The Natural (Interview)

Posted on August 18, 2009 - by Vick

Whats good over on the West Coast?

I mean, it’s summer time in los angeles…what AINT good. My lakers are champs, the weather is right. All else we need is for me to sign a ten million dollar contract IMMEDIATELY haha

Care to brag anymore? How is the feedback for Good vs. Evil going?

Been awesome. It was good to see all the comments on the 2dopeboyz site, especially, because it was all positive responses from a group of people that are not at all familiar with me. So the unbiased opinions were a great look. I think about two dozen sites picked it up without any email blasts, which is still going to get done this week. So there should be a second wave of viral promotion coming up. Gotta bully my way into the game, VICK!

Haha I feel you, glad you continue to make forward progress. What was the video shoot experience like?

Well, it was very lowkey, considering I was the only person in the video. But that was probably for the better, because being my first video the privacy was much needed. I had a lot of my folks there the first day, but they was playing handball outside or something gay like that. I think we did a total of 18-20 hours in two days, in which I probably ate once, when someone reminded me that I needed to actually be ALIVE in order to finish the video lol

I know this song is going to be far off what to expect on “Pipe Dreams”, so tell us what to expect from this album.

Well I’m sure you’ve heard of the old phrase…pipe dreams are dreams that are not really all that realistic. If I said I wanted to be a pro basketball player, you’d tell me to take my 5’10 ass elsewhere. That’s a pipe dream. Saying you want to be a famous rapper, especially as a mexican, is a pipe dream. I’m actually admitting that what I’m doing is virtually impossible, and almost foolish to pursue. I just can’t give up on my pipe dream that easily, though. So on this album, you often hear me talk about my shortcomings, and my self-doubt on one song before transitioning into a radio type single where I’m back into my pipe dreams, sort of speak, living the rapper life. Then I go back into reality on the next song and talk about my 95. There’s a lot of uplifting records on the album though. From “We Gon Make It”, to “To Be Free” to “Live My dreams”. I’d like to think I have something to offer to those who are struggling in finding the courage and confidence to strive for more than what theyre told they can achieve. I think that needs to remain the focal point of my career in music. But I still get busy on my radio joints. No jerkin’ though lol

The Cali rap scene is poppin’ right now, what does The Natural have to offer that other Cali rappers do not?

I just mainly want to offer what people my age can relate to. We party, we go to school, we hate life, we love life, we wonder what our purpose should be. We make up, we break up, we cheat, we drink, we fight and we LOVE MUSIC! I never met a 22 year old that didnt love music. The kids don’t appreciate it enough yet, the old folks are getting tired of it, but we own it. We’re creating memories in our lives right now that will forever be attached to music, you know what I mean? I know when “in da club” comes on in 20 years, that I’m gonna have memories of ninth grade. Despite the fact that I don’t really listen to Soulja boy, I know “turn my swag on” will bring up some craaaaaaaaazy flashbacks of summer 09. So that’s my goal. Just to have this high school, college, college-grad age bracket relate to my music, and associate with me. I’m sure plenty of other cali rappers can do likewise, though, but hopefully I do it better lol

Way to keep it real. Speaking of Cali, how does L.A. influence your style?

Musically, not at all. Because I just listen to so many genre’s, styles of music that no region, genre, person can heavily influence me. But indirectly, it influences me more than I can ever know. The lifestyle of LA, naturally would be a peice of what molded me as a man, which in turn influenced the music I make. As a seven year old all I listened to was Snoop, pac, warren G and Dre. So I’m sure that eventually had some sort of influence on what other musics my ear was willing to accept. So indirectly, it influenced me waaaaaaay before I started making music, but as of now, I’m my own man, I know who I am and only lifes experiences can influence me now.

Let’s talk fashion…how many fitted hats do you own?

Probably about 3 dozen.

How many of them are L.A. Dodger caps? (lol)

Probably about 3 dozen. Haha, yea man, I would say 95% La. So I guess if we going back to the last question LA influences me more than I know lol.

Exactly, now we are getting personal.(haha) I personally know most of your alias’s, but why The Natural?

Oh do you? You aint gonna blackmail me with any of those right? A couple of my homegirls just found out my original screen name from when I was like 14, and I will never hear the end of it from them. JKeith112 is in the building! lol. To be honest man…I grew up playing baseball. One of my favorite movies as a child was a baseball flick called The Natural, and I never really felt as though I had to work to START rapping. I think it came fairly natural to me, so I ran with it.

If it’s on the internet, everyone is bound to find out at some point. So…Do you have a ritual before going to the studio or before entering into the booth? (If so, Explain)

Aw man…if the studio engineers ever wanted to clown me, they could. I be doin a bevey of weird ass noises and grunts and yells into the microphone before I record lol. Plus I like reading all the wack ass music magazines in there. I read one during my last studio session where some dude was listing the 40 worst lyricists of all time. Dude had Common, Paul Mccartney and some other folks that cracked me up. I threw the magazine out the window lol. But then I picked it up and recycled it cus ima swell guy.

Okay swell guy…What was it like opening for Talib Kweli?

It wasn’t any more special then opening for anyone else at House Of Blues, cus those asses make all the opening acts leave the backstage by 11, which is before the headliners get there. Now the show itself, was the best. There was a few thousand people stuffed in there all rockin out to my shit. Talib did a cover of “NY SHIT” a few months prior, so I did a cover of that joint and called it “la shit”. The crowd went nuts. The best part was actually after the set, though. I was walking around selling merch and taking pics with folks when I ran into Guru from Gangstarr. He not only gave me dap, but he BOUGHT MY MIXTAPE. Unforgettable moment.

Hopefully he didn’t throw it out the window like you did that magazine :). What is The Natural doing 60 seconds before stepping onto a stage to perform?

Texting. Texting friends who aint there just to keep my mind off the nerves. Texting friends in the crowd to ask them what the crowd is like, which actually gets my nerves going again. So then I text people who arent there to get rid of the nerves again. Then texting people in the crowd…lol just playin. It’s a vicious cycle that never ends til they say ACTION…or til i run out of available texts on my Verizon plan. Verizon pays me for everytime I say Verizon in interviews by the way. Verizon. Verizon.

Do I get paid? Verizon, Verizon. What are the future plans for you?

Me and my boy pinky are planning on taking over the world. Aside from that. Drop my album in October. Become a household-internet name. That’s like an oxymoron of some sort right? Whatever. I just want to be, I just want to be, I just want to be successful. YUUP!

We now know whats up next..Where did it all start with The Natural?

Well, It was a cold, blizzard-filled day in Los Angeles, and I came out the womb with a mic. I decided to retire from rap at 4 to pursue my education. 14 years later I quit school to pursue my music. 4 years later I’m doing both. Shit’s all twisted.

LOL. Well you definitely haven’t lost a touch in being a goof. Any labels contacted you that you can speak of?

Hell to da Na. Not major labels, at least. I mean, how many NEW rappers have dropped albums in the last 2-3 years? You can probably count them on your hands. I’ve had a handful of A&R’s show interest in me, but none of that has come to fruition. We’ll see.

Hopefully very very soon! Thanks for your time, Shoutouts?

Asaf, the best engineer/producer in the world @ OCRecording. AplusFilmz the best video directors in the world. Ace the best photographer in the world. I might be a little bias when I say that though….and get ready for “What Up World?!”. My youtube channel program which will start running soon. I’ma be doing a live accoustic set on there that should be ill, and plenty of other creative crap that no one cares about. PEACE!
ItsTheNatural

Check out the Good Vs Evil video.