Long Crooked Interview

[complexity]

When some people think of Death Row Records, what comes to mind is one of the most "dangerous" record labels in music history. During the 90's Death Row Records was said to have been worth over $300 Million Dollars. The label founded by Suge Knight and Dr. Dre was the home of rap legends, which included Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg, M.C. Hammer, and a host of others. Well known for it's high caliber talent roster, Death Row was just as popular for it's unorthodox business dealings courtesy of Suge Knight and of course the infamous "East Coast-West Coast Beef" courtesy of Cointelpro. In 2001, after Suge's release from the Big House he announced that he renamed the label "Tha Row" and introduced the new leading artist, Crooked I. A couple of years ago hip hop fans predicted that the two rap "messiahs" for the West Coast would be The Game and Crooked I. We took it to the West Coast to politic with Crooked I who is not only a rapper but also CEO of his own label Dynasty Entertainment, as well as producer of the upcoming DVD Life After Death Row. Walk with us....

Kalonji: I understand that you have a little bit of Movement history behind you?

Crooked I: I was raised with knowledge of self. As a youngin' my mom was semi-involved with The Black Panther Movement, she wasn't real deep with it, but she was definitely attending different meetings. She would bring literature home when I was like 5 or 6 years old. It started at an early age for me. Then growing up my mentors were either political type cats or gang members. It kind of was soaked into my system to be pro-black, at a young age I knew what Afro-centricity was.

Kalonji: You mentioned some of your mentors being gang members, were you ever involved in bangin'?

Crooked I: The gangbanger scene is a culture in itself. My older brother, cousins, uncles, they were all CRIPS. When I was a youngster, like 11 years old, they gave me a blue rag for my birthday. It wasn't like I wanted to be in a gang, but it was like we didn't have nothing. We grew up on welfare, food stamps, and all that kind of shit. At the time, it was like whatever. I was just a young dude; I couldn't be active out there. So, I can't say that I was ever really a real banger on that level because once I got older around 15 or 16, I started my own clique. We were more about hustling and getting our money. I really wasn't active. My older brother was an active gang member he repped it til he was OG. There have been times when some rival gangs came through and wanted to get at my brother, uncles and cousins and I had to get down with them. Even though I wasn't really reppin'. As I got older, they kind of didn't want me down with it, because they saw I had vision to do other shit. They were like, "you straight, you ain't gotta ride with us", but I was always down to ride with them because it was more of a family thing to me. I've been in situations where we had bang outs, with enemies and rivals and all kinds of shit like that. But to me man, I always looked at it like niggas need to unite and do it on that level. Even on a hustlers level, you have to deal with Black men of all kinds, all backgrounds, and all neighborhoods. When you start chasing that paper, you're gonna see that there is a Boss, from every hood that you got to sit down with. There was a part of my life when I was out there trying to find a rep, but it didn't last long.

Kalonji: Seeing I'm from the East Coast where the phenomenon ain't that big, why do you think the "gang culture" as you put it exists in LA so heavy and so hard?

Crooked I: It's some nice lookin' spots in LA and you could be fooled by the way things look. We got some area that look kind of suburban, where it is nothing but killer gang bangers up in there, off in the little cuts and alley ways. You got some ghettos looking real bad. Back in the day the white folks used to come into LA and they had their own gangs, committing acts of violence, out of racism and hatred for Black people. So dudes starting putting their cliques together, fighting back and you know how it is once you got a gang of cliques together, niggas within the cliques start disputing and arguing over shit. It started growing and I think it got out of control. It started off as something good to protect the Black Community, but as time went on it started getting a little deeper and deeper. People started getting shot at house parties, gambling and rivaling over the lost of loved ones. Then Reagan came with the Crack Movement and the CIA started dropping guns in the communities and it really got hectic. The gang culture is real crazy out here because it separates us, it's like we could hate another Black Man without even knowing him. I think the system tried to keep it going in all the ways that it could, because it was knocking down a couple of birds with one stone.

Kalonji: We all know that the biggest gang in L.A., New York, Atlanta, Baltimore, and Bridgeport, Ct. happens to be the police department. What's the deal with the LAPD, they been off the hook for years gunning Brothas and Sistah down like it's the Wild, Wild, West? What's hood with that?

