Skelly Sharpz:
What up, my brother Deuce?
Deuce Kleez:
What up, Skelly? How are you doing today, sir?
Skelly Sharpz:
Doing great, man. Another day in paradise. Another day in Paradise. Can't get no better than this. Can't get no better than this. We've got a special guest today. I have a special guest, Scorpion The Dance Emcee. Get to talk about some hip hop, get to talk about one of the four pillars of hip-hop music, hip-hop culture. I was watching KRS. We want to talk about hip hop. He said there's two different ways to spell it. There's the lowercase, h i p h o p and lowercase Hs. And there's the capital HIP, space capital HOP. There's two different kinds of hip hop. And when you're talking about HIP HOP, you're talking about the culture and the movement. And we can talk about some dance tonight, one of the four pillars of HIP HOP culture which it grew. So we get a chance to listen to a little bit of his music, sample a little bit of his music, get to talk to him, see what his plans are, see what his direction is, and see where he is going to take this amazing thing that he's got going. He's got big plans. I can tell this dude's got some big plans so I can't wait to get to hear his stuff.
Deuce Kleez:
We can already tell this is a good brother too, man.
Skelly Sharpz:
Yeah, without a doubt. So if you are new to the channel, please hit that subscribe button. Rock that bell so you're notified any time we go live, have special guests like this, or we have some content releases that'll be coming soon with all the cut ups of all these episodes. We'll be coming in this next year. We're going to hit tomorrow with the uploads, Deuce. We're going to hit the bar with the uploads. Got a bunch of edited up, ready to go.
Deuce Kleez:
We're starting to get our footing, man. You know what I'm saying? We're starting to move, widen our reach.
Skelly Sharpz:
Kind of what we were expected to be for the first year, approaching that first year, last month, this December. Started on January 1st. We're on the move. We're on the move. Well, without further ado, let's bring up Scorpion The Dance Emcee.
Scorpion:
How y'all doing, man?
Skelly Sharpz:
Another day in Paradise, man.
Scorpion:
Man, love, love, love.
Skelly Sharpz:
So, man, we were kind just doing the research and everything and we met you on Music Breaker. I think that's a notable fact. I'm interested to get your take on Music Breaker, kind of see it from the artist side. We're on the influencer side and so I was kind of just interested to get your take on Music Breaker. What have you thought about it so far?
Scorpion:
Man, I love Music Breaker. I've got to actually give credit to my in-house producer, Omar Lewis, because he's the one who put me on Music Breaker early when they was first starting, when they was like starting up. He was like, yo, I think this could be a good platform for you as an artist that don't have like all the capital like the label resources, I think this can be a good platform for you to leverage and maximize off of. So when I went on Music Breaker working on there with other stuff, but then when I met y'all, like fast forwarding when I met y'all, I thought it was dope because Music Breaker, they have different options. So like the type of music and who I want to talk to, y'all platform and what y'all represent, representing what I was trying to get out to the fans. Y'all really know hip hop, y'all passionate about hip hop. It's not like gossipy, no drama and stuff. It's nothing like that. It's strictly about the music, uplifting, spreading the word. So I was like, yo, I'm going to send a track. And what I like about Music Breaker is y'all have to approve it. So we can send some music over to you but if you don't connect with the record, you don't have to do it. You can disapprove it. You've got to get cleared first. And that's what I like about it because I mean, the show, oh they really mess with the music then. And that's what I like with Music Breaker because it tests to see if you really mess...like your fan base, if you can mess with the music or not. So, so far, I have not got nobody that has declined me yet, but it's dope to see the process of the relationship. Like, yo, you can put something out, but just because you're trying to build or you pay, that don't mean that they've got to automatically do it. They have the right to choose not to do it or not. If they don't want to do it or if they don't fit your brand neither or fit y'all platform, y'all can decline it. And that's what I like about Music Breaker. So I'm going to continue to use Music Breaker. Music Breaker is a layup. If y'all not on Music Breaker, y'all slipping. And we're not getting paid to campaign this too so let me put that out there.
Skelly Sharpz:
No.
Deuce Kleez:
Whoa, whoa.
Scorpion:
This is sincere. I've literally seen what Music Breaker has done for me personally in my career. It is helping me, gave me leverage to get to the TikTokers, get this type of video, wine concept, Haveli show, talk to this. Alright? Everything an artist has got to do, if you was on a label, you get to do it and you can directly connect with people on Music Breaker. Now look at us now. We did a couple of records and now we're doing a live because we kept building a rapport and building a relationship. Now y'all have my rapport pool and I'm in y'all rapport pool. So that's what like about it. You know what I mean?
Deuce Kleez:
Network. Spread love, man. That's how you build. That's how you build. You've got to network and like you said, it is peer approved, bro. It's peer reviewed. And I also saw you had some dudes, you had some folks doing some reactions to your tracks.
Scorpion:
Yep.
Deuce Kleez:
You're letting it get out there. You're working smartly bro. Working smart.
