“La Familia Ties: The Black Educator Who Built Chicano Rap”

This week on The Gangster Chronicles, Steele and special guest co/host Tony A sit down with Murry Brumfield — the visionary behind La Familia Records, the first Chicano rap label founded by a Black man. A former teacher turned music mogul, Murry shares how he saw major potential in a genre others overlooked. He opens up about working with legends like the late Mr. Knightowl, Lil Blacky, Mr. Shadow, and discovering none other than Lil Rob. We dive into the culture clashes, the discrimination he faced from both sides, and how he stayed true to the vision that changed the game forever.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's that?

Speaker 2 (00:01):
Thanks? This is not your average show. You're now tuned
in to the rail.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Ain't welcome to the gangst the Chronicles podcast, the production
of iHeart Radio and Black Effect Podcast Network. Make sure
you download the iHeart app and subscribe to Against the
Chronicles For my Apple users, hit the Purple Michael on

(00:28):
your front screen, subscribed Against the Chronicles and leave a
five star rating and comment. Don't glad to welcome you
to another episode of Against the Chronicles podcast. It's your boy,
Big Steeal and my man MC eight is down for
the counting night, but I got somebody special holding them down.
The homeboy Tony to what's cracking? Man?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Was? I'm my brother? All you doing man? Thank you
for the invitation, bro to try and honor to be here.
Oh for sure, man, you know what I believe. Don't
letting happen by accident. This all kind of worked out
because you being one of the OG's. I ain't even
gonna say it in Chicano Rep Game. In the Rep
game here, everybody knows what you you and high and seen.
It's just legendary work together. And I think this conversation

(01:07):
is perfect for you. That's why when I thought up
on the day was past, and then when I found
out Age is gonna be down for the count, I said,
you know what, this would be perfect time to call Tony.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Because all good. I'm glad you called because you're a
non biased person. Absolutely, And I thought this episode was
important because I think, as you know, Man, I love
to be known. I love it. I said, I love
Mexican people, man, love the food, the culture. I appreciate
everything about them. And it kind of disheartens me because
I've seen a few people weren't cool with online telling

(01:36):
them about how the Brothers don't support them and how
we kind of like blocking and repeating things, and I
think that's the furthest thing from the truth, right.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
No, yeah, I agree, But I think a lot of
that has started, believe it or not. And this might
sound a little controversial, but it started with a lot
of podcasters throwing that out there. You know because before
growing up, you know, me being growing up around blacks,
growing up around someone's Filipinos, we didn't have those issues,

(02:06):
you know. But today the two thousands, I do believe
that there are some people that do have those issues.
Blacks don't support us. And then I've also heard black
people say Mechigans don't support us, and I just think
that we all support each other, to be quite.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Honestly to you, Oh yeah, hunt on the sick, because
before I introduce our special guest, I'm gonna tell you what,
try being a rabber too on the West Coast and
looking at the audience and see who you gonna see.
Ninety five percent the audience deals Mexican people. Absolutely. I
think the public just want good music. I don't think
they get a fuck with somebody black, Mexican or whatever.
I think they just listen to good music or the

(02:41):
music which leads me to point. You know, this is
like we everybody we have on the show with legendary man.
But to me, I feel like this is the second
person we've had in as many weeks that's kind of
like set a whole thing off. You know, we had
Julioji last week. He set the West Coast off from kDa,
then later you know, West Side Region and all that.

(03:02):
This man right here, I know for a fact he
is responsible for Chicano rap, what we call Chacano rap
today actually making emergency. Yes, if this was like the Bible,
he would be like no, no checkupy a psycholgic law.
He would be the creator. He was there from the beginning.

(03:24):
He was there from the beginning. He actually created a
business because let me introduce it for this, Mary Broomfield,
just give a hand clut. Yeah for sure. Well we
go do tonight, man. We go go back in history, man,
and we go really tell a lot of truth. Now
this there comes a very non biased place. It's just
the facts. One thing you can't do. I see a

(03:46):
lot of people, like you said, it's a lot of
podcasters that want to rewrite history. Yes, you can't rewrite history.
History is what it is. Bro. You can't say that
that the South was won by the you know guys
from down here. We'll get a whole different situation right now.
Like probably wouldn't be good for none of us sitting
up here, right, you know, the Confederacy at one, I'll
see that didn't happen. Right, you can't go back, you know,

(04:07):
hundreds of years later. Let's say that's what happened. So
I want to get into it, man, Marry Love Familiar
Records the first to kindo wrap record label. Michael rag correct,
how did you know? How did you have the foresight
to know that this would be a multi million dollar
business that how did you see that?

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Well, at the time I had earlier had I was
a teacher and I start at Washington and I was
thinking about doing gangster rapp you know, just you know,
just can'ster act. Because I grew up in Compton. I feared,
you know, rapping about what you know, the Compton would

(04:51):
be a good idea. And I was at school and
uh at the school I was that Washing. It just
wasn't the right school to do it. And because earlier
were trying to really just put more more positive spem
on everything, you know, not that this would be native

(05:12):
because it just would have been what it.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Was, well you know what teacher talking about, they go
start against the rep you know, that might not have
went over real popular with the administration.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
So uh so I kind of detected and eventually, you know,
easy did it? Why say what year was this so
we can all be this like eighty three?

Speaker 3 (05:39):
Okay, so this was early on, yes, okay, And so
I was at.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Another school, at Carson High School and well actually before
that group, Spanish Fly had called me. I don't know
how I got the number but I just got a call.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
So Spanish Blob was already around, he was already making music.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, they were like yeah, just yeah, getting going, imagine,
and so that that they just called me out the
clear Blue.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
So at the time, because I'll see a lot of
controversy about this too online, who were the original members
of Spanish.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
What because essay, Dazz, Toker and tricks okay was it
was there his Ruby rule and soda okay, okay, so.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
Said rich Rock wasn't a part of it yet, and
how could say Richard.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
The starting up little stuff for him r and I
had the brothers man forget.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
And so that was about a year before I got
the Carson, And so when I got there, it just
so happened that they went to the school. And so
they're saying that they, you know, wrapped out. I don't
know why I took them to the studio because I
hadn't heard, you know, none other stuff, and and I

(07:05):
just said, okay, well i'll see, you know, I just
took a chance, you know.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Money back there.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
So I took them, you know, uh.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Paramount Studios, you know, the same road that you know
ice ceam used because I had said in uh session
the certificate and uh so you know, took them to
that studio paramount.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
But you know what, Marie, if you don't mind me
showing you, I think you took a big chance because
during that time, there wasn't a lot of people paying
attention to if you want to call the chee Kondo rappers,
because back then it wasn't really identified as chekond of rap. Right, okay,
you know, for you did take a big chance. Yeah, okay,
now I think about it.

Speaker 2 (07:49):
Also, there was you know, some dissension between Latinos and
blacks starting to brew up, and so being you know,
the teacher everybody you know came to my class and
and at lunch and we freestyle, and so I was like,
I think I was the best rapper at the school.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
That's the teacher.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
That's the T shirt I could see because I never
knew he was. So So anyway, I called a meeting
with uh, you know Latino kids and black kids, and
you know, we just you know, taught me to had
everybody to give their viewpoint. We talked it all out,

(08:34):
and but I pointed out, I remember, you know, just
like its yesterday, there was nothing really going on with
uh the kind of uh entertainment, right, Okay, I think
maybe Chico on the Man was probably it. And so
I was saying, yeah, you know, there's there weren't a

(08:57):
lot of you know, I don't think they were each
kind of magazine. Maybe a couple of low writers like
or Lease and maybe low writering magazine, but there was
there was no entertainment, you know, and so really there
was no representation. And so I said, well, at the
time I was in school, I was working with PhD

(09:20):
in psychology, and so I happened to be you know,
studying different cultures, and I knew the presence of the
you know, of the Mexican American population and percentages, and
at the time I think it was about like maybe
thirty eight percent Latino, four percent black. And so I said,

(09:43):
there should be moral representation. So I told the kids,
you know that, well, at the time, I think I
started just started working with Spanish fly. So I said, well,
you know, we're going to change the world, you know,
I said, you know, well, you know, I just said
there'll be you know, Latino magazines just kind of set

(10:08):
up the same kind of structure that that was in
black entertainment. Okay, you know like uh, you know we
have back at the time, we had black Beat World up. Yeah,
so I was, uh, I got the name of the
magazine we were going to start with me and a
girl student at school named Linda Trres. We actually did

(10:31):
uh one issue and it was called Barrio Beat and
uh so she took pictures of all the kids in
the neighborhood at the kickbacks and and all that. So
it's more like a kind of like expose of what's
going around in the neighborhood. So anyway, I make a

(10:56):
lost story short. I uh talked to Spanish fly. They
had called me. I still know how they got the number,
but they called me and uh and they were in
my They are my students, so rich Rock dads and
Ruben which is Toker, So they are my students. Rich
Rock was uh like the sports editor for the school newspaper.

