and when you sign your name on tha line you really have to really, really want this.  Be willing to go out at all cost and sacrifice yourself for the betterment of yourself and really push yourself beyond anything including tha labels and everything else.  At tha end of tha day you have to really work.  I never thought that it was so much work but everyday that I learn, I learn more about tha game and more about tha industry.  Alot of things surprise me like how you know I thought things were and how easily they are not.  Just how corporate tha game is period across tha board.  That was a big surprise.

ThaFormula.Com - Do you start to see now why some rappers do better then others?

Guerilla Black - Yeah, it's a setup.  Everything is a setup.  I seen it having to deal with these labels and politics and then dealing with tha haters and then dealing with your family.  But I leave it in gods hands.  You talking to me over tha phone and you can hear in my voice that this is me and how I get down every single day and this is who I am.

ThaFormula.Com - Do you feel that in order to break into this industry an artist has to play by tha industry rules?

Guerilla Black - When your in this game man, every artist breaks a different way.  You never know how it might be and tha way that you might be broken into it.  It's crazy, I watch every artists breaks different into tha game.  I believe there is so many different ways to break into tha game.  It comes from hard work, dedication and sacrifice.

ThaFormula.Com - Do you think if you were coming from tha East Coast people would still be trippin' just as hard about tha Biggie resemblance or not that much?

Guerilla Black - I think they would.  Biggie was a legend and with that being uh, 2Pac and Big was 2 of tha biggest rappers in this genre of music to ever come and do it.  But the comparing of styles or whatever is tha same basically for alot of other artists who came to tha game that people might have done said tha same about.  When I first seen Ja Rule pop up with a doo-rag rapped around his head, I was like yo this dude sounds like 2Pac.  When I first heard 50 Cent's "Up In Da Club," I said it sounds like 2Pac.  Tha same with Petey Pablo.  When I first heard him I said he sound like Mystikal.  Same thing with Fabulous, he sounds like Mase.  So at tha end of tha day all of those artists were hot and they proved that.  It's tha same with me.  I'm a heavy voiced dude.  I'm a big dude so all I can do is just prove it to you.

ThaFormula.Com - How as tha East reacted to your record so far?

Guerilla Black - You know it's been mixed reactions.  They don't play my record out there alot on tha radio so you know secretly there must be hate also as well as love.

ThaFormula.Com - So let's get to tha album.  What should people expect as far as guest mc's and producers?

Guerilla Black - I got Beenie Man and Nate Dogg on there.  On production I got Carlos Broady, Mario Winans, Nate Dogg, Jazzy Phae, Rodney Jerkins, Ski, Fred Wreck and others man.  I don't got no guest mc's on my album.  No need for that.  I feel like I'm an MC's MC.  I don't write any of my lyrics on paper so that's for all tha rappers out there.  Whenever you can write 50 songs and 4 mixtapes without touching a piece of paper then holla at ya' boy B-L-A-C-K. Guerilla City In Stores September 28th!!

[bjax]

Nice interview.  I was wondering about that production thing where he says Nate Dogg produced for him.  I know Nate got nominated for Producer of the Year at the BMI awards a couple of weeks ago along with real producers like Mario Winans, R. Kelly, Kanye West, Lil Jon, Neptunes, etc.   What other songs has Nate actually produced over the past year?

[Don Seer]

^ i'm wondering that too

-prop-

[michael jackson]

something tells me this geurilla blacc cat is a busta. how can u be from compton & put out a single called compton featuring beenie man?its obvious blacc is trying to blow off of this jamaican dude & his biggie sounding raps. i dont know but this guy sound a str8 mark!

[CRAFTY]

something tells me this geurilla blacc cat is a busta. how can u be from compton & put out a single called compton featuring beenie man?its obvious blacc is trying to blow off of this jamaican dude

That's just because Dancehall music is very popular right now...so a hook from a Dancehall artist should be appealing to the industry.

[ez8o5]

his 2nd single with nate dog is bananas

[allfromtheIE]

Anybody know if Black is of jamaican descent?  I just want to know if beenie man laced the track cuz of industry or country connections.  He looks kinda Jamaican to me but that could be just because hes dark as fuc
IE