A little over a year ago people started seeing a change in the sound from the Bay. It was getting thicker, harder and the rhyme schemes over them had a new edge. Pretty soon everybody was gettin’ “hyphy”. Hyphy is to the Bay what Crunk is to the South. It

drives hard, gets people wild and drivin’ scrapers wild in the streets.

EA-Ski and his latest creation, The Frontline represent one group at the epicenter of the new sound. EA-Ski pioneered the early sound of the Bay’s first rise back in the late 80’s and early 90’s through production with Too Short and Spice-1. In the shadows of greatness, The Frontline received a Midas-like presence on their Now U Know album.

As the pioneer and his students speak with AllHipHop.com, the return of the Bay is looked at in its music, its youth, and even its educational programs. The Frontline takes no backseat in awareness, read up.

AllHipHop.com: Ski, you were around in the mid 90’s when the attention was on the Bay. It’s taken a long time, but what’s brought it back?

EA-Ski: Basically, everything is a cycle. We were definitely in the forefront in the early 90’s. We had a lot of hot records. When the Bay started falling off, everything went to the East. Then to the South. We started trying to reinvent – trying to figure out how we could stick together and unite and make good music. Within that process, there were new artists as well as old artists going back to reinvent themselves. Me, being around for a while, I have relationships with new and old artists. We just wanted to create that vibe that everybody is feeling.

AllHipHop.com: The Gavin Convention was a huge Bay area seminar that happened in the early 90’s. Rakim, Run DMC, Jamalski – everybody came to the Bay. Los Angeles and New York came to Bay and saw our hustle and put us down. It seems to me like when they folded, that hurt the Bay’s ability to stay connected with the industry and was a major part in the our downfall. Do you agree with that?

EA-Ski: The Gavin was a big promotional tool for us. It played a role. With the labels being here for that week, and see what’s going on in radio and on the streets. We had already made our impact. People knew what to expect from the Bay. I think with the Bay what had happened is we had prospered a lot. I think if you are not inventing, things get stale. We were hungry but we got caught up with the compilations. It got a little stale after a while. Them not being here played a role. But the biggest thing is time waits for nobody.

I try to tell artists all the time “What do I look like going back talking about what I did in ‘89”? That’s history and I got it under my belt. But they got kids today that wasn’t even born yet, that could give a damn about what was goin’ on in ‘89 and ‘90. They care about what’s goin’ on in 2005 and what’s the new s**t.

When it’s all said and done, if you don’t value the craft of the music, it can all be gone tomorrow. I think it was great for us to lose it. It lets you know you have to take advantage of every opportunity. You

have to value it and make it better, instead of just using it.

So it gave us a chance now to be more serious about the music. For hot artists like Frontline to come out and be like ”I remember when it was hot and I never wanna let that go.” We don’t want it to leave again.

AllHipHop.com: The Frontline went from doing battles and doing the day-to-day grind to getting rotation every hour. Do you feel vindicated now?

Lock: We never feel satisfied. We always looking to the next step. Being involved with EA-Ski and CMT, it just reiterates that. We’re never satisfied. There’s always another step. There’s always more analysis. We want everybody to feel this and create a platform for our music nation wide and internationally. Our hard work is being recognized, but it’s not recognized to where it can be. So we gonna keep it moving, until we can’t go no more.

AllHipHop.com: There’s a lot of crime, a lot of murder in

Richmond. Talk to me about what’s going on out there.

Lock: Me and Left both growing up in Richmond, both were raised in all this violence. The cycle goes up and down at times. At one point, it was at an all-time high. Then it dropped, now it’s back up again. It’s ridiculous. All we can do is be artists and commentators. We both work with kids, before we were doing this music. We’re

trying to provide an outlet for ourselves and anybody that’s trying to escape that.

AllHipHop.com: What children’s work do you do?

Lock: Currently, we work for the Contra Costa Youth Services.

We’re located right in Richmond. Now that we do have some success we tell the kids “Hey look, we been through the same struggle. But look how far we’ve come.” We try to show that example. You don’t have to glorify and make light of things that are so serious. Take that negative energy and turn it into something positive.

Before things popped off on a commercial level, we were working with kids. They felt it, but they did not see the realistic aspects of until like “These guys are on the radio they are doing this and they doin’ that.”

AllHipHop.com: One of the things I like is your ability to tell stories. “I Know,” and “Blackjack” come to mind most immediately. Your ability to bring the streets of Richmond into my mind is impressive.

Talk to me about how you developed that edge.

