Issue #34 with Gator Main and Mr. Lucci on our covers! Also featured are Money Militia, Reese Da Don, Rolo, RMJ, Denver Roe, Microphone Killa, Dirty Mexican Zoe, Recka, It’z Lil B Man, Second Level Music, Yung Poody, Do It Big Records, DJ Teddi and RoGizz!

By Carlton Wade

Original member of the late DJ Screw’s illustrious Screwed Up Click, South side Houston, Texas game spitter E.S.G. has banged out more trunk-rattling hits and mixtape freestyles than your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper. With a career that dates way back to the days of Screw’s infamous grey tapes, the Everyday Street Gangsta played a major factor in the popularization of the Lone Star State’s signature “chopped and screwed” style.

Now after keeping his faithful fan base satisfied for season after season with a string of albums, mixtapes and features, E.S.G. returns with the highly anticipated summer release of his umpteenth forthcoming G.O.A.T. Entertainment/SFL Malaco Records-distributed album The Owner’s Manual. Relax and take notes; this is the sound of success.

Block2Block: Tell me a little about the upcoming album The Owner’s Manual.
E.S.G.: It’s a monster. It’s a classic ready to be heard. I got records with Slim Thug, Z-Ro, Bun-B, Paul Wall and a couple of people in my camp. It’s that Ocean of Funk mixed with Return of the Living Dead with a splash of City Under Seize and Swangin’ and Bangin’. This is an album where you can get anything you want. It’s for everybody whether you’re struggling to survive or if you’re living above the recession.

The lead single “Internet Thugs” featuring Z-Ro has been causing quite a buzz online. How did that come about?
I did that for all of the Internet thugs out there as a word of caution. I leaked out “Internet Thugs” to let people know that I had an album coming. I don’t have an official single right now.

What kind of response have you been getting for your new music?
Every time I do a show and let people hear it, they love it. You can see it in their eyes. People think that a hit record is a sound. But like my partner always said, a hit record is a feeling.

You have been in the game for quite some time now. How have you managed to stay relevant over the years?
What are you talking about? I’m still a young artist (laughs jokingly). But really, I’m still in my prime. I’m still five years younger than Jay-Z. I stay relevant cause I stay touring the whole South. People want a new E.S.G. album. They wanna see the Screwed Up Click surviving and dropping good music. They wanna see the whole Houston keep dropping good music. And I’m gone make sure the Screwed Up Click lives on.

Do you feel that you played a part in laying the groundwork for other Houston artists who signed major label deals?
I dropped my first album Swangin’ and Bangin’ straight out of high school. We was so young; we was ahead of our time. By the time the world got to hear the Paul Walls and the Chamillionaires and Slim Thugs, we was doing everything on the independent scale that the world never got to hear. The light has never been shed on h town in general like it should have been.

You are the only solo artist to collectively sell one million units. But still you’re not known in certain parts of the country. Do you feel like you’ve been slept on?
Man, of course. The whole Screwed Up Click has been slept on. I was one of the first ones to ever sell 100,000 units independent for three (or) four times in a row. We was never in a major system where we could benefit from that.

That sounds lovely.
It was so lovely down here by us doing this independent that we didn’t really care about no DefJam. I’ve flew to New York and met with a couple of labels but they don’t understand the vision that we have. They would love a dumb nigga, an artist who creates a buzz and just willing to sign. They’re willing to take the 360 deals. That’s cool for a young artist; I guess. But when I came up, we ate off record sales and touring. Now, they’re trying to make it where you just eat off you’re touring.

How else has the independent music scene changed around Houston over the years?
By DJ Screw being gone, there is not as much Screw influence as it used to be. In Houston, the music scene is like it is in the rest of the country. A lot of the smaller mom and pop music stores have moved on. So a lot of people buy their music off the Internet and out of Target. But Targets don’t carry all of the independent music like a lot of other people carry it. Then, there’s only one powerhouse station in every city now and either Clear Channel or Radio One controls that. Everything is political. Back in the day, we had people putting up posters everywhere. But nowadays you get fines and tickets for putting up posters.

Have you suffered at all from all of these changes in the music industry?
I’ve been living the same way for years like a lot of these artists you see on MTV. I’ve been in my neighborhood for 11 years. It’s very secluded. Most people can’t afford the taxes to live out here. The Lord has blessed me to where I never had to have a job and survive off my craft. There are a lot of artists who had a Grammy or number one video but don’t have the financial funds to survive.

Have you always been blessed with so many opportunities?
I lived a rough life. I came up straight out the ghetto. My momma dropped out of school in the eighth grade. I was an athlete in school, played sports. And since the seventh grade, I been able to make hits with words.

I guess the only thing missing is a platinum plaque.
I got a platinum plaque from writing Lil Troy’s “Wanna Be A Baller.” I wrote the hook when I was just 22 years old at the time. I got a platinum plaque for being on Chamillionaire’s first album Sound of Revenge. And I’m still due a platinum plaque from Master P for being on Down South Hustlers. It went gold back then when he was on Priority but it hit the platinum mark. If you know him, tell him to send it to me. (laughs)

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