Thug Lordz / C-Bo
Interview by Black Dog Bone
Bay Area Rap was more on the level of pimp/playa type of Rap until you came along and brought the hardcore Gangsta shit. You played a big role in shaping the Bay Area sound.
Well you know, I come from a different side. Sac is not really considered the Bay Area. It was more gangs and territory shit. Me goin to jail, goin through all this stuff as a kid—juvenile hall, boys camp, county jail, prison, CYA—bein involved in all that activity that w
as goin on. Me being a real stand up dude and not bein no sucker, and out there on my own—that’s how my rappin was. My Rap was always a component. Instead of just sayin I’m flossing and this and that, it was always a war or fight, a gang activity or something. That was my life.
It’s interesting what you’re saying. When you look at it, in the Bay Area there was no gang activity like you had in Sacramento.
In Sacramento it’s all about gangsta shit; it wasn’t anything else for me to rap about. The ones that’s out there rappin now, born with the microphone in their hand—they ain’t doin no gangsta shit. That’s why my career never really took off like it was supposed to. Because I kept having to go back to prison for living the way I lived. That’s the different from these rappers nowadays. They don’t really have to do nothing, cause we already opened it up. We made it to the point where it ain’t cool for nobody to do nothing. They had an example from us. Now these other muthafuckas is like, “Naw, hell no!”
They never lived the life you lived.
Right. You see what I’m sayin? They just wanna rap about the shit. What’s real about it is some of these cats that ain’t been through it, they rappin about it, but some of these cats have got real stand up dudes on the side of them that went through that shit. They can’t rap, but they got this rapper who will bring their stories out. I can understand that too. But some of these dudes need to give it up, man.
You’re saying that a lot of young artists are hearing the stories of some real OG’s and bringing it into their raps.
That’s what they’re doin. They sponging up the game.
Most people think of C-Bo as a Bay Area rapper, but really Sacramento is whole different world from the Bay.
Right. But when I first came out with my record I was livin in the Bay Area. I came home from CYA in ’91 and I went on the run. We were all absent, that’s why we came with the record company AWOL Records. T was on the run from prison. I was on the run from CYA. So we couldn’t stay in Sac cause we had taskforces lookin for us, parole officers lookin for us. We wind up goin to Vallejo, and I wind up checkin’ E-40 and them rappin. I always could rap, from beatin on the tables in jails and shit. Then when we cut the record we wound up movin over to Oakland. We stayed in the Acorn, West Oakland.
First you were in Vallejo and then you moved to Oakland?
Yeah, yeah. The thing that really got me was I had just come from YA, and when I put that record out people was like, “Who is C-Bo?” But people in YA was like, “Man, I was locked up with C-Bo! That dude from Sacramento.” So that created a buzz even more cause real people knew me.
How old were you when your first record came out?
What was I—20? 21? ’92.
You were already working with T?
Me and T from the same neighborhood. We been knowin each other before I could rap. We been knowin each other since I was about 10 years old. He lived right around the corner from me, we from the same neighborhood. He’s about 2 years older than me.
When you came to the Bay, which other rappers did you meet?
When I first came out—T lived in Vallejo, cause he was on the run already. When I went on the run the homie told me where he was, so I went down there and wound up staying there. E-40 was his cousin. And I’m like, “I been rappin. Everybody in the hood know I can rap.” Once E-40 and them heard me rap they put me in the studio with Studio Ton. Sick Wid’ It was gonna try to produce me first, but T was like, “No. We’ve got our own label, AWOL Records.” Then we took it from there.
At that time Mike Mosley and Sam Bostic were probably just getting started.
Mike Mosley had been put on the back burner by E-40 and them because they was workin with Studio Ton. Studio Ton was comin up with the heat that they wanted, and they had Mike Mosley on the back burner. Mike wasn’t doin nothin. So when I came into play, Mike wasn’t doin nothin and I wasn’t doin nothin—me and Mike got in the studio together and came up with that “Gas Chamber”. And he brung in Sam Bostic.
