In 2000, when my cousin, Daniel was visiting from London, we had gone to Ralphs Market to buy some groceries and I bumped into Omari George who had told me a studio is in the making and I should come on down and get it going. I had rented an old store and converted it to a recording studio on Washington Blvd. in Los Angeles. The whole idea was to groom some inner city kids as hip hop artists, disc jockeys, dancers and other forms of entertainment in Hollywood. And that's how Seth "School Boy" Hall was hired to produce for Samaka and Deswab Studios. This interview was conducted after The Crews debut in 2005. Part of this interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you get into all this production stuff?
Man, you know I have been trying to do music long time ago before hip hop became the real deal. When I was a kid, hip hop ain’t big so we listened and played R&B all the time in our house. And growing up in the hood, it got to be tough. You have to be strong to get your shit right. I use to visit studios around LA and Compton a lot and I’ll be buying time to put my stuff on tape. I do my stuff, make some change and head to the studio to make my beats because it is the real shit.
What is the real “shit”?
Rap music…hip hop, that’s what I am saying.
When you talk about hip hop and rap music, I’m not sure if that is appropriate considering the time; unless we are talking about going with the flow with fast-changing musical genres. Rap music was not officially born until 1979 when Sugar Hill Gang came up with “Rapper’s Delight,” and now the rest is history. How did you come up with the idea of producing rap music and what is generally known now as hip hop?
Well, Los Angeles has a great performance culture and the music really got to change as the flow goes…you see what I’m saying and you feel me? Moreover, Sugar Hill Gang which been around since the late 70s ain’t nothing new and that’s old school, bro, you feel me? I like Sugar Hill Gang though but rap ain’t come from East Coast. You and I know the best rappers are the ones that lived on the Westside, bro, and who rapped more than 2Pac…. This East-Coast-West-Coast gangbanging shit is all about the recording companies and how they compete and make their own money. ID came up with Deswab Studios, you came up Samaka Music and The Crew popped up, and an album was released. And we been underground all the time putting our little stuff together. And you and ID been doing a whole lotta stuff for us in the studio helping us put all the shit together. We want you guys to continue. Give us the opportunity and we not gonna fail. You see what I am saying?
I consider Tupac Shakur one of the new generation of rappers after Sugar Hill Gang, Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Flash and the list goes on and on when rap became the trend. Why are you bent on Tupac and not mentioning rap’s origin?
Tupac was a great teacher. A great guy. He was well educated and this teacher side of him heated all the stuff up and that stuff were all in constant conflict. You’d expect that someone would come from the ghetto, raised in the hood and know no damn thing and eventually assume gentility, keeping listeners on edge including the opposite, the politicians. They listened to him but with his nature he died violently. He had character. He had guts and he gang banged. He had talent. You see what I am saying?
Let’s talk about The Crew. Where are you folks going with it? I mean not much has been done and I am beginning to get worried about the fights, the women, alcohol and all that weed smoking stuff. It bothers me and how do you plan to keep these things in check?
A lot comes with life in the studio, bro. It is a challenge and it is like this initiation stuff we all have to go through like a ritual. It is a competition. The girls got to do their stuff and do their thing. You feel me? The guys like Leo, J J, Ali Baba, Charles, Joe Morgan all got to do their thing. Even Joe who makes beats, mixing and shit like that got to do his thing. Ain’t nothing wrong with that. Gangsta rap started from Compton and the following is big, bro!
But the West Coast rap as a following is not the ideal of how it all began. Easy E, NWA and that entire gangsta rap makes it unsafe for the kids in the hood which ends up learning the bad way. Do you think the kind of rap you are advocating is good for society?
It all depends on what you mean, bro. For a while, you know West Coast rap was the bomb and it tipped the continent that way. When NWA say ‘fuck you,’ they want you to understand how they feel and what they are saying is you have to learn how to understand them; and when they say ‘fuck you’ they mean no harm but to learn their way. You feel me? Like we say in the studio ‘what’s up my nigga’? we mean no harm, bro. All we are showing is love. You know what I’m saying?
“What’s up, my nigga” depicts street jargon and shouldn’t influence a breakthrough both in the underground and mainstream rap in today’s highly competitive music business. Don’t you think so?
Nah! I don’t think so King Ambrose. 2Pac, Ice Cube, NWA, Yoyo, Ice T all had gangster roots. They have ghetto roots. They were all on the streets from one time to another and look at what they did. Ice Cube and 2Pac they are gangster rappers and successful filmmakers and actors. See what they did. One from the hood in Compton and the other from the jungle…Survival, man! You know what I am saying? It gows with the territory and that’s why we The Crew keep pushing it.
Pushing what?
The underground way. One day we are going to blow up. You know what I am saying.
Last week while we hanged out at the Viper Room in Hollywood, you guys sneaked out to inhale some stuff. I thought you stopped.
When you’re 15 and you start smoking weed every single day and don’t let up for years…I began to struggle with severe depersonalization, where nothing seems real. You know what I am saying? You don’t think you are actually alive. You basically meltdown the DNA of your personalities. It took me years to figure out why I would still want to exist, let alone function in front of others. That recovery will always be part of The Crew story.
Did you check into a rehab?
Well, never, really. The day you disassemble your psyche on weed is the first day of the rest of your life. Weed is good for the soul. It is a religious agent. It’s not for abusing, it’s for learning. To this day I’m still trying to piece together my mind. Mine is not a cautionary tale. It’s something I will do again. It’s like destroying oneself to find out what’s at the bottom. You know what I’m saying?
Was it more than just weed?
Yeah, you try everything, and almost systemically. Luckily I was never addicted to anything that totally destroyed me, because that, in itself, is completely boring and has nothing to do with good art. You’re merely trying to push yourself around, see what’s already going on in you that are obscured now. A sober mindset can be one of the biggest enemies in your life. I’m scared of sober people. I think they actually a dangerous entity.
How did your father end up living in Watts?
There’s a move called Scarface that explains the story of what happened in Watts. All of Freeway Ricky drug money came through there, but before that it was a hippie jungle and my dad…I was so young, I don’t know what he was doing, but there is one amazing story where he accidentally brought an international diamond thief posing as Al B Sure into the country. My dad was living with Cynthia at the time and she fell in love with the thief. That said, I’m probably not even supposed to say what the other families around me were doing. I was baby-sat by these people.