(11:20):
And so I just took them to the studio. So
and I think about, you know, why would a person
just take a group to the studio. Nowadays you know
you have to that them out, hear them and all
kinds of stuff.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
You don't.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
Mary, did let me ask you something because again during
that time, when you would taken to the studio that
you had all ever received any slack for taking some
Chicano kids and also be not taking some black kids.
Well I had okay.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
At that particular time, I was dabbing. I was just
starting to get into uh music. I think when they
called me at first, because I was at Gardena High school,
they you know, I guess word is spread. It was
this teacher that was into music. It was a different
time back then, you know, there weren't teachers rapping and

(12:16):
stuff like that. Yeah, and so word got out there.
Yeah there's this teacher. You know, they probably say, yeah,
it's this cool teacher here, you know, doing this and that.
And at the time I started dabbling into music, I
bought a Overheim keyboard Metrics twelve, which was the best

(12:37):
keyboard world I had. These oneills still is now and
I got it when it came out. I saw an
article and a keyboard magazine and I saw that Commodoors
had bought one, and so I was like, well, this
is how I should start. So actually bought it when
I was at Washington. So we had a group of kids.
We were called the Reaction. So it was me teacher

(13:00):
and about four or five kids, and so we started
that group which is still going on now. The reaction okay,
and so that keyboard kind of became the center of
just having something professional. So she was producing the music
back then, Yeah, I was just getting into it. I

(13:21):
figure our best way was just to buy the best equipment.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
Right.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
Still, the reason why I asked that question about the trick,
were you ever criticized because for me in my early
on in my career, working with a black artists and
being a Mexican kid, I was always criticized. Always really yeah,
even with all the success you got, yes, it didn't matter.
There were people that showed love, but there was that one.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Group that just hated.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
So that's why I asked you that question, that you
ever get criticized by your own people for helping another ethnicity.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Before you answer that, I'm just curious, why was they
made excues you was putting on for the for the
Mexican people. It's kind of people you allays out there
doing big things, your big records, and back then that
was a different thing. I thought that was tightest foot
when I first saw the album, cause I said, man,
DJ a Mexican dude, and I thought this.

Speaker 3 (14:14):
It was hard, you know what I mean. I was
like that, that's some la ship. Yes, the majority of
my head came for my own city. It really came
for my own city. Everywhere I went and I traveled,
I received loved but from my own city. Believe it
or not, people that I knew, they didn't like the
fact that I was working with Black Harness.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
So what would they as you do, go get somebody
else who maybe not had a deal, but stay down
with the homie from the hood and not go get
that big situation and y'alls on the major labl I
signed the Disney record.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
Was signed the Disney.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
Now, hey, you know what, I never got that question answered.
And the reason why I say it because I told people.
People told me you never put anybody on back then.
So here's my question. Please define what do you mean
by putting somebody on me? Produce for them for free,
DJ for them for free, shot the record for free,
shoot the video free. What exactly do you mean by
putting somebody on? You know, because we weren't looking for

(15:04):
a record deal, we ended up getting a record, y'all.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
Y'all got a record deal because y'all was putting out
tight shit and they had to looking for y'all.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
Yeah, so in the early nineties, and I said this
when I was a last show, and I got criticized
for it. I said, when I worked with black artists
early on in the nineties, I was getting paid because
they had record deals, they had budgets.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
In the late.

Speaker 3 (15:25):
Nineties, when I started working with Chicata rappers, I wasn't
getting paid from those individuals. And I want to be specific,
because somebody made a video was saying Tony is saying
that Lassa doesn't pay or Lassa's broke. I never said that.
I said those individuals that I was working with weren't
paying me. They were like, I'll give you a few
hundred dollars, you'll get the rest later. And I was

(15:46):
just like, I'm good with that, you know.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
So, man, first of all, I'm gonna say this, man,
a lot of people for doing stuff nowadays to get
clicks and views and so controversy obviously fuse about it.
This stuff and people thinking, well, I'm gonna say this,
you know, to get a reaction. The whole thing. Trust me,
people started off initially doing music for fun, for the

(16:09):
love of the culture. So when you are growing ass
man and got bills and got kids, got mortgage to
pay for you know, cardins and shit. We got to
get paid for your job any other If you know
that homeboy that's a painter. I got homeboys to paint
put floor in when I had this dude, can I
paint my crib and put floor in for me? I
paid them, yes, because that's what it is. That's what
he do. I didn't say because he the homie, just

(16:31):
a little oh man, come and do this shit for
free for me. Yeah. No, I paid it, just like
I wanted somebody else. And as a matter of fact,
I would rather pay one of my friends then go
out to pay somebody I don't know. But I guess
that's the era we in. This is just stranger driven now.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
Yeah, And like I said, I got criticized because of
what I said, but I just wanted to clear that up.
Not that I have to, because I stand by what
I said. Those individuals that I was working with weren't
trying to pay me. I was charging twenty five hundred
a beat in the late nineties. They would give me
a thousand is I'll get you later, never pay me.
It got to the point where I had to roll
up there give me my money. You know, I never

(17:06):
had to do that when I was working with artists
that were signed. You know, these weren't now independent artists anyways.
But back to what you My question was, did you
ever get criticized once again for opening up a Chicano
rap label?

Speaker 2 (17:20):
Okay? At the same time I was working with those artists,
I also had some other artists I was working with.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
So I was working with a lot of Inglewood artists
group called First Amendment and that group Mac Tim was
in the group, Okay, a lot of you know, the
Inglewood underground rap scene. And I also had a rapper,
rock Slinger, out of South Central.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
When the Rockslinger wand up becoming a producer.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
Yeah, I know, he was on.

Speaker 2 (17:59):
Easy Easy eas video game and that's as soon we
put out.

Speaker 1 (18:08):
And I think that was the same rock Slinger that
was producing for Glasses when Glasses first started. It was
a dude named rock Slinger.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yeah, yeah, so softly uh huh yeah, So I'm sure
it's the saying.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
Guy that's nickname rock Slinger.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
Okay, And so you know we were working together. We
put out, uh, you know, a couple of songs, and
so when I started working with Spanish Fly grew in
the studio and so I said, you know, let's let's
hear uh you know what you got.

Speaker 3 (18:50):
So the first scene I heard, you know, was he
was like, or let's see, let's load the shopgun up there.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
I just.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Stopped to take and I saw the whole vision of
Chicino rap right there. So I said, you know, this
is it. I don't even think people around he was
even yeah thinking that, but I was thinking that, Yu,
I saw. I saw the whole The whole thing just flashed,
you know before me.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
You know, that kind of reminds me of the story
uh that Steve Youiano rest in peace. When he signed
Proper Those, he had first heard a song called Mechican Power.
And to be quite honest with you, I always believe it.
I thought Proper Those was a really dope group, but
I also knew that it was regional, you know, and

(19:40):
it's but Steve, being a Japanese man, saw the vision
as well like you did, and invested and that was
pretty much the beginning of Chicano Rap begin to flourish
in the nineties early nineties. I second.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
Just let you know some of the people who you know,
were who we were all just stirring. But you know
Brian dos So, he was you know, my right hand
producer Curve. So you know he was before he was
the man before he's the man he is you know today.

Speaker 3 (20:11):
You know, he did Coolio.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
So we'd be in Bland's garage and you know, rass
Casts will be there, ras cast uh, true Blue, you're
familiar with the True Blue he wrote. You know Kiki
lo So was me Doves, you know, Rascas being there,

(20:33):
little Kicky Loco and so we just for you know,
they're just vibing.