Scorpion:
Man, I appreciate that. And it has been a struggle with the technology. You know everything moves so fast. So like every time I thought I had a formula for something, I had to go read back to the drawing board. Like I think I figured it out and then here comes something new. You thought you figured out and here comes something else. So now, we're in the era of content in the reaction videos. People like you guys, y'all are the new media wave. That is the street, that is the street team. That is the grassroots stuff. It's the people that's the reaction videos. They're breaking records, the dancers, the people who got shows on here like yourselves. That's what's breaking the records. You know what I mean?
Deuce Kleez:
Like BET and MTV.
Scorpion:
Yeah. It's the internet version of it so you've got to get in and work strategically with that. You can't run away from it. That's how I look at it. It's like you're either with them or you're not with it.
Skelly Sharpz:
Right.
Scorpion:
The internet ain't going nowhere.
Skelly Sharpz:
Well, it's kind of like music though, and dancing for that matter. You kind of want to create a niche, you know what I'm saying? Kind of like your brand, your style, you know what I mean? And so I found Music Breaker through Tobe Nwigwe. And I was following Tobe Nwigwe and I saw him do a music review. And I was like, hold on a second. He did like four or five songs. It was Toby, Paul Wall, and a couple of other people. And so I was like, hold on, let me look into his Music Breaker. I looked into Music Breaker and when I went in to sign up for an account or whatever, I signed up for an artist because I didn't even know how to sign up for an influencer. I hit the lady up. I didn't know it was a lady, but I hit the little support chat up. I hit the support chat up. She hit me back, I told her what we were doing show wise. And man, we had like maybe 20, 30 subs, like nothing. And I told her what we were doing. She approved our influencer account, set it up for us and everything with no, because you had to have like a certain level of numbers for Instagram and TikTok and all that kind of stuff. Ain't going to let small channels do it. So we got lucky. She let us in because nobody was doing that. We had like a tab. You couldn't even pick live review. There wasn't no way to even pick that as an influencer. And so they created that niche for us in there because nobody else on there was doing that. So it is kind of interesting. Now, there's all TikTok reviews, all kinds of stuff now, but in February of 2022, there wasn't none of that going on.
Deuce Kleez:
Y'all got to grow.
Skelly Sharpz:
None of it was going. I mean, I've seen channels that had like 10,000 people that were doing music reviews on YouTube, and this year, they went from 10,000 to 20,000 people. So it was a whole new market. Nobody else was doing stuff like this. It was only about maybe four or five channels you could really find.
Scorpion:
Yeah.
Skelly Sharpz:
There's hundreds now.
Scorpion:
Yeah. It's a whole movement now. That's a whole community.
Skelly Sharpz:
There's hundreds now. I mean, I say it all the time, people that come through here, dropped off music wanting us to review music, you know, they're doing shows. I've seen probably seven or eight different people, artists, people bringing us music and stuff. And it's really everybody wants to get their music heard. You know what I'm saying?
Scorpion:
A hundred percent. And especially in this time, it used to be like a real blueprint you can follow for music, but really it's like the wild wild west now. You know, it's like free game. Anything can kind of go. It's not no structure no more. You know what I mean? Which I kind of think hurt the music business in a way. Like hurt the art of the music. Because now, I like the fact people are getting money, but at the same time, now the music sucks for some. Because when you look at Kendrick Lamar who dropped Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, he took four or five years off, but it was worth that four or five years off. Look at the quality of the music. To make that classic music, that took time. Not like go record, put it out in six hours or something, and then boom, and then you just keep putting. You're actually devaluing, I feel like in my opinion, the music. Opposed to actually just taking just a little bit of time. I ain't saying you've got to be like that. Of course, Kendrick is a solidified artist and he's already built, but even if you just took a little bit of time, I feel like the music will be better. But we're not in that. We just put everything out and then I think the art in the way starts to get kind of devalued a little bit. When it used to be attractive, you know what I mean?
Skelly Sharpz:
Yeah. I think you hit the nail on the head because if you have cash, if you have money, you can buy for it to be put in people's face now. You know what I mean? Like, on Facebook, you can buy ads. I mean we can buy ads for this on Instagram. We can buy ads for this on Facebook. We can buy ads for this on Twitter. We can buy ads for this on YouTube. We can promote this stuff wherever we want to, as much as we can pay for it. And you could genuinely get a lot of followers that way. But the problem with it is they're not really there for you. They were just told to like you, you know what I'm saying?
Scorpion:
Right, exactly. I agree. I was a bar.
Skelly Sharpz:
It's not genuine. They're not genuine. They're not real souls. They're paid for. You want people to roll through because they know you, they like you, they like the person you are, you know what I'm saying?
Scorpion:
Right. An actual, genuine fan. Like who is your real fan? Like who are you really talking to? And that's something that took me a long time to like figure out. Like what's my who, what, my where and why, what's the purpose? Making the music with attention. It took me a while to like figure it out from just like being able to rap really good to actually like figuring out who I want to represent and who am I directly talking to. Especially in this era of stuff, I was around like when the CDs was like starting to fade out, but I come from some of that and then it was iTunes, before all the streaming platforms where iTunes was the thing and you get to be able to upload and the price point was whatever. You could download and he was getting more paid on the dollar with the iTunes. Then the streaming. The artists got to work harder. You've got to work harder to make a hundred dollars. From the streaming companies, you've got to put out two, three EPs a month, six videos.
