It’s crazy how an area that is so imitated can be so overlooked in the grand scheme of things. That is the case for the San Francisco Bay Area’s Hip-Hop scene. Whether it’s the slang that has been borrowed by the masses or the independent game that made virtual unknowns millionaires, the Bay is all about setting trends. One of the major players in setting those trends is Messy Marv. After being critically acclaimed and street certified for ten years in the game, Messy Marv is ready to take his career to a higher level. Allhiphop.com: The new album Disobayish is doing very well. How does it feel to be back grinding with renewed focus? Messy Marv: It feels good homie, I been grinding, I ain’t never went nowhere AllHipHop.com: Yeah but the radio play and the media support is heating up now like it never has before with the murder dog cover and the Source story and whatnot. MM: I just went down to the radio stations and the magazines and was real sincere with them. I deserve this so I came at it with that approach. AllHipHop.com: With your albums you bring sincerity to the game of saying what’s on your mind and your heart regardless of what people may think. Do you think the music industry is ready for that? MM: Actually man, when you dealing with underground artists, that’s always been there. The game been dealing with it since the NWA’s and the "f**k the Police" days. It just depends on if a muthaf**ka’s gon’ be scary or not. It’s a lot of scared muthaf**ka’s out here that don’t want to deal with the real s**t and whether they like it or not they gon’ have to deal with it anyway. AllHipHop.com: What do you think needs to be done for the industry as a whole to shine more light on the rappers in the Bay Area? MM: Everybody just needs to stay consistent and come with the cream, the good dope. In the Bay Area what we’re known for is being pirates, everybody has their own label, we like an industry within ourselves and I hate to say [it but] it’s a lot of bulls**t coming out the Bay because everybody wants to be a rapper. Everybody’s been looking on the Bay Area because I’m hearing our slang and everything about the Bay in these other people’s lyrics and on they albums. The Bay has always been a major part in this music industry whether they like it or not. We trendsetters out here, its just that you don’t know if it came from The Bay Area because these other people have put it out on their songs and you think its coming from them, but all the time it came from here. AllHipHop.com: On your new album Disobayish, you are dissing 50 and Obie Trice. What made you even give them any light on your album? MM: As far as the Obie Trice situation I just took it real personal that that dude came down to my city of San Francisco, got on the radio station and said ‘the city showed him love but he had to walk around with his ass on the wall’ and made a joke like we was fa**ots or something, I took that real seriously. As far as 50, real ni**as speak on a situation like the J. Prince’s and the other real rap moguls of the industry and you see a dude live on TV dry snitching on another man’s company. We put snitches out there like that, and that’s always been a street thing, snitches don’t get no street credibility. So when you got real ni**as speaking on it, other real ni**as pick it up and speak on it too. It’s just like if you get your paperwork on a snitch ni**a, we put it out there like that, now everybody around town is talking about it. AllHipHop.com: After getting offers from major label’s what makes you continue to stay independent and do you ever plan on going the major label route? MM: It’s just going to take the paperwork making sense. In order for me to sign a deal its’ gotta be right. I’m not scared of that, I want that. AllHipHop.com: On the last few albums you always have songs relating to women that are a different vibe from your normal material. What makes you do that, are you looking for radio or is it just something that you just decided to put down? MM: It wasn’t the radio, because the radio really doesn’t support me anyway, the streets support me. It was just my maturity; it’s just a part of growing. AllHipHop.com: Unlike a lot of artists that aren’t on majors you have a lot of markets supporting you, how did you get that love? MM: It’s real man, I feel like the world is a ghetto and everybody goes through the same struggles and that’s why they pick up the tapes. They go through the same s**t I go through so of course they gon’ pick it up just like they pick up the Jay-Z’s and whoever else, they feel it. It’s funny, I went to New York and the hood really supported me like ‘yo this s**t is real and it ain’t too many real muthaf**kas coming up out The Bay Area like this and we could learn to love this and respect this.’ It was weird. I’m talking bout Cypress ni**as in the Cypress projects, Brownsville ni**as, Brooklyn ni**as was really like this is some real s**t. ni**as is sleeping on the Bay because it’s a lot of saturated weak ass s**t coming out The Bay so muthaf**kas ain’t even looking at it. AllHipHop.com: What is your take on the whole New Bay movement considering you fall into it a bit because although you’ve been putting it down for a long time, there are a lot of new fans peeping you […]

