Note: During our various upgrades over the years certain interviews have been "misplaced." We are now adding them back to our archives. This interview was first published on May 19, 2002.
He's been labeled "The Best in the West", "The next big thing", and "The Headliner of Tha Row". He is the first assassin sent from Suge Knight's Tha Row Records to take the rap game by storm. He has appeared on albums from Kurupt, Soopafly, Tha Dogg Pound, and more. He has worked with the west coast's finest like Snoop Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound, Xzibit, Kurupt, and others. Now its time for Crooked I to shine on his own with his debut album "Say Hi To Tha Bad Guy" coming soon. During this exclusive interview we speak on his album, working with Suge Knight, words for Daz Dillinger, the death of Lisa NINA Lopes, and more.
StreetHop.com: Out of all the labels out there these days, what made you decide to sign with Tha Row?
Crooked I: Cause its the only label on the West Coast were I could do what I felt, keep it ghetto, and keep it street yet still get that major push. Allot of these companies aren't gonna push you if your too ghetto, they'll probably tell you to put on a shiny suite and start dancing around. I knew that Suge would keep it gangsta so I knew that was where I needed to be.
StreetHop.com: Tell us a little bit about your upcoming album, "Say Hi To Tha Bad Guy".
Crooked I: Man, the album is back to back bangers. We put allot of hard work into the album, for everyone out there that's gonna spend their money on us, we aint in the studio bullshitin'. We put in some real work. Basically we got something for everybody on the album. We got street, ghetto, dirty, grimey tracks. We got the X-rated female type songs, you know you gotta have them on there. We got lyrical massacre type songs, we just got a variety of songs that displays the versatility we're working with. There's allot of cool features on the album, I ain't suppose to say who right now, but its gonna be a lovely thing when you hear them cause allot of people wanna say the East Coast and the West Coast is beefing but we got some heavy weights on the East Coast making guest appearances on the album as well as some down south cats so we're showin' that Tha Row got love world-wide.
StreetHop.com: The first single is "So Damn Hood" featuring Sisqo, when will the video be shot for that song?
Crooked I: Within days actually. We already made the treatment and already got the director so it'll be in days when we shoot that video. Its gonna be a cold little piece right there. So Damn Hood, we gotta bring that whole concept to the screen visually so people can feel us.
StreetHop.com: What was your reaction to the death of your label mate Lisa "N.I.N.A" Lopes?
Crooked I: Man, I was shook up, on the real. I was in Atlanta at the time and the cold thing about it was I really was expecting to see her at the time, cause that's where she's from. So when I was on the way there in the plane I was like yeah Ill probably run into Lisa down here and we can chop it up over some more of the songs, cause I had written a couple of songs for her album and she had recorded them and stuff. I was looking forward to seeing her. Then they gave up the news late at night somebody called me and I was real shook up. I didn't even go to sleep for a longtime, she's definitely gonna be surely missed. Its hard to come across a real person in this game, its like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Man, I'm gonna miss her.
StreetHop.com: For those who don't know, who all is on Tha Row currently?
Crooked I: We got Eastwood, he's a rapper, he's gonna be the next big thing, he's big. We got Ray J, we got Darren Vegas as a producer, Jim Gettum as a producer, Monster O as a producer. We got some new artists too that we're working with. We got a new reggae artist by the name of Gangsta Girl, she's real hot. And of course, we got Kurupt Tha Kingpin.
StreetHop.com: Who will distributing your album?
Crooked I: Koch, Koch Records. We're gonna take it through Koch because the thing is as long as they can put it on shelves we can do the rest. Tha Row is a monster, they're gonna make sure it goes down in a correct way. Everyone's real excited. I spoke to Michael Koch the other day, he's the owner of the company, and he's over-excited to get busy. It feels good to have a project that everybody's involved with and everybody's excited about pushing.
StreetHop.com: Back in the day you were on 19th Street Records, how did you hook up with them?
Crooked I: Basically, I was on the east side of Long Beach, I had a cool little reputation around Long Beach for rappin' and whatever, and one of the homeboys Big C-Style who is the owner of 19th Street Records pulled up on me like "yo, I've been looking for you and I need you to come in the studio" and was saying he had this going on with Capitol (Records) and had this going on with Virgin (Records), so I was like cool and jumped in the car and that was it.
StreetHop.com: What are your thoughts on the Jermaine Dupri diss song to Dr. Dre?
