Luni Coleone
Interview By Black Dog Bone
From Murder Dog Vol. 9# 1 Feb 24, 2001
You've been spending a lot of time in Kansas City. What's your connection to Kansas?
I didn't know about no Kansas City until I seen the Soundscan. Then I'm like, we out there! From the first show until now, it's cool. It's like a second home, lotta money to be made, different shit you can get into, real estate. It's bangin. Everybody out there--Mac Dre, Bo, Tay, Marvaless, I'm bout to get Hollis out there. Out there they just give love. It's super.
Where are most of your sales coming from?
The majority of it's in the Midwest. I sell a lot in Seattle. Denver and out there. I'm plannin to invade the South like a mad man. I used to live in Waco, Texas. That's my backyard. I'm about to hit there like a mad rapper with his head cut off. Make 'em love you.
Where did you grow up?
I lived all over the place. My mother moved us around a lot. We lived out in Huntsville, Alabama, Tennessee, Seattle, Portland, Waco, everywhere. After the death of my grandmother my mom didn't wanna be in Sac. Ride with moms and go everywhere until a nigga grew up, take care of himself.
I heard you're working on a new album. On the new album you're working on are you still going by the name Luni Coleone?
Yeah, but the surprise is I'm gonna have some featured cuts from Lunasicc. It's called LuniColeone.com and it's gonna be out in April.
When you do Luni Coleone and Lunasicc you feel like you're two different people almost?
It is. Lyrically and the voice, it's two different artists. Lunasicc's that laid back rapper. HE ain't too excited really. On stage or wherever, he's just laid back. He ain't no battle type rapper, he's a lyricist. Luni Coleone's more rowdy, more party, a hypin-ass rapper. You put that shit on muthafuckas gonna get crunk. It's more rough than Lunasicc.
Why did you come up with that concept, two personalities? Did you feel like Lunasicc couldn't do what Luni Coleone's doing?
He can't. It's like totally different. Lunasicc's shit is real laid back. It ain't something I wanna do anymore. Sometimes it's cool, but not all that time. I like Coleone better so I'll stickin with that for a minute. Lunasicc was Mobb. Just put it on and just ride down the freeway. Coleone makes you wanna go to the liquor store or something, go get rowdy somewhere.
It's like a different state of mind. But lyrically you're still talkin about the streets and Gangsta shit?
Yeah. I'm touchin on some real shit too. Real issues. Family type shit. But more or less it's Gangsta shit.
When you listen to some of the early Gangsta shit like Ice Cube's early albums, he was really talking about some serious issues. You want to keep listening to that shit. Now very few people take it that deep. Why do you think that is? You think they're scared to talk about issues?
I know what you're sayin. A lotta rappers ain't touchin on real issues. Maybe it just ain't in 'em right now. Everybody gots to go down their own road and see what's at the end of it. With me, I wanna see what's goin on in the music game. I base my music on what's happening now. As it changes and progresses, whatever is goin down at the time, that's where I am. It's right there. And muthafuckas is gonna feel it. You listen to my music it's shit in there, talkin about shit. Not just ghetto-ass shit, we in the streets doin this. Everybody kicks it, that's never gonna change. But there's other shit out there to be said.
A lot of people have been talking about you and each of your albums has sold more copies than the last. You've built your name slowly.
That's the best way to do it. I don’t wanna be rushed out there. I'd rather walk and get to the finish line.
On your first two of albums you weren't working with Hollis on production?
He came in on Luni Coleone. We had been knowin each other, but hadn't really got down in the studio. The first song that we did on Total Recall was "Time Waits For No Man" was in '99. Before that I was with AWOL.
When did you get with AWOL? And what happened with that situation?
Not to get into a buncha shit, but I signed with them in '97 or '98. That was a stepping stone for me. It was cool, that's where I started fuckin with Bo, fuckin with Killa Tay, Marvaless, Pizzo, La Roo, all them cats. So it was a good experience.
How did you first connect with AWOL?
Through my cousin, X-Raided. He hooked it up for me. I started out fuckin with X-Raided early on. That's where I first started. Then he was locked up, as everybody know, and T (AWOL CEO) was locked up. They hit each other and I was signed.
You released two of albums on AWOL.
