Note: During our various upgrades over the years certain interviews have been "misplaced." We are now adding them back to our archives. This interview was first published on July 19, 2002.
StreetHop.com: How did you first get involved in the rap game?
KeitaRock: I first got in the rap game back in 93 when I first started getting with Kurupt and Snoop. Kurupt was signed with some niggas from hood back in 93' on a label called Nieborhood Records, that when I stared hanging with them (Snoop and Kurupt) and I got into this music thing.
StreetHop.com:How did get with Breakaway Entertainment?
KeitaRock: Besides dealing with Kurupt and Snoop I got a home boy named C Style, Big C Style, and he was messing with some people of mine and at the time I had a homeboy named BJ and he was A&R for Breakaway, and I was fucking with Snoop and them at the time, Nate Dogg, and they hollered at him and told the label that he could bring Nate Dogg to the table. So they ended up doing a deal with Nate Dogg and at the time I was brought over there as well (to Breakaway). I brought C-Style over there and we winded up doing a compilation called "Straight Outta Cali", I wound up doing A&R for that project for Style. Breakaway wound up folding due to fearless lawsuits from Nate Dogg and his camp, trying to disrupt the label I guess anyway they could, and that was part of reason why Breakaway folded. When Breakaway folded I was approached by Suge Knight. They got in touch with me and told me they wanted me to come over and A&R for Death Row. That's what I did, and we did that "Too Gangsta For Radio" project over there. I named that album and all of it.
StreetHop.com: How did you end up dropping a rap verse on "Too Gangsta For Radio"?
KeitaRock: I had written that verse for Swoop G, he was doing the song and I wrote the verse for him, the nigga had writers block or some shit and was like "KeitaRock write me a 16". So I wrote the muthafucker and when I finished writing it he liked the way it sounded but thought it would better if I said it instead of him and that's what happened.
StreetHop.com: Was that the first song you ever recorded as a artist?
KeitaRock: Yeah that "Projects" song with Swoop G and Juice from the "Too Gangsta For Radio" release.
StreetHop.com: What led you to leave Death Row and become a rapper on your own?
KeitaRock: I didn't leave Death Row, before Suge got released from the pen I used to go visit him about every other week with his family, after I did that "Too Gangsta For Radio" project for him they put it out and he was set to be released about three months later. A few months before he got out a bunch of niggas got in his ear and they was hating and I don't know what they was telling him man speaking negative on me or whatever. So whatever he was told he went on it and believed it and stopped my checks and everything and never gave me a explanation why he let me go or anything. So it was then that I was out of work and I needed to make something happen and Dave Micsery who is the CEO over at American Music, he used to be the CEO of Breakaway back in the day, and he has been my partner since I got in the game. He got at me and told me he had a situation over there at this other label and he took me over there and gave me a deal, a label deal. I was originally gonna go in the studio and do a compilation but muthafuckers was talking about coming over and fucking with me on the comp so I booked the studio for about 30 days at like $1,000.00 a day so I paid about $30,000.00, the first 2 or 3 days we were doing the beats and shit so by the 5 or 6th day no one was showing up and that's like $5,000.00 right there so on the 5th day I took like 4 of the beats home and started writing to them myself. That's how I ended up doing a album by myself. Muthafuckers was telling me that they was feeling me on that "Too Gangsta For Radio" project so they said to do that shit fuck it and I did the damn thang. I aint no muthafuckin' rapper, I'm a hoodsta from the streets boy, but I got some shit to say.
StreetHop.com: Tell us a little bit about the label you got going on.
KeitaRock: I got the label through American Music, they funded it, my label is called West Coast Hoodstas Entertainment and right now I currently don't have any artists signed. I got about three artists that I'm going through that contractual thing with and we got lawyers getting everything right on both sides, so im in the process of signing about three acts right now.
StreetHop.com: Do you have any beef towards Death Row?
