MR. POOKIE & MR. LUCCI “Crook 4Life” INTERVIEW 01.11
by Aaron Cortez
The crooks are back! Representin’ the north side of Dallas, Bryan Jones aka Mr. Pookie and Jeron Gibson aka Mr. Lucci are legends in the DFW music scene. Pookie’s 1999 “Tha Rippla” and Lucci’s 2001 “Diabolical” remain among the top selling independent projects out of Texas. As teenagers the pair signed to Kevin A.’s Iconic Recordings and quickly found fame. But disputes and secrets divided the label. Here’s the untold story of the crooks…..
How did you get into music?
Lucci: I got into rapping thru my cousins. I seen it was possible so I wanted to do it. When I was 14, I was in a barbershop rapping and the guy ended up knowing Kevin A. We met up and we went to the studio and that’s where I met Pookie.
Pookie: I wrote a poem (in elementary) and won first place. Until then, I just kept going. I wasn’t even trying to do rap music. It was because of two cats in my hood, K-Roc and C-Pone. They had hooked up with Kevin A. He had liked me so we started doing “Tha Rippla”. I was just trying to rap with my homies. I was 20 years old. I didn’t know he was going to put it on the radio. He did it.
Where did the name “Stoney Crook” come from?
Pookie: Stoney Brook was the name of our apartments. We had Crips over there and they would “X” the letter B out and put the letter C. I wasn’t banging Crips but my partners were. So me and K-Roc came up with C.R.O.O.K.S. “Constantly Reminded Of Our Krooked Streets”.
Tell me the making of your biggest song “Crook 4 Life”.
Pookie: I heard the beat and knew it was gonna be the hood anthem. I had already named it “Crook 4 Life” before I heard the beat. Me and Kevin A. came up with the hook together. It was originally supposed to me, K-Roc and C-Pone but they left and brought my partner in, Montis. And K-Roc had discovered Lucci.
How did you get the name Mr. Lucci?
Lucci: I got my name from K-Roc. I had been going by Lil J and J-Roc. One day, K-Roc called me and said “who are you, these n*ggas said you can rap, let me hear it”. I said my name was J-Roc and spit two verses. He said “your name is Lucci”. And at that time I hadn’t even met in person yet.
Back then, after your album and Lucci’s album came out, people thought you were going to blow up nationally. Did you have the same feeling?
Lucci: Hell yeah. I was 15 and doing things majors were doing. I was in high school. I knew it was a wrap, that’s why I didn’t graduate. We were doing $5000 shows, staying on the road, shot a video, “Diabolical” just hit and we signed a deal with Time-Warner. We were gone!
Pookie: Pretty much we were on our way. Kevin A. had set everything up. He had his plan mapped out and we were following it until things started coming up. We knew we were there. Every show we would do was packed. Fire marshals would shut them down.
Where did it start going wrong?
Pookie: Well we had the streets telling us “yall are supposed to be there”. We defended Kevin A. while they were talking. They were saying he was f**king us. But we would tell them we knew what’s up. Yall don’t know what were doing. It wasn’t until stuff he was saying wasn’t adding up. And it got internal with him trying to get me, Montis and Lucci in to it. He would say stuff about each of us to each other. Kevin said something to my baby momma and it wasn’t right. Lucci found something out. We really should have settled it but we just branched off and left.
So you guys left with nothing?
Pookie: Nothing. Not a dime. We hadn’t got paid in two years. We knew the albums were selling. We were wondering what’s up. It came out that he was getting sued by Mr. Blues, a record store owner in South Dallas. I went his record store trying to sell him my new album. Come to find out he put up money for my album. He said he gave Kevin A. $40,000 to keep my project going. He was supposed to get his money back and interest in we signed a record deal. After we signed to Time-Warner, Kevin said he didn’t get any money upfront from the deal. Kevin’s books got audited and couldn’t pay us. He didn’t tell us. If he would have told us we probably would have still stayed.
How hard was it after you left to stand on your own?
Lucci: You wouldn’t think it would be hard because we were so hot but it was hard. He had black balled us and did our names so dirty. There were all types of deals he wasn’t coming thru on. He was burning bridges. We didn’t have any where to go but hit the road. We went and got all the contacts. We didn’t know the business. We made some mistakes.
Pookie: The fans and the people who called us for shows kept us going enough to do the “My Life” album. Everywhere we went people looked at us funny because of things he said. We had to go and clean our names up. But people understood because of the kind of cat he was.
What is between Pookie and Lucci that made you guys stick together. You didn’t come in the game together.
Pookie: It’s crazy because we came out as solo artists. He was actually from my opposing hood that we would get into it with. But it was just that chemistry. After “Crook 4 Life” people couldn’t say my name without Lucci and his name without Pookie. After we left, I asked Lucci what he wanted to do. We really just started to be friends during the “My Life” album. After that we were together every day. We stayed together. I went to his family reunion and he went to mine. We got to know each other and he became my lil bro, my little brother. Period.
Lucci: It’s like a bond. He’s a family member. Keep in mind we’ve seen each other everyday for 12 years. We’ve seen each other’s ups and downs, first child’s, jail, hospital, robbed, friendships, marriage, so it’s not even music related anymore. It’s a brother bond.
What’s the future for Pookie and Lucci?
Lucci: We’re focused now. F**k that old sh*t. We’re passed that. “VVS” , “Ventation Of A Crook” and “Crookology” are all coming. My new album has Twista, Bo Hagen, and you haven’t heard us like this. We grew up, life is different. Anything you think could happen, did happen. It’s a new swag and we’re still on that crook sh*t. It’s lifestyle music.
Pookie: We got our own record label, Stoney Crook Records. We’re gonna mash these albums out. We got the “10th Anniversary” out now, we got my album “Ventation Of A Crook” coming, Lucci’s “VVS” coming and the “Crookology” coming. The only time I ever thought about quitting was after my “Return Of Tha Rippla” album. We got messed over again. After that, a partner of mine of 15-16 years told me to holla at me. He was rappin’ and he just fired my ass back up. Lucci came back in and we started mashing again. It’s gonna be me and Lucci until the wheels fall off.
CHECK OUT MR. POOKIE’s “Ventation Of A Crook” & MR. LUCCI’s “VVS” Available March 1, 2011
www.STONEYCROOK.com