Interview by Justin "Lunatic 63" Melo

Shoutout to: Kurupt4Life

RAPTALK.NET: We are with west coast legend Bad Azz; let everybody know how you’re doing right now.

Bad Azz: I’m super chillin’ man! I couldn’t feel any better.

RAPTALK.NET: Ok. We’re going to get right into it; it’s been a while since the world saw the last Bad Azz solo – when is the next one dropping?

Bad Azz: I’m not even working on a solo (album) right now. I’m doing a lot for my label and just trying to get my brand and my launch pad together - $$ (Double Dollar Sign) Records, I’ve had it for a long time.

I have a project coming out; Bad Azz and The Lowlifes “Leaders of the New School.” It’s a group style album; they got me and The Lowlifes; that was the first guys that I ever rapped with back in the early 90’s before I met Snoop (Dogg). We started our group The Lowlifes and when we met Snoop (Dogg) we where already together and basically he (Snoop Dogg) he invited me solo to be apart of his LBC Crew rap group and the legend was born.

RAPTALK.NET: Have any changes been made to The Lowlifes or is it still the same members?

Bad Azz: It’s the same members. The only thing is that it’s grown. Nobody has left but we’ve added a couple of members. Basically, everyone has their own separate entity as far as individuality, everyone has stepped out and done solo stuff, recording their own solo projects independently but we still have a really strong group.

We have Miss Legacy, she did seven or eight years in the federal penitentiary; she got out and she’s still apart of the group; she’s recording some new stuff. Her and if you ever remember the female recording artist Sylk E. Fine, she was on Tha Eastsidaz projects and she was originally signed with Eazy-E back in the day. We all came up around together, we’ve always been friends and we always made music together. Miss Legacy and Sylk E. Fine have a group called “Nieces with the Pieces.” We just have different little branches. Me, School and Conflict have a group called “Ghetto Stars” which we did a project that we never released.

A lot of the stuff has been shelved and kind of put in the hard drive because of the labels situation. I’ve had a couple of independent situations but my group really depends on me to land the good deals and to get ourselves in a situation where our music is coming out and we’re releasing some good records; it’s been kind of a long and hard search for that but now I have a deal with Phase One Communications and EMI is going to be distributing this new record. I think that’ll be a good venture; we haven’t put anything out with them but I’m very interested to see how this goes. I’m excited because I think it’s going to be a good venture.

RAPTALK.NET: So 100% of the focus right now is on The Lowlifes project?

Bad Azz: Yeah, most definitely. It’s as well as my project as much as there’s. What that stems from is you have the independent game, you have Bad Azz coming from $400,000 or $500,000 budgets with million dollar promotion in my projects to not having that same kind of budget with these new projects so what I want to do is establish a platform so that we do have an opportunity to release good records with a good push and with nice marketing and promotion and nice video budgets.

The only way to do that is to raise those budgets or to have someone give you that money whose just going to take all that from you and we already went that route. Now we’re just doing things small scale because that’s the only budget that we’re working with instead of going to get a million dollars from someone who’s going to make ten million dollars or more back.

RAPTALK.NET: Is there a title for the project?

Bad Azz: “Leaders of the New School.”

RAPTALK.NET: Perfect. And the label situation sounds like it’s all sorted out, correct?

Bad Azz: Yeah, beautiful. I mean like I said I haven’t dropped anything with them but there very excited to work with me and I’m very excited to work with them. They have the machine that I need to press up, distribute and sell records; I have the material and the following which is the whole structure that I need to sell records with them as well; it’s us coming together is just a good union and its needed right now.

RAPTALK.NET: Is a release date in place for this project?

Bad Azz: I’m looking for the last quarter but I haven’t inked a date yet. I’ll keep that up in the air and once it gets solidified I will be letting that out there for everyone to know. I’m trying to get as many people aware of the project as possible and I’m trying to sell it to as many people that are feeling it. The day I get the date, I’m sure that that is the date that I will be putting everywhere.

RAPTALK.NET: Are any guest appearances scheduled?

Bad Azz: Well we kept it kind of in-house because The Lowlife group is kind of big. Everyone as far as The Lowlife group is not on there. We have Lil Tip Toe on there. We have 40 Glocc on there that is like extended family. 40 (Glocc) is apart of the Infamous/G-Unit family since he’s been apart of us. He’s basically was born from our crew and he’s a good friend of mine who is on the album. We have Sho’ Shot on the album who is an original Lowlife member. We have Conflict on the album; we have a new kid that just came around named A-Sut the General; we got him on there.