Crooked I: It's a design. You got to understand these cats come from Nebraska, little white cat that don't know nothing but the horror stories. He seen Menace II Society, Colors, and Boyz in the Hood. So you know this dudes a very scared individual. He's walking through the ghetto, he got a badge, fresh out of the academy, and he might have had a dislike for Black People anyway. So he has been put in your neighborhood to police you. He's gonna push up on you with his pistol out instantly, he's gonna break laws himself. You know niggas ain't supposed to be drawn down on! You can't draw down on me because I have a busted taillight. He's scared but that ain't no excuse, if you scared get out of the kitchen. You want to be a police officer don't be pulling triggers on niggas, because you feel like that. Then you got these sellout black cops who think they been in existence forever. They don't even understand they couldn't even be police not to long ago. Now they got a badge they want to rough you up to show massa they doing their job. It's a definite design. If you read the federal crime bill, you'll see they got " a war on drugs" and "a war on gangs". The way it's all laid out, it's like it's a demise for young cats. They putting out millions of dollars to come shackle you up and put you in their penitentiaries. It's a corporate game. They slave you for next to nothing. It's like you say, it's a big design and they are the biggest gang. I've seen LAPD cops come thru with blue bandannas on, throwing up CRIP signs out the window in BLOOD neighborhoods, trying to get the BLOODS to start beefin' with the CRIPS. The other night my little cousin, he from Compton, it's rival gangs in Compton and Long Beach that don't get along. The police pulled him over and took his car in Long Beach and made him walk all the way to Compton, at 1 in the morning. That ain't no cool walk right there. You might walk through that same neighborhood where the Mexicans might not get down with the Blacks. You going to walk thru rival gang neighborhoods and he's affiliated and the cops know it, but they just wanna be assholes like that to see if he was gonna make it home.

Kalonji: I want to talk about that whole Stop Snitchin' Campaign. It's a million Brothas walking around with Stop Snitchin' shirts on, but muthafuckas still getting indicted. I feel like if you got to wear a t-shirt, to remind yo' ass to Stop Snitchin', it's a problem from jump. What do you think, are they keepin' it one hunnid or is it a fad?

Crooked I: It's a fad man, cause I know snitches that wear that shirt. That's a definite fad, but I ain't mad at 'em, they trying' to put some awareness in the community. In the industry it's a real fad, because a lot of rappers talking bout stop snitchin' and they snitches. America is a cold place when you could be a Sammy "The Bull" and kill a million people and get off after telling on one guy. What kind of system is that, when you let a murderer walk, because he gives you another guy? All these cats just talking', loose lips, we don't know how to keep a secret, we don't know how to keep our mouths shut. In the end both of them lose because the dude snitch, somebody go to jail and the snitch end up getting the raw end of the deal too.

Kalonji: I want to talk about Death Row. I know things didn't go right for you at the label. We all heard stories of Suge Knight back in the day, up until now and we want to know from you, what's really hood?

Crooked I: Death Row Records is like no other label. It's a real hectic situation. Death Row was a good experience for me. Suge is definitely the type of individual society didn't want to see with power and money. I can't agree with everything the man wants to do, he probably can't agree with all the things I want to do, ain't nobody gonna agree with everything anybody wants to do. But, they were definitely out for that cat; they would put him in jail for spitting on the sidewalk, because they didn't want to see that dude. You know how America is set up, if you a Millionaire, a Multi-Millionaire they want you to be a Oreo cookie. They don't want you to have no rebellion in your blood. They was on him, but at the same time every time he was incarcerated when I was on the label, it was like the whole label was in jail. Suge was the captain of the ship, so when the captain go down, the ship just sitting there. So it was hard to maneuver especially when people trying to black ball you, because you from Death Row. Industry executives scared they don't want to do no more business. Rap was becoming a bigger business than it was when he first went in, so now people have more money they ain't doing it like that. They don't want any conflict or drama. All that kind of stuff played a part being on Death Row Records. So many venues I was banned from just for being on Death Row. It was a hectic label. He tried to employ street cats, and I don't fault him for that, cause where niggas gonna get jobs out here? Niggas get out of jail ain't nobody really going to hire them for nothing, they could really feed their families with. So, Im with him employing Black Men, ex-cons and felons, but there is always going to be some guy out there who don't like you or this guy you employing. A guy who got beef and got a problem with you. All that type of stuff always comes into fruition over there. I was over there for 4 1/2 years. I think the late great Tupac was over there about 2 or 3 years. Even with Dr. Dre when they got started it kind of broke out after 3 1/2 years, so it was like I was over there longer than mostly all of them niggas. Just to be over there to see everything happening, it was like I learned a lot. It's like I went to the School of Hard Knocks, graduated and came out with honors. Now, I'm about keeping it movin'.

