0:00

No jumper coolest podcast in the world.

0:02

It is 233 on

0:05

a Saturday afternoon and I'm in here

0:07

tapping in with a man who realistically

0:09

we've been talking about doing an interview

0:11

for probably six

0:13

years. Is that what

0:15

I'm trying to think of like when we

0:17

first that's that's we first started communicating during

0:20

the six nine era. Wow. And

0:22

that was about six years ago time flies.

0:24

Doesn't feel like six years right? Okay, damn

0:26

six year anniversary. Pull the mic out a

0:29

little bit. Six year anniversary. And we finally

0:31

made it happen after all these years. Yeah,

0:33

because I told you didn't love me. That's

0:35

why. Yeah, you did give me a little

0:37

bit of a guilt trip a couple times. There. Yeah, you don't love

0:39

me. Homie. Of course, I can come to your show. No,

0:42

I got to tap in. No, I got to tap in with spanky

0:44

local man. I'm trying to get the full story. What

0:46

story? Your story. Oh, okay.

0:48

Because because you're a legend. But I feel like,

0:51

you know, as you reach legend status,

0:53

sometimes people lose sight of where exactly you were coming

0:55

from and how you got where you're at today. So

0:58

I definitely want to tell the whole story from day

1:00

one. Day one, if you don't mind.

1:04

West LA. I'm from West LA. Right. Right down

1:06

the way way. So Venice,

1:08

La Cinica area. Okay. Yeah.

1:10

Born in the area. What

1:13

year? 75. 75.

1:15

Okay, boys and old head. You know, I'm saying you got

1:17

about eight years on me. Yeah. Peter

1:20

Pan. I'm Peter

1:22

Pan. You're just

1:25

young forever. You know what I'm saying? Little kid

1:27

with a grown man's body. How do you keep

1:29

that youthful exuberance? I've

1:32

been working on not putting

1:36

my feelings into things. You know what

1:38

I'm saying? Like not being so critical about, you

1:41

know, our imperfections. I'm

1:43

saying except, you know, my peers

1:46

and situations as they come and taking it one day at

1:48

a time without overwhelming myself. And

1:50

getting upset over things

1:53

that don't work out my way. Well, that is a

1:55

good point. I think that when it comes to like

1:57

getting older, but still keeping a little bit of a

1:59

sense of bit of youthful energy, you

2:01

have to resist that urge to feel like

2:04

you know everything, you've seen everything, you've done

2:06

everything. The music that I

2:08

fucked with when I was in high school was the

2:10

best shit ever and all this new shit sucks. And

2:12

like, as soon as you start to take on that

2:15

attitude, you're getting closer

2:17

and closer to the old head category and you're

2:19

getting closer and closer to the point where younger

2:21

people won't give a shit about your opinion. There

2:23

you go. So, you know, I

2:26

try to keep an open mind, you know, especially

2:28

with, you know, the same

2:30

music, art, you know, the

2:32

whole, the whole

2:34

business, you feel me? There's

2:36

stuff I don't, you

2:39

know, teach their own, you know? There's

2:42

some stuff I don't, I gravitate to, there's stuff

2:44

I don't, but it don't mean

2:46

I'm a Gordon. Say,

2:48

you know, it's like trash or not

2:52

like, let's get it. Keep going.

2:54

Congratulations. It'll get better with

2:56

time. You feel me? Because the thing that

2:58

you can't forget is that if

3:00

there's, you know, 50,000 or 100,000 or

3:04

half a million kids or just people

3:07

in general that love a song so much

3:09

or love an artist so much that they're

3:11

like obsessed with that person, they're

3:13

not wrong. You just might not

3:15

understand why they're obsessed, but as you learn more about

3:17

it, you can uncover it. And it doesn't mean that

3:20

you need to like pretend

3:22

to be as impressed as, you know, you

3:24

would be maybe if you were 18, but

3:27

like you could still zero in on what it

3:29

is about this that resonates with people. And

3:31

to me, that's how I like, I think of it. I try

3:33

to care about the fact

3:35

that other people care, even if I don't personally

3:38

care. I want to like uncover what the reason

3:40

is. Right. Right. And

3:42

also expanding your

3:45

palette is important. Being

3:48

cultured is important. You know what I'm saying? It's

3:51

like trying different things is

3:53

amazing. So I think that's where I'm at.

3:57

Right. So I'm not quick to shoot shit down or

3:59

like. I don't know. But

4:05

you know what the thing is, is that the

4:07

story of history is like the

4:09

story of shit getting watered down.

4:12

Of course. And like the version of, let's just

4:14

say the streets that you grew up around. Right.

4:17

It's not the same. It's like as time goes by,

4:19

it gets more watered down. Yeah, I was talking to the little

4:21

homie on the way. And

4:25

we're going through West LA and you see

4:27

all the buildings and all the new residents

4:29

and shit. And

4:32

I go, look man, look at that big badass building in

4:34

the hood right there. You

4:36

know, going to Washington and before

4:40

the tent. And it's like, look, look,

4:43

we're all the out of towners, you know what

4:45

I'm saying? Residing. And

4:48

it's not like it used to be, you feel

4:50

me? It's like so condensed with people that are

4:52

not really connected to the area. You're a

4:55

little different. Your area is super identified now. Yeah.

4:58

Yeah. That's for sure. What

5:01

feeling does that give you? Because it's got to be like part of

5:03

you. It feels like the

5:05

local charm is leaving. But then

5:07

on the other hand, if it

5:09

gets safer, if people who

5:12

have lived there for a long time are able to

5:14

profit from the houses, getting more valuable. Correct.

5:17

I mean, the name of the game

5:19

is to win and

5:21

to lift

5:24

your kids, lift your family, lift your community. I

5:26

think that's, but I'm on some other shit, homie.

5:28

You know what I mean? I'm on some other

5:30

shit. I'm on some other shit. Some other shit.

5:33

You know, working with youngsters, going to

5:35

institutions. So when it

5:37

comes down to that, to the economy, to

5:39

the community, to how

5:41

we're raising our kids, you know,

5:43

like, yeah, we came from that environment. But,

5:47

you know, I don't want to, I don't want

5:49

to, like,

5:52

although this is the tool that we used to

5:56

kind of heal that trauma, right,

5:59

make money. talk about our story,

6:01

all these interesting things, I feel like you

6:06

still want to push your kids in another direction, you still want

6:08

to do the best, even

6:11

though our

6:13

situation was a little questionable and a little

6:15

different. But that's something you instill right away, at least

6:18

in my homes, like, you know, hey,

6:20

to better homie, like, because they're looking at

6:22

us, we brown, we don't get the

6:24

opportunities that other people gave, you feel me? We

6:27

don't get them homies, so you gotta

6:29

work harder than everybody else, and

6:32

that's the message, you feel me? And that message is for everyone, you

6:34

know what I mean? So being born in

6:36

1975, your upbringing in

6:38

LA, was it solely

6:40

a Hispanic community that you were

6:43

living in, or was it more mixed, or like,

6:45

tell us what the dynamic was like? I lived,

6:48

it was kind of diverse, there was a PBG's,

6:50

PBG's was right there, the Playboy Gangster Chris was

6:52

right next door, went to

6:55

Shenandoah, went to Shenandoah Elementary,

6:57

so it was, you know, predominantly

7:00

African American and Mexican, you

7:02

know? So that was, that

7:05

was, you know, my, it

7:07

wasn't uncommon, you know, it was like people

7:10

of color, you know what I'm saying? Where

7:12

I'm at now, where I'm at now, I'm, you know, back

7:14

and forth, Pacific Northwest, and I come back and forth, and

7:17

when I went out there, I thought, man, we're gonna go to a place

7:19

where it's peaceful, loving,

7:22

they're gonna embrace us and all that, but it's not

7:24

like that. Yeah, I was surprised

7:26

to hear you say that, because I always think

7:28

of it as a very woke, sort of like

7:30

inclusive place when I think about Seattle. Super

7:36

white, like high percentage. Super

7:38

white, Republican, you know what I'm saying?

7:41

Trump flags everywhere. Yeah.

7:44

Interesting. Yes, and then the

7:46

more you go out of the

7:48

metropolitan area, I'm not in

7:50

the city. If I was gonna be in the

7:53

city, I'd stay here, you feel me? I mean,

7:55

I'm surrounded by water, you gotta

7:57

take a ferry where I'm at. I don't mind

7:59

if... You know you drive out a little

8:01

bit to be in a posh spot.

8:03

You feel me? My place is

8:05

humble nice, but that's the dream right there. Excuse

8:07

me. That's what I always think about it's like

8:09

one day just Getting a

8:11

nice crib off in the woods and just

8:13

barely being having to interact with people at

8:15

all like that that sounds so Alluring

8:18

compared to just being out here in the city and

8:21

being around some sort of different Who me? Yeah, like

8:23

you gotta acclimate to that shit cuz the first you

8:25

know the first one in the

8:27

first day I landed March 10th and and of two

8:31

years ago in a March

8:33

10th was like freezing to me. I

8:35

was like, oh hell no, we're

8:38

not gonna last year You know and they

8:40

packed the shit up that's going on. Yeah But

8:43

you acclimate and just like everything you acclimate

8:45

to the environment and and it's

8:47

been alright, you know navigating that shit Really

8:50

opened my eyes and said and I said Like

8:55

Like here. I don't I don't stand a

8:57

chance. I mean like here Well, what

8:59

I did everywhere else don't mean nothing

9:02

in white land You know me it don't

9:04

mean nothing when you're in an area that

9:06

wants to oppress you That once you

9:08

you know, take your legendary status

9:11

think that what you do is is a Joe

9:14

you feel me? Hmm. It ain't it ain't a Contribution

9:17

you feel me it ain't a contribution to the culture

9:19

you tell me and when you when

9:21

you battling that You know saying then

9:24

you start thinking about Okay, what

9:27

can I do in my community at least for

9:29

me for me? You know saying and

9:31

then it opens up other things like now,

9:34

you know Serving my community going

9:36

into into juvenile detention centers to

9:39

to work with youngsters You

9:42

know to talk about culture make them

9:45

feel Wanted make them

9:47

feel loved Give them what

9:49

they're not getting in that area, you

9:51

know I'm saying because when you're not around people like you

9:54

What do you think is

9:56

the feeling right? Like you don't want to be that

10:00

I wanna be what everybody is, right? Do you

10:02

think that you deal with way harsher

10:05

discrimination because of

10:07

the fact that you got your whole face tattooed so that

10:09

like a huge percentage of people, even

10:11

if they don't know anything about gangbanging, look at you

10:13

and they're like, oh, gangbanger. High

10:17

alert. MS. So,

10:19

I mean, I understand. This

10:22

is my business suit, you feel me? This is

10:24

my business suit. You know, I

10:27

tattoo all over the world. I do art,

10:29

I sell art, I sell paintings, I do

10:32

canvases and tattoos and things. So this is

10:34

my business. And

10:37

when you around tattooers, it's like, yeah, let me

10:39

collect from this for me. Let me collect from

10:41

that moment. So to me, it's not getting blasted.

10:43

It's collecting. I'm a collector, I'm an

10:45

art collector, you feel me? Because I always kind of

10:47

assumed that your face tattoos and everything was a bunch

10:49

of street shit, but then when I was actually watching

10:51

an interview with you and I was looking at it,

10:53

I'm like, oh, it's actually a bunch of art stuff.

10:55

You got it a little bit later in your life,

10:58

right? No, I got a bunch of street shit on

11:00

me. Right, but not in your face so much, right?

11:03

I mean, I got the hood on me, definitely. You

11:05

know? But it

11:08

went from- It's more artistic than what you see a

11:10

lot of people with. It went from incorporating the street

11:12

stuff. What I had to

11:15

collecting from homies and saying, hey, man, you

11:17

know, protect Chicano stuff from me

11:19

and going from lettering and blasting

11:21

the hood to, hey, I want

11:23

to collect some art there. Hey, I love what you do.

11:26

And you know, there's still times you want to, I

11:29

got some letters I need to fill us together.

11:31

Let me, you know? And but it's not like,

11:34

man, I need to get off. You know, like,

11:38

let's, we have fun with

11:40

that and you don't have to represent like

11:42

that when you're fresh. You

11:45

got to represent, you feel me? You

11:47

got to let it be known, you feel me?

11:49

And now it's, I love collecting. Last night I

11:51

was thinking about why I never

11:53

got my whole face tattooed. And I was thinking

11:55

how like, it

11:57

feels like getting your whole

11:59

face tattooed. tattoo is such

12:01

a way for you to make yourself

12:03

more known, more notable because it's like

12:06

if you have anything going on you

12:08

include the face tattoo thing it's like

12:10

impossible for people to forget you. They

12:12

just see you and they remember you because it

12:15

stands out to them so much but

12:17

then I started picturing myself like going

12:19

into 7-Eleven and I

12:21

was thinking to myself like I feel like

12:23

I would have to like make sure I

12:25

dressed nice and like presented myself nice because

12:27

a lot of people when they see the

12:29

fucking full face of tattoos they're just going

12:31

to go immediately into a bunch of assumptions.

