DJ Tony G | The Dr. Greenthumb Show

Thank you. Welcome to the Dr. Great Thumb Show in the Morgan. It is early for us today. It's live on Twitch, Discord, KickX, YouTube, and the home site www.bereal.tv. What it be like. Today we got a legend in the building. We talk about this man a lot because he influenced so many of us back in the origins of some of us that are in our 50s that got introduced to hip-hop on AM radio on KDAY. why my man Tony G is in the building. What up? Yes, finally. We've been waiting to get you up in here. Man. And we also have the iconic one, Eric Big Drum, Bobo. We have the Treehouse Crew Bolton, Blombo, Brabron, the Dominator running the game. Yo, yo, what up? We're doing good. And we have the legendary Strong One in the building, back in the house. Morning, everybody. And we have Mr. Concentrate King, Kelly Blade. Good morning. What did you do? It's usually just concentrate, King. But today you got Mr. and shit. Tony, I didn't get a chance to tell you because you were in action on C-Lose's B-Day. But, like, the set that you put down was just, man. The first half of it took me back. I felt like I was 16 again. You know what I'm saying? Since 16, 17, listening to the Mixed Master show. and then you flipped the Motown shit with like some new like up-tempo beats like on I don't know if it was freestyle but it was up-tempo. Yes, yes. And I was like god damn he's still like. That's the MO. Man. My MO. But I was bumming my head to you B-Real. I was impressed and it made me feel good bro to see you rocking like that. Thank you sir. That was dope bro. Thank you. It took me a lot to get there. Nah, but you were rocking, bro. I mean, seriously, the people were rocking. That's what's more important. Yeah. But I was in that other room watching, and I was like, oh, shit, my boy's killing it. It's crazy because, really, it all stems from you, right? You were like the first guy here that we all, like all of us, I mean, even every up-and-coming DJ was listening to. And, you know, if we had a chance to see you live, the things that you were doing live and just the way that it just was natural to you. There was no other DJs around like that yet, at least in our circles that we had seen. And you were just like up front pioneering for us out here in L.A. And, you know, in being the head mix master of the mix master show and recruiting some of those guys and putting guys like Julio under your wing and stuff. Absolutely. Well, all of them. I brought them all in. Every single one of them. You know, with tryouts. And, you know, some of those guys were really... Aladdin was only 15 years old, him and Trasky. Yeah. You know, going to World on Wheels just to help me set up speakers so they could use the equipment because they didn't even own turntables, you know? Yeah. You know, it's a trip because, like, some of those DJs eventually become legends as well. Oh, they're still active. Yeah. They're all active still. Yeah. Man, I mean, do you remember listening to the Mixed Masters show on a Friday night? You were like, what, 17, Bobo? Yeah, man. I mean, I was listening to AM 1580. You know what I mean? That was like the shit. And then if I was beating on something, I had some bongos and stuff, like trying to. It ran away from you. Yeah. I mean, it was like crazy because I would try to play. I would be playing to the beats. Yeah. You know, because they always had like the little breakbeat thing and the percussion thing. So just hearing Tony and the rest of the Mixed Masters, it was like very influential, even on my part. They were all dope. I mean, each one of them brought something so big to that show. You know, I set a standard. you know i was anal like that you sure you sure as hell did but they they remember there was no youtube or so everything they ear hustled everything and imagined it because who had the money to buy that kind of gear there was no everything people almost didn't even have radios barely still yeah i mean you know the scene but to visually to to take up a craft you have to be around people that are doing the crafters you'd be there some of these kids were just hearing it yeah hearing it and then they would go see people say i want to do that too but then they would hear what we were doing on the radio yeah and they'd be like damn how are you doing that yeah until they see you do it then they would go home and find somebody that had equipment and you couldn't just sit at somebody's house bro yeah i mean what you guys were doing at that time and and i don't know if like i mean if the signal reached out to you guys it was probably a you know probably we'd hear about it you'd hear about it more than anything but and cali blaze you know like because you come from the east coast my man right here was like uh the who was the first guy in new york red alert right he goes he's that's who he was to us because he was introducing hip-hop to to all these young folks on this am station but not only doing that not just playing records but showing how turntables could be used other than just playing records the scratches the blending manipulation yeah showing us all out here what was possible with two turntables and then like like you said hearing it because we didn't have a visual of what it looked like unless we got to go to the club or the party or the event that one of these guys was spinning at and then you'd see it you'd be like oh shit and it's like you said you know like if you you get interested and you want to get into that craft you try to be around it yeah you have to hustle it you know and and and that was the game i mean you you set off all a lot of the early generation djs at least here in la with we got to be as good as that like i remember the first time you flexed the record back yeah and started It's flutter, scratch, it was a flutter, right? And bending, listen, it's like the vinyl's on the turntable straight, flat, right? And he would grab the vinyl, bang, and it would be flexed back, and he'd just be fluttering it. When he broke that out in front of people, every DJ bit that, and I mean every DJ, or got inspired by it. It was real vinyl where it could actually bend. And later on, a few years later, they started putting a lot of other products, and you couldn't really do that. So you had to treasure those records that you couldn't do it with. Start breaking them. Yeah, yeah, they'd flex too hard, yeah. But I remember seeing Julio do that scratch. I remember Muggs did that scratch. Yeah. And then a bunch of other people start doing the scratch. I mean, you were, like, inventing shit as you went along. I told the story how you had 45s in the way that you put them onto the 33s so that you could run them in a mix. Well, so I could cut them. Yeah, so you could cut them. So I could cut them. I would have to. Well, I learned that from a friend of mine, Skate from Everlasting Crew. You know, that's the group Fastlane. Remember Young Ladies? Yeah, Young Ladies, Jesse Jess. Jess. You remember Jesse Jess? Jesse and T. Bro, they lived in my house. I got a good story for you on that. They lived in my house. Bro, that's Jesse Jess, the creator of every Debbie Deb you ever saw before. That wasn't the real Debbie Deb. No. But, yeah, I brought them out here to do a show from New York because I saw them in Manhattan at one of the second. He performed at Avalon's Gardens Park. I was there. We were there. I mean, I was with Melo and Sid. I made Julio their DJ. Earn Dog was in the group. And Ernork was in the back playing keyboards. And, yeah, it was – I got that from Skate, gluing the 45s to shitty 12s or albums that you would never play. Yeah. But the album had a good feel, so that way we could actually chase really fast and do what we wanted to do. And that was a big – I mean, we ruined a lot of records, but that was a technique. That was innovative, though, to be able to do that. Makes sense. Cut up a 45 or chase it. Well, you didn't have to switch out the little spindle holder for the 45 or nothing. You just dropped the 12-inch to the 45. Yeah, because that all takes time, and you lose the momentum in that. All of it. You lose them immediately. Yeah. Just switching records was, I had a technique to it, and I kept everything organized because I just hated disorganized stuff. Because I had sets laid out of things that I would do, and I would insert certain songs when they came out brand new. as soon as I would get them I'd rehearse them and hear them okay this one's going to fit right here now another record would be moved back or forward if it was still hot and then that's the way you have to break records in that era you had to play the heaters and then drop a brand new Cypress cut in between those heaters because now it gives validity because it's sitting with those heaters that's it that was my formula and you and you had so many people listening to the heaters at that time so you had their attention so you could break the record so i would drop if if i had an acapella from a record i'd drop an acapella of a new record over a dope-ass beat that was already hot yeah you know what i'm saying yeah yeah and give you like oh my boy's killing it on it because people didn't know yeah they had no idea they were like yo what song was that you played at 905 yeah i don't know it was an acapella over this one probably and i'm like oh yes this but that's not the song then i would work the instrumental yeah into the acapellas of heaters yeah and then i would break totally remixing had right there in the middle yeah bro even the clean versions were done like that yeah because i would have two acapella and instrumental so i could mute Without destroying, you know. Yeah, without cutting everything out. Yes, sir. And that's how I created clean versions. I think that's the shit that is cool about stems today, that you could do those type of remixes and not drop everything out. Man, if I had stems. Oh, man, you would have been killing them. I mean, you were killing them already because, I mean, you didn't have any of that technology yet. you were coming up with different and innovative things that people would eventually borrow yeah and and you know turn into something different but you know the one thing that i noticed that happened in la with with guys like like yourself and dr dre right you guys started as as djs and then eventually evolve into production right well they were already dre and yellow were doing multi-track mixes so they were already getting the ping pong effect and knowing how to bounce yeah so they were ahead of me on that because the first time i went to do a show they had the four track of task on there look we do it this way i don't do that yeah i'll make it sound like that but i'm gonna do it with two records yeah and they were like nah you know you gotta make a sound and then they saw me do it then there was no question yeah nobody ever yeah i mean because it was two definitely two different styles that you were rocking but i think like the fact that you were a different style of dj than dre was he could he couldn't get down like you well he didn't hear the he didn't he didn't have the east coast access yeah he wasn't around that he didn't conceive i mean no one conceived the language unless you were from there right so i was able to conceive the language or get the language from friends that that relocated here like i did right from the east coast from the bronx yeah and they were djs and rappers so they were like defeating you different shit yeah and i wasn't really a dj i was in a metal band so you were a drummer first drummer for for metal yeah for years yeah i was on k-day drumming in the metal band and then i would leave the band my boys would take my drums home and i would go to a gig a rap gig at 11 o'clock 12 o'clock at night that's a go we're a sabbath tribute band we played all over hollywood battle the bands everywhere i mean we had equipment fucking my deal came to see us play uh michael anthony was always helping us out from a bass player from van halen that's crazy at that time and you know lizzie borden slayer open for us when they were the very beginning when they had their own little crowd a following of their own and they we're just starting that music was picking up yeah what were we gonna say bobo that's what i wanted to ask because you're more than just a dj producer you're also a musician yes where did this love of music come from because i mean you play you know you dj you have such a wide knowledge of music where did it come from where did this start well my family you know my uh my cousin which is my And, you know, my father, my father was a singer. My cousin was a guitar player that played Romanticos, Cuban music, Italian music. And my father sang in different languages. And then the metalhead showed up. Man, the metal didn't happen until I moved to Cali. So Cali is when I got introduced to rock and roll. What type of shit were you listening to? Oh, man, I got turned on to Sabbath first, you know, and I was like, wow. And then, of course, Van Halen had just came out with Ain't Talkin' About Love. Yeah. And then some of my buddies were real hip. So they were getting, it was hard to find, but you had to go to places to get these Euro records with, like, the Scorpions on it. Yeah. Judas Priest from Europe playing for these army bases and these huge festivals at that time. This is 1979, 1980, bro. The glory day. Yeah, so I got turned down to like Speedy's coming from Squirtle and all that. That live album. All those live albums. Entrance. Robin Trower was one of my favorites, you know. Yeah. It's like, it was a vibe. And in that era, there was bands everywhere. That was the Dazed and Confused era. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah, crazy. Zeppelin, of course. But that was already classic. At that point, yeah. At that point. Yeah. And I remember the day I heard on the radio, I'm sitting in the garage doing something. I'm trying to take apart a console to get some speakers out of it because that was the beginning. And then they announced John Bonham's death. Right. I was like, wow. I mean, that was my dude right there. Yeah. I thought I was little John. That's who influenced you to start drumming? Yeah. And then a local band, the drummer was quitting the band. and my boy said hey you play drums because i played in the school you know little i had never played on a trap set but i would fake and practice all day on a bed you know how you do yeah like we all did and they come down after school try out for the band i'm like all right i went over there homeboy left his drum set there i tried out and i made the band until dude came to get his drum set about three weeks later then i had to go find a drum set then i was able to get me a cool little ludwig kit when one of my dad's friends bought it for his son. Kid didn't want to be a rock star. I got the drum set, and then that was it. That was it. Everywhere until I got into it, really. And then, you know, luckily some of the local older brothers pitched in and got me a dope-ass Tama set. Yeah. And we were off, bro. I mean, we were playing for a lot of bikers because that's what we called them then. Right. we were playing private biker parties we're teens 15 16 years old you know getting the chops in go out in the middle of nowhere with grown with grown men see you know what what's crazy is that a lot of people wouldn't know that about someone that's so immersed into hip-hop music as as you became later is that like you know because for me it's the same i didn't play in a band or anything but I was a metalhead before I knew what hip-hop was. We almost got to do a rock album. Yeah. We were working on a rock album. Yeah. Because I thought, man, the best thing for Cyprus would be come with the rock shit. Come with the rock shit. And just kill it. I still want to do that. I'm still down to do that shit. Yeah, I was sampling all the songs that you were talking about, stuff from Zep, stuff from Sabbath, to put Beasties wasn't out yet. Beasties wasn't out yet. Yeah, yeah, they were. And I wanted to do that. But, you know, Muggs was a genius, bro. I mean, what he did and what you guys did, it just turned everything. What year was licensed? Oh, 86 or 87? 80. Something like that, right? I think it was like 87. 84. Was it that early? No, it ain't 84. I think 86, 87. I think Red DMC is 84. Yeah. And they come out. Yeah, it's 86, November 15th. Yeah, no, Red DMC might have been 82. 82 yeah around 82 their second thing was hard times and it's like that that's really really early yeah what was the first hip hop song that flipped you from listening to metal to now you're into hip hop ooh well those records for me it was Run DMC Run DMC on the pop scene but on the underground it was like Phyllis 4 you know rocking it and Rockmaster Scott, It's Life It's Life and The Roof Is On Fire later on when they went pop. Because you know the real New York hip hop the records we heard out here were the pop versions. Those were the pop versions. Yeah like Sugar Hill and all that. The major. The major distribution. The guy at the regular label you gotta do it like that. Yeah Sugar Hill and all that. Curtis Blow. Well, yeah, but Curtis and they were rockers. These are party rockers. Yeah. Mel, all that. You heard the music change. Yeah. Remember the first Grandmaster Flash, Furious Five records. Those are live bands. Yeah. Those aren't samples. Those aren't samples. Those are dudes playing all those instruments. That's when they were trying to play disco and funk breaks. They were playing funk breaks. Yeah. Funk and disco breaks. Yeah. Because disco breaks are breaks. Like the chic style breaks. All of that. Yeah. All of that. Those are breaks. anything that had a break with drums see that was that was where i was at because a lot of those things or disco breaks had that break for like timbales oh eight minutes like eight minutes get your solo off right oh man so that's what i applied exactly what bobo said when you're young i applied that technique because i was a percussionist to the scratches so i'm doing a quinto solo over the beats. Yeah. So I used that technique. See, that explains why the scratches were so percussive and, like, in these different pockets that other guys didn't necessarily or couldn't hit. Well, being able to do the subdivisions and to apply it, that's what you're using. You're using subdivisions. And it just affirms what I keep saying. That is, you know, the DJ is your musician. It's not a, I mean, we say DJ because everyone's, you know, that's what they're associating with it because of playing records. Yeah, the turntables became the instruments. But that's an instrument. Let me ask you this, Tony. How many fights did you have to get into for motherfuckers trying to steal records from your crates? Man, if a motherfucker even touched my records, he wasn't making it out the door, number one. Number two, I had the real goon squad. Yeah, you did. A lot of people went Mimi's in L.A. Sleepy time. Not that I fell. They were VIP at Club Mimi. Oh, no, they were doing the Woody, bro. Sleepy time. Everybody was hitting 400 and up in that era. And I was trapped. You know, it is what it is. That was that era. You couldn't go anywhere. and I mean and some of the places you were DJing were treacherous you had to like be like and then you had no idea because there was so many coming up that you had no idea what neighborhood you were in so it could be a color but it didn't mean shit it didn't mean nothing because then you play a record a West Coast record and this is the wrong record in the wrong place and then you had to do the lift your shirt Like shut that shit off You had to show it Quit fucking around While you're DJing That's what I meant You'd play a song and they'd do like this to tell you No I'd show them You can get it too You know what I mean If people do that Well you had to bro Cause you know Number one We were going to In the black community and everybody accepted us. I mean, everybody. We were just going to do music. Well, y'all were rocking it, though. We were going out there to do music. And at the very, very beginning, it was only me, Gem, and Gemini, and Bobcat. So we had no one affiliated except for Bobcat. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And then he couldn't go to... Skatelab. Right. He could go to World All Wheels. All day. But he couldn't go to Skatelab. Yeah, but... I saw you at all those places. I went to every... I went to World All Wheels. undercover. Yeah, everybody did. Yes, and then I went to Skateland because that's where my... In New York, it was the roller dome in Brooklyn. That was the big skate place. These are family fun centers, everybody. Supposed to be. Family gangbang centers. I was born and I lived in Portchester in New York, Westchester County. The nice part. Beautiful. But I didn't live in the nice, in the rich, My parents were immigrants, so we lived in the shit of where our little town was next to the ocean right there, next to Terrytown, the plains. We were in that spot. My family were mainly from Bronx, Manhattan. So you're a kid. You live different over there. By nine years old, eight years old, you know how to take taxis. You call your own taxis. It's faster. Everything you did. You're a little grown up. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You have to be. Yeah. You have to be. So then from there, I wind up in Miami in Allapada. I lived in the, my house was called the Allapada Manor in Allapada. And I went to Miami and I used to go to Miami a lot to visit family. But then when you live there, then you understand the South. Because I've been traveling to the South. Yeah. I lived in North Carolina for a while on Marine Corps bases. But going to Miami was like, phew. That was culture shock. Culture shock, yeah. There was no mixing over there, bro. No. The mixing was, nah. It ain't going to happen like that. And then that was the wave of Haitian brothers coming in. And the Haitians didn't get along with Jamaicans. The American blacks didn't get along with neither of them. Cubans. And Cubans got along with the Haitians because they were island people. Yeah. Jamaicans didn't want to fuck with us. so I lived in Alapada everybody was bust I had to go to the hood school so there was only three of us and that's cool us meaning Latinos and the Puerto Ricans had braids and they could undercover play it off play it off and then the Cubans that were black you didn't find out because they never said nothing in Spanish I know black papi I know black. Yeah. The black humans, they were like, I ain't reading no Spanish here, brother. It was a whole other ballgame. That was the check your pockets era. Yeah. And check your shoes on the bus. When they sit next to you, put their feet next to you, see if you had the same set. Yep. True. And it was rock and roll every day. Every day. Every day. You said it was rock and roll. When I moved to California, it was like, my yard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Never had a yard. Yeah. Never had a carpet. A whole different culture. Yeah, and it was a whole different school. That was an awakening right there. Yeah. You could find a pocket to be in out here. It was different. Yeah. Completely different. What age did you move out of the East Coast? 13, 14. So I came here right before high school. Yeah. That's sort of like the way Muggs did it. He got out here, I think, when he was, what, 14, 15, 16, something like that. Yeah, he was a little older. Yeah. Yeah, so I was in Miami. It was all funk, funk music, and then the disco era at that time, which was a big deal. You know, and the cocaine wave was just on another level. Yeah. It was really, really going. So I moved to Cali, and it was weed. You were in Miami in the 80s. 70s. Goddamn. Just before. I think it was coming in but not the flow the flood just before it really fucking turns on over there no the flood the flood was around 79 it was right and then 80 was it it was the flood the flood and if you know you know that was the flood and then you know being Cuban and at that time everybody needed money everybody did what they had to do The hustle game was strong. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it is. It wasn't street hustle. Humans weren't corner service. No, they weren't going to do that. They weren't corner service. It was weight. Yeah. Nothing but weight. And then all the weight was coming up to Mississippi. Yeah. Everything that came in the United States came into the Mississippi or Miami. Word. Downtown Miami. Yeah. Crazy. You know what's crazy, too? I think people forget how long cocaine has been around. It only popped off in the 80s. It's been around for now. Yeah, if you were in the 30s and 40s, you had money. You were getting coke. I didn't even realize it was weed. Opium dental over New York. Weed, too. The jazz musicians were talking about it way back then. Jazz cigarette. Calling it reefers. I read a story of how the trains, when they were taking the soldiers out of World War II, a lot of people would throw a lot of the seeds. so the guys that were deploying could grab some weed plants and put the leaves in their little bags for whatever they needed out there. And it was different eras, man. Different eras like a motherfucker, man. Speaking of different eras, what do you think about hip-hop today? Is there anybody that you're feeling or is it like... You know, because there was a time where everything just seemed like the same shit. Yeah. Cookie cutter. Everybody was copping each other's shit as opposed to what it used to be where everybody needed to be distinct, have their own sound and like that type of shit. You know, I like everybody's shit. I listen to shit. I like a lot of the underground stuff. Some of it's a little short. I'm not used to that one minute. Yeah. I'm done. That's crazy. I'm a superstar. Let me rap one verse. One verse. Over a record. there's no beat you know and i'm like okay but if they're spitting some shit i'm waiting yeah same you know i i think that's i think everybody now is is on that like you know we could accept some shit if if it's good yeah if it's some bullshit yeah then get the fuck out of here with that you know like if you're breaking the rules right like we all know that most songs are about three and a half minutes yeah but now songs are definitely shorter man i get i get underground all the time and some of them records are a minute long and i'm like what's the point yeah right when you get into the groove of playing something with it it fucking over it over and then it on to an intro that 35 seconds long of somebody record And then dude spits one verse And they're saying the same shit. I hustled this. I did that. I got the strap. We're going to do the work. I like SD is a big dude that I listen to from the East Coast. Yeah. You know what I mean? because it's that Philly or vibe. I dig Homeboy because I can relate to how he delivers it. I can relate. That's my growing up. That's how we talk. Yeah. So it means something to me. So it captures me. See, that's the shit that like there's hip hop out there that still connects with you like that. Yeah. Because that's the power of music in general. Yeah. And people forget that hip-hop is music like anything else. And then it'll still connect with people at a certain age, no matter what age you are. Right. And, you know, in hip-hop, they try to make it ageist. Like, after you're 30, they try to, you know. It's the business. Yeah. It's the business of it. But the fact is, is that there's motherfuckers are aged by now. And some a generation older than us that have had hip-hop this whole time. That we still fuck with it. Yeah. Like that we're still