Crooked I: [laughs] I see he was jacking for beats and said a couple of one liners that was humorous [laughs]. It seems like its the beef season. I heard he got in a magazine and was like hey I'll take Dr. Dre and Timbaland out and all that. I'm not really mad at that kinda stuff though, cause it goes on allot. I mean in the silicon valley with like the company owner of Oracle and they go head up with Bill Gates, they'll be like in interviews saying Bill Gates is a bozo and in the media I mean you pick up USA Today and you see CEO's talkin' about each other and competing with each other. Like if a Jack In The Box is on the corner and someone comes and put Carls Jr. across the street, that's just how it is, its competitive in the game. And I'm not mad at any cat getting in a magazine saying "ok your doing your thing over there but I'm tighter than yall". That's just how it goes. So I'm not mad at that, and plus its kinda healthy cause if it don't go to the other side which we know can possibly crack as far as the violence side and all, but if it don't go there then its all good. Competition brings the best out of people. I like listening to peoples beef, I bang the little beef songs people be having. I'm not gonna front like "oh that's not good for hip hop", people don't know that they're talking about cause KRS One dropped "The Bridge Is Over", that was good for hip hop. "Jack The Ripper" and all that, that was good for hip hop. Allot of people don't know what the hell they talkin' about when they be like "that aint good for hip hop, they don't need to battle" naw fuck all that if niggas got problems lets do it on this microphone cause that's the nature of where we're coming from, that's real hip hop. So I'm with it.
StreetHop.com: Would you ever get involved in beefs?
Crooked I: Man, If somebody comes at me like that, I'm 100% rollin' over them. I'm never gonna bite my tongue, if a cat get on a song on some album and is dissin' me then its going down. Now allot of cats might wanna diss some small fries or some peons, you know you gotta pick your battles. But yeah, I'm rollin' on. I heard there's a few cats talkin' this and that. I'm gonna stack my paper and then I'm gonna bring it to them.
StreetHop.com: Will you be attending the Tyson/Lewis fight?
Crooked I: Yeah, Ill be up in there. I'm routing for Tyson man. I want Tyson to knock his head off. I want Tyson to stay away from that jab, move in on him, and kill him [laughs].
StreetHop.com: Any chance you'll be performing at the Tyson fight?
Crooked I: I don't know, I don't think so. But Tyson and Suge are good friends and you never know. You never know, you may see me walk up in the ring and start bustin' a diss in Lennox's face [laughs]. That'd be cool though, that be some real shit to go up in there though, I'd love to do that.
StreetHop.com: What producers will be lacing production on your album?
Crooked I: We got in house cats cause right now on the West Coast we need to start bringing brand new artists and brand new producers cause they're so many being broken in others places and we're not getting our fair shake. So we went and got the hottest new people, we put them down, and they're making some unbelievable shit cause they're still hungry and they haven't been tainted by the game. We got Jim Gettum, he's a young cat, a musical genius. He plays every instrument from the violin to the piano, whatever. We got Darren Vegas, he's another tight tight producer. We got Monster O. So what we did was went and found the new generation man. If you look at the West Coast, for the past decade its been the same people. Its not even like that in no other places, only in the West Coast region is it like that. I mean down south there's brand new cats poppin' up, on the East Coast there's new cats poppin up for days, so over here we just said ok its up to us to go here and bring the new cats to the table. Obviously we can afford any track we want, from any producer we want, and we get offers all the time. Every time we're in traffic whether its in New York or Atlanta or where ever we're at they're like "yo we wanna work on the album, we wanna work on the album" and its not no disrespect to them but we have a mission. We're trying to brake brand new cats. That's how it is and we're standing by that.
StreetHop.com: Recently in your interview at tharow.com you made a statement saying you are not supporting any 2pac biters in any way. Is there anyone in particular your were referring to?
Crooked I: Well, its just like we all know. You know when a cats trying to sound like 2pac or trying to take his image. I know you've probably sat back and heard a song and was like "here this nigga go again". You know, just be yourself. Your never gonna get the respect you should if your trying to duplicate another cat's flavor or style. Your never gonna get your own respect that you should want. Just be yourself, all them cats out there biting Pac, they aint about nothin'. That aint nothin', get your own shit.
StreetHop.com: What are your thoughts on Daz trying to a release a album of your shit?
