Clout Online Exclusive Interview
By J. Anaya

How are people responding to the album?

A lot of times people let the bad outweigh the good but it’s a ratio about a hundred to one. Out of one hundred supporters I get one hater, so it’s a classic in my book. The album is definitely a breath of fresh air for the hyphy movement; it’s a different taste of Bay Area sound. It’s definitely a representation of San Francisco and what we do out here. I’m getting great responses; I feel good. 

How did E-40 become such a major part of getting your album out?

Well the thing with 40 was he’s been behind the scenes the whole time. From the start he believed in the record. I met 40 six years ago and he’s been close friends with my CEO Charles Kelly ever since. He’s been lookin’ out for me for the longest. The way he decided to come aboard and put his stamp on it, like right in the public with it is…when Tell Me When To Go and reinvented himself and he blew up and It was just a blessing. He came through and gave me the extra push I needed. 

With 40’s backing why didn’t you go with a major label instead of Koch?

The majors wasn’t giving us what we wanted at that point. And at the same time the majors would sit back and be like, ‘Look I’m not gonna hand you this money until you can prove you got buzz in the streets and you holdin’ it down in your region’ and at that time I was a new solo artist so it was kinda like you know, they weren’t too gung ho. They weren’t gonna throw me no big dollars. But at Koch, Koch is one step under a major. They’re the number one distributor, they got the number one artists and they selling hundreds of thousands like most majors and they’re giving you seven dollars a piece. So with us, the Bay Area being the mecca of this independent rap game that was right down our alley, because we getting seven dollars a piece out the trunk. But with Koch they got more pull and more relationships with bigger situations across the country – they’re nationwide. We were like okay, let’s go to Koch, let’s eat, let’s make our pockets fat, and then when the majors come we don’t have to be taking anything they throw us. You follow what I’m sayin’? They want a ten album deal and they lock you down for the rest of your career and choke you if you don’t got the buzz that they want. No wit’s like we got money so we can pick and choose now. At first we were beggars, but now we are choosers. 

So you’re not locked down with anything with Koch?

I got one more album with them. 

Your album is slightly different from most Bay Area albums with tracks like “Big Rich Is Here” and “Rich Man’s World”. They have more of a soul sampled, East Coast feel to it rather than a hyphy. Did you sense you’d go out of the box with some tracks like that? 

I was just doing me. I discussed this recently about how the hyphy movement across the country is somewhat…it’s still in the early stages of the movement…and it’s kind of alienated from the rest of the hip-hop. It’s not really lyrical, it’s not really this, it’s not really that; I’ve been hearing that all over the country when I travel. And the thing about me, in my own home, my music is alienated because this is the home of the hyphy. By the end of the day that “Rich Man’s World” story and the stuff I was spitting in the intro “Big Rich is Here” is definitely something we all go through. 17 year old dude, gets lost in the game, ends up losing his life over it. That happens in every city, no matter if you’re hyphy, no matter what you doing, so I felt like my music is definitely more nationwide where everybody can understand. It’s not locked down to one culture, one region. I make music for everybody. And like I said in one of my first lines on the whole album, my music is timeless. I’m not doing music that’s just going to be hot in 2006, I’m trying to do music that’s going to be relevant forever. 

San Francisco has had its share of talent through the years like RBL, Dre Dog and JT. Why do you think they were slept on a national level and how do you intend to prevent that from happening to you? 

I think the era that they came up it was like…we were selling a hundred, 200,000 records out here you know back in ’92, ’94, ’95. There was money to be made and the majors was coming. Like I’ll give you an example…like Lil Jon and them. When this crunk thing was happening, it took a long time – nobody was paying attention to crunk. And eventually crunk became mainstream and that’s what hyphy’s gonna become. At that time, they had the old school mob sound and I think that time came and went…But San Francisco rappers have always been different. We’ve always been more lyrical, you know what I’m sayin’. I always see a lot of different things, like Hitman was one of my favorite artists from all time. And they was telling me that Hitman from RBL was a little too lyrical. I just think these dudes were before their time. What they was spittin’ back in ’94 and ’95, it’s relevant in 2006 and it would work right now if they came out right now with that same material. I just think that San Francisco rap was a little bit ahead of its time and I’m definitely a product of San Francisco so I’m just carrying on the legacy. Right now I’m doing what they should have been doing back then and I’m trying to do it on a major scale.  