Lock: With Ski and CMT already being veterans in the game- we

study them. We study all artists. As people you have so many things locked up inside of you. From being a hood street n***a, to a middle class dude- we’ve seen that. We’ve experienced all that. We been to college we been to high school, we been on the

hustlin’ end. We’ve seen our family’s struggles. So of course we’re gonna internalize that. It’s our obligation as an artist to put that out.

AllHipHop.com: Times have changed socially in the Bay. Mayor Jerry Brown recently passed a law that would allow people to get tickets for watching a sideshow. What do you think about what’s going on with the Mayor and how he has treated Oakland youth over the years?

EA-Ski: A lot of the youth don’t have opportunities. There’s not that much stuff to do. That’s why you have sideshows. That’s why you have these kids creating their own outlet. There ain’t abunch of Boys Clubs. When I go there, they are just tore down and disgusting. You can’t even go to a good park in Oakland. They

Mayor has valid points and then he has points I just don’t agree with. On one side the youth are trying to create things because they need an outlet. But on the other side, sideshows are dangerous man. I’ve seen people get hit and killed. I’ve seen violence breakout

because of the negative impact that it caused. I’ve seen things happen. Is it for me to judge how they deal with it?

Lock: The damage has already been done. The school systems are jacked up. The music and art departments are all shut down. They are suffering.

AllHipHop.com: So the issue is not about legalizing or not legalizing sideshows as much as it is about providing good education and solid recreational outlets for kids in safe places?

EA-Ski: Of course. I go into East Oakland everyday. I see these kids man. They are cyring for help. For something. That’s why music is so important to them. There are no other programs to keep these kids motivated. That’s how Hip-Hop started. Cats were suppressed for so long. They were like, I gotta get this out- “Broken

glass everywhere.”

AllHipHop.com: Ski, you seem to have incorporated a new style of production on this CD. I don’t have a real word for it accept to say that it sounds like you have brought in some 80’s epic Rock elements and still managed to keep it grimy. Tell me about how you came to bring in these new elements into you’re your music.

EA-Ski: Well you know me and Blackjack used to produce for

Spice-1 back in the day. These guys are talented. It never was just a EA-Ski and CMT thing. This was about making the best album you could possibly make. Left brought a lot of dope production to the table as well. Me, Blackjack and CMT came in on the second revise of this record. When I hear these guys rap there’s just certain things that fit. The stories they are telling are so vivid you can see it. If you know anything about 70’s and 80’s music it painted a picture. We’re trying to make the music and the lyrics become one. [But people don’t realize,] Left produced like 70-80% of the album. Because he had concepts that fit what they were doing. We came in and tried to give him an edge that we do, and string it all together.

AllHipHop.com: As a Muslim, there is a lot of madness going on in London, Iraq and other parts of the world. What are your biggest concerns with Islam right now?

Left: My biggest concern is being blamed for the acts of men. Islam, is perfect. Islam does not give directions to murder children and innocent people. That’s actually haram [forbidden] for you to blow up a building. But a lot of people don’t take the time to understand

Islam to learn that it’s forbidden. If a person is doing it saying it’s with the cause of Islam then that person is not telling the truth. Islam does not promote that. It’s not in the Qu’ran.

I think it’s unfortunate that whoever is behind what is goin on is putting a very bad face on Islam. Islam is not being represented well [when these things happen]. Islam takes care of the people. It takes care of the women. It takes care of the children.

Adisa Banjoko is author of the upcoming book “Lyrical

www.lyricalswords.com!!

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:

[email protected]

and

www.overdoseent.com

When diamonds literally cost an arm and leg, is it really worth it?

“Wodi, I’m tattooed and barred up/

The concept of “bling,” a term so popular it was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003, is just as much a part of hip-hop culture now as it was more than 15 years ago. In the early days, flashy MC’s like Big Daddy Kane and Rakim and Run DMC rocked massive gold “dookie” ropes and called it dapper. Today, the diamond encrusted mouths of Cash Money Millionaires spit the very word that catapulted new school hip-hop enthusiasts into a bedazzled obsessed era – “Bling, Bling.” That song, an ode to all that is luxurious, shiny and exclusive, helped strengthened the diamond’s role as a symbol of status in the culture. Part of the appeal of diamonds among rappers and rap rookies is that not everyone can purchase them. In fact, dealers like New York’s infamous Jacob “The Jeweler” Arabo have turned a girl’s best friend into a must-have commodity for the rich and shameless. But at what price?