Speaker 3 (20:39):
And so.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
You know, we did the song eighteen of the Bullet.
We did about three songs the first time and then
we went back in and played instruments and just get
the right song. And so since we're talking about Spanish flub,
we put that album, the single out eighteen with a Bullet.
So when I hit the street, that was like, you know,

(21:04):
it just hit it hit hard.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
I mean.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
People just you know, just grabbing or i you know,
drive down the street out here people bumping it. It
was yah.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
Yeah. People came up to me and you'll say.

Speaker 2 (21:19):
Man, you blew out my speakers. Many then they'd be
happy that their speakers blew, you know, because he loved
the song. And so we probably made that song about
ten different times to get the base record.

Speaker 3 (21:32):
Well, I'll tell you what that record. That single, especially
the cossette single, was really selling because I remember Steve
Youano was selling out the road you Swami, and he
would tell me he pick it up. He goes this
right here, it's taking off. This right here is really
really selling. I was like, okay, I know those guys,
so you know what. It was nothing but love that

(21:52):
I have to those guys, knowing that they were making noise.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yeah. See that's the old air. I had a record
store called Flavor for Your Ear Record in Pariodmont, California,
and I actually started that record store at mat Flotham
Law owned some property on the corner of Somerset Boulevard
in Indiana, Okay, and he had this It had a
retail location like on the corner. It was an odd spot.
This was in the middle of neighborhood. So I opened

(22:16):
up a record story and at that time I had
Tony Jonie there paid me a bunch of sponsor money
to put a bunch of signs on the side. City
Pair of Mind came and shut that down, like they
was like, oh, you can't have this up here. They
you know, tripped out on a butt. I started selling
a lot of different rep in there, you know, a
lot of different REP tapes, and I would get people
coming in and asking me, Hey, do you have this record?

(22:39):
Eighteen with a bullet? They kept asking for all these records,
and I was like, what the hell is this stuff?
You know, I was going to uh, the one stops
and didn't nobody know what I was talking about, right,
you know, I would go to one stop to buy
my stuff for the week and didn't nobody know what
I was talking about. Then I met this guy right
here and he started bringing them by the store and
they started really selling. I started seeing the power of
that stuff. It was a lot of keyds from the

(23:01):
high school coming because finally they add somebody that was
the thing that's about, you know, the Mexican audience again.
They music that they relate to, good music. I don't
think they're tripping off, oh it is, but I think
the fact that somebody looked like them, now now they
can say, okay, you know what I identify with this.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
Yeah, yes, that's what I was thinking, you know, to uh,
you know, people see themselves in the cover, just like
when h rap music came up. You know, we see
ourselves in the cover, right, you know that's us doing
it before, which is your normal, you know, supergroups.

Speaker 3 (23:40):
You know.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
It was almost like you know, I mean, you can
see yourself, but you may be dressed so crazy. It
wasn't like you just see yourself in your natural things.
I think when rap came, you know, you could see
you know, your neighbor. It could be us on the cover.
You So, yeah, people dreamed uh more about it. So

(24:04):
so when I put the eight the eight two of
the bullet out, so well, I first read I read
a book called how to Make a Record, because I really,
you know, I hadn't put anything out, so I read
that book. I read a book on this Business of music,
and I read a book on how to Succeed in

(24:25):
the music business without selling your soul was also a
good one. So I read those three books. So uh
so we you know we made uh you know, the song,
so you take it to get the artwork and all that,
and so I was literally going through the book how

(24:47):
to make a record Okay, first you do this. You know,
I had my tea at the school. You know, it
was a school event. Everybody was kind of buying it.
I had my a, you know, racking the gluing the
you know, the singles had the the wrap.

Speaker 3 (25:07):
The tree was yeah, it was seagle was just one
piece of paper that was voted.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
And he had to glue it.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
So you know.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
So so I was trying to get the record out
on uh. I took well, it was October thirty first
when it was all done. But I was just I
was just trying to hear up and get the record out.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
Did you have any ideas you have distribution at that time?
What was it all just right hand and hand like
you was doing?

Speaker 2 (25:33):
Okay, Like I said, I read the book, so I
didn't know any structure of how the business worked. And
so the book was talking about one stops and this man,
it took me about two weeks just to understand what
the one stop was. It was like just a mystery.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Yeah, because it all the one stop was literally what
it was somewhere all the independent retailers would go distance,
you know, grab what it was, what it was new
that way, the releases and read them on that may
have been selling right at They rode downtown in different places.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
But it was a messity to me because you know
some of the stories say yeah I'm going to one
step man, I steak man, what is it one?

Speaker 1 (26:10):
It was like, well, you ain't a certain start of
the new hustle. And I believe inadvertently you created a
new hustle because what you created was an era of
hand and hand cats going around to the swap meets,
instill the stuff from the swap me spround here. Like
you know, you had the uh where Steve Jon then
will be posting at the rod him. You had the

(26:30):
accomplish swap meet. You had all these different swap meets
and after a while that was the same route the
easy e took initially, remember going the same way. And
that's how you kind of got the streets first because
with us started seeing people do what they would drop
these stuff on the streets first the swap meets and
all the other stuff. Then they would put it like
in the one stops and they distributors or whatever. You

(26:52):
had round level distribution. You had cats. That's how Violet
Brown knew what was at.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yeah, yeah, well I did first was say, okay, I
got this record.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
You know what do I do with it?

Speaker 2 (27:05):
So I said, well, what I'm gonna do is I'm
gonna give CDs the tapes out. Get no CDs and
I would give I'll give the tapes out. So I said,
let me go to where I know there's a big
concentration of you know, latinos. And so I said, you
know what, I'll go to, uh, Santa Anna. So I

(27:28):
went Santa Ana and h so like about fifteen guys
you know, walking down the street. And so I said, well,
let me give them a tape.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah, we want some pump feedback. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
So you know, I get out the car, I walked
to him, you know, say hey, I got this new record.
I want you to check it out. So one of
the dudes looked at her.

Speaker 3 (27:53):
He said, oh man, you know feed me.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
Oh you know.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
It was like just like to see themselves in the cover,
right and and uh so I was just you know, okay,
here man, you know, take this. And then the guy
said how much you want? For as long as like,
oh okay, I hadn't even you know, thought about selling it.
I just was trying to get a buzz going. And

(28:18):
then so I said, oh, yeah, it's two dollars. So
you know, so I was selling it like that and
then I well, I grew up in confidence, so you know,
right down the street from the swap meat, so of
course I went there, uh yeah and uh sleeve bottom.

(28:39):
And then I went to Lenwood swam and then I
went to Vince. Vince is over there in Linwood, and
then I went to uh because I was teaching at
Carson and I there was a Swami right around the corner,
so I went there. And when I went there, I

(29:01):
fed all the kids at the school and so so
I said, okay, that's a good thing. You know, they
can go get the record. And then I started just
branching out. I went to like Paramount Swamis, Santa Fe Springs, a.

Speaker 3 (29:20):
Peko Indoor and ruply, about what year was this?

Speaker 2 (29:23):
This is like ninety one of them.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
Okay, yeah, so not even one of the Donner kings
to rep And.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
So I started developing relationships with all the you know,
the people who sold records, because you know, nobody sold
chikon wrap because it really wasn't like you said, it
wasn't right. And so so my my biggest hurdle. So
I say, okay, you know I have something here, so

(29:52):
I think you know it's going to be big. So
the competition for Chicano rap back then was house music.
So you know, so all you hear you know, cakebacks,
you know, gangsters, you know, just you know that's all.
I listened to his house music, right, you know, it's nothing,
nothing else. And so I went to Santa Fe Springs,

(30:16):
which was like Swami, which was like the uh the
mecca of house music. So I'm you know, it probably
had about fifteen different stands, you know, selling house music
and that was I mean, that was it. Yeah, And
so I said, well, how can I get these people
to listen to Chicano rap? So so I went to

(30:40):
Swami and it was uh things name well I think
it was Jerry, but anyway, he had he's just starting
and so he just had you know, like a few
few CDs, well not to a few tapes, you know,
just trying to start. So I said, you know, uh,

(31:00):
play this so that.

Speaker 3 (31:03):
You know, doom do do do?