Kalonji: I read an article in VIBE; it quoted you as saying, "Life at Death Row was like being in a gang". Can you speak on that?

Crooked I: Being on Death Row is said to be "gang affiliated", but that's what they say about any Black Organization with 5 or more Black People. That's a gang to a lot of people. Being over there you did have some people that were unhappy with certain situations. Being in the rap game and being a street artist, people want to test you. So being on Death Row people want to test you more. They feel like that's a strength if they could beat you, go back to their hood with your necklace, your Death Row chain and say, "Yeah I got this off the nigga", or say "yeah we laid the nigga out". It's a sad thing but that's how people act. I got in a lot of situations because Long Beach City, where I'm from is a CRIP city, all CRIPS. Now, the CRIPS might not get along with CRIPS all the time and there is a pit between the Blacks and Mexicans in Long Beach. Death Row Records, a lot of people think it's a BLOOD affiliated label, because they see Suge wearing red and all that, he's from Compton and it's a lot of BLOOD gangs in Compton, so people get it in their minds that this must be a BLOOD. So they approach me on that set trip shit like, "You from home, why the fuck you over there fucking with this nigga and that nigga". I got into confrontations, fights in the mall, going to get my white t's in the hood. Some shit escalated to higher acts of violence in the hood all because I was on this label. It got to the point where niggas was plotting on my life. They were like if we can't touch the head of the snake, we gonna get somebody else. Shit was real to me; a nigga slept with that Ruger and kept one eye open. I stayed there in the trenches. I wasn't really trippin' though, because that was life in the ghetto half the time anyway. Now, the beef was perpetuated to the point where I'm a known figure in LA. It's like a dude from a certain gang, he might can get away with shopping in another gangs neighborhood, cause you don't know where that nigga from, but when you see Crooked I, they like that's that nigga right there from Death Row. So if they got beef with Death Row they gonna approach me because I was out there, I wasn't hiding. I was just living my life the normal way, whatever I did before I got the deal, that&..39;s what I did after.

Kalonji: When Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez from TLC signed to Death Row, you and her had a pretty tight working relationship. Tell us about her.

Crooked I: I appreciated Left Eye because when she came to the label, she put some balance in effect. She wasn't no punk by no means. If we had an issue about anything going on over there, she was like, "What's crackin' with this, whats crackin' with that"? She also brought a level of creativity to the label. When you got all these Death Row knuckle heads in the studio on some shoot 'em up, bang bang shit, she comes to the table with creative song ideas and different angles. She brought the Brother Dr.Sebi through on that whole holistic health tip, and talked to Brothas about different herbs, teas and different kinds of diets to be on. She brought a whole lot of positivity to the label and balanced it out to the point where I really thought we were on our way to bringing that dynasty back. When that thing happened to her in Honduras, I was stunned. I got the news when I was in Atlanta. It hit me even harder because that's where she was from and I just felt her all over the city during the weekend I was out there. It was a beautiful Spirit lost that day.

Kalonji: I understand you had some problems "escaping" Death Row. I read something about a gag order. Whats up with that?

Crooked I: After 4 years of being signed to Death Row my contract was up, so I sent in my letter. I moved on, got another situation, put together a project and started advertising. I guess the advertising reached someone at Death Row and Death Row sent a cease and desist to me and the people I was working with. Once they did that they stopped the whole process. A cease and desist is a legal process. It means you have to stop, because the company claims you don't have the right to put the project out and then you have to go to court and have a judge decide. Someone from Death Row was running around telling people that they still had me under contract and if they did business with me, they were going to sue. So of course that was keeping food off of my table. We had to have the judge issue a gag order to stop them from telling companies that we were tied up with them. I really didn't want to use those kind of methods. To be honest with you, I offered the cat Suge a dollar per record sale, off my next deal. I was like, "Yo, you invested in my career, let's just keep it one hunnid, I'll give you a dollar off of each record sale". I sell a million records you make a million dollars without doing nothing, just kick your feet up. When I made the offer he was incarcerated, so I put the offer on the table with the guy that was running his company. The guy came back and told me, "He wanted a substantial advance, plus a dollar". My thing was I couldn't give him a substantial advance, if we didn't sell any records. I never put a debut album out over there. So I can't walk into the office and say, "Give me a million dollars so I could give it to Suge". They gonna look at me like, "Nigga you ain't sold a million records yet". I told him the best I could give him was a dollar; he just didn't wanna go for it. When I really didn't owe him anything, because my contract was up. I was just trying to pull a good faith move because I didn't have any hard feelings towards the cat. It took an 11 months court process and the judge ruled in our favor. It took 11 months of this and I didn't like it. My whole thing is we don't even need to go on a level of taking things to the system. We made an agreement without the court; we should have been able to settle the agreement separate from the court.