tuned in to what it is with new heads. Well, it takes you to that moment because it affects your psyche. And then when you hear a certain flow or a certain rhythm, then you're like, oh, I would have killed that. I know that probably goes through your head when you hear a beat like, oh, I would murder that. Oh, yeah. And the fact that I've been playing percussion with Bobo for like 30 years and I've been DJing for I don't know how many years, but it gives me a perspective on a beat when I hear it. Like finding the different pockets to get in. That's the key. Yeah. Those pockets, those subdivisions is the key to all of it. Yeah. Like tailor-making the flow to the beat. Right. Right. Like, there's times where I've written to stuff where the beat's one way and then the producer changes it. And, you know, as a writer, you kind of always want to, well, fuck, I wish I had that beat. I would have wrote something different. But you've got to sort of just trust that the producer can find that pocket and he's tuned in with you. Well, yeah, find it for you. Yeah. And then you're going to write to the song. Yeah. To the beat. So it fits. Right. There has to be a marriage in there, bro. There has to be. Motherfuckers just be spitting on some bullshit. And we talked about this yesterday. Not every song you write is meant for every beat. Nope. And I know this works with the same in metal. It's like this may be a great idea, but it doesn't necessarily work on every bed of music. And it just sort of has to find where it sits in the right pocket at. Well, that's what producers are for, is to be able to have the knack to hear your voice on this beat. and how your flow, knowing how you're going to flow, and knowing that you're going to be able to deliver what he hears. Yeah. It's great when a producer has a vision. A producer has to be so many things, you know. Right. But most of all, really dynamic, you know, to be able to not only be an individual as a producer. Well, you've got to be a psychologist. Yeah, you've got to be a politician. You've got to have some money. That's right. You've got to know who you're working with. Feed people. Yeah. It is what, oh, you got to have the homie that can feed people. That's right. And get people home. You got to have the team. Yeah. The team. He's got to be able to politic it all to make it pop. Yeah. You know, that's the crazy thing is that people don't understand that about producers, right? Because if you're a hip hop fan, you only know the producer is the one being hands on about everything. I'm putting together all this shit. Right. It's a different style of producer. Right. Right. A hip-hop producer is very different than a music producer. They're both the same thing, but the music producer does more than just make the beat. Yeah, the arranging. He's doing the arranging. He's bringing in other players, some of the best players to either do this, that, or the other. The niche. Yeah. Everybody that's good at their niche. Yeah. That's right. Bringing in the players to create the vibe. Yeah. And some are great at this. You know what I mean? Quincy Jones. I mean, he was a fucking genius, bro. Yeah, he didn't play none of those. I mean, he knew how to play the trumpet, but he went and got all the best players to play for Michael. Because he understood the language of every instrument. He studied it. Speaking of Quincy Jones, whenever he used a percussionist, and me and Bobo were talking about this the other day, it was Paulino da Costa. Oh, wow. And this guy is hands-on, probably one of the most successful percussion players out there. Played on so many hits. Yeah. You need to see his documentary tone. I'd like to see that. Because, you know, like you could connect on that level, being that you're a drummer and percussionist and just history of music and all that. This dude played on over 139 multi-platinum hits. Wow. like he was the go-to guy yeah yeah you you would love this well i met aguavella francisco oh my and that was such a big deal for me because that's the guy that he created all the music in the religious forms from our country oh he's the singer singing on all the all the things with when he goes i mean but one of those records he also did produce and played all the percussions in the early rock scene in san francisco yeah because that's where everybody was san francisco was the mecca of that that rock wave new york is the originators of the scene yeah you know what i'm saying your family your yeah your uncle your pops your your people that's the scene they they transition it to the street the real hip shit you know i mean that Boogaloo. Yeah. I mean, that's what Willie's known for, bro. Yeah. He created that feel. Everything that goes along with it. Yeah. It's like a little pedestrado, but with the hood vibe. Yeah. Everybody wanted to be that. He was one of the first using his breath as a rhythm. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Right? Your father. Yeah. He learned that from me and Makiba. You know what I mean? They were taken a little bit from everywhere. But, you know, with the percussionists, you know, them coming from Cuba and all that stuff, they were able to get in on some of those jazz recordings, those rock recordings. And like you said, like on the West Coast, that was like the Latin rock scene, you know, Latin jazz scene. They were a little bit more open because New York was more mambo, salsa, you know, it was that. Well, New York was more earlier in the 50s. Yeah. And San Francisco didn't kick off. To like later on. 70s early 70s Vietnam towards the middle and the end of Vietnam late 60s into the 70s and that's when you have the Escobitos Santana's wave that he came in and he brought in Cuban musicians he brought in Chepito Nicaragua Armando Peraza Armando used to stay with my aunt in San Francisco when he first got here so he'd be playing outside the apartment all the time and that's where somebody picked him up from the actual percussionist that was with Santana at that time and got Mondo the gig because then that percussionist went to go play with like Edie Gourmet, Sammy Davis to Las Vegas because everybody wanted our, the Cuban sound in their jazz music. So we brought that, the Puerto Ricans are the ones that took the salsa to the next level. Yeah, they did that. What nationality are you? Cuban. Cuban? Yeah. I'm born here in America. but I'm family. 100% cute. What DJ influenced you to get onto the turntables? Ooh, Grandmaster Flash, bro. Grandmaster Flash? Yeah. I mean, I... Did you ever go to any of the parties when you were in... No, I was too young. Too young? Yeah, that shit was only happening in the hood. Yeah. Ghetto, ghetto. And it was in a little corner in the Bronx. And if you don't live there, you didn't see it. Nobody was going there. That's what it was for me like with Uncle Jam's army. We knew of it, but I was too young to go to the parties. I barely started getting into any of the shit. And where they were, because they were. In the hood. They were in the hood. South Bronx. I'm fucking around with that. That's where. Grand Concourse. Fucking. Grand Concourse. Yeah, Grand Concourse. So all my boys are from Grand Concourse. They live next door to the Fever. Yeah. So that was their scene. Yeah. I knew everybody. That's how I met everybody from Rocksteady to some of the rappers to Curtis. Curtis Blow was my first producer. It's the first dude I saw produce a record. Such a cool motherfucker, man. Oh, man. He was, you know, he moved out to Cali with our budget. And he bought Norm Nixon's house. You know what I'm saying? Wow. He moved into Norm Nixon's house. And, yeah, he was our producer. And then he was doing other work. And he came out here as a hip-hop and rapping on him because he sings. Yeah. You know, Whip-A-Whip. Yeah, Prince Whip-A-Whip. That's the homie. He sings. You know what I mean? Whip used to come stay with me all the time, eat at my house. And I tell people, Whip-A-Whip called K-Day in the middle of a recording of the mixes because we used to have to record them on a reel. And Hen G was answering phones. It's 10 o'clock in the end on a Tuesday, bro. And Hen goes, hey, bro, there's some guy on the phone that says he's Whip-A-Whip. Fantastic. And I was like, man, don't fuck off. He's in San Diego. I'm like, Whip-A-Whip in San Diego? So, look, man, it's time to come over here. It's a trip how all of them moved out here. He was in the military. Oh, no shit. They didn't move out here until we connected with Whip. Whip brought them all. That was in the 80s, late 80s, right? That was 86. 86. 86. So he drove to Katy, bro. We stayed there until midnight, finishing the shit, and Whip O' Whip really showed up. Yeah. We started chopping up, y'all. I started working on records. He drove from San Diego to my house because he was in the Navy. San Diego. Yo, I'm going to bring Donald Rock out here. I'm going to bring Charlie Chase. And he hooked up with him. And then I started flying people out here. Yeah, he brought Kaz out here for a time. Bro, we brought. Maybe Bambada. We brought. I mean, Islam. Yeah, Africa. We brought, yeah, Africa. That's all because of whip. Yeah. All of that is because of Whipple Whip. Yeah. And he brought everybody to come here. Melly Mel was already here. Yeah. You know, and I think who else? Jazzy J was already coming back and forth. But Melly was the dude. And then Whip was the street dude. Yeah. But he could sing. He had a beautiful falsetto boy. I mean, he grew up with Ray Goodman and Brown. He was in the same apartments living with Ray Goodman and Brown. So he grew up singing with them as a kid. So, you know, he had a lot of R&B. That's why they sing and rap on a lot of their choruses. And even their raps were kind of melodic. It was like they were doing what eventually Bone Thugs in Harmony does, but like in a different style. Absolutely. It's sort of the same. Well, it's like listening to Santeria music or Palo music when you have the call and response and then you have the coro. Yeah. That's what they implemented. Yeah. These are Caribbean people. Yeah. So they were doing their Caribbean feel Yeah that back and forth shit So I mean I get it And then Run DMC gets influenced by Hip hop was created by a culture And yes but the influence Of our Caribbean music It goes way beyond that Way beyond that Yeah for sure the call and response And And Gallo The rap in between the call and response And then listen to the records The last thing the guy says in his rap is and then everybody starts did you ever listen to Lazaro Canto oh yeah he's like an iconic voice in that whole you know Lazaro and Aguavella is a friend of mine real close to my family Marcos Marcos Martinez he's an actor his mom is the lady that would have the big parties at Griffith Park oh wow and at her house and then Chepito used to go to a friend's house there was a house in Pico where they all used to go party, you know, on tour, you go to wherever you would go, your dad used to go there, your uncle used to go to this house in Pico and it was the shit, and then Margo's mom she's a priest from that era, she was bringing all those people to the parks and to the private parties and to do the actual ceremonies. So imagine you getting your old job done and you got Agua Vella singing. Oh. That's like Frank Sinatra singing at your wedding. You know what I'm saying? Frank Sinatra singing at your fucking wedding party. Yeah, man. That's crazy. That era, you know. But those were the musicians that were just doing it. Look, we're sitting here with a master out out here in the west coast and hip-hop in general you know one that influenced us um from way back when we were in our teens you know listening to my man on the radio this is my man is tony g and i want to make sure that people fucking know because because you know you were influential in in the spark of all of us wanting to do this out here listening to the mixes and how and how you transfer from mixing to producing and creating hits for, like, Mellow Man and sparking, like, the songs on his album that, like, pushed it forward and sparking the songs with, like, La Raza with Kid Frost that pushed him forward. I mean, hits that still stand today. You play any one of those songs and people go. Man, Frost, I mean, you guys were touring with him from the very beginning, so he was one of the first rappers. He was probably the first rapper. He is the first rapper to rap in Europe. Yeah. In concerts and festivals. Yeah. I remember he was going to Germany and places like that. Amsterdam, coming back, smuggling fucking weeds. Yeah, I remember. Amsterdam weed. I mean, that's me. You guys were with, dude. you guys actually did shows with him so you experienced doing that that at that level early yeah and we'd hope yeah you guys experienced from the beginning you and sin were out there and and and what's crazy is it's it's the vibe you created musically for both of them and everybody that you produced you know what i mean not not just them too but they had hit songs on their shit. I always felt like you should have been the one just doing the complete album. We come from that. Muggs being our one producer and just trusting in that. I felt like man, if they had just stuck with one producer. It was too early for us so the artists they hear another hit and they want to be like that. Instead of sticking to their guns and being who they are and what the people want to hear from them, a lot of artists will say, oh, I've got to make a record like this. I'm going to go work with this guy because now they heard a beat that sounds like another record that's big. And then you lose your fucking identity. You lose your sound. Well, yeah, that's the thing. If you over-listen to everything else, you feel like you have to. You want to be everybody else. You want to chase that sound. Chase the sound. But see, Cypress