That “Gas Chamber” album will be one of my favorite albums forever.
You know “Gas Chamber” was like pretty much when people didn’t know how to make records. When that record came out it woke up all the young niggaz. It was like: he can do it, I can do it! That gave everyone the opportunity to wake up and jump into the game, cause C-Bo just left the game wide open.
Your first three albums had a certain atmosphere that I still don’t hear anywhere else. I can play those records today and they’re still fresh. Something about those records—maybe because it was so real, your situation and your life. Also the production had a dark, eerie feeling. The beats were all cut up and skeletal.
That record was a real record. That was shit we was really doin! And we were rappin about that shit (laughing).
Also Vallejo was bringing a new sound to Rap. It wasn’t Ant Banks and the Too Short sound. It was more of a darker, moodier sound
Yeah! That’s what I would always tell Mike Mosley, “I like that mob sound! That horror music with like screams and that typa shit.” I didn’t want that ol’ happy-ass shit. My life wasn’t nothin happy. Wasn’t no sense in makin happy music when we wasn’t feelin happy. That’s what we was livin and that’s what we wanted to hear, stuff that could get us through the day. When it’s hard out there and a muthafucka couldn’t pay his rent or bills. Shit’s goin hard. That shit’ll make you go out and get your money.
You probably told Mike Mosley what sound you liked and that shaped the music.
That’s what it is. It’s really Gangsta music. That’s what it was, cause I seen a lotta people go to prison with that music. A lotta people told me, “I listened to your music and went just crazy!” Like, “I was mad and I put your CD in and I just went haywire.”
Your delivery was very different from other Bay Area rappers. What kind of feedback were you getting from the Bay Area people at that time?
They loved it! Even though it was different from what they was hearing. It got them to go to the level.
Lyrically you’ve always been a storyteller, but you present in such a way that it’s like poetry. You get a mysterious, ominous atmosphere. Do you write your lyrics in advance?
I write. I don’t too much plot on it. I’m like free-writing, I call it free-writing. If it comes to my mind, I just run with it. I just put myself inside the situation, the scenarios, and then it’s easy for me. I don’t know how I do this shit. I’ve experienced it, so it’s easy to write cause I’m in this shit.
It’s been so many years and your life has changed since then, can you still write about the same situations you wrote about when you were 21 years old?
The thing about me is I’m a real goon, so it’s hard for me to come out of character and go into character as far as acting. So my raps now is really pretty much about me now. I’m gonna say things that I did in the past to let muthafuckas know, but now it’s more of an OG talkin to a young nigga. It’s more on a boss level now instead of on a kid level or a gangbanger that’s real active, just terrorizing. The world has changed. If you don’t change with it you’re gonna just get left behind.
So on your new records, like on this new Thug Lordz album you did with Yukmouth, you’re a different C-Bo than you were back then.
It’s still the same C-Bo, but C-Bo just got older. C-Bo’s grown. But the lyrics and my personality is still C-Bo. I’m gettin older but I can still stand up with these young niggaz.
When I hear your new music I feel like you’re getting younger and more fresh.
That’s what they say, man. It’s really all this experience in the world. Goin around and havin all these different experiences. That’s what makes me take my music to another level. Now it’s time for us to go out in the world and take that to another level. That’s what I see myself doing in moving to Atlanta and workin with these South beats and different things that I’m doing. But I’m still keepin that sharp edge.
A lot of Gangsta rappers boast about all of these things they’ve done in the streets, but you were different. In your music there was always an underlying sadness, a melancholy helpless feeling. Where did that moody sadness come from?
Just bein down in the bottom. Down on the bottom where you can’t get up. They got us stuck in this fuckin maze that we gotta try to get ourselves out of. But at the same time, us bein kids we get involved in all these illegal activities that we see other kids involved in. We don’t know our rights. Some of us ain’t got no father leader or nothing like that. So we turn our misdemeanor into a felony, which means that we can never clean up again. Now our record’s so fucked up that we can’t get a job. Now what we got to do? We’re sellin dope. We fucked it up more because there’s nobody to help us. It’s like, “Ah they fucked it up, let’s kick him in his ass.” Your record is your record for life.