Nigga Worth A Million Dollars and Mr. Lunasicc and then a group album, The Dosia Clique with me, Killa Tay and KJ.
Who was doing your production on those albums?
We had production from Rick Roc, DJ Daryl, Pizzo, Killa Tay was doin tracks, One-Drop Scott. There was a lotta cats. DNA that used to be with Mike Mosley. We had a nice lil camp.
After AWOL fell apart what were you doing?
At first I said fuck it. I tried to walk away, but music is in me. I can't walk away from it. One thing lead to another. I bumped into Hollis. We met workin with this very fucked up individual named Hugo of Ideal Music Group. I had to step through the suckers to get to the real. One day we was in the studio and said, let's do an album. Then The Mouth Of Madness came and it's been smooth sailing. This my half and half here, it's 50/50.
Like Dr. Dre and Snoop. The combination is real tight.
Big Hollis: Super tight. This is like my lil brother. We got major love for each other with music and off the music. We be on some family type shit. Luni and June (Luni's brother) and X-Raided, they was all runnin with my lil' cousins and shit back in the day. I was over there fuckin with Lynch and all of them cats. So we all was affiliated. It was destiny. You know you really got a good feelin when you can turn off the music and then sit and have a conversation and laugh and enjoy each other's company. That helps us in our quest to keep makin good music and to keep switchin up shit. We try to make sure that every Luni Coleone album we do has its own identity, it's own charisma and style.
What's the deal with the label? You both own the record label?
BH: It's two companies. Mine is Out Of Bounds and his is Sicc-a-Cell Entertainment. We both put our records out through Bayside. And Luni's got his artists comin out--Young Fierce and KC Mo, getting ready to drop next month. We're in the process of doin a movie with me and Luni, B-Legit, Brian Hooks from Three Stripes. We'll probably start shootin this summer and have it out before the year end with a bomb-ass soundtrack. We're just really tryin to take this industry by storm, do something new, always stay innovative. The sound, production, lyrical content, tryin to change the game always. That's the way to stay in the game.
Right now I think the market is oversaturated. There's too much out there, people don't know what to buy.
I think the game needs to be filtered right now. Drop all the rappers through a filter and see which ones pop out on the other side clean. See who really matters. Who can stand on they own? I see a lotta cats out there and a lotta major cats too, on the radio and TV with some disgusting-ass shit. Garbage, and it's goin platinum and triple platinum. I'm lookin at this shit, and we're really doin music. This shit is sickening.
What you're doing, that's the music that should be going platinum. I don't know what's wrong with the industry.
The problem is these A & R muthafuckas. You got these muthafuckas that don't know nothing about the streets, don’t know nothing about the music, and they're supposed to decide what acts to sign. A lotta the muthafuckas out there goin platinum are industry made, they ain't no street made. What happens, you got a muthafucka come out with his first record and sell millions of records and his music is horrible. Like what Hammer and Coolio was, the new age Sambo. When their time is up, record industry gets rid of them and get a new nigga. That was the truest thing that Cube said, "They'll have a new nigga next year." That's real. But it's the turf soldiers like us. But I ain't trippin, cause when we sell 50,000 to a hundred thousand, it's all good. We're eatin. And our fanbase is true. Our fans ain't goin nowhere. We can slang our shit out the trunk. We don't need no BET, we don't need no radio, we don't need no campaign, we don't need none of that shit.
The way you started taking over, it took us all by surprise. You were selling so many units with hardly any promotion.
I was the game's best kept secret. The camp I came from, I was the little nigga. It was C-Bo, Killa Tay, and Marvaless. I was the youngest in the clique. Now I'm getting my chance to stand alone. I ain't the lil' brother no more. For so many years you're there on the backburner, and people don't know how you can get down. But when you get a chance you gotta go for yours and do it and make it work. That's what I did. I got the right rappers, right producer, right business partner, right friend. All that's wrapped in what we got. And it's only gonna get stronger and the music more better.
You feel this next record is going to be hot?
Hell yeah! If we had the proper promotions like some of these cats we could go back to Total Recall and push that muthafucka gold. In The Mouth of Madness, all that shit, they're still scanning 5-600 records a week. We got fan mail comin in every fuckin day from all over the country. This is like my first real Murder Dog interview. Shit is steppin up. This new record is gonna hurt some shit.
website: Lunicoleone.com