Speaker 2 (31:05):
Everybody's looking around next thing, you know, it's just like
about thirty people around the stand right right. Yeah, okay,
So I was like, oh, Okay, so you knew.

Speaker 3 (31:16):
You have a little buzz, now you Yeah, I just
knew I had to h little House.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
You know, I think I'm the one that killed House
because I turned all the vendors Insigne Face Spring, I
turned them to Chicano rap. Really yeah, oh it's okay,
you know, I turned turned all the vendors to Chicano rap,
and and then you know, they perst you know, didn't know.
But then the thing was all you had to do

(31:44):
was play it, yeah, and then they'd be like, oh,
you know, it always would get a big crowd.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
And so I said, well, okay, I just have to
keep on, you know, and eventually we'll take over House.
And so so, as I said, I was dealing with
the people selling House, Joseph and all those guys.

Speaker 3 (32:09):
H and so.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
Then I came up with the idea, Okay, I'll trade
you Chicino wrap for House, so that way to make
it easier for them, and uh and then I can
get more more CDs and well tapes in the store.
So we was doing that. So I was, you know,

(32:34):
I was selling House music and and Chicano rap and
so then uh see I dropped that single and then
we dropped another single, uh called Spanish Fly, and we
dropped tequila and so by then we were like getting

(32:56):
the nice buzz.

Speaker 3 (32:58):
Yeah okay.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
Then I, uh I met night Out. So so night
I was always coming to you're talking about night Out
from San Diego yea Resturan beach. So uh so, uh,
night I was just always coming to l A, you know,

(33:20):
looking for me. But you know he didn't know where
to find, but he was coming to l A. So
he met a guy who was the DJ that knew me,
and so, uh that guy said, yeah, this guy in
night Out, you know he's looking for you, you know,
so I said, so he gave me, he gave me
his info. So me and night Out met uh s

(33:43):
with with his uh his uncle and so we.

Speaker 1 (33:51):
You know we met.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
So he's like saying he wrapped and this and that.
So I said, you know, okay, yeah, So I took
him in the studio and.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
Uh, so.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
Me a producer named sam Man, so he brought him
with him and then uh we uh you know, produced
the first.

Speaker 3 (34:16):
Night Out album. Really, the first night album was produced
by you guys, or we'll put out by you guys
know it. Uh.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Sand Man was official producer. But uh but I'd say we,
you know, did it together. Okay, but came I had you,
I had it already. I had a good even though
I had a good ear for chiconrap for some reason.

Speaker 3 (34:38):
Sorry know that so crazy history, right though?

Speaker 2 (34:41):
So you know we we uh you know we produced
the album. Yeah, Manny Manny is his uncle house Manny
Lopez hitment.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
You know.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
I want to share something still, and I do think
that maybe you could elaborate a little bit more because
I remember when Rasa first came out of nineteen ninety. Okay,
kid frost from a Rassa and it explodes on the streets. Okay,
this is if I can say it this way. This
was a negative thing of Chicao rap brought by the

(35:15):
people on the streets that played the whole politics. T
Let me give you an example of what I mean.
Me and my friends were drumming it to East La
La Rasa just dropped.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
We're pumping it in the car.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
The song ends, my boy turns it down and I
was like, there's a dope song. Honey goes.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
The first question that they asked was where's that fu from?
It wasn't even like about that it was a dope
song to a lot of my homies. It was where
was he from? And I knew at that moment, I'm like, Okay,
we're opening the door for us here, but we're too
worried about not the door, but where's he from the
street thing? And I remember I interviewed Tony g Tony

(35:55):
Gouzalz whu produced Lassa and Mintirosa for Melomannase, and he
told me we needed a voice. We released that song
and it gave us a voice, you know, And I said,
you're right, you didn't give us a voice. It did
open up doors, same thing like Spanish Fly did, but
you also did have that bad element that was attached
to it, where people are those fools for real?

Speaker 1 (36:17):
You know?

Speaker 3 (36:18):
For an example, Quick drops his first album. We start
touring up norths had a lot of dudes approach me, Hey,
it's Quick a real blood like that just comes with
the territory. I guess, oh yeah, did any of your
artists ever get I guess asked harassed or I guess approached?

(36:40):
Where are you from?

Speaker 1 (36:41):
You know?

Speaker 3 (36:41):
Where's you know that you can recall? Okay, but is
going back to rich Rod? Okay?

Speaker 2 (36:50):
He did eighteen believe he wasn't from eighteen Streets, you know, Okay,
I think it was more human being eighteen, right, but.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
Also having the imagination. Okay, so I knew that that
was like the first like kind of gangster, you.

Speaker 1 (37:04):
Know, like, okay, you know you're telling me some I
always thought that was some eighteenth Street stuff, and I'm
glad to clarify here.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
Yeah. So so it wasn't eighteenth Street, no, okay, more
of him being eighteen you.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
Know, that was actually pretty brilliant. Yeah, it's actually pretty brilliant.
He was really eighteen years old and talk about a
guy eighteen with a bullet. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Yeah. And so I mean I would take the flag
in the sense because I was the one out there
from alling music. And I think that helped because just
like what you said, if you give the eighteenth if
they say, if it was kind of gave the eighteenth

(37:47):
Street guy the CD, or I gave it right enough
set to CD, then yeah he was he would get
hit up. Okay, right, Yeah, So I think what happened
I was neutral because for some reason, I mean I
don't know, I just kind of got a pass to
I would go That's how I moved it. I went
to you know, every neighborhood. Yeah so, but but you

(38:10):
know what Murray did.

Speaker 3 (38:11):
That's the thing that rap brought because there were doves
out there that were looking for any reason to start something.
For an example, uh steal. Steve Piano sold a mixtape
and he called it FTP MMB and the tape where
he wrote that FTP just happened to be a piece
of red tape. Okay. Well, grips used to go and

(38:34):
buy that tape. I just want me tear it off, okay.
And what would happen was, uh Steve would ask him,
why do you tear it off? And he goes you
over here promoting food time piru and it was really
for the police.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
Hm hm.

Speaker 3 (38:49):
But again, I think that's the element that some rap
songs or some rap wos wrong, you know. But I
know you got even Chicao rappers today today when he
come out and they just wrapped, they still get hit up.
Where's he from? And I think that's attached to what
you gotta rap? And I think that's kind of not
the necessarily of the music, but the whole street politics

(39:11):
is kind of what gave it a black eye.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
But you know what, I remember one thing specific, Man,
that really had a lot of people mad man and
I don't have both of these cats from the show.
I had Spanky Local on the show where I had
you know, not I was the homie. Yeah, now I
was my home boy. I told you the story of
Big Psych rest in peace, you know, from the Outlaws.

(39:37):
He introduced me to Night Out originally, and I remember
people telling, Man, you got to meet my Mexican homie. Man.
He hard man, you know, like psych was really in him,
like so much so that I remember him saying distinctly.
He was like, man, I was going to try to
introduce him and try to make him be one of
the Mexican momies be you know, for the Outlaws stuff.
But that never happened, you know, it never even got

(39:58):
that bit that was a conversation having with me right,
and he had a lot of love for him man,
and not that I was hard man. Yeah you can
wrap not I could wrap like a mother.

Speaker 3 (40:09):
I didn't.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
I met him in nineteen Natyoars. We were supposed to
work because of the distance was at Diego and me
living in Womington. It was really really tough. So we
more have of a phone relationship.

Speaker 1 (40:21):
But he was a spinner.

Speaker 3 (40:23):
I really really liked the way he spent There was
a lot of guys out there that you know, that
could really really wrap. But I will say this, and
I think somebody could take something positive away from what
I'm about to say.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
A lot of the.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
Guys, the reason why I didn't work with them being
Chicao rappers was because many of them were a liability.
I'll give you an example. They were active off there
in the streets. Still I would tell them, look, bro,
you want me to invest in you, and I want to, Okay,
I really really do, I said, but you tell me
you drive around l at night drunk as hell, high

(40:58):
as hell with a nine milimeter on your that how
am I going to invest money in my timing you,
my production in you. And when you can wind a
thing zail or dead that with jail were dead. So
a lot of times when a lot of people said, oh,
Tony didn't miss with Chicono rappers, well you know.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
What, that was part of the reason.