KeitaRock: Nah, I aint got nothing against Death Row. I just got a problem with Suge, Suge Knight man. That's all I got, I feel the nigga disrespected me. That's how I feel about the whole situation. For me to even have been fuckin' with Death Row on some street shit, Im a general out here for the 60's Crips homeboy just like that niggas a general with money and I didn't need money to get respect and notoriety I got on these streets. That's something he don't have, that's probably his biggest regret, cause he aint no street nigga. He didn't come up in these streets, he's a Ivey League ass nigga. That's on some real shit man. I don't like the way that he let me go from Tha Row the way that he did with no reason why. When I did confront him about it up in his office at Death Row on Wilshire, nigga called me up there about 11:00 one night, I came up there to holla at a nigga and ya know my son loves that nigga man, he loves Suge, that was him on "Too Gangsta For Radio" that little boy talkin' shit on Dre, that was my son. He was only like 5 years old at the time. But anyway I feel the nigga disrespected me and my son, my son loved him and that nigga just cut off my water like he did man so when I confronted him about it up in the office that nigga looked me in my eye and told me the reason he let me go was because the last visit I had with him at Mill Creek State Prison. When I got this situation with American Music with David I went to the pen to see Suge and tell Suge about it. I told Suge I had a situation over here where they was giving me a quarter of a million dollars to do two albums, so I let him know what I had going on over here with this label. The nigga told me in the visiting room that he had my back 100% and that he would support me with whatever Im doing and that he liked to see when niggas take the imitative to do shit and that whatever support I needed from Death Row or the artists or whatever that I got that. So he was all like he was happy and cool with it and had my back but when I left and went to the Death Row office the following week to pick up my paycheck, they wouldn't even let me on the premises. That was probably his orders. So I asked him that night up in the office and he told me that when I went to visit in the pen and tell him about AMC (American Music) that he thought I was saying I wanted to go work with them, and not with us (Death Row). But that's some bullshit cause that nigga told me what I just told you. That he had my back, supported me, and the whole nine. Nigga done promised my houses and millions and cars and all kinda ol' shit when he came home. The nigga came home and was even checkin' for me. Some shit popped off about now hes hollerin' at me but I aint fucking with him. He did some fowl shit. All his artists are my niggas, Crooked I and all them. I got videos with that nigga (Crooked I) from like 1998 from what I did with Breakaway, I was the first nigga to put Crooked I on a video, on that project at Breakaway "Straight Outta Cali". He did a song called "Way Cool" Mr. Tan and B-Legit. We shot a video for that muthafucker and everything.
StreetHop.com: What's your first single off your new album "Letz Get It Crackin'" and will you have a video for that single?
KeitaRock: The single is "LA Crime Bosses" and song featuring Mr. Cavi and a girl named Melissa Wright, they call her MeMe, she sung the hook on that Dr. Dre and Quik song "Put It On Me". So she's on the single with me, but I didn't even pick that song to be the single, I wanted the Suga Free song to be the single, but the label wanted to do with "LA Crime Bosses". Right now Im gonna put that Suga Free song on wax and service it to the radio and ship it out. But the single right now is "LA Crime Bosses" and we shot a video at a mansion out in Malibu and the video is suppost to be hittin' this week or next week on that new BET show "BET Hip-Hop". Its also airing on CJ Mac's show "Video Hot Mix" on the WB out here. They took it off the air for a few weeks cause he got allot of big sponsors buying ad spots on there like Mc Donald's, and K-Mart or whatever so they're going through that over there but its gonna be back on the air cause before when it was on the air it beat out all them other late night shows in the ratings. So they're gonna come back with it. CJ Mac is doing a documentary called "C Walk" which will be on VHS and DVD. There's allot of things Im involved with right now, Im about to go in the studio and do a song with Tray Deee. Snoop and my homeboy Del Dogg from Main Street doing a compilation called "Deuces, Trays, and Foes" and me and Tray Deee gonna go in the studio and knock this song out called "Catch Me in the Module" cause he stays in and out the muthafuckin' county jail and I was over there with him the other night blowing up some trees and I was like you stays up in the county nigga we gotta do a song about that. We was gettin' high and collaborating and shit, freestylin' and shit, so I told him lets do some shit called "Catch Me in The Module" and he was like "we got to do that nigga" so Im gonna take that phat phat beat from De La Soul and flip that muthafucka, we gonna do that.
StreetHop.com: Will you start recording your second album soon?
KeitaRock: Yeah I got a two album deal so I gotta do another one. This time Im probably gonna have more famous guest appearances on there.
