Interview with C-Bo
By David Friedman
What are
the positive and negative things that came out of your days as an active
gang member?
Well, the good things are I’m still alive and, like I said, I learned
a lot of street stuff that people don’t learn doing everything else.
You can’t learn it from school, you can’t learn it from home.
It’s just some street knowledge stuff. And I guess I wouldn’t
be able to talk about the things that I do if it wasn’t for the gang.
So I’ve got to imagine that it got me to where I am today, in one
way or another. There’s a lot of bad, too. A lot of stuff goes on,
but that’s part of life for gang members. It goes down, so it’s
part of the territory.
Do you constantly have to watch your back to this day?
Hell, yeah. Oh, most definitely. Back then it was a different thing. Back
then, if you weren’t from Garden Block, it was like ‘Fuck you.’
It was a different lifestyle when you were active. I mean, when you’re
active, you’re highly participating in all types of gang activity.
And right now, I’m really on a whole other page. But, like I said,
I can’t forget the street. The street got me to where I’m at.
There’s a lot of stuff now that I try to tell these younger guys–that
they really need to try to come together. They need to stop this black
on black and brown on brown crime. But I know a lot of ‘em will never
be able to stop because, when I was a certain age, there was nothing you
could never tell me either. So a lot of it is not gonna stop. Some of
it probably is necessary for their own reasons. The outside people really
won’t understand, but a lot of stuff goes on for a reason within
the gang, so they’ll be better or they’ll be stronger. Or it
could be some retaliation. Usually the gang stuff, when it gets into the
violence, it’s a lot of revenge and people getting payback. And if
you don’t ever stop that cycle, it will just keep going. It’s
like, ‘If they do somethin’ else, we’re gonna do somethin’
to them.’ And it keeps going back and forth. The next thing you know,
it’s five years later and y’all have lost 10 people and we’ve
done lost 15. People don’t understand this is a war out here as far
as gang stuff on the street. Politicians, police...Police kind of understand
it in the area because they’ve been dealing with it for a long time.
They know it’s its own world. If you wanna be out here on this West
Coast and gang-bangin’, they’ll bring it to you out here.
Do you think the majority of Gangsta rappers have really gone through
the types of things you have in terms of gangs, violence, danger and crime?
Or do you feel like more than a few are just talking big when they haven’t
lived it?
You’ve got some that might fake it or might put a lot on it, and
then you’ve got some that you can hear what they’re sayin’.
Like now, when somebody hears my stuff and they hear me talk about my
situation–if somebody has been there they can relate to the details
that I’m talking about about. They know, ‘He’s real, ’cause
I just did that.’ Or ‘What he’s talking about, I did that
three years ago. I know exactly what he’s talking about.’ Now,
if you’ve got a real person out here on the street from the East
Coast or the West Coast, if you hear about somebody talkin’ about
them doin’ somethin’ and it just all don’t fit together...
There’s also a street code out here. If things don’t fit within
the code and somebody’s misrepresentin’ what they’re talkin’
about, then you can also pick up on that.
Still, when young fans who live in the suburbs or in the middle of nowhere
pick up an album, they don’t know who’s for real and who isn’t,
right?
That’s true. You know, that’s part of growing up. Hopefully,
they’re still in school. It’s one of those things where you
don’t believe everything you read. So you’ve got to get what
you can from it. All rap is is just people reportin’ the news from
the street. It’s news that don’t get reported on CNN. It’s
news that ain’t gonna get reported on ABC or your regular Channel
7 news. So what you got is rappers who are lettin’ the world know
what’s goin’ on in their world or goin’ on in the world
of people that’s around them. And it’s like when you get your
news. Probably a lot of people don’t watch the news, because they
don’t feel it’s their news. You’ve got people who can relate
to a certain genre of music because they feel like they’re getting
informed. They’re finding out that there are other people out here
that are feelin’ the same way they do. So my core audience hasn’t
changed. My core audience is the same people that it (was) for the last
12 albums because this is the kind of news they want to hear.
Your 13th
album, West Coast Mafia, which comes out July 23rd on
your label by the same name. What are you thoughts about the project?
The main thing is this is gonna be my first album that’s like totally,
solely independent. We’re doing everything the way we want to do
it. We’ve always had some type of partner, from Warlock to AWOL to
Virgin and Noo Trybe. This is really gonna be the first time where it’s
basically just us, the West Coast Mafia. And also, this is the first album
since I’ve been out of jail this last time. Most of these songs on
here I wrote when I was in jail.
What’s it like to write songs in jail? Did it take a lot of getting
used to?
When I write songs in jail, I get to stock up more on the songs. I’m
a pretty fast writer, so when I was sittin’ in there, I ain’t
got nothin’ to do but to write songs.
Your fifth album, One Life 2 Live, has sold more than 250,000 copies
since coming out in ’97. And its follow-up, 1998’s Til My
Casket Drops, has moved more than 350,000 units. How have you managed
to push so much product being that you’ve been on small labels for
the most part?
It’s gotta be the music and the content. There’s nothing else
it can be. If you sell those kind of numbers without no advertising--we
ain’t got no big budgets, we ain’t got no videos, we ain’t
got no airplay...You’re talking about somebody picking up my record
and liking it and telling somebody else about it. That’s all that
is. And it just perpetuated and went into full motion. So now they’re
looking for the new C-Bo and people are talkin’ about it, you know?
Like I said, it’s my same core audience. I don’t need no publicity.
I mean, if I had it that’s great and beautiful. But I’m not
gonna change doin’ what we do and we’re not gonna stop doin’
nothin’ we’re doin’ to please the masses. We’re gonna
please our audience.
How does it feel to know you’ve been releasing albums going on 10
years and fans from all over the country are still anxiously awaiting
your release?
