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Allen Gordon Murder Dog
Interview By Black Dog Bone
From Murder Dog Vol.15 #2
Murder Dog had its own lane. It wasn’t in the
same lane as the other magazines. It had its own lane, its own voice. So if I
wanted to read an in-depth Mac Mall piece I wasn’t gonna read it in The Source;
wasn’t gonna read it in Rap Pages. I was gonna read it in Murder Dog. If I was
gonna find out what was up with E-40—better yet if I wanted to find out
what was goin on with The Mossie or any of the Bay Area groups or Southern
groups that were poppin but weren’t big enough to get more ink in The Source,
that’s where Murder Dog served.
Groups like Funk Mob or Compton’s Most Wanted or whoever could get
treated with respect in Murder Dog. They got an outlet where they could tell
their story, which was really cool.
Other than content how was Murder Dog different
from other magazines? We felt that a lot of people never really
understood African American culture. A lot of that misunderstanding came from
the way the media presented it. It was a chance for them to say it in their own
words, their side of the story. This is exactly how we feel about it. It’s not
some writer’s opinion or impression.
Right. That’s important because at a certain
point, about ’95 or ’96, writers felt they were more important than the
artists. It was all about how they could show off their writing style, and it
was lacking any real substance. Not to say the pieces were bad, but there’s
more to Lil Wayne or Too Short or Master P than what I’m reading here. I’m
reading about the sky being blue and the kind of car that they drove in and how
the weeds smells good in the car. But Master P is close to makin a billion
dollars—that’s what I wanna know about. How does his mind work? Ask him a
question and let him answer it.
That’s what I was seeing. When someone would do
an article, more than the voice of the rapper that you loved you were hearing
the voice of the writer.
Exactly. When the writer is standing between me,
the reader, and the subject then that’s a problem. Writing about an artist in
an article form can work, but you can’t go wrong with a q & a. With the
more “pro” style you can go wrong; it depends on the ego of the writer. Sometimes
it can just get stupid, “Oh, it was a cloudy day in Houston and the storm was
thundering and Bun B came out with blue Nikes and an Avirex sweatsuit, pinky
ring on….” I don’t need know all that! How good is the album? What’s on Bun’s
mind?
Articles you and some other writers were writing
for The Source and Rap Pages were excellent. It’s the quality of the writing
that makes the article worth reading, or not.
Thank you. That’s what drew me to write in the
first place. I’d see articles about Paris or Too Short and I’d be like, do the
writers get it? When I’d read about so many artists and I’d feel like, somebody
doesn’t understand their music like I understand it. What makes their music so
relevant, these people don’t understand it. Let me go ahead and jump in this so
I can explain.
Murder Dog writers are not professional writers,
most of our writers don’t have college degrees in Journalism. They’re fans of
the music and fans of Murder Dog. They love the artists they interview, know
everything about them, and sincerely want to know what they’re about. The
rapper can feel that.
I understand that. I like that about Scott
Bejda. I like reading his interviews because Scott’s a huge fan and he knows a
lot about who he’s interviewing. He’s got a certain insight to the music. You
can tell that he listens for entertainment, he listens for his own personal
reasons, and he listens for content. He’s looking at it from three different
perspectives. And when he does his interviews he pulls the best out of these
guys because he is such a fan. That makes for good reading. One of my favorite
things about Murder Dog is reading the letters from people who have read the
magazine the previous issue. It’s great to hear their opinion of Murder Dog,
why they like it. I think that enthusiasm comes from having people like Scott
Bejda on the team who’s really interested in music and can translate that with
no problem.
Scott came in as a Murder Dog reader. He had no
previous experience writing. He’s mad about the music. David Friedman is
another big fan of Rap. He loves Detroit Rap.
That’s what’s beautiful about Murder Dog, for
you to find individuals like that who are really passionate about certain
artists. For me, I was never interested in Insane Clown Posse, but when I read
David Friedman’s interviews with them, that makes for interesting reading. Now
I’m more interested in these two clowns. Because it’s a great conversation
there. Maybe I do want to check out their music now, or maybe not, but I am
impressed by their intelligence. Him being such a fan added a different
dimension. Like when they were talking about their merchandising and how they
go about doing their tours and building their fanbase. I had no idea! I knew
about them from WWF wrestling, but when I read their interview I gained new
respect. Dave pulled it out of them when they did that interview. They got to
explain who they are, what their fanbase is like, how they operate. That was
fascinating. That was a great interview and it gave me some insight into these
people. Now I understand them better.
It’s the same with you. You really care about
the artists that you interview for Murder Dog. It’s not a job for you. When you
interview someone, there’s a real connection between you and the rapper. It’s a
nice vibe.