StreetHop.com: Do you keep in contact with any of the Death Row artists?
KeitaRock: Yeah I keep in contact with Tha Realest, that's my nigga, I still talk with Tha Relativez, they got a deal over at the label Im with, their my label mates. They a song called "Fuck Mack 10" that their about to put about. Crooked I, I still talk to Crooked I, Kurupt, he aint no artist over there, but I still talk to him. That's it. They aint really got nobody over there man. Suge gonna blow Crooked I up like Tupac though, Im the one that told him to do that when I was over there at Death Row. Suge pulled me to the side on several occasions and asked me like "Roc man out of everyone I got over here which artist should I put all my efforts behind?" and from day one I always told him Crooked I. Crooked I, in my eyes, that nigga is like the baddest muthafucka on the west boy. That's niggas hard man people are gonna see. I said about Nelly before he came out muthafuckers was like naw he wack and this and that but look what he did. I know that raw talent when I hear it and see it boy, that's one of the main things that even got me in this business and muthafuckas had me A&R for them cause I've brought shit to the table. At Breakaway I bought Cash Money over there before they got their deal with Universal, I brought JT Money and Sole' over there before they did their thang, I brought Eve over there before she got on Aftermath and then ended up with Ruff Ryders, I had all these people that I brought to the table at Breakaway and the muthafuckin' CEO at Breakaway wasn't feelin' it cause he aint no street muthafucka so he wasn't feelin' me. On this Crooked I shit, I told C Style when he had Crooked I that this was his bread winner right here cause this nigga is the hardest muthafucka I ever heard in my life, freestylin' whatever. That nigga is hard. You know, he went to New York and served like five MC's up there and they gave him his props like nigga you the baddest muthafucka boy, we will fly you back out here whenever. I told Suge way back then "nigga this is the nigga you need to put all your cheese behind and do the damn thang with". And that's what he did man, and rolled with him. They gonna make money though, he gonna make money with Crooked I. That niggas tight.
StreetHop.com: Any last words for the fans out there?
KeitaRock: Support my album man, catch me in traffic. I ain't Hollywood I'm Holly-Hood nigga.
StreetHop.com: How did you first get involved in the rap game?
KeitaRock: I first got in the rap game back in 93 when I first started getting with Kurupt and Snoop. Kurupt was signed with some niggas from hood back in 93' on a label called Nieborhood Records, that when I stared hanging with them (Snoop and Kurupt) and I got into this music thing.
StreetHop.com:How did get with Breakaway Entertainment?
KeitaRock: Besides dealing with Kurupt and Snoop I got a home boy named C Style, Big C Style, and he was messing with some people of mine and at the time I had a homeboy named BJ and he was A&R for Breakaway, and I was fucking with Snoop and them at the time, Nate Dogg, and they hollered at him and told the label that he could bring Nate Dogg to the table. So they ended up doing a deal with Nate Dogg and at the time I was brought over there as well (to Breakaway). I brought C-Style over there and we winded up doing a compilation called "Straight Outta Cali", I wound up doing A&R for that project for Style. Breakaway wound up folding due to fearless lawsuits from Nate Dogg and his camp, trying to disrupt the label I guess anyway they could, and that was part of reason why Breakaway folded. When Breakaway folded I was approached by Suge Knight. They got in touch with me and told me they wanted me to come over and A&R for Death Row. That's what I did, and we did that "Too Gangsta For Radio" project over there. I named that album and all of it.
StreetHop.com: How did you end up dropping a rap verse on "Too Gangsta For Radio"?
KeitaRock: I had written that verse for Swoop G, he was doing the song and I wrote the verse for him, the nigga had writers block or some shit and was like "KeitaRock write me a 16". So I wrote the muthafucker and when I finished writing it he liked the way it sounded but thought it would better if I said it instead of him and that's what happened.
StreetHop.com: Was that the first song you ever recorded as a artist?
KeitaRock: Yeah that "Projects" song with Swoop G and Juice from the "Too Gangsta For Radio" release.
StreetHop.com: What led you to leave Death Row and become a rapper on your own?
