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Interview with Big Rich Your sound has a more universal and mainstream sound in comparison to most Bay Area artists. What would you say you are doing differently than other Bay Area artists and what inspired your sound? I listen to a lot of different music. A lot of people like to pick and sample from early days of rap. I don’t do that, I like to be current. When people ask me who are my favorite rappers, I pick from current rappers. Right now it’s Lil Wayne and Jay-Z. I’d rather stay current, not to copy off other people’s styles, but I want to make sure my shit is updated. You gotta stay with the times or get left. I want to be able to compete with Lil Wayne. I don’t want to be the biggest Bay Area artist, I want to be the biggest rapper period. If it’s a different beat I just do me on the track. I bring my element to every song. That’s why my album sounds like it can be played on MTV, because I pay attention to what’s on MTV. I see your name everywhere. What are you working on now? Me and Quinn did the “SF Anthem” movement. We shot the video to the song and it should be on BET and MTV in the next two weeks. We did what we call “All City 415 Record” that’s throwing out all the legends from RBL, Cellski and the old school cats that we grew up on. We brought them back out on a group effort between me and Quinn and Boo Banger. I also got the “Get Down or Lay Down”. It’s not a mixtape, it’s a street album because 90% of the album is all new music. Part 2 is coming out in June and that’s for the streets. It’s only at Rasputin’s Records and digital download. That’s a lot of work. You’ve been busy. In the meantime I’ve been working crazy on my new album. I put a lot a new work on this new joint and it’s already ten times better than the last album. It’s only 2/3 the way done and it’s sounding crazy. It’s called “Heart of the City” and I’m trying to get it out by the end of the year and the official single and video will be out by August. Who’s doing the production on the new album? It’s mostly produced by my production team, which consists of a dude named D-Animal, MA and my boy down in LA named Automatic. I got Too $hort, E-40, Da Hoodstars, Quinn and Jacka. Everything else is me. How has your reception in the streets changed since the release of “Block Tested, Hood Approved”? It’s grown more and more. It’s a great thing. A lot of artists have reached out. I’ve done tons of features on other albums. Off top that’s important to me too because I got a lot of respect from other emcees out here and across the country. On the street level it’s crazy with the fans because going shopping with my girl or my mom I get stopped all the time. I’m taking pictures and signing autographs and dealing with the fans one on one. We are also doing a “Get Down or Lay Down” tour and I’m also appearing at high schools. It was surprising how well my music is received at the high schools because my music is more grown, but the students really gravitate towards me. The popularity went through the roof with the album. I did a show with E-40 at San Louis Obispo and it was crazy. It was a whole bunch of White folks and it’s a college town and I didn’t even think they would have known me out there. I’m also about to start leaking the footage of the concerts on youtube. How different is the marketing and promotion going to be done on this album in comparison to the first album? With the first album I went in just doing music. And with labels it’s like, “if you buzzing, you buzzing. If not, you’re not.” You can have the streets but with labels they need that radio. But when I came out it was great. “That’s the Business” was number 3 on the day my album came out, and “Where I’m From” was number ten. My goal was to lock down the streets so I can come back to the label and show them I had a strong fan base, and not just in the Bay. I didn’t want to get love in only Sac, KMEL and Fresno, I want to be able to take it everywhere. This time I’ve been more hands on with everything even to the artwork. I want to give the label the lowest amount of work and responsibility and take care as much as I can myself so all they have to do is just pump in the bread to get this shit in motion. My marketing was very slept on with my first album and I can’t do it this time around, that’s the most important thing. You can sell a freezer to an Eskimo if you present it right. The music’s not the problem, the music’s always been solid. Now that Koch can see what I can do and the buzz is good, they’ll take it more seriously. Not just the label but also the radio stations and the DJ’s, when they see my record they’ll pay more attention to it this time around. I’m more established and the name is bigger. How did you get your deal with Koch? We was with Done Deal with San Quinn and Charles Kelley, Ya Boy and Fully Loaded. We were already in negotiations with Koch as a label. San Quinn and Charles Kelley ended up splitting ways. The whole label went with Quinn. Me and Quinn have a brother relationship and he was like, “It’s crowded over here and Ya Boy is ready to go. Ya Boy is going to drop regardless, so if Chuck has a good situation over there for you, go ahead and take it.” Charles Kelley presented me a great deal with a shitload of money up front and a chance to be on the same label with Jim Jones and BG and all these other dudes that’s solid in the rap game. It was a no-brainer so of course I was going to take. We still had to show and prove, we went out to New York but it was still “iffy”. E-40 came through the backing. He’s a great guy and he really believed in the record and was like, “This album is good, I’m a fan, let me put my stamp on it.” When he came along the ball really started rolling with getting a release date and attention. How different is it for you being a solo rapper versus being in Fully Loaded? Personally, as an artist it was hard because