Crooked I sits down with HHNLive.com for one of his most in-depth interviews ever to discuss his early years, why he wants family not fans, his love for 2Pac, making the cover of XXL, Death Row and much more.

Crooked I on the haters: "You’re fuelin’ my motivation and my determination and you’re helpin’ me to build an iron will against you and those like you. So to all you haters out there keep doin’ your job..."

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Tanya M. Fowlow: Tell me, who is Crooked I and what’s he about?

Crooked I: Well, he’s just a dude tryin’ to put out some good music in a day in age of so called ringtone rappers. I’m just tryin’ to keep the culture livin’ and breathin’ how it was when I was younger. For the same reasons I fell in love with hip-hop, I wanna preserve those reasons, you know what I mean.

TMF: So, You first got signed back when you were 17 to an independent record company called Muscle Records correct?

CI: Yup, you’re right!

TMF: So, where’s the music you recorded during that period and are we ever going to hear it?

CI: Ahh, you’re gunna hear some of that music a little bit later. I got some of it; my guy who I was doin’ the independent label with he actually has some of the music too. We started that label with two football players… NFL football players; Chucky Miller who played for the Indianapolis Colts and the other guy was Leonard Russel who played for the Rams. They still have the songs; they own gyms and fitness centers in Long Beach and when I see em’ they’re like, “Yo, I still got that! I was playin’ the crunk yesterday!” You know, they’re still excited to have that old school music, and I think the fans might wanna take a listen to what the 17 year old Crooked I sounded like. So, yeah I gunna definitely put it out!

TMF: I heard that you recorded your first track entitled, “Microphone Controller,” when you were only 8 years old…Wow! Is that true?

CI: Yeah, that’s true. I recorded my first track, Microphone Controller, when I was 8 like you said. It was my first experience on the microphone in a recording studio. A lot of people don’t get the opportunity to record that young so I’m really thankful to my mother and my aunt…bless her soul, rest in peace… for puttin’ me in the studio at that young age. They could of just threw me off like, “You don’t know what the hell you wanna do!” [Laughing] I was tellin’ them, “Look, I wanna rap; I wanna make a rap song!” They could of just said, “You know what, get the hell outta here!” They supported me then and I’m thankful; it was the first step to the journey that I’m on now.

TMF: Is that when you first actually realized that you wanted to do hip-hop?

CI: Yeah, that was when I was like, “You know what, I’m doin’ this!” You know what I mean? When you’re young sometimes you don’t think about all the things that could stop you from doin’ somethin’ you know... you’re too young, you don’t know nothin’ about the business; you’re just so enthused you just wanna do somethin’ - I was that kid and I wanted to do it. I looked at all the rappers videos and I saw the dudes who are old school now but then they were fresh on the scene like you know, LL Cool J and different cats and they inspired me. That’s when I knew I wanted to do it. I wanted to put a Kangol on and take the string outta my Adidas! [Laughing]

TMF: [Laughing] You wanted to do and you did, but you had some roadblocks along the way; I’m going to touch on one of them for a second and I’m sure almost everybody you talk to touches on it at some point or another. I don’t want to spend a whole lot of time talking about everything that went down with you and Death Row because if people don’t know about what happened it’s easy enough for them to find out, but; I want to ask you to share a bit about what you learned or realized coming through that whole ordeal.

CI: I mean, I learned a lot. It was really the school of hard knocks! In life you learn a lot of things but some of the most important things we learn are things about ourselves. I learned that I could be patient, I learned that I could overcome obstacles, I learned that I could take negative situations and turn them into positive situations. I learned that it’s a lot of Hollywood dudes in this game that’s scared; they pretend and they front like they’re gangsters and they front like they’re just this big intimidating person but in real life they scared man! I mean a lot of people wouldn’t do music with me when I was on Death Row because they were scared of comin’ to the studio and getting’ beat up! But a lot of these people portray the image out there in hip-hop right now that they some street people, you know what I mean. So, it was confusin’ to me at first like, “What are you talkin’ about? I just watched a big video where you talkin’ about how many guns you bust and now you scared to come do a song with me because I am on Death Row?” I learned that you gotta know a person to really know a person. I learned that no matter what, I could overcome any obstacle ‘cause there was a lot of obstacles bein’ on Death Row. I maintained my relationships with everybody even people who didn’t like Suge like Dr. Dre like whoever; not to say Dre don’t like him but you know they had their differences and it never stopped me. If I saw Dr. Dre, I talked to Dr. Dre and it never stopped me from sayin’ “What’s up man, I really respect your work.” I stayed who I am throughout the whole ordeal and I’ve seen a lot of people change on Death Row. I’ve seen a lot of people go from one type of person to another type. I pretty much stayed who I was when I walked in the door and I was the same person when I walked outta the door. I learned a lot about the business because I was like Suge’s right hand man and I was able to sit in on a lot of business meetings with the executives. I got my industry IQ up.

