F ans of West Coast music and Hip-Hop aficionados can remember Techniec introducing himself to the rap world by ripping a guest spot on “Keep It Real” from Snoop Dogg’s Tha Doggfather LP back in 1997. Brief stints on Doggystyle and Hoo Bangin’ Records that were ended due to creative differences and industry politics left many fans wondering what happened to Long Beach’s heir apparent who proclaimed that the game was his but no one knew it yet. In this past year, Tech’s name has been hot again, through a short-lived affiliation with Black Wall Street. However, Techneic spoke to AllHipHop.com about his new group, and other plans.
Dynamic Certified, a next-up crew of battle tested partners in rhyme consisting of himself, Jerzey-J, J-Rydah, Rue-Rue, Krunch and Pac-Ten. This is a group who’s underground-friendly, and mainstream hungry. Never ones to mince words, the crew spoke to AllHipHop.com about the movement that is Dynamic Certified, the current state of Hip-Hop and putting the West Coast back on the map.
AllHipHop.com: Techniec, you’ve had stints on Doggystyle and Hoo-Bangin, both of which ended due to creative differences, can you speak on that?
Techniec: Ultimately, at the end of the day, I don’t think those dudes really knew how to market me as an artist. Aside from that, the Hoo Bangin’ situation got dismantled due to the fact that Priority Records got bought out by Capitol Records. Rather than me get caught up in the pipeline while they ironed out all of the legal stuff and risking my project fail on behalf of that, I just opted not to even finish the album. It was all a mutual business decision, and we just went on and did our own thing from there. It wasn’t no love lost or any of that-I actually hollered at Mack 10 not too long ago, and we’re still good. Right now, I’m just trying to spread my wings and get this Dynamic Certified movement going and work on this Black Wall Street project.
AllHipHop.com: Having been through that, what is the proper way to market Dynamic Certified and yourself as a soloist?
Techniec: It’s the streets, man. We target the streets, and everybody else can grasp on to that afterward. A lot of times, once you get in the game, they try to market it from an industry perspective. At the end of the day, the streets have the final say, so we’re going straight to the streets. I don’t want to have to go into a meeting and have someone tell me what I need to be doing from a marketing or executive standpoint, all they’re looking at is numbers and I refused to be pigeonholed.
AllHipHop.com: What is going to be different about this project than with the proposed M.O.B. on Black Wall Street?
Techniec: Me and [The] Game are around the same age group. We’ve all sat back and seen the way the West Coast has risen and fell, and we’ve seen our setbacks. Coming from a fan’s perspective we can see what needs to be changed. I respect him for being a rebel and riding for the West Coast and putting the whole coast on his back. I feel like I’m the same way, just on a more underground level.
AllHipHop.com: With Snoop doing the whole “Protect The West” conference do you see some additional doors being opened up for yourselves?
Krunch: Techniec got involved some, we couldn’t make it down there, but as far as the movement we’re with that.
Techniec: I don’t really have no comment on that man. I was there and it seemed more like a West Coast reunion to me. I’m not sure what it really helped at the end of the day. It displayed a form of unity on the West and it appeared that we were really pushing our line for both the old generation and the new generation. I’m just trying to play my part as far as being in this new West Coast movement. Going on the How The West Was Won tour was a good look that stemmed from the conference.
AllHipHop.com: What led to the roster/name changes within Dynamic Certified?
Pac-Ten: We just weren’t meshing as a group, people had different agendas. Some people saw a little success and took it the wrong way, so we basically just destroy and rebuild. For the most part, the nucleus of the group is still together.
AllHipHop.com: The West Coast often gets a bad reputation as far as the whole “gansta rap” thing, but a lot of you got your start freestyling and battling-any memorable battle stories?
Pac-Ten: Me and Techniec been doing this for a minute, listening to old Ice-T tapes and Tone-Loc. We used to do our thing off of those instrumentals.