Skelly Sharpz:
No, you need weekly content. You need weekly content. I mean that's why we got a weekly show. You need weekly content and if you could create that, then you got a recipe. You know what I'm saying? But you've got to be able to create weekly content for streaming platforms.
Scorpion:
I agree.
Deuce Kleez:
Because what is it? The monster? Something like that.
Skelly Sharpz:
It's illegal to even talk about it.
Deuce Kleez:
Oh, forgot about it.
Skelly Sharpz:
Yeah. Yeah. Anybody that's partnered up or affiliated with YouTube or anything like that, you can't talk about it. It's in the privacy policy. Yeah, it's terms of service. They don't want you talking about their money.
Deuce Kleez:
I heard that.
Skelly Sharpz:
You can't talk about that stuff, Deuce. You'll get fired quick.
Deuce Kleez:
Okay.
Skelly Sharpz:
YouTube pays very well. YouTube pays very well. As a monetized person, I'm monetized on a gaming channel. It pays very well. But you've got to feed the beast. The numbers start going down when you don't feed the beast. But the great thing about music is it's evergreen. It lasts generations.
Deuce Kleez:
Absolutely.
Skelly Sharpz:
You know what I'm saying? Like you're able to build a catalog, Scorpion, that your kids, your grandkids, your great grandkids are going to be able to follow forever, you know what I'm saying? And they get to build on the legacy, you know what I'm saying?
Scorpion:
100%. You know, that's powerful too that you mention that too because that's really what it's about at the end of the day, you know what I'm saying? That legacy, being able to build something to pass on where your bloodline can be here for an extra a hundred years when you want, when you're done with your cycle of life. You know what I mean? And that's the thing about music is the beauty. It is the catalog. Like when verses was going on, and just being able to hear all that classic music, man. All that classic, you know what I mean? Like stuff that I was like, man, I was a kid. Hearing this and going, oh my god. And it still gives you the same feeling.
Deuce Kleez:
Still get goosebumps.
Scorpion:
Still getting goosebumps from that b drop. You know, we aim for it. Yeah, 100%.
Skelly Sharpz:
So what's up with your last project? Let's see, I got it right here. Let me add it to the stream. There we go. Tell us a little bit about this Scorpion The Dance Emcee's. What was the album title?
Scorpion:
What's life without Trial and Error?
Skelly Sharpz:
What's Life Without Trial and Error? That's right. So I picked out these four songs right here that I thought were something special right here. We'll just listen to it, a little bit of it. Y'all definitely go and check. I've dropped the link in the chat a couple times to his channel. I'll do it again right here, but I definitely want everybody to go check this out. But it's still there. Alright, good. I'll post it there. Go check out his channel right here, and I'll play a little bit of these.
Music:
“It was a kid that was born in the nineties, but when he came in this world, everything was a shiny, hey, bunch dilemmas. He felt like his life was a whole movie cinema. He was created by Love, love. But he was going in a heartbreak. Heartbreak. He was losing love was that gave him the shakes. His mama had Kessie. He thought it was fake. He had a lot of stress up on his plate. But wait, can get deeper broken with no collars. Amy, her brother, his father, father. But wait, what happened to his father? Foul. Foul. My nigga got hit with choppers, my niggas came and shot him, and shot like got them. 10 bullets wound to his body, shot was shot. Now his child picking up hobbies and experiencing harm. Mr. Terry continue to continue multiple copies. He felt like the world had no love. They left his dad up in the pool of blood, man, he just...”
Skelly Sharpz:
That's some deep right there, bro.
Scorpion:
I appreciate.
Skelly Sharpz:
I'm guessing something's wrong with the audio. Hold on a second. Y'all hearing that sound?
Scorpion:
No, it has stopped. It came in for a quick second.
Skelly Sharpz:
Deuce, are you hearing that sound? I think it's Deuce. Mute your mic real quick.
Scorpion:
Oh yeah, I hear it.
Skelly Sharpz:
Deuce, you're there? It's not working, bro. Your mic's not working. It's making some kind of crazy sound. I don't know what's wrong with that dude's mic.
Scorpion:
Like the chipmunks.
Skelly Sharpz:
Yeah, it's weird. Okay, I'm muted. Hey, plug your mic out. Unplug your mic and plug it back in and see if it works. I can't hear you now though. You're muted now. There you go. Yep, you're good. You're back with us. You're back with us.
Deuce Kleez:
My bad, my bad.
Skelly Sharpz:
Technology. I swear, it's taken over the world. Don't want to let you talk when you want to talk. So obviously, real story there. Tough situations, some mom had cancer, dad got shot. So it was a tough start for you, man. What got you through it, man? There has to be something that's gotten you through that.
