Raptalk hooked up with the funky man from Riverside, CA in a very personal and informative interview. Dr. Stank took the time to talk about his tremendous weight loss, his job as an at-risk youth counselor and his re-vitalized career as a rapper and producer! It's the new and improved Dr. Stank! 

Styles: I saw that new picture of you on your myspace recently and I couldn’t believe my eyes that was you. This is like a new and improved Dr. Stank. I had to make sure that it wasn’t a hoax or fake myspace page. You slimmed down like crazy.

Dr. Stank: I lost about 180 lbs. I had to shed off all of that weight. I was up to about 420 lbs. I had lost 120 lbs. just by working out and eating right but then I ended up gaining back 120 and a few more pounds. I gained it all back. After that I decided to go ahead and get surgery done so I went and got a gastric bypass done.

It’s a trip because previously I had gone up to Power 106 FM to give Big Boy a drop for his morning show. I saw that he had lost so much weight and we got to chopping it up about that. I had been thinking to myself if I was to ever get that surgery that I would never be able to eat again. So he was giving me some facts about it and told me that it wasn’t even like that. After that conversation I decided to go ahead and do it. I ended up doing it and for me it turned out to be probably the best thing that I have done for myself. A lot of people have their things that they struggle with. Some people struggle with alcohol but my thing was food. I gained all of that weight and a nigga wanted to around for his seeds, so I just went ahead and did it.

Styles: What was it like looking at the “new” you in the mirror for the first time after the surgery?

Dr. Stank: That shit was crazy! It was like “wow.” Growing up until I was about 20, I was a slim dude. I was a running back in High School for our football team. I was an athlete. It wasn’t until I had graduated from High School that I started to gain weight. I wasn’t as active as I was in school. Over the years I started gaining all of this weight so when I finally had the surgery and looking at myself it was like, “Damn. Where have you been all of these years?” It’s a trip man but it’s definitely a blessing to be healthy again.

Styles: Is there a plan that you have to never get all of that weight back now that it’s gone?

Dr. Stank: The surgery is just a tool to help you lose the weight. It’s a tool but it’s not the solution. You literally have to change your eating habits and stay in the gym. You can gain it back if you are not careful. Right now I am so happy to lose that weight that I am not trying to get it all back. Whatever I need to do to keep it off I am going to do it – as far as working out, changing my eating habits.

Physically I can’t eat as much as I used to eat. Before, I would go to In-N-Out Burgers and get a 4 by 4 with a double-double [laughs]. You know straight animal style! And then after eating that I would still be hungry! Now if I go to In-N-Out, I’ll eat just a cheeseburger and probably won’t even have fries. Sometimes I won’t even eat the whole cheeseburger. I just physically can’t eat as much as I used to it but I am still satisfied just as I was when I ate that 4 by 4 and a double-double.

Styles: Have you gone back to Power 106 to show Big Boy what you look like now?

Dr. Stank: It’s a trip that you asked that. I just went up there about 2 weeks ago but he wasn’t there. I did run in to Fuzzy Fantabulous from Big Boy’s morning show and he was like, “wow.” He said, “Damn! You lost a gang of weight!” I haven’t seen Big since I’ve dropped the weight but he definitely was a big inspiration for me to get the surgery. After I saw him that one time at the station I thought to myself, “This dude weighed just about as much as myself and he lost it. Maybe I should really look in to this some more.”

Styles: Now there is a new and improved Dr. Stank. It’s like you’ve been re-born – that can even roll over in to your career: The New Dr. Stank.

Dr. Stank: I definitely put a few years in to it. There was a time where I was self-destructing. I think everything happens for a reason and now I am ready. I’m ready now.

Styles: What have you been up to since the release of your last street album, The Odor?

Dr. Stank: I’ve been grinding, working on music and living life. The game has changed a lot from the time that I first started and even more so since I dropped The Odor. I’ve just been trying to stay afloat as far as life is concerned. As for the rap game, I’ve been working on material and keeping my skills sharpened. When I drop this next time, watch out.

Styles: So you’ve been working a 9 to 5 job this whole time?