KeitaRock: I didn't leave Death Row, before Suge got released from the pen I used to go visit him about every other week with his family, after I did that "Too Gangsta For Radio" project for him they put it out and he was set to be released about three months later. A few months before he got out a bunch of niggas got in his ear and they was hating and I don't know what they was telling him man speaking negative on me or whatever. So whatever he was told he went on it and believed it and stopped my checks and everything and never gave me a explanation why he let me go or anything. So it was then that I was out of work and I needed to make something happen and Dave Micsery who is the CEO over at American Music, he used to be the CEO of Breakaway back in the day, and he has been my partner since I got in the game. He got at me and told me he had a situation over there at this other label and he took me over there and gave me a deal, a label deal. I was originally gonna go in the studio and do a compilation but muthafuckers was talking about coming over and fucking with me on the comp so I booked the studio for about 30 days at like $1,000.00 a day so I paid about $30,000.00, the first 2 or 3 days we were doing the beats and shit so by the 5 or 6th day no one was showing up and that's like $5,000.00 right there so on the 5th day I took like 4 of the beats home and started writing to them myself. That's how I ended up doing a album by myself. Muthafuckers was telling me that they was feeling me on that "Too Gangsta For Radio" project so they said to do that shit fuck it and I did the damn thang. I aint no muthafuckin' rapper, I'm a hoodsta from the streets boy, but I got some shit to say.
StreetHop.com: Tell us a little bit about the label you got going on.
KeitaRock: I got the label through American Music, they funded it, my label is called West Coast Hoodstas Entertainment and right now I currently don't have any artists signed. I got about three artists that I'm going through that contractual thing with and we got lawyers getting everything right on both sides, so im in the process of signing about three acts right now.
StreetHop.com: Do you have any beef towards Death Row?
KeitaRock: Nah, I aint got nothing against Death Row. I just got a problem with Suge, Suge Knight man. That's all I got, I feel the nigga disrespected me. That's how I feel about the whole situation. For me to even have been fuckin' with Death Row on some street shit, Im a general out here for the 60's Crips homeboy just like that niggas a general with money and I didn't need money to get respect and notoriety I got on these streets. That's something he don't have, that's probably his biggest regret, cause he aint no street nigga. He didn't come up in these streets, he's a Ivey League ass nigga. That's on some real shit man. I don't like the way that he let me go from Tha Row the way that he did with no reason why. When I did confront him about it up in his office at Death Row on Wilshire, nigga called me up there about 11:00 one night, I came up there to holla at a nigga and ya know my son loves that nigga man, he loves Suge, that was him on "Too Gangsta For Radio" that little boy talkin' shit on Dre, that was my son. He was only like 5 years old at the time. But anyway I feel the nigga disrespected me and my son, my son loved him and that nigga just cut off my water like he did man so when I confronted him about it up in the office that nigga looked me in my eye and told me the reason he let me go was because the last visit I had with him at Mill Creek State Prison. When I got this situation with American Music with David I went to the pen to see Suge and tell Suge about it. I told Suge I had a situation over here where they was giving me a quarter of a million dollars to do two albums, so I let him know what I had going on over here with this label. The nigga told me in the visiting room that he had my back 100% and that he would support me with whatever Im doing and that he liked to see when niggas take the imitative to do shit and that whatever support I needed from Death Row or the artists or whatever that I got that. So he was all like he was happy and cool with it and had my back but when I left and went to the Death Row office the following week to pick up my paycheck, they wouldn't even let me on the premises. That was probably his orders. So I asked him that night up in the office and he told me that when I went to visit in the pen and tell him about AMC (American Music) that he thought I was saying I wanted to go work with them, and not with us (Death Row). But that's some bullshit cause that nigga told me what I just told you. That he had my back, supported me, and the whole nine. Nigga done promised my houses and millions and cars and all kinda ol' shit when he came home. The nigga came home and was even checkin' for me. Some shit popped off about now hes hollerin' at me but I aint fucking with him. He did some fowl shit. All his artists are my niggas, Crooked I and all them. I got videos with that nigga (Crooked I) from like 1998 from what I did with Breakaway, I was the first nigga to put Crooked I on a video, on that project at Breakaway "Straight Outta Cali". He did a song called "Way Cool" Mr. Tan and B-Legit. We shot a video for that muthafucker and everything.