That’s what comes into your music, because all of us feel that desperation. We are all stuck in this grid, in this system, regardless. I can imagine you as a kid growing up. What did you look like?
Very very very skinny! I’ve got pictures. Me and my posse when we was in YA back in ’89. I was 17 or 18. I’ve got a khaki suit on, got a pimp fade—straight C-Bo. I didn’t have records out, but I was rappin. I always rapped ever since I was in juvenile hall.
How was it for you growing up in Sacramento?
I grew up on the South side of Sacramento. It was fun. Growin up was fun. I had a lotta good times, did a lotta bad things. I was a kid, no responsibilities or nothing.
That quality is also in your music. Though the subjects are dark, there’s something uplifting about it. What kind of memories do you have from that time?
Walkin around from my house or my neighborhood to projects with 4 or 5 of my homies. Every day we did this, we used to walk up to the corner store, hang out. Then we’d walk from the corner store down 29th Street to the projects. Ride bikes and stuff, ride on the handlebars. Ride on the handlebars with a shotgun on your lap, just cruising! That was the good ol’ days!
Are you still in touch with some of the people you knew back then?
Oh yeah, man. All my people. I’m an OG. Even though I might not be out there fuckin up anymore, everybody respect me. Everybody know what’s happening with me. Cause I’m still passing through.
Do you remember all the people you used to know?
Everybody! Hell yeah. Some people are hard to catch up to, but everybody’s everybody in Sacramento, man.
Were any of those people rappers?
It’s a few rappers. I grew up with Brotha Lynch, all them cats. I’m talkin about before this Rap shit. Once the Rap shit got started, everybody went their own way. But before that, Brotha Lynch was right there in the hood. We’d always see each other passing through, or we’d be at the carnival. They had a carnival coming to the mall with the rides and shit. Back then we used to have break dancing and poppin and shit. We used to have our own little dances and poppin where lil homies would pop and do their thang. Everybody else was gang bangin and shit.
How did music enter your life?
Music always was our drive. We always had music. We listened to everything, all the old school shit—the Ice Cube’s, LL Cool J’s. We always had the Hip Hop playin in the back, that old shit.
Was there one artist who inspired you to start rapping seriously?
Ice Cube, man!! Fuckin Ice Cube. Maaan, Ice Cube. “Gangsta Gangsta”. I’m talkin about the eighties. I started gang bangin in ’83. So ’85, 6, 7, on my way to the YA—Cube was the one. Cube is the one that really kept us goin in the streets with that music. I was always rappin anyway, before that. I wasn’t cuttin records, but I was rappin back then. While we was rappin we was doin the shit that we was doin!
I wonder why the Sacramento sound is much darker than the Bay Area Rap sound.
Because they’re raised in different ways. There’s a lot of gang activity in Sac, a lot of killin. It’s pretty grim in Sac. We kill for nothing; they kill for something. That’s the difference there. Right now it’s pretty much damn near the same though. You’ve got more people in the Sac that’s from the Bay than people who are from Sac.
Would you ever be able to make a record with the same feeling as the music you made when you were 21 years old? Can you go into that mindset?
What’s done is done. It’s history. Everybody loved “Gas Chamber”, everybody loves “Tales from the Crypt” and “Autopsy”. Why would I want to go back there? My music will always be nice.
The first Thug Lordz album was real hot. How does the new album compare with that one?
The first one was dope. This time we just went in there and made it work. We got some old songs on there, and we got some new songs on there. Just mixed it up. I think it’s a nice record. We didn’t go all the way dark with it. It’s Thug Lordz, so it’s more of a boss type shit, big money shit. These are the bosses right here. You got C-Bo and Yukmouth, two pioneers come together to cut this record. I put a bit of my vibe on there, my game. Yuk’s got his vibe—Bay Area ballin and turf shit. We came together and came off real cool though.
