Murder Dog gtw
 

15th Anniversary- Scott Bejda
Interview By Black Dog Bone

From Murder Dog Vol.15 #2

How did you first hear about Murder Dog?
I was about 17 or 18 and I went into a liquor store—I had a buddy who would sell me liquor underage—and I saw a copy of the magazine. That was around’96. It was real big and it had Master P on the cover. I’m from Illinois, but this was down in Kentucky where I first saw it. I was just amazed, I’d never seen anything like Murder Dog. I was always used to magazines like the Source. I only read the Source for a couple of years and it became too repetitive. I don’t want to diss any other magazines, but I really liked what I saw. Murder Dog covered the type of music that I was into. I’d rarely seen underground artists in any magazine except on an occasional ad, which they had to scrape all their savings to get. It was good to read interviews with an Al Kapone or a BG or a Three 6 Mafia. You didn’t see an article on them in other magazines until ’97 when they got their major deal.

Did you already know about people like Master P?
I had been into underground Rap since ’89. I knew about all the artists that were in Murder Dog. I had their music, but I’d never seen them in print anywhere. That’s why, other than the fact that the magazine was as big as a house, it caught my eye. When I opened it up and looked at the contents it was all of the music I liked. It was almost as if this magazine was created by me or people like me that loved this kind of music.

When you started reading Murder Dog you probably never thought you would become one of the main writers for the magazine.

You’re gonna make me blush now. No. Writing for Murder Dog was something I pretty much fell into. I used to call and bug you guys a lot. One time you asked me if I wanted to rep the mag in my area. I did. You used to send me out truckloads of magazines. When you said you were gonna send me some copies I had no idea there would be a big semi-truck dropping off 30 boxes of magazines. I filtered it out to my area and people were shocked. I took it to the hoods, everybody loved it. Even the hillbillies around here who just listen to Heavy Metal, they were captivated by it. They all read Murder Dog. They didn’t know who any of the artists in the magazine were. They’d be asking me, who’s this guy? I’d be like the translator for them. But the dudes in the streets, they loved it. They knew who a lot of the rappers were.

In the beginning we didn’t have major distribution, so we’d send magazines out to people like you. We’d just send shipments out to anyone who would get them around. We’d send them thousands of copies, and it was all free. That’s how we spread the name around.

I gave a lot away, but after a while it became a hot commodity. I had people giving me 5 bucks an issue. It was like I was slangin dope in the form of a magazine.

There were people all over the country—people like Ted Williams, Rasool, Garwyne Jones, Judy Jones, Treal Magazine in Flint, Redd Bird, Double E—we’d send them magazines to promote. The demand got so high, they started selling them. A lot of people were making money off of it, and we were just glad to get it out there. And we still do it.

That’s the greatest way to promote. Another big one was the free subscription to the penitentiaries. Nobody ever did that. That was definitely a first. That helped Murder Dog gain a deep respect from the streets. Gang leaders, people that ran the streets, they really got behind this magazine. It was a positive thing. Murder Dog was never promoting violence or negativity. What we were putting out there was a mirror image of the reality in the streets.

You know as a writer for Murder Dog, the features are all straight Q & A interviews. Whatever the rappers were talking about, we printed it. We didn’t voice any opinion about the rappers. Murder Dog was, is always, their magazine.

It’s all truth. And it’s all related to the music. That’s the main thing, it’s about the music. A lot of people forget that.

And from the prison subscribers we started getting huge amounts of mail. They’d write letters to Murder Dog, many pages long, talking about whatever was going on with them. People on death row, people doing life sentences, famous rappers who were locked up, they all found a voice in Murder Dog. At the beginning I used to open all the letters and read each one. It would bring tears to me, to know that there were thousands of people who were locked up forever, forgotten and helpless. Later on I couldn’t keep up. We were getting hundreds of free subscriptions every day. We had to hire extra staff just to handle the mail from prisoners. One guy had the job of just reading through the letters and selecting for printing. We have files of great letters that were never printed.

Once you started writing for Murder Dog you got serious about writing. You started working from many different magazines too.

