"Killa Killa Hill" by Cappadonna feat. Raekwon
"I did an on air interview for Iowa the other day with DJ Commando, 101 fm
KBOL and he was really feeling me and I have never met this dude. He's like,
‘I just can't wait to meet you. Whatever you want from us out here, we're
holding you down. They loving the record out here, I bang it in the club and
they are feeling it.’ ”, says 25 year old rapper Dre Rob N Son, in true
disbelief, “And I'm just at home, like I'm on the phone with this dude in my
crib like, “This sh!t is really amazing” dog. This motherf*****’s in Iowa,
in f*****g Iowa like, "I'm loving your record".
But with a single that seems headed to hit status and an ever-raising
national profile, the Jamaican born Boston based MC might want to get used
to that kind of love. The song that’s getting them crunk in Iowa and other
spots around the country is “Get Right” an infectious party anthem from the
thug perspective. Its grown from a Boston club and radio mixshow hit to
being added to the playlists of some of the most powerful mixtape DJ’s in
the country. That kind of love can be pressure. But its pressure that Dre
says is inspiring. “I'm definitely respecting the fact that people are
feeling my stuff, man. It makes me feel good to see people gravitating
towards my music and it makes me feel good that DJ's at these power radio
stations like my records and showing me a lot of support. That gives me more
drive to do what I do. I got all these cats showing me love; it just makes
me want to work twice as hard.”
And the list of who is in his corner is impressive. In a culture that is
founded on the work of the DJ, Dre has been getting some pretty heavyweight
support. Jamn 94.5’s Gee Spin, Hot 97 Boston’s Chubby Chubb, Moe D, Statik
Selektah and Reggie Beas all have it as a part of their mixes. Hot 97 New
York’s Cipha Sounds and DJ Enuff as well as Power 105’s Spinbad have giving
the song play. Gee Spin says “Felli Fel on LA's Power 106 played the
original Get Right every night for a month.”
And just what has everyone trying to join his team? Dre’s impassioned
delivery (often times seemingly on the verge of a scream) and thinking thug’
s lyrics are the hook that has some saying he is the one to watch from
Boston. Dre has an urgency in his flow that seems to call for attention.
That call was first answered for Dre at a young age. A dancer at first it
was the rhymes of greats like Nas and Notorious B.I.G. that opened him up to
the art of words. But only after seeing cats around his way did he decide
that he could break through his shyness on stage. “They were real popular
local groups and they were up there rapping and dancing and I'm like...they
are not really doing nothing I can't do. I always liked dancing and
entertaining and the attention but I'm like a fairly shy dude. So I tried to
write, started writing and I just stuck with it.
But with the accolades and love that he is getting for his music all is not
good. The road to success is rarely a straight one and for Dre, it has more
curves than video girl. After losing both his parents (his father at 10 and
his mother at 23) he became guardian to his younger brother while trying to
jump-start a music career and remove himself from the streets. Having lost
his father at an early age and dealing with the long time illness of his
mother as well as building on the close relationship with his brother the
right way has been tough. But even with the tough times Dre has taken the
bad and turned Hip Hop into an outlet for his stress and pain. That stress
and pain are resonating with the Hip Hop audience. Dre explains, “I got a
lot of anger in me for what I've been through growing up. And when I get in
the booth I can let that sh!t out. I change in the booth. Dramatically. It
all comes from right here (points to his heart). I can let it all go in the
booth. I can just let it loose and when I come out, I be pouring with sweat
I feel like I just finished working out. It’s like a workout. “
Like any workout with decent results there is pain involved. Dre’s rhymes
detail the painful lives of those caught in the struggle of the streets. It’
s a struggle that Dre knows all to well. After moving to Brooklyn as a child
he witnessed his parents’ trials in the drug game. “I was born in Jamaica in
the gutter, Woricker Hills. If you ask about that, you go out there, you'll
see people walking around barefoot in the gravel, you know. [They are] just
hustling for a dollar. Hustling to making a living, struggling to survive.
My pops, rest in peace, my moms, rest in peace, they tried to make ends meet
in Brooklyn. They both were from Jamaica in other way, in a street way,
hustling. My moms stayed in NY with us, my pops was hustling back and forth
from NY and Boston. So my whole life, I’ve seen the street life. We moved to
Boston from NY after my pops got killed and it’s the same life.” Yet even
with his front row seat view of the drug game Dre wasn’t deterred from
joining the grind. It was when Dre mixed the story of his life with the
poetics of Hip Hop that he started to find his creative direction. “I'm in
the streets with my boys and writing and everything just started coming
together for me with the rhymes. My boys were like ‘Yo, you're real good at
telling these stories.’ We'd be out on the street doing stuff and I would
see something and go and write.”
