Westcoast rapper Crooked I has been through enough to make any sane artist contemplate quitting the game. He’s had more deals than some artists have in a lifetime! First, there was his possibly sabotaged, short-lived contract with Virgin Records. Then lies his four year stint with the drowning Death Row Records. Five years with a label that never released an album from him! Matters definitely weren’t any easier when his contract expired and he opted not to renew. Signed with a new label, Suge would only sabotage that opportunity, causing his new team to question their decision to work with him. Now he’s at it again, but this time, there’s one thing that’s different! He’s doing it all through his own Dynasty Records. Read along and find out how he arrived at where he is right now!
What’s been going on with you man ?
Just trying to get this album done man, and I’m like 80-85% done. Trying to promote at the same time and restore that feeling back on the west.
A lot of people don’t know that you were signed to Virgin Records at the beginning of your career. What happened as to why you didn’t release anything with them ?
Well what happened was I was signed over there, and we made an album. It was a damned good album too. People was feeling it. One of the executives did something up top that the owners didn’t agree with. So they got rid of the whole urban department. Basically, they dropped everybody black except Janet Jackson. I kinda fell victim to some politics that I really didn’t have nothing to do with. It was cool, but they really didn’t know how to sell rap records anyway. You really never seen a rap record do well over there, so I was really tripping. I just kept moving.
Now what was it that moved you over to Death Row ?
Well, after I did that, I started to rap/hustle. Dealing with all the independents, making all I can writing rhymes, doing features, and I was doing that for a year and some change. I was at least making a lawyer’s salary by doing that. Then my home boy had a situation at Death Row, and basically say “Hey, I want you to be a part of this at Death Row”. I got on the radio and said I was going to go holla at Suge. Then I got a call from Dr. Dre. So I went to the studio to talk to him, and me, C-Style, and Dre initially made plans to do something together. The only thing was he said I would probably have to wait a year, and I told him I couldn’t do that.
Looking back now, do you think that was a good decision ?
Although I got a hundred percent piece of what I do, I didn’t feel like that was a guarantee that I would come out with something over there. I thought Dre was straying away from west coast gangsta rap. Plus I did something on the T-N-Tee album, which would have been on Aftermath, but that never came out. So I didn’t know. It’s a gamble, and you don’t know what’s going happen. I just knew I was making good money doing what I was doing, and I couldn’t do that because I got a lot of responsibilities. I take care of my four brothers, and I been paying mom’s bills since I was like 15, so I got madd responsibilities. So I hollered at Suge in the penitentiary. We basically did the whole deal there. I was up there at least once a month, trying to get everything correct.
You did quite a few things while you were on the label, but why do you think that out of the four years that you were signed to Death Row Records, they never released your album.
It’s because the situation just wasn’t right over there at Death Row. Koch Records is not big enough to hold Death Row Records. Koch is the distribution company that was handling Death Row. At the time, I thought that since I put all these songs together, and I was getting blackballed in the industry because of my affiliations, then maybe we could release some music. But then it finally dawned on me that this dude ain’t going to release no album on Koch. He ain’t going to tarnish his image and put out something that’s going to go wood, because it won’t look good for him. It might wipe him out. Once I came to that realization that he’s not going to put a record out for me, and not just me but Kurupt, or Left Eye, or whoever, I said I just needed to leave and start my own label! Be my own boss! And he still hasn’t really put out anything yet!
Do you feel like it caused trouble for you to leave ?
Yea, because my lawyer basically sent a letter saying his contract is up and he’s not going to renew. My contract was expired, so we didn’t want to renew. Ain’t no hard feelings, we just out! Everything went cool until I popped up in a magazine talking about what I was doing. Ten Death Row sent out a cease and desist letter. In other words, they filed a lawsuit saying they didn’t feel like my contract was expired. Basically, the people I was dealing with stopped and told me I had to settle that first. I was in the middle of recording my album, and he hit me with a lawsuit. Suge Knight told me in his own word that he would never stand in the way of a man trying to better himself. But he stood in my way, and in my way, and I was very disappointed in that because you don’t find very many artists that’ll stay down with a label for four years without putting out an album. HE feel like he invested some money on my career, so I offered him a dollar for every record sold. His assistant came back and told me that he want a million dollars. I didn’t feel that was feasible. They argued that they got money from Master P from Snoop, but Snoop is already a multi-platinum artist. That’s not feasible for somebody that ain’t been tested in the market already. So I just let the lawyers handle it. The lawsuit ain’t no sweat off him. Fifty or Sixty thousand dollars and nothing to him, but that hurts me though. For me to be starting a new company and coming out of Sixty thousand dollars here, or there, that hurts me. The judge gave a court order saying that Suge couldn’t be sending out cease and desist letters. Now I’m told that there’s a chance he will sue me personally since he couldn’t win that way.