Dr. Stank: Yeah man, life is real. I don’t have time for no Penitentiary chances or stuff like that. You aren’t about to see me out there dealing no crack and all that. That’s not my thing. I’m not knocking what people do but that ain’t my thing. I’ve got a job. I have always been a blue collar type of cat. The time in between the record deals that I’ve had, I’ve always had a job. That rap money isn’t always guaranteed. You still have to take care of your family. You still have to pay your mortgages and bills.

I’ve always worked with kids – those that are less-fortunate like at-risk youths, gang-members and those with drug problems. That’s always been my thing, just trying to help them out and show them a better way. Rather than be a part of the problem, I try to be a part of the solution. I’ve always felt that if I wasn’t a rapper that this is what I’d be doing – trying to help out kids.

Styles: How is the job working with the kids coming along for you?

Dr. Stank: Every day is different. It’s a roller-coaster. I deal with so many kids and some of them make it out and some of them don’t. You do whatever you can to try to help them and the ones that whose life you make a difference in – it’s always worth it. I’ve got cats that have come in and felt hopeless with no family to turn to and you try to shape these kids in to something that their family should have. You have to realize that you are their family. When you see the way a kid is at the beginning and then see how he is when he graduates the program and lives on the up-and-up – it’s a good feeling.

Styles: Has there been a successful case that you are most proud of?

Dr. Stank:  Yeah. There was this dude that came in and he had no family or anything. He graduated the program and he ended up going to Law School and becoming a Lawyer. That was a good one. There are others that aren’t even that drastic but they are just as successful. Every successful case is something to be proud of. But yeah, that one was like, “wow”, because who would have thought from the beginning that he would have gone to Law School. It just shows that if you’ve got the right guidance that you can do that.

Styles: How long have you been working the kids?

Dr. Stank: I’ve been doing this since 1997 – for about 11 years.

Styles: How did you get involved? Was it something that you wanted to do? Or was it just a job to have?

Dr. Stank: In the beginning I was broke [laughs]. I was trying to get a record deal and was in between jobs. One of my friends had just gotten a job at the place where I work at now. He told me that there was an opening and that the job was working with kids. He encouraged me to come through and I went to apply not knowing what it really was. I just needed some money.

Once I started working there I decided that this was something that I could do to make a difference in these kids’ lives.

Styles: Have you had any hard-to-crack knuckleheads to deal with?

Dr. Stank: You have those all of the time. There are cats that are hard-headed. Sometimes cats have to learn the hard way. You’ve got to try and help them out though. A lot of times they don’t make it. There are those that are so thick-headed that they have to learn on their own. Later on years later they will remember after they’ve been through it and be like, “That’s what Stank was talking about. Now I get it.”

Styles: Do any of these kids know you as Dr. Stank? Or are you just their counselor?

Dr. Stank: I try to keep it separate but these kids are up on their game. Word gets around and they know what time it is. A lot of them have downloaded my music and they bump it. I try to keep it separate but most of the time that never works. They know what’s crackin’.

Styles: Any of them come to you asking to be put on the rap game?

Dr. Stank: All of the time and I mean all of the time. Actually there are some kids there that can spit. I tell them to keep smashin’ with it.

Styles: Do you think that you might ever take one of them under your wings?

Dr. Stank: [Laughs] Yeah man, you never know. It depends if they’ve got the heat. You know how that goes. I definitely won’t be sleeping on talent like a lot of these dumb-ass A & R’s.

Styles: I know that you know all about that. Have you been shopping yourself lately to A & R’s? Or have you just left that shit alone?

Dr. Stank: I think that my main thing right now is focusing more on getting my buzz up. I want to make it a situation where I don’t need to shop around – to where they come to me. That’s my whole thing right now. You know that these labels don’t really want to do nothing. You pretty much have to develop yourself as an artist. You’ve go to be doing it in the game already. You have to be established and have your own fan-base. Everything has to be set up in order for these cats to even take a look at you. It’s crazy because back in the day, it was different.

Styles: Do you think that now that you are thinner, you might be more marketable in the manner of how an A & R thinks?

Dr. Stank: You know what? I think about that sometimes. It definitely can’t hurt. But at the same time, I had 2 record deals already being a big dude. There is definitely a market for big dudes. In the past we’ve had Big Pun, Heavy D, Biggie Smalls, Chubb Rock, and The Fat Boys. There has always been a market for big dudes. However being thinner doesn’t hurt. People are shallow but that’s cool though because I am stepping my game up.