12:33

Right, right and you know we ask for

12:35

that. I know what I'm doing like

12:38

I know what I'm walking into right

12:40

but it's my job to break that stigma. It's

12:43

my job to tell you man I'm a

12:45

professional I employ people you

12:47

know what I'm saying I take care of my kids

12:50

I take care of my business

12:52

you know what I'm saying I spread the love you know

12:54

what I mean we give money we spread

12:57

it with the homies hey come do me

12:59

this video hey produce this track hey take

13:01

these pictures here you know it's

13:03

that's important homie so generating

13:07

the economy and focusing on what's

13:09

crucial that's everything you

13:12

know and if you got to work harder I'm already working

13:14

you know as being hindered by being Chicano

13:16

being hindered by being brown being hindered by

13:18

being an ex-felon being hindered by being a

13:22

gang member being hindered by all

13:24

these things I mean okay you

13:26

know I still got to break that

13:28

stigma and let you know like where I'm coming from if

13:30

you don't like you know

13:32

without the tat anyway you still gonna make

13:34

your assumption say oh Chicano looks like a

13:37

homie you know but

13:40

that's that's that's okay that's my this is

13:43

my business you pull me over a tattoo

13:47

no I'm a pastor yeah

13:50

give my number real quick you know yeah call

13:52

me out and blast you off so

13:55

it works out for me you know I show tattoos

13:57

I go all over the world

13:59

selling tattoos do conventions and do

14:01

my thing. So you know selling artists is

14:05

it you know as far as being hindered and

14:07

and you

14:10

know we asked for that but but at the

14:12

same time we're breaking that that stigma but

14:15

I'm working harder at breaking that stigma homie.

14:18

You know what I mean. Like I got to sit there and tell

14:20

you what's what if you

14:22

feel that compelled to to know my story. You

14:25

know and you

14:27

know for the majority of the time when I do

14:29

have these interactions and I break these

14:31

barriers man I make friends out of the

14:33

most interesting people. You feel me the most

14:35

interesting people. You feel like people are drawn

14:38

to you because of the face flow tattoos

14:40

that like I've noticed that with people

14:42

in my life who had full face tattoos that just

14:44

felt like a lot of people just talk to them

14:46

for no reason and they would just end up in

14:48

a lot of like weird little interactions with people because

14:51

random person on the street just wants to talk

14:53

to you. Yeah. Yeah for sure. Definitely.

14:57

And that's you know that's amazing. You

14:59

know good energy though I'm projecting good energy so I'm

15:01

on good people come up to me. Right. You know

15:03

I used to be I have different

15:06

people come to me. Right. You know what I'm saying.

15:09

But it was also like I asked for that.

15:11

I wanted that. Wanted that.

15:14

So I definitely want to get into more of the

15:16

tattoo stuff and everything but so how

15:19

crazy was it growing up in L.A. during

15:21

the era that you grew up compared

15:24

to like how you see it today. You feel

15:26

like it was totally lawless back then in comparison

15:28

to now it's like a little bit more buttoned

15:30

up now. I mean you know

15:33

you got a bunch of snitches now like with

15:35

the phone it's like everything is documented. Everything

15:37

is documented. So that

15:40

what can you really do. You know what I

15:42

mean. What can you really do. It used to be

15:44

you just do your dirt and you

15:46

sucked it up. You know it was going to

15:48

be like let's document this or let's

15:50

take a picture of this like

15:53

you didn't do that. You know. You can do

15:55

that stuff. So it was you could you know besides

15:57

the landscape changing and all these new buildings coming.

16:00

and you know out of towners and

16:02

all you know the city developing the way

16:04

it is and and things growing and things

16:08

evolving evolution, you know

16:10

saying Definitely is

16:12

I feel like it's different but the homies that

16:14

used to be they don't make them like that

16:16

no more You know, and

16:19

if you and if you a youngster

16:21

that's blessed to be around homies That

16:24

that live that lifestyle kind of guide you

16:26

and tell you the rights from wrongs. That's

16:29

That's everything. You gotta know how to navigate around that

16:31

stuff Yeah, cuz

16:33

I mean you lived through a lot

16:36

of the craziest eras of Los Angeles

16:38

I was telling the homie we're coming down.

16:41

We're coming down the synagogue and we're passing

16:43

the target Right, you know

16:45

what I'm saying right there by the jungles and I tell them that used

16:47

to be the Feco they

16:49

stupid effect when I remember when the LA

16:51

riots kicked off. It was hella

16:54

young little kids. I remember me

16:56

and his youngster and Me

16:59

one of the homies and one of the little homegirls who

17:01

went out there in her Nissan century. I was Jumping

17:05

her Nissan centuries went straight to the Fedco.

17:07

Mm-hmm and You know

17:09

going there and it was a fucking mess.

17:11

It was shit like the whole city was

17:13

on fire It was already fully like looted

17:15

the chair. Yeah, I remember walking into the

17:18

to the department It's just like a department store

17:20

and there was blood everywhere blood all over the floor.

17:22

I mean all over All

17:25

over the floor from people running in right They

17:27

had a bust in through the gates to the

17:29

front doors the gates and the glass and everything

17:31

Uh-huh, and then all the counters were in the

17:33

front. So they was busting in to

17:35

get to get that stuff, right? So

17:38

there was blood everywhere. So people were coming in Slipping

17:41

falling cutting themselves and

17:43

that's where all the blood was from well not when I

17:45

when I go in there and I look over yeah,

17:47

this lady runs in and immediately

17:50

slips and falls and Right

17:52

clutter self up and did it feel

17:54

like you were just taking advantage of the moment

17:56

or did it feel like this was an uprising?

17:59

because of police brutality. Now, hell, not a give

18:01

a fuck about none of that. I just want to

18:03

go have fun on me. Thank

18:06

you. None

18:09

of that. Did you even know about the

18:11

what was his name? Rodney Rodney King. The

18:13

Rodney King. You followed it. That shit was

18:15

everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. You followed that shit. It

18:17

was everywhere. That was like the biggest news story of the era.

18:19

And the night before the little homies were like, hey, you see

18:21

what's happening. It's going down tomorrow. We

18:24

ain't going to school. Right. Cause when you

18:26

think about all the people looting in 2020, it

18:28

was all over the news. There were legitimate reasons

18:30

to be upset. A lot of shit going on

18:32

in the news, politically, whatever, but like, right, probably

18:34

80% of the people there weren't thinking

18:36

about that. They just wanted some shoes or whatever. That's

18:39

what I'll, that's all I needed. I feel

18:41

it. Yeah. I

18:44

mean, that's

18:46

up to be the homie like that, you know, facts. And

18:49

that was an era where there's almost no opportunity

18:51

for normal people to find out about what the

18:54

experience of being a black dude getting pulled over

18:56

by the cops in LA was like at that

18:58

time. You

19:01

know, uh, law

19:04

was lawless. Like

19:06

you'd have, you'd have, uh, you'd have crash unit

19:08

hop out, you know,

19:11

and, and be quick to assault you. At

19:13

least in my end, you know, where I was at Venice,

19:16

you know, uh, West, West of Los Angeles, you

19:18

know, crash would pull up on, uh,

19:21

on a particular day. We already knew the day

19:24

the crash was coming. You feel me?

19:26

Crash night. And then, uh, they rolled up and

19:29

for sure it wasn't like, Hey guys, you got

19:31

to come in, go back to your house. Jesus.

19:33

After hours, we don't enjoy it. Nah, they

19:35

rolled up, you know, and quick

19:38

to assault you. It was quick to assault you.

19:40

Right. That was, you

19:42

know, the intensity of how things worked

19:44

in that era. I hear that the

19:46

body cameras and shit actually have like

19:48

massively decreased police brutality because they

19:51

just don't have the ability to get away with

19:53

shit. Like they used to. That shit was unheard

19:55

of, you know, if there was cameras. I

19:57

mean, I'm pretty sure a lot of

19:59

women. I've been unscathed

20:01

by a good ass

20:04

whooping or a good botanin or you know

20:06

I do all kind of interesting things you know put you

20:08

back from your hands and bend you all the way back

20:10

put the flashlight in your back and have you stand there

20:12

for a good five minutes or you

20:16

know have you on your knees on the concrete 20

20:18

30 40 50 minutes right

20:20

put you on the hot ass

20:23

car hot ass car put

20:26

your hands on the car the fucking car is

20:28

boiling zoom and

20:30

doesn't that now if that was captured

20:32

on body camera that just sounds like

20:34

the most viral fucking Twitter clip of

20:37

the week of like oh that cops

20:39

getting dragged in front of his supervisor

20:41

he's gonna get he's gonna lose his

20:43

job etc and so all these cops

20:45

now ideal situation I'm not sure

20:47

it's always like this but all of them kind of like

20:49

live under that fear of like getting

20:52

dragged in there in toad on yeah

20:55

tables are turned error of his snitches the

20:58

iPhone was a good step but then the body

21:00

cameras is like the best step but then you

21:02

hear about them not having it on and of

21:04

course that kind of shit I don't know how

21:06

they police that exactly yeah so yeah

21:08

it was you know it was a little different these are

21:10

different but you know you get you know you

21:12

embrace the little homies you embrace change

21:15

and and like you said if you don't embrace change

21:17

and you know hey that ain't

21:20

catching up with the times and moving

21:22

with with progress you don't mean

21:24

whether you like it or not that's just the way

21:26

it is you know definitely yeah

21:28

so you're you

21:31

were raised by your mom or was

21:33

your dad around yeah God bless my

21:35

mom and my dad hard-working hard-working

21:40

immigrants that came from came from my

21:42

lease call hmm so you're the first

21:44

generation for nation yeah so

21:46

my dad would be like what does this letter say

21:49

hmm and I'm fucking know

21:52

what that electric bill means or you know I'm

21:54

saying the traumas of being

21:56

first generation like so you're kind of having

21:58

to help your parents with experience because

22:00

you're sort of more familiar with a lot of it

22:02

as a young kid. And who was gonna help me?

22:05

When the institution didn't believe in me, when they

22:07

didn't love me, when the teachers didn't

22:09

want to bring us to the table. I

22:11

went to continuation at a young age because

22:14

I felt like I was stupid. I feel

22:17

like I was stupid. And a lot

22:19

of my homies thought they were stupid too because the teachers

22:21

would not embrace us and love us and show us. There

22:23

was a table with all the white kids you know and

22:26

and you were kind of being with your table but you

22:29

know on occasion I look over and I'd be like man I want to sit

22:31

at that table. I want to learn. But

22:34

I wasn't you know. It was that divided

22:36

even in the mid 80s. It

22:39

wasn't I can't say it was you

22:41

know you know

22:43

we live in a melting pot. L.A. is a melting

22:46

pot but if you know you're you

22:48

know a white man teaching a bunch of unruly

22:51

brown kids and you see a group full of

22:53

white kids you know two three four of them

22:55

and be like come here guys. Listen

22:58

down and learn this shit. You're

23:01

not gonna be like hey hey guys. What

23:04

did you have breakfast this morning? Is

23:08

there food at your house? Do

23:10

you have your mom and dad at home that could help you?

23:13

Why are you sleeping in the class? Are you tired?

23:16

Did you get rest last night? Nah

23:19

You fucking fuck up. Get the

23:21

fuck out of my class. You're disturbing

23:23

my class. It's

23:25

like embrace us, love us homie. That's

23:27

your job. You can't pay

23:29

for that shit. You feel me? I

23:32

leave my kids and I'm just like that's

23:34

cool you know. God

23:38

bless you. Because they're not in my care. There

23:41

ain't somebody else's care. So when you get a call oh

23:44

hey your son was tripping on the bus your son was

23:46

acting on. Let me see. I want to see the footage.

23:49

Well who saw him tripping? Where

23:51

you where you see that at? How? So you're immediately

23:53

kind of skeptical when you hear that sort of thing.

23:55

I don't believe none of that shit.

23:58

Not like I'm like Oh

24:00

my baby boy, because I know what I got.

24:03

You feel me? I got a teenager, who

24:05

me? So it's like, you

24:08

got to pick and choose your battles, right? That's

24:10

super interesting to me, because I remember I had

24:13

a friend growing up, and I forget what it

24:15

was. We were in elementary school or some shit.

24:17

We were in like fifth grade. And he got

24:19

in a lot of trouble for something that, again,

24:22

I can't remember. And I remember his mom coming

24:24

into the fucking school and raising hell and defending

24:26

his ass. Whatever the

24:28

scenario was, I remember him being guilty as

24:30

fuck. It was so obvious to me that

24:32

he did this shit. But his mom was

24:34

going so hard trying to get him cleared

24:36

by the school and shit. And I'm thinking,

24:39

every single time in my entire life I got in trouble, my

24:41

parents were on the school side. They were like

24:43

100% believing every single thing

24:45

that he just said. You believe the

24:47

institution. Yeah. My parents, they were on

24:49

board. You walk into that big old building, you

24:52

see all these professionals, and you're like, wow,

24:54

of course they're not lying to us. But

24:58

fuck that, homie. Fuck

25:00

that. But my parents also knew what

25:02

a fucking gas lighter I was and that I was

25:04

fucking spinning the truth to be whatever. Now it's like

25:06

they didn't. Right, right. So you know, and it's the

25:08

same. You know what you got at home? You

25:10

got to, you know, you can't let the school

25:13

raise your kids, homie. You got to

25:15

step up and be like, hey, what's going on? You

25:17

know, hey, let me see. Oh, I did my homework. Let

25:19

me see. Not,

25:21

oh, I did my homework. All right. Because

25:24

that's what they say happened during COVID is that

25:26

a lot of parents got exposed to what their

25:28

kids were actually being taught in school. And

25:30

a lot of them were kind of horrified by some of

25:32

the weird ass woke stuff that

25:34

they were being taught in schools. And then

25:36

that sort of led a lot of

25:38

those parents to be showing up at the student

25:41

council meetings or whatever the fuck it was. And like, you

25:43

know. And you got to do that. You

25:45

got to do that. And I know because I've done it.