Finally, a battle that goes back to the roots of the battle – a title. T.I. called himself, “The King of the South,” and all across the southern states, MC’s took offense. Most notably, Houston’s Lil’ Flip stood up. In the last six months, T.I. returned from a bid, to reclaim his throne. In doing so, he and Flip have come toe to toe, running the rumor mill extra hard. The hearsay level is huge, and what might be beef, might also be a complete misunderstanding. Whatever the case, AllHipHop wanted to pick our boy T.I.’s brain. As his album stacks up sales, and in between his charities, we let T.I. reveal his perspective on just how the whole thing started. AllHipHop.com: You in the news homie, has it had any kind of effect on you? T.I.: I will say man I couldn’t have paid for this kind of publicity, this kind of promotion. So in this industry, I’ve been told by many people over and over again man, [that] all publicity is good publicity and all press is good press. When Peter Jennings from News Tonight called me, “One of the biggest rappers in the world,” it gotta be kinda positive. He used [it] in the midst of negativity. AllHipHop.com: I was looking at CNN Friday and they had the story about you doing an unauthorized video and the tried to make it look negative, but you know how they do, you wanna tell me about that? T.I.: To make a long story short, I went to shoot some footage in a Florida County Jail, one of the jails I had been in for weeks from these past few months, when I’ve been away from the scene. I went to shoot a video and at the same time I was shooting the video, an inmate escaped, so you know, that was a pretty big deal. AllHipHop.com: Do you think it would have been a major issue her maybe not got escaped from there? T.I.: It wouldn’t have been a major issue. AllHipHop.com: Was it hard for you to get clearance to do that? T.I.: It wasn’t necessarily hard, it was just a matter of asking someone and them asking someone an waiting on them to [approve] and that was that. AllHipHop.com: So is it a video that we are going to see? T.I.: It was actually an introduction to my show at Birthday Bash, which was the big major concert by one of the major radio stations in Atlanta, 107.9, but you know deputies, sheriffs and what not where kinda guarding the teleprompter and keeping me from playing it so it never got shown. But you know I’m not gonna let it go to waste, I got everybody from the news media, even Lyor Cohen [CEO of Warner Music, TI’s parent label] wants to see it. AllHipHop.com: Yeah I was hoping I would get a chance to see that there, because I heard some other things went down where you kinda barked at your boy Flip from Houston. What’s really good with that? T.I.: Yeah, me and that guy have an issue. Well, I have an issue with him. He steady tryna’ say he ain’t got an issues with me. Well then, I created an issue then if that’s how they wanna put it. I created one because while I was away, he was in Atlanta doing shows in several different venues man. [There] was one in Music Midtown, which is the concert that Z103, the other radio station in Atlanta got. In the middle of the shows, he would ask the people, “Who’s the king of the South?” and when my names mentioned he would tell them, “Well yeah, well tell that n*gga T.I,. I wrote this song for him and tell him I said game over,” and he do his song [Game Over] and this is while I’m locked up. I suppose he thought I was gonna be gone for a lengthy period of time and he wouldn’t have to see me and whatnot. And the n*gga just felt comfortable in my absence. So now that I’m back and out, the n*gga coping deuces talking ‘bout what he ain’t say and what he ain’t do, [saying how] he ain’t got no problem with me and it’s all a lie,’ man. I mean, he really insulted my intelligence ‘cause I know better. There were several people at all three events that saw what went on, not to mention that Music Midtown had him on tape. And at the show on prime time, he was tryna holla at some girls, who actually know me personally and he told them, “I run Atlanta, this my city. I’mma shut that n*gga T.I. down and just watch when I get onstage.” You know saying all that hating s**t and all while I’m locked up. I ain’t even know that n*gga. I ain’t never had no dealings with the n*gga’s projects. It’s a total contradiction. If you recall, he was just on the cover of The Source with J-Kwon, and the Young Gunz, and Cassidy and initially, before I turned myself in, I did a photoshoot for the cover, it was just me, him, and the Young Gunz. And so I guess they wanted to reshoot the cover while I got locked up and I couldn’t make it so they had Cassidy and J-Kwon to fill in. And on the n*gga’s remix, the n*gga say, “You know you mad cause I’m on the cover of The Source.” And in Houston on the radio, on the morning show mind you, he said he ain’t say nothing about me, he ain’t got no problem with me, but he telling them, “Yeah, I had that n*gga taken off the cover of The Source.” Now why would you have them take me off the cover of The Source then you wanna drop a song hating on me behind my back? Why would you do that, how is […]