didn't. Cypress kept that innovative sound because you trusted Muggs. You already learned that this is good. And people were trying to copy that sound when Cypress Hill had that unique sound that that was what they were trying. Well, that's Muggs' upbringing. Being around, being outside. Muggs was outside, bro. Yeah, he was. You know, he knew everybody from everywhere. Yeah. And he came from different parts. Yeah. So your musical IQ has a lot to do with. And then the artist has to be able to say, okay, I trust you. Yeah. Let me do this. Did you work a lot with Julio G back in the day? Yeah, I put him on the radio. That's my protege right there. Yes. That's my little brother right there. Yeah, that's the number one protege right there. Day one. That's where I was trying to get who was first. And there we go. Now I know it was you. And I want to say this because he was always, you know, giving you the flowers and all that shit. And he pretty much sparked me to get back on the turntables. Really? Julio, yeah. Oh, yeah. When he first came on tour with us, and he toured with us for, what, 12 years or something like that? Yeah, it was a bunch, man. It was a while. And he, I got to say, you know, when we were with Julio, at the time where the show was, bringing him on took it to another level. Right. Because he brought everything that, like, you taught him and then what he created around that and brought that. I was hard to work around. A lot of people didn't want to fuck with me. He did. Yeah. He listened from the beginning. He was like, I want to make beats. Okay. Then he'd bring me a loop. Then I'd make a song out of it. And he'd be like, oh, okay. And then he got it. Yeah. You know, he came, I want to DJ. I want to do, I can do a little better. Yeah, but you've got to make a mix. And the mix has to sound like this, and you can't do this, and you can't do that. He'd be like, no, but I'm trying to. Yeah. Some people don't want to listen. They don't, you know, sometimes you've got to, that's how you learn. You have to listen. You have to just watch and observe and, you know. And show up. We show up, bro. He would drive from Linwood to my house. Yeah. And it shows because, like, he is super fucking sharp. Yeah. You know. Yeah. We didn't allow mess ups. Yeah. I mean, anybody can mess up. It happens. But I didn't allow that. You're off. He would say that, too. You know what I mean? Like, him and I started doing this routine on this set where we were doing the chases. And it was an old routine. that you used to do. And he taught me the routine. And we'd fucking get it off, man. It was fun to do it. People would bug out because they didn't know I could do that type of shit. But he taught me all that. He's the one who got me back on the turntables. We were at a sound check, right? And Bobo was up there. And I think you were on percussions or something like that. And Julio hadn't. I think he went to the restroom. So I got on the turntables and I was fucking around. he goes like wait hey do that again okay try it like this practice this and i would practice that shit when i got whatever little tip yeah he gave me on the fucking on on on the road when he would see me doing something trying to like clean it up tips are your friend those are all lessons yeah and he's a real west coast dude though yeah for sure so his style of djing was west that's what he wanted to do yeah then when he saw me do something else he was like oh that's how you yeah that then he was able to pick up because he's a fan of the music it's cool because you know like the way you you imparted your knowledge to him and then he grew around that and then did his own thing with it he he is not one of those that withholds the knowledge he will impart it too If he sees that you're really fucking trying to do it. It wasn't easy to get him on the radio, though. We were just going with Easy to go on the beat. During the wake-up show, you know, when we brought the wake-up show out here. He didn't want to get on the mic. He was like, I don't do that. I mean, we weren't like that. DJs back then just shut up and played the fucking music. You weren't trying to be nobody. You were just a dude delivering your music. That's it. And then he didn't want to do it, and Easy would tell me, come on, man. You got to talk to your boy, dog. You know, we got to get homeboy on. We say some shit in Spanish, and we should. Come on, Julio. Yeah. Oh, man, I don't know, bro. I don't know. Come on, bro. You got to do it, bro. Hey, it was. He did it. Great move that he did it. Great move. Kids got the internet nowadays. Back then, we were the internet. Yeah, absolutely. True that. He connected with people because, you know, he was from the block. Yeah. He knew the pulse. He was outside, too. He was outside. and people trusted the shit he was saying. He was only 17 when I got him on the radio. I remember. I remember, man. Dragging from Linwood to my house and then, you know, going with me places, and we had some violent homies. Yeah. And he was like, oh, this is a whole different ballgame out here. We do other shit out here. Yeah. First thing I did, took him to the mountains, showed him how to shoot straps, learned him, showed him how to carry. Take him to shooting ranges. Tell him, look, this is how this works. Yeah, and then he got into, like, you know, hitting the weights and working out. My girl beat him in arm wrestling. And I was like, nah, we can't do that big time. So it was push-ups. Push-ups. Started with push-ups. And I always had, you know, 600, 700 pounds in my room with benches and everything at all times. And after the gigs, I would go to the gyms. so start pumping them you know we can't i i remember that i remember that because when when when you know we were hanging with julio g like in the high school times right like we knew him back then um he was he was thin thin slender he was thin and then one from one year to the next he came back boom it's like oh shit yeah no no no counting sets none of that sissy shit no three this three of that no failure hit yeah reps again again and push-ups reps again and squat squat reps again don't stop superset yeah 15 16 cents man i can't move my heart and i can't man three days i'm like bro hit some curls but i can't move that'll take the pain away yeah and then he figured it out yeah i told him once you get to the point where you don't have any more pain now you're just fiending There's nothing you can do. Yeah, you plateaued. And we didn't do no juice. I never did juice. Yeah. I had boys that did juice, but I had boys that didn't need juice. I would have OJ. Because some of them were fucking big. The Samoans were very big. Yeah, my homies, I mean, those are 500-plus clubs. Yeah. And Junior hit 625. Wrong. Yeah, these were big boys, man. Yeah. Oh, yeah. 405 was the most I ever got to them. Yeah, that was my number, but I only weighed 220 in that era. Yeah, I was like two. Yeah, so I was 220 in that era, and that was like a lot for a dude without the juice. You know what I mean? And I had friends at Juicers. I had friends that I always backed for competition, so we were always at competition. Beating up motherfuckers at competition, too, because the bigger they were, the faster they got knocked the fuck out. Yeah. They ain't never seen goons. They ain't never seen goons. They were big and yoked the fuck up. But, you know. They can't throw a punch the same way. They thrived on that intimidation. We go to them clubs, them clubs with them security here, Arizona, Texas. It didn't matter where the fuck we were. Yeah. First one that got knocked out was the dude at the door. Yeah. Laid out so his homies could see that he was laid out. And then back up. And then go inside and have people pay for drinks. What was the wildest show you ever DJed at that got, like, turned the fuck out? Ooh. I mean, they all got turned the fuck out, but the Olympic was one of the bad, bad ones. I mean, that was just stomp outs and firemen coming. Emergency to help the people and the firemen getting kicked in the head. Oh, man. To get off. That's how dangerous. To let dude die. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. Trying to give him CPR, and then the firemen would get kicked in the face while he's trying to give CPR. And security would take all their, everybody would take all their shit off so you didn't look like you were security. Yeah. You know, and then you've never seen 1,500 people go like this, bro, on a riot. Yeah, that shit is crazy. It was, you know, and that happened a lot in World on Wheels. You know, Skate Lamb had the moments. Skate Lamb was more, because these were more adults. Yeah. See, the Bloods weren't, they didn't go out like that. Yeah. They only went out undercover, but they stayed in their realm, and they used their colors. So when you went to Skateland, grandma, grandpa, the kids, the grandkids, everybody had red berets, red shoes, red laces. It was crazy. And the pictures were 30 deep because it was the clicks. I saw when you brought Salt-N-Pepa down there. Yeah. I was there for that with my little click. Yeah, you had to come with clicks. Yeah. And you did something with, fuck, who else? I mean, there were so many. But there was one that you and Julio had EPMD on. You guys were DJing. It was at Casa. Yeah, EPMD. Yeah, EPMD. That got turned out. Yeah, super turned out. Yeah. I think Eric Dermann has even told a story about that. You know what happened? I'll tell you exactly what happened because I was right there. it was i i rolled in with with with said in in uh mugs and mellow right and we were sitting there watching the show and i turned and i looked to my right and i see this dude mad dogging me like really bad and i recognized him i was locked up with him in los padrinos and we had a confrontation in there yeah and you know at first homie thought i was by myself which i was i thought right he's like what's it you from and i you know popped off on him and then like you know three dudes come behind him like like they're gonna rush me or something like that and then three other bloods pop up out of nowhere and say hey that shit ain't happening you need to back the fuck up yeah and so homeboy recognized me from that i see him start talking to his homies and i tell son and mellow I gotta go. Don't follow me. Act like you don't know me. And I fucking rushed out the door and these motherfuckers just lit everybody up on the way out trying to get to me. That's why I got turned out. Sorry about that. It was pretty... And there was nowhere to go because it was a dead end. I went into the Salvi blocks that were over there. 18th Street. I was going to take my chance with 18th street blocks to go into that fucking dead end that was the foundation of La Mara at that time was there right there when I went down that block to like get away from the mob I seen all the cars with broken windows they like had broken into every fucking stereo got hooked anything that was in the car steering wheels remember everything with Benzie boxes when they first came out that pull the whole race and just the face. You've got to take everything with you. They were jacked that shit quick. They were taking dashboards, Cadillacs while the club was going on. Yeah, while the club was going on. I only stumbled upon that because I was trying to get away from these motherfuckers. That was crazy because Homeboy came in with a mob. There was just like four of us. I was like, I ain't going to get these guys beat up. Fuck it. Go that way. don't look at me i'm gonna go out the door hey by the way how'd you like my irish goodbye last i did because i saw you leave you did not i did i saw the back you did not i didn't know i saw your back i saw your back i said oh there he goes corner of your eye huh he did the ghost yeah he did that oh man it was so slick i had i smiled i smiled because it was probably one of the smoothest that you've done, you know what I mean? There was no turning back. And I looked, I looked like side-eye, and then I saw you, and I just smiled, I looked away at it, and I just smile. I committed in the moment. You did. You were talking to somebody, and then Flick was talking to somebody, and Angel was talking to somebody, and I just said... Where was this? LAFC? I did. I did. When I turned, all I saw, I saw your back and an arm going like this, like you're walking. That's all I saw. I don't have your shit. Like I committed a crime. Man, no, no. You were like, you were out. You were out like you had to go to the bathroom. Yeah. You know what I mean? I'll tell you, my Irish, goodbyes are the best. I even told you we're gonna win 3-0, and what happened? I'll call you Mr. O'Malley. He's so damn Irish. Ha ha That right Yeah he did it like that I said oh wow And then about 15 minutes later Flick says oh B he left I said man that fool been gone He's been gone. I said, I saw him leave just slightly, you know. And they like have the body. I'm telling you, I have the back and an arm. That's all I saw. They're always after me, Lucky Charms. Trying to tell you. And then, yeah, people were like, yo, where's B? I said shit, you know. Halfway to the valley. He ain't here. I am the wind. Just blew away. I said, man, this guy's got to drive all the way over that way. You know, I was going to stay a little bit longer, you know what I'm saying? But then I looked at the clock. I'm like, it's 830. I got to drive to Moore Park. And then I got to get up early for this. I'm like, you know what? I better truck back. And that just slipped right out when none of y'all were looking. It caught me up. I said, I caught the thing. I'm like, I didn't even say, hey, what are you doing? You know, I didn't even want to bring attention. It's like a Sasquatch sighting. You see it out the corner of your eye. I think it's a really, it's like really appreciation for others, though. You know