BROTHA LYNCH HUNG(July 2010) | Interview By:
Nima Etminan
Dubcnn recently had the chance to sit down with Sacramento's Brotha Lynch
Hung for an exclusive interview. We talk to him about his latest solo album
"Dinner And A Movie", which came out under Tech N9ne's hugely successful
independent label Strange Muzic. Lynch tells us about his transition to
Strange and why it was the best possible move for him.
He tells us about his
two upcoming solo albums to complete his trilogy, shipment issues with the
record, and how it feels to really be back in the game.
We also talk about his involvement in social networks such as Twitter, why
it's important to him to be accessible to his listeners and what music he is
currently bumping himself. Check out all that and much more in this
exclusive interview.
Read on and enjoy. As always feel free to hit up
nima@dubcnn.com with questions or comments.
.......................................................................................... Dubcnn Exclusive – Brotha Lynch Hung
By: Nima Etminan
Download The Interview Audio: Here | Download The Interview Shoutout:
Here
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Interview Audio
Shoutout Audio
Dubcnn: We're right here with Brotha Lynch Hung to talk about your
latest album "Dinner And A Movie". This is your biggest release since
Loaded, how does it feel to really be back in the game?
It's lovely man. Only reason I kinda took a little break was cause I
didn't really have a good deal, somebody that was really gonna get me
out there. When I finally hooked up with Strange, I figured I could do
what I gotta do, get some good sales finally and get some good touring
in. So everything is lovely.
Dubcnn: What were the most important services that
Strange Music provided you with that you didn't have before?
Remarkable studio, remarkable engineer, remarkable touring,
merchandizing and just giving me the time and letting me say what I was
wanting to say, period, without trying to cut some of it off cause
they're scared of what I might say. Their machine, their marketing
machine is incredible.
Dubcnn: Something I noticed about a lot of Strange
Music releases is that the sound quality is always very crisp, the
mastering is really on point. What is it that they have that makes it
stand out?
Their engineer Rob Rebek is… man! He's a machine in itself, his mixing
is incredible. He spends a lot of time on it, it doesn't matter who you
are on Strange, what artist you are, he spends so much time on it, he
lives in the studio and he lives on the internet. They always have the
best hook ups on the mastering people. The dude they have mastering,
he's been working with Strange for a long time and Rob for a long time,
so he just always clicks.
Dubcnn: The three videos that you filmed for the album
were very impressive. Can you tell us about the making of the videos? It
was like a little movie.
Yessir. For the next two albums connected to "Dinner And A Movie",
that's exactly what it's going to be. It's gonna be a movie. For Dinner
and a Movie we put the first three videos, Tha Coathanga Strangla will
have the next three videos and Mann-A-Bal Lector will have the last
three videos to complete the whole movie. So once you get all of these
videos, you're going to understand what the whole movie is about, what
the three albums are about. It's a beautiful thang.
Dubcnn: I believe there were some issues with the
shipment of your album in a lot of stores and fans couldn't find the
record, can you speak on that?
Well, it was a lot of people that I was letting put "Brotha Lynch Hung
Present…" on their projects and they would only do like 4,000 or 3,000
records, even my mixtapes, they weren't promoted well. So the
wholesalers were like "Well, this is what he's selling now, that's what
we're going to buy. It was hard to let them know that I'm with Strange
now and everything is going to be quality. So they kinda had to see it
for themselves, so the first week, we only did a little over 7,000
copies, which is alright for the times and everything. But now that they
know everything is quality, the sales are cracking! I moved from #68 on
the Billboard to the 30's. Now that they know I'm with a legit label,
they're calling again.
Dubcnn: Now that you're on Strange Music, can we expect Lynch
albums on a more regular basis?
Oh yes. I'm already working on Tha Coathanga Strangla album to release
around the same time as Dinner and a Movie, next year.
Dubcnn: "Dinner And A Movie" was the first part of a trilogy.
For those that don't know, can you explain the concept behind these
records?
Yeah. I'm a script writer, I write horror movies, and I'm trying to make
it big in that. So I decided to transfer it into my music and Dinner And
A Movie is 1/3 of the story itself. It's about a serial killer who
serial kills rappers. It's basically a battle thing, I'm talking about
eating up rappers really, but in order to keep it wider, I talk about
everything. I try to trick the fans into like I'm killing just any and
everybody, but it's really just rappers. It's about a serial killer who
just kills rappers.
Dubcnn: You rarely get albums that flow like a story
nowadays. Was it important to you to go against the grain and show that
conceptual albums can still be made?