Scorpion:
The music, the dancing, the art forms, you know, that's like my therapy, you know what I mean? So like I tell people, if you want to hear where I'm at in life, you can hear it through the music. You'll feel it through my dancing. So that always kept me on my path of keep going. And then also, I had good energy around me, you know what I'm saying? I had good people around me. But yeah, anything like that. I mean, cancer or a loved one like your mother, you know what I'm saying? Stuff like that. Yeah, definitely, that can hit you in a different way of like that's one of those like man, you know what I'm saying? But however, I feel like when you doing what you're supposed to do, everything comes full circle regardless, you know what I mean? I feel like some of the stuff that I've been through, I've been able to be like a light to other people, you know? Like, you're not alone. Because I know I'm not the only person that had a mother who had cancer or a family member or a loved one like that that got killed or got gunned down. I'm one of many. So it's just like, yo, you're not alone. You know what I mean? Yeah. I try to base my stuff around real situations, like with the music, like I was saying, like being intent, and like get people to really know where my spirit at, where I'm at, and get to know me better. Actually get to know me, not just putting out what I actually get to know. Like you can feel where I'm coming from and where my story is and my background.
Deuce Kleez:
That's right. That's right.
Skelly Sharpz:
So it's just real life. It is really you, it is like you really there, you know what I'm saying? It's not like an alter ego, superhero or crap, you know what I mean? It's like that's just who you are.
Deuce Kleez:
Yeah. We're imperfect beings, man. And that's your testimony. Put it out there, show how you grow, show how you came back from it. It is inspiring. That's the hip hop we grew up on, right? They told us what they went through. They told us about their pain. They told us about their struggles. They told us how they got through it. And I mean, I don't know. That's why.
Skelly Sharpz:
Your family?
Deuce Kleez:
Oh, huh?
Skelly Sharpz:
No, go ahead. I didn't mean to interrupt.
Deuce Kleez:
I forgot my train of thought, but it was on the lines of that's what hip-hop is for. You can't diss it. You can't. We have good parts of it, we got bad parts of it. Let's focus on the good parts of it and grow because it helped a lot of us, man.
Skelly Sharpz:
Oh yeah. That's why I wanted to do a show. And we were talking about it before the show even started but different jobs, you know what I'm saying? So like, if I wanted to work for something, I wanted to work for something I loved and I enjoyed. And so that's why I wanted to do hip hop. If I was going to mess around and mess with the metadata and mess with video tagging and creating content and stuff, I wanted to talk about hip hop, something I enjoyed, you know what I mean? And that's what we do. And you enjoy dancing too, right? So I mean, did you get this stuff from your family? Like was it mom and dad in musical? Did you get that kind of stuff from them or do they have those kind of vibes as well?
Scorpion:
So well, with my father, the relationship wasn't really there.
Skelly Sharpz:
I got you.
Scorpion:
Yeah. So I can't really speak on that part, but far as that. But my dad's side of the family, everybody did music, everybody did sports, everybody was very artistic. My mom used to sing in the choir. You know, a lot of us.
Skelly Sharpz:
It's in the DNA.
Deuce Kleez:
That's right.
Scorpion:
Yeah. It's a history of it. A lot of my family members and my cousins do music as well, and it's just naturally, you know what I'm saying? Just naturally. I can think back even like to my grandmother. We would be two stepping and jamming and vibing. She'd put oldies on and stuff like that, you know what I mean? And that influence of hearing the music, hearing what the elders was playing and stuff. If it was gule, if it was music soul child or if it was Nas or whatever they was playing, old school Jay-Z oh ho, you know what I mean? It's like kids soaking that up.
Deuce Kleez:
That's right.
Scorpion:
I remember the big piping video on the boat and I'd seen it as a kid.
Deuce Kleez:
Absolutely.
Scorpion:
Yeah. But yes, it's pretty much it, the family. Yeah, I think the family is just super creative. I can see that from a distance. Just kind of seeing people, personalities and stuff in the family for sure.
Skelly Sharpz:
Right. So let's move on to the next one right here. Beautiful testimony was the next one I had. I think you should be still able to hear it here. Oops, here we go. I think this is the one I used on IG. I think it was. Yeah, it was.
Music:
“It's a beautiful testimony. Over drafted accounts where interest amounts, with your face stuck on stupid witcha tongue out. Pockets on drought, but you didn't fumble the bounce. Got a bed, the land, you ain't sleeping up on the couch. You were man with a plan. You gone figure it out. No need to panic. No need to double down. All I've got to say is it's a beautiful testimony. You been up, you been down. It's not like it's your first rodeo around. You been scammed out of money, came back around. You need to go ahead and put some diamonds up on your crown. You ain't shed one tear, make one sound. You was lost, now you are found. All I've got to say is it's a beautiful testimony. You got...”
Skelly Sharpz:
It's a beautiful testimony, dude. I was like, man, this is perfect, dude. Like financial literacy in a hip hop song, dude. Your bank accounts, you're broke, can't pay your bills, everybody's been there. If they hadn't, it's because their parents had money. It's the only way. It was inherited. It's the only way.
