SONS OF FUNK (RICO CROWDER)  (March 2008) | Interview By: Noncentz

      

Please note that this interview was conducted by a Dubcnn Community (Dubcc.com) forum member. He and a team of members have been heavily discussing and promoting the work of the Dangerous Crew as a whole. Thanks go out to; Lamont, Raiders, Akcranker, SJ, GP and EazyE for their help and support in bringing the Dangerous Crew back into relevance. There will be more from the Dangerous Crew on dubcnn over the coming weeks.

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Interview was done by phone in February 2008

Questions Asked By: Noncentz (Guest Contributor)

Rico Crowder Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here
 

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Dubcnn: What’s up Rico?

What’s up? Let’s do it!


Dubcnn: Give everybody a little background on Rico Crowder…

I started out in the music business as a young little dude, with his dad. We formed a singing group, and at 8 years-old I fell in love with the music industry. I started to teach myself to play all kinds of different instruments like the bass, drums, guitar, and keyboard. I fell in love with the guitar mainly. From there, in junior high school, I hooked up with a dude named Sam Bostic who was in the group Art ‘n Soul. Initially, we were supposed to be the first group like New Edition, but through some things he went on and did a solo album, and a guy named Mark Sucram and myself went on and did a deal with Motown, while we were in the 10th grade. But none of our records ever came out. So, we just kept persevering with a couple other little groups here and there.


Dubcnn: So how did Sons of Funk come together?

This Mark Suceram guy and I were like almost related since we had grew up from nursery school together. His cousins, Desmond Map and Greg Map, I had known them since they were young, and we had hooked up. After me and Mark had stopped doing dealings with the music industry, I hooked up with his cousins Desmond and Greg Map. Josh Chew was in the group with us as well. We started in 1991, and it took us until 1996 to get a real deal.

We had a couple of little deals in between there, like with MCA/Gasoline Alley. We were on the same label as Shai and some of those cats. The record didn’t really do well. We had a song called “Mother of My Child” that was kind of like a pop song, and we noticed that none of that poppy-stuff was working. So I said, you know what, we’re from Richmond, California and we was never no pop group. We was always gritty and gutter. We was R&B, but slightly rap and kinda hardcore R&B. Sex-oriented, gangsta-oriented, and I was like we need to quit singing these little fairytale songs and come like where we actually from. Once we did that, everything changed. So, we started making these really hard-edged songs, and we came with Pushin’ Inside You. With that song, we kept trying to hook up with different labels.


Dubcnn: When did the big break come for you guys?

This is the epic of it all. I was working at Charles Schwab, and I head this voice come from behind me. It said, “Rico, if you don’t go to Los Angeles within 72 hours, you’ll never make it in the music industry.” I was like, what the hell was that talking to me. I had went home and was watching MTV, and the voice came to me again. I was thinking this is weird and strange, and it’s getting louder and louder. I ended up going to the movies with this girl, and we saw Love Jones. I couldn’t concentrate on the movie cuz this voice kept telling me to go to Los Angeles. I told the girl I had to go, went over to my boy’s house with Des, Greg and Josh, and I told them to quit their jobs today cuz we had to go to L.A. or we’ll never make it in the music industry. It was God telling me that we had to do this. They thought I was tripping and all that.

Well, 3 months prior to that, we had done a show in Arizona and was waiting to go home at the airport. This voice had came to me and said, “You guys are going to be very successful, but one of you is going to die.” And at the time, it was 5 of us: Rico Crowder, Ricky Jones, Desmond Map, Greg Map, and Joshua Chew. I told the Lord that I didn’t want it to be me. I told Josh what the voice had said to me. Josh told me not to tell him it was him, and I told him it wasn’t him, but that it was Rick. And God had said that he could live if he changed his life. So back to the meeting day, we had all quit our jobs and got in this old raggedy Nissan truck and drove all the way to L.A. All we had was $300 and some chicken and bologna sandwiches. We supposed to stay with my cousin, but that day he had been evicted and had to move back to Atlanta. So I had knew this girl up there, I called her and asked her if we could stay with her. She lived in The Jungle right off of LaBrea, which is Blood territory, and thank God the truck we was in was all red.

Being from the Bay, we wasn’t really on the gang thing with the Bloods and the Crips, but we had to go lay down somewhere. The girl said we could stay with her, but she had 2 sons and 1 bedroom. So it was all us grown-ass men, this lady with her sons, in this house. We was wondering what we were going to do, and I was telling them about this voice again. And they was getting mad at me about all this voice stuff cuz I had made them quit their jobs, we had basically no money, no place really to live, and we didn’t have nothing. I told them to trust me, and that God said for us to go to Priority Records. They agreed to do this one more time. We go to head over to Priority, and the first dude I meet there was Eddie, from Family Matters. I played him “Pushing Inside You”, and he flipped out over it.