25:49

I've gone in front of the school board. I've

25:51

gone to my mayor's. I've gone to my

25:53

city councilman. I've gone to, you know what

25:55

I'm saying? Sit in front of the economic

25:59

development. I mean, you

26:02

know, commission, you feel me? Like things

26:04

that I didn't fucking understand on me.

26:06

Prior to knowing that

26:09

we're displaced, we're marginalized,

26:12

we don't get the resources that everybody does. So I'm

26:14

like, shit, let me go see what

26:16

the problem is, why we can't get

26:18

ours. Let me go see. So

26:22

if there's a positive music for one year or

26:24

positive art, it's because I'm

26:26

deciphering that to me. And all

26:29

my last years been, I told

26:31

you, I'm on some other shit. I'm just on some, I'm

26:34

on some other shit. But

26:37

so when you were young, were

26:39

you getting in trouble a lot or were you like,

26:41

what kind of, you were probably in the streets and

26:43

shit through high school? Because again,

26:46

you're not part of the group. Now

26:49

you're like, well fuck, let's go fuck around.

26:51

Fuck school. Fuck school. So

26:55

now I'm at Palms, Shenandoah,

26:59

and then go to Shenandoah and

27:01

then go to

27:03

Palms, Castle Heights too for a little bit when I

27:05

was a baby and

27:08

then Palms and then Palms, you know, the same. All the

27:10

little homies was there from 18? All

27:13

the little homies from 18 was there. So

27:16

it's like now you're getting exposed to

27:18

that stuff. Now

27:22

you're getting exposed to that lifestyle. My

27:25

parents were from Mexico. So

27:27

I didn't even speak English

27:29

till I was like, in

27:32

Shenandoah homie, till I, you know,

27:34

I was doing ESL in Shenandoah

27:36

because our home was all Spanish,

27:38

predominantly Spanish speaking. My HEFA

27:40

would make it a business like, okay, in

27:43

the house, only Spanish, because

27:45

you're gonna learn that outside. In

27:48

the house, only Spanish. But I

27:51

mean, it was a

27:53

fucking experience, you know? It's

27:55

a challenge, homie. And we don't got that love. By

27:58

all means, you're not motivated no more. You

28:00

need to be lifted, motivated, pushed. So you

28:02

were a kid, you felt more support from

28:04

the street side of things, and you felt

28:07

more like positive affirmation from what you had

28:09

going on outside rather than what you were

28:11

getting from school or anything? Man, now you

28:13

got a crowd of kids that

28:15

look like you and feel like you and inspire

28:18

the same things like you and

28:21

move like you and entertain themselves

28:24

like you and understand each other.

28:27

And now we feel like we got love,

28:30

we feel like we got something there. You

28:32

know what I'm saying? A facade, right? A

28:35

facade. Yeah, maybe we connected, but because we're on

28:37

the same trauma, we're all suffering

28:39

the same trauma. But

28:42

really what we need is opportunities,

28:45

support, push, all

28:48

the resources that everybody else is good. All

28:50

the resources that everybody else gives. Definitely.

28:53

Yeah, I think so, homie. No,

28:55

for sure. I mean, yeah, every

28:58

kid who joins a gang at a young age and

29:00

gets convinced to be on some crazy shit is just

29:02

a kid who, if they had

29:04

the right resources or if they have felt

29:07

the right, you know, well, as

29:10

I say that, I don't know if I believe it because I feel like

29:12

a lot of young people are just

29:14

drawn to a different lifestyle and that sometimes

29:16

you'll see someone who has the really strict

29:18

parents and the parents who are very, very

29:21

supportive and they turn away from that shit

29:23

to the extreme degree I

29:25

hung out with a kid one time, or it's like

29:27

a grown man, but his dad's a billionaire and

29:30

this kid becomes a fucking heroin addict. But

29:32

that's why it's our responsibility, homie. That's

29:34

why you and me are sitting here today talking

29:37

about unorthodox things instead of talking about drama and

29:39

talking about rappers and fuck this nigga and fuck

29:41

that nigga and I didn't like how he looked

29:43

and I don't like how he acts

29:45

and I don't like how he sings and I don't like where

29:47

he lives and we talking about shit that,

29:50

in my opinion, is valid,

29:54

right, for the kids that are, that

29:57

are, soaking

30:00

this up for me because they see you

30:02

know uh they

30:05

see the behavior right bring

30:08

some bring some guests on here and they want

30:10

to vent they want to you know what i'm saying and

30:12

now my youngsters think hell yeah let's

30:14

go do some domestic

30:17

violence fuck it i don't respect you

30:19

i love you fuck it let's start fighting

30:21

it so i feel like what we're putting

30:23

out you gotta be ready

30:25

to take that medicine you know because we're giving it to our youngsters

30:28

my opinion so i'm you

30:31

know trying

30:33

to sway differently

30:36

towards showing brown

30:38

love pushing brown

30:40

people uh uh

30:42

uh pushing brown dollars pushing

30:45

this culture of ours this is our culture homie

30:48

low riding rap a

30:51

graffiti you know what

30:53

i'm saying all this shit is ours you

30:55

feel me all this shit is ours

30:58

when we were looked down at for fucking getting

31:00

blasted we were looked down on for for rolling

31:02

the low car we weren't looked down on for

31:04

for having our our you know

31:06

our our our artwork representing

31:09

us and our culture you know now

31:11

it's like here

31:14

let me take it let me take it let me

31:16

take so are you saying you feel like mexicans

31:18

in general like don't always get the credit

31:21

they deserve for their cultural contribution we're the

31:23

biggest market for rap and and how many

31:25

of us are actually invited into the rap

31:27

game to say hey you're you're our peer

31:30

we looked in that we looked at some

31:33

fucking tokenized wet bags homie tell

31:36

me i'm wrong we get looked

31:39

at it like okay that's that demographic of rap

31:41

that's that but

31:44

the homies are kicking it off you feel me

31:46

the homies are kicking and they don't have to hide

31:50

that they're chicanos i

31:53

think i heard somebody say like oh i don't want

31:55

to be chicano rap And

31:58

and I get it. Homie, I get it. The read:

32:01

A I for can understand. You.

32:04

Know but would you know token as Mexicans

32:06

that's the same way that like a young

32:08

gang bang and as l a black rappers

32:10

don't want be seen as old school west

32:12

coast g funk type rappers. limbs they wanna

32:14

You know that while and I can't i

32:16

all of them because you do have a

32:18

doggy style you do have you know or

32:20

ah neil's like variety around Mirza appreciate the

32:22

older style but you also have a lot

32:24

of i'm when you look at i some

32:26

of the hottest young black rapper that l

32:28

a yeah somebody like a Draco the ruler

32:30

who really kind of like takes a lot

32:32

of the. Whole school west coast stuff

32:34

and pushes its to the side and I kind of

32:37

really has a different flow. The to me was I

32:39

won the most influential you don't If you go up

32:41

north of obits a Stockton you got the you be

32:43

Kj bows of the world and like I feel like.

32:46

You. Know that there's always give me a desire

32:48

for the younger people to separate themselves from the

32:50

prior generation. The. A that

32:52

you know. You. That you that

32:55

some instances or maybe. You're.

32:57

Not embracing filming and to each

32:59

their own. To. Easier on

33:02

everybody knows there needs to they sell for

33:04

good if which offer me abolition going. You.

33:06

Know. What? On Bomb on.

33:09

Homey, We made you. The.

33:11

Wish I made you. Don't ever forget

33:14

that! Don't. Forget that. Remember

33:16

your route. right? Remember what?

33:18

what? what motivated you? Even if you

33:20

know influenced by Japan in Florida and

33:22

New York and Atlanta am I am.

33:25

Remember. Homie. You. Still from the

33:27

land. A bender japan seen them

33:30

porn the Low Riders up. Come. ah

33:32

i see them doing their l a shotgun

33:34

representation shit and has been stand in our

33:36

life is in homies in vietnam our really

33:39

driving around like this every day you know

33:41

they don't gotta fucking civic at the house

33:43

that they they die around like they're really

33:45

bussiness laura all time and i'm just like

33:48

these jews don't even know that that is

33:50

not an everyday thing for almost anybody

33:52

in l a way but they fucking love

33:54

that culture and they still rock and the

33:57

full dickie suit look like a might be

33:59

insane again believe what I'm seeing. Yeah. So

34:02

you know if history

34:05

repeating itself I feel like that I feel like

34:07

that that um that

34:09

look that era that that feel that's

34:11

always gonna be timeless. You know

34:14

I'm saying that never gets a

34:16

hundred years from now khakis,

34:18

Cortez and OYT will still be

34:21

an amazing

34:23

fit. It will still be

34:26

an amazing but I think the

34:28

problem is is that for the younger generation they

34:30

feel like if they rock a look like that

34:32

without switching it up adding their own

34:34

style to it whatever that to the people it

34:37

gets perceived as them basically just trying to recreate

34:39

what already has happened in the 90s and it

34:41

kind of prevents

34:43

you from being seen as like being

34:45

the purveyor of your own style. Sometimes

34:47

I think that's the reason why the

34:50

younger rappers because I think about it

34:52

if I pull up with an eight ball jacket and a flat

34:54

top obviously I don't really have the hair for a flat top

34:56

but if I did what's people gonna say

34:58

they're gonna say oh you're trying to look like fucking Bobby

35:00

Brown you trying to look like some old-school shit where I

35:02

was like the younger generation always

35:04

trying to separate themselves and create their

35:06

own thing and represent something that can

35:09

separate themselves from like their fathers. Right

35:11

right but look like for instance look

35:13

at the little homie. He came

35:15

to mind as I was saying yeah because he's

35:17

kind of got an old-school style with some modern

35:19

references you know. Come on Let

35:21

me come on let's let's slide that over here so

35:23

you can see what we're talking about here. You

35:25

know what I'm saying? Like come on

35:28

homie like he ain't gotta wear that that

35:30

that plaid shirt he ain't gotta you know

35:32

what I'm saying? I do like that fit

35:34

though because it's like traditional but updated. So

35:36

what I'm saying is he's not the only

35:38

one homie he's not the only one rapping

35:40

you know uh uh one thing we

35:43

still got we still got a whole genre

35:45

and even when it comes to fashion

35:48

you feel me like the

35:50

Chicano culture is just overwhelmingly

35:52

absorbed in love but

35:55

but I again like um you

35:58

know it's like our or

36:01

the homie like, yeah homies don't wanna, you

36:03

know some guys are like, oh

36:05

I don't wanna be that homie guy, you know,

36:07

like I get it, to Easter on,

36:09

everyone has their flavor. But what I'm saying is, that

36:12

style, what we did, that thing of ours

36:15

that I grew into and saw in my

36:17

area and developed and was

36:19

part of, that thing would be classic

36:21

forever, timeless forever. You see

36:23

it in Japan, you see it in

36:25

Kansas, you see it

36:27

in Eastern Washington, my son, my

36:30

son, all he

36:32

wears is khaki. All

36:34

he wears is khaki, khaki, so now, would I

36:36

allow him to dress like that here? Probably not,

36:39

probably not homie, probably

36:42

not. So there's also the

36:44

safety issue homie, would

36:46

you rather wear some tight little sweats, a cute little,

36:49

you know, nice little fit, go down

36:51

to the garment district, you feel me?

36:54

And pick up a little something and

36:56

be inconspicuous, or do you wanna wear a

36:58

flannel and be out there and some guys

37:01

want to be out there. Right. Some

37:03

guys don't wanna be out there like that, you feel me? Because,

37:05

okay, the version of gangsters

37:08

that I would see on

37:10

music videos and shit, the shit that made me

37:12

super fascinated with it when I was a kid,

37:14

was usually like a bunch of motherfuckers dressed somewhat

37:16

similarly, standing on the corner. Bangin' on wax. You

37:18

don't really, I had bangin' on wax when I

37:20

was in fourth grade, 1994, and

37:23

I remember as a kid just thinking like, how the fuck

37:25

did they get them all together to make

37:27

this project, you know? So many questions. There's crazy lore

37:29

behind that about how it all happened and shit. So

37:31

many questions. I think I watched a YouTube video about

37:33

it at one point, but, you know,

37:36

that even of itself don't really happen.

37:38

Like, of all the different neighborhoods I've been

37:40

to around LA, unless it was a music

37:42

video or we're filming a vlog or something,

37:45

you're not seeing everybody outside repping their shit at the

37:47

same time, right? You know, Astra? Oh

37:51

yeah, we got it. Oh,

37:53

I'm cool, thank you. But

37:57

yeah, I mean, part of that is people just not really being outside

37:59

like they used to be. used to. Everybody's in

38:01

the crib. But you know it's a lot of factors. And part

38:03

of it's the cops. It's just like, you know. Come

38:05

on. It's a lot of factors. But

38:08

if you can get unscathed and represent the culture,

38:10

by all means. Right. Yeah. My

38:12

son is... But

38:14

it's not... I don't tell him like, oh, you know,

38:16

like, I don't know. It's just his preference. Chugs, Cortez.

38:19

You know, I bring him back from Cortez and take

38:22

him back, you know. You

38:24

know, Lakers, Cher... Whatever, you know, like... And that's

38:26

just his preference. And I don't mind it because

38:28

he's... I got him somewhere where I ain't got

38:30

to worry about someone trying to kill him. Because

38:33

he identifies with his

38:35

culture. Because he identifies

38:37

with the love I have for the

38:39

area. The love I have for where

38:41

we come from and all that. You feel me?

38:44

That's why I feel like also... You

38:47

know... Yeah,

38:50

brown love is important to me. I mean, I

38:52

can't see it. I can't. I can't. I can't.