I hadn’t heard from you in a while. I kept asking people what was up with you and trying to get in touch with you. What was going on? You disappeared.
I was workin on an album. I wanted to write an album. I’ve been in Atlanta. I’ve been working with Young Buck. I’ve got some things poppin up right now. I’m working with Block Entertainment, tryin to do a new Boyz N Da Hood, so we’ve been working on that. That’s what’s up. We on it.
Do you think living in the South is influencing the way your music sounds?
Naw. I’m still gonna be doin that music. It’s street music, so it’ll never change. I don’t do girlie songs. I don’t make songs you can dance to. It’s all wild out Gangsta shit.
It would be interesting to hear if your music were remixed by some of these new club DJ’s. They would sound good in dance clubs too, you’d be surprised! If a DJ like Diplo or Sega were to cut up “Gas Chamber”, that would be classic. Are you working on a new solo album now?
I’m first gonna get this group thing done. I’ll come with something after that. I wanna do something major. I don’t think I’ll put it out independent.
I remember over the years whenever we wanted to do an article on C-Bo we couldn’t get photos because you were always locked up. That was hard for you. Do you think your career would have been different if you didn’t have all those problems?
Definitely. We took off in the era when shit was hard. Pac got killed. We were really the only label, AWOL Records, that was really new and independent. Wasn’t nobody selling no units independent. Sick Wid’ It was with Jive. We were the only ones that was out there in the streets, that had to go these cities, go to the ghettos, pass out these flyers, sell our CD’s. We went to Atlanta in ’95 when the FBI raided us. We got raided in Atlanta, everybody ended up goin to prison—all the people that ran the company. Once that broke up everybody was tryin to pull out in the California State parole type shit—we couldn’t make it happen. T had 13 years and I was caught up on some other shit. Master P had the game from us, he got it movin. He was in the South. He did what we were doin—goin to the Mardi Gras and Jack the Rappers and these other things and let the people see that it didn’t take no muthafuckin major to make the top 200 Billboard or whatever. That’s where we were, that’s what we were doin.
There was a gap for AWOL when you were all in prison. At that time people like Master P came in and took that place. And by the time you came out the game had moved to the South.
That’s exactly what happened.
What inspires you to do music?
Nothing inspires me but me and my family. I know what we got to do to stay above. I know I have to turn my stuff back up. I had my feet up, kickin back for a while, just enjoying life. I watched the game make the turn right in front of me. It was in the East, then the West, it’s in the South now. It’s time for the West to bring it back, somebody from the West—it’s gonna be me. We comin back with nothing but that Gangsta shit.
Thug Lordz / Yukmouth
Interview by Black Dog Bone
You have been doing Rap in the Bay Area since the early day. You are one of the pioneers. What are the changes that you have seen in the musical styles in the Bay over the years?
Right now it ain’t like it was in the 90s and the 80s, I can tell you that! It ain’t like it was when the West Side was on. Now we are struggling to get it back to where we was in the 80s and the 90s and that is the only thing that sucks. But we have elevated to all types of music, and we have influenced all types of cultures—the South, the East Coast and the Midwest with music, clothing, fashion, slang words. We influenced a lot of people and we still don’t get our love and respect, but we keep elevating. The Bay keeps on elevating. I am from the second generation; this is now the 3rd generation and they are killing it. We have passed the torched and it is staying lit up in the Bay period, but back in the 90s everybody had big major label deals. We (The Luniz) were signed to Virgin, Dru Down was signed to Relativity, Mac Mall was signed to Relativity, Richie Rich was signed to Def Jam, E-40 was signed to Jive, Spice 1 was signed to Jive, and Hieroglyphics too. Everybody had a deal. Right now it is not like that; everyone is independent. We was independent back then, but we had big independent joint venture deals with big labels. It’s way different as far as the business goes, because they ain’t handing out the deals to the Bay Area artists like they use to.
