The Southern regions of the America have boasted a host of hot, classic songs over the last ten years. Rising from an auspices of just the faithful few to receiving spins in the North, the East, the West, and around the globe. Below the Mason-Dixie, the key difference from other Hip-Hop tracks is the beat. KLC stands as a forerunner for the so-called “New South.” As a true innovator with a list of Southern classics guaranteed to be played in clubs until the mothership swings down. Composing hits like, Master P’s “Bout It,” C-Murder’s “Down for My N***as,” or T.I.’s “What It Do,” KLC’s repertoire is as important to the Southeast as Marley Marl is to Queens.
Though the No Limit tank may’ve lost a lot of armor over the years, KLC remains strong and working. Take time to get to know the man behind the high-hats and horns, and if you seek that Southern sauce, KLC drops his contact info for your aspiring MC’s ballin’ on budgets.
AllHipHop.com: What exactly does KLC stand for?
KLC: Man, as long as I have been having that name, I really don’t know. It’s just something that my partners started calling me. I just stuck with it… damn, since bout 87’.
AllHipHop.com: Where exactly in New Orleans are you from?
KLC: New Orleans, Uptown, 3rd Ward.
AllHipHop.com: Among the songs that are out right now, excluding the ones you have done. What is a song that catches your ear and you are like that is a fire ass beat.
KLC: There are not really a lot that I can hear, and they catch me and I am like, “s###.” I’m an old school n***a, man. It’s going to take a lot to impress me. I’m not bored with music, but the way music is being done now is different from how we used to do it. Now, they rap as a hustle, like a quick lick. Hurry up and get some s### out there to make some money. The longevity of a record determines how good your music is, ya know. That’s how you determine a classic record. Look at the song I did, “F**k them other N***as,” like ‘99, they still play that like it came out yesterday.
Allhiphop.com: Yeah, with that particular track, how did you come about that, was there any type of particular motivation in the creation of that track?
KLC: Yeah, all the bulls**t that Snoop was going through. It was not intentionally done for a beef record. [C- Miller] came up with the hook. Just the fact that I was working with Snoop, I wanted to give him some real good s**t. It was really going to be a B-side song, because that was not intentionally the song I did for Snoop. I did a song for Snoop called, “The Symphony,” a remix of the Marley Marl record. Me, Fiend, Mystikal, and Snoop. I just brought up the other beat for Snoop to rap on.
We got up there, Snoop recorded, “The Symphony” record, C-Murder laid the hook and him and Magic already had their verses on the song. When I pulled the record up, he was like we will do it tomorrow. That was a sign of him being ready to go. He was like go ahead and put it on tape for me. When I pulled it up and played it…man all them n##### was up there Crip walking, throwing up gang signs. Snoop laced that motherf**ker. The verse Snoop originally put on there, P made him tone it down, because Snoop went off. That’s not the words he really intentionally mean to write for the song.
AllHipHop.com: Are there any songs you made that you felt like you just murdered the track like you really just did you thing on it?
KLC: “Bout It,” that song has so much history behind it. When I was making that record, I had my grand momma’s basement. I was in a producer’s block, when you get this block when you just can’t think of nothing, I had the music part but I did not have the drums. I had the machine in record mode and I had my back towards the drum machine. I was just sitting behind the keyboard thinking about what I was going to put up in this song as far as the beat. Well, after I did that, my daughter sneaks downstairs and turns on the drum machine. I had went up stairs and heard it, that was the drums that I was missing. I had the drum machine in record mode and she came and slapped on the pad, that was the beat I was missing. You look at a song like, “Make Em Say Ughh” and all that other s**t, that paid me good, but “Bout It,” that was the start that record really put me out there.
AllHipHop.com: You did a track on the T.I. Urban Legend album. Explain to me how that came about…
KLC: “What It Do,” that beat was for Mystikal, that was for his album, I was working on his album before he went to jail. T.I got a hold of my beat CD. When he called me a played the beat over the phone, I was like, “How the f**k you got that beat?” He let me know how he got it and where it came from. I was like that beat is sold, that’s Mystikal beat, so he was like, “Why don’t you go and whip a n***a up something?” So, I was like cool. In the midst of whole Mystikal thing, he went to jail and we were trying to debate whether he was going to get right back out, when it finally came that he was going to have to do his time that’s when T.I called me back and asked me did I come up with something, I told him go on and keep it.
