Crooked I - newest rapper with Tha Row Records

By: Dominick A. Miserandino

Crooked I talks about his newest single and why he loves working with Suge Knight. He also explains why the label should be known for more than just music as they do positive things for the community too.

Crooked I DM) I understand you have a new album coming out in the fall? CI) Yep, I have a new album, on Death Row. I can't wait to drop it on the whole world. DM) What's the sound behind it? CI) It's a ghetto, hip-hop version of Stevie Wonder's classic. Something on that level. If you ain't heard it... it's timeless. Put it that way, it's timeless. DM) You seem to have a lot of confidence in it. CI) You've got to. If you don't have confidence, nobody will. We've got a lot of confidence because we work hard. DM) You're putting in a lot of hours on this? CI) Working hard is putting in lots of hours and losing sleep for something you love. That's definitely what was done on this project. DM) How long have you been putting into it so far. CI) Certainly since Suge Knight got released. DM) How has it been working with him since Suge got out? CI) It's been cool. It's always good working with somebody whose already seen what you've been through, happen already. To work while he's in the studio at the same time is kind of inspirational for a young cat like myself, because I'm knowing that this dude has already seen and done it all, what I'm trying to do. That's great to know. DM) Is it all a work relationship or is he more of an older brother type of figure? CI) It's a friendship like an older brother figure. That's why I chose the label, because when you're on another label, you're not going to talk to the CEO. The only time they talk to you is when you sign on the dotted line and then you talk to the man next to the man a lot. You understand? I can call Suge on the cell phone and it doesn't even have to be about music. It's more of a friendship than a boss/employee type of relationship. DM) Do you feel that he understands you on a personal level too. CI) Sure, because we're coming from the same place... the ghetto. DM) Is there an overall theme that you're trying to get across with this album? CI) Yeah, that Tha Row is back! That's the biggest message. Also, that Crooked I is not average with the microphone. The other message is that west coast music has to evolve and I want to be the trendsetter for that. DM) What do you mean that it has to evolve? CI) It's been standing still for a long time. You see the same three dudes that you've always seen. Meanwhile, when you look down south and on the East Coast, people are emerging. We've been standing still almost. It's time to move on and introduce some new and young faces. The thing is when Death Row were doing their thing, other west coast acts were getting deals too. We brought record contacts to the west coast. DM) I understand you're realizing a new single on "Dysfunctional Family" soundtrack via Tha Row. What's the story behind that? CI) It's welcoming people back to our label. It's not talking about the theme of the movie. We know what's going on and we chose to go at this angle because we wanted people to know what we're doing here. "Yeah, you saw the police raids. Yeah, you heard about all of the drama." But we're not going to stop. We went with the soundtrack because I felt like the message had to come out as soon as possible. And it also combats some of the negative stuff that's been going on too. DM) What do you mean by the negative stuff. CI) You know how the media is man. They only want to shed light on the stuff that is negative. They don't want to talk about Suge Knight rebuilding a nursery that burnt down or paying for a funeral for somebody who couldn't afford it. They don't want to speak on that. They only want to speak on whatever will make us look bad to the public. Most definitely the song is kind of combatant, where I'm telling people that may not know about us. That we're giving back. Giving toys to kids in hospitals. We're doing so much positive, that some of that needs to be known.

DM) How do you fight that negativity? CI) We don't do these positive things to get some type of reward. We do them because we can, and if something's missing in our community. It ain't just the black community, but communities on the whole. We don't do these things to get props, but we do them because it makes us feel good to do something charitable and help people.

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