That’s the business side, but what about the musical styles? You had Ant Banks, Too Short, and then you had you artists like Keak Da Sneak and 3 X Krazy. How do you see that the music has changed?
I think it changed big time from the era of MC Hammer, Too Short, Dangerous Crew, Father Dom, Pooh Man, Ant Banks and so on. It changed! It like got on steroids, because people are rappin a thousand times better and are putting out just as good music if not better music. We just stepped it up. As far as Keak Da Sneak, that is a whole different caliber of rapping compared to how the 80s was. The same for Mistah F.A.B., J-Stalin, and Messy Marv. It was totally different from how JT The Bigga Figga was rappin or Richie Rich. Right now they are just killing it and we had to step it up a thousand notches because styles have changed and they got better.
What about Yukmouth? You have been doing this for close to 20 years now.
I have been in this for a minute. I have been lyrical from the beginning. I came in the came back in ’93 with “Ice Cream Man” and I was lyrical with punch lines. Like how people are just starting to right now, I been had that in the 90s. I have basically been the same, but I feel that I have got better over the years with my style. I know me now because back then I was experimenting, getting to know my style. Now I am at my peak and my style is dope as hell. I’m dope as shit period! I went from having to write a rap in an hour to being able to write a rap in only five minutes. I am at that point where I don’t even write no more. I can go into the studio and rip so I definitely stepped it up from the 90s to now.
You have mastered being a rapper.
Right, exactly! I know how to do this thing and there ain’t no if’s, and’s or nothing. Every verse I’mma slaughter and every song I'mma slaughter. It is what it is, and right now it is a given. I’m at my peak and I’m dope.
When I listen to your music I know if it was ten years ago before the internet and downloading, you would be bigger than 50 Cent or Lil Wayne.
The industry is real whack right now. It is that way with everything though, not just the industry. Everything is not selling. You have some of the biggest record store companies closing down. First it was Warehouse and Tower and Sam Goody shutting down. Then Moms and Pops is shutting down. You only got music in Best Buys and in Target, and they only take the clean version or if they ain’t got violent looking covers. That eliminates a lot of Gangsta music and underground music all across the board. People that were selling five million, ten million, are struggling to do gold right now. It is not just independent artists, everybody is struggling.
When I did interviews a few years ago people were so excited about the internet. I told them that they were going to lose a lot of money with the internet and downloading, but they didn’t think it was true. Now everybody is talking about how they can’t make enough money to survive.
Everything is free on the internet! Muthafuckas don’t even have to go to the stores because they could just Google something and listen to shit for free. It is fucked up right now. The computer ended the record sales period!
How are you going to move forward in this environment?
I adapt! I will sign new artists and pass the torch to people who can sell more units than I can. It is a new generation and Hip Hop has always been a youthful type of music and crowd. It is time to sign some younger singers, some pop rock, whatever. It is time to get me a Lady Gaga or something like that. That is what I am on right now. It is time to start the next chapter of Smoke-A Lot Records. I will hand the torch and let them ride out.
So you are putting a lot of focus into your label?
Exactly! I am just building my brand so everything don’t have to be on my back all of the time and I can relax and say, “OK, this artist has it.” I can just chill. That way I ain’t got to drop an album every year or few months.
We were talking about the lyrical side of the music. What about the music behind Yukmouth? Do you feel that the music is changing and growing in many different directions?
Yeah, yeah. I try to keep it Mobb and I try to keep the piano Mobb sounding on my stuff, but the times have changed. It is really Down South influenced right now. A lot of the albums have that feel now, but I have always had that influence because I was on Rap-A-Lot Records and it was on a Southern label produced by Southern producers. I have always been getting a lot of my beats from the South before people were making it the shit to get the South beats.
The Bay Area had the Mobb sound, and then we had the Hyphy sound. Where do you think we are at in the Bay Area heading now?
