C.M.W.
This interview conducted January, 1993.
Let's take a trip through Compton. Don't worry, you'll be safe, and it will only cost you fifteen dollars. Your tour guide for today: MC Eiht. Your excitement filled vacation includes a tour of the beautiful Watts Towers and a leisurely stroll down Crenshaw Blvd. Witness a driveby and a jacking live. Ok, ok, so you can't really go to Compton for $15. However, you can get the next best thing: Compton Most Wanted's newest album Music to Driveby.
For those who may not know about C.M.W., why don't you let 'em know.
MC Eiht: This is the third album. The first album was It's A Compton Thang, which was on Orpheus/EMI (records). The second album, when we came to Epic, was Straight Checkn 'Em. Now we're here for the third—Music to Driveby. So we've been around for a little while.
To me, you have some f the most realistic gang stories. How do you achieve that sense of realism?
I like to stick to the realism. I don't like to go on subjects that ain't sayin' nothing. I like to leave you with something so you can go 'That's real,' or 'I went through that.' That's what we're here for. I'm gonna stick to what I've been through and what I know.
Do you come from a gangbangin' background?
Yeah, I hung wit' 'em, did my little dirt. But I rose up.
There's a term 'studio gangsta' which means someone who does gangsta music but never lived the life. What would you say to someone who called you a studio gangsta?
I'd say they're bullshit. I ain't no studio gangsta. I was there. I hung with the niggas. I seen the niggas getting jacked. I seen the niggas getting killed. I did the jacking, I did the gangbangin'.
What sets you apart from the other 'gangsta rappers'?
Other gangsta rappers, all they talk about is 'Shoot you up, bang, bang, boom.' It ain't even like that. They don't know what they're talking about. They feel just by saying fuck or shit, or putting a strap in their hand, or talking about a 40 ounce that they're in it to win it. It ain't about that. I'm a gangster rapper, but when you listen to C.M.W., you're always gonna get a story told. It ain't like you gonna be sitting, listening to a nigga go 'Yeah, I'm the baddest muthafucka. Fuck, grab my dick. Fuck this.' I'm gonna tell you something, and I'm gonna have you listening.
Do you think you're promoting Black on Black crime?
It's not promoting Black on Black crime. It's showing how fucked up Black people do each other. It's the white people that make us look like that. We ain't getting no break in the streets. We ain't getting no suit and tie jobs sitting in offices. When you got a brotha sitting in the streets, he need to get paid. He need to eat. Ain't no other people you can jack out there. It's messed up that you have to put a gat to your brother's head and go 'Gimme that chain' or 'Gimme that car,' but brothers do need to eat.
You're just opening people's eyes to what's really going on...
Yeah. We're out there jacking each other, smoking each other. And it's not all over colors. Brothers have values. It's not for the colors, it's for the code of honor. You have to protect your neighborhood, where you're from, and you'll die for it.
Do you think there's anything that can be done to stop all the 'banging?
Brothers now aren't into killing each other. They're trying to change. But to me, it will never stop because there's too many people in it. It could slow down like it has now, because the gang problem has slowed down a lot, but I don't think it will ever stop.
On the last album you dissed DJ Quik. This album you dissed him again on "Duck Sick II." What's the beef with him?
Quik did an underground tape a long time ago talking about C.M.W. and N.W.A. I guess he never thought it would leak out, but it did and I heard it. Therefore, I came back.
Did that have something to do with old gang rivalries?
It was somewhat like that. It had to do with rap, but at the time he didn't have a record deal so it was strictly gangbanging for him. We had the first album out so we weren't even tripping off of it. He was making tapes for his hood, and he was trying to portray this role of the enemy gangbanger, so he dissed rappers who were supposed to be from the other side of the street. But after he got his deal, he tried to let the shit play out. He never thought anybody like me would get hold of one of his tapes.
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