38:56

It's like, I push like, okay, let's be

38:59

better in the hood. Let's

39:01

be good people. Let's love each

39:03

other. Man, but fuck the motherfuckers over there.

39:08

It's like so hard, homie, to keep an

39:10

open mind because so many homies have been

39:12

hindered by this gang shit. Yeah,

39:14

homie, like, to a schmine, I'm

39:16

going to a shorts. And after all this drama, you're

39:18

like, no way I can fuck with you. There's no

39:20

fucking way. But the only

39:23

ones that are hurting are our kids, homie. Look

39:26

at our kids, homie. Like, that

39:28

Fannie Noss shit. The gang bang

39:30

shit, kids getting shot now. And

39:32

I just told you about a story, you know,

39:34

some kid getting shot that I saw on the

39:36

news over there in Seattle. Yeah, like a baby.

39:39

A baby. My nephew, homie. My nephew

39:42

just got blasted last year in the valley.

39:46

Shot in the chest, homie. Two

39:48

years old, my boy. Two years old.

39:52

You feel me? So that shit still, it still,

39:54

it still, it still touches home. You feel me?

39:56

Like, even though you're trying to navigate a certain

39:58

way, that shit still touches home. So

40:01

what are you doing? Oh, yeah, man. Hey

40:03

little bro, cuz that's my that's my brother's

40:05

fun Hey, let's go. Come on. Who me?

40:08

Come on Feel

40:11

me cuz that's how I feel bro. That's

40:13

how I felt That's how it feels when

40:15

yours your loved ones are touched You feel me feel

40:18

awful you feel like you need to go do

40:20

your due diligence to go you feel me Even

40:22

though you know in the long run the best

40:24

thing for your people is to somehow get past

40:26

this even though we all look at that as

40:29

The most difficult to obtain Objective

40:31

possible for any grouping of people

40:33

in any city that has a

40:35

history of bloodshed, you know And

40:39

it's like you got to pick and choose your

40:41

battles acting for me though. Um, this is me.

40:43

I'm not You know, I don't

40:45

know Like I'm

40:48

not telling you. Hey you do it like this or

40:50

you do like that I'm just telling you like my

40:52

experience and how how hindered I

40:54

was when I was a kid, you know a

40:56

ADHD you couldn't fucking like the

40:58

shit went in stick and you

41:01

know, like you needed that extra support and

41:03

Whoo-whoo and you know at the end of the day you

41:06

just say man, I'm stupid on me But

41:09

that's not the case for me That's

41:11

not the case you get you get nurtured you pushing the

41:13

right direction, man You know a lot of

41:15

a lot of this gang stuff is like leadership. You

41:17

feel me? You can put in leadership positions and imagine

41:19

you get you know So much as

41:21

you accompany you feel me toss you a business and

41:23

and you use those leadership skills to To

41:26

push your your area push it lift your family

41:29

Buy a house. No one teaches us how to buy a fucking house

41:33

No one tells us about credit homie. No one

41:35

no one puts us on on shit

41:37

is so fucked up on me like cost-wise

41:40

and and you know,

41:42

yeah, cuz the dream

41:44

that our parents had of Owning

41:47

a home was infinitely more

41:49

realistic than the goal of

41:52

our kids owning a home in particular in a

41:54

place like LA where You're

41:56

gonna spend a million bucks on a house in most parts

41:58

of LA and shit And it's just

42:01

so like like for our parents like our parents

42:03

would tell us stories Oh, I had

42:05

a summer job and at the end of the summer

42:07

I was able to buy a car and

42:09

then kids listen to that and they're doing the

42:11

math in their head and they're like There's no

42:13

fucking at the end of the like a car

42:15

from working for three months Like what the fuck

42:18

like and that's not to say anything about the

42:20

fact that you guys spend a couple thousand bucks

42:22

a month rent In most parts

42:24

of LA and shit and that a lot of

42:26

the rents have literally like doubled in the last

42:28

four years It's like, you

42:30

know, it just seems so much more difficult to

42:32

exist as a person especially a young person It's

42:34

how the fuck you gonna move out right after

42:37

high school And do

42:39

what? Well, I asked my pops

42:41

the other day. I go fuck you by house I don't

42:43

think he even told me how you ever did that

42:46

right? You know, like how what was the process for

42:48

you during that? How'd you do that? And what he's

42:50

like My parents

42:53

bought a house in their late

42:56

20s and my mom was a Librarian and my

42:58

dad worked at a construction company and I think

43:00

about that and I'm like, oh that

43:02

it doesn't sound like enough income To buy a

43:05

house these days, especially not out here. You

43:07

know a little fraud on the side. Well, you

43:09

know No, you talk about my pops No,

43:12

my dad had a fraud case I Know

43:19

fraud People

43:27

always try to bring it up and they're always

43:29

like so your dad was a scumbag criminal, huh?

43:31

I'm like, I really just got busted one time

43:38

So, you know that's survival in LA she just

43:40

had to do what he had a lot from

43:42

the East Coast But yeah, you know or survival

43:44

in the you know in the in the US.

43:46

Mmm. Yeah, do what you gotta do. So so

43:50

You like all right. I'm just trying to

43:52

imagine how you Joining

43:54

a gang or getting involved in that world might have

43:56

been like at that time versus what it's like for

43:58

a young person these days Was it just like where you're

44:01

from? That's where you're from? Or was it like you had to make

44:03

a choice at some point? I mean, you

44:05

know, you always got choices. You

44:07

always got choices. Unfortunately, I

44:09

picked a choice that was

44:11

gonna, you know, take

44:14

me in a direction that I

44:16

probably, I don't know, I

44:18

was like, you know,

44:20

raised by immigrant parents, like,

44:23

you know,

44:27

like, even though I was Chicano,

44:29

all American kid, you know, burgers

44:31

and tacos and pizza

44:33

and, you know, and Alf

44:36

and, and, and, Alf. Growing pains and, you know,

44:38

They don't even know about Alf. Some of them

44:40

might know, but. You know, like, so

44:43

you know, you don't be like, oh yeah, I'm a, hell

44:46

yeah, I'm gonna be a gangbanger. Like, no

44:48

homie, like, my dad would

44:50

drop me off at the corner from, we lived out in the

44:52

hood and, and, and

44:55

the homies would be there. But he was never like,

45:00

fuck, no, you know, he was like, oh,

45:02

that's all I was all doing. Like,

45:05

I know his parents would go drink

45:07

down here in Venice on Lincoln at

45:10

Casablanca. It was, Casablanca,

45:12

I think it's still there, and a

45:14

little restaurant or club or a restaurant,

45:16

whatever, and they go sit there. And

45:19

so it's like, we, you know, it was a community. She

45:21

didn't look down on the morons, you know, of course,

45:24

you know, a little homie was up to no

45:26

good. Yeah, you wanted to prohibit

45:28

them from having contact with your

45:30

son, you know, spoil the boy,

45:32

whatever, but, you know, turn them

45:35

on to gang shit or what, but really, we

45:37

knew, everyone knew each other. It

45:39

wasn't uncommon. Yeah, he would ask, why are

45:41

you dressing like that? Why are you

45:44

this? Why are you that? At that point, it's like,

45:48

there's nothing you could do. We, it's

45:50

already, it's in motion. But it was a different

45:52

experience than the way that it would have been

45:54

if your kids started to go in that direction.

45:56

Because you understand, you get it. Your dad was

45:58

kind of foreign, yeah. your neck. You

46:00

know? The neck

46:02

instead of the ass? I'll beat your neck.

46:04

Give him that neck slap. Yeah. You know,

46:07

no, you're just more keen. That's why homie

46:09

is important for homies like us to go

46:11

out there and preach the good word, you

46:14

know, and the good word is to lift your community.

46:16

In my opinion, homie, urban

46:18

music, rap, that's how it's going to be. It tells

46:21

our story. It's, you know,

46:24

gritty. It's, it's, you know, it's what it

46:26

is, you know? It's

46:28

just crazy because- It's an art, you know? I

46:30

could share the music that I love with my kid one

46:32

day, but what's

46:34

the other message that she going to get? Percocets

46:36

are cool. Gang banging is

46:39

cool. Casual sex is cool. Bitches ain't shit.

46:41

All this shit. So it's like that- It's

46:43

a culture we're pushing, homie. You know? So

46:45

if you could do a little bit of

46:47

that, yeah, okay, it's entertaining. But really

46:50

say no to drugs. Really stay

46:52

off of pills. Really stay

46:55

away from fucking sniffing, whatever the

46:57

fuck is, you know? Is in

46:59

that coke or whatever is in

47:01

that shit you sniffing. You know,

47:03

like homie, use

47:05

it to do something great. But

47:08

again, that's me. That's what I'm

47:10

on. You know? Look,

47:12

create a nonprofit

47:14

in this last year to work with kids. You

47:17

know, when I go try and do it, they're like,

47:19

fuck no. You know? So

47:21

I'm like, what would you, you know, only

47:24

work with nonprofits. You work with, you know,

47:26

go, go, go, shit. I'll be back.

47:30

I'll be back. So I created a nonprofit,

47:32

locals, leading our children off streets. And

47:34

to me, that's the local I want to

47:37

be. That's the local I'm

47:39

going to be. I'm a west side local, but I

47:41

want to be the local that leads my kids off

47:43

of the streets. That can tell you, hey, come into

47:45

the studio with me. Come

47:47

tattoo with me. Come

47:50

paint a mirror with me in France. Come to

47:54

Japan with me. Let's paint. Let's

47:56

call affiliate to the convention. Let's go.

