Crooked I Discusses Meeting Estranged Father, Eminem's Reaction To "Move On"
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Crooked I Discusses Meeting Estranged Father, Eminem's Reaction To "Move On" | Get The Latest Hip Hop News, Rap News & Hip Hop Album Sales | HipHop DX
Exclusive: Crooked I opens up about his supportive mother, meeting his estranged father and realizing Slaughterhouse was a brotherhood after the altercation with Wu-Tang Clan.
There are some things you dont see, behind the cameras, beneath the surface. For instance, you likely saw Slaughterhouse on BETs 106 & Park. You may have caught Crooked I, dipped in Dodger blue everything, pinky ring shining and three shimmering chains on, standing next to his Slaughterhouse brethren as young fans clamored after every response. But what you didnt see or hear was the phone call that followed. After the show, Crooked I received a call from his mother, smiling while telling him how proud she was of him. Those are the moments that the public doesnt always get to see but those are the moments that make the emcee.
Dominick "Crooked I" Wickliffes life has been filled with important moments like this, significant places in time that molded the artist hes become. Those moments have also forced him into difficult decisions, like deciding how he can help loved ones in times of crisis. Those moments have allowed him to pull others out of the life of crime and they have given him lessons about joy, success, love and more. Important moments have even provided him with the insight he needed to face his father for the first time after feeling abandoned for 20 years.
Recently, in the wake of his mixtape Psalm 82:V6 being released, Crooked I sat down in his Treacherous Records studio to speak about all of these moments. Sporting a red and black Slaughterhouse shirt with a Long Beach hat to match, he appeared comfortable and he answered every question accordingly, delving into candid details to take readers behind closed doors and behind the cameras, into very important parts of his life. He spoke on redefining success, reciting rhymes as a six year old and other fond stories of his youth, setting booby traps for his brothers and riding bikes with his friends. He spoke on the balance hes struggled with between understanding a criminals mind state while also knowing that theres more to life than the street hustle and of course he spoke on Slaughterhouse, sharing the moment that he realized the crew became more of a brotherhood than a Rap group.
Crooked I Speaks On The Police, Racism & Leaving "The Life"
HipHopDX: On this disc, you say you want everyone around you to get out of the life. Thats something that resonates with a lot of people but what made you decide to push that message for those around you?
Crooked I: When it comes to people you love, who you care about, you dont want to see them do time. You dont want to see them locked behind bars like a caged animal. If you care about somebody or youre doing business with somebody and you genuinely feel like theyre a friend or family member, you just dont want to see that because there are so many other options in this life. When I was young, I hung out with a lot of older guys who, for a lack of a better term, were criminals. They always used to refer to their criminal activity as the life. Thats something that kind of stuck with me. We all know somebody. We all know somebody who is doing something illegal, an outlaw. I just want my people to be cool. I dont want nobody to have to look over their shoulder or to spend time in the penitentiary. Nah. Not now. Not in 2012. Lets just all do what we have to do. We all have talents. Everybody in my crew has talents that deserve to be recognized and rewarded. Thats all Im asking for.
DX: When you have people who are deep in the life, it has to be hard for some to respond to that message.
Crooked I: Well, some people are never going to respond. Its like, This is what I know. Its all I know. I dont feel like I fit into a normal society. Thats with a lot of people I know who live in that life. They dont feel like they fit in with a normal society. They feel like outcasts, black sheep and like, This is how Ima get mine and advance and this is what I see as successful. So thats what they do. You cant really argue with them because its not like society has open arms for people like that or people like me. I could easily be one of the biggest criminals in America simply based off how society has treated me my whole life. They didnt roll out the red carpet like, Yo! Youre from the ghetto! We want to see you advance! You could be the next [President] Barack Obama. There was no Barack Obama when I was a kid. Instead, they were just like, Follow him! Chase him! Handcuff him! So, Im in the middle when it comes to that, bro. I want my people that I love and care about to be good, to not have to look over their back for the police, feds or other criminals. At the same time, I understand what makes a criminal because all the ingredients were put in me so I understand that. So, its a trip, bro. Its Its weird [laughing].
See, if police look at you like a suspect your whole life from the time youre nine years old or ten years old and they treat you as such, whos to say what youre gonna become? You might become that person. It might be a rebellious thing like, All my fukkin life, these mothafukkers have fukked with me. fukk them. Whatever they say is right is wrong. Thats my problem when it comes to the police. Every police officer is not bad but its in the way they construct this shyt. They dont allow people who understand a particular community to police that community. They switch it around like, If you hate minorities, were putting you in that community! If you love minorities, were putting you in the majority community. You know what I mean? They dont try to make it to where we can actually talk our problems out and solve things as a community. They make it to where [they say], Dont fukkin move, you Black ass ****** because Ill blow you away. Its like, Yo, wait a minute. You know what I mean? [That happens] when youre too young to have a gun shoved in your face. It just is what it is, man. I think a lot of that shyt needs to change. I think it does. But will it change? Who knows? So, we just live in the world that we live in and we do what we fukkin think we need to do to get by.
DX: They say that when youre told you are something many times you tend to start to believe that as well.
Crooked I: Yeah. If you keep on telling a kid, Youre no good. Youre no good. Youre no good. Youre no good. Words are powerful. We know that in Hip Hop. Words are powerful. You cant keep telling a kid that he aint shyt because one day hes gonna believe it. So, I salute people who go into the community to uplift the community. I salute those kinds of people. I wish more police officers would really look at different communities and figure out the best way to reach the community instead of being this monster. See, in the hood, seven-year-old kids dont like the police. Thats crazy. In the suburbs, they see a police officers car go by, theyre fukkin waving at them like, Hey! Those guys are here to protect us. In the hood, [kids say], I dont like them and youre seven or eight years old? Thats a problem. Theres a problem there and they need to fukkin fix it. They need to stop ignoring it.
DX: Id like to go back to earlier. You spoke about being in the middle, knowing you dont want your family to live in the life of crime but that you also understand the mentality so youre stuck in the middle. How hard has it been to be stuck in the middle, trying to balance those sides?
Crooked I: Its hard because I know what I was born to do. I was born to be an emcee, period. Everybody is born to do something. Everybody has a purpose, a service theyre supposed to provide for the world. I know my service. I was born to be a Hip Hop emcee, period. Now, my life took me down different paths, which I had no control over. But at the end of the day, I know what Im supposed to be. That goes back to what youre saying, balancing it out. Its like, I know Im supposed to be an emcee but people that I care about are drowning. The only way that I can get them out is money. So, what am I gonna do? A check from McDonalds aint gonna cut it. I might have to go out here and do some real shyt right quick to get this bread. Those are the things were challenged with daily. The balance is the love. I love my people and I love Hip Hop. So Im gonna figure out a way to make it happen no matter what.
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Crooked I Discusses Meeting Estranged Father, Eminem's Reaction To "Move On" | Get The Latest Hip Hop News, Rap News & Hip Hop Album Sales | HipHop DX