Speaker 3 (41:15):
That was part of the reason. I'll give you example
another example. I won't make sure the name, but I'll
mentioned Gritty Greg.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
I know you know Griddy Greg. He had a group.

Speaker 3 (41:23):
He told me, should I take a chance on him?
I said, dere dope as hell, he goes butter Spiel active, it's.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
Up to you.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
He took a chance on him, both of them, in
and out of jail, in and out of jail, in
and out of jail. He couldn't promote the record.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
And that's what happened. Yeah, that's what happened. Man. You know, well,
I know we only got so much time, right, but
it's a lot of people because you put it wasn't
just Night Out missed the little one Rob La Rob,
who I would like to say is kind of like
the James Dean Or of Chicano rap. That motherfucker's big,

(41:58):
you know what I mean? Was the man?

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Yeah, well, like going back to Night Out, you know,
we did, uh here comes the Night Off. Yes, and
so Mike was first single and I think, you know,
I think maybe we put the single out for the album,
but uh maybe not. But we put that out that

(42:21):
you know, it was blowing up good, and uh then
we kind of had to fall out a little, yeah,
right when after we recorded that, and then uh so
we was kind of like stand off, you know, and
so but I'll tell you I love the song Brown

(42:42):
to the Ball, you know, I just love that song.

Speaker 1 (42:46):
What did y'all fall? Just to go back? Not to
really bring dale on that too much, because night all
is no longer here? What y'all get into it about?
Let's see, I don't know. I don't tell it was
about no paper because it couldn't have been no paper.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
Nah, we was, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
We just we had like you know, it was like
kind of a kind of.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
A big deal in the studio. So, uh I guess,
uh right, a king Gary, I guess brought San Diego
people and uh then you know I was there, you know, uh.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
H, well my friends Rick. So it's just like more like.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
You know, yeah, I guess it's just one of those
things la San Diego stuff. No, it wasn't that.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
It was just.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
Eagles wells I think at that time. And maybe there's
something you try to say, what was it? Concur It
was just rap business, you know, I don't I don't
think it was. Major labels had advantage where their deals
pretty much for a clean of course, but independent it's
you know, it's street right.

Speaker 1 (44:07):
So you ain't have them on a paperwork or nothing.
Like that, oh yeah, everything so.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
That he deserved more or he should be getting more,
or where's my money?

Speaker 1 (44:17):
Top of deal.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
No, it's just uh uh, it's just you know some
I actually don't really exactly, but it.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
Was there was some sort so what so it was
about a famerli.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
So we were kind of like separated for a minute,
you know, you know, I had the album, help get
the album, and then uh, I was like, man, I
really love Brown to the Boat, and so I was like,
you know, let's just let's just go forward. So so

(44:51):
you know, we did the album, came on. Then we
did another album, uh, Wicked West and a Shot Collar.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
And let me ask you this, at what point did
you really start like did you start seeing the financial
and the financial results of doing these records at this point?

Speaker 3 (45:10):
Now you good, good question.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
My budgets were as big as the majors because I
was using the same studios.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
Y'all, So they were usual. Y'all was recording, y'all was
doing it big. We were.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
I recorded night Out, Night to Pyramount. We recorded that out.
So he spent a lot of money. Yeah, yeah, fifty.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
You know, I got to ask this man, and I
got to ask this man, because you're a low key dude. Man,
you're real smooth for some shit, right, You was paying
for top flight studios back in the day, putting rappers out.
I know you have to be because if I know,
dealing with artists them from temperamental motherfuckers, are you probably
feeding them, giving them money and ship, you know, helping

(45:54):
them pay their bills and stuff. You know, as y'all
go on this grind, how was you doing all that
on the teacher salary? Was you all the ball and
back in the day.

Speaker 2 (46:02):
Well, it came from Okay, when I was working Spanish
fly albums, I just took a chance. Okay, I was teaching, Yeah,
but I was putting money in tax shelterednody stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
Oh so you have some legal shit going on.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
Yeah, so I was putting probably max in that. And
then I said, well, let me take a chance on this.
I think I was asking it. I was asking certain
people and stuff. You know, I guess for investment, they
get it best. But already knew you know, the wh.

Speaker 1 (46:42):
Put nobody had it for insight.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Yeah, so I believed, you know, I believed in it,
you know. So so I had about I think about
seventy grand in that, and so I took that, did
the Spanish flyout.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
And did you make your money back? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (47:01):
I think yeah, you know you.

Speaker 1 (47:03):
Said I did it. No, you said you said that
would that wouldn't have made no more records if I
didn't make my money back, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
But but but what it did because at first, just
like you guys said, I really wasn't. And I think
that's the beauty of the early Chicano rap. You know,
nobody was doing it for the money, because you know,
any money that came in was going back to the studio.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
Yeah, you know, yeah, was like for the money back then.
But I'm pretty sure you.

Speaker 2 (47:29):
Saw it for a while that she will lower to
this business in terms of I make some money and
I put it back, like with Spanish fly put it back,
you do night? Like I said, we did ten versions
of eighteen of the Bullets and then the album and
then you know, uh, that's that's the money out to
the end of the night out. Uh yeah, they I

(47:51):
put it in the brown fright. Oh, all these are
big studio albums.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
Yeah, So let me ask you this. So after night
you had people beating down your doors, I remember back
in the day when we was kids, we would look
on the back of the tapes and shit to see
where the labels was at. You actually send your demo
out to the labels to call the number. Yes, you
know what I mean. And I'm pretty sure you had
a whole bunch of people blowing you up because you
had that one phone number on the back of your shit.
That's why I was trying to find you the order

(48:15):
to thing. This motherfucker had a and I ain't realize
that later on it was just a voice mail service whatever.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
I was only thinking it's probably flat three phones.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
Yeah, this dude, don't never answer this phone. Man. I
was leaving the met say, man, I'm trying to buy
some tapes, and he popped up at the store one bay.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
Oh, okay, okay. I had had three cell phones at
the time. Man, you had cell phones back then, Yeah,
I had private I got the cell phone when they
first it was coming.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
See, this motherfucker was low feetball and Marion volume because
he hasked some shit, he had the buds, he had
the cell phones. I don't even know what the fucking
cell phone was back right, you know, I wanted to
ask you something, okay, pretending to what you kind of rap?
And I think it's important because if you look at
a lot of people like to say, and I know
we had the discussion when we did the interview, like
to say that Kid.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
Frost started Chicino rap. That's what they like to say. Okay,
and so let's just go with the popular opinion. Kid Frost,
you had a lighter shade of brown. And then even
though he's not Mexican, but it appealed to the Mexican
people with Mintirosa metal mayonnaise. Then you had a song
that was somewhat Chicano rap. Remember hell of A by
Brotherhood Creed Nick.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
It's funny you have those songs by Brothers.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
Yes, that's just that just you know, yeah, Camra rap.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
Right, then you having.

Speaker 3 (49:28):
Proper those Okay, Now I mentioned ground Side. Now I
mentioned a lot of those groups only because during that
time we had a radio play when he came to
Chicano's or Spanish rap like Mellows Ladder Shade with Sunday
in the Park. Yeah, we had videos that were being played.

(49:50):
We had record deals with its independent on Major's. Okay,
here comes the two thousands, Now I just mentioned the nineties,
here comes the two thousands. What I realized there was
no more major record deals. Videos weren't being played, and
there wasn't that much chickop being played on the radio.
I think it took a turn. I keep check on

(50:10):
a wrap. If anything was more popular in the nineties
than it wasn't the two thousands. Two thousands became more underground.
If you will give me your opinion on that, is
that true? Is that okay, it's absolutely true. But let
me say it's one point before, Yeah, you talked about
the business. I don't think I I mean I was
doing it and just you know, just making any work

(50:33):
ut you know, CDs and you know. But when I
signed Little One, that was when more of the business. Okay,
because because remember we were all on the underground scene
of course, so you know, nobody was it was major
label deal type of talk our structured right, So so

(50:58):
Little One came and it was like more like the
major label. He wanted that structure on his deal, more
all more of that type. So so he he made
me really think about business and how I can do
this deal a Little One.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
So then I really kind of was forced to be
more you know, because everybody was happening and we were
making the impact.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
You know, yeah, I'm feel sartadly the most they started
doing shows back then, they started like getting actually booked
for shows.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
Okay, they would get shows here and there. We would
go out of town, but it was hard for us
to get We got a bad name in the sense
that it was people looked at it his gangsterls and
gangster ship.