what I mean? Like, you didn't waste no one's time because saying goodbye takes forever. Especially there, like everybody. There's so many people. Too many goodbyes. Too many goodbyes. Yeah, you can't say a hundred goodbyes. Yeah, because then you're like a politician. you have to shake everybody's hand on the way out if you're fucking out like a ghost nobody even because like did i go did i just see that well that's like a that's like a goodbye to everybody generally you know you shake everyone's hand on the way in you ain't got to do it on the way out right right right exactly so that's exactly what happened yeah that's exactly not when you not when you're at that status everybody wants to shake your hand when you come in when you leave they want to take a picture when you're really ready to leave all the time that's real shit it just becomes like all the time see i see i've seen it all my life yeah for for all of them it's true i agree the key to the good irish goodbye is don't make eye contact if you slip in when we slip out when everybody is distracted by something yeah usually you know i'll leave when there's a goal that happened or or a missed goal where everybody's like oh and then i'm the one that even knows i'm big on the freak i'm saying goodbye to everybody's cheery hey i'll say goodbye to everybody i'm shaking all kinds of heads right i'm i'm definitely there but i'm saying the time where you can cut out if you can dip out yeah dip out you gotta go with the old phone like you like this hey one one sec pick it up hey what's going on bro and that's the one that's the one bro if you're that one works yeah it does work that works for sure oh i gotta take this i'll be right back and then boom out right oh you don't even have to say no just pick it up and look and look like you're busy yeah yeah you could even point on that the slickest of them all though is like when you can just dip out and nobody knows you've given no inkling that you're dipping out that's the ninja's one you've not looked that's a gift you've not looked at anybody that's another craft you're not giving any signal that's what's good about being my height you just leave no you He didn't even give any hand signals or nothing. That's me. If he hadn't turned his head, he wouldn't have even seen my arm. Yeah. But me, I just got to walk under people and nobody knows. Well, we forget. One time I was with Julio. He took me over to the Rainbow. And then B was already there. And I think I was like with Marv or something like that. He came and sat with us and stuff. Then I see, B, hey, what's up, B? And I forgot, man. There was just so many people randomly coming in the middle of his food to bring him weed, to bring him a car, to bring him the shit. And I'm like, damn, I forgot how big these motherfuckers really are. They're in hometown and motherfuckers are coming up to them. Yeah, at the Rainbow most, especially on a weekend, motherfuckers would get drunk and have the courage. But it's hometown. It's like, who doesn't know you? and then everybody just wanted to get one in. Hey, check this out and check this out and look at this. I'm like, damn. While you're eating, bro. You're probably doing business. You were chopping it up with whoever you were. That motherfucker's just standing there. That's the part of fame that you're either going to get used to because this is part of what you do or you're going to fucking come to hate what you do because of that part of it. Like some people want to have the success in the music industry, but not necessarily the fame where they can't be a private citizen. That doesn't really exist no matter how recluse you might be. The minute you step out, if they recognize you, they recognize you. You know what I'm saying? But does it bug you, though? Or does it get you a little bit more irate when you're eating and they come up and the first thing they say is like we didn't mean to bother you yeah while you were eating i you know like i you know i i try not to let that bother me inside i might be feeling something but like i'm always going to be cordial but yes i'd rather them just say can i trouble you for as opposed to i hate to do this to you right yeah that language that matters yes language matters like i you know don't say i hate to do this to you because but yes just just it's the different approach yeah can i bother you for yes right right it's the language i mean i could deal with that right i mean but i'd rather you know like i'd rather you wait till we finish eating but i get it because you know the thing is about being something to somebody is that you you take your shot or you don't be direct right what no well that that part but i'm saying you take your shot or you don't there's people that see someone that they they know is famous and either they love them or they they they don't know but they just want to meet something famous somebody famous see that's different you know and they're like i'll never get this opportunity again right some just it's it's it's those people and then the other people that overstep do you see it in their eyes that there's substance so i'm sure i'm asking you yeah when someone comes up to you can you see it in their eyes that they're really a fan or they just want to fuck yes hey just to take a picture yes over here with dude yes oh you know you could know there's a conversation of substance how they present themselves and how they and how they come at it right like they got genuine smile the genuine smile the eye contact and the sincerity and that but also they'll tell you something about your music or what substance yeah what it did for them right to it to whatever degree i'm sure you get that like they have but then it's all worth it right and then the other ones you know they'll they'll be honest enough to be like i don't know who you are but i just want to take a picture with you because this guy's thinking of picture yeah and then there's the other motherfuckers that like they're not necessarily fans but they're going to get this because they're going to resell it to somebody or they're going to be they want to show off like they're cool yeah put it on their social media i don't know who this guy is i'll give a fuck but like you know he's somebody so let's take a picture but i'm sure you can you have to have that's why i wanted to ask you that and you have to have the patience for that part you know what i mean because i mean that that's the part that'll eat you up especially if they don't know who the fuck you are why are you wasting my fucking time if you don't know who i am oh i'm gonna take the picture anyway so now they're about to get a picture of you all salty right but you know when when you do that right and you reel them in for the love they'll go research who you are and perhaps they become a fan yeah out of that whereas opposed to it's like you don't know who i am get the fuck out of here right there's so many different variables how you can go with that Yeah, right. Fame is, it's like the double-edged sword, you know, in the arts. Like fame is great, but it's also not so great because you lose becoming a private citizen out of there. You're public now, no matter how private you try to be. Unless you're like Michael Jackson that's going to go out in disguise to be able to get out, right? most pop stars you don't just see them running in the streets like like anybody else um when did you learn to accept that though be that you are that like when did it hit you like i gotta do this you know back back in the day before we were anybody we used to go to the montebello mall and be you know to go get our shit yeah and you know once it hit for us went back to that mall and it happened like the Beatles to us over there like everybody just swarmed on us like there was hundreds of people that swarmed us and that was something I never foresaw in this shit you know I didn't know it was going to hit like that and the fucking people in the mall are asking us hey you got to get out of here you're causing too much of a commotion and it's like swarms of people and that's when it hit me then you know like oh shit this is real and I'm going to have to like learn how to deal with this When I did La Raza There was only around 67 to 70 stations In the whole country that played Music By the time your guys' stuff comes out There was probably like 300 400 stations So your impact And people had more connected Now to rap So when your stuff comes out A lot of people Were exposed to it Yeah. And then to know that you're from here, and then the mystique, because you were saying some stuff in your accent, are they Latino, are they Mexican, are they black? We confused a lot of motherfuckers. Had to. That's the mystique of it. Yeah. People are always going to, even your lyrics, bro, what you write and what your story is, the people, they make up their own story to what they think. Yeah. They think you're one you're wrong. That is true. That's the mystique. That's a gift. Because then people want to see you like a radio jock. If you could look at a radio jock and say, oh, yeah, that's homeboy, he sucks balls. Right. His voice has to be the person. Right. And they have this whole persona of who this person is. And when they see him, they're like, oh, my God, you look like the fucking Chester of the Molester. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. That's true. Yeah, it's like you look like a regular dude that would never do that. but then they you hear the voices like oh shit that is homeboy that was the uniqueness of radio and the same thing as being an artist yeah that was the thing that happened when the very first saw kevin slow jammy james yeah i mean i've been hearing him and you know i'm seeing this guy i'm like i'm having this picture in my mind what this guy looks like big suave dude everything and then when he came into the studio and i saw him i'm like my mouth just dropped like no this voice is not coming from this guy is kind of like gene wilder i mean remember theo yeah theo yeah yeah everybody thought the old shaft bro yeah until they saw him on tv that was kind of like the yeah the the slight decline and and you know it's at that time at that time because no one had a visual of of people doing radio at that point you had to use your imagination Oh, you sounded much taller on the radio. You sounded taller on the radio. So he's an Asian gentleman. So when they saw him, they thought he was his big brother, pimped out. They thought they were going to see him in a suit with Stacey's and all that. He was just a regular Asian dude that had the voice. That had the voice. You know what I mean? Yeah. He had a great voice, too. But all the radio jocks normally would try not to go to places. Yeah. So that you didn't expose who you are. Keep the mystique up. Yeah. They would have conversations with people that would call them. Remember them calls you would get? Yeah. Then you would break into this conversation with a random motherfucker, bro. And then they would show up at the stage and, oh, shit, this crazy motherfucker's here right now. Yeah. Yeah. Like if you were really. Yeah. Like if you told them to come. That's the callers, man. Talk radio. Yeah. Yeah. That's why it's so successful. That's why these things are so successful. successful you know you what you say your voice the people that are interacting in chats it's a world to them bro yeah the interaction part you know like it's a world if radio like radio listeners their their part to interact was the calls you know what i mean chat room well there's listeners and there's callers the listeners are listening the callers they got a call yeah yeah and to get on yeah it was a big deal to get on oh yeah i remember i got on one time and just request the song nobody i didn't have a tape set up i had nothing no one did two or three of my friends heard it but back then if you didn't record it you could never get it never happened it was legend or a myth right but it was the coolest thing ever i gotta get turn your radio down because i had my blast yeah they picked up you can hear the feedback but that was the coolest thing in the world when you heard yourself oh yeah two seconds i guess i still got the the record that i won from calling on k-day 1580. really yeah uh uh it was a thank god's friday soundtrack wow and uh it was like two uh tickets to learn how to dance at the soul train dance studio but i never got those yeah but i got the soundtrack yeah hey hey tone i remember um you were um djing at the radio tron and julio was with you and we get the call from julio hey you guys want to come up uh tony might let you get on the mic and so we're like oh hell yeah we're gonna the radio tron tony g yeah fucking go right i wasn't even old enough to be in there you know what i'm saying but somehow if i was able to get in right and uh sand dog gets on the mic he does some of his shit mellow gets up and does some of his shit i get up and i totally fucking froze like does everybody stare at you yeah i wasn't i wasn't used to that there's only 100 people in there and they would just stare at you like what are you gonna do now i was like i could not random mcs random dancers that that that lesson was big to me right there i i realized that i had to get over a fear of doing this shit in front of people what do they call that red light the red light uh district no but when people be recording and they hit the record button it would turn red. Yeah. And motherfuckers would just freeze. And freeze up. That happened to me with the camera and it happened to me at the Radiotron. And I told myself after that, I'll never let this shit happen again. Yeah. And I was able to, after that I was able to go out there and not freeze up. Well, there weren't a lot of events for you to see. Yeah. As a teenager. Yeah. Because you couldn't go to a lot