To the untrained ear, Bay Area music might sound the same but each city has its own sound. Can you break down the San Francisco sound? 

San Francisco sound is…it’s more lyrical, number one. A little bit more detailed, a little bit more vivid. Our music is more laid back, it’s not as hyphy. And as I always say the difference between San Francisco and everybody else is our swagger. We walk differently out here. It’s playas and pimps out here. We more laid back. The lyrical content is definitely different. We a little bit more intricate with our flow; our flow is a little different than the rest of the Bay. 

You’ve definitely got a good flow and spit. Who are some of your influences?

San Quinn, of course. Tupac is my ultimate influence; just what he represented and what he talked about, that’s definitely my influences. And from the past, that’s really it. I try to stay current. I try to listen to all the new stuff. I listen to Rick Ross, I listen to Young Jeezy. I listen to a lot of street music; as you can tell, my album is street. I listen to that type of stuff I feel like it’s definitely relevant where I’m from and what I’ve seen growing up, so I listen to those kind of artists. 

How’d you get Sheek and J-Hood poppin’ up on your album.

KOCH. The whole KOCH situation. I was out there in New York, went out there for a few meetings and I was like I respect them dudes and I need to meet them, need to get them on the wax. They looked us up, we went to the studio, hit it off and we banged out them two songs in one night. They cool though, we talk to them from time to time. They on their grind. I heard they’re leaving KOCH in a minute though but I’m not sure what’s going on with that, but they definitely our peoples. 

You had a lot of guest appearances on your album being this is your first major time coming out. Were you worried it might take the audience’s focus away from you at all?

No, not really. What happened was we ended up having to cut even more songs without it. I ended up doing 66 songs for this record. We worked on it for a while and everybody in the Bay, every artist like really reached out and wanted to be a part of this project and I didn’t want to say no and I love the love so, we went in there and did a lot of records but I felt like songs like “Rich Man’s World” and “Big Rich Is Here” and “Where I’m From” and “From Nothing to Something”, which is my favorite song on the album…those are four solo songs right there that I feel stand alone. So I wasn’t really worried because I knew they’d get a taste of what Rich was and what I was spittin’ about. 

What’s your follow up single?

Follow up single is “Where I’m From”. We shooting that video in about two to three weeks and we gonna go right behind it with that record “From Nothing to Something” which is a deep record, but, yeah, “Where I’m From” is killing it up here in the streets, especially mixtapes, radio picking up on it, in the clubs got the people going crazy and we doing remixes all over the country. We got a Southern Cali remix; we working on that with Game and Snoop. We got a Down South with Young Joc in Atlanta. We gonna remix it so the whole country can rock with it. 

With KOCH, do you come out of the pocket for your videos on your own or do they give you a budget for that.

We try to stay away from their budget ‘cause you know with any kind of situation, the more money you take the more money you owe and we don’t want to owe. We did the first video out of our pockets and we gonna do this one out of our pockets also. 

Where can we expect Big Rich a year from now?

A year from now, another album out on the street. Still working, I got three mixtapes in the works right now. A DVD coming, a calendar, endorsement deals, I’m on video games with Playstation 2, Playstation 3. You can expect a lot more. Like I always say, a year ago people didn’t expect me to sell one record. We over 10,000 right now and we outselling everybody in our competition rank. Like I said, this is just the beginning though. Everything I do from now on is just crazy. I’ve been working so long, I’m not gonna let this little bit of buzz go. In a year I guarantee you I’ll be double where I’m at right now ‘cause I’m working so damn hard. And I’m real humble and confident.