I've had that idea for a while, but I didn't have a good label that was
gonna fulfill everything that I wanted to do, because I've been thinking
about it since 2001. I just didn't wanna do it on my independent level,
I had to get somebody like Strange, one of the top indy's in the game,
to make me feel comfortable enough to do it. I'm tired of a lot of rap
records today, a lot of people don't even buy the whole album anymore,
they go on iTunes and buy a couple of songs. I didn't want my album to
be like that, I wanted them to go all the way through, so I came up with
this story thing, to where you have to buy the whole album to
understand. At the same, you can still buy the songs single by single if
you want, but in order to understand everything that's going on, you
gotta buy all three albums.
Dubcnn: You also have very cinematic skits on your albums, do
you come up with those once the songs are done when doing the sequencing
or is that something you have in mind while writing?
A little of both. Sometimes, like with Q-Ball on Season of da Siccness,
he had just died so that came immediately. I probably went in there and
did that before I did my first 5 songs on Season of da Siccness, because
that's where my feelings was at that time. I usually run into the studio
as soon as it comes into my head, to go knock it out real quick.
Dubcnn: You just mentioned that you have this three-album
trilogy coming out. Now I remember when I copped Lynch By Inch back in
2003 I think, you were supposed to come out with Spiderman. What
happened to that album?
That's definitely still coming, separate from this trilogy. That is
coming. I actually had a Spiderman album, but I stopped giving Black
Market Records albums and kinda passed those songs around to a whole
bunch of independent artists that never came out and made it big. So
they kinda dissected that and I'm gonna start all over again. But I
gotta do that Spiderman album, I'ma do that after these three.
Dubcnn: Is that a concept album too?
Yes, definitely. He was always my favorite superhero, and to be a
Spiderman, is to be a person who you'll be seeing for a minute, but then
if I was to just hang up on you right now and you'd be like "what the
fuck?" I'm gone! I'm gone like Spiderman. That's the whole concept of me
calling myself Spiderman. You never know when I'm gonna be there or when
I'm gonna leave. I call it the Spiderman, when I'm there one minute and
then I'm gone the next, you'll know I just did the Spiderman on you.
Dubcnn: I remember on Lynch by Inch you had a song called "Spydie's
Birth", so I'm glad that's still coming.
Yes sir.
Dubcnn: You're on the Strange Days Tour right now and
Tech N9ne is most known for his spectacular live shows, what can fans
expect from a Brotha Lynch concert?
The Strange Days tour, at least mine and Tech N9ne's part, is a movie.
Remember how in the old school days you'd go to a play, in the 50's and
60's, they'd go watch plays? That's what the Strange Days Tour is gonna
be like. You're going to watch a play, a musical play. It's pretty much
a movie and we're gonna run with that concept for a lot of a different
shit. You know the mask that's on my album cover? That was really made,
so I'm sporting that at the shows. It's part of the show, but I take it
off eventually.
Dubcnn: Are you still hoping to collaborate with Eminem on a
song in the future?
Yes sir! I'm hoping it happens soon! People are on Eminem now and it's
up to him to keep it going. I wanna get him while he's hot.
Dubcnn: Word is that he's signing Slaughterhouse to
Shady, so that might be a sign of him taking a look at the underground a
little bit and getting into it again. So who knows?
Yes sir. I didn't wanna be at Crooked I like "Holler at your boy!" I'm
just sitting around and letting it formulate, you know what I mean?
Hopefully it will happen.
Dubcnn: Who else are you bumping at the moment? Who are you
feeling in the game?
I'm still bumping that Relapse! I bump a lot of Crooked I's mixtape
shit, I bump Saigon, I always bump 'Pac. Just lyrical muthafuckas, I
love lyrical people and anybody that has lyrics. I don't really support
the teeny bop Hip-Hop stuff. Not hating on them, they're doing their
thing and they're probably selling more than I am, so you can't hate on
them, but I'm just not into that one hitter quitter shit.
Dubcnn: I noticed you are very active on Twitter, has
the medium improved your relationship with your listeners?
Yes sir, it went from MySpace, I used to be very active on my MySpace
page. My thing is keeping in touch with these fans, because I haven't
able to release a whole lot of albums. So I wanted to see where their
heads was at. I use this Twitter, I probably tweet too much! *laughs*
Dubcnn: Yeah I saw you got the iPad going and stuff.
I love it man. I became a technical dude, and this iPad to me, it's the
future. I don't work for them or nothing, but I love this muthafucka.
Dubcnn: Strange Music is the success story of an
independent label that grew organically and really bonded with their
fanbase. Do you still see any advantages in being on a major or is it
independent all the way for you?