TMF: Ok, so coming back to the more current state of affairs…I listened to one of your newer tracks, “Hood Politics.” Dope track! You’re talking some serious stuff in there from politics and the hood to gangster rap and wannabes. After your answer to my last question, I’ve got to ask, is this some of the stuff you are talking about in the track? Like people saying they’re something they’re not.

CI: Yeah. I mean it’s showbiz, it’s entertainment. I don’t have no problem with somebody bein’ entertaining; that’s not a problem to me. If you’re just projecting an image and you just acting I’m not one of those dudes who condemn rappers and say, “Ahhhhhhhh he’s not real, and this dude’s fake and this dude’s whatever…” I’m not the police and it’s not up to me to find the criminals in the industry. Like who’s really a criminal and who’s not, that’s not my style so I don’t care but just bein’ a man you can’t be afraid of certain things! A lot of these artists out there right now with a gangster persona man… they would see me comin’ with a few guys from Death Row and “pummme.” [Laughing] Let me tell you somethin’ we’re not comin’ here to start no trouble. They just like, “I don’t want no problems; I don’t wanna be involved with that!” It’s just funny to see the difference between the rapper and the actual person.

TMF: Alright, well you have some kids, correct?

CI: Yeah!

TMF: So, how do you feel about your kids listening to your music or growing up with this kind of music around them?

CI: Well my whole thing is I make music with a parental advisory sticker attached to it. My kids are too young to listen to my music unless it’s a radio version. I mean, I was watchin’ some reality show with some rapper and the dude has a kid and the kid was using profanity and I’m like that’s ignorance. Me personally, I’m a grown man and I’m an adult; I can say whatever I wanna say and we use certain words to get our point across. There’s certain times when I’m communicatin’ strictly with the streets…strictly…I can’t come in there soundin’ like a square cause the kids ain’t gunna listen to me and the streets ain't gunna listen to me. So, 9 times outta 10 if I’m communicatin’ strictly with the streets there's gunna be some street language in that song. I wouldn’t let my young kid listen to a bunch of profanity nor would I let my kid, in a room full of adults, sit there and start talking like Chris Rock; you know talkin’ like an R rated or X rated movie…I just don’t get on like that and I don’t think that’s the proper way. I think it’s the parents’ job to raise their kids. I’m not tryin to raise the world of hip-hop’s kids. [Laughing] I’m not tryin’ to do that…I can’t do that! They gotta listen to the radio versions or that can’t hear it; that’s it!

TMF: True, very true! Just over two months ago now you stopped doing the Hip-Hop Weeklies that ran for a year without any breaks. I mean you never missed a week! Do you miss doing that at all?

CI: Yeah, I do! I really miss doin’ it cause there’s so many issues; I mean you could tie in your own personal issues in life, you could tie in the way you see the industry, you could put in politics and things like current events. It was fun because I think about a lot of things; I’m a thinker. I have an opinion about a lot of things and it’s like that was a way for me to get things off of my chest. Like with some of the stuff that’s been goin’ on…I couldn’t officially talk about the race between Hillary and Barack or I couldn’t talk about Alicia Keys’ statements towards gangster rap or Jermaine Durpi’s assessment of the DJs bein’ dead right now. It’s just like so much stuff is goin’ on that I could touch on back then, I could do a weekly and then boom! I could add that stuff in to whatever I wanted to do and I can’t do that anymore; that’s one of the main reasons why I miss it. [Laughing]

TMF: [Laughing] When you started it did you plan for it to go a year or did it just end up that way?

CI: It just kinda ended up that way. I started off and I thought that I would run it for 4 to 8 weeks; just create some noise and let people know what I was doing on the West Coast and plug into the online fans and let them know we ain’t forgot about em’ and you can have some free music to download once a week for a couple of months. I never really planned on it goin’ 52 weeks but I couldn’t stop because the fans didn’t want me to stop! I kept getting’ requests from fans like, “Shout me out,” “Hey I’m over here in Louisville,” “I’m in New York gimme a shout out!” It was like I started and the fans kept me goin’ and it was fun on a personal level like that with so many people from around the world.