Deuce Kleez:
Even if some of them, you have an overdraft account personally. Yes, you've got to learn how to manage your money.
Skelly Sharpz:
Yeah. I don't know any of those people yet.
Deuce Kleez:
I don't know. I mean I've heard of them.
Skelly Sharpz:
I've maybe heard of them, yeah, but this is a movie or something. I don't know any of those people. So man, what was your inspiration on this album? Was this your first album, second album, third album? You know, like when did you get your start at rap?
Scorpion:
Oh man, I've been rapping since I was a kid, man. This is my debut album. But it was a lot of development projects, A bunch of EPs because my thing at that time was there's no point to do an album if you ain't built some type of fan base. Like something to build on top of. So we was doing a lot of EPs, you know, a lot of little projects, Little Tate had five songs on it, seven, eight, whatever. But yeah, I was rapping since I was a kid. Since I was a youngin, I've been rapping. So I had like 10 rap names. You know how you go through your process, you try little j and J Dog and whatever. But you know, Lupe Fiasco, Nas, Jay-Z, Common, Kanye West, TI, 40. I was influenced, I was paying attention to a lot of that music. That's why I think you can hear it in the music, you can hear that coming in rich from there. If you've studied, personally I'm a hip hop fanatic. Like I love hip hop. So I've been really nurtured in that. You know, the first time I heard Lupe Fiasco, it made me want to change my whole perspective on writing. The way he approached the music, what he was talking about, how he put it together, it's classic, you know what I'm saying? Nah, we know about Illmatic, but I kind of feel like still Illmatic was, you know what I mean? I don't think he was ready. You know what I mean? But yeah, Nas is one of my favorite emcees of all time. You know, Jay-z, I studied the business. It went from the music and just admiring him as a business individual. Seeing him with him and Damon Bigs did with Rockefeller. And then seeing him be able to catapult and elevate himself. And now he's got a dozens of companies from nothing, from the ground up. Marcy Projects. I paid attention when Nas was talking, when he came out with I can. That's my rep. [rapping]
Skelly Sharpz:
That was the Rewind Album.
Deuce Kleez:
Oh, where he rapped the story back.
Skelly Sharpz:
I think that right there was his first peak. That album right there was his first peak, like was his at his prime. Like Jordan at his prime. Like he retires after that, then comes back for like King Disease 3, championship 6. You know what I mean? Because I think magic was dope. I think King Disease one was dope. I think King Disease three was dope. I think it is like that same way with it, like those three, and then he is got these back three right here in my opinion.
Scorpion:
Yeah, yeah.
Skelly Sharpz:
Like Jordan coming back from out of retirement, you know what I mean? It's like, mm. That album to me with Rewind and I know I can, and I can and then
Deuce Kleez:
Is that one mic?
Skelly Sharpz:
One Mic, yes.
Deuce Kleez:
And of course, Ethan.
Skelly Sharpz:
I can go on all day about Nas.
Scorpion:
Aw man, yeah, that was classic times.
Deuce Kleez:
I've got a question for Mr. Scorpion. Scorpion, tell folks where you from because that will be good to add context to that. Where are you from, Mr. Scorpion?
Scorpion:
I'm from Fairfield, California. It's a small city in the Bay Area. Bay Area, stand up. Fairfield, California.
Deuce Kleez:
Bay Area.
Scorpion:
In the building, for sure. A hundred percent.
Deuce Kleez:
We talked about this a little bit earlier, but who would be some of your influences? Let the crowd know. Put the Bay Area on because a lot of people don't give the Bay Area credit.
Scorpion:
Man, great shout out to Rick Rock, the Federation for sure. That's home city, Mike Mosley. But then you've got people like Rapping Forte. You've got Mack Dre, you've got San Quentin, you've got E40, you've got Jake Diggs, you've got EA Ski, you've got Spice One, Legend. Shout out to Hayward. You know what I'm saying? Shout out to Burner, shout out to Filthy Rich, shout out to Live Wire, Jay Stalin, everything that they've built in the movement. I can keep going. I mean, the Hood Stars, Droopy Million, DJ Fresh, who don't get enough credit. You know, I keep going, man. I keep going.
Deuce Kleez:
You did well. You represented.
Scorpion:
Come on, man. Raphael Sadiq. It is so much music. And that's what I love about the Bay Area is that I think we're getting our own way. And I feel like sometimes we kind of narrow our own music down in a way. We've got so much, yeah, 100%. Like the Hyphy Movement is like a major impact on the Bay Area.
Deuce Kleez:
It's culturally all over our world.
Scorpion:
So Bay Arians, we love The Hyphy Movement. However, there's more music and more things that we had like some people I named, Raphael Sadiq. You know what I'm saying? You know, I can keep going with those and I feel like sometimes we can box our own self in and not open up fully. Like we've not only got The Hyphy Movement, but embracing all of our culture because our culture is so beautiful and so broad. You know?