48:00

to the jersey and I got

48:02

some customers come this call and

48:05

line up yours because you've been working hard and your

48:07

talent is amazing and now it's

48:09

time for you to lock these appointments and whoop

48:12

whoop whoop you gotta expose the

48:14

game to the little homies you

48:16

know oh no no

48:21

you know so tattoos were your first foray into art

48:23

or were you doing graffiti and shit when you're

48:25

a young girl blasting all the homies up okay

48:27

what age you start doing all that maybe

48:31

around the same

48:33

time that the administrator didn't love us also

48:36

in high school yeah in high school you

48:38

started tattooing yeah okay definitely who even put

48:40

you on the game uh

48:44

myself gang members I

48:47

mean I had a I had a dude from Venice shorty

48:50

from Venice sold me a little homemade

48:52

machine because it was

48:54

a very different era for tattoos at that time

48:56

it's not like there's a fucking tattoo shop on

48:58

every part it's like illegal in a lot of

49:00

parts of the country right yeah it was very

49:02

taboo it was like I think even like if

49:05

you got busted with with uh uh were

49:07

like a tattoo kid or like patterns with with

49:09

gang shit on it like that was

49:11

it I don't know you know it was like

49:14

a charger it was very underground

49:16

you feel me and nobody really had tattoos unless

49:19

you were on some questionable shit

49:21

yeah no way I remember

49:23

getting my neck blasted and uh

49:29

yeah even out on me was like oh no

49:31

you you fucked your whole

49:33

life's over yeah oh me you know even

49:35

in the early 2000s for me like seeing

49:37

someone with a neck tattoo was

49:40

shocking you just assumed that they were up

49:42

to no good or maybe maybe they were

49:44

a tattoo artist or they in

49:46

a band or some shit but for the most part

49:49

like and then you know I don't know that's a

49:51

little sketchy you know gang members you know it's like

49:53

let me identify that's the first two to identify say

49:56

let me see where you from homie I

49:58

ain't gotta ask you Yeah, you

50:00

know I ain't

50:02

gotta ask you that's what the cops do when

50:04

they pull you over They want to see the tattoos so they

50:06

could figure out where you're from and that's how

50:08

they they know you're not lying All

50:11

the time, you know what they do They

50:14

don't do whatever they can to crack you you

50:17

know, everything they can use against you

50:19

they don't do it so Yeah, by all

50:21

means So the tattooing

50:23

thing though, did you know you had artistic

50:25

talent before that or is that kind of

50:28

where you discovered it? I loved I loved

50:30

because of my deficiency

50:33

Of not being able to learn and absorb

50:35

the material. I would sketch. Mmm I was

50:38

sketching the class And I'd sit

50:40

there not draw and I'd doodle and I'd sketch and

50:42

then I home It was a passion for me and

50:44

then you know I was excited about collecting tools and

50:46

I got into graffiti at a very very young age,

50:48

right? So I was out here before this was all

50:51

the way it is. I come out here and see

50:53

hex at the at the graffiti

50:55

shop Hex yeah, he

50:57

was up at the time. Oh

50:59

homie fucking legend my boy. Okay,

51:01

fucking legend Hell yeah,

51:03

he did the he did the the mirror for ice

51:05

cube Uh

51:07

at the motor yard. Oh, okay. I mean

51:09

we're talking legendary writer shit, you know for

51:12

sure. Yeah You

51:14

know, they had a uh prize of one

51:17

of the only World's only graffiti

51:19

shop. Hmm. And now I'm here at that

51:21

time out here. That must have been kind

51:23

of controversial, huh? It was because the whole

51:25

place was blasted because the attitude on graffiti

51:27

is so different now It's like the cops

51:29

sort of just let it go to

51:32

a certain extent. They're not really like pursuing that

51:34

shit I actually I forget it was on the

51:36

news or something that they like dropped the budget

51:39

For like a certain type of policing related to graffiti

51:41

They just kind of like turn a blind eye unless

51:43

they catch you in the act Which is so different

51:45

than the 90s where they were really putting cases together

51:48

on people and shit. Correct chakra Yeah

51:51

Because I interviewed mta who got the first ever

51:54

Was it a rico or some shit like

51:56

for that one gigantic fucking piece that they

51:58

did? You know what i'm talking about by the airport

52:00

or whatever that there was like a ditch that they

52:02

did like the biggest MTA piece ever sick and

52:04

they got fucking huge federal case for

52:07

that what well I forget it's been

52:09

a long time yeah no I didn't

52:11

go verify the details on the interview

52:14

I did it was actually insane I'm telling me

52:17

about it cuz like they got the kind of

52:19

charges that you normally only hear about street gangs

52:21

expression yeah notoriety

52:23

love recognition

52:26

that's all that's all we want you

52:29

know be you know supporting that's it but

52:31

he just unlike graffiti you start

52:33

making money from the tattoo shit early on it's like

52:35

a hustle right as opposed to

52:37

graffiti where yeah the tattooing was was uh

52:40

the tattooing was was my way to get a

52:43

white tea and some weed hmm

52:45

some drank some

52:47

dope right fuck

52:50

around that was that you

52:52

know but I was persisting with that you

52:55

know if I want to have shit

52:57

little shit whatever I had to do

52:59

that and then when I came across the

53:01

music stuff uh

53:03

2000 2004 or

53:06

five something like that

53:09

then I just left the

53:11

machine alone but I would

53:13

go to like different bottles

53:15

and tattoo homies in Santa

53:17

Monica homies and Compton I go to Compton

53:19

and talk to homies in Compton different

53:22

baros whose will come

53:24

to my pad I had a I had a

53:26

little spot in Inglewood well-known house everybody

53:29

know that's a tattoo guy from West Alok

53:31

was that's a tattoo guy tattoo guy yeah

53:34

and you know everybody put

53:36

blood blood to pull up either

53:38

by the way

53:40

I Jesus pulled up or what you know

53:43

I had a vast variety of clients

53:45

but it was all hook cats and was it

53:47

kind of unique at this time to be a

53:49

dude that was tattooing out of the crib like

53:51

that because there's just so many less people doing

53:53

it or it was it

53:56

was not as saturated

53:59

because you probably I never would you have

54:01

been would you have been interacting with bloods and

54:03

like other people from other walks of life like

54:05

that as Much if it wasn't for the tattoo

54:07

thing. I mean I didn't my hood didn't didn't

54:10

we didn't have no funk with him Okay, and

54:12

I stayed right there. I stayed

54:14

in Inglewood. I stayed off cedar

54:17

and and Cedar

54:20

and Sennela a

54:22

lot shot up right there. I ended up getting shot up at

54:24

what age? a 19

54:28

20 something like that. Oh really one something like

54:30

that. You were just hanging out You're just doing

54:32

some regular shit. I was living by myself already

54:34

where I was tattooing out of and you're just

54:36

out front No,

54:38

I will I Walked

54:41

across the street to write right across.

54:43

Sennela. There was a liquor store there

54:46

and I went to it I went to go get a piece stone and I

54:50

think I think I think my my

54:52

kids mom was was making dinner and

54:55

She's like it's some bread or something like that I don't know what

54:57

the fuck so I grab a piece when I grab the

54:59

other thing She asked me to grab and

55:02

the homie that was at the register. He's like

55:04

he's like, hey, hey, you gotta go

55:06

homie You gotta fucking go fool

55:12

You know and

55:16

I was so brazen that I was like I Fuckin

55:20

let me go get something else. I

55:22

think I forgot something and he

55:24

was right You

55:27

know your pride made you want to

55:29

stick around now was gonna stick around and

55:33

Yeah, sure enough like four or five carloads pull

55:35

up and as I'm walking out Hey,

55:38

homie. Where you from? We've you

55:40

know where you are. You know where you are, you know, you know where you

55:43

are you know where you are and Of

55:47

Course they trying to make me say ink would tell

55:50

me I didn't say nothing

55:52

looks guy. I'm from the law and I

55:55

remember having my piece doing There's

55:58

like a little ass kid like years old where's

56:00

he from where's he from where's he from bouncing

56:03

and dancing around me where's he from

56:05

where's he from Wow old

56:07

motherfuckers there young motherfuckers there all

56:09

kind of motherfuckers and these are black dudes or

56:12

okay and so

56:15

I did

56:18

put my piece logo across the street real quick you know and

56:21

I at that point I'm thinking like I'm

56:24

either get cracked in the head they're gonna

56:26

you know something but I thought but I'm

56:28

gone right I'm trucking

56:31

they banged on me I banged it back I

56:34

didn't say what they wanted me to say and I and

56:36

I kept it pushing you know so

56:38

I grabbed my brew and I'm but

56:40

as soon as I as I crossed the street to

56:42

get into the block I

56:45

went behind the palm tree quick I'm

56:47

like because what

56:49

was gonna happen once they were gonna follow

56:51

me it's on me definitely

56:55

they were gonna follow me you know how this is going

56:57

down and they follow me right

57:00

I stood there for a couple minutes and

57:02

I go fuck you look here and I

57:05

start walking I was like off of the

57:07

Boulevard it's like two three four houses there the

57:09

duplex is right there so

57:11

I walk and uh and I'm

57:13

looking over to see if there was any lights

57:15

no lights everything clear as

57:18

I get to the door there was no lights because

57:21

the round flowers had the lights off hmm

57:24

so they coming into the block with the lights off once

57:28

I get to the door and I look over

57:31

yeah they have they have rolled by and seen exactly

57:33

where I went into so

57:38

later on that night um later

57:40

on that night here you know knock on the door boom

57:42

boom boom boom and for the record

57:44

these are all dudes you've never seen before it's

57:46

just we oh okay so there's

57:48

like a little bit of build-up yeah well

57:50

you know in good at the time was

57:53

uh economically

57:55

if you still wanted to stay

57:57

in the west side without getting gouged okay You

58:00

had to go to Inglewood. You

58:02

know what I'm saying? So there was different bodies

58:04

in Inglewood that didn't

58:06

necessarily function, you know

58:08

what I'm saying? But you had to be there because

58:11

it's what you could afford and

58:13

still be in the West Side. Okay. Right? So

58:16

that was my story. It was like, I

58:18

was kind of there, but,

58:21

you know. Right. Without

58:24

going, so I jumped into the pad and I

58:27

remember she's cooking and I'm cracking his 40 and

58:30

2020's on. You know,

58:32

smoking his joint and

58:38

the door knocks, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And,

58:42

hey, on me. Hey,

58:44

hey, come here, come here. And

58:47

I go, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, hold up, hold up. And

58:49

I was like, I don't know who that is at all. At

58:52

all. So as I get up to

58:54

go get, I had a little shot off, go

58:57

up to go get the shot off in my room. I

59:00

hear the door break open, a little screen door.

59:03

And it was dark. The light wasn't

59:05

on outside, but you could see him into the pad

59:08

because it was summer. The screen

59:10

was closed and

59:13

no light outside. You can't see out there. So I like to see

59:15

it was like a figure with a hoodie. Yeah,

59:17

yeah, hold on, homie. Hey, homie,

59:19

come here, homie. Yeah, yeah,

59:21

hold on. I'm gonna get my sweater,

59:23

I'll be right there. I

59:25

run into the quarter to get the, get the

59:27

treno. When you hear

59:30

the door, you hear

59:32

my kid's mom screaming. She's

59:35

one of my daughters, you hear him screaming. And

59:38

I thought, fuck, all

59:40

these motherfuckers are in my fucking house. So

59:43

a bunch of dudes ran up in there. That's what I thought.

59:45

Oh. To my mind, that's what

59:47

immediately came to mind. Everyone

59:49

is inside my house. Now,

59:53

mind you, I don't know, right?

59:55

It's just coincidental that all of this happens at

59:57

the same time. coincidental

1:00:01

you know, jammed up by

1:00:03

the homies and then this happens you know not

1:00:06

to say that that's what happened like who who

1:00:09

who that came from or whatever but

1:00:11

that's what happened at night right right that's

1:00:13

how things developed at night so I'm

1:00:16

in the closet right at this one I'm in the closet getting

1:00:18

the thing and and

1:00:21

he's already in the room so

1:00:23

by the time I turn around he

1:00:25

got he got he got a he got a rag on his face

1:00:28

he got a hoodie on low he got

1:00:30

a you know his hoodie on and I

1:00:32

and I look and yeah he's holding

1:00:34

a shotgun too Wow and

1:00:38

I'm halfway inside the closet grabbing the Treno

1:00:42

you know as I'm looking and

1:00:44

he sprays me right then and there boom right

1:00:48

as he's partially in the door

1:00:50

and I'm partially in the closet and

1:00:54

he runs out and

1:00:57

I casually walk out I could hear my kids

1:00:59

mom screaming more mm-hmm she's screaming

1:01:01

like hell right and

1:01:04

and when I walk out her

1:01:07

face changed she was in

1:01:10

distress and she smiled like she

1:01:12

couldn't believe I was still standing there but when

1:01:15

she looked at my stomach that's where

1:01:17

she I her face her face changed again yeah

1:01:20

oh shit there it is her

1:01:22

face changed again for me hmm it

1:01:25

changed again and so she

1:01:27

went into into

1:01:29

distress and and I'm just couldn't believe that

1:01:31

I got blasted in my stomach and I'm

1:01:33

and I'm walking now trying to keep my

1:01:36

composure right and I'm just looking

1:01:38

at my and my little homie lived in the in the

1:01:40

in the house right next door and

1:01:43

he runs out he runs out with the Treno and

1:01:46

I and by then I'm already at the in the porch and

1:01:49

I'm sitting there like kind of laid back a little bit and

1:01:53

I'm in and out I'm in and out and

1:01:55

and he's like where they go where they go

1:01:58

I don't know that way I don't And

1:02:01

you got over revenge in exchange

1:02:04

for I need to get to the fucking hospital or

1:02:06

something like right away Or were you still focused on

1:02:08

like no, I'm gonna go blast these not like the

1:02:12

time that had passed There

1:02:14

probably was not gonna be successful in

1:02:17

finding nobody right so why

1:02:19

send them on a goose chase? But are you like

1:02:21

that way? Are you pouring blood and shit? Nah,

1:02:24

it's not that bad. No, it was bad,

1:02:26

but it was in It

1:02:29

was in it was weird. It was all cooked

1:02:31

up and black and because it was so close

1:02:34

Wow, you tell me So,

1:02:37

you know big gaping hole Then

1:02:40

I go to MLK one Luther

1:02:42

King kill the king Famous

1:02:46

killer king why they called that because

1:02:49

a lot of gang members never survived the surgeries

1:02:53

and and You

1:02:56

know Trips to the

1:02:58

ER there you think that's partially because the hospital doesn't

1:03:01

care I spoke in they didn't give a fuck when

1:03:03

I got there I was sitting there for four hours

1:03:05

before they before they even fuck with me Shut

1:03:08

the fuck an hour is four hours in the

1:03:10

emergency room We where they say let's shoot him

1:03:12

in the good a cowboy movie and they say

1:03:14

let's shoot him in the gut and leave

1:03:16

Them to leave them to die. That's because the

1:03:18

motherfucker ain't gonna die right away he's

1:03:21

gonna sit there and and and It's

1:03:25

gonna be a while. What the fuck you think

1:03:28

that's so could happen now show up the hospital

1:03:30

They make a great four hours after a gunshot

1:03:32

wound. There were several guys would have them in

1:03:34

abdomen Shots

1:03:36

that night. She's yeah,

1:03:39

you'd think that at least like be able to

1:03:41

send you somewhere else or something No, I was

1:03:43

stuck there and and you

1:03:45

know, I was tripping and I'm cussing and

1:03:47

yelling we going back and forth and You

1:03:50

could tell you know and even till this day

1:03:52

you you have to advocate at the hospital Mmm,

1:03:55

you have to advocate you gotta be like

1:03:58

you can't just sit there. No me

1:04:00

at my my my you know we just had

1:04:02

a birth this last year you know my little

1:04:04

girl god bless we had a little girl and

1:04:06

um and

1:04:09

she almost didn't make it homie and

1:04:11

the attitude at the hospital was like like

1:04:15

we only following protocol you

1:04:18

know we're following protocol and if you

1:04:21

don't feel like it works out for you then and

1:04:25

that's not the case homie you got to be diligent

1:04:28

with serving that person that's going

1:04:31

through a very unique

1:04:34

and memorable and important moment it's

1:04:36

not like and look it up homie brown

1:04:39

people die giving

1:04:42

birth more than white people I

1:04:44

heard that why

1:04:47

it ain't because of some genetic shit

1:04:49

homie it's because we're

1:04:51

not served properly hmm that's

1:04:54

crazy cuz like when my kid

1:04:56

was born in Beverly Hills at the hospital

1:04:59

I walked away from it being like

1:05:01

unbelievably impressed by how professional

1:05:04

all the doctors and nurses were and shit

1:05:06

and I can't even imagine how shitty it

1:05:08

would have felt to have walked away from

1:05:10

that feeling like they didn't care as much

1:05:12

as I did well they trying to get

1:05:14

my daughter morphine as soon as

1:05:16

she was born because this I can't

1:05:21

remember what is called but

1:05:24

but she she she had a hard

1:05:26

time coming out they should have done

1:05:28

a c-section right they didn't do

1:05:30

that so when she came out she was

1:05:33

limp I thought fuck

1:05:35

they gave my daughter like

1:05:37

that and I

1:05:40

couldn't believe it homie they put her in a

1:05:42

box and they like

1:05:45

you know we for

1:05:47

kids acrylic box and they're

1:05:49

moving you know to treat

1:05:51

her whatever and I can't believe that

1:05:53

that that that we didn't have a

1:05:55

normal you know situation

1:05:57

so so I'm flying

1:06:00

to Children's Hospital in Seattle

1:06:03

and right away it's like we have to give

1:06:05

her morphine. Oh this is Seattle the story that

1:06:07

you're telling right now. Right now this is only

1:06:09

a couple years ago. But it's happened before to

1:06:12

my other kids you feel me? Wow. Where I

1:06:14

gotta like and you gotta ask

1:06:16

questions. I mean you don't know what's

1:06:18

being administered ask what is that? You

1:06:21

got the right. Hey what is that? What are you doing?