Kalonji: You have a DVD scheduled to be released August 11th, the name of it is "Life After Death Row", school us on it...

Crooked I: I began taping the day I left Death Row. It started out as a documentary about my travels over there. It started becoming a documentary about anybody leaving a certain situation and going to a better place for their life, career etc. I started getting interviews from Master P who was telling me about his life after hustling and becoming an independent mogul. I started talking to Russell Simmons and he started telling me about his life after becoming a promoter and a manager to becoming "The Godfather of Hip Hop". Just different peoples stories about transition, from going from one thing to another, but at the same time all of these people had something in their lives that had to do with Death Row. Master P went over and got Snoop, he talked about that transaction. Russell talked about being an OG and how he wanted to sit down and talk to Puffy and Suge, but he was too busy, and how he wasn't even paying attention to the fact that he was an OG like that. I talked to Loon he talked about his life after Bad Boy and now he has an independent company. There were a lot of people in the industry that had some type of link to Death Row. That's why I still called it Life After Death Row. We have the first artist that ever-left Death Row, RBX. This dude was writing for Snoop on The Chronic Album, he is actually Snoop's cousin and he kind of told his story about leaving Death Row. We have a number of artist that left Death Row, but at the same time it's not a piece where we are trying to bash Death Row. Death Row is a historical label, and we not gonna just go out and bash this dude and his legacy. He made some moves that a lot of people don't agree with, nobody's perfect. We not gonna try to put a spin on Death Row. Everything we saying is true, if the truth happens to be a small stain, it's truth. We also recognize that Suge Knight, Dr. Dre and some others built a West Coast dynasty.

Kalonji: The first time I ever heard about you was from my Comrade, Chairman Fred Hampton Jr., He was telling us that when the Hip Hop Summit stopped through Chicago, The POCC was handing out African Anti-Terrorism Bills, and when you got it you just took it and went to work with it, no questions asked...

Crooked I: I appreciate them putting it in my hand like that. The voting thing was a good thing, I was with Russell on that, but when they put that in my hand that sort of had some things that were closer to my heart. I was like hell yeah, what it do! They didn't have to tell me twice, I'm up in they face letting 'em know what's crackin'. I was happy because I knew I was with some real 100% Soldiers, that's for real-for real in the trenches! The type of people that's trying to fight so my family can have a better day.

Kalonji: Being an artist how do you think we should deal with some of these other artist in our approach? When they're not handling business in the community, should they be dealt with, what do you think?

Crooked I: I think we need to sit down with a lot of these artist and see where their heads at. If they are watching Channel Zero, then maybe they do need to be checked. It's always the cool thing to sit down and see where a cats heads at. A lot of these dudes might be doing things behind the scene that nobody knows about. I sat with a lot of these artists these artists don't know nothing! You sit with them and talk to them, they really half the time don't know shit about the movement. You could name real Soldiers from now all the way back to the sixties and they don't know none of them. Some think it's cute to reject it, "Nigga I ain't on that Black shit", but every day you wake up and you got that skin tone- you are on that Black shit. Some niggas do need to get checked-I'm with that check movement too.

Kalonji: Any closing words you want to drop on the people?

Crooked I: I want everybody to really recognize the power of the Black dollar. Some of you consumers I want you to really do your research on some of these niggas that's rappin' that ain't giving back. They're going multi-platinum and rolling' right by the community. We need the celebrities to roll through and talk to the kids. It's a lot of bangin' out here, people killing each other, but they have never seen anything but a banger and a dope dealer in their life. They never saw a 50 Cent or nothing like that. We got to start doing research, if this dude ain't active in the Community, why am I about to make this dude a multi-millionaire? So he can go invest a 100 Million dollars in saving the whales, when niggas need to be saved right here in the hood.

[complexity]

We have the first artist that ever-left Death Row, RBX. This dude was writing for Snoop on The Chronic Album, he is actually Snoop's cousin and he kind of told his story about leaving Death Row.

That caught my eye. But interesting interview none the less.