TMF: If that’s the case why did you stop then even after a year? Why did you decide to end it?

CI: Well I ended it because it was like ok it might be overkill in a minute. You know what I’m sayin? I went 52 weeks. When I was at week 10 people was like, “He’s gunna run outta rhymes – He can’t keep this quality and these types of rhymes goin’ for that long.” A lot of people in this generation of hip-hop are use to a very simplistic type emcee. They’re use to a dude who’s sayin, “Yo I got a gat and I point it at … what? Your Hat. Yeah it’s like dat.” It’s like these simple rhymes that I could make a billion or gazillion of but if you actually puttin’ a complex verse together and it has metaphors, similes, different rhyme flows, the patterns are switching, humor, dramas you doin’ all that and you doin’ it once a week on a consistent level people doubt you can keep that goin.’ So, when I was at 10 people were like, “Yo, you can’t keep dat goin’,” “He’s finished,” “He’s gunna run outta rhymes,” so I was like I’m gunna do 20 and show em’ how much skill I got. 20 became 40 and I was like I’m gunna do 52 and then I stopped it because it was like I can really do hip-hop daily for 365 days if I want to. I eat, sleep and live this! I stopped it at 52 weeks but I gave the fans somethin’ and it was great but I don’t wanna overkill it.

TMF: Also, towards the end of 2007 you hit the cover of XXL without any label help; how did you pull that off?

CI: You know what, and I think that right there is what proved to me that hip-hop wasn’t dead! Because straight up man, I was on the cover and I didn’t have a PR firm – I still don’t have a PR, I don’t have no publicist, no major label, no hit singles, no radio singles, no video that’s out there. Like the dudes who were aligned next to me on that photo were pretty much either sellin’ records, in a position to be sellin’ records on a major, or attached to somebody who was major as an artist or a producer; I was the only one there strictly because of my skills! Strictly because of my grind, my hustle, and my love for the culture. I was a livin’ testament on that article that hip-hop is not dead. You gotta grind, you gotta work hard, you gotta respect your craft, you gotta train yourself to become better: You can get on the cover of a magazine without a so called hit single, big label, big producer, big artist… you can still do it. I think it inspired a lot of emcees that are comin’ up right now that are kind of goin’ through the obstacles that you go through when you tryin’ to be successful in this industry.

TMF: What did it feel like when they called and asked you to be on the cover?

CI: When they told me that I was like, “Ohhhhhhhhhhh, it started poppin’ now!” [Laughing] I’m like, “The door is crackin’ open a little bit and I’m about to kick it in and never look back!” It was a good moment for me and it was exciting. Me and my crew well we went to a couple of clubs we bought tables and bottles and celebrated and had fun! It was a big victory for us because like when you’re on the West Coast if you’re not attached to a Dr. Dre, if you’re not attached to certain people or certain labels it’s hard. It’s a hard grind, you gotta put your boots on and you gotta put your hardhat on. That was a victory for all of us independent artists out here that are not attached to these moguls and big companies and we still gettin’ it in. It was a good moment for me!

TMF: So it seems like you have dedicated a huge chunk of your life, if not all of it, to hip-hop and your career within it; do you ever get anxious for the big payout?

CI: You know what, I learned over the years to really live in the moment and I learned how to live in right now. When you learn how to do that you actually appreciate the successes you have now. If I only thought that a successful album is what makes me happy then I would not be happy until I had a successful album. I’m happy with where I’m at now; I feel like to be in this industry since I was 17, to have started rappin’ at 8 years old, to have always made a livin in the industry of hip-hop, have a house on the hill, to have my 3 or 4 cars parked outside, to have my mother taken care of and my little brothers and sisters and family, all based on what I do … to be able to still spit ferocious as I can be on the mic after all these years and be consistent. I mean, there’s a lot of dudes who, when I got my first deal, put out records that are whack now. They lost the love or whatever you wanna call it, they don’t have the consistency. So, I look at all that stuff and I feel good about where I’m at and I have more room to grow. The sky’s still the limit! I hafta say I’ve made over a couple million dollars in my whole career without puttin’ a record on the shelf. You got dudes who’ve made 100 million, 200 million believe me that is the goal and by any means necessary as far as work ethic is concerned I’m gunna get there. But, to look back and say, “Yo, I’ve never put a record on the shelf, never a debut album…I’ve never done that but I’ve made a couple million in this game,” I’m happy about that! [Laughing]

TMF: I would be too! [Laughing]

CI: I spent most of it! [Laughing] When you independent you gotta reinvest in yourself constantly to keep yourself relevant. I gotta finance my trips; I’m not like a dude just on the Def Jam Airplane doin’ promo runs. I’m on Continental courtesy of me. [Laughing] It’s a lot different but it’s all worth it, it’s all good, I love it! When the album drops we gunna crush the game…the end!