Some of these people I have long standing
relationships with. Some people are actually friends. Like Dub C is my friend,
and we have some of the best interviews. He’s very open to talk about anything.
I can even be challenging—I challenge everybody, I don’t care—but
he knows where it’s coming from. Then I know his history, so I can talk about
how their direction has changed or how they’re feeling about the present
situation. Even with Lil Wayne. The first time I interviewed Lil Wayne for
Murder Dog he was an asshole. But I appreciated it, because I’ve known him for
so long, since he was a kid. It made for a lively conversation. Then to
interview him again the second
time, he was a little older and I understood his music better. Now there’s no
Juvenile, there’s no BG, he’s taken the whole company on his shoulders. And
he’s taken that responsibility and he speak more responsibly. Now I’m speaking
to a young man who has grown into his own. At the same time, he happens to be
the best rapper in the game. It’s a whole different interview. A whole
different level of appreciation. I like the fact that it can move like that. It
can be a bad experience and make a great read or it could be a great experience
and make a great read. The main thing is that the fans want to know what’s goin
on. My role is to let them know.
Do you read a lot of Rap magazines?
I read Murder Dog and sometimes I read Ozone.
Ozone’s got a lot of Southern rappers in there, but it’s mostly pictures and
stuff. I picked up Hip Hop Weekly a couple of times. There are so many
magazines out there. The thing is that there’s room for a magazine that caters
to something that The Source is not doing anymore, that XXL’s not doing
anymore. They’re just music magazines. They’re not about lifestyle, not about
culture, they’re about music. Right now you don’t have as many people buying as
much music, so there’s not so much interest in reading about it. In Murder Dog
you get a rapper’s opinion on the type of music they do, the type of life they
live. There’s still some lifestyle involved. You can’t read Murder Dog and not
learn something about the artist’s life. All these niggaz come from hard
situations, so they talk to you about their life that lead them up to this
point or that they’re still into while they’re making this music. Everybody’s
not rich and famous. It’s a daily struggle. A lot of magazines present more of
a, “I’ve accomplished everything already and I’m a star.” There’s no story
there. Where’s the story? If everybody’s
already rich in famous there’s no story. My big complaint with the other
magazines is that there’s just no content for me as a reader. You might have a
good idea of a story on an artist, but you’ve got to be able to have a good
conversation with an artist in order to pull off a good piece.
Sometimes it seems as if they just read the bio
and write the article.
Exactly. Or if somebody is a big fan of say Nas
or whoever, they just want to hang out. They wanna hang out with Nas and smoke
a blunt with him, take a picture and show all their friends. OK, yeah, but
where’s the story? I think the magazines are suffering because the people that
run the magazines don’t understand what it is that that the readers wants. It’s
just about people. It’s not about anything else but people. You might rap, you
might DJ, you might do graffiti, you might dance, that’s how you express
yourself. But it’s about people at the end of the day. People are a part of a
culture and a lifestyle. If you’re not studying lifestyle you’re gonna lose the
whole purpose. You’ve watched sales slip for all these magazines, advertising
slip. The big Rap magazines have had their numbers really drop. They’re not
lifestyle oriented. Whoever’s got an album, that’s who’s going in the magazine.
Do you see Murder Dog to be changing or is it
pretty much the same as it was in the beginning? Rap is a gift to me, given by rappers. So when
we run an article which is not about Rap, it’s like a gift we give back to the
rappers. When we ran the article on raw food in Murder Dog you’d be surprised
how many people have called me and said, “Black Dog, you’re gonna be happy to
hear this. I’m not on raw food yet, but I’m vegetarian now.” So many people have called me because
of that article. I was surprised by the response we got from the raw food
article. Some people might wonder why we’d put a raw food article in Murder
Dog. But to me, if one person reads it and gets something out of it, that’s
worth it to me.
What’s important about it is, it’s a lifestyle.
Pretty much all of us eat meat, cheese, processed food. Where else are we going
to get our information? Especially if Murder Dog is the only magazine you ever
read. While you’re reading about Keak Da Sneak, check out this raw food
article. That’s what’s important and that’s what other magazines are missing.
You need to talk about lifestyle. That’s what this is all about. Hip Hop is a
lifestyle, it’s not just music. Music imitates life. All these guys are rapping
about where they’ve been, what they dream about or what they’ve done—all
about life. If guys are rapping about getting rich, you wanna get rich for a
reason. You wanna better your quality of life. Some guys just want to have sex
with girls all day—that’s a different type of life. Those stories are all
important.
Otherwise what happens is you get immersed in
the Rap world and you can’t see beyond that. It’s like a snake eating his own
tail. You don’t grow or expand. It’s important to open the readers’ and the
artists’ eyes to other worlds.
Right, because that’s when the music started
getting the same.
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