Those that say the West Coast’s Hip-Hop is slippin’ just aren’t looking hard enough. Take The Strong Arm Steady Gang as a case study. The team of Xzibit, Mitchy Slick, Krondon and Phil Da Agony (and others) are running rampant on the streets out Left. They’ve managed to carve a niche as a unit and individually. As an individual, Krondon has stood out for his physical features as much as his ability to murder mics from Xzibit’s upcoming CD to the 2003 Anger Management Tour to his mixtapes that pilfer the streets. He’s already dumped the ‘Crack music’ mixtape, and with SAS (Strong Arm Steady), the D-Bo series of mixtapes, O-Dog series and True Crime. All of that Hip-Hop and a SAS DVD that was released earlier this year, read why Krondon is one MC that you should look out for. AllHipHop.com: How long have you been rhyming? Krondon: Seven or eight years, putting records out since 1997. AllHipHop.com: What about solo-wise? Krondon: And for me as a solo artist, I got this [album available in] Tower and Sam Goodie with the push and promos behind it. For me, it’s just a milestone. I’m happy to have been buzzing. We having been getting mad love – especially on the West Coast, because it’s home. As far as what we are doing, and the caliber of music we are doing, radio and all of that, [success] has been coming full force. AllHipHop.com: How did the group actually start? Krondon: It’s a real mini story, man. First, we were all friends, [then] artists that have [had] individual solo projects come out at separate times. Being on the West Coast, you already know the [small] amount of artists that got as far as Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog and Ice Cube… that got connections. X to the Z [has been an] exception. When you look at that, like that there’s a need and a hunger for a new platform and foundation for the West Coast for us four come out of, but for Hip-Hop. [We] live and walk along anonymously. When Dogg Pound is Tha Dogg Pound, West Side Connect is West Side Connection and Aftermath is Aftermath, we needed a new label and brand in the West Coast, that kids could attract to and aspire to be part of and that we, the artist could use as a vehicle to get us where we want and need to go. [We took] on the name of the label [as] Strong Arm Steady, we basically live by the name. By definition, to have a strong hold on the music industry from a street and corporate level, be consistent and or persistent with it, and to hold it steady and the word steady in slang means. We use that to describe, to be about it. The Strong Arms Steady we are about what we are about though.. With the release of the DVD, I really feel comfortable where X to the Z is at right now. I’m not comfortable where we are at around the world, so we have to move around the world to make it more less like a buzz; an uproar. It’s bigger than music. Think about all magazines with the N.W.A. family tree. It started with N.W.A. and it brought you to all the way to now: Post Death Row days that came from that tree, we don’t have enough “Rap Trees” growing in the West Coast. So, Strong Arm Steady is the new tree on the block that’s going to grow, we are going the have lots of branches growing from it. AllHipHop.com: How do you deal with the fact that members of SAS have varying rapping styles? Krondon: If the other members of the group like each other’s styles… Other groups have members doing solo projects they just work on one project. Only G-Unit, the Roc, Cam’ron and the Diplomats have members in their group doing solo projects, the West Coast rappers don’t do that. If we can trust each other, it can work in the music. AllHipHop.com: When is X’s album coming out? Krondon: The album is coming out soon. The album is called the Weapons Of Mass Destruction. AllHipHop.com: What can people expect from you what they don’t know already? Krondon: I was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. My perspective is strictly Los Angeles [as is] my content. All of the perspective of South Central Los Angeles, it will be put and presented to you like a mixtape presented to you in a way were no matter where you are Queens, St. Louis anywhere – you can relate and get it. A lot like what Ice Cube use to do, I pride myself on staying hood. Where I grab my energy from, I don’t care. I have been around the world twice performing and everything. I still keep the perspective of that brotha on the block, and I take the block with me everywhere and it comes out in my music. AllHipHop.com: Challenging the status quo of things, I’d be interested to hear who you admire or who influenced you? Krondon: I admire like the Snoop Dogg’s, Redman’s, Ice Cube’s, Xzibit’s of the world the finish the way they started in music. Never sway, like Redman, my favorite [MC] in the world. He never changed hid styles whether he had a bad year or nothing he roll with it. Same as Cube. This brotha’s had bad years musically, but it’s refreshing when they come with what you are expecting from them. The styles, they might be a little more advanced, more Pop or grown but they still have the same styles and are consistent. All my favorites are like that. They expect me to start like that. Stress Magazine dissed me years ago it wasn’t a diss per-say but it was a diss. They said i sounded like Big Pun Rest in Peace that wasn’t the bad thing. They said all Krondon is talking about […]