We got my good friend Slip Capone; he’s similar to 40 (Glocc). He’s not necessarily apart of The Lowlife group but he’s like a family member and a good friend of mine who’s done songs with us since the 90’s; he’s on a couple of songs on there. I just wanted to keep it in-house. I have Shorty-K on there; Miss Legacy didn’t get on the album and neither did Lil J. I think that’s about it. Everyone else that has been apart of this group; (Coco) Loc, he’s on the album. It’s a beautiful thing. I like to do it like that because this is me and The Lowlifes. That’s where we’re taking it right now. We’re just keeping it in-house.

I would have loved to put Snoop (Dogg) on the record, and Daz (Dillinger) and Kurupt but when I started doing the record, I said “you know what? I want to show some independence.” I want to show some independence and the fact that Bad Azz is his own Snoop Dogg.

RAPTALK.NET: I feel that right there. We interviewed Slip Capone not too long ago and he mentioned appearing on a few tracks on this new project.

Bad Azz: Exactly! It’s awesome. Honestly, myself and Slip (Capone) have a very good chemistry together. We’re planning on doing a duet album and we’re definitely, really looking to do that before I put out another solo record.

Honestly, I’m glad that you even asked because it’s hard to explain to people like fans “Yo Bad Azz, where is your solo record?” I’m not borrowing any more money to put out any records and I’m not putting out any big records until I have the money to make the records big. There’s only one or two ways that it goes; you either have the money in your own pocket to promote and put radio ads out – all this stuff whether it’s in your label account or in your own bank account; whether my dad had the money, it’d be straight. When you do it through a label, a label is only giving you a high interest loan.

So if people understand what record deals are; I could go to Def Jam – any label in the United States would sign Bad Azz because of my track record. I don’t even have to say what I did previously; I could play them 40 new records and they’ll give me a deal to put 10-20 songs on an album and put it out. There going to put all this money behind promoting it and there going to take all my money on the back end and I’m going to be stuck in the same position that I am; I already sold a lot of records. I didn’t make a lot of money because somebody who loaned me a million dollars went and made three million dollars and took the chunk off the top. If I put up a million dollars into a project that makes three million, I want to take my two million dollar profit off the top and give you crumbs because how much did you put in it?

RAPTALK.NET: It sounds like your happy and smart to go the independent route.

Bad Azz: Oh ofcourse! I feel like all it’s going to do is grow. I put out “Money Run” if you remember that project; that was an independent venture. It was good; I did it with some other guys. The project came about good, the whole business at first looked good and then on the back end some guys got a little stingy and greedy; I did learn a lot from it. I’m not bitter about it; I’m just saying “yo, let’s do it without that many hands in it.”

RAPTALK.NET: I feel that; a bigger chunk for you and more quality music.

Bad Azz: Exactly! And we don’t have to worry about someone trying to run off with our riches or run off with our prize because we both put in. I’m not going to take from it. If this record does good and basically all of The Lowlifes came in and got down on the project and put our all into it; we didn’t spend a gang of money making it but we spent a nice amount of money and we didn’t take from nobody. We all put our time and effort in, throw in an amount of money and we’re intending to make something big back. Even if we don’t make a lot of money, my crew knows that the impact of just doing 3-5 videos and getting a couple of songs on the radio; if we only sell 10,000 copies and we have a couple of songs played in LA on the radio, get our buzz back cracking on the real righteous.

I hate mixtapes – I think there cool, but it’s not something I feel like I need to do in order re-establish my career. I don’t put out a mixtape. I’m cool, I’m not going to do ten (mixtapes) like Crooked I. I feel like he’s (Crooked I) doing ten mixtapes or your on you’re 15^th mixtape, when are you putting out your album? I look at 40 (Glocc) the same way and these are my friends. I do say “yo, where are these guys’ albums?” they have a similar concept like me. Crooked I is doing the same thing as me; he’s (Crooked I) not going to put out his record out without the right promotion, right budget or without the right single or right buzz; ofcourse not, why would you? What it’s going to come out to be is a good record that the public labels a flop and it’s just going to mess your career up. I understand where he’s coming from because whatever the public labels it, whatever there feeling – if you put out a record that is good as hell and it only sells 10,000 copies, the public may expect it to go platinum, there going to say “Crooked I flopped” and there not going to want to buy his next record.