Krunch: We’ve done a gang of [California radio] stuff, Power 106, KDAY, 100.3 The Beat, 99.1, we’re just basically trying to do it big. I’ve done the underground scene before, LeMert Park. I been down there with Aceyalone and a bunch of other cats, we definitely do our thing. Freestyling out here is different than in the East though, out here we’re coming straight off the top. Over there they’ll kick a verse, but it’ll be over a different beat. I love this Hip-Hop s**t man, some cats don’t even know the five elements of Hip-Hop!
AllHipHop.com: In an earlier interview, Pac-Ten spoke about not wanting to be categorized as “gangsta” rap. You’ve also worked with Rhettmatic and Babu of the Beat Junkies, are you afraid of getting labeled as a “backpacker” or underground group?
Jersey-J: I don’t really pay that any attention, I just feel like we represent the streets. We’re not backpack at all, I’ll deny that to the fullest-we represent this beautiful struggle.
Techniec: I’m from the West Coast, born and raised, Long Beach, California. I’ve been around the gangsters, thugs and hustlers as well as the scholars and athletes. I do the music that I feel and live, I’m not a gangster and I’ve never portrayed myself that way. If anything I consider myself to be a rider, because I go against the grain.
AllHipHop.com: Krunch, you’re involved in a privately owned internationally distributed clothing and graphic design company, right?
Krunch: I started The Chronic Avengers back in 1992, it was just a little weed crew at first and then we built it into a t-shirt company. Now we do comic books and the mixtapes too, I’m a writer for one of the comic books. We’re trying to do things big over in Japan too.
AllHipHop.com: Were any of you offered any solo deals from other labels, major or otherwise?
Krunch: I’m doing some solo stuff. I got good looks from TVT and Virgin [records]. My manager got Lil’ Jon the deal with those [Oakley Thump] glasses. We’re trying to do it big, I’ve also got a movie out, it’s called The Hot Spot. It was a cool little flick it had the Tate Brothers, you know Larenz Tate from Menace II Society.
Pac-Ten: Right now, I haven’t even been entertaining that option. I’ve just been going hard with this Dynamic Certified project. I’m not even thinking about venturing out on any projects until we make that happen. The streets are asking for it so I give them a mixtape every now and then. I might put one out independently but that’s only after Dynamic Certified.
AllHipHop.com: You guys have been releasing mixtapes like crazy, how far along is the actual album?
Techniec: Look to see independent projects being released alongside of the mixtapes. We’re just going to keep flooding the streets and push that until it’s time to drop a major release from Dynamic Certified.
Jersey-J: The album is in the works, we’ll prove all the people who thought we were just on some mixtape s**t wrong. We’re almost done, we’ll probably work on about 10 or 15 more songs. Recording songs isn’t really a hard thing for us, so we’ll just keep recording and knocking them songs out.
AllHipHop.com: How did you guys get hooked up with Terry Kennedy and the Ice Cream Skate Team?
Techniec: T.K. is representing Long Beach the same as me. He’s like the Black Tony Hawk and he’s straight from the streets. We all from Long Beach and we’re going to push this line like no one else. People can be on the lookout for that mixtape coming soon.
AllHipHop.com: Any last words?
Krunch: Let’s make this movement man, it’s a lot of cats hating on the West Coast. The game is open for West Coast MC’s. It’s a lot of cats that don’t want to deal with us cats from Cali because we’re out here rowdy; snatching chains and all that, but at the same time, everybody ain’t doing that. Some n****s are really about this music, they wake up in the morning and this is what they do. You got people slangin CD’s trying to get on. On that note, f**k with n****s from Long Beach, it’s a new movement-Dynamic Certified.
Jersey-J: We definitely plan on being the face of this new West Coast, we feel like we’re the cream of the crop. It’s a lot of hating going on, but start looking for us because we’re coming.
Techniec: Hear only what you see. It’s a lot of bulls**t and rumors going on, n****s talking crazy, and talking real greasy. Look forward to Techniec, Dynamic Certified, Terry Kennedy, The Baka Boys and anything else that we’re affiliated with. This is a whole new movement and we demand respect.
For more information, visit – www.dynamiccertified.com.