AllHipHop.com: As a vet, looking today’s artists, who out today do you feel could have rocked it back in the Golden Era?
KLC: Dead Prez, Lil Wayne, T.I., Fiend, Mystikal. They just have that hunger and when they get on the mic they make a statement, that I am not to be f**ked with. Instead of rapping about what they have as far as material things. Oh, and Outkast. They got some cats that still doing it, look at Jay-Z for instance, Cool J, Fat Joe; been doing since then and still current in the game right now. There are a few who I think I could just take ‘em and throw them back in the game and they would fit in.
AllHipHop.com: What other projects do you currently have in the works?
KLC: Right now, I did a hot song for Trina. We had the track with T.I. One of my partners did the “Get Back” track with Luda, he is out of the Medicine Men, his name Tick Tock. Ever since we have been going through the issue with No Limit, back and forth, we have been trying to build our company back up, structure and get it straight. We just did a deal with Warner/Asylum and we got them to distribute out music. I got a real, real big record on Paul Wall’s new album as well.
AllHipHop.com: Let’s say I am a young rapper, I think I hot, I saved up a little through the winter to go purchase a beat from KLC, how much?
KLC: Well, honestly it all depends on how I feel about that artists, you know what I am saying. I know my music has value on it, but when I am working with independent people, it is different. I might charge you, I might not charge you. Depends on how I feel. You out there trying to get it, and really putting effort in it. I might just throw you something. It all depends on how you come at me. I keep my grounds rooted with the local independent companies as well. It all depends.
AllHipHop.com: The Medicine Men never got the name-brand recognition as Beats By the Pound, why?
KLC: It’s still Beats by the Pound. We changed the name, because when we left No Limit, P had the producers producing under that name. So when P started getting bad reviews on the albums he was putting out after we left, they scarred the name, until people out it really wasn’t us. We changed our name to the Medicine Men to get rid of that affiliation. Just the marks that was put on us.
AllHipHop.com: B.G. says he messes with the Medicine Men. You and B.G. do a lot of work together, how does that work?
KLC: Him and Snoop have the same work ethic, regardless how big they are, they still listen. Snoop coming from up under Dre, B.G. coming from up under Mannie. They got that same appeal: “You the producer, guide me.” That’s what I really like about B.G. and Snoop. Then they work fast, they work fast, they don’t bulls**t, they get up in there and do there thing. Even when the whole No Limit/Cash Money feud was going on, it didn’t have s**t to do with the artists, it was just outside n***as pushing s**t up. It didn’t have nothing to do with the artists. Me and Mannie was still cool as f**k and still is. Me and B.G., me and Juvie, me and Turk, you know what I’m saying. Soulja Slim introduced me to B.G. because Soulja Slim and B.G. always been real cool, always. So, when B.G. left Cash Money him and Slim stayed cool. So, Slim brought him to me, me and B.G. been jamming, cool ever since.
AllHipHop.com: So it’s still Beats by the Pound?
KLC: Yeah, in fact the album is called Medicine Men presents Beats by the Pound.It’s going to be some real hood instrumentation type of s**t. It’s going to musical, but it is going to be hard. We are going to be showing our real talent as far as what we really can do with music. When we did what we did for No Limit, we did that as best to fit that company, we weren’t able to really show our musical talent, so on our record you are going to see that. My album comes out in September: KLC The Drum Major. We might put out the Calicoe album: Louisiana Purchase, early next year or late December.
Allhiphop.com: Got a message for tomorrow’s talent?
KLC: Well, first of all just off the strength, go get my album. My first single is called, “Holla at Me” featuring me, Mystikal, Calicoe, and B.G. Be on the look out for Overdose Entertainment, a new branch in the Southern market.
As far as upcoming artists and producers, do what you do. What you got to understand is that is cool to make songs like other people, but when you make songs like other people it is only temporary, be your own self, you be the inventor of the new music, you be the trendsetter. The music you make defines you, so when people hear one of your songs or hear a beat they can’t say it sounds like bulls**t. Create your own sound and stick with it. You set the standards, that is how you will get your name and earn your respect. To all independents, I am available, and I will work with your budget, just be real and let me know what your working with, I never keep out of reach of the people that got me there. “I am never too big for what made me,” you can’t help everybody, but if I have the time, I will do it with you.
Check out KLC at:
MedicineMen1@hotmail.com
and
www.overdoseent.com