I think I'm gonna with independent because Strange, not only do they
promote and market good, but they let me do what I wanna do and they
believe in my ideas. Maybe there is a major out there that would do
that, but I'm not really the type of person that wants to be out there
out there, like my face seen everywhere, cause yo know I'm Spiderman. I
don't know if I wanna be big as a Snoop or somebody that's on TV all the
time. To me, it killed Ice Cube career, because he being seen too much
and dropping too many albums. I love Ice Cube, but I just think that
most people stopped buying his shit because he was just out there too
much.
Dubcnn: It's funny you say that because my next
question was gonna be whether you're comfortable with the position in
the game that you're in right now or whether you have the ambition to
blow up on a larger scale?
Well I do wanna get out there and get my cult following back to where it
used to be, but I'm just not a TV face person unless I get into my
acting. I write movie scripts so if I write a role for me, I'd do that.
But at the same time, as far as being satisfied with my career, I'm
almost there, only because I hadn't been able to release albums. I got
one album in the 2000's, well 2 with Dinner, but I had Lynch By Inch in
2003. I wish I could have released a little more, because my fans was
kinda pissed off about that.
Dubcnn: You had "Blocc Movement" with C-Bo in the 2000's too
though.
Yeah that's true, but that's a shaky situation right there. I do
consider it an album and nothing ever came of that, I did satisfy some
fans which is always good, but it's just that whole situation was so
difficult that it's kinda hart to count that, but yeah you're right.
Dubcnn: I really liked that record. I liked that 187 On
A Hook, that Gangsta with Kam, you had that Papers joint there.
Yeah that "Papers" meant a lot to me. I appreciate that. I'm not trying
to knock it or anything, but the business part of the situation was so
rocky that it's hard to bask in that whole situation.
Dubcnn: Your musical content has always been very
controversial, how would you compare the climate of the industry when
you first came out in the early 90's to the reaction you get now?
I think that in the early 90's, as far as Gangsta Rap or ripgut or
horrorcore, it was the best time to come out! Rap was semi-new and you
could't burn the shit out of anything on the internet and all that, it
was probably the best time to come out. Now it's so hard because people
are always downloading your stuff for free, which I don't mind either,
as long as they got it, but a nigga gotta make some money too.
Dubcnn: I was saying as far as the reaction that you
get to your content, the whole ripgut theme that you have.
Well they didn't love the baby killing shit. At all. Even though I was
just talking about abortion. So the reaction was kinda bad then, they
kinda accept me now because they're kinda used to what I'm goona say,
they expect it from me. So that's pretty much the difference. But when I
first came out they were like "What the fuck is this nigga talking
about?"
Dubcnn: You were commenting online about the recent New
West / Old West controversy sparked by Ice Cube's blog. What's your take
on the whole situation?
I feel Ice Cube in a way, I just don't feel the part where he said "If
you didn't have an album out in 86, you can't tell him shit. Because I
was what, 8 years in in 86! I started rapping wen I was 13, I was 8
years in and no I didn't have a record out because I'm from Northern
California, I ain't from L.A.. If I had moved to L.A., maybe i would
have had a record out back then, which would have killed me because it
was a whole different style I was doing back then. I didn't really get
into what I wanted to do yet, but at the same time, he may not even have
meant me on the comment, but I'm in the middle. I'm the bridge between
the Old West and the New West. That's how I feel. I do feel what he's
saying though, I can't get with some of the New West cats either, but I
also rally for them to keep the West cracking. I'm with them.
Dubcnn: You also have your Madesicc label, what can we
expect to come out from that camp in 2010?
Oh yeah! We're working on C.O.S.' new video now, the album is done. We
should have a date in a couple of weeks. Then I also have G-Macc, the
Vampire. C.O.S. he's more the G-Type of rapper, but G-Macc he's more my
style, he raps about the sicc shit and stuff. He has a snippet of the
Vampire album on iTunes right now, but we're about to take it off and
repromote it and get it out there, cause that dude got lyrics too.
Dubcnn: I believe you also have movie scripts that you
wrote, when are you planning to get serious with that?
I wanna have at least 5 scripts written and I have an attorney out of
L.A., Peter Gordon, who's son deals in that situation, he's gonna help
me try and get an agent to get that signed, but I just wanna put all
this down, get it right, make sure all the scripts are right and then
I'm gonna venture into that. Because that's gonna be my second career
after I do retire from the music thing. I can't imagine rapping forever,
so… that's gonna be my second career.
Dubcnn: It seems like you have a lot on your plate
right now, thanks again for a great album and we wish you the best for
the future. Is there anything else you want to let everybody know?
Like you said, all my social networks are: TheRealBrothaLynchHung.com
and Twitter and Facebook and go to my CoathangaStrangla site to check
all the videos after the three albums are done. I have 9 videos to
complete the whole movie, The CoathangaStrangla.com go there and then
holler at me! If you're a fan, holler at me and I promise I'll get back.