Dubcnn: Ha! Ha! That’s crazy! So, keep going, man…

So, we sitting in the lobby waiting, when all the sudden Master p walks in. He remembered meeting me at Mark’s Barbershop in Richmond. How we had initially met then, was 15 minutes before I met him at the barbershop, I had seen his picture. I was talking to my boy Alamo, and asked him who that cat was and he said it Master P, and he’s from Florida. So, 15 minutes later, here comes P with an entourage of like 10 cats. C-Murder, Silkk, and some other cats. His personality was really broad & comical. We was talking and he said if ever you make it, hook me up, and if ever I make it, I’ll hook you up. So I said hell yeah, I ain't got nothing to lose. So I had seen him quite often in Richmond, until he moved back to New Orleans, where he started to blow up.

So by the time I see him in L.A., No Limit is ridiculous. They were the biggest independent black record company in the world. I told him I was trying to gettin the business, and he’s like, “you still singing?” I said yeah. So we get on the elevator and he tells me that if he likes my music he’s going to make us one of the biggest r&b groups that’s out there. It won’t be a problem, and he’ll put a gang of paper in our pockets. So I said Ok. I was very, very confident in the songs that we had, so I gave him Pushin’ and he put the song on. I swear, it was like 2 seconds later and he was telling me to call my boys cuz we about to get signed up. He put the song out, and 2 weeks later it was platinum. P had dropped us a gang of money a piece, and we was happy.

Now, keep in mind, when we signed there was still 5 of us. Well, we catch a plane home from Baton Rouge where P had given us a gang money. I don’t want to disclose how much, but it was more than I had ever seen in my life. So, we flying home back to Oakland, and there was this lady in the back of the plane with us. Just Sons of Funk and this old white lady in the back of the plane. She asked us if we were a singing group, and we asked her how could she tell. She said she could just tell by the way we were. Then, she said tell your friend right there to calm his life down cuz he’s gonna die, but if he calms down then he will live a good life.

That was the freakiest shit I had ever seen in my life! It was like a whirlwind how all this stuff was happening to us, with people telling us this, God telling us that, this old lady, who I think was an angel, saying this stuff to us on the plane. And then sure enough, we get back and 3 weeks later, Rick was killed in Easter Hill, which is a real bad part of Richmond. So all these premonitions and this stuff that was bestowed on us, had actually manifested itself. My boy Rick got killed, we signed a record deal, songs were huge, and I had to sit back and take it all in.


Dubcnn: Damn, that’s messed up! So, did this incident put a squeeze on your deal with P?

Well, Master P had called and asked what was going on cuz he had heard that Rick got killed and was wondering why and how when he had given more than enough money to take care of all our bills and whatnot, and I apologized to him and told him that Rick just couldn’t help himself. So, he said he was going to send us some more money so we could start on our next album. So we went and really hunkered down to work on this album, and we came with I Got The Hook Up, the music and the singing part.


Dubcnn: How did that come about?

We flew to L.A. to meet up with P again to do the video to “I Miss My Homiez”. I played him the CD, and he fell in love with it. He said it was going to be the lead single to the movie “I Got The Hook Up,” and then he was gonna blow our album up. So he got on the song, put it out, and it went double-platinum in no time. That song put P on the map with MTV, then he came with “Make’em Say Uuuugh” and it was over with and he was extremely big! When we finished the album, P called us and told us to come back up there cuz he had something for us. So we get there, and he asked us what kind of cars we wanted. I tested the waters and said we want Benzes, and he said ok, we gonna go down here and get you all benzes, but while we at it we gonna go ahead and get houses for all of you. We went from owning mediocre cars, to owning brand-new Mercedes, and to owning homes that were fully in our names.


Dubcnn: Damn, now that’s love!

P wasn’t like the other record companies I’ve heard about that say they gonna let you use this house, and use this car. He made sure that everybody on No Limit had their own house and their own car. He spent like 1.3 million dollars on us in like 30 minutes and dude didn’t blink an eye. I couldn’t believe all this was happening to us. We had new cars, new homes, we was on tour, producing, shooting videos. Just a dream come true. I used to tell him thank you, but I didn’t know how to really thank him, you know? Cuz every dream I ever wanted to do in life came true from a brother who came from the bowels of New Orleans. I don’t know if you ever been to the Callio, but the Callio was gutter and is just like Richmond, and that’s how P knew how to get down in Richmond. And we had known people like Hammer, the Toni’s although they did give us some free studio time here and there, Jay King and others, but no one had ever given us a true shot except this brother from New Orleans. And it was on from there.


Dubcnn: What’s the relationship between all the group members?

Sons of Funk is still a group. We’ll always be a group. We all basically grew up together. We just kind of doing our own things. Des just moved to Houston and he’s working with some rap groups. Josh is doing some productions. Greg is back in the Bay doing some production and stuff, and we’re really contemplating on putting a new album together. So to our fans, keep listening for us.


Dubcnn: So what have you been doing recently?

Musically, I’ve been dealing with a couple cats out here in the Baton Rouge area. They have a lot of talented brothers out here. A guy named Quinton Matthews is pretty good, and he’s trying to do his rap thing. I had him in a little rap group trying to do a couple of things. I had an R&B group like B2K, but the guys is getting older know so they had to go on and do their own thing. I’m just kind of keeping my eyes and ears open for something real exciting, you know? Cuz everybody raps and sings, but you got to have that little edge to take you over to the next level. So in between that, my wife and I flip houses. I’m heavily into the real estate game. We buy houses, fix them up and then sell them.