TMF: [Laughing] Let me ask, what’s the latest project you’ve released and how can fans get their hands on it?

CI: The last thing I came out with was a mixtape called the Bossacre on St. Valentine’s day with Dj Felli Fel and Dj Nik Bean that hosted it. You can probably just “Google” it and find it on different sites…Mixtape.com, iTunes you can grab it. I got a new mixtape comin’ out call the Block Obama. I had a little discrepancy with the DJ hostin’ it; I don’t know if you guys know but one of the DJs I had hostin’ it fell into some problems with some prominent West Coast artists out here and it was all on YouTube so I had to create some distance real quick and switch it up but it’s still droppin’ – I’m about to drop that soon. I got the Dream Big single with Akon that I’m pushin’ right now on radio. I also got the Hip-Hop Weekly Remix Album, where we took some Hip-Hop Weeklies and remixed em’ and that’s gunna be on iTunes real soon. I’m on ursession.com; go over there, they got the 100K Battle. It’s where emcees put up songs and people vote for it and whoever wins gets like a $100, 000 worth of beats from the Alchemist and from 9th Wonder, Rick Rock …it’s just a host of people that you get beats from it you win. What I wanna do is, I wanted to win but I wanted to give the beats away to different artists comin’ up that can’t afford an Alchemist beat, that can’t afford 9th Wonder you know what I mean. That’s what I’m doin’ you know - stayin’ busy!

TMF: Nice! You mentioned wanting to support up and coming artists so, in your opinion, who’s got next on the West after you?

CI: In my opinion man let me think… there’s so many. After me?... right now as far as artists goes you got your dude Glasses Malone, you got Bishop Lamont at Aftermath, ahhhh… there’s Topic, Lil Eazy-E, you got Problem, dudes like Mastreo there’s a few dudes that’s out there tryin’ to get it in. If I got somethin’ to say about it… The Horseshoe Gang, which is my group, they gunna be out there goin’ hard too right after I go hard. You got so much talent on the West Coast I just think that we gotta get over the idea that we should be divided and start unifyin’ and workin’ with each other; I think then the world will understand what kind of movement we got over there right now. We got a great movement just not enough communication and unity to really showcase it.

TMF: Rumour has it we are finally, finally, finally going to see the debut Crooked I album, entitled Boss, sometime soon. True or False?

CI: Yeah that’s true! Dream Big is the first single; we workin’ that. I’d like to thank all my online supporters ‘cause there’s sites where I’m getting’ 100, 000 listens; I’d like to thank everybody supportin’ me with that. We just gotta get the single to a certain level ‘cause like I said I’m independent; me and my business partners we independent and we are the true meaning of independent! So, I can’t throw away $250, 000.00 on a video unless the fans say we love this song! 250 ain’t a tax write-off for me like it is for Interscope. 250 is a real big, it’s major! I’m just waitin’ and so far so good. The single’s growin’, it’s inspired people, I’m gettin’ messages on MySpace and Facebook man. That’s one thing I wanted to do; I wanted to inspire people ‘cause I can and I’m in a position to so why not?

TMF: Other than the single with Akon, who else do you have on the album with you in terms of production and features?