Styles: You’ve mentioned how much the game has changed earlier, has anything changed in your music to keep up with those changes?

Dr. Stank: I think that is a mistake that a lot of people are making right now. They try to cross over in to something that they are really not. By the time that they get put on, the person that they were trying to be like has already run their course or their music has. Rather than trying to people cross over to them – that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to do me. I can’t be anything but me. I can’t act like these other rappers or try to sound like “today’s” sound. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a dummy. I try to evolve with my sound, but I want to be original at the same time. I don’t want to be just some dude who is just doing what everybody else does. I think that has always set me apart. There is only one Dr. Stank. I know that I don’t sound like anybody else. I can’t really be put in a category because I do me. All of the greats have been that way. When you think about Pac, Biggie, Jay-Z, and Nas – all of the great ones have made their own lanes. All of these cats were original with the way that they rapped and the way that they carried themselves and their swag – even when there wasn’t such a thing called swag. They were original. Now you have phrases like “swagger-jackin’” and stuff like that because cats are trying to carry themselves the way that other cats carry themselves. It’s always the one’s that are original that stick out and are remembered.

So I don’t mind not being the dude that sounds like everybody else right now because when I drop, these cats are going to remember me.

Styles: You have produced your own music for the longest time but you’ve never really pushed yourself as a Producer on a large scale. Why is that? I think that you can be a dope producer for a lot of artists out there.

Dr. Stank: When I had my deal(s), I think that was one of the main things that attracted the labels – the fact that I did my own beats and own rhymes. I’ve always done production for cats out here in the Inland Empire. The thing is I think that I was more pre-occupied with being an artist. My intentions were to always be a Producer and an MC but I was always more geared towards being an artist and dropping my album. I’ve always done production for local cats but I never really put my beats out there for shop. Now it’s a whole different story!

Styles: Now you are letting it be known that whoever needs music, to come and see you, right?

Dr. Stank: Oh yeah. Production is a big part of Dr. Stank. Right now I am really trying to push the production thing. Not to be cocky or anything like that but I know that a lot of these cats can’t fuck with me on production. That’s just a fact. I know one thing - I rhyme just as well as I do beats. A lot of cats it’s like 20 percent one way and 80 percent the other.

Styles: Meaning that they are either a good producer and a decent rapper, or a decent producer and a good rapper?

Dr. Stank: Right. I know that mine is split down the middle. I can do both just as well as the other. And now I am trying to push myself as a producer for other artists more than ever right now.

Styles: Its official then! Dr. Stank is a producer that artists need to hook up with for that dope music.

Dr. Stank: Fa sho! And I’ve always been there. I just don’t know if people knew that I did beats aside from cats in the Inland Empire. I’ve always produced for cats like Dirty Birdy, Sly Boogie, Seefore, The Outskirts, Lunch, and Diamonique.  Anybody out here who is anybody, I’ve done production for. I’ve always wanted to push it on a bigger scale but a lot of labels sleep! People slept on Kanye’ and now look at this cat.

Styles: What about artists though? Have artists outside of the Inland Empire been reluctant to work with you?

Dr. Stank: I don’t think that they have been reluctant. I wouldn’t say that. I would say that I don’t know a lot of those cats and they don’t know me for whatever reasons. I have worked with Bishop Lamont. I did a jam with him. I produced a cut for him, a girl named Duchess, and Dirty Birdy.

I am out in the I.E. though and for some reason people think that its all the way out in Italy or some shit like that. 

Styles: [Laughs] Like you guys are on the other side of the Earth?

Dr. Stank: Yeah man. This shit is right next to L.A. But I think that it’s more of an “out of sight, out of mind” type of thing. It’s a thing where I need to be in people’s faces more. The talent is there. I know that I am up there with some of the best producers out here. I can hang right there with them.

People can also get at me on my Myspace and we can chop it up. I can send you some beats or however that we need to do it.

Styles: You talk about building up your buzz again. Do you have a specific plan for this?

Dr. Stank: I think it’s more of what I will call “Internet Guerilla Promotion.” I’m just trying to flood the streets and flood the internet with as much music as possible. In this day and age it’s not about how tight you are honestly because there are a lot of cats out there that are ridiculous on the mic and they aren’t getting put on. Obviously it has little to do with just talent. A lot of artists are just in the streets and on the internet putting out so much music that people just catch on. They just get used to these artists and the next thing you know they are blowing up.