We are getting back into the Mobb shit. A lot of people don’t want to act crazy dancing on cars no more. We got to show them that we Gangsta. The same niggaz that’s Hyphy dancing on cars will pull out a mack out the back seat and spray yo ass, so don’t get it confused or fucked up. It is back to getting to that Mobb shit to let them know where it originated from. We are from where the Black Panthers started, and we are from where some muthafuckas put crack cocaine at first to eliminate the Black Panthers and to eliminate the kingpins. We are the ones who had the gang in the prison system called “The 415” to where they had to change the area code from 415 to 510. At the end of the day we are gangstas period. We are taking it back to the Mobb shit!
What about the producers who shaped the Bay Area sound? Who do you feel they were?
First I feel it was Too Short and Ant Banks, and after that it was E-40 and Studio Ton and Mike Mosley and them who shaped the sound. It went from Too Short, Ant Banks, and the Dangerous Crew sound to them Funk Mobb beats that was coming from 40 producers like Mike Mosley, Rick Rock, and Studio Ton. I think them two was the biggest influences in the Bay Area. The third one was Mac Dre of course because he came with the Thizz or Die movement. Them three movements! They were powerful movements in the Bay.
What about you? I feel like you played a part in shaping the Bay also.
I influenced a lot of Mobb shit, but I didn’t have everybody sounding like my music. I had a couple baby Yuk’s out there. As far as how E-40, Mac Dre, and Too Short was doing their shit, everybody in the Bay emulating their shit—that’s why I say those are the biggest influences.
The Luniz played a major role in shaping The Bay Area sound!
Definitely, because we played a major role in the industry period. When we came with the “I Got 5 On It” everyone wanted to do a remake. That was the era of the remake. Everybody wanted to do this oldie but goodie and we started a whole new trend. Everybody was trying to do old school songs and remake them like “5 On It”. We definitely started that and brought it to the game.
Also, the Luniz were two young kids and a lot of younger people liked you. You put the Bay Area into the mainstream with that song. You took the Bay Area sound worldwide.
We did take it overseas and we did take it worldwide. We did lead that ship and we did a lot of stuff. I don’t like to toot my own horn because I like to salute other people’s stuff and let other people give me props and be real humble about it, but definitely we put a lot of stuff on the map and we were the first group out The Bay Area. We got signed at the age of 18 and went platinum, and after that a lot of groups started coming. First it was just solo rappers and then after our group popped it came Three X Krazy, Bad Influence, and all types of other groups. We kicked that off too in The Bay,
I always felt that Luniz played a major role in the Bay. You were real Bay, real Mobb, and real Gangsta, but you went through the door as a commercial act. When I talk to people in Australia or Europe they still talk about Luniz.
You are right because the overseas are still feeling our presence. We went platinum in Germany, gold in Switzerland, and Virgin Records was in London with their main base, so we were always over there to do meetings and tours. We were overseas a lot. We still go overseas with “I Got 5 On It”.
With Luniz breaking overseas at that time it really helped the Bay!
You are right. We did break it overseas. We were the only group touring over there besides Souls of Mischief, because Souls of Mischief was touring over there definitely. After that as far as Gangsta Rap and Mobb shit we was the first ones.
Gangsta Rap was hard to break through at that time. There were a lot of groups coming out after you broke through.
That was the era of the groups and everybody tried doing the group thing. We came out right when Outkast came in and right when Eightball & MJG came in. We came in when a lot of big groups came in, so everybody was not only looking at us they were looking at the other big groups that came out. They were thinking, “Oh this is what to do, fuck my solo shit I’mma team up with you!”
I feel with Rap a lot of people don’t have courage to move forward and do something different. They always play in the safe zone. Do you feel the Bay Area rappers have taken more risks than most areas?