of the events. Yeah. So when you finally got there and have all these people stares. And the younger generations never going to get that because like when we grew up cameras were not in your face video cameras were for rich people if you did it you rented it like we don't have videotapes of us being kids you don't have that so we weren't used to it the first time i had that camera when i sat on this show i i was inside dying sweating it was a panic yeah because i wasn't used to it he helped me get used to it before that i was it was very hard to get you it's very it's hearing yourself Yes You know a lot of great singers never made it Because of that Like they could sing without the headphones And just regular organic Right but like Get them in a vocal booth And they hear themselves They can't really hit it the same And that isolation at that moment When it's okay do it now And you'd be like now? Now That's an art form And you gotta be an artist to be able to hit that shit and you got to be rehearsed you know to be honest that's an r form and a discipline and a discipline yes well if you have a producer that talks too much he starts hitting that button it fucks you all up because he's telling you no do this do this do this and then you're trying to do it now and trying to do what he's telling you at the same time it just fucks everything up yeah you know so that's why you got to rehearse make sure you're ready how you're going to deliver it so you forget about all that right i still like i see people take off the ear oh what the fuck are you taking the fucking it's bleeding man what the fuck's wrong with you yeah can you sing or can you not sing yeah okay you know yeah that's the difference between a pro and a person that could just do it yeah right when you get a pro that's why you had to hire singers to come sing the songs for you and musicians i wonder how many rappers had that same problem where like they they they love the sound of their voice till they put their fucking head oh all of them would be like whoa because you know i'm from the beginning you were i had a very beginning home studio yeah like coming to my house green like this is too loud or yeah you know what i mean can you hear me yeah yeah can you hear yourself motherfucker then i can hear you yeah but you forget they don't have the lingo right yeah there was no training for this you guys were like pioneering it as you understood it in those times. That we learned. That how we learned. Now we're doing rap though. So it's different. And then you know you gotta be able to deliver and then punching in. Trying to explain to a motherfucker. Just rap when you hear the shit. When I rewind I press play. Just start rapping. I'm gonna punch you in. They didn't get it. Then you would have to bring them out. Look this is what's gonna happen. Hear it going on. I'm gonna go like this. And then you just keep going and you're going to hear yourself now. And then when I punch you out, you're going to hear yourself on the tape. Yeah. And then after a few times, they would get it. And then you have to remind them, motherfucker, rap. I rewound it. Just start rapping from wherever I start. Yeah. And then I'll punch you in. You're doing your part. I'm going to do my part. Exactly. And we'll have the product. But you forget that a lot of people don't have the experience. You've got to give them a second. They're caught up in listening to themselves in that moment. And they don't understand the technical end of that. Yeah. Like what it is that you're doing and then the double. Yeah, you're supposed to go after this. I mean. Oh, man. The doubles were the word. Doubles and triples and shit. Oh, man. The timing. People's timing. You don't hear it. Well, that's why you practice it. Then you have to practice a delivery and remember that delivery for that piece. So when you go to double and triple it, it fucking sounds right. We can't clip it and move it and shit. Yeah. Not back in that time. No. Well, the studio was definitely not the place to practice. No. You know what I mean? You had to put it down. So rehearsal and all that stuff was key. You only had like one of those experiences before the massive. Yeah, you know, like before you booked studio time, you had to have that fucking song down before. $2.50 an hour. Yeah. Yeah, that's funny. You couldn't be just fucking around trying to create the song right then and there. $2.50 for a regular studio. That's for pros. Yeah. And the boo-boo studios were 90. Right, exactly. An hour. Who the fuck had that kind of money? Right. Until we got budgets, and then we learned that all that money goes to that. Yeah, the investment of the sound. And then you don't know that you owe that. Right. Yeah. The bigger the budget got, man, you're spending more than you should. Right. And then they didn't want you to spend less. because if you spent less, they wouldn't want to give you another budget. You know, that's why pre-production today is so, you know, it's so much more available than it was to us because you couldn't just create something. No one had, like, home studios or a budget to make a home studio with what it was at that time. So the only time you got to be creative was if you were at the studio. Now, if you were a band, different story. you could go and practice somewhere else. And then when you had it together, boom, go record it. You know what I'm saying? And they were doing gigs. You were in a band. You were already playing parties and stuff. A lot of rappers only rap at home. Yeah, right. They ain't never been nowhere to rap. They rapped in the mirror. In the mirror. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, it was all carving it out as you went along at that time. Yeah. You know what I mean? Doing what you knew. Yeah, we didn't know shit. We were just doing what we, everybody likes to talk like they knew everything. We didn't know shit. We were just going with what we saw and what people told us, and then we'd apply it to what we could do, and then we'd figure it out. Yeah, and then come up with your own way of doing this. Yes. Yeah. You create your own vibe or how you can do it. And if you were lucky to be in a studio with great engineers or great people, you learn, I mean, Jason was my second, Jason Roberts. he did a lot of your guys roberts yeah he bought he bought a mac off of me he went straight to sample selling i think he did like your second or third album on that computer yeah and uh he was a great learning engineer but he was already getting on another level yeah yeah you know he's great and he was just a beast definitely man you know he was young he was nervous because we were to stress him the fuck out. You know what I mean? A lot. We stressed all the engineers out. But he was there and he wanted to do it. That's the key to it, that you're there and you want to do it. You want to learn and absorbing it. And then putting the work into developing your shit of it. And the knowledge. You've got to read. Back then we didn't again, we couldn't go on Google. You had to go find a motherfucking book Or find someone who knew the shit You were on the internet You had to meet someone Yeah And if they were going to take the time to show That part Why should I show this motherfucker I showed everybody everything Everything I could show them And whoever wanted to do it, did it Julio wanted to do beats, beats DJing from the beginning He was already knowing how to DJ but I put them on another level. By the way, one of the dopest beats, Rhyme Fighter. Oh, you fucking smashed that shit right out of the park. That was a dope video. I think that was Ray too on there, right? Ray was on there and that was the beginning. You were still in the hip-hop breaking shit too. The whole scene of it all. That was fun to make, bro. That's dope. I was going to ask you, Tony, talking about Radiotron, because there was some time ago that there was somebody that was going to do some sort of documentary on Radiotron. Right. I think you remember this. And my question is, do you think that the real story of West Coast hip-hop has been told like it has been with the East Coast? You know, we know their history. but I don't know that we have our clear history. Yeah, I wish he would have been here. I wish Tony would have been here when we had KRS went here and he was trying to learn, like, the origins of West Coast hip-hop. Well, I bought him here. Yeah. And Scott LaRocque was a friend of mine. I remember that. So he did his first show, World on Wheels, with me. I remember Jesse Jess was fronting, doing his song before he came to them. Jesse was doing everything, bro. Jesse was jack and tracks. He was jacking tracks. He was doing, my name is Jesse Jensen. But dang. Right. But that thing. I remember that. He'd come doing South Bronx. Yeah. Yeah. But that thing is like the story of the origins of West Coast hip-hop, which I know that you are definitely there. Definitely a part of, yeah. But there's a story before me of what West Coast hip-hop was. Right. Before I got on radio and was able to expose a different type of hip-hop. And that story is the West Coast scene. Yeah. You know that the rapping was horrendous. Nobody could rap a fucking Christmas present even if they had to. Because they didn't have access to it yet. Right. They hadn't heard all the stuff that was going on. And then the flow. It was more militant. It might have been a guy coming from the East Coast and planting himself here. I know, I mean, no, whoever heard like King Tim or even Tina Marie rapping on, you know, those songs, they did their version. It was more militant. And then the barrier had like Captain Rap. Yeah. People like that, that it was more that it was the stories were dope because those people were living in the hoods. But then everybody wanted to be a rapper and motherfuckers would rap like everybody else. And it was just, you know, Tidy T, dope, Spade. But Spade had that Southern influence. Yeah. That singing and rapping. I feel like he was like the way Nate Dogg was a little bit. Oh, definitely. I mean, yeah. Before Nate Dogg. Absolutely. Absolutely. And he, you know, the wave, the caddy, the El Dorado. All that. On the streets. And he didn't hit any hood. It didn't matter. He just rolled, whatever. And he could go up there and perform. He was an entertainer. There wasn't that many. It was a new craft. everybody wanted to do it and then what people were rapping about they were just rapping but the beats were too electronic-y they didn't get the turntable thing they didn't have the layers in that they didn't have the language bro they didn't know what the fuck to do they didn't know that you had to have two breaks and who the fuck knew how to do that that's the first time they saw people false rapping on my first radio show But Wrecking Crew Studios, first time they saw an MC rap with a DJ going back and forth. Making the beat. They've never seen that. Yeah. Because they only played instrumentals and scratched over one side. They didn't have that knowledge because they didn't grow up seeing that. Right. They didn't have the access. No access. Yeah. They had no idea that that's how that went. You basically were giving them the access to it, those that were around you. Well, they had no idea what the fuck we were doing. And then we're looking at it going, and then I'm doing shit behind my back, under my legs, while Frost is emceeing. Because I showed Frost how to never break time. Right. And when I drop out and mute. Keep on going. Keep going. He learned that. Yeah. Because he could rap. You know what I mean? That was his thing. He was young, but he could rap. He could rap, yeah. He could fucking. And then when I schooled him to that, oh, never. Just whatever I do. And if I drop another one, just keep rapping. Yeah. And change your flow. And go with it. So that's why he was successful in going. We would go to shows everywhere and fucking car shows. Yeah, kill it. Anywhere we went, nobody can rap like that. People rap good. You know, there were some rappers that could do their thing, but not like that. Yeah. Because he wasn't really from here either. He's a military baby. So he was around. You know, he was around people and shit. So he had exposure to music. You know what I'm saying? and an opie and a performing type vibe he didn't have that turntable shit yet he had to he had to catch on to that yeah yeah oh don't fucking stop yeah and when i'm doing it there's nothing wrong i'm doing it so you can emphasize yeah keep rapid and bam yeah he got it yeah you gotta be able to get that and so when i when i planted julio to go dj with him they did a little magic out there And that was great. They were able to make that pop all over the world. Yeah. But being from the West Coast, people weren't expecting that when we went to the East Coast. And Julio brought that shit to the Cypress set. Yeah, absolutely. He'd be doing fucking dope-ass drops. Oh, man. And pieces of songs. Yeah. And pieces of hits that were hits from other songs from the instrumental just to get the vibe for the people rolling for the mood. From the mood. And then go into your shit and kill it and how to set that up. There's a way to do that. And if you ain't around people that know how to do that, it ain't going to work for you. Yeah, you have to have some sort of influence, some sort of point of reference. You got to be with people that are the shit. And listen, that is real shit, because the way I learned how to DJ was watching. Right. Some of the best DJs do their thing. The way I learned to play percussion is watching Bobo. Right. And then, like, you know, asking him questions like, hey, what about this? Right. and, you know, just soaking up that information. So I used to go to – That rest works for all things, though. You can apply that to anything. Oh, the discipline. You've got to have the discipline. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, definitely the discipline. Well, I was going to say Sherman Square Rural Ring, I would take my bongos, my percussion, my congas, and I would DJ, and sometimes when some of the DJs be DJing, I'd be doing percussion. Yeah. You know, at that time That's how I met like unknown and stuff Because he would see me doing stuff like that I would take my drum machine to the Radiotron And play instrumentals from my drum machine Scratch over them And rappers would rap on it And one day he saw it was a drum machine He was like oh shit you make beats Yeah You know that what I do I make some beats at home but I didn have anybody yet to do anything like that and that what put me into that level of production, to get into it. But, watching you and Julio rock the stage with the DJ and the percussionists getting down and being organized in sync with a routine, that's the shit, bro. Yeah, yeah. I love that. You know, it's bringing the true roots of hip-hop, the percussionists. And that didn't happen until Julio came with us. Because, you know, what we were doing before was when he was teaching me how to play percussions, we'd go up there and do a simple routine. Right. And it all came from that, like from the percussion. And then when Julio came in and saw what we were doing, he started adding to it. Right. And then, like, it just became a fucking thing. Oh, those solos going back and forth with him and Bobo, and then you jumping in. It's just dope. It was fun. It was fun. It was a hell of a show. It gave people a different experience in our live set that no other groups were doing at that time. They still don't do shit like that, at least in hip hop. In front of how many people, be real? 150,000? Maybe more? It's hard to keep. A hundred more. probably more yeah more to a hundred something thousand people getting to see that yeah from west coast dudes yeah from west coast oh yeah we gave them the experience and again you know like that all stemmed from like in the beginning the origins of of what you showed all of us as as we were young bucks coming up into the game and what was possible and where we could go yeah right with if we just didn't give a fuck what anybody else says, just be ourselves and go. Be unique. Be ready to work. Being unique. Yeah, and be ready to work. Yeah. Tirelessly. You know, that's the shit we all inherited from you, you know what I mean? Like, some of us are like, we don't stop working. We're constantly pushing. You know what impressed me, though? One time we were doing the Latin Alliance record, I think it was. I'm not sure. Plus the second album, something like that. And I remember you were there. I was like, is B.B. going to be on the record today? I wasn't sure because I had booked the studio. Then B came, A. Tony, going to talk to you for a second? He said, bro, I got some paperwork from shit that I wrote, and I just need you to sign this off to me. Of course. And I was like, oh, fuck. He learned. But this is, bro, you were young. Yeah. You didn't even have your own record out yet, bro. You know what it is? we were able to see what Frost and Mello were doing. Right. You know, the right things and then the one, the things they made. And they didn't know. And the things they didn't know and possibly made mistakes on it here and there. Huge. And we just took note of that. We all made huge, because we didn't fucking know. Because no one knew. But you guys had, at that time, you guys were able to get great management. Yeah. The management that knew B-Roll, when I saw you on High Times, bro when I saw Saipa, it's a wrap we knew there oh, they're over there now they ain't coming back they won't be home for a minute I'm talking about at the beginning because the records were dope that was a big deal the records were dope and all that but it still, it was hip-hop not that many people were in a certain place when you start to stretch spread it out like that that was it I was like, oh, yeah, this shit is on another level. That was the concept of me trying to do some rock, me trying to be creative, having a group that would sell that because there were smokers, there were stoners. Imagine rappers, stoners doing rock and roll. Yeah. That was the idea. But nothing would have worked out if it wasn't like how Muggs created it with his sound for you guys. Yeah. Because I'm sure you were getting beats or trying to rap another shit and nothing sounded like. It was basically doing shit with him from day one. Basically, going from the first evolution of the first wave of music and then into the second wave where he's got a whole different understanding. I think the Bomb Squad were a big influence on him. And Julio too, because him and Julio were friends. Yeah, and I think he was listening to what Molly Ma was doing and shit like that and figured out his link in between all that. Yeah, his thing. His stuff. And, yeah, I mean, we just stuck with that from day one. We didn't get any outside beats or anything. It was to his shit because. Why fuck the magic up? Yeah, we're like, well, look, if we're a group and this is his end in the group, we have to trust him like he trusts us. and we have to be honest with him like he's going to be brutally honest with us. You know what I mean? But you got to see the mistakes. And that's what made it work. Yeah, but we saw, like, the mistakes before us, and then we made some of our own mistakes, as every artist does. But, you know, we had a head start in watching, you know, what Mello and Frost were going through because we were so close to them. You know what I mean? At a high level. Yeah. Because we had major, bro, Mello was with Delicious. Yeah. I took him to Capitol. Yeah. He was on Delicious. Yeah, he was on Delicious vinyl, yeah. I was like, we ain't doing Delicious. They ain't got that kind of money for what I want to do. Let me go work this. Yeah. And we did. Yep. We got him a deal on Capitol Records. And that was around the time when you were like, that's when you came. We were working on something probably for Mello. And he said, Tone, I wrote this and this and this. Escape from Havana. Escape from Havana. And then you were like, Tone, I wrote this and this. It's a sign off. there you go that's what you gotta do cause I didn't know bro I got paid $1300 a song to do Mellow's album fuck that after that release bro went up nowhere near that dog $1300 was lunch you know what I'm saying their budgets were fat Frost's budgets were fat you know and the videos were what record budgets are now. It's a different time. Yesterday's price is not today's price. Man. Word up. Salute to everybody watching this right now. Let's go ahead and open up the doors to the insane asylum. That means, y'all, if you've got a comment, question, shout-out, suggestion, we are here for it. You know what I'm saying? Let's pop it. welcome to the insane asylum all right uh loved him killers is saying uh please ask tony g how and when did he meet easy and can he share a couple of stories about him oh i met easy doing a local tv show in east la it was one of those local things so Dre and the group they didn't have NWA yet Dre came down and told me he's working on an album with this kid Eazy-E he comes into my bus he knew I had a badass Alpine in my VW bus 18s let me bump it, let me play it for you so I got to hear some of the stuff right oh that shit is dope me and dre are friends we caked it whatever oh i gotta go inside to do my show i'm gonna try to tell my boy's supposed to do a lot easy to try to get in there i walk in and easy e singing we shall overcome because the dude treated him like what the fuck are you doing here right and how'd you get in here and he just started going we should he was singing it inside the fucking studio real loud and dude didn't know he's like hey motherfucker this kid he's with a group you know they're a new group there he's trying to get a he thought he was just a gang banger or something and how'd you get in here yeah type shit and he was he was like that dog he just call you on some he wouldn't get money he would just start singing we shall he was slick he was slick dog he was sharp super duper sharp and that was my first encounter with And then at World on Wheels, at our events, at the end of the event, whatever was going on, whatever was popping, he would be parked outside. Because people were, the mystique of him, was he 14, was he 15 years old? Yeah, that's right. Is he a little kid? That's what really made him a big deal. Like, how old is he? He was a grown man. But he looked young. He dressed young. Yeah. And then when they got their first deal, everybody got Suzuki Samurai. so they would park him in front of the in front of the spots those sidekicks and the samurai yeah the sidekicks and the samurai yeah I mean that was Samurai's number one buyer dog I would imagine I see them rolling shit rims and everything hell yeah looking smooth as shit yeah Eric's a good dude man he was a very rest in peace to the legend Legendary. Learned a lot with that dude. Worked with him for a long time. You know. I was the staff producer. I had the masters. Ruthless Radio too, right? Yeah. Ruthless Radio. He's the one that meets me. We'll go back on the radio. We didn't want to go back on the radio, bro. I said, come on. We had the tour tables on the floor. We had to plug him in. And he shows up at 8, 9 in the morning. I went to Tower Records yesterday. I bought you on some records. I got some needles. We need to make a demo tape for this radio. We were like, the beat? The fuck is the beat? And then we would hear it sometimes, and then we were hearing, at that time, Michelle's, I think she was dating. Michelle S? Yeah, Michelle S, his boyfriend at the time. He was the DJ. I forgot his name that would DJ before we even got, he was Theo's DJ, and he would be there. He was a Hispanic kid. Yeah, who was that? Joe something. Biden. No. No. Joe something, I forgot his name. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about. Yeah. I fucking can't remember. Because they're all from the Bay Area. They're all from the Bay, yeah. They're all from the Bay. So he took a demo over there. We went over to have a meeting with them, and he was late. And then me and Julio, they called us into the office. We sit there, and they hand me a contract. And Julio sit with me. I mean, Julio was my road dog. Whatever I said, it was going to crack. I looked at the shit and then I said, yeah, well, I was like, Eric's name's not on here, bro. No, we're trying to move a different direction. We really want you guys because you guys are the real radio dudes. You're the legends. I'm looking at them going, wait a minute. We came here because of Eric and you want us to sign a contract with you without Eric? Yeah. I can't do that. And I said, hold on, let me talk to you. Let's go outside real quick. No, this can't. Go down like this, bro. Call Eric. Call the office and tell him that this shit is going down right now. All right, Tom. Got on the pay phone right there. Because they had the pay phone. Remember that little pay phone? Yep. Got on that pay phone, call the office. Easy was there in 30 minutes. You motherfuckers, you know. They couldn't believe that we did. They thought we were going to sell out. Yeah. The person that brought us to come do something with them. Right. You know, we're like, nah, that ain't going to happen. It didn't, and it didn't. Yeah. We went on with Eric. And Eric was the man. And that's where he brought Bone Thugs in Harmony. He played Thugger Shruggish. And he knew what he was doing, man. Yeah. And he had the money and the confidence. Yeah. He could do it. Salute to the great Eazy-E. That's a long-ass Eazy-E story, though. That's all right. That's educating people about who my man was right there. That's right. All right. We got a footage sent in of Tony G at the DJ table back in the day. Oh, it looks like it, especially that wooden grip. That wooden grip and then that little silver one with that. So those were 32s back in the day. And then the handles were breaking. And we used to have to make, no, there were 32s, that little silver handgun with the wooden, with the wood. The .380s were real big too. Oh, yeah, the .380s. Oh, the 38. But the 38 specials were hairpin, triggers, six shooters, of course, Smith & Wesson. You had to stick to the real brand. That's an old clip. He pulls a shotgun out to it. Yeah. Pulled out a heligone. That's what we were notorious for was our sawed-offs. So that's got pistol grip on Ice's album. That's my pistol grip that Darlene's holding on that album. Because I carried that to every event. That was everybody knew. Don't leave home without that one. Don't leave home without that one. You know what I'm saying? Not back in that time. Got a good spread. Well, that's the one to get you out of the parking lot. Yeah. Because all you had to do was let off and just blow one of the lights out. Yeah, just the sound of it. And the sound and everybody. Yep. Like Roach. Go. Yep. That was the way to get out. That's right. Mason's asking, Tony G and the table, did you guys ever listen to Wolfman Jack back in the day? Well, yeah, when I was a kid. And was he like an influence to any of you guys? No, we were little kids. Yeah, I know. I mean, we knew who he was because he was on television all the time, and he was in movies, and he was part of my childhood. He was more of a personality. Right. But we didn't listen to him per se. We just wanted to hear whatever was on the radio. And then everybody had records. You played your records at home. I just knew him as being the host sometimes for the Midnight Special. That one. Yeah. That was it. And every now and then. That was the guy. And every now and then hosted a show on KRLA. Yes. A show that I saw. Yes. Yes. And he was on KD originally. Yeah. Oh, he was. He's an