1:06:24

Oh I'm gonna give them nah or

1:06:28

okay. Research

1:06:31

that you know you always

1:06:33

got to advocate at birth.

1:06:37

If you don't you're getting I just told you

1:06:39

earlier less

1:06:42

less resources than everybody else. Less

1:06:44

love than everybody else and that's

1:06:46

prevalent on me. That's

1:06:48

real. That's facts. So you

1:06:51

know when you see this and you start thinking I

1:06:53

don't want my kids to go to this. I don't

1:06:55

want my son to go to this. Let me try

1:06:58

and do a little

1:07:00

better in my area. Let me promote something better

1:07:02

for my you know that's why

1:07:04

I think run you know like

1:07:08

I don't know if it's important to me. That's all I

1:07:11

could say. I think it's crucial because

1:07:13

I know what it's like to fall

1:07:15

under those cracks. I know

1:07:17

what it's like to not be

1:07:19

served right. Do

1:07:22

you feel like there's a lot of unity in the

1:07:25

Mexican or brown community or

1:07:27

like do you feel like

1:07:29

that's kind of something that the

1:07:31

community still struggles with because sometimes it does feel

1:07:33

like there's a lot of unity. But

1:07:35

I can imagine there's a lot of situations

1:07:38

where it doesn't feel like that. There is.

1:07:40

I feel like we got you know a

1:07:42

lot of strong connections through business through art

1:07:44

through food through you know through

1:07:46

a lot of interesting things but

1:07:48

there's always gonna be that divide.

1:07:52

There's always gonna be you

1:07:54

know the saying oh it be your own people. Right.

1:07:57

You know it be your own people. It's

1:08:01

like don't get proactive with me homie.

1:08:04

Don't get proactive with me. Support

1:08:06

me, push me, love me. But sometimes our

1:08:09

trauma, it comes back to our trauma. You

1:08:12

know, oh no, let me block

1:08:14

on this fool because I ain't gonna get that. So

1:08:17

let me, hold on, hold on, hold on.

1:08:19

We're listing this clear. Why would I share

1:08:21

with him if I never had shit? Fuck

1:08:24

that. But the idea is

1:08:26

share, share, share.

1:08:30

God will favor you, homie. God

1:08:32

will bless you. You feel me? He'll

1:08:35

bless you. Be grateful. You

1:08:38

know, it's only borrowed here. Just

1:08:41

to wrap up the other story, how

1:08:43

long we in the hospital or like how long did it take

1:08:45

you to get to the hospital? Man, I was like Tupac. I

1:08:48

was in for a few days and then I was gone. Really?

1:08:51

I didn't trust it. I

1:08:53

left unprepared. I left

1:08:55

pulling shit off of me. I left

1:08:59

without seeing what was what.

1:09:01

I only came back to remove the staples. But I

1:09:03

told him for my safety, I

1:09:05

just was not gonna be there. I

1:09:08

didn't feel the need to stay

1:09:11

there as long as they wanted me to. You

1:09:13

kept living in that house? My

1:09:16

homeboy took over the lease. Really? Locals.

1:09:18

Locals, yeah.

1:09:21

And so? My homeboy took over the lease. We never

1:09:23

left. That was the end of that situation? Did

1:09:25

you even really know who the guys were and shit? No.

1:09:29

Really? No. Fuck. And it wasn't like

1:09:31

it started up like

1:09:34

funk. Like

1:09:37

because, you know, like I've

1:09:39

seen different guys and

1:09:41

I've, you know, and I never feel

1:09:43

like, man, like

1:09:47

I can't, you know, I forgive the motherfucker

1:09:49

that did it actually. God bless

1:09:51

him. I don't know what

1:09:53

happened. I don't know who it was. Nothing but I,

1:09:56

you know, it's part of the game. A

1:09:58

lot of times now it feels like everybody knows. knows

1:10:00

who shot somebody right away. It wasn't

1:10:02

really it wasn't like that as much now. Because

1:10:04

it's on phones. I like

1:10:07

it because even if it's not like really

1:10:09

out there it's like a lot

1:10:11

of times there'll be a little breadcrumbs. You

1:10:13

know like someone was like oh yeah we

1:10:15

know that homie got poked and praised in there.

1:10:18

You know like I've heard I've heard things you

1:10:20

know. Yeah. Well that guy. Oh we know who

1:10:22

did it and he got he got it. Like

1:10:24

I hear things. I don't give a fuck. You

1:10:26

know like and they saw bullshit.

1:10:29

I don't know. I don't know

1:10:31

factually. You know I don't know factually.

1:10:33

But I've been there where some of that in like somebody

1:10:36

told me like yo this happened to them behind

1:10:38

bars and I'm just like oh yeah.

1:10:40

But also like bummed out that I know I'm

1:10:42

not going to probably see a video of it

1:10:44

or anything because you know. Right right. It came

1:10:46

out a little too late. You know. Yeah. When

1:10:49

I you know when I heard when I knew

1:10:51

it was like you

1:10:53

know and at this point in my life that's

1:10:56

a long time many many many moons ago. I've

1:10:58

been shot at several you know many

1:11:01

times. He hit

1:11:03

that particular time he been shot up plenty

1:11:05

of times but that you know like you

1:11:09

know you live and learn homie. You live and

1:11:11

learn. And I'll be

1:11:13

going testing some foods in their own hood. You know

1:11:16

I'm saying. Oh let me let me be here and

1:11:19

see what like that's stupid. You

1:11:21

feel me. That's stupid. You

1:11:23

know. But you've got to do that when you're

1:11:25

young. You represent me. How did your

1:11:27

life change as a result of getting sprayed up that

1:11:29

one time. Man we

1:11:32

didn't learn. It wasn't like oh

1:11:34

fuck I need to. Something

1:11:36

different. Right. That's just life. I was

1:11:38

still hanging out. I

1:11:41

remember I remember hanging out with the

1:11:43

homies from Santa Monica and and

1:11:45

the homie was like come full come to. We're

1:11:47

going to kick it out the graveyard right there

1:11:49

in Santa Monica. Bye

1:11:52

bye bye. Their area.

1:11:55

And and I

1:11:58

go yes you want staples in my fucking stomach

1:12:00

still and I remember I had a little

1:12:03

I had a little uh a

1:12:05

little doo stooze and I had it

1:12:07

in my shoe right here this this

1:12:10

hello so

1:12:15

I had the atom up in here

1:12:17

right I had the atom up in here and um and

1:12:20

we're in the we're in the post in the graveyard in

1:12:22

Santa Monica that was just a regular place to chill at

1:12:25

that time like like fresh out

1:12:27

of the hospital hang out with the you know right

1:12:29

I had a good report one of the homies one

1:12:31

of the homies from from some uh wagito

1:12:33

from Santa Monica came to visit me

1:12:35

um uh brought me magazines and shit

1:12:38

at the hospital good old days when your phone

1:12:40

wasn't enough yeah brought me magazines and shit like

1:12:43

and he was shot up we used

1:12:45

to we used to kind of funk and then uh and

1:12:47

then one day my little homie says hey I got a

1:12:49

homie I want to introduce you and

1:12:52

they pull them out of the car and and they got

1:12:54

to lift them up in the wheelchair to bring them in

1:12:56

the pad and I had known the homie to not be

1:12:58

in the wheelchair I had seen him and we

1:13:00

wanted funk with each other we

1:13:03

wanted funk with each other he'd rolling a

1:13:05

big ass uh Cadillac a gangster ass Cadillac

1:13:07

and he was like up to

1:13:09

no good yeah it's Santa Monica on his neck as

1:13:12

a kid you know and at that time again

1:13:14

we're talking about visible tattoos and so

1:13:17

when I saw him uh automatically we hit

1:13:19

it off because the homie brought

1:13:21

him to my house and

1:13:24

then I and then I felt some type of way

1:13:26

you feel me seeing him in

1:13:29

a different light when I had saw

1:13:31

him before he was you know but

1:13:34

I think he had he had got in a shooting

1:13:36

and uh at the beach or something

1:13:38

got shot in the shoulder and

1:13:40

it left him left him paralyzed good homie

1:13:42

good homie till this day we still communicate

1:13:46

uh uh he's in

1:13:48

the low riding scene and really

1:13:50

good camera uh you know salute the homie and

1:13:52

so when you look back you look back at

1:13:55

that time period in your life you

1:13:57

living like really reckless and was it

1:14:00

Kind of like this weird balance because you want to get more

1:14:02

serious about the tattoo ship But then at the same time you're

1:14:04

in the streets that boy guy I had

1:14:06

kids I was a kid having kids right

1:14:08

so I had to be responsible for the kids You

1:14:11

know so I had to have things

1:14:13

in the house. I had a Provide you

1:14:15

feel me and probably didn't do that great You

1:14:18

feel me I probably was not the

1:14:20

best at at all those things at the

1:14:22

time. You know I was only a young Father

1:14:26

and I didn't my counterpart was not that

1:14:29

You know willing to invest in my

1:14:31

progress. She was just as traumatized as

1:14:33

I was she had suffered a You

1:14:37

know sexual abuse at a young

1:14:39

age and her parents migrated and

1:14:41

brought her from Mexico and they

1:14:44

lived in a they lived

1:14:46

in in OC and so

1:14:49

that sparked the Weird

1:14:53

chemistry Traumatized people

1:14:56

you know right yeah What

1:14:58

was the point where you felt like

1:15:00

you really started to take your life more serious

1:15:02

to get more serious about? Building

1:15:05

something for yourself. I think

1:15:07

I think the music was amazing for me the

1:15:09

music made me what year you start to get

1:15:11

more like 2004 oh so much later Okay,

1:15:14

so I'm like 30 at that point okay,

1:15:17

and we you know you know now

1:15:19

at this point. We're like Ran

1:15:21

into some homie that know a homie that took us

1:15:24

to a studio No

1:15:26

a producer and that kind of sparked the

1:15:29

interest the guy that I knew

1:15:31

he was a pop and rapper and at

1:15:34

the time Not somebody people know

1:15:36

now or I went to Coming

1:15:38

out of prison my

1:15:40

first introduction to Chicano music was

1:15:42

in prison hmm So so

1:15:45

coming out of prison you know we go to

1:15:47

that we go to a it was Raffa Club

1:15:49

We are club I programmed to get out of the to get out of

1:15:51

the cell and go do some on a Thursday Right

1:15:54

do this club and go get out of my cell to

1:15:56

go hang out with this in you know the Native Club

1:15:58

And I was part of a couple different things to

1:16:01

program and to make my time go. I

1:16:03

draw and I do my thing and whatever.

1:16:05

And at Raza

1:16:07

Club, that's when I got introduced

1:16:10

to Gonejo, and

1:16:12

be writers and a bunch of

1:16:14

this new genre

1:16:16

that, I mean, I listened to Compton's

1:16:19

Moswane, banging on

1:16:21

wax, you feel me,

1:16:23

Spice 1, Too Short.

1:16:26

You know, that was, you know, I

1:16:28

grew up listening to K-Day, homie. People

1:16:31

would ask me, what state, what, you know, back

1:16:34

in the day, it was like, what's better? FM

1:16:36

or AM? You know, AM was shitty. But

1:16:38

I always say AM was better because they

1:16:41

play easy E, EPMD, K-Day

1:16:43

played all that shit. K-Day, when I first

1:16:46

moved here, I could not fucking believe that

1:16:48

there was a radio station that played classic

1:16:50

hip hop out here. Cause in New York,

1:16:52

that didn't exist. In Boston, that didn't exist.

1:16:54

Out here, the fact that that's able

1:16:56

to like, sustain its own station, right? Now I would

1:16:58

never even fucking think to put the radio on, but

1:17:00

when I moved here like 2010, I couldn't believe it.

1:17:03

And I still see people say that on Twitter from time

1:17:05

to time, like people from LA don't

1:17:07

realize how lucky they are to have a station like

1:17:10

K-Day. Bro, that was the most

1:17:13

amazing thing to hear these interesting sounds

1:17:15

from me out of that AM radio,

1:17:17

right? Out of these

1:17:19

little boom boxes. It was like the most

1:17:22

incredible thing. It was a whole new,

1:17:26

well you embraced it, you loved it. But

1:17:28

it wasn't just West, you know? It

1:17:31

was hip hop also from the East Coast. They

1:17:33

incorporate a couple of different things. You guys were

1:17:35

interested in all that shit as well. East Coast

1:17:38

shit. Everything in hip hop, you were just fascinated

1:17:40

by it. Everything in hip hop. De

1:17:42

La Soul, Busta Rhymes, when he was the leaders of

1:17:45

the New School, what was that? You know what

1:17:48

I'm saying? I

1:17:50

mean, I could go on and on. That

1:17:52

was the influence. And at

1:17:54

the time, you know, that wasn't that popular rap. It was in like mainstream.