Deuce Kleez:
I agree. I mean, coming from Southern California, we love, every time we heard something from the Bay Area, it was like we automatically felt the vibe. And I remember specifically, I'm not going to mention names, but they weren't feeling the West Coast music, but they especially weren't feeling E40 in particular on the East Coast, and as soon as that went out, you start hearing about all these folks from all over the world saying, nah, we don't cosign that. We mess with y'all, we mess with y'all. We feel y'all vibe. We love that individual style and we rock with y'all. You know what I'm saying?
Scorpion:
Yeah.
Skelly Sharpz:
East Coast was just late to E40 because the South got E40.
Scorpion:
When E40 went to the south, he went out of here. But it might have took some time for the East Coast to. I mean, but in their own way, I understand it. You know, that's the method. So E40 is speaking...
Deuce Kleez:
They're hard on us, yes.
Scorpion:
You know what I'm saying? It might have took some time for people to, but yeah, what E40's been able to do, there'll never be another E 40. Even if you tried to emulate him, you can't emulate him at all.
Deuce Kleez:
He's got his own language.
Skelly Sharpz:
He’s got his own dictionary, his own damn dictionary. My favorite was always Players Club, Rapping Forte.
Scorpion:
Classic.
Skelly Sharpz:
And then later on, the whole Baby Bash. I thought him, Devin the dude, that was a great merger. But see, I remember on the radio station here, they played oh, what was the song with UGK and E40? Was it Sketty?
Deuce Kleez:
Oh shit, Skelly, okay, you're going to dig in the Crease.
Skelly Sharpz:
It was on the soundtrack. It was on the soundtrack. What was it on? Oh shit. Anyways, but Sprinkle Me was the first one I heard on the radio. They played that in the south. They probably didn't play Sprinkle Me maybe up in the East Coast, I bet. I don't know. Dab's here. He might be able to tell us if they played that on the radio up there.
Deuce Kleez:
Well yes, what I was saying is when that individual came out and he basically took a shot at E 40, it was a whole wave of East Coast folks saying like, nah, we don't cosign with that. We actually riding. You know what I'm saying?
Skelly Sharpz:
I don't remember who he got into it with. Who did he get into it with? I don't remember.
Deuce Kleez:
He says it in his song. He got a diss track for it too. He's a ball player, if y'all don't remember that far back. We don't gotta get into that.
Skelly Sharpz:
Alright. Never mind. We ain't bringing up that old beef, ain't bring up that old beef, Deuce.
Scorpion:
[inaudible] E40, Cube and all that, man.
Skelly Sharpz:
Let's move on to the next song then. Let's move on to the next song. Right here is Chill Zone featuring T Carrier. Did I say it right?
Scorpion:
Yeah, T Carrier.
Skelly Sharpz:
Here you go.
Deuce Kleez:
Okay.
Skelly Sharpz:
Let's play this one real quick.
Music:
“I don't mean to intrude, but niggas got it fucked up. Really got it confused. If you live another day, another day to improve, another day to rebrand, another day to regroup. Everyone can talk, can't walk in your shoes. You're like Langston Hughes dealing with different os frequencies and moves. Long hours, sleepless nights paying your dues before you got to the cruise. You've got to hit a couple of times, now you got bruises. Go multiple times, now you've really been doing this. You can laugh that up and say that is ludicrous. That's just part of the game. Don't chase the fan, chase Consistency. Foundation no with it, man. Be your number one supporter. Be your number one fan chilling zone. You took a chance indeed. I don't mean to intrude, but niggas got it fucked up. Really got it confused. If you live another day, another day to improve, another day to rebrand, another Day to regroup.”
Skelly Sharpz:
Dude, I felt the jam in that one. Dude. I felt a jam in that one, bro. I felt like you were in the zone on that one right there.
Scorpion:
Yeah, man. Shout out to my producer, Omar Lewis. He's the one who produced that joint and we was trying to have kind of the bounce, but approach the bounce in a different way. Like still have the rapness to it where you want to rap and really talk that ism.
Skelly Sharpz:
Yeah.
Scorpion:
But kind of still have a medium of that bay bounce a little bit and kind of mix it up. Kind of mix the pop a little bit.
Deuce Kleez:
Yeah, you can tell the classic hip hop in that.
Skelly Sharpz:
Yeah. You know who I could hear in it? Like I could just hear it, but I get this out of the Ye too. That kind of musical vibe. It's like that tribe called Quest Vibe.
Deuce Kleez:
I thought that, okay.
Skelly Sharpz:
I can hear a Q-tip on that thing. I can hear Fife on it. You know, I can hear some people on that. Yeah, yeah. I don't know man, I just got that tribe called Quest Vibe off that song. And then the fourth one right here, Letters to My Loved Ones.
Music:
“Good shot in the air to the ceiling. For the ones going home, [inaudible] shot in the air to the ceiling.”
Skelly Sharpz:
It's the office pop.
Music:
“Tears down my eyes, but a smile on my face. I know you're in paradise, which is just a better place. Your legacy you taught us, you taught us how to be great. It's a letter to my loved ones. Hold on, wait. Beautiful blue skies for joy and the space. I need my candles to light, light them up for the brave. Gotta send them home, they dip on the way. Yeah. It's only right that we gotta do it this way, so we have to celebrate the marathons.”