Speaker 3 (51:47):
Back what I'm saying it was.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
But uh, you know, another point like the area codes.
But I started, I think that's trending that always stayed.
Which kind of wrap is I said? Okay, even South
Sun Riders compilation, all the addresses were area codes. So
you mentioned rappers being from the gang. I think Chicano

(52:10):
rappers divided into area codes. So you have your rappers
coming out of eight O five, you know, yeah, two
and three, nine O.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
Nine, uh.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
And the nine on nine and kind of you will
kind of break it down into bits and pizza. So
it wasn't just right Chicano rapp coming. It was more like, okay,
this area code, I can support my area code right right,
And so I went to different area codes and so
we're working eight O five toms so at least eight

(52:45):
o five records, and so, uh so I met Tomas
and there, you know, we start working together and we
put out The County Lifestyle.

Speaker 3 (52:55):
So that was like eight o five. Katie got that going.
Uh nine put out a little Blackie Okay, so.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
I got nine on nine pop, you know, and then
with Spanish Fly you know, and you know Brown Pride,
we had you know, more of the local l a
right back then it was two one three, then it's
two aly switched to three one oh yeah, five six two.
So that's why all my rap that I have coming
out with still familiar Forever, Midgie Local and uh C

(53:28):
PEPs and uh King Blue. We have a song so
I come here, you know, I'm friend the five six
two one three one O you know.

Speaker 1 (53:40):
Like that?

Speaker 2 (53:41):
Then uh So, like I say that kind of Little One.
Uh I got a Little One going. That kind of
changed the attitude, Okay, a little more business, I.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
Know, because the production always was good, but it seemed
like on a Little One album the production went on
to another level.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
Yeah, little I mean Little One. You know, it was
dope and he brought you know, but I noticed all
my rappers were bringing in styles. Okay, you have you know,
Spanish flyer style, brown private spy, little blackie with a style. Uh,
little robber with a style, mister Shadow with a style.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
Me and man, he did that, and you have sentgendary
mister Shadow what's his name? You know, one thing I
want to get into when I got to get on
this man, you got pretty dumb, pretty bad with the
pocals pit of local stave.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
Mm hmm, well.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
Yeah, I guess depend on what your perspective and it
could have been better, you know, but were you at you?

Speaker 3 (54:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (54:37):
Yeah, that was his ship.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
Okay, all right, elaborate place, okay.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
Kool Aid was Jerry Hiller's me.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
So I think, well the way I didn't know that
wave all men down, okay, kool Aid?

Speaker 3 (54:50):
Okay, well just seven go back for Okay.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
Like I said, we broke everything down into sections eight
o five, so uh another eight or five projects was
I don't know, if you know, down.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
Get down? Yeah, down, Yeah, it was his name down.

Speaker 2 (55:13):
So so me and him were working together and uh
so you know, somehow I think I got a letter
from them, and then we're you know, working together. We
would meet you know, by Pyramid Studios, you know, on
the weekend and they be working on stuff and uh
and then they you know, I said, yeah, it's something

(55:35):
will sit and then they brought back, uh got the
name of the song, but I was like, okay, this
is it. And then we just ah, you know, shooes.
We did that with Brown and Tentions. We probably did
three or four albums and then like Sponto and just
rest of the crew. So we did a lot of

(55:56):
you know, probably ten albums.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
And uh.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
So he was from Oxnart and so kool Aid previously
worked at a radio station at Oxnard, so they knew
each other, you know, from that. I imagine you know,
they weren't getting on it on the radio, but I imagine,
you know, Dallas a hustler, so I imagine he was
going up to the station and you know, trying to

(56:21):
get something going. And so so anyway, uh, kool Aid's
boyfriend at the time was Eat Up and so.

Speaker 3 (56:35):
Ah, so I think my first.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
I guess interaction with kool Aid, we did n PR.
Kool Aid set up with n PR, huh, National Public
Radio for a spotlight you know for Chicago rapp m okay,
and so you know we did that. You know, they
interviewed and that everything, and so, uh, I don't know

(57:03):
if she was before after with kool Aids. She went,
she asked, did you know her boyfriend, you know, do
some production stuff? So I was like, yeah, you know,
and so so they're asking you this, Yeah, was producing?
Either did production okay? And uh so she was telling me, yeah,

(57:26):
her boyfriend does production okay, which is see. But I
know she was asking you can he do some production,
I guess, and you were saying yes, oh yeah, hey
yeah getting some work because I mean technically I was
putting everything okay.

Speaker 1 (57:42):
So yeah, So how much was you giving the beat
the producers a beat back? Then? Was you paying it
for production?

Speaker 3 (57:47):
Back?

Speaker 1 (57:47):
Then?

Speaker 2 (57:49):
I was?

Speaker 3 (57:49):
I produced?

Speaker 1 (57:50):
Most like so if a dude like let's say, if
a dude like Tony came in with a beat, let's
say a little won't want to wrap on some tonya ship,
was you paid Tony for his music or was it
like a licensing type of thera?

Speaker 2 (58:05):
Well, all the production, like I said that we did
it either was me producing, which you know that was
just I was just doing it because it was I
was putting it out, the group producing, you know, same thing.
Uh we weren't like saying okay, uh, I'm sure I did,

(58:28):
you know, give you know, I would give the producers
you know. Yeah, I'm just trying because I know what
was that saying to to that extent, I wasn't doing
it like because we were more in house, okay, you know,
you know, so it's more in our stuff. So back

(58:50):
to the vocals locals thing, how did that come about?
Did you go to the station and say this is
my idea.

Speaker 3 (58:55):
I want her on it?

Speaker 2 (58:56):
Like like, how did that happen?

Speaker 1 (58:57):
No?

Speaker 2 (58:57):
Okay, So, like I said, me and the double working together,
I think of first project. I said, you know, I
got an idea I want I want to create a rapper,
you know, just from scratch.

Speaker 3 (59:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
So uh.

Speaker 3 (59:20):
So I said, I want him to be like this.
I want him to rap like this, you know, I
want to nasal wraps.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
And so.

Speaker 2 (59:29):
So so, and I said, I want his name to
be a little Joker. And so we did, uh that
say a little joker okay, And that's a little joker
was mad dog disguise, that's this rapper. So that I
wore a bandana and then I did the same thing
little puppet from uh eight one eight okay, and so

(59:54):
you know, so we did that, and you know, I
see little Joker had his own style and it it
was you know, it was really you know, it was
really a stereotypical restaurant style, but it was you know,
it was yeah, guards they really enjoyed.

Speaker 3 (01:00:11):
But how did the whole better local start? That's the
ouation that I ask.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
Okay, so, uh so I said before I was working
with Eat Up and uh and then kool Aid said, uh,
you know she she you know, she was on the air.
So she said, hey, you know I'm radio trying to
get the Chino Wrap on the radio. So yeah, it

(01:00:37):
sounds cool. Now I thought about it, Okay, Okay, I
wasn't one hundred percent like wow about being on the
radio because I was you know, I was selling anyway,
you know, right, so it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
Didn't really matter.

Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
So I mean, yeah, a lot of people say yeah, radio,
but in our case, I don't think it was good
for which you kind of rapp okay, And so you
know when she talked, I really had you know, I
was like, yeah, I don't know if it's good because
right now, the way we sell records, kids going to

(01:01:15):
the swam meat, they'll look at the record and we
we make sales just on the person being chic on
the cover.

Speaker 3 (01:01:25):
Right, And and then you know, they tried out.

