CROOKED I (November 2005) | Interview By: Westcoast2K

      

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Crooked I hit up West Coast 2k to discuss the exact reasons for the delay, as well as other details on the mixtape.

Crooked I: The mixtape is ready to go, but I decided that I wanted somebody to host it. So I put it in my man DJ Skee's hands, and he did his thing to it after I finished it up. I always wanted to do a mixtape with Skee, cause he's cool. I've done interviews, I've done things on his mixtapes. He's just a cool dude. I did the last one myself, and then we did a reissue with DJ Warrior. And this one I was like 'let me rock with Skee on this one'.

The mixtape was scheduled to drop today, but that was only a tentative date though. That wasn't a date in concrete, cause once we lost the entire mixtape from the hard drive we didn't know exactly when we were gonna put it out. I was thinking around the 15th, but that was only tentative. Right now I'm just waiting on it getting finished pressed up. I'm figuring it will be done in about a week to 10 days till it's pressed up.


Being a label owner, Crooked I has obviously more to take care of than just recording music in the studio. Some fans may not be aware that the Dynasty CEO is involved in every step and process of getting his project released.

Crooked I: I know sometimes it takes a little while, but people gotta understand that we're a independent company man. This is not no phony lil' label imprint deal that I got. I got a real record company, it's really independent, we have our office, we got a staff, and we work our ass off. We not like a big machine like other labels where you make a mixtape and then I'm on to the next project, while the others have to go and get it pressed up, put in the money, and make the phone calls. But it's not like that, I have to do it all. We're trying to pump it out as big as the big boys do, but they just gotta give us a little more time. And I swear it's gonna be more quality anyway.


When asked about the material and lyrical content of the "Young Boss Vol. 2" mixtape, Crooked I said:

Crooked I: It ain't just a average mixtape, it's all original music on there so it's more like an underground album. It's definitely a hot project, I think people will find something on there that they can really get down with. And I'm totally speaking my mind. Some songs are considered political, cause I'm not just a rapper that wants to just rap about club life all the fucking time. The whole mixtape got different looks on it. I got tracks like "Rap 101" which is teaching rappers about the art of MCing. I got another one called "Home" which is one of my personal favorites because it tells you no matter how crazy it is in the ghetto, this is home for us. I got another one which is a letter to the homies in the penitentiaries. So the whole thing is a banger. Cause see, alot of cats on the West are arguing over who's the King on the West. But in they songs they talking about a whole lot of stuff that nobody cares about.

But there's a lot of album material on there. There's alot of material that could have been on a classic album, I don't give a damn. If I dont like the song I don't like it. If the song is hot, then the song is hot. I don't ride around bumpin' my own shit all day. I know alot of artists that do that, I'm not talking bad about them, but I'm just not one of those guys. I listen to other peoples music even more than I listen to my own. But this CD, I bang this shit. This shit is ready to go. But with this West Coast music, we're not giving it to them like it used to come. The "Death Certificate", the "Niggaz 4 Life", "Straight Outta Compton", and "Nobody Does it Better" from D.O.C., those are classic albums because they put the real Hip Hop shit with the street shit. So we bringing that back.

The project is also a introduction to my crew Circle Of Bosses, cause I always wanted to introduce the world to my crew. I got the Horse Shoe Gang, I got my other group the On One Squad on there. But we ain't just rappers, we in this together for life. It's way bigger than music.


When asked about the distribution for the mixtape, Crooked I said:

Crooked I: The mixtape will be available in most chain stores and alot of mom & pop stores. We put a bar code on it so we can put it wherever we wanna put it. I'm about to do a video to one of the songs on the mixtape. I don't know for which one yet, but I'm listening to them all right now. Cause since it will be out there in stores, and it's a actual underground album, I wanna put a underground video out there. Something straight street, where we not really trippin' on commercial and all that. We coming straight hard!


When asked about his other upcoming projects, Crooked I told West Coast 2k:

Crooked I: We also got the DVD coming of course. This should be here no later than the first week of December. I want everybody to go and grab it on a last minute Xmas list for your Hip Hop head nephew, niece, little brother, big brother, uncle, all that. Cause it's a cool Hip Hop collectors item. Not that many people have gotten off Death Row Records and still maintain everything that they got. Me, I don't have to pay Death Row $1 per album sale or nothing like that. I didn't get out and pay my way out of the contract, I'm out of it. And I have no hard feelings about it. I'd do a collabo with somebody from Death Row. I don't care, I'm a business man.

So the DVD documentates that, and at the same time it documentates the Master P rise from independent and his advice he gives to people. Russell Simmons and all the other people that we already know that's in the DVD cause I been runnin' my mouth about it forever. I even got Bun B in there. I'm ready to rock out this time, I'm ready to take this New West Coast into a different direction, because it's not going in the direction that I want it to. And when something needs to be changed, you have to change it yourself. Because if the West Coast was going in the right direction, we would see millions of successful artists out here. We would so many different successful camps, and it's not that many successful camps on the West Coast.

At the end of the day it's about keeping the Hip Hop culture going forever. It ain't about just being in one place and one region, that doesn't help the globe of Hip Hop. This way we making money, we're feeding our families, we're making careers out of it, some of us are buying basketball teams and clothing lines. We gotta keep this thing going.

So I'ma just do my part, if it ain't nothing but just spreading the word. I'ma do my part, put out hot music. I'll always speak out on what corporate America needs to do. Not just West Coast, but period. And I'ma always be a representative of real Hip Hop, even though the West is all so-called gangsta rappers. But it's all Hip Hop to me, so I'ma push it, I'ma push it hard.