The problem is, says Raquel Cepeda, co-director of the upcoming documentary film BLING: A Planet Rock, most entertainers rarely know about the journey that a lot of these diamonds make from Africa to the emblazoned charms dangling from their necks. From her first trip to Sierra Leone, Africa she recalls meeting a boy named Pende whose entire family was killed and was forced to fight as a member of the West Side Boys faction in the diamond conflict.

“A lot of the rebels in Sierra Leone were 14 to 18-year-olds,” says Cepeda. “Some of the rebels chose to fight, but an alarmingly large amount of children were abducted from their homes and forced into becoming soldiers,” she adds. Cepeda, former editor-in-chief of Russell Simmons’ One World Magazine, is set to travel back to Sierra Leone with some of America’s most popular rap artists to film BLING: A Planet Rock in December. She hopes that the film, which she says is “a theatrical documentary that’s sometimes satirical, but very accessible and palatable for people in our generation,” will help open the eyes of young people of color to a well-kept secret back in the motherland.

Hip-hop aficionados have said little about this diamond conflict until recently. Cepeda and film director Lisa Leone’s efforts to educate others about the Sierra Leone diamond crisis eventually lead to a chance conversation with rapper/producer Kanye West. After getting his initial information from Q-Tip, West heard more about the African tragedy from Cepeda. Finally, the Roc-A-Fella staple says he was urged to clear up misunderstandings about his new single “Diamonds Are Forever.”

“When the song first came out, people thought [I] was making a song glorifying diamonds,” he says, “which is so anti-Kanye West.” “Diamonds Are Forever” was originally about the rebirth of the Roc-A-Fella dynasty, symbolized by its well-known diamond shaped hand sign, but it took on new life after West learned about the diamond conflict.

Whether diamonds in America are bought hot off the street or from reputable jewelers, there is a chance that across the ocean a mother or child has literally paid an arm and a leg to mine them due to dangerous working conditions in the waters of places like Sierra Leone. They are called “conflict” or “blood diamonds” because they fund military actions and weapons in areas controlled by factions that are opposed to organized government.

According to the most recent United Nations General Assembly report, the exploitation of humans for diamond mining is “prolonging many brutal conflicts around the globe,” and sanctions against it are failing to eliminate the problem. Last September, a survey of more than 100 diamond retailers taken on the “National Day of Action on Conflict Diamonds” showed that only 27% of them had a policy in line with that of the Kimberley Process, a global effort led by the diamond industry to ensure diamonds are sold with authenticating, no-conflict Certificates of Origin.

In Sierra Leone, with its Freetown settlement established by freed American slaves from Canada, there are signs everywhere of a people struggling to rebound from a 10-year civil war. There are shack-like stores advertising Coca-Cola, rappers commanding microphones at small, understated clubs, and the typical scenes of children playing on dusty streets. Gone are all but one of the amputee camps, says Cepeda, that were once home to thousands of children and adults who lost limbs while being forced to mine by Sierra Leonean rebels.

“I thought my Jesus piece was harmless/Till I saw a picture of a shorty armless,” West says in the remixed “Diamonds From Sierra Leone” single from his forthcoming album Late Registration. After changing the lyrics and shooting the graphic yet poignant video, West admits, “I felt like it was God working through me to get this message out…slightly enough education and just edgy enough to make people get on the Internet and say ‘damn, what’s up with Sierra Leone?’”

Before and since the release of West’s remix, musicians, filmmakers, and world politicians alike are speaking out in the hopes of ending the genocide in Sierra Leone and other countries. Protests have taken place recently against multi-billion dollar diamond producers like DeBeers Jewelers, raising questions about their involvement in the conflict. Carson Glover, the New York spokesman for DeBeers’ Diamond Information Center, gave the following formal statement on Professional Jeweler’s website: “While we have not viewed Mr. West’s new video, the lyrics of the song certainly do not reflect the tremendous work the diamond industry has done in conjunction with the Kimberley Process.”

Across the Atlantic Ocean, rappers with their own personal angst and styles are also swayed heavily by America’s Hip-Hop agenda. On a recent trip to Sierra Leone to lay the groundwork for BLING: A Planet Rock, Leone captured their reactions to watching the “Diamonds From Sierra Leone” video and says she was moved by their realization that someone else cared about their plight.

In December, she and Cepeda intend to travel back to Sierra Leone to begin filming, this time with Kanye West, Jadakiss, and reggaeton artist Tego Calderon. Cepeda said they hope to bridge the gap between artists from both countries and illustrate how our actions in America can affect our brothers and sisters on the African continent.

And the process of creating that overpass from the motherland to the ‘hood remains a diamond in the rough.