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
Hey, this is dope. You know. We tried to put
the best music, you know. So yeah, we figured all
they gotta do is listen to it, right and so
but that was that was our model, your kids and go.
They and I liked it because back then people discovered music. Okay, okay,
they discovered you know, a little rob, they discovered the

(01:01:49):
Spanish little Blackie. Uh shout right, So who get old
with the name for the show? Like, okay, the name
for the show was from an album that I was
putting out, okay, pocals per I was putting that out
before the show was even you know, show Okay, okay,

(01:02:10):
so I had eight o five rappers on the compilation,
and uh so I had eight o five rappers. So
so we're going with show everything about what's what's a
good name for the show, right, And then they was like,
you know, vocals, vocals because it's you. I had the

(01:02:32):
album focused for her locals right coming out. So I said, okay, yeah,
use that name, and I renamed that album eight o
five Locals. Soon so he ever, you know, bought the
eight o five Locals that was the original name for
it was Vocals Prales, okay, and so and so she said,

(01:02:55):
you know, give her CDs and stuff, and she was,
you know, talk to people at the station, right, So
I did that and then she said, well, you know,
the people at the station wanted to talk to you.
So I've had I had, you know, several means with
the people, had to show them there. Hey, I just
basically told you guys, said, I mean, you guys are
Power sixth I respected and everything, but the Latin listeners

(01:03:20):
that you kind of hang your hat on are listening
to me. I mean there's no way they weren't. Yeah,
but because number one, you know, I had to swam
met sold up. So pretty much with the Santa Fe Springs,
that's all you could.

Speaker 3 (01:03:40):
Buy is ch kind of rap.

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
I mean you may have you a few other CDs there,
but you know you basically you had some people sat
on some ODI's okay, so in house music, but we
pretty much made it so it was just all ODI's
and Troy.

Speaker 3 (01:03:57):
So power stractors I did to go forward with did
they automatically make her the holes were you're supposed to
be the host.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
That okay, Like I said, took some meetings.

Speaker 3 (01:04:07):
I had to show them that, hey, you know, this
is a viable product.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
No, I got into the warehouses already. You know, it's
it's happened, whether you guys you know, on board or not. Yeah,
and so, uh so, like I said, a few meetings
and then uh you know, it's cool, they said, well,
you know, they accepted the show and then we named
it Pocals for Locals basically from that album, right, and

(01:04:32):
uh so that was that was fun and uh so
we were all me Her and Ida just you know,
all work. Then they, uh I forgot his name. There's
another host. They are ah pulled in Okay, okay, but
that's your question. I was thinking, yeah, I should have

(01:04:57):
been the host, okay, because I'm I'm one that do
about it, Okay, Okay. So I knew all the all
the hits because you know, I was touching the hits,
you know, right, whenever it was hot, had it come,
It's coming from me, right, so I can tell you
know who's hot, who's number two's and exactly who's right?

Speaker 3 (01:05:17):
What was going on?

Speaker 1 (01:05:18):
You know?

Speaker 3 (01:05:18):
If I'm an interjected let me say something still. I
interviewed pretty much predominantly all the popular Chicano rappers out there, Okay,
a lot of them. I gave them the very first
live podcast interview. Okay. I've always asked them the vocals
better locals thing, the question, and I'll give it to
you right now. The reason why I asked them because

(01:05:40):
if I be the view three hundred Chicano rappers, it
was divided down the middle one hundred and fifty one
hundred and fifty. Some would say Acalstta locals helped the
other half would say it hurt Chicago rapper. I never
listened to act peder locals, Okay, So I would always ask,
how did they help? Well, we finally got our us
out there, and uh we finally, Uh people are kind

(01:06:04):
of promoting us. People are how would you say, uh,
finally listening to us. People know where to get our stuff,
et cetera. And then the people will say, no, they're
exploring our people. How come they don't put us on
the regular radio station.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
Why did did they?

Speaker 3 (01:06:20):
Did they got to put us on this you know,
this time slotch So that was happened to half my
question that you was give you the argument for it,
do you have okay, do you believe that it helped?

Speaker 2 (01:06:33):
No? Okay, okay, Before pogos for locals, man, we were breaking.
Artists left me right, artists were selling oh okay, And
this is why I really didn't want to do it
in the first place. But you gotta think I got
to think back right that time. Okay, I had artists
that were dependent on me to keep their music. I

(01:06:53):
had Little one night out and them. I know that
they wanted to be on the radio, whether helped or not, right,
they just wanted to be on the radio, which is fine,
it's good.

Speaker 3 (01:07:04):
So my dilemma was, okay, you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:08):
Know, should we do it, which I think is it
may not be good, but I know that they'll be
happy with it, and I didn't. You know, the reason
why I thought it wouldn't be good is, as I said,
before people went and.

Speaker 3 (01:07:24):
Uh, they discovered their artists.

Speaker 2 (01:07:27):
You know, they went to the Swami and they discovered
like I said, little okay, guys, But what vocals vocals
did is not even I'm not blaming them, but I'm
just saying it's what But I saw what radio deal
with black music, okay, and I didn't want that to
really to mess up the counter rap to you, which

(01:07:50):
is I think what radio deal with black artists was. Okay,
we had a lot of dope, underground black artist that
you know that never made it to the radio.

Speaker 3 (01:08:02):
You talk about Chicono, I've never getting on the radio.

Speaker 2 (01:08:05):
There's a whole lot of artists, I feel what you
said on the day from l A that was underground,
that was bad, but they never could get on the radio,
so kind of rapping. Those artists were kind of in
the same boat, okay.

Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
And I think that was the start of the old
gate keeping ship.

Speaker 3 (01:08:22):
Yeah, okay, that's what I was getting.

Speaker 1 (01:08:23):
That was the I started gate keeping with the radio
and stuff, you know, And that's termin who I was thinking,
determine who was go pop and who wouldn't go.

Speaker 2 (01:08:30):
I know if I was thinking as soon as poke
the locals started, now we can't break them on the street.
Now you get to work, because I would say I
was in the record shops and I was listening to people.
I mean that's where I spent you know, I spent
my time. I was either one record shop or the other,

(01:08:51):
and I knew what each one wanted, and I knew
which people coming in, what they come in? I heard
the song on the radio, you have that?

Speaker 3 (01:09:02):
Okay, oh you got the song or her new radio
and and and so with with black artists, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:09:12):
If they didn't have the budget for the videos and
all that and didn't get the plug at the radio.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
They didn't have a chance.

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
It wasn't going first, they had a chance right when
it was underground, right, because it was under ground before
you know, it was mainstream and it was underground. So
I felt at that point that it took the power
away from the streets and put it in the radio
because after that people wanted, oh let me hear what

(01:09:40):
you that song? Even though someone was coming up, but
still it excluded anybody that wasn't on the local show.

Speaker 1 (01:09:49):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:09:49):
So and then you know, not knocking it, but then
you know, the introduction of reggae tongue kind of hurt. No, no,
they you know that was introduced on the show.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
Yeah, can see that.

Speaker 2 (01:10:04):
But the thing is to hurt the underground because then
all of a sudden, uh, there was some areas, not
all areas, but certain areas, Like I remember it distinctly
because you know, I had all the stories with my
stories so uh, I walked in the store and then

(01:10:24):
they said, well we wanted some reggae talk.

Speaker 1 (01:10:27):
Yeah, because you know what, I'm gonna tell you what
I'm gonna tell you where y'all messed up at y'all
introduced the reggae tone. Shit on Locals, Poe was better.
Locos was a gangster rap show. Yeah, that's the one
thing about it that's like even with this show right here,
I figured out, we don't talk about no other ship.
We talk about gangster ship though. That's why the gangst crime,
gangster rap, you know what I mean, gangs to wrap

(01:10:48):
the origins of it, anything street right, because if we
start putting you know, R and B motherfuckers on here,
it just takes away the whole flavor for the show.
Some ship gottap niche, you feel what I mean? Yeah,
took away that was my vision. Yeah, it took away
the niche. But when y'all start doing that, because of
course now you introduced and you don't say it, fuck
the origins of this ship, we're gonna start having some motherfuckers,

(01:11:10):
you know, singing on this motherfighter ship. When I was
you know, first programming it at first, and then it
went to them. Uh my vision was, like you said,
this is my vision in which I think it started
with uh whatever was hot on the street, which only

(01:11:30):
I knew because I'm the one seller and it was
coming through you. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:35):
So and at that time, you know, now need distributed,
ill distributed.

Speaker 1 (01:11:38):
You know, they took you out. They pretty much knocked
you out the way there and put you out the
way because let's hurry up and get on. Man, what
happened with the syndication shipause I know it's a lot
of money made from that show. Yeah, they take all
the syndication. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:50):
Yeah, so you know that's probably why I probably wasn't
part of it that you know, it's probably another plan.