You have to poise yourself with integrity so that you don’t mess up your career. Even now, I haven’t put out a lot of records on purpose because there was only one of two ways I was going to do it – I was going to flood the market and over saturate myself or I wasn’t going to do any of that and be rare; because now it’s rare to get a Bad Azz record. It’s not over saturated; it’s not like everybody has heard it.

I’m still doper than all these cats out here; it’s not the fact of waiting a long time but it’s vintage and classic and you make people wait like Dr. Dre and you put out something that is awesome, there not going to miss a beat. There going to be like “even though it took a long time, he still put out the best shit that’s out.” And that’s what’s up.

That is how this record is. Nobody has; when I say nobody, Snoop (Dogg), Tha Eastsidaz, Crooked I, Westurn Union, my friends, the people that I like, the people that I don’t like – I’m talking from the bay, I’m talking from everywhere – Arizona; I don’t hear nothing on the west coast fucking with this new shit I got.

RAPTALK.NET: Props for that answer. Can the fans expect to hear Bad Azz on every record on this new Lowlife project?

Bad Azz: Every song!

RAPTALK.NET: Perfect! Who is handling the production?

Bad Azz: We have Black Chill; we have a whole lot of people. Let me pull up some stuff that I have right here because I don’t want to miss anybody. I have J.Wells producing a couple of records on there. I felt like sticking to the talent. I wasn’t really big on the names. I was like “yo lets see who’s going to come through with the fly shit” and I asked cats for some beats and they hit me with some stuff that came right.

I got some stuff from J.Wells, I got some stuff from this kid Beats Is Bonkers; he’s from Atlanta. I got my kid Greedy from High Notes; he has a production company - Greedy and this other guy; there Production Company is called High Notes. Basically I’ve known Greedy since he was a kid and he started playing music when he was younger; he was like “yo Bad Azz when I get my stuff together and get some tight beats, I’m going to hit you with them.” I was like “yo if you think your going in the right direction, keep in touch with me” and about four-five years past and this kid is in the lab, in his garage making beats, making beats constantly. He’s spending his last (money) on beat machines and he’s awesome right now. He did the second single on the album; he did two songs on the album but we’ve done like a 100 songs with him in the last year.

So I got Greedy of High Notes, J.Wells, Large Money Entertainment which is an overseas production company based out of Sweden but they have some other cats. I was introduced to a guy Chubby from 40 Glocc and they did two (songs) on the album; its two different producers, I’m not fully aware of the name – that’s good to me because I’m not looking for Scott Storch or Dr. Dre or Timbaland; I’m not looking for that. I’m looking for dope shit. Don’t get me wrong, a few of those names do make dope shit but it’s not the name I’m looking for.

RAPTALK.NET: Good looking on yet another very in-depth answer. How would you describe the overall sound of the project?

Bad Azz: Millennium music; spaceship music; 2020 music!

RAPTALK.NET: Are you happy with everything we just covered on the new album?

Bad Azz: Most definitely!

RAPTALK.NET: Ok, then I would like to ask some questions about the past. How did you hook back up with DPG for the “Where U From” track on “Dogg Chit?”

Bad Azz: That was beautiful! That’s my crew and that’s my guys. I felt like people loved to see us get together; but it goes hand in hand with what I saying about having the promotion and having the budget to make what we do stand out. That video, I love it – I think it’s a great video and I remember the night we shot it and how we did it and how it came about. It was history. If you look at the video, we filmed it with Daz (Dillinger’s) hand-held camera; a nice one though, don’t get me wrong! I don’t want to say the price but I don’t want anyone to get the wrong impression; I’d say between $2,000-3,000. It was a nice camera, a little hand-held is what I was saying; no bigger than a foot long. It had a nice little lens on the front and my boy was holding it; a nice little digital displayer. Basically what I’m saying is that we didn’t have any lighting, we didn’t have any set, you know? We filmed it as if we were doing a home video. We had a boom box playing the cd. Don’t get me wrong, I really like the down to earth, gritty-ness and the fact that we didn’t go out and spend a gang of money to make something look way Hollywood; it was gritty and grimy.