I was the first one to do it as far as Yukmouth. I tell everybody before I came out there was only songs out about “Dead Homies” and when I came out with “Thugged Out” with “Revelationz”, that “Sacrificed My Life”, where I talked about the death of my momma, my dad and my grandmother. After that everybody had a song about the death of their parents, their brother, their cousin or whatever. It went from homies to siblings and loved ones and I started that because I was the first one to open up my heart about that and reveal myself to the world. I definitely do that and I am not afraid because I always reveal myself; my lyrics are my life. You are gonna have good times and you are going to have bad times. You can’t always write about poppin bottles, models, and video shoots because people have struggled to get to where they are in life. Without my struggle I wouldn’t be Yukmouth. I wouldn’t have a story to tell in my lyrics. Everything works out for a reason.
I know people were influenced by you. People need to remember that there were other people behind the scenes shaping the music in the Bay.
A lot of people forget that and only try to give it up to two or three artists, but it was a combination of everybody. Everybody was putting their shit in and being signed to nice big labels and coming out with big hits, being on BET and MTV, having platinum and gold plaques. Coming back and forth to the Bay Area, that is what really put the shit on. I just want to get back to that. If muthafuckaz ain’t getting signed then let’s get some gold and platinum ring tones. Fuck it let’s just take it back to that golden state era when the whole world was loving our shit.
A lot of Bay Area artists now are going to the South and trying to promote their music over there, but that’s not a good way to go. In the South right now they are not buying anything but their own music.
Good luck if you’re going to promote your shit in the South! They got dudes dropping a mixtape every fuckin week for free. You go down there boy, your hustle better be on steroids and you better put out a mixtape every day and a video every day. You better have everybody that is famous out there on your song and you better do a DJ Khaled video with all eight muthafuckaz that you got on the song. You do something other than that, good luck!
You are better off going to New Zealand and Australia right now!
You just took the words out of my mouth. The target is overseas, because they are still buying albums. There is a recession here in the States, but not everywhere.
Go to India or China or Malaysia, they are balling right now.
Ballin like a muthafucka. Everybody ballin overseas while we are all tight with our pockets. Let’s sell it to the muthafuckaz that’s ballin.
I was really happy to see the Thug Lordz project come out, you and C-Bo both being major pioneers in the Bay.
This is the second one. The other one was a mixtape and it wasn’t a certified album. It is on the same level but it is more of me and C-Bo. The first Thug Lordz had a lot of features from different people; this one doesn’t have many people on it. It is just me and Bo going at it with about five features at the most. The other Thug Lordz we had people on damn near every song. This one it is us keeping 100 talking about real hood shit that we went through. It is the Garden Block and the Village back in it.
People have been waiting to hear from C-Bo; we haven’t heard from C-Bo in a minute.
C-Bo has been down with Young Buck and Young Buck has been going through his trials and tribulations, so my nigga has been staying down like four flat tires waiting for Young Buck to get his thing right. He has been laying low; now it is time to come out the shadows. He is dropping this Thug Lord shit and he is dropping his new shit also. He is getting back in the lab. Bo got some extraordinary shit I done heard in the lab. He is about to destroy niggas. The Baldhead Nut is back!
C-Bo is working on a solo album too?
Yeah, and his shit is out of this world. He has all types of producers and people on there. I heard one with Slick Pulla! He has some joints on there I’m just gonna say that! He is out there in the South and he getting it in.
Where are you living now?
I’m still in L.A. I can’t leave Cali. I have visited Down South a lot when I was fuckin with Rap-A-Lot and I was down there for months, but I gotta come back to this sunshine and this good cush. I have been in L.A. for about 15 years. I’ve got a couple studios in the Bay, and family out there, but I didn’t move back. C-Bo is staying in Atlanta. He is getting it in right now Down South. They loving him and he has got a lot of big features.
With this new Thug Lord album are we gonna hear the Gangsta C-Bo or the ballin’ C-Bo?
