was supposed to drop, instead of me having record release parties and autograph signings in the Bay Area, they set me up to go do the video in Greensboro, NC at the NASCAR stadium. The day before, NASCAR cancelled it. I don’t even know why. It seemed like after that they never really worked a second single for me.
I try to make music I think people wanna hear that’ll take ‘em away from what they’re going through. As we know, it’s a recession and a lot of people ain’t doing too good. Why would you want to hear about that? Maybe you wanna hear something positive, that you can make it out the hood and become something else.
Did you record that song with the intention of getting NASCAR involved? Nah, that happened after the fact. I think that was more of the label’s idea. Everybody was saying I could get NASCAR behind and it’d be big. When I was having meetings with the label we were talking about making that happen, but it ended up falling through. It was some type of politics, I don’t know exactly why. You know how it is, they throw everything against the wall and if it sticks, it sticks. I guess that didn’t really come through all the way. But as far as me getting national attention, it was a good look ‘cause I was able to release a national album.
If you look at Hip Hop, you’ve got artists wearing skinny jeans now, and trends that are constantly coming and going. Do you think it’s ever gonna get to a point where the ice and jewelry and all that is played out? Kinda like grills? I think it’s gonna play itself out. To me, once you get famous and you got money, you don’t really need to show it. In the beginning, when you coming up, you may go crazy with the jewelry ‘cause you wanna be seen. It’s a statement. But once you make that statement and everybody knows you got it, ain’t no need to show it no more. If you look at bigger name artists, they don’t even really have to wear jewelry no more. You know who they are when you see ‘em. A lot of up-and-coming artists probably wear jewelry just to show that they’re somebody. Eventually, jewelry is getting so crazy with designs, and as technology grows they startin’ to go crazy with it, so eventually it’ll come to an end. Nothing lasts forever so I don’t think it’ll stay in Hip Hop forever.
Next time around, are you gonna take things into your own hands a little more? I know now you gotta make sure everything’s situated before you drop an album. Just ‘cause you have a label putting you out, you still gotta do the same footwork you did to get there. You can’t depend on the label to do anything for you. You gotta still do everything on your own. The label is only gonna go so far. They’ll only go off the hype for so long; after that, you’re on your own. It seems like a lot of Bay artists would rather put out a project themselves than sign with any label. Do you share that mentality? Or are you looking for more of a major label situation? At the end of the day, I can do a lot of the stuff that the major labels can do. I’ve developed the contacts for people behind the scenes that run a lot of the industry. The only difference in having a label deal is having that name and money behind you. If you got the connections and the money you can do it yourself. The difference in being independent and being with a label is them putting that money up and having a stamp on it. It’s really about how much money you’re gonna spend marketing yourself. You mentioned that off the ads and some of the previous stuff you’ve done with OZONE, a lot of people think you sell jewelry. Have you thought about going that route? Nah, I researched the jewelry game. It’s not a real good game to get into unless you’ve been in the game for like 20 years and you bought the gold when prices were real cheap. That’s the whole game – these jewelers have a reserve of gold. They’re selling you a piece for whatever the market value of gold is at the time, that’s how they eat. If you bought some gold bars 10 years ago when gold was $10 a gram, and now it’s at $30 a gram, you make $20 off every gram. Have you researched any other types of businesses you think would be good to get into outside of the music game? I invested in a bail bond company in the Bay Area and I had a trucking company at one point, but when I got my record deal and all that, I was on the road so much I kinda let that falter a little bit. You were dealing with gun charges at one point. Were you able to get that cleared up or are you still looking at possible legal consequences? Nah, I’m still dealing with that. That’s been 2 years almost, but I should be straight. That’s all I can really say. I’ll probably end up going to trial, but it’s looking good. If I was looking at any time, it shouldn’t be too long. I’m innocent. Gucci Mane was featured on your single, but he isn’t in the video. What happened with that? Yeah, that was a clearance issue we had with Warner Bros. They [wouldn’t clear the record] in the 4th quarter because it was around the time they was droppin’ his album. You paid him under the table to do the record? Yeah we got it hooked up. It was done a while ago and you know how it is when a buzz goes crazy and the label gets behind it – it’s a whole different story. You’ve got a lot of expensive toys in the video. Is there anything you want to buy that you haven’t been able to get yet? Nah, I got a lot of toys already. I just copped a Maserati a couple months ago so I’m kinda content right now, but you never know. Your last album was called Money is My Motivation. Money can only take you so far, though, you’ve gotta have the passion for it. What else motivates you? Taking care of my family and friends, and just having fun. Just trying to live, and stay out of jail. That’s basically it. The music takes you away from all the stuff you’re dealing with, that’s why I like doing it. Doing music takes me away from whatever problems I may be having at the time. Not saying I have a lot of problems, but if I’m going through something I can go in studio and vent. With a lot of people going through hard economic times, do you think they’re more or less likely to listen to ballin’ music? Sometimes music is motivation. Hearing somebody else talk about what they’re doing may motivate them. But sometimes it’s depressing. If you’re going through the struggle and you’re only hearing about the struggle, people dying, and you’re really in the streets living that, that might not be something you wanna listen to.