Crooked I also left a message for all his fans telling everybody to look out for the mixtape. You can check that out by clicking on the link below: Crooked I hit up West Coast 2k to discuss the exact reasons for the delay, as well as other details on the mixtape.

Crooked I: The mixtape is ready to go, but I decided that I wanted somebody to host it. So I put it in my man DJ Skee's hands, and he did his thing to it after I finished it up. I always wanted to do a mixtape with Skee, cause he's cool. I've done interviews, I've done things on his mixtapes. He's just a cool dude. I did the last one myself, and then we did a reissue with DJ Warrior. And this one I was like 'let me rock with Skee on this one'.

The mixtape was scheduled to drop today, but that was only a tentative date though. That wasn't a date in concrete, cause once we lost the entire mixtape from the hard drive we didn't know exactly when we were gonna put it out. I was thinking around the 15th, but that was only tentative. Right now I'm just waiting on it getting finished pressed up. I'm figuring it will be done in about a week to 10 days till it's pressed up.


Being a label owner, Crooked I has obviously more to take care of than just recording music in the studio. Some fans may not be aware that the Dynasty CEO is involved in every step and process of getting his project released.

Crooked I: I know sometimes it takes a little while, but people gotta understand that we're a independent company man. This is not no phony lil' label imprint deal that I got. I got a real record company, it's really independent, we have our office, we got a staff, and we work our ass off. We not like a big machine like other labels where you make a mixtape and then I'm on to the next project, while the others have to go and get it pressed up, put in the money, and make the phone calls. But it's not like that, I have to do it all. We're trying to pump it out as big as the big boys do, but they just gotta give us a little more time. And I swear it's gonna be more quality anyway.


When asked about the material and lyrical content of the "Young Boss Vol. 2" mixtape, Crooked I said:

Crooked I: It ain't just a average mixtape, it's all original music on there so it's more like an underground album. It's definitely a hot project, I think people will find something on there that they can really get down with. And I'm totally speaking my mind. Some songs are considered political, cause I'm not just a rapper that wants to just rap about club life all the fucking time. The whole mixtape got different looks on it. I got tracks like "Rap 101" which is teaching rappers about the art of MCing. I got another one called "Home" which is one of my personal favorites because it tells you no matter how crazy it is in the ghetto, this is home for us. I got another one which is a letter to the homies in the penitentiaries. So the whole thing is a banger. Cause see, alot of cats on the West are arguing over who's the King on the West. But in they songs they talking about a whole lot of stuff that nobody cares about.

But there's a lot of album material on there. There's alot of material that could have been on a classic album, I don't give a damn. If I dont like the song I don't like it. If the song is hot, then the song is hot. I don't ride around bumpin' my own shit all day. I know alot of artists that do that, I'm not talking bad about them, but I'm just not one of those guys. I listen to other peoples music even more than I listen to my own. But this CD, I bang this shit. This shit is ready to go. But with this West Coast music, we're not giving it to them like it used to come. The "Death Certificate", the "Niggaz 4 Life", "Straight Outta Compton", and "Nobody Does it Better" from D.O.C., those are classic albums because they put the real Hip Hop shit with the street shit. So we bringing that back.

The project is also a introduction to my crew Circle Of Bosses, cause I always wanted to introduce the world to my crew. I got the Horse Shoe Gang, I got my other group the On One Squad on there. But we ain't just rappers, we in this together for life. It's way bigger than music.


When asked about the distribution for the mixtape, Crooked I said:

Crooked I: The mixtape will be available in most chain stores and alot of mom & pop stores. We put a bar code on it so we can put it wherever we wanna put it. I'm about to do a video to one of the songs on the mixtape. I don't know for which one yet, but I'm listening to them all right now. Cause since it will be out there in stores, and it's a actual underground album, I wanna put a underground video out there. Something straight street, where we not really trippin' on commercial and all that. We coming straight hard!


When asked about his other upcoming projects, Crooked I told West Coast 2k:

Crooked I: We also got the DVD coming of course. This should be here no later than the first week of December. I want everybody to go and grab it on a last minute Xmas list for your Hip Hop head nephew, niece, little brother, big brother, uncle, all that. Cause it's a cool Hip Hop collectors item. Not that many people have gotten off Death Row Records and still maintain everything that they got. Me, I don't have to pay Death Row $1 per album sale or nothing like that. I didn't get out and pay my way out of the contract, I'm out of it. And I have no hard feelings about it. I'd do a collabo with somebody from Death Row. I don't care, I'm a business man.

So the DVD documentates that, and at the same time it documentates the Master P rise from independent and his advice he gives to people. Russell Simmons and all the other people that we already know that's in the DVD cause I been runnin' my mouth about it forever. I even got Bun B in there. I'm ready to rock out this time, I'm ready to take this New West Coast into a different direction, because it's not going in the direction that I want it to. And when something needs to be changed, you have to change it yourself. Because if the West Coast was going in the right direction, we would see millions of successful artists out here. We would so many different successful camps, and it's not that many successful camps on the West Coast.

At the end of the day it's about keeping the Hip Hop culture going forever. It ain't about just being in one place and one region, that doesn't help the globe of Hip Hop. This way we making money, we're feeding our families, we're making careers out of it, some of us are buying basketball teams and clothing lines. We gotta keep this thing going.

So I'ma just do my part, if it ain't nothing but just spreading the word. I'ma do my part, put out hot music. I'll always speak out on what corporate America needs to do. Not just West Coast, but period. And I'ma always be a representative of real Hip Hop, even though the West is all so-called gangsta rappers. But it's all Hip Hop to me, so I'ma push it, I'ma push it hard.