Speaker 3 (01:11:59):
But I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:12:02):
I wasn't in the radio game, so you know, oh
you know what.

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
I knew kool Aid. Kool Aid was always real hospitable
with me, man, I mean we got some little ady.
I ain't gonna shit up here and say, you know,
she was a terrible person or whatever. But when that
scratch coming away, Man, people you know get acting, you
know a certain way. Man. They don't need they don't
need Murky no more. She got the pluck, she got
what she wants. She said, I'm gonna bringing me into
the radio and I'm gonna get them me.

Speaker 3 (01:12:26):
In fact, you know, like I said, now i'm coptent me.
I can sometimes see stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:12:35):
Yeah, you saw the ball development.

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
Yeah, so basically as related to me, it was just
to show that, you know, let's just pick his arts.

Speaker 1 (01:12:44):
One thing I want to say, man, before we go,
and we gotta talk more about this motherfucker. How did
you find Little rob Okay, little Robb.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
Brother wrote me a letter, Yes, sir, Yeah, my brother.

Speaker 3 (01:12:58):
You know, he's raps. He's good, you know, check them out.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
And so the brother really wrokes. You still got that
letter on the letter.

Speaker 2 (01:13:06):
But but he you know, he wrote me a letter,
and uh, I said, all right, check it out.

Speaker 1 (01:13:12):
That's crazy. That was before back in the day. It
wasn't no cell phones or text message email. I he
broke you a letter. You had to write that, you
had to write. That's how fans will writing. Yeah, you know,
fan mail, mhm, and uh you know, and that you know,
I needed a heart throb at the label that I
knew the girls just gonna okay. Yeah, I saw the

(01:13:34):
vision for the Little Rib and it went just like
I thought, you know, yeah, he's still out that winning man.

Speaker 3 (01:13:39):
Yeah yeah, I mean, you.

Speaker 2 (01:13:40):
Know I put choose. I probably devoted that a couple
of years of just you know, kidding him out, just
I mean that was their first album was a classic man.
First album was hard Yeah, because the first album was
hard Man crazy like you know what's crazy. Later on
Wise she came up with the same title crazy life. Hm,

(01:14:03):
my crazy life.

Speaker 1 (01:14:04):
You know the Rob had Rob was the ship Man Rob.
I'm gonna tell you Fingers one of my homeboys, and
I remember when he did that Summer Nights record. Yeah,
what was crazy? That beat for Summer Nights was originally
supposed to beat the Homeboys Lunch was gonna have it
around from Ai. This my home boy from Homeless. He
didn't want the record, and the Rob wound up getting

(01:14:27):
you see what that ship it is?

Speaker 2 (01:14:28):
I tell you a record that did that. Uh, Kohlio's
County Line. Yeah, Kolio's County Line is supposed to speak
for Spanish.

Speaker 1 (01:14:37):
Sak really wow?

Speaker 2 (01:14:40):
What Rich Rapp didn't go to the studio that day
and then Coolio end up doing it because remember we
were all with you know, Brian, and you know, Brian's
like Kulais, I mean Koulios, you know, right hand producer,
and uh so that was you know, and I was,

(01:15:01):
you know, behind the scenes, uh, trying to get Coolio
a deal with he read this guy from uh THEB
magazine and he hooked from you know. But I mean
in my mind at that time, I was like, hey,
you know, put the mad circle back together. Yeah, that's
what I was thinking. You know, hey, this is possible

(01:15:23):
because we got Coolio here, you know. But uh and
then you know, just before I go, I want of uh,
there's a whole nother history of rap that you know,
never never is told, you know, and that's like the
period the pre death Death Growth era. Okay, that's when

(01:15:44):
True Blue m hm you know ye had the bloods
and cribs ah and you know like uh Ronnie ron
tweety Bird, look mean, uh, Kiki Loco, you know me,
we all, you know, we all uh huh you know,
well more me and each one of them, because you know,

(01:16:06):
there was a little a little friction between two versions
of you. But but we all built the underground and
I'm like, you know, a lot of the gangster and
stuff and basically, uh, you know when the uh I
guess said, you know, everybody else got into it. That

(01:16:28):
formed against the inspiration I think because True Blue and
then they were talking about gangs and right talking about it.
That was some real street and that was an era
where yeah, technically, ah yeah, people were scared, kind of
scared to put a record out because you had to,
you know, just like there's probably some you know, Chicano

(01:16:50):
rap going on the rap because it's too much politics, right,
So same thing then, you know, we had bluzzy cribs,
you had a little Kiki local you know, somewhere in
between there. You know that was that's rough.

Speaker 1 (01:17:04):
Yeah here yeah, man, Yeah, I was going to ask
you a question, man, and I'm sorry for cutting you off, man,
but the time is, you know, going what it is man.
You sold a lot of records, man, what was your
highest selling release? Who is your highest police?

Speaker 3 (01:17:23):
You know, Rob?

Speaker 1 (01:17:25):
How many records? You think the Robbins so you think
the Robin Soda re million not kind of the bootlegs.
It's a lot of bootlegs and shot out there down Yeah,
I mean, I'm sure.

Speaker 2 (01:17:36):
I mean little Rock what's hot for a long time eating?
If I dropped some money new you know, little robbers
still eat, I mean little robbers.

Speaker 1 (01:17:46):
Let me ask you, did you know at one time, man,
that she was gonna lose some of them dudes? Because
I knew as the Chicano wrap labels. As they started
running their own labels, you started having different labels popped up.
I'm pretty sure you were. Their main thing of going
after your artist was man, come over here with the loss,
and man, don't do this with that might yet the
man he's over there robbing, y'all come over here. And

(01:18:08):
that was the selling point for a lot of people,
wasn't It was that the bigges selling point.

Speaker 2 (01:18:13):
Okay, no, I mean yet, I'm sure yeah, there's people
playing that game.

Speaker 3 (01:18:21):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:18:23):
Uh I guess what Buffer did a little bit, you know,
I mean I was I was a label, but I
was also a distributor, So I was distributing labels.

Speaker 1 (01:18:35):
M M.

Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
It's okay for.

Speaker 3 (01:18:37):
The kind of needed you.

Speaker 2 (01:18:38):
So they card to funk what you were just then
they talked, you know, like they say, what kind of
raps where else? Yeah, I'm the one mm hmm you
know so? Uh so I didn't you know, pay for
the placements and caps and all that ship back then
that she said that ship used to have to pay you.
And I'm gonna tell you this, shut off Violet Brown.

(01:18:58):
I gotta get Violet Brown on.

Speaker 1 (01:19:00):
Shut up. Voler Brown never gets the credit that she deserves. Man.
Violer Brown. She always kept her doors open for people
or whatever thing. She didn't care if she was independent
or from a major label. She could tell you, go
get your ship out and I'm gonna bring in five
thousand pieces. She was good for that. I bring in
twenty five hundred pieces in this little area that you
got Violet Brown. Man, It's like she helped so many people. Man.

(01:19:22):
Shut out to Violet Brown.

Speaker 3 (01:19:25):
Mud from the world.

Speaker 2 (01:19:26):
Even she always thought that I was from Phoenix. You
ain't know for some reason.

Speaker 1 (01:19:32):
I have no idea.

Speaker 2 (01:19:34):
She yes, she told me she thought I was from Phoenix.

Speaker 1 (01:19:39):
Violet was cool, man, viol You know what, I gotta
get folowed on the show, man, Absolutely, Violet Viola Brown
is a legend, man, because you know what, Man, we
gonna been on here a long time. Man, So I'm
gonna go ahead and shut it down. Man, y'all make
sure man, y'all gonna do your research, man, and I
know we gonna get some flack from this Man, there's
gonna be a bunch of motherfuckers coming out with their responses,
but that's all good. Everybody has their own opinion.

Speaker 3 (01:20:01):
We were there, We could talk about it because we
were there.

Speaker 1 (01:20:04):
Yeah, but that's what I want to do. Man. I'm
not in the motherfucker's rewriting history, and that's why we
got this show. Absolutely on that note, so you know,
the truth is the truth. On that note, we out
of here.