How do you view the West Coast movement right now? There are a lot of upand-coming artists from California. Do you see a whole wave of artists ready to take over, or do you view yourself more solo? The West Coast needs to come together. I think that’s the reason why the west coast isn’t what it was before. I feel like a lot of the veterans artists ain’t put on the newer artists. It’s a lot of stuff in the west coast. Me personally, in the Bay, we’re tryin’ to come together. We startin’ to do a lot of stuff together, put tours together, and different things – tryin’ to make something from nothing. On a national level, I’m just tryin’ to get my name out there and take it beyond the region. You got a lot of cats just tryin’ to break the region and I already did that, so now I’m trying to take it further. Whatever artists that are trying to do the same thing, get on the boat with me and let’s do it. A lot of West Coast artists mention that lack of unity as something that’s holding them back. What do you think the problem is? I think it’s just the mentality of the people in this area. The South is more welcoming. It ain’t like that in the West Coast –the hospitality of welcoming someone into your house, so to speak. I don’t think cats on the West Coast are like that. What about the relationship between Bay artists and L.A. artists? Do you feel like that’s getting better or worse? I ain’t really worked with any L.A. artists. A couple of cats reached out to me and I’ve reached out to them. We gotta put it together and get it in. But I haven’t actually done a record with anyone from Southern California yet. I know a few cats out there, we just haven’t had the opportunity to get it in. I gotta make an effort to do that. In the South you feel like you get more support from the artists? Nah, I’m not even really saying that. I’m just saying us West Coast artists as a whole need to start reaching out to each other and doing it. There’s no west coast artist that’s really on, besides older cats like Snoop or maybe somebody like The Game. There’s no new West Coast national artists that are real superstars. But there’s new artists from the South every year that go national. Maybe it’s the DJs. Maybe the DJs need to step it up and break more records from the West Coast, instead of just South records. Do you think part of the problem is the records aren’t commercial enough? Prime example is my record with Bobby Valentino. The same producer that did that for me, did “Trickin’ If You Got It.” If you listen to the two songs, they sound similar. Originally, the dude from the Mullage hook sang my hook. I released it on the West Coast with him on the hook first. I didn’t get the response I was lookin’ for, so I took him off and put Bobby Valentino on the hook. Three months later, they do a similar record and it comes out in Atlanta and it blew up. My record touched the South, but it didn’t really blow up on the West Coast. Do you feel radio is supportive of your projects? Yeah, the radio supports me for the most part. Every record I come out with I get support from radio. Of course you wanna blow up and go everywhere with it, but I guess I need to have the right people working my records. I don’t know – I’m just putting out records and if it happens, it happens. Every 3 months I’m dropping a new record and shooting a video. Something’s bound to happen. I’m just really putting out singles till I get that right buzz. It’s really nothing to do an album, you just need a single to sell your album. I’m making my money doing shows, selling ringtones and digital downloads. I’m still eating off putting out singles – I don’t necessarily have to put out an album to make money. If people want to buy a ringtone or check out your music, where’s the best place for them to go? Search Kafani on iTunes and it’ll pull up all the mixtapes and singles I got out right now. I be on Twitter – @Kafani. If you wanna check out my videos you can hit me up on KafaniDaIceKing on YouTube. I think you can buy music off Myspace too. I’m about to release my street album. It’s called My Daily Bread. I’m still working on my album I.C.E. – I Create Envy. I’m waiting to get a big record and get that buzz right, then I’ll drop an album. //
OZONE MAG // 15