StreetHop.com: What's your first single off your new album "Letz Get It Crackin'" and will you have a video for that single?
KeitaRock: The single is "LA Crime Bosses" and song featuring Mr. Cavi and a girl named Melissa Wright, they call her MeMe, she sung the hook on that Dr. Dre and Quik song "Put It On Me". So she's on the single with me, but I didn't even pick that song to be the single, I wanted the Suga Free song to be the single, but the label wanted to do with "LA Crime Bosses". Right now Im gonna put that Suga Free song on wax and service it to the radio and ship it out. But the single right now is "LA Crime Bosses" and we shot a video at a mansion out in Malibu and the video is suppost to be hittin' this week or next week on that new BET show "BET Hip-Hop". Its also airing on CJ Mac's show "Video Hot Mix" on the WB out here. They took it off the air for a few weeks cause he got allot of big sponsors buying ad spots on there like Mc Donald's, and K-Mart or whatever so they're going through that over there but its gonna be back on the air cause before when it was on the air it beat out all them other late night shows in the ratings. So they're gonna come back with it. CJ Mac is doing a documentary called "C Walk" which will be on VHS and DVD. There's allot of things Im involved with right now, Im about to go in the studio and do a song with Tray Deee. Snoop and my homeboy Del Dogg from Main Street doing a compilation called "Deuces, Trays, and Foes" and me and Tray Deee gonna go in the studio and knock this song out called "Catch Me in the Module" cause he stays in and out the muthafuckin' county jail and I was over there with him the other night blowing up some trees and I was like you stays up in the county nigga we gotta do a song about that. We was gettin' high and collaborating and shit, freestylin' and shit, so I told him lets do some shit called "Catch Me in The Module" and he was like "we got to do that nigga" so Im gonna take that phat phat beat from De La Soul and flip that muthafucka, we gonna do that.
StreetHop.com: Will you start recording your second album soon?
KeitaRock: Yeah I got a two album deal so I gotta do another one. This time Im probably gonna have more famous guest appearances on there.
StreetHop.com: Do you keep in contact with any of the Death Row artists?
KeitaRock: Yeah I keep in contact with Tha Realest, that's my nigga, I still talk with Tha Relativez, they got a deal over at the label Im with, their my label mates. They a song called "Fuck Mack 10" that their about to put about. Crooked I, I still talk to Crooked I, Kurupt, he aint no artist over there, but I still talk to him. That's it. They aint really got nobody over there man. Suge gonna blow Crooked I up like Tupac though, Im the one that told him to do that when I was over there at Death Row. Suge pulled me to the side on several occasions and asked me like "Roc man out of everyone I got over here which artist should I put all my efforts behind?" and from day one I always told him Crooked I. Crooked I, in my eyes, that nigga is like the baddest muthafucka on the west boy. That's niggas hard man people are gonna see. I said about Nelly before he came out muthafuckers was like naw he wack and this and that but look what he did. I know that raw talent when I hear it and see it boy, that's one of the main things that even got me in this business and muthafuckas had me A&R for them cause I've brought shit to the table. At Breakaway I bought Cash Money over there before they got their deal with Universal, I brought JT Money and Sole' over there before they did their thang, I brought Eve over there before she got on Aftermath and then ended up with Ruff Ryders, I had all these people that I brought to the table at Breakaway and the muthafuckin' CEO at Breakaway wasn't feelin' it cause he aint no street muthafucka so he wasn't feelin' me. On this Crooked I shit, I told C Style when he had Crooked I that this was his bread winner right here cause this nigga is the hardest muthafucka I ever heard in my life, freestylin' whatever. That nigga is hard. You know, he went to New York and served like five MC's up there and they gave him his props like nigga you the baddest muthafucka boy, we will fly you back out here whenever. I told Suge way back then "nigga this is the nigga you need to put all your cheese behind and do the damn thang with". And that's what he did man, and rolled with him. They gonna make money though, he gonna make money with Crooked I. That niggas tight.
StreetHop.com: Any last words for the fans out there?
KeitaRock: Support my album man, catch me in traffic. I ain't Hollywood I'm Holly-Hood nigga.