 I do however feel like that didn’t get it’s just due. I feel like Bad Azz hooking up with Tha Dogg Pound is legendary; we hadn’t done a song together in years. All of our fans that love us together and probably thought we broke up and all this. Me and Kurupt had a fall-out but he left the whole pound at that time; it wasn’t like an individual thing – Snoop (Dogg) wasn’t talking to him, Daz (Dillinger) wasn’t talking to him, I wasn’t talking to him, Soopafly wasn’t talking to him – nobody was talking to him, he was hanging out with Suge (Knight); we was on some other shit. Shortly after that, he came back and we’ve been cool ever sense. We had a slight fall out but it wasn’t anything we couldn’t piece back up and get back together. Everyone wanted to see that and I feel like it wasn’t publicized enough for the caliber of song and the caliber of reunion that it was and that song is great; I love that song.

RAPTALK.NET: Who reached out to who on “Where U From?”

Bad Azz: Daz reached out to me and that’s how it basically came about; “yo Bad Azz we need to get you on something - we’re doing a new record, me & Kurupt; we definitely need you on it, we’re wrapping up the album.” It was towards the end of the album. I went right to the studio and we all rocked it right there in the studio. I’d say about a month later we did the video. It was a cool little venture. It was quick; we did the song and talked about the video – a couple of week’s later we met up at a show that Kurupt was doing with Martin Lawrence; me and Daz (Dillinger) were guests on the set; they were filming a pilot. It kind of made for a good situation and it was a good reunion.

RAPTALK.NET: So your relationship with Snoop Dogg and the rest of DPG is good right now?

Bad Azz: Yeah! I talked to Kurupt a couple of days ago. I haven’t spoken to Snoop (Dogg) in a couple of months, two months or so ago when I ran into him at a party. We haven’t been on everyday speaking basis but every time we see each other, it’s all shits and giggles. We’ve been planning on getting back together. I’ve just been trying to get my independence. I felt like Snoop gave me a lot of jewels so I’m really trying to use these jewels to help elevate myself to where I’m supposed to be.

RAPTALK.NET: What’s your current relationship like with Crooked I?

Bad Azz: I just saw Crooked I a couple of days ago too! Honestly, we’re also not on everyday speaking basis, but Crooked (I) is a good friend of mine. I love what he’s doing for this music and what he’s doing for himself. We’ve made songs together. We definitely need to get in the lab and do some new stuff. I love Crooked I and God bless him; may God bless all of his endeavors.

RAPTALK.NET: You’ve always been a very lyrical artist. How do you feel when people claim that the west coast has no lyricists?

Bad Azz: We are lyrical; just the way we appeal, because we have a gangster appeal. All the fools that can rap from the west coast, I mean fools that are born and raised in the west coast that really…Ice Cube is one of the most lyrical fools ever. You listen to Snoop Dogg; Snoop is not one of the most lyrical but he’s very lyrical. I wouldn’t compare him to like a Crooked I or even a Bad Azz. When people listen to Snoop (Dogg), he’s very witty with his lyrics and he says some original stuff and rhymes some words that people don’t usually rhyme together; I don’t care if he has to pronounce them a little bit different because they don’t really rhyme, but when you listen to the architecture of a lot of these really good west coast artists – Jayo Felony and the people that really spit from here; you really have to say fools like Mac Dre – Rest In Peace; he was a great lyricist and he put things together that fools would never think of putting together and that’s what I look at.

I’m comparing these fools on the same level as The Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac, Nas, Jay-Z – fools that are awesome; Jadakiss. I put all these fools in the same category as far as them being great for hip-hop. I like Reverend Run; that fool is awesome from back in the day. I even heard him spit a little stuff now… and it’s like the west coast comparing them to the greatest rappers out here, there just as good as anybody that was every lyrical anywhere else.  I just keep doing them my thing, keep being lyrical and keep being brilliant.

RAPTALK.NET: Thanks for your time Bad Azz. Do you have any last words for the fans before I let you go?

Bad Azz: Look out for Bad Azz and the Lowlifes album – “Leaders of the New School” dropping in winter 2008; y’all check it out! Don’t be late. $$ (Double Dollar Sign) Records for sho’!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD "BURN DOWN THE JOINT" BY BAD AZZ

Comments (1)

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That's what im talking about man!
written by Magus, October 08, 2008

Hell yeah Luntic you always hooking us homie! I really appreciate that so mad props!

I cant wait for leaders of the new school! I hope it's as good as or better than C-Style presents 19th St Records compilation.

Keep it coming

Magus from the big bad Wasteland!

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