Crooked I: I only got one word for Daz... detox.
He's been labeled "The Best in the West", "The next big thing", and "The Headliner of Tha Row". He is the first assassin sent from Suge Knight's Tha Row Records to take the rap game by storm. He has appeared on albums from Kurupt, Soopafly, Tha Dogg Pound, and more. He has worked with the west coast's finest like Snoop Dogg, Tha Dogg Pound, Xzibit, Kurupt, and others. Now its time for Crooked I to shine on his own with his debut album "Say Hi To Tha Bad Guy" coming soon. During this exclusive interview we speak on his album, working with Suge Knight, words for Daz Dillinger, the death of Lisa NINA Lopes, and more.
StreetHop.com: Out of all the labels out there these days, what made you decide to sign with Tha Row?
Crooked I: Cause its the only label on the West Coast were I could do what I felt, keep it ghetto, and keep it street yet still get that major push. Allot of these companies aren't gonna push you if your too ghetto, they'll probably tell you to put on a shiny suite and start dancing around. I knew that Suge would keep it gangsta so I knew that was where I needed to be.
StreetHop.com: Tell us a little bit about your upcoming album, "Say Hi To Tha Bad Guy".
Crooked I: Man, the album is back to back bangers. We put allot of hard work into the album, for everyone out there that's gonna spend their money on us, we aint in the studio bullshitin'. We put in some real work. Basically we got something for everybody on the album. We got street, ghetto, dirty, grimey tracks. We got the X-rated female type songs, you know you gotta have them on there. We got lyrical massacre type songs, we just got a variety of songs that displays the versatility we're working with. There's allot of cool features on the album, I ain't suppose to say who right now, but its gonna be a lovely thing when you hear them cause allot of people wanna say the East Coast and the West Coast is beefing but we got some heavy weights on the East Coast making guest appearances on the album as well as some down south cats so we're showin' that Tha Row got love world-wide.
StreetHop.com: The first single is "So Damn Hood" featuring Sisqo, when will the video be shot for that song?
Crooked I: Within days actually. We already made the treatment and already got the director so it'll be in days when we shoot that video. Its gonna be a cold little piece right there. So Damn Hood, we gotta bring that whole concept to the screen visually so people can feel us.
StreetHop.com: What was your reaction to the death of your label mate Lisa "N.I.N.A" Lopes?
Crooked I: Man, I was shook up, on the real. I was in Atlanta at the time and the cold thing about it was I really was expecting to see her at the time, cause that's where she's from. So when I was on the way there in the plane I was like yeah Ill probably run into Lisa down here and we can chop it up over some more of the songs, cause I had written a couple of songs for her album and she had recorded them and stuff. I was looking forward to seeing her. Then they gave up the news late at night somebody called me and I was real shook up. I didn't even go to sleep for a longtime, she's definitely gonna be surely missed. Its hard to come across a real person in this game, its like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Man, I'm gonna miss her.
StreetHop.com: For those who don't know, who all is on Tha Row currently?
Crooked I: We got Eastwood, he's a rapper, he's gonna be the next big thing, he's big. We got Ray J, we got Darren Vegas as a producer, Jim Gettum as a producer, Monster O as a producer. We got some new artists too that we're working with. We got a new reggae artist by the name of Gangsta Girl, she's real hot. And of course, we got Kurupt Tha Kingpin.
StreetHop.com: Who will distributing your album?
Crooked I: Koch, Koch Records. We're gonna take it through Koch because the thing is as long as they can put it on shelves we can do the rest. Tha Row is a monster, they're gonna make sure it goes down in a correct way. Everyone's real excited. I spoke to Michael Koch the other day, he's the owner of the company, and he's over-excited to get busy. It feels good to have a project that everybody's involved with and everybody's excited about pushing.
StreetHop.com: Back in the day you were on 19th Street Records, how did you hook up with them?
Crooked I: Basically, I was on the east side of Long Beach, I had a cool little reputation around Long Beach for rappin' and whatever, and one of the homeboys Big C-Style who is the owner of 19th Street Records pulled up on me like "yo, I've been looking for you and I need you to come in the studio" and was saying he had this going on with Capitol (Records) and had this going on with Virgin (Records), so I was like cool and jumped in the car and that was it.
StreetHop.com: What are your thoughts on the Jermaine Dupri diss song to Dr. Dre?