What’s the title of the new album ?
I named it Boss Music, and that’s because everything that I’ve been through, it was so that I could be my own boss. I’m trying to step the game up on the west coast. We need to get into the corporate part of hip hop. You got people like Jay-Z buying into basketball, and you got people like Diddy with shows on HBO and MTV, but when you look at the west, it’s nothing. I’m trying to raise the bar.
What did you think of the meeting that Snoop put together ?
It’s a positive thing that nothing violent broke out, but real is real. It seemed like they was promoting a concert. It was just publicity. Thatr’s my feeling. I don’t have no problem with nobody, but that’s what it looked like in my mind. I was going thinking they would talk about how we could elevate each other. Snoop said he had no problems with Suge, but Suge wasn’t there. I wanted to holler at him. That’s good that he don’t got no problems with Suge, but it’s people in this audience that got problems with people on the panel, and they never opened up for questions or discussion.
It’s definitely good to see you doing your tahing because so many people that have been down with Death Row are nowhere to be found now. At least you had the talent to see your way out of it.
Oh man, that’s good lookin, because I’ve seen it too. It’s hard to maintain a good rep coming from that label if you don’t do the right thing while you are there. If you jump on that label and diss the whole world for no reason, then you leave, nobody is going to forget what you said. I kept a clean rep, and not because I’m scared to diss somebody, but because it ain’t my battle. I talked to Dre recently, and me and him look like we’ll work together soon. I talked to Puffy, and it’s not like sucka shit. I love Tupac’s music, and I met him. The Tupac and biggie thing was a tragedy. They not going to solve who killed who because the police don’t care. Rappers could get killed all day, but they don’t care about that. In our community, we got to come together and try to solve all that for the sake of the music.
What else is going on for you besides the new album and Dynasty Records ?
I got the Life After Death Row documentary. Russel Simmons is on there, Master P, Loon, David Mays, BMI crew, and I just talk about my experiences on Death Row, and they talk about their experiences dealing with Death Row from the outside. Master P talks about how he acquired Snoop, and Russell talks about how he could have sat Puffy and Suge down to get them to resolve their issues. It’s a good documentary. It’s coming out in September, and I got a car accessory line coming, and that’s basically it.
Do you have any final comments ?
Just keep that west coast music in mind. And to the consumers, make sure that the artist you’re supporting is the type of person that’s going to give back. When you support an artist, you give hime power. When you give them so much power, and they don’t use it to give back, then they’re abusing the power. So read up on these artists.
hiphop-magazine.com
What’s been going on with you man ?
Just trying to get this album done man, and I’m like 80-85% done. Trying to promote at the same time and restore that feeling back on the west.
A lot of people don’t know that you were signed to Virgin Records at the beginning of your career. What happened as to why you didn’t release anything with them ?
Well what happened was I was signed over there, and we made an album. It was a damned good album too. People was feeling it. One of the executives did something up top that the owners didn’t agree with. So they got rid of the whole urban department. Basically, they dropped everybody black except Janet Jackson. I kinda fell victim to some politics that I really didn’t have nothing to do with. It was cool, but they really didn’t know how to sell rap records anyway. You really never seen a rap record do well over there, so I was really tripping. I just kept moving.
Now what was it that moved you over to Death Row ?
Well, after I did that, I started to rap/hustle. Dealing with all the independents, making all I can writing rhymes, doing features, and I was doing that for a year and some change. I was at least making a lawyer’s salary by doing that. Then my home boy had a situation at Death Row, and basically say “Hey, I want you to be a part of this at Death Row”. I got on the radio and said I was going to go holla at Suge. Then I got a call from Dr. Dre. So I went to the studio to talk to him, and me, C-Style, and Dre initially made plans to do something together. The only thing was he said I would probably have to wait a year, and I told him I couldn’t do that.
Looking back now, do you think that was a good decision ?
Although I got a hundred percent piece of what I do, I didn’t feel like that was a guarantee that I would come out with something over there. I thought Dre was straying away from west coast gangsta rap. Plus I did something on the T-N-Tee album, which would have been on Aftermath, but that never came out. So I didn’t know. It’s a gamble, and you don’t know what’s going happen. I just knew I was making good money doing what I was doing, and I couldn’t do that because I got a lot of responsibilities. I take care of my four brothers, and I been paying mom’s bills since I was like 15, so I got madd responsibilities. So I hollered at Suge in the penitentiary. We basically did the whole deal there. I was up there at least once a month, trying to get everything correct.