Dubcnn: Where are you living now?

I still got my house in Los Angeles, right there in Sherman Oaks. And I got a house out here in Baton Rouge. So I got a few houses, a wife and a few kids now.


Dubcnn: So tell me about this situation with this cat claiming he’s from Sons of Funk..

Well, I ain’t gonna give him no props to his name, but he’s going around saying he’s in the group Sons of Funk. AllHipHop did an article on this dude and they didn’t try to find out if this guys was lying or not. It’s like how can they do this interview with this dude and they not know if he’s legit or not? He’s a fake, and he’s telling them that he did videos with Destiny Child, T-Pain and more, and he don’t even know them people. I’m just surprised that a publication would even put something out without even following up to see if it’s true or not. He was never in Sons of Funk! It’s only been Rico Crowder, Desmond Map, Greg Map, Ricky Jones and Joshua Chew. That other dude was never in the group.


Dubcnn: You can’t give us a name?

Well, yeah, his name is Floss, I think. I used to produce some stuff for him a long time ago. But how he thought he was in Sons of Funk, I don’t know. I think he goes by a different name now, so I’m not sure that’s the actual name or not. But he ain’t never done all these videos he’s talking about, and definitely wasn’t in Sons of Funk.


Dubcnn: Now what about these ex-artists talking bad about Master P?

It’s ridiculous! They saying that he never did nothing for them, ripped them off and a whole bunch of other bullshit. Everybody that you saw that was on No Limit and you saw them with an album, then for sure they got a house and a car that was in their name; that was something that P did for everybody, guaranteed. Now what they did with their shit after that was on them. All they had to do was pay their taxes and keep their lights on and it was theirs. P ain’t got to baby-sit no grown ass n-ggaz! You ain’t have to pay for none of that, and it’s in your name! We saw who was selling on No Limit like P, Silkk, C-Murder, Sons of Funk, Mia X, Mack, Souljah Slim, etc. Those who wasn’t are the ones who are being really ungrateful. A gang of these cats would’ve never had a record deal had it not been for P. And he would say spend your money wisely, and I’ll see you on your next album. And me being from Richmond, I was like, I got this and I’m gonna bubble from this.

I took that house in Cali, flipped it to where I could get some money off it and started doing this real estate thing. So nobody can tell me nothing bad about P. P took me out of a mediocre situation, and put me in a situation where every day was like a Saturday to me. And I thank God for him to this day! I’ll tell you this, and I know somebody gonna have something negative to say about this, but when they show a picture of Martin Luther King, Jr, they need to have a picture of Master P right there too. Cuz he took about 40-50 brothers out the hood and gave them jobs, houses, and cars. Do you know somebody else who has done that? That’s the stuff they don’t report or tell. He’s one of the best cats on earth, man!


Dubcnn: That’s’ real talk right there, man. Let me switch gears on you for a minute. Sean G [drummer for the Dangerous Crew] got me connected with you. What’s the history there?

I been knowing Sean since he was like 5. That dude was a prodigy on them drums, man! Growing up we was always together working on music. As we got older, I eventually hooked him up with my cousin Big Money Odis from Gold Money, who was down with Pee-Wee. From there, he just bubbled up hooking up with $hort all them.


Dubcnn: Let me ask you this, since we’re touching on a bit of Dangerous Crew shit. Back in the day, I remember hearing rumors about there being some small beef between P and Ant Banks. Was that ever true?

Hell no! P never had a beef with nobody! I think there was something between he and Pastor Troy at one time, but that’s it. P don’t really get into having beefs.


Dubcnn: Now, you was there when Snoop came to No Limit, right?

Yeah, I was definitely there!


Dubcnn: Tell us a bit about that situation?

When Snoop came in he was extremely cool and very humble. I talked to his dad, and his dad was just so thankful for helping him out of a bad situation, and being around bad company. He thought his son would have died, if it wasn’t for P’s help. But, Snoop smoked more than Cheech & Chong! That boy smoked some bomb!

And at the time, you know ‘Pac had just passed, but everybody wasn’t believing it. So at this video shoot with him & C-Murder, I asked him 2Pac was really gone, and he just looked at me and said, “Yeah, man, it’s true. He’s really gone.” We just didn’t want him to go, you know? We never wanted ‘Pac dead.


Dubcnn: Speaking of ‘Pac, what’s your take on the way P was perceived to have taken the 2Pac idolising too far?

It was a marketing strategy. At that time, people wanted another 2Pac. They wanted somebody to look up to. They wanted somebody from the hood that made it good. So all the people that followed ‘Pac just gravitated towards P, and with him loving ‘Pac so much, it just got in to him. But as you see, once “Make’em Say Uhh” came out, he was Master P. He’ll tell you, too, that he borrowed from ‘Pac! He borrowed from a whole bunch of people.