Crooked I: [laughs] I see he was jacking for beats and said a couple of one liners that was humorous [laughs]. It seems like its the beef season. I heard he got in a magazine and was like hey I'll take Dr. Dre and Timbaland out and all that. I'm not really mad at that kinda stuff though, cause it goes on allot. I mean in the silicon valley with like the company owner of Oracle and they go head up with Bill Gates, they'll be like in interviews saying Bill Gates is a bozo and in the media I mean you pick up USA Today and you see CEO's talkin' about each other and competing with each other. Like if a Jack In The Box is on the corner and someone comes and put Carls Jr. across the street, that's just how it is, its competitive in the game. And I'm not mad at any cat getting in a magazine saying "ok your doing your thing over there but I'm tighter than yall". That's just how it goes. So I'm not mad at that, and plus its kinda healthy cause if it don't go to the other side which we know can possibly crack as far as the violence side and all, but if it don't go there then its all good. Competition brings the best out of people. I like listening to peoples beef, I bang the little beef songs people be having. I'm not gonna front like "oh that's not good for hip hop", people don't know that they're talking about cause KRS One dropped "The Bridge Is Over", that was good for hip hop. "Jack The Ripper" and all that, that was good for hip hop. Allot of people don't know what the hell they talkin' about when they be like "that aint good for hip hop, they don't need to battle" naw fuck all that if niggas got problems lets do it on this microphone cause that's the nature of where we're coming from, that's real hip hop. So I'm with it.
StreetHop.com: Would you ever get involved in beefs?
Crooked I: Man, If somebody comes at me like that, I'm 100% rollin' over them. I'm never gonna bite my tongue, if a cat get on a song on some album and is dissin' me then its going down. Now allot of cats might wanna diss some small fries or some peons, you know you gotta pick your battles. But yeah, I'm rollin' on. I heard there's a few cats talkin' this and that. I'm gonna stack my paper and then I'm gonna bring it to them.
StreetHop.com: Will you be attending the Tyson/Lewis fight?
Crooked I: Yeah, Ill be up in there. I'm routing for Tyson man. I want Tyson to knock his head off. I want Tyson to stay away from that jab, move in on him, and kill him [laughs].
StreetHop.com: Any chance you'll be performing at the Tyson fight?
Crooked I: I don't know, I don't think so. But Tyson and Suge are good friends and you never know. You never know, you may see me walk up in the ring and start bustin' a diss in Lennox's face [laughs]. That'd be cool though, that be some real shit to go up in there though, I'd love to do that.
StreetHop.com: What producers will be lacing production on your album?
Crooked I: We got in house cats cause right now on the West Coast we need to start bringing brand new artists and brand new producers cause they're so many being broken in others places and we're not getting our fair shake. So we went and got the hottest new people, we put them down, and they're making some unbelievable shit cause they're still hungry and they haven't been tainted by the game. We got Jim Gettum, he's a young cat, a musical genius. He plays every instrument from the violin to the piano, whatever. We got Darren Vegas, he's another tight tight producer. We got Monster O. So what we did was went and found the new generation man. If you look at the West Coast, for the past decade its been the same people. Its not even like that in no other places, only in the West Coast region is it like that. I mean down south there's brand new cats poppin' up, on the East Coast there's new cats poppin up for days, so over here we just said ok its up to us to go here and bring the new cats to the table. Obviously we can afford any track we want, from any producer we want, and we get offers all the time. Every time we're in traffic whether its in New York or Atlanta or where ever we're at they're like "yo we wanna work on the album, we wanna work on the album" and its not no disrespect to them but we have a mission. We're trying to brake brand new cats. That's how it is and we're standing by that.
StreetHop.com: Recently in your interview at tharow.com you made a statement saying you are not supporting any 2pac biters in any way. Is there anyone in particular your were referring to?
Crooked I: Well, its just like we all know. You know when a cats trying to sound like 2pac or trying to take his image. I know you've probably sat back and heard a song and was like "here this nigga go again". You know, just be yourself. Your never gonna get the respect you should if your trying to duplicate another cat's flavor or style. Your never gonna get your own respect that you should want. Just be yourself, all them cats out there biting Pac, they aint about nothin'. That aint nothin', get your own shit.
StreetHop.com: What are your thoughts on Daz trying to a release a album of your shit?
Crooked I: I only got one word for Daz... detox.