For the first 5 years I was writing solely for Murder Dog. I was mainly doing reviews. I never had any idea in  my wildest dreams that I would be doing major features. I’m a highschool dropout, an ex-criminal, drug peddler, drug user, the whole nine. Guys like me don’t end up becoming journalists. It was really a blessing that Murder Dog gave me this opportunity. I wrote for other magazines on a smaller scale, more or less to hone my craft, get more experience. I brought it back to Murder Dog and started doing a lot of shit—cover stories on down.

You have interviewed some of the biggest names in Rap.

It was amazing to be able to talk to Snoop Dogg or Ice T or 50 Cent. I’ve talked to all my favorite artists—Esham, Tech N9ne, C-Bo, Geto Boys, the list goes on. When I look at the list of interviews I’ve done, I’m amazed. Then I branched off into interviewing killers who are in prison and members of the Ku Klux Klan and Black Panthers and Mafia members, for other magazines. My mother watches “Law & Order SVU” which Ice T is the star of. My mom’s a huge fan of Ice T. After I interviewed him I put him on the phone with my mom and they talked for 10 minutes. Ice T’s wife called back and talked to my wife. So many doors opened for me through Murder Dog. It got me recognized as a writer. I even caught the attention of the local news media. One of the largest papers in Indiana put me on the cover. They came out to my house and gave me a spotlight as a local celebrity because I was a writer for Murder Dog. This was a field I wanted to get into because I’m such a huge fan of Rap. I love Rap music. I’ve been listening to Rap now since 1986.

When I travel outside of America and go to foreign countries, so many people know you by name because you’ve interviewed their favorite rappers. They love Scott Bejda.

I’ve had people from Germany, Africa, Asia, Sweden, Japan, South America, all over the globe, hit me up and ask me questions. It’s great to be able to talk to these people from different parts of the world.

Do you see that Murder Dog has changed over time?

Murder Dog, over the years, you never sold out to the underground. Underground artists always have had a place in Murder Dog magazine. Whether it came from South Carolina or the west side of Chicago, Alabama or the Bay Area. Never sold out. Most magazines say, we don’t want to waste our time on these small time underground names. But these people are so important to Rap. Like it or not, the underground is the future of Rap. You never know where the next big thing is gonna come from. What’s cool about Murder Dog is you put the biggest name in Rap right next to an up an coming, independent artist. It’s not like an “unsigned” section, everybody is treated the same. Another thing you see in Murder Dog is the most hardcore Gangsta shit right alongside some backpacker Hip Hop.

Basically we feel like all of these people are important to Rap and we gave them all a home. We want to thank people like you who brought so much new music to us that we didn’t know about. You were the first person talking about Esham and people like that. Whatever you brought to us, we were open to it. We could hear from your voice that you were excited about it, so there must be other people who feel that way.

I appreciate you for noticing that. A lot of people might think I brought Esham and Natas because I did so many reviews of their CD’s. But ICP, I never did too many reviews on them. It doesn’t matter who brought what to the magazine. As long as they got in there. Murder Dog was always really willing and eager to check out these new artists and give them a shot.

Esham had been around for a long time, staying pretty underground. After you came and told us, we put him on the cover and gave him a lot of coverage.

I think that helped his career, he had like a second coming. Prior to that era Esham was successful in Detroit and some other places, but not on that level. After he was in Murder Dog he got picked up by TVT. He’d been on Warlock, but Warlock was never a big label. TVT was a much broader spectrum than what he was ever used to. That put him on the road, and he was on tour all through 2000 and 2001, touring the whole country.

We basically try to give a home to every artist because they’re all part of the Rap family.

Another thing that impressed me was that at the time that I started reviewing for Murder Dog my peers were rappers that I greatly looked up to. Other people who were doing reviews were Land of the Lost—Lou Nutt and Flaggs, Al Kapone who I was a huge fan of, and King JC, who I was just getting into. I felt like, I’m not even in this caliber, what the hell am I doing here? It was like a kid in a candy store. Those were some of the best times in my 10 years with Murder Dog. I really liked the 2000 through 2003 era. And 2006 was a huge year. I got The Game, got Snoop Dogg, got 50 Cent. That took  my résumé to a whole nother level. I typed up my résumé and sent it out to other magazines, but they didn’t want to have nothing to do with me. That’s fine. I’m OK with that.