You did quite a few things while you were on the label, but why do you think that out of the four years that you were signed to Death Row Records, they never released your album.
It’s because the situation just wasn’t right over there at Death Row. Koch Records is not big enough to hold Death Row Records. Koch is the distribution company that was handling Death Row. At the time, I thought that since I put all these songs together, and I was getting blackballed in the industry because of my affiliations, then maybe we could release some music. But then it finally dawned on me that this dude ain’t going to release no album on Koch. He ain’t going to tarnish his image and put out something that’s going to go wood, because it won’t look good for him. It might wipe him out. Once I came to that realization that he’s not going to put a record out for me, and not just me but Kurupt, or Left Eye, or whoever, I said I just needed to leave and start my own label! Be my own boss! And he still hasn’t really put out anything yet!
Do you feel like it caused trouble for you to leave ?
Yea, because my lawyer basically sent a letter saying his contract is up and he’s not going to renew. My contract was expired, so we didn’t want to renew. Ain’t no hard feelings, we just out! Everything went cool until I popped up in a magazine talking about what I was doing. Ten Death Row sent out a cease and desist letter. In other words, they filed a lawsuit saying they didn’t feel like my contract was expired. Basically, the people I was dealing with stopped and told me I had to settle that first. I was in the middle of recording my album, and he hit me with a lawsuit. Suge Knight told me in his own word that he would never stand in the way of a man trying to better himself. But he stood in my way, and in my way, and I was very disappointed in that because you don’t find very many artists that’ll stay down with a label for four years without putting out an album. HE feel like he invested some money on my career, so I offered him a dollar for every record sold. His assistant came back and told me that he want a million dollars. I didn’t feel that was feasible. They argued that they got money from Master P from Snoop, but Snoop is already a multi-platinum artist. That’s not feasible for somebody that ain’t been tested in the market already. So I just let the lawyers handle it. The lawsuit ain’t no sweat off him. Fifty or Sixty thousand dollars and nothing to him, but that hurts me though. For me to be starting a new company and coming out of Sixty thousand dollars here, or there, that hurts me. The judge gave a court order saying that Suge couldn’t be sending out cease and desist letters. Now I’m told that there’s a chance he will sue me personally since he couldn’t win that way.
What’s the title of the new album ?
I named it Boss Music, and that’s because everything that I’ve been through, it was so that I could be my own boss. I’m trying to step the game up on the west coast. We need to get into the corporate part of hip hop. You got people like Jay-Z buying into basketball, and you got people like Diddy with shows on HBO and MTV, but when you look at the west, it’s nothing. I’m trying to raise the bar.
What did you think of the meeting that Snoop put together ?
It’s a positive thing that nothing violent broke out, but real is real. It seemed like they was promoting a concert. It was just publicity. Thatr’s my feeling. I don’t have no problem with nobody, but that’s what it looked like in my mind. I was going thinking they would talk about how we could elevate each other. Snoop said he had no problems with Suge, but Suge wasn’t there. I wanted to holler at him. That’s good that he don’t got no problems with Suge, but it’s people in this audience that got problems with people on the panel, and they never opened up for questions or discussion.
It’s definitely good to see you doing your tahing because so many people that have been down with Death Row are nowhere to be found now. At least you had the talent to see your way out of it.
Oh man, that’s good lookin, because I’ve seen it too. It’s hard to maintain a good rep coming from that label if you don’t do the right thing while you are there. If you jump on that label and diss the whole world for no reason, then you leave, nobody is going to forget what you said. I kept a clean rep, and not because I’m scared to diss somebody, but because it ain’t my battle. I talked to Dre recently, and me and him look like we’ll work together soon. I talked to Puffy, and it’s not like sucka shit. I love Tupac’s music, and I met him. The Tupac and biggie thing was a tragedy. They not going to solve who killed who because the police don’t care. Rappers could get killed all day, but they don’t care about that. In our community, we got to come together and try to solve all that for the sake of the music.
What else is going on for you besides the new album and Dynasty Records ?
I got the Life After Death Row documentary. Russel Simmons is on there, Master P, Loon, David Mays, BMI crew, and I just talk about my experiences on Death Row, and they talk about their experiences dealing with Death Row from the outside. Master P talks about how he acquired Snoop, and Russell talks about how he could have sat Puffy and Suge down to get them to resolve their issues. It’s a good documentary. It’s coming out in September, and I got a car accessory line coming, and that’s basically it.
Do you have any final comments ?
Just keep that west coast music in mind. And to the consumers, make sure that the artist you’re supporting is the type of person that’s going to give back. When you support an artist, you give hime power. When you give them so much power, and they don’t use it to give back, then they’re abusing the power. So read up on these artists.
hiphop-magazine.com