1:17:58

It was... questionable

1:18:02

music that wasn't gonna go nowhere. Did

1:18:04

that bridge the gap though between blacks

1:18:06

and Hispanics in LA from your perspective

1:18:08

like the music kinda brought people closer

1:18:10

together? I think so. Yeah

1:18:13

I think so. You got like a shared language at a certain

1:18:15

point. For real. We shared the common pains. You

1:18:19

know we related to you know we

1:18:22

related to it and we weren't

1:18:24

you know we're not from Mexico

1:18:27

so I don't know nothing about Mexico

1:18:29

and that and I like you

1:18:33

know exposing that part

1:18:35

of the culture as a youngster

1:18:37

I'm absorbing what the Calle's

1:18:39

got for me what what what

1:18:41

the demographic is showing me you feel me? For

1:18:45

sure. Did you um so

1:18:48

okay like did you feel represented

1:18:50

at all on a mainstream level or in

1:18:52

turn because we I've had this conversation on

1:18:55

the podcast before how it's

1:18:57

been almost no Hispanic artists

1:18:59

that have been able to become like

1:19:01

true superstars like

1:19:04

pop stars in terms of

1:19:06

like Hispanic hip-hop artists. I

1:19:08

mean it feels like we're closer now to that

1:19:11

but it felt like it kind of took a

1:19:13

while. I mean you have Melo Manet's, you

1:19:16

have Kid Frost. Those were

1:19:19

impactful things you know right and then that's

1:19:21

when we had to take charge. How'd you feel

1:19:23

about Separ so at that time? Cypress Hill.

1:19:28

Because for sure that was shit that I was listening

1:19:30

to when I was you know third grade fourth grade

1:19:32

that's I didn't even know about weed until I started

1:19:34

listening to that shit it sounded magical. Like

1:19:40

like when you hear it you

1:19:42

you're like yeah for

1:19:44

me particularly I didn't have any

1:19:46

Separ's Hill albums. I was one of those rare

1:19:49

guys that didn't go

1:19:51

collect it but you know you'd hear and you

1:19:54

still seeing them you know and staying in the

1:19:56

membrane and you know

1:19:58

all the classics of course. or is there

1:20:00

impact in the culture is

1:20:02

extremely prevalent, the big homies.

1:20:04

Right. You know what I mean? Definitely.

1:20:07

So yeah, you feel a sense

1:20:10

of connection. You feel a sense

1:20:12

of like, hell yeah. Because we're the biggest at

1:20:14

the time. We're like, feel like, I don't know,

1:20:16

now at the time we're the biggest consumers. Rasa

1:20:19

is, you know, the Chicano demographic. If, you

1:20:22

know, I remember going to House

1:20:24

of Blues with my homeboys and we

1:20:26

go out, you know, the Fayette would show up

1:20:28

and go see DJ Quig. And

1:20:31

you go in there and there's a gang of Chicanos

1:20:33

in there, a gang of other gang members. Yeah,

1:20:36

there was, you know, African-American

1:20:38

crowd and, you know,

1:20:41

the genre of the demographic,

1:20:43

but you could see that

1:20:46

it was prevalent, that Rasa would

1:20:49

go and support a lot of, you

1:20:51

know. Even now, I was just at

1:20:53

Rolling Loud. That's probably the number one

1:20:55

demographic racially, if you were to break

1:20:57

it down. So it's

1:20:59

kind of interesting because like, the

1:21:01

doors slightly open, right?

1:21:04

The doors slightly open, but I feel like, well

1:21:06

yeah, that's our market. Let's open

1:21:08

it a little bit or else, you

1:21:11

know. We looking weird, not

1:21:14

opening the doors, but literally I don't

1:21:16

think the doors are wide open for

1:21:18

us. I mean, we, you know, being

1:21:20

we the biggest consumers, the

1:21:22

biggest supporters, the biggest lovers

1:21:24

of the genre, you know

1:21:27

what I'm saying? To not get, hey, we

1:21:29

salute y'all. Thank you for, man, I bought

1:21:31

all this cause of y'all. I

1:21:33

did all this cause of y'all. Where's

1:21:35

the love, homies? You feel me? Where's

1:21:38

the love for your Chicano, your

1:21:40

Mexican-American demographic that's born here. Americans,

1:21:43

homies, don't tokenize us by saying

1:21:45

we're, you

1:21:47

know, not from here because we're Mexican,

1:21:49

we're Mexican, you

1:21:52

feel me? It's like,

1:21:54

man, embrace the little homies that

1:21:57

are rapping. Embrace the ones that

1:21:59

are coming in. push them in the,

1:22:01

you know, not, oh man, they're stepping

1:22:03

in our game or whatever the case

1:22:05

might be, you know, if it's the

1:22:07

case, but considering that the

1:22:10

doors ain't completely wide open for the

1:22:12

homies and it looks like, you

1:22:15

know, it looks like we still

1:22:17

need ours, you know, we still need

1:22:19

our section, you know, and it's a blessing to see,

1:22:21

you know, guys all over the place, you know,

1:22:24

Latino guys kicking it off, you

1:22:26

know, I salute all of homies doing

1:22:28

it, keep doing it. A hundred

1:22:31

percent. You know, great music, all right,

1:22:33

music, amazing music or, you

1:22:35

know, media, whatever the case might be,

1:22:37

it's your, it's your art, homie. It's

1:22:40

your thing. It's your thing. Who are we

1:22:42

to tell you? Nah, don't, not

1:22:45

follow your fucking dream. Push hard. Give

1:22:47

it all you got, Perron. For sure.

1:22:50

Am I missing anything in terms of

1:22:52

your life story before the

1:22:54

music starts to kind of take over your life, you said like

1:22:57

2004, was there anything else wild

1:22:59

that we got to cover in there before we get into the music

1:23:01

part? I

1:23:04

left the tattooing alone and started focusing on

1:23:06

that. Created a little

1:23:08

independent label, got distribution with

1:23:10

EMI and my focus was really

1:23:13

on balancing the gang shade and

1:23:15

balancing the music shade. It

1:23:17

was like, you

1:23:20

know, it was, it was a challenge,

1:23:22

you know, because in my mind,

1:23:24

I want to lift the homies up. I want us to go

1:23:27

travel the world. Like we've been, you know, that's what

1:23:29

we started doing. Now we going and doing tours

1:23:32

everywhere. But did it feel like labels

1:23:35

or, or, you know, venues or

1:23:37

potential business connects were kind of

1:23:39

scared because of the fact that

1:23:41

you clearly like, we're coming from the gang lifestyle

1:23:43

and shit like that. Now, if you did it

1:23:45

here, if you did it here

1:23:47

in the land, well, yeah, it's a liability. You

1:23:50

know, you couldn't go to like quiet Canyon. You

1:23:53

can even go and get inside looking like a homie.

1:23:56

And you have visible tattoos and all that,

1:23:58

you know, or this club. or that

1:24:00

so yeah to book a venue you

1:24:03

had to do it at a small you

1:24:06

know at a at a small bar you know

1:24:09

whatever you know at least for what

1:24:12

we were doing at the time it wasn't

1:24:14

like oh hey come to the theater and we're

1:24:16

gonna pack it out you know cuz I was

1:24:18

just watching a bozo interview and he was saying

1:24:20

that homie bozo shout out the bozo I love

1:24:23

this fucking interview I just seen him doing cam

1:24:25

Capone but shout out cam Capone we'll go see

1:24:27

him later on today so I heard

1:24:29

yeah let's go shout out to him he does some good stuff

1:24:32

but I heard bozo basically saying that he still deals with

1:24:34

that like he'll pull up with

1:24:36

a bunch of homies to you know a show

1:24:38

or some shit and even

1:24:40

if it's like a Hispanic promoter and everything

1:24:42

like that that it's like a clear sense

1:24:45

of if you're coming

1:24:47

into that environment you know a

1:24:49

lot of people are trying to do business as soon as

1:24:51

you got a bunch of dudes who are clearly from from

1:24:53

a hood or whatever older guys pulling up to the venue

1:24:56

people get very on edge it

1:24:59

depends where you are of course in the

1:25:01

land we know what happens when that stuff

1:25:04

happens you know like we know the recipe

1:25:06

to some good as

1:25:08

madre some good action

1:25:10

you know but it go to go to

1:25:12

you know go to Yakima

1:25:16

you know where's that in Washington

1:25:18

Eastern Washington you got there do an event

1:25:21

you feel me like yeah we

1:25:24

got the same issues yeah

1:25:26

we're hindered yeah we're we're we're

1:25:29

broken out there too but I

1:25:31

feel like in

1:25:35

these places where it's

1:25:39

not every day you're gonna have homies

1:25:41

from out of town or homies

1:25:43

representing a sector that

1:25:46

you have fondness

1:25:49

right for then more than likely

1:25:51

you go to New

1:25:53

York you go to New Jersey

1:25:57

you go to these places and and

1:25:59

yeah you gonna run the same race

1:26:01

because you're in that environment

1:26:03

but I think I think the

1:26:08

the the danger Ray

1:26:10

might be a little lower you feel

1:26:12

me like now you're out of your

1:26:15

area now you're you're being hosted you're

1:26:17

being you know supported in your endeavors

1:26:19

you're being pushed you're you're being promoted

1:26:21

you're being welcomed you know what

1:26:23

I mean unless you that guy

1:26:25

that's attracting things as you

1:26:27

know but but out of the I think

1:26:30

out of the city is where we were

1:26:32

able to flourish you know if you hustle

1:26:34

that way I mean it's like that in

1:26:36

a lot of cities where Chicago has the

1:26:38

biggest drill scene and then none of those

1:26:41

artists have ever pretty much performed in Chicago

1:26:43

because the cops are just all over it

1:26:45

like there you go any artist that's fully

1:26:47

like talking about crazy gang banging shit out

1:26:49

there the cops are on it same shit

1:26:51

in New York none of the New York

1:26:54

drill artists have pretty much performed in New

1:26:56

York you know but then those same artists

1:26:58

will have a show in Jersey showing Connecticut

1:27:00

showing wherever like their fans have to go out

1:27:02

of state pretty much to fuck with them because I mean

1:27:05

at the very least in New Jersey you

1:27:07

don't have your fucking ops next door ready to pull

1:27:09

up to the show the promoters and everybody are understandably

1:27:11

scared of it and then the cops are trying to

1:27:13

shut it down yeah that's

1:27:16

that's you know like

1:27:18

you're gonna get hate where you from

1:27:20

unfortunately that's the sad

1:27:22

part that where you're from you're

1:27:25

gonna get hate it the most you're

1:27:27

gonna hate you gonna hate you

1:27:29

for falling your dreams they're gonna

1:27:31

hate you for succeeding they're gonna

1:27:34

hate you for building they're

1:27:36

gonna hate you for

1:27:38

expanding flourishing

1:27:40

you know from doing

1:27:42

great things they will see you

1:27:44

living and they will see and they

1:27:46

gonna be like you're not

1:27:48

relatable to us no more you're

1:27:51

not part of the struggle no more you're

1:27:53

not one of us no more you

1:27:55

feel me that's

1:27:59

and if you ain't got a they skin for shit like that you

1:28:02

better go get a fucking day job go

1:28:04

to the market go go do something

1:28:06

else go do concern go do something

1:28:09

cuz it's saying that you get a lot of hate

1:28:11

from putting yourself out there

1:28:14

I'm the epitome of that homie you

1:28:17

know how's uh

1:28:19

you know a lot of a lot of the a lot

1:28:21

of the stigma and a lot of the you

1:28:24

know history that we have in the

1:28:26

music and the interactions have been predominantly

1:28:29

negative because we up against the

1:28:31

wall you know pushing

1:28:34

back on again traumatized individuals

1:28:37

that don't want to that gatekeep

1:28:39

or don't want to share or

1:28:41

block or don't want to support

1:28:43

or or down talking on you

1:28:45

or you know and when you

1:28:47

knew in the game and you're trying to navigate

1:28:49

and do your best and you're like what he

1:28:51

said what about us hmm Wow

1:28:55

well he didn't want us here or

1:28:57

you pull up to a

1:29:00

shop and you know like you do your

1:29:02

own street teaming your own marketing your own

1:29:04

you're pushing music and you see all your

1:29:06

shit ripped down you feel

1:29:08

me and it's only another another

1:29:11

homie that does the same shit you do

1:29:13

for me or someone you know

1:29:15

like so

1:29:18

it's just traumatized people

1:29:21

in this how are you what were the primary ways

1:29:23

that you were monetizing at that time though was it

1:29:25

all about selling CDs out the trunk and shit? Straight

1:29:27

out the trunk straight out

1:29:29

the trunk no

1:29:32

internet to go viral on no nothing

1:29:34

it was all your hustle and I'd

1:29:36

go everywhere I'd go straight up to

1:29:38

the bay to the Oakland Swami homie

1:29:40

really fuck yeah mob

1:29:42

up in there with the homies and the homies would

1:29:44

be like you know what you're doing

1:29:47

it wasn't like oh no we're not going there

1:29:49

because I heard a lot of motherfuckers would be like Oakland

1:29:52

Swami no thank you I'm not

1:29:54

taking my music up there we don't belong

1:29:56

up there I'm

1:29:58

making my business to rock mob up in that

1:30:00

motherfucker with a

1:30:02

homie, you know, let's go. But

1:30:05

it wasn't like, oh, nah, we

1:30:07

had to do it homie. So we'd go in

1:30:09

there and you know, I'd

1:30:12

have a variety CDs, I meet up with this rapper,

1:30:14

hey fool, I just dropped this, let's swap some CDs,

1:30:17

I got you. So even at that time,

1:30:20

was it like a big fucking deal for

1:30:22

you to be from down south and to be going up north

1:30:24

and trying to make money? Fuck yeah.