CI: Well I got a lot of people that are on the come up. I got everybody in my circle first and foremost! I say that because not enough West Coast circles, and clicks, and camps are bein’ done in the right away; it you take a look at it and you see a person like a Jay-Z and you see all the people who he’s made successful around him…then you take a look at the West and you don’t see that! You see one rapper and it’s just all about him; he doesn’t have a bunch of successful people around him ‘cause after he got his success he didn’t pull up a bunch of other people. I gotta showcase my circle from the gate! I gotta showcase whether they graphic designers, clothing designers, rappers, producers, managers, whatever their talents are I gotta dedicate myself to helpin’ them expose themselves in the market; so, they’re heavy on my album. Then I got people I respect; I got Mitchell, Rick Rock - one of the most underrated producers on the west coast, he produced Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, Mariah Carey…he produced so many people but he don’t get his just due in my opinion. Then I got a couple of heaters from Scott Storch, I got a couple of heaters from a crew called the Lounge Lizzards outta Denmark that are ridiculous with the beats; we got our in house people like my producer Tom Planks and Jim Gibbon different people like that so you gunna see a different look on the album. As far as features go like Bump B is on there and I got some more surprises comin’ up but I don’t wanna jump the gun right now. There’ll be a few surprise features on there. For the most part it’s me and my people because I gotta show this world who they’ve never seen before…C.O.B… I got to!

TMF: If I had some sort of power and I told you that you could do a track with anyone and I could make it happen who would you choose? Why?

CI: [Laughing] Man, if I had a choice to do a track with anybody I would probably just say, “Make a phone call, get your cell phone out, call down to Brazil and tell Tupac to come outta hidin’ – he faked his death! Come on out and rock this track!” As a matter of fact we gunna do a whole group album together, me and Pac!

TMF: [Laughing] Ok, ok! So before we start to close this off; you just mentioned Tupac and a couple of days ago you released a special track on what would have been his birthday, tell me a bit about that track

CI: Basically, it was just like his birthday was comin’ up, I’m a humongous Tupac fan…from day one I bought his first album and I rolled with him all the way ‘til he dropped his last album…and I liked his mindset and I liked what he stood for and I was a big fan of Pac. I just wanted to give somethin’ back to the fans of Tupac that are like me who don’t ever want his memory to fade away. A lot of websites may pay tribute to him, a lot of magazines, a lot of hip-hop publications and I’m no different from them I’m just payin’ tribute to the G.O.A.T – the greatest of all times! It was fun, it brought back memories usin’ all the lines from the titles of his different songs and it just put me in a fun place man. When he was doin’ it the West was like no other time ever! It was just fun to re-do that…shout-out to the best…Tupac!

TMF: Ok, we’re almost done and normally I’d save this question to the end but I want you to speak to the fans right now! Clearly you’ve got love for them and the people who support you; is there anything you want say?

CI: What I want to say is this and I’m gunna be real raw with it: Fu*k bein’ Crooked I’s Fan! I want you to be family! I want all my fans to join my movement C.O.B and whatever you want the C, the O, the B to stand for that suits your lifestyle then let’s get it! I want all my fans to just be from C.O.B straight up! That way when I come to your city and I’m rockin’ the stage, I’m rockin’ with my family. I’m not rockin’ with nobody who is under me and I don’t feel like I’m above nobody; I feel like we’re all equal. You guy’s support me, I’ll support y’all – this is worldwide C.O.B. so that’s how I feel man. For all my fans, I ain’t even lookin’ for they type of sh*t – I want family!

TMF: Wow! Wow! Wow! Talk to the haters and tell them what you think.

CI: [Laughing] You know what; [Singing] Big up to all myyyyyyyyyy hatersssss! You see the haters gunna hate and they gotta provide motivation for us. We gotta take the hatred and use it as fuel. 9 times outta 10 a hater, especially an online hater, is gunna shake your hand in a public place and he’s gunna be all over you and be cool with you and all smiles. You can dislike my music ‘cause I’m not your flavor; y’all like the kind of music you like but when you say somethin’ that is pure hatred then you’re a hater and if you’re a hater then thank you! You’re fuelin’ my motivation and my determination and you’re helpin’ me to build an iron will against you and those like you. So to all you haters out there keep doin’ your job, I’m never getting’ off of my job and I’ll see you at the top when I’m lookin down to the bottom.

TMF: [Laughing] Just to close any shout-outs or final comments?

CI: Shout-outs to all the C.O.Bs man – Circle Of Bosses, conducting organized business, controllin’ our block, crossin’ over bridges - we comin’! It’s 08 – we did a lot in 07, we did more in 08 and we gunna do more in 09 and that’s just what it is! Y’all go get the Block Obama, check for the C.O.B. t-shirt line comin’ soon. Keep listenin’ to your boy I won’t let you down… ever - I’ll keep my pen pushin’ in the right way and I won’t ever come whack; I’d rather be dead and fryin’ in hell before I’m whack! Y’all know what you got in an emcee when you support me!