Hopefully, I’m giving them what they want and, on the same token,
I’m gettin’ to do what I want to do. We’re not a major
label yet and we’re not a ‘certified platinum’ artist or
something to that effect, but what we are doing is we’re sustaining
our families. Me and my folks, everybody is living off the fruits of the
labor. We’re living off the art. So even if I can do that, I’ll
drop two or three albums a year knowing I can pay all the bills and my
folks can do what they want and we’re rockin’ and rollin’.
You co-wrote
and rapped on two songs on 2Pac’s 1996 album All Eyez On Me–"War
Stories" and "Ain’t Hard To Find." The album went
nine times platinum. How did those collaborations come about?
Pac had been listenin’ to my stuff. He was up in the Bay for a while,
he knew E-40 and you know, that’s my cousin. He had called my manager
and they said he wanted me to come through and get on there. So when I
pulled up, he got up to the car and gave me so much love like he was my
brother. He said he’d been listening to every one of my albums since
Gas Chamber.
What did that mean to you, coming from 2Pac?
It gave me a little validation for the things that I thought that I was,
coming from him at the time. And this was really before he took off. He
was already out there, but this was before All Eyez On Me came
out. He could relate to my shit. Like I said, if you’re a street
person or any person from a ghetto–whether you’re a Crip or
a Blood or whatever–you can definitely relate to my music. Pac understood
where I was comin’ from and he really appreciated it. He showed me
love. Actually, we did more songs than that. Suge needs to come over and
give me them songs! We did about four total. I haven’t heard the
other two.
You’ve spent a considerable amount of time in jail over the years.
When did you get locked up for the first time?
Man, the first time I went to juvenile prison, I was about 10. (I went)
for robbin’ and stuff. I was in and out. I might do six months and
the next time I might do a year. Me and my folks, we were tryin’
to count how many times I’ve been in and out of jail. I think I’ve
been in and out of jail like 15 times. So that’s a long time. Prison
was like at 17, 18. Actually I went and it was on like a violation. And
then I got into my major trouble when they started putting me in prison
this last time. For all these years, it’s been the same cases –
when my folks got killed at my video shoot from before the ‘Gas Chamber’
album. That’s when they got killed. That’s back in ’92,
so I’ve been on the run since ’92. I’ve been runnin’
from that case from when he got killed. I’ve had some warrants for
high speeds, runnin’ from the police, some shootins and some other
stuff.
How much of your life have you spent behind bars?
Man, I’ve spend the majority–probably more than half of my life–in
jail.
At one point, you actually went to jail because of lyrics on one of your
albums, right?
That was a couple years ago. They violated my probation. That was Til
My Casket Drops. And really what that was is they said I was on probation
and they said I wasn’t to promote gang violence. And by me being
on an album talkin’ about ‘Shoot the police if they pull you
over’ and ‘Fuck Pete Wilson,’ who was the governor at the
time, and ‘Fuck such and such and such and such,’ they felt
as though it promoted gang activity. And that was one of the stipulations
on my probation, that I couldn’t promote gang activity or violence
against law enforcement.
Were you thinking before the album came out that maybe you shouldn’t
have said stuff in your lyrics that could put you back in jail?
Well, they told me. When I was on probation, they wanted me to submit
the album to them before its release. I wasn’t to make any references
toward guns or killing anyone or say anything about gangs – like
what gang I’m from. There was a whole bunch of crazy stuff that,
you know, there’s no way they’re gonna be able to control. I
submitted some of the lyrics, but I didn’t give them all of the lyrics.
We just submitted the lyrics to one song, just to see how it was gonna
go. And they basically almost said I couldn’t do the song. So I did
it anyway, of course, plus a couple more telling them why they should
go fuck themselves when I’m doing this album. And the governor himself
called and said ‘Lock him up.’
How long have you been out of prison now?
I got out in September.
Do you think you’ll stay out of prison for good this time?
Well, I ain’t tryin’ to go back. I never tried to go back. But
you’ve gotta understand that out here today, especially with people
like myself, it’s not really my choice. You’ve gotta think the
last five times I’ve been to jail, it’s been some bullshit violations.
It’s not like I did nothin’ new. It’s from that same ’92
killin’. Compile that with who I am and what I’ve done and what
I got into with the police…everybody in my whole organization has
been to prison. We get fucked with a little more than most people, so
jail might come along with that. When you hold this type of title and
when you’re out here doin’ the things that we do, the police
is gonna fuck with us. The regular world don’t understand, but niggas
out here get railroaded every day. And I’m one of them. I’ve
been railroaded, my manager’s been railroaded, I’ve got cousins
that’s in jail that ain’t gettin’ out. And a lot of it’s
all bullshit, and everybody else knows it’s bullshit. So, you know,
the police out here are corrupt. So is the court system. Ain’t none
of it’s fair. So it’s not like I’m tryin’... If I
go back, I’ve gotta back. But also I’ve got to live out here;
I’ve got to eat. And I’d rather be in jail than dead or somethin’
around here. So, on that note, we’ve got to do everything we’ve
got to do how we do it and just hope we don’t get caught.
In addition to putting your new album out on your own West Coast Mafia
label, you’re planning to put out several other artists--your stepson
Young T and his partner Scratch, Killa Tay, 151 and Thug Missis. Are you
nervous, being that you’ve worked with more established labels in
the past?
Hell, no. What do I need them for? I give them the product, I put it together,
we mix and master it, we tell them where we want to promote and we tell
them what ads we want to run. That’s basically all we do for our
albums. So why do we need to give them 50 percent to do that?
Fans who want to contact C-Bo and his label may do so by sending a e-mail message to westcoastmafiaent@hotmail.com.
BG
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