1:30:26

You felt like you were immediately gonna be

1:30:29

faced with opposition wherever you went? Of course.

1:30:32

That was always attitude, you're not

1:30:34

welcome. You know, that's

1:30:37

just the

1:30:39

stigma, you know, you're not welcome. So you know already, I

1:30:42

never had no interaction. I never

1:30:45

done nothing to make them hate me. I never, you

1:30:48

know, I hadn't been in

1:30:50

that environment to create that,

1:30:53

you feel me? But did you feel like

1:30:55

there was a chance that, you know, somebody would just know you

1:30:57

were from down south and pull up and

1:30:59

try to have problems with you? Yeah, but I never would

1:31:01

think like that. I never wanted to think like that. It

1:31:04

was like, if I start thinking like that, then I'm like

1:31:06

in fear of getting

1:31:09

things done. I don't wanna be in fear, I had

1:31:11

to get it done. So we'd go

1:31:13

out there, you know, pull up in Fresno

1:31:15

and sell CDs or, you know,

1:31:17

wherever we needed to and go all the way up to

1:31:19

Washington and then as far east as New

1:31:22

York, we

1:31:24

did it. We had it independently,

1:31:27

you know, and then got

1:31:29

with EMI Latin. Really? Got

1:31:31

with EMI Latin from all that hard push,

1:31:34

had so many CDs that they couldn't ignore

1:31:36

us. Really, so you were signed in

1:31:38

what year? Like

1:31:43

2005, not there, I don't know

1:31:45

if it was signed, it was like

1:31:47

some trash ass

1:31:49

distribution, you know.

1:31:51

They couldn't do much for you? You know,

1:31:54

it was the most fetti I ever seen with

1:31:57

music ever. In terms of

1:31:59

the advance? a lump sum like no like

1:32:01

we have we had turned in the music

1:32:04

and then after after the quarter we

1:32:08

saw what had generated and I mean I

1:32:10

never had a sixteen thousand dollar check on

1:32:12

me right I never had sixteen

1:32:14

thousand dollars and I got

1:32:17

a sixteen thousand dollar check from from

1:32:19

my catalog in the first quarter which

1:32:21

would be like probably selling a couple twice as

1:32:23

much now with inflation and shit right and he

1:32:25

probably didn't give me all the failure yeah he

1:32:28

probably didn't give me all the failure you know but

1:32:30

even though you sign that deal are you still selling

1:32:32

CDs out the trunk of course right

1:32:34

so they're getting you in record shops and shit

1:32:36

like that but then you're also still doing your

1:32:38

own Sam Goody the warehouse I remember walking into

1:32:40

the mall one day I was like what the

1:32:42

fuck I go what the fuck remember

1:32:44

that motherfuckers don't remember

1:32:47

all those old CD stores coconut

1:32:49

record that far here shit yeah

1:32:51

yeah yeah yeah so walk in

1:32:53

you're like oh shit oh

1:32:56

shit people forget that you had to

1:32:58

make money to be a music fan

1:33:01

that doesn't make sense to people anymore now you pay your

1:33:03

ten bucks a month on Apple music and you're good yeah

1:33:06

like back then like if I got

1:33:08

if somebody gave me a couple hundred bucks if I got my

1:33:11

check on a couple hundred bucks from work I'm going to see

1:33:13

these store I'm buying as many CDs as I

1:33:15

can buy 1599 that's all I cared about double CDs for 20

1:33:17

$20 CD no shit what the fuck that sounds so

1:33:23

expensive now and it's

1:33:25

crazy because it's

1:33:28

not devaluated even though it's

1:33:30

on a price point where it seems like

1:33:32

a bargain to get all this music right

1:33:35

it's still important to know that

1:33:37

the music is golden and that

1:33:39

without your participation as an artist

1:33:42

you feel me it means everything

1:33:44

for you to go in and do your

1:33:46

due diligence as a musician and do the most

1:33:49

that you can and feed the machine and

1:33:51

go hard go hard homie go fucking hard if

1:33:54

that's what you do go hard and do it because

1:33:56

it's possible for me but

1:33:59

you gotta put in that good work too. My

1:34:01

fuckers want to release something, put it

1:34:03

on Instagram, and hope that it's

1:34:05

gonna work out. It's not how it works. You

1:34:08

feel me? You gotta hit the streets. You

1:34:10

gotta figure out creative shit online.

1:34:13

You feel me? Right now we're

1:34:15

running some billboards, God bless in the land. So

1:34:17

we got a couple billboards before I flew in.

1:34:19

I thought, hey homie, do you guys see the

1:34:21

billboards? Hell yeah. Yeah.

1:34:25

Gang. You know?

1:34:28

New York, uh, Mahatty? Little

1:34:30

quick one. I don't know what that means,

1:34:32

but it's, it's

1:34:34

very like, you

1:34:37

know, it's a milestones, like it's not every

1:34:39

day. These are milestones. These are things that

1:34:41

you, you know, you chip away at to

1:34:44

make your business better and do good

1:34:46

stuff and try your best. And I think

1:34:48

those are milestones that I'm excited about. Got

1:34:51

a single with the homie Bishop Snow. We've

1:34:53

been promoting that like crazy and that's been

1:34:55

some of the marketing that we do. So

1:34:57

yeah, it's, it's, you know,

1:34:59

being on it on me. Yesterday we shot some visuals,

1:35:02

came for that, you know, and

1:35:05

then was excited to pull up here, invited everybody

1:35:07

and their mom to come, you

1:35:09

know. Everyone was tied up and, you know, I

1:35:11

came by myself, the little homie met me

1:35:13

here, and then we got the other little homie that,

1:35:16

you know, shooting some behind the scenes with us and

1:35:18

whatnot. So, you know, definitely.

1:35:22

When you start to like, kind of

1:35:24

realize that you're more into the tattoo side of things

1:35:26

than the music side of things. When

1:35:28

I, when I, when I got

1:35:31

exposed to the tattooing again, I had

1:35:33

a dude hit me up and,

1:35:36

and maybe like

1:35:38

2015, something like that. It's been a

1:35:40

while now, 10 years, maybe something like that.

1:35:42

And when I seen the message, I

1:35:45

go, man, this dude, he look like

1:35:47

a dope dealer. The fuck is up with this

1:35:49

guy? He look like a dope dealer,

1:35:51

you know. I was looking at his shit, tattoo

1:35:53

artist. He's like,

1:35:55

hey, I'm gonna link up with you. Let's kick

1:35:58

it. I'm gonna buy you a drink. go

1:36:01

hmm all right let's go. Pitched

1:36:04

me up when we go to Manhattan Beach or Huyna

1:36:06

Beach I don't know where and uh and

1:36:08

we had a great time we had a really great time

1:36:11

we had a really great time and and

1:36:13

and and he only

1:36:15

exposed me to all the new things that

1:36:18

tattooing that the tattooing

1:36:20

industry had you know like it was not

1:36:22

like what it what we were talking about

1:36:24

before homemade quetes and

1:36:26

right now this is big business people

1:36:28

looking at you sideways now it's it's

1:36:30

big business big had you not

1:36:32

drawn or worked on your craft for a long

1:36:35

ass time because of the music shit so man

1:36:37

I wanted to kick myself in the fucking head

1:36:39

on me at that point I go fucking

1:36:42

dumbass it's like

1:36:44

I couldn't balance both I

1:36:46

couldn't keep doing this and then keep doing that

1:36:48

god knows what he does but when you're a

1:36:50

rapper you're on the move you're hustling you're trying

1:36:53

to be everywhere all the same time tattoo

1:36:56

artist you post up

1:36:58

all day grinding that

1:37:00

out well a lot of people but yeah you

1:37:02

tell me a lot now

1:37:04

if you're a traveling tattoo artist right then

1:37:06

you gotta go hard you gotta grind you gotta

1:37:08

trap you gotta shoot out the hooks

1:37:11

right you gotta you know hey i'm gonna be

1:37:13

in this town hey i'm gonna be out

1:37:15

here now you gotta book flights get that room you

1:37:18

gotta find a spot where you gonna be at that's in

1:37:20

your clients there you gotta line up the appointments

1:37:22

i mean it's a it's a it's

1:37:24

a hustle i mean like you gotta work that shit you've

1:37:26

always been a big fan of

1:37:28

taking your craft on the road as

1:37:30

opposed to just being local uh

1:37:34

as far as tattooing goes i think i

1:37:36

think i think once once the the the

1:37:38

em i think exposed us

1:37:40

to the world because that's

1:37:42

what it did it exposed us to the

1:37:44

world and then now we're doing shows in

1:37:49

spain doing shows in

1:37:51

japan we're doing shows in mexico

1:37:54

city we're doing shows in monterey

1:37:56

go into cultures that are extremely

1:37:58

fascinated by your culture and

1:38:01

you're able to monetize being

1:38:03

this extremely authentic representative of

1:38:05

that. That part. Flipping CDs,

1:38:08

flipping clothing, flipping

1:38:10

verses. I mean it's

1:38:12

the early beginnings you know of this

1:38:15

genre that I see developing and all

1:38:18

these amazing artists that grew from it no matter

1:38:20

where they're from. I feel like we were part

1:38:23

of something that contributed

1:38:25

to that growth you feel me.

1:38:27

We did that you know and

1:38:30

I'm happy to still continue being able to do it

1:38:32

many many many moons later you feel me. It's

1:38:35

a blessing. Tattooing is your bread and butter

1:38:38

that's your primary revenue source. I

1:38:41

got a lot of amazing collectors you

1:38:43

know but then again like the other day I you

1:38:47

know I pulled up to Wichita and

1:38:50

I made an amazing connection out there so I

1:38:52

got a little partner my bro Lokes out

1:38:55

there in Wichita you

1:38:57

know that flourished a little music

1:38:59

connection you know like oh how can

1:39:01

we get the music out here what we need to do

1:39:03

and how can I you know how can we work together let's

1:39:05

partner let's do it. So that was music related trapping

1:39:08

and huffling you know selling verses

1:39:10

and getting in the stew and banging

1:39:12

out some shit and and and you

1:39:14

know setting that up and

1:39:17

then and then handling appointments in the day banging

1:39:20

out a few appointments tattooing a little bit you

1:39:23

know boom boom boom and at this

1:39:25

point like um people ask me you

1:39:27

know and I and I feel I

1:39:31

feel I don't know if they heard this noise

1:39:33

the dog just made. Yeah it's too comfortable you

1:39:37

know sometimes you feel divided because you want to

1:39:39

work with people's budget you know but right but

1:39:41

then you control the market because you say this

1:39:43

thing of ours it's been given

1:39:45

away you expecting a homie to get out of

1:39:47

prison and you want to slide them a little

1:39:49

20 to blast you up. 20. You

1:39:52

feel me? How much does a spanky logo

1:39:54

tattoo cost per hour? My minimum is a thousand

1:39:56

dollars. Okay. So I don't pick up the machine

1:39:58

for less than a dollar. right and But

1:40:03

average hourly cuz I haven't even done tattoos

1:40:05

and so fucking long I don't even really

1:40:07

know what the average rate is average hourly.

1:40:10

Mmm 500

1:40:15

an hour something like that. Okay, it depends what

1:40:17

we do because I'm Speedy

1:40:19

too like I fuck around into your your

1:40:21

whole sleeve right now. Mmm. I'll do the

1:40:23

whole thing When guys

1:40:26

are like hmm come back next week Come

1:40:29

back in let me show my calendar We're gonna

1:40:31

book you for three weeks and then we're

1:40:34

you know, like big more fuck No

1:40:36

homies sit your fucking ass down. Let's

1:40:38

do it and I freehand everything. I try it on

1:40:40

you the challenge of me being

1:40:43

being ineffective and Being

1:40:47

regular and be an average only push

1:40:49

me to want to do the greatest things that I could

1:40:51

ever do Free hand free

1:40:53

hand tattoos free hand everything

1:40:55

off of the dome blashing your whole backup. You

1:40:58

never do a stencil. No, really

1:41:00

Wow Never

1:41:03

I can't never say never right an occasion.

1:41:05

Oh, hey, I want my logo Hey,

1:41:08

uh, my dog right. Hey my you

1:41:10

know my ma or whatever the case

1:41:12

might be. Mmm, you know But

1:41:15

for the most part to throw some prison art on

1:41:17

you. I'll freehand the whole motherfucking

1:41:20

thing Wow, the whole back. I'll

1:41:22

blast you your chest. I'll blast you your There's

1:41:25

no don't ask me Should

1:41:27

I get tattoo? Yeah. Yeah get tattoo. Oh someone

1:41:29

said I'm too cute to get that into that

1:41:31

my face Blast your whole fucker face up, bitch

1:41:35

You feel me? I like your face

1:41:37

up. I hear that all the time. Oh, this tattoo

1:41:39

is sorry This tattoo is said I'm too cute to

1:41:42

get tattooed on my face Same

1:41:45

pass motherfucker. Okay, but there's a lot of tattoo artists

1:41:47

where that's your business. Oh me How you not gonna

1:41:49

how you gonna roll into the jiffy lube and all

1:41:52

for them the oil change the window clean the motherfucker

1:41:54

You know for me, but I've heard a lot of

1:41:56

tattoo artists say that if you pull up and you

1:41:58

don't have Your whole. Body tattooed and

1:42:00

you say I want to get that face tattoo

1:42:02

that they're going to say now. That

1:42:06

the the tattoo community is. Interesting.

1:42:10

Roaming. You got that extreme traditionalist

1:42:12

and then you got people were does hustling.

1:42:15