I had to everything on my own. Bailey is one of the hardest working artists I ever met. Dude would get in there and work so hard and so fast you had to slow him down. We followed Bailey’s direction on a lot of the records. When I went solo It was different. I wasn’t used to doing all the hooks and work, but eventually I got used to it. Now, I don’t think I could ever last in a group because I’m so into doing me and being myself and building my story, I couldn’t share it anymore because my music is so personal. I can’t do one 16, I need three 16’s. The freedom is good, to do what you feel like and go whatever direction you wanna go In. It’s also better to get that whole dollar instead of just 0.33 cents. Bailey and Torriano are still going to be brothers for life and it’s still one hundred, we just gonna get this money right now. Is there any chances of a Fully Loaded reunion? There’s always chances. I think when Bailey gets to where he’s always planned on and when I get to where I plan on, we are going to come together. The money and the situation has to be right. How did you hook up with D-Block? We out to New York and at the time it was just J-Hood and Sheek signed to Koch. The album was almost done and we were like let’s get some features from out here. Jim Jones was just so fasted paced and we had a record with Hell Rell but it didn’t make the album. We got up in there with Sheek Louch, and he was the most coolest humble dude I know from the East. We did the record with him and J-Hood, gave him some trees and came with some real heat. After that, Styles P signed to Koch and we stayed connected through his manager because he was coming out here Bay Area all the time. 2006 was a big year for San Francisco. I call it the SF Renaissance. What happened to the momentum in 2007 and what are you going to do to bring that momentum back? The momentum was there definitely. Messy Marv kills the underground, Bailey dropped earlier that year, San Quinn dropped the biggest album of his career. Me and Quinn was on the road most of 2007, so we really wasn’t making music. And the Hyphy movement crumbled because labels was scared. A few dudes got deals off the Hyphy movement but it wasn’t selling the way the labels expected it to and they say the buzz went down. When that happened the momentum for the whole Bay Area went down. This year we dropping the “SF Anthem” to get the blood flowing again and get back in the studio and get these albums out again. People don’t have anything to worry about. San Quinn is recording the best music he ever done. I’m recording the best music I ever done and I’m sure Bailey is doing his thing. Messy Marv is about to drop something big. So we’re definitely gonna hold it down for Frisco. “Live From the 415” has a lot of OG San Francisco rappers on it. What inspired that song? Rappin 4-Tay came home from prison and everybody was excited that he came back. When he went in, I was just a young Fully Loaded member and he saw how my stock had risen when he came home. Quinn and Messy Marv, Seff was all doing they thing and he was like “I need y’all.” When I got on the record everybody was already on it so I was proud that he put me on the record with those legends. 4-Tay is the only San Francisco rapper with a plaque so we have to pay homage to dude. How has the Fillmore rap scene changed over the years? People get older and you lose some of them. JT is such a pioneer and a mogul but he’s not doing music that much anymore. He has a magazine and movies and management now. He was the heart of Fillmore as far as the music. Now the young dudes are growing up. San Francisco rap is primarily Fillmore music with the exception of Cellski, Guce and RBL over there in Lakeview and Hunters Point. Everyone from Fillmore is a part of Done Deal music. We are all brothers and it’s all friendly competition because we all started with each other. It’s still the same swagger it’s just new faces. How has gentrification affected the hip-hop scene in Fillmore and Western Addition? It takes away the essence of the city. The name of my album is “The Heart of the City” and what it explains is what I represent. I represent everything that is not the Golden Gate Bridge or Fisherman’s Wharf. Everything that’s not Nob Hill or Market Street. It’s the working class down to the projects. That’s the heart of the city. We are the ones working and building in these establishments. You go down the movie theaters and it’s all project kids working in there and down to the nickel and dime hustlers on the block. When they tore down the projects, they tore down the heart and soul of the hood. They broke down the essence. We try to restore the feelings of the hood, but it’s hard when you look around and you have these new condominiums and shit. A lot of niggas got moved out to Richmond and Antioch. When you look around it’s not the same hood anymore. They stole our essence but the game is still here and our swagger is still here. I guess gentrification is a good thing for some. That’s the direction Willie Brown and Gavin Newsome was looking for, a better San Francisco. But it stole our essence. But they don’t want hip-hop in San Francisco. They have Town Hall meetings and shit because of the violence at the clubs. But the reason the shit is happening at the club is because they shut down the corners and the blocks. Beef is beef and the shit is going to go down anyway and somewhere. They finding niggas chilling at the club. The same dudes they had beef with across the street that moved out is the same dudes they bump into at the club. They can find them at any other club in the City. The violence is going to happen anyways so don’t blame it on hip-hop. There’s violence in every community you go to. But to answer the question, it hasn’t killed the spirit. We tryna restore the feeling. That’s my mission, that’s San Quinn’s mission.
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