That’s how we did it from the beginning. The people who work for Murder Dog are the pure Rap fans, like you, or they’re actual Rap artists. We didn’t just hire professional journalists, we got the die hard Rap fans working for us, people who really love the music. You don’t need to be a trained journalist to do a good interview, but you do need to be passionate about your subject.

That’s the main thing I noticed about Murder Dog, there wasn’t the writer’s perspective. I don’t care if Ludacris is walking into the Grandville Hotel and you could see the diamonds glistening in the air. I don’t give a shit about that!! I want to know what’s in his head. Ask him a straight question. Ask him about his personal life, about his music, ask him what kind of pussy he likes. Got straight for it, rather than give the writer’s interpretation.

When you were reading Murder Dog in the early days did you read reviews in Murder Dog and buy CD’s read about?

Definitely. That’s how I got up on 11/5 and a lot of underground rappers. When I got into Murder Dog you were really getting into the South shit. You had just done your Chicago report. I knew about all the Chicago stuff and it was awesome to see a magazine from Cali coming to Chicago and talkin about JD Walker or Crucial Conflict. Murder Dog put me up on a lotta shit. I’d look at CD’s other reviewers would do and I’d check ‘em out. Darkroom Familia, Dogday Records, that was classic shit.

How do you see your future in this. Are you still excited about what’s going on with Rap?
Yeah. The recent resurgence in the underground has got me amped up again. It’s got me really excited. There was a time a few years ago when I was like, what the fuck happened to Rap? But then I started see all these new styles poppin up. Like you see Mac Mall comin with a CD, he always had that Mobb shit but now he’s got this new shit. And Yukmouth’s new album, that’s some hardcore shit there! So many artists who’ve been around like Spice 1, he’s been off of a major for like 10 years and he’s still consistently putting out good music. Never throwing in the towel. It’s so good to see that. I think Murder Dog has played a big role in keeping the underground alive because Murder Dog is the only outlet for a lot of underground music.

Also we always support the new. We’re not stuck with any particular era of Rap.

Now you see the children of these rappers rapping—from Al Kapone to Brotha Lynch Hung to E-40 to Rappin 4-Tay. It’s a new generation. For sure, Murder Dog always was ready to cover artists and regions that nobody knew about yet. Murder Dog was the first magazine to really support Southern Rap.

In our first year we were already featuring a lot of Southern rappers from Eightball & MJG to Pistol to Big Mike. Where could you read about DJ Screw back then?
Nowhere. Only in Murder Dog. You had Master P on the cover way before he blew up. It was two years later that Source finally did a big feature on TRU. Before that, Murder Dog hands down was the first one to touch him. Same thing with Chicago Rap. No other magazine focused on the Midwest like Murder Dog.

There have been so many magazines over the years who came and went.

Definitely. I was writing for Street Masters out of Memphis. It was his fifth year in publication, and he’s done. I don’t know what happened. That’s where I was doing all those interviews with Mafia and KKK people. It was a good magazine, but it’s tough times to stay in alive in this business. So many magazines couldn’t stand the test of time. Other than the Source, Murder Dog is the longest running Rap magazine around.

It’s an entity. Murder Dog is not just a publication. The readers will tell you that, the rappers will tell you that. One thing I’ve gained from Murder Dog which I appreciate is I’ve gained respect from the streets in many different areas. I can go to any city and feel welcomed because of Murder Dog. People out there really respect us, not just because we’ve reviewed albums or done interviews, it’s just that they follow our shit. They buy the albums we review, they might see an artist from their hometown in there and they appreciate that.

Especially when I read the letters from the prison subscribers, I know we are doing something good.

Another blessing that came from Murder Dog was meeting legendary westside Chicago artist C.O. Tha! Bad Black. I met him in '02 and since we have become like brothers. He even made me the President of his label Themolishun Enterpryze. He is my brother, and if you ask him he will tell you that I am his brother.

 

 

Scott Bejda

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