Skelly Sharpz:
So we've got to celebrate, bro. We've got to celebrate. I think that song right there, man, I can hear that being played all summer long. I really can, I can hear that song being played all summer long. I guess the summer hit to me, man.
Deuce Kleez:
Yeah, that song you could ride to, definitely.
Skelly Sharpz:
Yeah, man, it's just got a good vibe to it man. Man, so I'm just impressed, but I'm more impressed with the subject matter, man, and it's positive. It's positive, man. You're trying to build a legacy. Everybody sees that and I think it's going to serve you well over time. I think it's just a matter of just keep grinding, man. Let's talk about what you do daily. I mean like what do you do daily? You make music when you have the chance, but daily you're working on your dance career, right? So working on inspiring new future dancers and...
Scorpion:
The dancing, man, you know I got a dance company called Worldwide Dance Association LLC and I've been throwing dance events for 13 years and then next year it'll be WDA, the company's nine-year anniversary. So my whole reason for even starting the company was to be able to build something, to be a problem solver, right? To create these solutions. I was frustrated about what I was seeing specifically in our dance community, right? I was seeing different things, but I wanted to be the change I wanted to see. So build out our frustration, the company was built. I didn't like certain things so I wanted to add business structure to what we do, which is a style in the Bay Area called turf dancing, and then you've got street dancing. Like flexing is from New York. You've got Krumping, that's from LA. You've got Jerking, that's from Memphis. You've got Papping, that started out here. You've got break dancing, that's New York. I can name Beat Your Feet, Gogo Music, that's DC. So it's like street dance culture is an underserved community, specifically with the platforms on the business side, and just being able to be an advocate and doing a part of being able to just create some economic gap space. Actually paying dancers, actually being able to get medals and stuff like an Olympic gold medals, get rings, be able to get marketing, be able to perform and do shows and get videos and campaigns so you can, you know what I'm saying? You can be able to have a legacy. Be able to build something. Because when I was coming up, we didn't have that. When we was battling, we wasn't getting medals or rings or we wasn't getting paid, unless it was like a big commercial like Adidas or something or whatever, but just paid to get booked to battle. Like, hey, I want to book you as a dancer. I'm going to book you to do a battle, write you a cheque. And yeah, it wasn't like that. So just being able to contribute to that. So the dancing is something I'm definitely passionate about. What's funny is a lot of people, when I was coming up, when I was doing the rapping and dancing, when I would tell people I'm going to do the both at the same time, a lot of people was like, you've got to pick one. You know what I mean? That you wasn't going to do both because it's hard to just build in one industry. The hardest to get as a dancer or a musician, you're going to have to pick one, you're not going to be able to do both. So I was like, nah, I'm part of hip hop. I'm going to rap and dance. I'm the dancer. [inaudible] What are you talking about?
Skelly Sharpz:
So the biggest hip hop champion of the world is Mike Tyson. So then you got the biggest tour, the best tour in hip hop history. Best entertainer in hip hop history was Emcee Hammer. So like Bay Area.
Scorpion:
Bay Area.
Skelly Sharpz:
So I mean, he broke them old like Tyson's hip hop. Who can't say Tyson's a hip hop, you know what I mean?
Scorpion:
You know, when Teddy had them, some of them elements too come out performing.
Skelly Sharpz:
James Brown
Scorpion:
James, you know what I mean? And that's kind of like.
Deuce Kleez:
And Heavy D.
Scorpion:
Heavy D.
Deuce Kleez:
Come on, y'all. We used to dance.
Scorpion:
That's what I'm saying. Dancing has always been a part of hip hop. No, we're not isolated. We are a part of hip hop.
Skelly Sharpz:
It's a pillar. I mean, it's like big boys and big girls. It don't stop there. Just like the hip hop music at that point didn't stop there. It doesn't stop branching and growing and the family tree keep growing and wider and stronger base and I mean, one of those bases might blow up, you know what I mean? Like there's some genres of hip hop that's exploded. You know?
Deuce Kleez:
Man, we got country hip hop now. We got hip hop. We're not stopping.
Skelly Sharpz:
Well let's ask you, Scorpion. Me and Deuce Future Show Idea. We're talking about making like a bracket, right? And so we're breaking out the top 64 hip hip-hop artists of the year. And Deuce said Bad Bunny twice. Is Bad Bunny hip-hop?
Scorpion:
Nah.
Deuce Kleez:
He is! Reggaeton. That's hip-hop.
Scorpion:
I love it.
Skelly Sharpz:
You see what I'm saying?
Deuce Kleez:
Don't put him on, it's fine.
Scorpion:
I messed with Bad Bunny, but I'm like, I don't know. You know what I mean?
Skelly Sharpz:
A lot of people would say he's hip-hop. It's just because of the Latin, you know what I'm saying?