You are gonna hear that Gangsta C-Bo. It is all about Gangsta shit. We got about one or two songs talking about money, but that is it and all the rest of this shit is mobbed out. You are gonna get nothing but Mobb shit. All my shit is the same way also. We only have two songs where we talk about money, which is the title of the album “Thug Money”. The only one is “Look So Good” where we talk about ballin but everything else is mobbed out. Our first single is called “Wake Up” featuring Jacka, and that thang is killing them. We really opened up our heart on that thing. Bo talked about his brother dying and I talked about the struggles I went through and it has a real soulful hook.
When you do shows what type of crowd do you get mostly?
It depends on what kind of market I get. Of course if I am overseas it is all White, but if I am in the Bay it is gonna be all niggaz with a handful of chicks. We attract niggaz because we make Mobb music which niggaz can mob to and we ain’t gonna change. We ain’t no Nelly and we don’t make no songs for bitches, we make songs for the block. Our crowd is full of thug niggaz killin ’em! Our crowd is gang bangers, thugs and all types of dope dealers, that’s our crowd. They come with their bitches too but when we are in Utah, Montana, and places like that you got your White crowd mixed with your Black crowd. When you go to Hawaii you got the Tongans and different people there, so everybody gets a dose of the music. We perform for the world.
Who are some of the key producers you are working with?
We are working with a lot of in house producers and producers who are not well known. We feel that right now it ain’t even worth $50,000 for one track on a thirteen song album. You pay 50,000 a track you are gonna be on 500,000 on tracks and then you have to pay for features and promotions. Nobody got money to be blowing on these big air headed ass producers when we can get underground producers for extra cheap who can give better beats or just as good beats. That is what level we are on!
I really want to hear the newer producers coming up with that new sound!
We got a production team from overseas like Mr. Probs who did the “Wake Up” song; he is from Amsterdam. A lot of our production team is called Large Money Entertainment; they are from Denmark and Sweden. On a lot of this album we are dealing with people from overseas, so we are just showing how we got this world wide Mobb thing going on.
How do you work with producers overseas? Do they send you the beats?
We work our email game and the paypal game as far as the money.
What happened to the hood money? Do you feel there is money in the hood right now?
Shit, I know there is money in the hood right now, man. As many shows as I do in every city I go to, there is niggaz pulling up in Bentleys and Phantoms. And these ain’t rappers, they are street dudes. It depends on where you are at. I have been to places where niggaz are in old dirty shirts, and then I have been to places where niggaz are wearing gold chains and shit. It depends on where you are at. The hood still gets money it just depends on where it is.
Where do you like to tour?
I like the Bahamas. I just took me and my fiancé to the Bahamas and it was really rockin out there. We was at the Atlantis and I was just chillin. I was just enjoying life period. Smoking weed on a yacht in the Virgin Islands.
How did this Thug Lordz album come together?
C-Bo just moved to Atlanta, but before he moved out there we was in the lab every day just knocking shit down. The chemistry is so ill and it feels like me and Knumskull with the Luniz. Bo could be talking and before he even finishes the sentence I could finish it for him, that’s how connected we are. We get it in. I will give you a prime example of how good the chemistry is, the mixtape we did with Spice-1 in one day. This album we did in about a week besides the features we had to get.
How do you and C-Bo agree on songs?
Me and Bo damn near got the same tastes. If he feels a song is whack; I felt the same way. That is why we vibe so good. We like the same beats and we do the same type of music.
What are your plans for this record?
I’m gonna keep promoting this record and we will do about three videos for the album. We are doing tours and shows every weekend. We just came from KC; this weekend we just did St. Louis; and next week we got Ohio. People want to see me and C-Bo together. We are just gonna start rocking it out and then we will work on the next one. We hop on them planes to get to where we gotta go.
What else are you working on, Yukmouth?
“Thug Money” in stores now. I got a “Tonight Show” album coming out with DJ Fresh which will be in December or January, I finally got a Regime album coming, and we got “United Ghettos Eye Candy” and “United Ghettos Volume Three” coming out back to back. Then I will be back with my album. We got so much stuff. I am like Master P. I am staying in these muthafuckaz’ faces until they accept me, period! I know I’m dope as shit. I’m pushin, man!