Styles: That’s just Marketing 101. There’s a reason why you will see the same damn commercial over and over again while watching something on TV. You stay in the face of the audience and on their minds.

Dr. Stank: There you go. That’s my strategy. I want to be in their faces until they are sick of me. I’ve got so much music and I am always in the studio. By the time this interview is read, there will be Dr. Stank tracks up on the site [Editors note: And there is!! Just click HERE for the tracks!]. Stank is back homie and I am back with a vengeance!

Styles: What is the new project that you are working on?

Dr. Stank: I am working on a few things. First is the street album, The Smell from Hell. I am also working on this project called Fumes, which is basically another street album but it’s all rare stuff from the past. It’s Fumes from the older stuff that I’ve done that I’ve never really put out.

Styles: Damn. So you are going to let us go back and hear the stuff that we never got to hear when you were on Bad Boy or MCA?

Dr. Stank: Yeah. A lot of this music is just laying around and there is no reason for why it’s laying around. I’m flooding the market. I am going to give the people what they want.  

Styles: A lot of artists have good stuff that is just sitting in their vaults and nobody is going to ever hear it. If nobody hears it, it’s like it never existed. What a waste.

Dr. Stank: That’s exactly what it is. I am trying to drop those two projects around the same time. I am also doing a mixtape with Dirty Birdy. It’s a Dirty & Stank collab record. I’m producing that whole thing. We are going to smash on them. I am also doing another mixtape with DJ KMP from The Wake Up Show. This one is going to be my first “traditional” mixtape because the other ones were street albums with original beats. I am going to be spitting over other people’s stuff. People haven’t heard me like that but that’s how I started before mixtapes were even poppin’. We used to sharpen our skills in KMP’s garage rapping over other artists beats. That’s the essence of Hip-Hop.  

Styles: Do you find a lot less pressure on yourself when you can just focus on rapping and not having to make a beat for a song?

Dr. Stank: It’s a different process and yes, it is a lot less pressure. On The Smell from Hell, I’ve got a couple of joints with Fingazz. He’s an incredible producer and it’s always good when I can get together with him. I get the chance to just be an MC and not have to worry about how the snare is going to sound or anything with the beat.

Styles: You are working 9 to 5 and maybe even more because of the problems that at-risk youth get in to. You then come home to a wife and kid. You are also a little older now. How in the hell do you find the time to be in the studio so much?

Dr. Stank: You just have to make it work. I’ll be honest with you Styles; this is the way that my day goes. I work and then I come home. When I come home I spend some time with my daughter and my wife. When they go to sleep I go in to my little studio and bang out beats until around 4 a.m. Then I go to sleep and I wake up about 4 hours later and go to work. That’s what I do every day.

Styles: That doesn’t wear on you?

Dr. Stank: It does wear on me – a lot! But there is a cat out there who doesn’t have a job, younger and better looking then I am, and who is hungrier than hell. He doesn’t have to worry about having a job and he’s grindin’ during the day. This is the way that I have to do it. I can’t stay home and not work because I have a family to provide for. So in order to do music, I have to balance it all.

Styles: I used to be able to stay up until 4 a.m. and then go to sleep for 2 hours and be up at 6 a.m. to go to work. My body doesn’t let me do that anymore [laughs].

Dr. Stank: Trust me I know. Me being a little thinner has helped. I’m not as tired as I used to be. I have more energy. It really is hard though. When everybody else is asleep, I am up bangin’ beats out, trying to find inspiration to do this. I am bangin’ out music in my headphones so I don’t wake up my daughter. I just do what I have to do in order to get my grind on.

Styles: I hope that the fans who are reading this really appreciate this. That’s got to be hard. This is a true labor of love for you.

Dr. Stank: You’ve got to love it. You better love it because sometimes that’s the only thing that will keep you going. If you don’t have that love for it, you are going to be in for a rude awakening. That’s real talk.

Styles: Dr. Stank, thank you for this wonderful interview. It’s really given us a lot more insight in to your world.

Dr. Stank: Thank you. You’ve always supported me and most of the up-in-coming West Coast MC’s and Producers out here. I’m thankful that you are always looking out for me.

All of you fans check me on my Myspace [CLICK HERE] . Smell me!!!  

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