And the stories go beyond the super thug point of view that most are used
to. Dre tries to bring you into the mind of a hustler; “Look Homes it don’t
matter I’m out to get rich so I can feed the poor/Dre been to the bottom
some aint seen the floor/I experienced things y’all aint seen before/in my
young age I live a wild life/either you get clapped or you let your guns
blaze/Every other day somebody hit the front page/Either they getting locked
or they get they mug sprayed/We in a bugged age thinking backwards/its like
n***as hate love and they love hate/And these cops start scheming when you
pump weight/Then they try to lock you down and ship you up state/That’s why
every night I’m up late with blunts and crush grapes.
That continued writing and love of wordplay grew into a desire to get in the
music business. With a crew of his friends he formed the Mic Commandos. The
MC’s eventually caught the attention of the Head Of A&R for local label
Lifeline Records, Joey Fergus Jr. better known as Joey Politics. Fresh from
the break up of his own group Fergus saw in the young guns the hunger that
he had. “Jay Shorty invited me over there telling me "I want you to hear
these dudes" I'm sittin’ there thinkin I'ma hear some garbage. I heard Stab
spit and I was like "Oh sh!t!" Then I heard Dre spit and I was like "Oh
motherf****r!" and I got on the phone. I called Dre Council. Like "Yo Dre,
Come over here. You gotta hear these n****'s". Dre came out. Dre knows me
and I'm like, “These motherf*****s is hot”. Dre comes by, he's like, “Yo let
me hear this sh!t.” So he hears him and he's like "Oh sh!t.
After a while the crew faded down to Dre and Stab (who now goes by the name
Joe Familiar). Dre and Stab’s first single "Cock And Squeeze” garnered some
attention at College radio. Around this time Joey started tapping industry
contacts he gained as an artist and music video director. Producers Clark
Kent (producer of Jay Z and Biggie) and Megahertz (Nas and Puffy) were on
board. But when Lifeline label head Dre Council decided to focus on other
projects and Stab decided to fall back on music a second, Joey stepped up
and took the reins forming Pollymore Music. The Museum School Of Fine Arts
graduate, a legal hustler in his own right took the profits from his various
business ventures (barber shop, real estate) to fund the start up. The
saying goes “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” Dre and Joe started flooding
the streets with freestyles and mixtapes ala 50 Cent and G-Unit to keep it m
oving.
A chance meeting between Joe and Mass Appeal label head and Bluejay studio
co owner Marcus DL helped give them the gas they needed to stay moving. Joe
played Dre’s mixtapes and sparked Mark’s interest. Mark than brought him
Jamn 94.5’s DJ Gee Spin to get his opinion. Dre’s talent shone brilliant
enough to make Gee Spin, one of Boston Hip Hop’s key figures, cut through a
self-admitted cynical haze to jump on board. “I had been looking to get
involved with a local project for the past 2 years. I ended hooking up with
Marcus, and we started looking for "that" artist. It just so happened that
Joey was finishing up some of Dre's work. Marcus came to the station and met
me after work. We sat in his car, and he played the first freestyle. I knew
from the first verse, I wanted to f*** with Dre. We called Joey from the
car, and got some more info. I wanted to meet Dre, so I had them come to the
station, for my Sunday night show, The Launch Pad to see how he vibed and if
he could make it happen live on the radio. He killed it!!! The passion in
his flow and the fact that his did 50 bars straight (without a curse), made
me excited about Hip Hop again. He just has "it". Whatever "it" is, he has
it. He listens. He voices his opinion. He can work a room better than 90% of
the MC's today. He is versatile. And most of all, he is a good dude to be
around.
In a business where showing and proving is essential Dre has mastered the
connecting through his talent. “Everyone who has met Dre and seen him spit
has really taken to him. My man Kay Slay had Dre kick a sick freestyle that
he ran on The Drama Hour on [New York’s] Hot 97, that folks are buzzing
aboutSo the love is there...it just takes time.” And that love has
manifested itself again with Queens duo Mobb Deep deciding to jump on a
remix of “Get Right”. A major feature
What’s on the horizon for Dre? A life that was once consumed with the
streets is now filled with a full slate of recording sessions f
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