OG from KD in the 1960s, I believe. Oh, wow. He was one of the OGs on the original KD. On that station. Yeah. On that station, because that station was designed early because of the World War II era, the bombings. so that station was on the ground and it's AM so it could travel you couldn't hear it in Almonte? It's like surface so AM goes up and down so it hit up and down so you could hear Katie in Georgia but you couldn't hear it in Almonte. Wow. So if you went into the mountains a lot of AM stations you would pick up stations all over the world. Some people would pick up Katie in Japan. Yeah. At night time they would have to turn on the wattage, and it was only there for the safety of the United States of America, because that's the only way they can get to everyone was on AM radio. On AM radio, yeah. To be able to announce, okay, everybody hit the shelters. Yeah. That station was underground. Wow. It looked on top. That's why it doesn't have the outreach of the way FM has. Well, it had a better outreach because the signals, the reason you could hear it around, so it takes about 100,000 watts, okay? It was 100 thousand watts. So you could reach America from one end to the other with K-Day. They just couldn't interfere because there's nothing in the way. So when FM comes out, now the waves are sideways. So now when you went under the bridge, the radio didn't cut out. Hence, why when you listen to satellite radio, when you go under the bridge, the shit cuts out. Because you're getting it from up there. It's getting blocked. FM, that was just shit. It was the Because wherever you were going, your music wasn't getting interrupted underneath bridges. The tunnels, you'd get fucked. In New York, like Midtown Tunnel, you'd lose everything. Yeah, yeah. FM, AM, once you get fucked. Because it's so thick. And you're underwater. Exactly, you're underwater. You're so thick. Right. So AM was designed for war. It's like a big, giant CB antenna. So that's why you could hear AM all parts of the world, except for where, depending on how it was mounted. FM, you can't. Yeah. Because once it hits a mountain, it's a wrap. It's done, yeah. Right. Word up. OG Tone is saying, yo, got to meet and give props to the K-Day Mix Master Tony G while DJ Cilos Mr. Chalk's birthday bash at Boomtown Brewery. Man, likewise. Thank you. That was a jam. That was a jam session. Everybody got down. Everybody got down. Big shout out to Kodiak. Thank you so much for the super chats. He's saying, yo, it's the hip-hop hour. That's right. That's right. Man, I got to take a leak. Word up. Go ahead and do that. We'll get to the rest of these real quick. And Bobo got me blowed the fuck out. He's attacking me from the east side. I'm here, and I'm putting the hand down and everything. Oops. I did it again. Oops. He did it again. All right. William's asking, you'll be real. Yeah. Did you and Bobo see any UFOs on this last tour run? I did not. No. Yo, did you see what I sent you guys in the chat about the TMZ fucking dude? I sent it with the aliens. Let's see it real quick. Yeah, TMZ. You can go to the clip from TMZ and basically a dude saying that officially that they've had meetings. Beings and craft. Official. You know. Yeah. That they've had meetings. that basically they've interacted with not just spacecraft, but space beings for years already. TMZ popped it. So, you know, they did their research. TMZ doesn't put out bullshit. You're talking about this dude right here? Yeah. Yeah. Yep. We've made contact. Yeah, it was kind of crazy. I was like, oh, shit. Tim Burshit. Bullshit. I said bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. I haven't seen that. I think that's the first time I've seen it, but I will definitely check it out. All right. What do you think about that, Steftone? Bullshit. Smoker in here saying, yo, big shout out to you guys. Got Strong Tone and Blaze on a Wednesday now. Hell yeah. And usually E's on too, so Wednesday's going to be crazy. F-Way is asking the table, where would you guys rather live, in Miami or Los Angeles? LA. All day. All day. I like Miami, but I love LA. For the weather, I'm going to say California. Yeah, Miami's a great town. Love California. Yeah, I like Miami. But the rain, bugs, and humidity can go fuck itself. Yeah, that. I'll agree. Utah Hawk up in here saying, I remember back in the radio days, people used to request a song for their lady. Yeah. On KRLA, the fucking... They still do. It would be the... It would be fucking loud. All the gangsters in L.A. Yeah. This is going from Becky from Chato. I'm your puppet. Yeah. All the way in El Monte. El Monte Correctional. El Monte Correctional. Yeah. Yeah, because they be reading the love letters from people in Penelope. Yeah. You know, to the Jaina. That's still every Sunday. True that. How about the Art LeBeau? Art LeBeau. That's all from El Monte. Rest in peace, Art LeBeau. Those shows were all in El Monte. All those shows. Those shows are still running. Art LeBeau used to come to the Rainbow on the weekends with his companion. Really? Or companions. Partners. Partners. Yeah. It'd be like super young chicks. Imagine how many years. His office was right down the street. Oh, no shit. Right down the street. They've been there for years. It just showed his record label and his name, but it was always close. Yeah. Yeah, I always noticed that. It was always close. Dude would go to sleep at like 6.30. Doggy was already getting hit in that age, so 6, 7 o'clock. Out. Out. So anything you want to do with Art LeBow, you had to do really early. Early in the fucking morning. And he would go to sleep. Yeah. But, you know, imagine how many years he's been hitting. That he had been working. Yeah, man. Late nights. Around there in that area. I mean, he bought a lot of publishing. True that. He bought a lot of people's publishing. A lot of those oldies he was running. That's his publisher. That was the marketing. He was marketing the shit he was owning on that radio station. That was genius. Yep. All right. We have a Medicine and Mason in here asking any ghost stories from Tony G or any experience with anything paranormal. Too many. We could be here for days on that one, dog. Yeah, I've had a few pretty deep. Yeah. Yeah. I figured that. Yeah, I mean, I'm a Paulo priest since the 80s. I got initiated in Abacoa religion in 1978. So I've seen my share of what people say called paranormal. Paranormal, yeah. You know, whatever they want to call it. But, yeah. It's stuff we deal with. Every day. Sure. It is what it is. I already knew the answer to that, but, you know, they. Every Wednesday was my day to, dedicated to ancestors and to everything. I studied religion from great people, learned a lot. People from the Bay and people from L.A. and in New York City growing up from my country, of course. Yeah. So, you know, I just kept always that private for me. Yeah. You know, it's my thing. I had a botanica. I used to do, when I moved to California, my aunt had a really big church in Armani, a spiritual church. And there'd be hundreds of people there every Friday. So anytime I'd get out of, I was in junior high, eighth grade, after the dance or something on Friday, I would have to go there and then do Olympias and there'd be a hundred people. I was young. You were learning it early. Early, early. Yeah. So I would be there 14 years old doing misas, big misas with hundreds of people. She was gifted from a couple from Spain, a giant St. Lazarus, San Lázaro. It was like six foot one. So my uncle built a glass mini house for him in the back because they had a huge property. so every year on St. Lazarus birthday hundreds and hundreds of people used to come and be in line to leave something and ask for promesa for their lives and their sickness she was very well known and that church had been around for a long time they started in Pico Rivera from Pico Rivera to Almonte and Pomona too, I think, but Pico Rivera. Then in Almonte, that church, it was a big property. And every Friday, that's what. And then I would go with her. I was the assistant to go wherever, you know, when she'd do house calls to prepare all the herbs, prepare everything that needed to be done. And that was my job. And I learned every day doing that. You saw shit early on. Yeah. Word up. All right. uh musen here in the super chat saying uh good morning guys great guest b question is a true cypress still pulled out of the migusta fest uh yeah we're we're not doing that one at this point and uh you know we'll talk about it later professor mcappiness is saying salute to the table yo cali blaze the community is starving when are we getting some new heat actually these live resin pens are live on the site right now pictures are going up in about an hour or two but But those are live, and then we'll have new drops coming Thursday, Friday. Ray Pretender in here saying, big ups to Tony G. I love hearing the behind-the-scenes stories of music and artists. Thank you for dropping gems. Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in, shit. It's the highest show in the world right here. True that. It is. And that seems to be it so far. Word up. We want to thank everybody for getting down with us today, being part of the morning show. and for the questions and comments and all that. And we want to thank the legendary Tony G. Man, it's an honor. Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. It's an honor having you here with us. Good time, good company. Everybody, you know, everybody's super cool. You're one of those guys that served as a pioneer here and an inspiration. And the one thing about you that's different than others in your part in time of contributing to hip-hop is that you always kept current, even to this day. Like, you know, some unfortunately, you know, sort of fall behind or fall off and don't have the connection anymore. But you're different. I mean, you're still pioneering. pioneering all the soulies that i recorded that shit's cracking it's been cracking for a couple of years now and and and that shit is the shit that inspires motherfuckers like me like watching you like seeing like okay the guy that we looked up to is still fucking rocking it on the highest level with the people from the streets and and we got to be doing that too you know to serve you right like the the guys that you taught indirectly and directly like well we're you know what i'm We're all blessed, man. And we all respected each other and really appreciate what everyone did. Everyone, Dallas made it. I mean, we made it. It's good. You know how hard it is to say that? Yeah. We followed the good example. Follow the good example, son. That's what you do, son. You follow the good example like a man like Tony G follow. I appreciate that. You know what I'm saying? I wanted to do it. That's all. no plan. I just wanted to do it. Discipline and apply everything you have to practice. Learn your craft. You don't learn your craft. It's too much competition. Yeah. Any shout outs you want to give? Man, shout out to Be Real TV, of course. Thank you, sir. You know, I really appreciate it. Shout out to all the artists that I'm working with right now. I got my boy Eastside Dodger that I'm fucking with right now. My boy Hoodster from the Wilmington area. He's popping now. Got some Soldi releases that'll be coming out soon with Mariah Avila and a few other artists. Johnny David. The Soldi's Lounge is over in Rialto downtown where you can see all the old school groups, bro. Go play there live. And of course, my boy Kiki at the Hennessy Lounge. And my brother, Hoojeezy, that I know he's working every day grinding because he works. Yes, he does. He don't give a fuck. He works. Always has. Applies his discipline to everything that he does. Yeah. Much love. And to anybody, man, that even tuned in, everybody that tuned in, I really appreciate the questions. Right on. And thank you. It's all love, all day, always. Bobo. I appreciate it. All right. um because everybody here at the table tony g has been an honor to even have you here uh personally i'd like to say before it's all said and done you and i would be dope to have a uh a dj percussion session oh man you know it doesn't have to be on the stage it doesn't have to just let's do it this this dude's a legend we could do it here if you'd come back and do it here Oh, my God. I'm down. You don't have your conglomerate. I'm a little bent from the arthritis. It's turning everything. No, no. I'm not too far behind you. But, yeah, we can do whatever you want. Shit. I'm down. That turntable's here. I know you do. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, we'll do whatever. And we'll do a switch up and turntable, percussion. Oh, man. Yeah. I play everything. I know you do. Yeah. Everything. Let's have some fun with that. Do you know any bass players, guitar players? I got a whole garage full of them. I'll bring those, too. You name it, I bring it And big ups to the People up top Treehouse crew All the people that checked out the show Thank you very much And we'll see you next time Snacks and I, we say Bolton Yo, yo, shout out the Insane Asylum Shout out to Ray Mornichatfilm Shout out to The Dominator What up, Strong? Yeah, shout out Mark Sargent, Karen B David Weiss, Kelly Blaze, B Tony G, it's very nice to meet you, man Pleasure Bobo, C-Minus, E-Zone, Bolton, Ray Red Morning Shot Films, Taron of Ellenhammer, Dominator, thanks for the ride this morning, Eitan, Javi Lopez, and all y'all in the asylum. Have a great week. Catch you all on Friday. Shout-out to everybody at the table. Tony, nice chopping it up with you. Pleasure. If you're in Southern California on 420, if you're not, get to Southern California. Join us in the Be Easy, bring it back, 420 event. Be easy to be there, myself, up the hill, Gotti, a lot of big brands. So, see you on 420. Much love. LAFC, undefeated. Swallow that. Ouch! Yeah, boy.