Scorpion:
You're right, because what's the dude from overseas? Skeptic, right? It's certain and that is. They've got their own style, their own flavor and their own language. I think it's more of probably getting used to the sound. Like when you come up off of like, you know the line.
Skelly Sharpz:
You can tell Bad Bunny, but he raps, right?
Deuce Kleez:
Yeah. Everybody raps.
Skelly Sharpz:
You see what I'm saying?
Deuce Kleez:
Yeah. Facts.
Skelly Sharpz:
But you could tell there's a hip hop influence there. Like it came out of hip hop. It came out of hip hop. You know what I'm saying?
Scorpion:
For sure. Shout out to Snowda Prada too. Because Snowda Prada, before it became a popular thing, she was one of the first people I know I heard like really doing the Spanish and speaking in the language. Like rapping, but then rapping and being able to be dope. Snowda Prada for sure, I think, was an advocate for that. I don't think she gets enough credit for that for sure. Look at it now.
Skelly Sharpz:
Right.
Scorpion:
It's a phenomenon now, but she was doing it I think when it wasn't really cool to do that.
Skelly Sharpz:
Yeah. Big Pun did it. I remember Big Pun did it.
Scorpion:
Of course. That's the, you know what I mean? Yeah, punishers.
Deuce Kleez:
Yeah. We always had. Hip hop is not pigeonholed. And I think it has influence on all genres of music, including country music, which is the last one that I would've thought had it. But you're rapping everything. Hip hop is a culture.
Scorpion:
For sure.
Deuce Kleez:
Hey bro, let me address something in the chat. I think that was addressed on the last topic from Dab Doula. He said Buster Rhymes stage performances is unrivaled. It's unrivaled. All the greats have said it themselves. Right?
Skelly Sharpz:
Yeah.
Deuce Kleez:
Busta Rhymes.
Skelly Sharpz:
I just had never seen him.
Deuce Kleez:
Not necessarily.
Skelly Sharpz:
Oh man, he's got energy.
Scorpion:
His energy is a whole vibe.
Skelly Sharpz:
What a Blackwell. So I was watching an interview on Nas the other day. We were talking about Nas, but he was talking about when he first started writing his album, his very first album Matic. And he was making the songs or whatever. He said it never even crossed his mind when he's making these songs about performing the songs. So he later in life made songs that he could perform versus making songs that were hard to perform. Because some of his rhyme structures and the way he was rapping them took serious breath control to be able to perform it.
Scorpion:
100%. Nah, 100%. You know, I'm looking at the time, like man, I can talk for hours. I'm looking at the time like, oh Tom's ticking on me.
Skelly Sharpz:
You got to go.
Scorpion:
But I think this is a dope moment to even say. I'm about to go to work. You know what I'm saying? I got a 9-5 as well. You know, like I tell them, I'm going at a job, to go to a job to go to the next job. But I want to let people know it's real. It's no lies. You shouldn't have to lie about your persona, try to act like you got to go to work. Like yeah, I go to work. I got bills, you know what I'm saying? You know what I mean?
Deuce Kleez:
Me too. And where's he at?
Skelly Sharpz:
I teach school, bro. So I teach school and coach, I teach school and coach during the week and like I just got Thanksgiving break off. I got a whole week off. So I'm on vacation right now.
Scorpion:
Right. Talk to him. You know, like don't be fooled by the trickery and stuff. It is okay to have a job. You need a job to invest in your career, man. Like don't be fooled, man.
Skelly Sharpz:
Man, be safe at work, man. It's been fun talking to you man. Really glad to get to talk to you.
Scorpion:
The hip hop show. No name, if y'all ain't in tune, y'all need to pull up. If you talking about hip hop, as y'all can see, this is a show that you need to tap into and they're Rockwood local artists. You ain't got to have 50 million views, you ain't got to have a trillion subscribers. They really rock with the people, man. So I salute the show man and I appreciate y'all for having me, man.
Skelly Sharpz:
Hey, I appreciate you coming through, man. Appreciate you giving us the opportunity to do this. And at the end of the show, we're going to show a little bit of his dance moves. The essence of Turf Chi, a little bit of essence of Turf Chi right here.
Music:
[music playing]
Deuce Kleez:
My man, what?
Skelly Sharpz:
We're going to get banned on now. Oh there we go. Got it out there.
Deuce Kleez:
Look at that Scorpion. Look what Top King said.
Scorpion:
Bruce Lee.
Deuce Kleez:
That brother's messing with you out here.
Skelly Sharpz:
I just banned that dude in Twitch. I just banned him in Twitch and he gets a shout out. Just look back into what he said before that. Like I didn't know if he was like trying to be
Deuce Kleez:
Nah, he is positive in there. He just put his opinion in there.
Skelly Sharpz:
I don't know.
Scorpion:
Alright, man.
Skelly Sharpz:
Peace bro. Peace bro. Y'all have a good night.
Scorpion:
Appreciate you, y'all
Skelly Sharpz:
Please subscribe. Rock that bell so you're notified anytime we go live or have special guests like Scorpion the Dance Emcee. Peace, y'all. I'm out.
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