When Dr. Dre acknowledged his extended brother Warren G’s referral of Snoop Dogg, “Deep Cover” was born. History may repeat itself now that Dr. Dre has met his son, known to many as Hood Surgeon. While the junior Compton native strikes comparisons to his father in appearance, he promises to also pack a “monster” sound behind the boards.
With So Hood Records, Hood Surgeon promises to bring the hood back to Tinseltown – with any one of his ten artists. The blossoming artist tells all to AllHipHop.com in regards to his father, his goals, and the credibility of a former Compton classmate. Doctors and surgeons are one in the same, and in this case, so is their hood. But will Dr. Dre and his son have a similar Hip-Hop legacy? Time will tell.
AllHipHop.com: I know that everybody has a lot of curiosity about you know, your relationship with your dad and everything. Can you speak on that a little bit?
Hood Surgeon: Yeah, a little bit.
AllHipHop.com: How is he?
Hood Surgeon: My dad is cool. I’m just doing my thing. I’m going through the grind like he did, like he had to go through. And so that way when I get it, I’ll respect it more, even though it’s there.
AllHipHop.com: Oh okay. So you don’t, do you ask him for help?
Hood Surgeon: No, I’m my own man. I’m capable of doing [the] same thing he did, you know. And you know how you respect something more if you can do it on your own.
AllHipHop.com: Were you close with your dad growing up?
Hood Surgeon: On that one, that’s really like personal because it’s like really something I don’t want to discuss about the childhood growing up, ‘cause I’d rather let them hear about that in the music, you know what I mean? I’ll put it like this: I went through the same thing he been through. So I just put it like that, so…I’ll tell y’all this though, I met him when I was 21. I didn’t know him growin’ up. I just, we just was right up under each other’s noses basically, not knowing that, you know, that that was my pop and he didn’t know I was his son, ain’t s**tting.
AllHipHop.com: Yeah, yeah. But you know it’s funny because you, you closely resemble him. I mean you know you really do look a lot like him, you know in the pictures that I see at least, you know.
Hood Surgeon: F**king identical.
AllHipHop.com: How was being raised in Compton for you?
Hood Surgeon: Oh man, I mean, s**t it was rough. Like, I’m just like him you know, he’s a little bit darker than me that’s all.
AllHipHop.com: You produce as well, right? You rhyme and produce, right?
Hood Surgeon: Yeah, when I was 12, ‘cause I found out, my mom told who my real father was. Ever since then, I started rapping, I wanted to be like him all his life, you know. You know, all that s**t. This type of s**t, this type of s###, like some of my good friends don’t even know, they sit here like, ‘Damn.’
AllHipHop.com: Well, thanks for being candid.
Hood Surgeon: No, what I’m here, I’m here for the truth. I speak the truth. Know what I mean, that’s [the] main thing with me.
AllHipHop.com: So production-wise, you know your own style. How would you describe it for people that may not have heard your stuff yet?
Hood Surgeon: Monsterish. Everything’s big. I don’t do little s**t. Everything is big. Not even to be like that, it’s just you know we do everything big, you know like a big statement. [I’m] bringing the West Coast back, we can’t come with no little bulls**t.
AllHipHop.com: Other people talk about bringing the West Coast back: Game and Lil’ Eazy-E. Have you made any connections with those kind of guys or anything like that?
Hood Surgeon: Yeah, I know them, yeah.
AllHipHop.com: Yeah are y’all cool?
Hood Surgeon: I’m me. They’re them. You know what I mean? They’re artists too, so we all, you know they’re in the, you know, they doing their thing for the West Coast.
AllHipHop.com: Okay, now with So Hood Records, you’re like the CEO of So Hood Records?
Hood Surgeon: Yeah, I’m the founder/CEO of So Hood Records.
AllHipHop.com: Okay, what made you start your own label as opposed to you know trying to use obvious leverage?
Hood Surgeon: Like most the people that I got, I don’t go and get people from Hollywood. I get people from the hood. I know how to run s**t. People from Hollywood, they’ll quit when s**t gets rough, you know what I mean? I got people that have been through the stuff, so they gonna hold it down regardless, whether we got money whatever we doing, you know what I mean?
AllHipHop.com: How many artists you got?
Hood Surgeon: There’s about 10 of us, honestly.
AllHipHop.com:What are you talking about on a record? What are we gonna hear?
Hood Surgeon: It’s like, you know you’re gonna hear the struggle I went through – hear how amazing it is now. [My] single is called "Paradise." I got a mix[tape] that’s on the street now called The Autopsy.
AllHipHop.com: What’s Compton like these days man? Is it the same or has it changed?
Hood Surgeon: Oh man, hell yes, it’s the same. I mean usually you can catch motherf**kers just nestling up, fighting or tripping. You know what I mean? It’s more shooting, know what I mean, honestly say, it was kinda, well I ain’t saying it was less, little bit less shooting. Motherf**kers can [check up on] my s**t and see what I been through and where I grew up at, and they’ll see that I’m not lying. I’m not gonna say I was out there shooting motherf**kers and doing all that, but I grew up around that, so I might speak on something that happened around me in my music. ‘Cause they ain’t gonna hear me say something I didn’t do.
AllHipHop.com: Do you feel other artists do that now?
Hood Surgeon: Oh yeah, lot of artists do that, [such as] Game.
AllHipHop.com: Yeah?
Hood Surgeon: He is the West Side story. I ain’t tripping on that fool though, man.
AllHipHop.com: Yeah, yeah now —
Hood Surgeon: I don’t know, he’s just scary man. I mean I don’t know.
AllHipHop.com: Yeah, he’s real cool with your dad though. Has there been, you know —
Hood Surgeon: Yeah, I just know the real on him, man. I went to school with him. He ain’t nobody.
AllHipHop.com: Nah, nah saying it sounds like a little friendly competition going right now. Now it’s funny to me because Game kinda was seen as, you know the new NWA so to speak —
Hood Surgeon: Nah, nah. You know what it is? I ain’t even gonna say it’s competition. It’s just look and see who’s better. You know what I mean? He ain’t f**king with us over here, man. I honestly, honestly could say, my sister and like my pop, man. You know what I mean, like honestly the n***as that I’m with, we head-busters man. We, my people we escorted Game at the club in Rosaritos, so. ‘Cause he was scared and s**t, you know walk through the crowd with him and stuff.
AllHipHop.com: Anything else you want to say to people or relay?
Hood Surgeon: Man, f**k the world. The West is back.
AllHipHop.com: I don’t know how y’all feel, but I feel like Game did a good job bringing the West back to the forefront. You know what I’m saying, ‘cause —
Hood Surgeon: He did a good job as far as sending the resume to the West Coast.
AllHipHop.com: Yeah.
Hood Surgeon: I’m gonna get the job. We ain’t getting the national recognition. Honestly, the only person that can bring the West back is probably my pop, in a real way, so who better than his son?
AllHipHop.com: Let me ask you this, this is more of a personal question, but when is the damn Detox album coming out?
Hood Surgeon: He working on it.
AllHipHop.com: Yeah, okay.
Hood Surgeon: I am the Detox.
CHECK OUT HOOD SURGEON’S VIDEO, “MALPRACTICE.”