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ince appearing on Snoop Dogg’s chart topping album Blue Carpet Treatment this past November with the hynotic “Like This,” Westurn Union has set the city of Angels on fire. “It used to be every other bitch that knew us, now all the bitches know us,” says member Damani. “I check my myspace and half of LA wanna secretly try to gimme the pussy. It’s a cold game.” So much in demand are they that Damani, Bad Lucc and veteran Soopafly all have solo albums on deck. In addition, they are putting the final touches on their heavily anticipated collective project (untitled as yet), due sometime this fall. Armed with players that represent Watts (Bad Lucc), Inglewood (Damani) and Long Beach (Fly), WU promises this is only the beginning of a unified front for the whole Coast.
So what’s the history behind the group and how y’all became the Westurn Union? Bad Lucc: Me and Damani been together since 2003. Our first mixtape came out in ’04. That’s when we put out the first Westurn Union mixtape and Fly been down since the spring of ’06. Damani: Me and Fly been homies for a long time. Fly put me on my first project, which was Kurupt’s album – Space Boogie. We was all pimpin’, cross breedin’ hoes and then – (laughter) Soopafly: Yeah, I just heard how they was puttin’ it down and how they was on the rise. I felt like I needed to get with some young [dudes] that was doin’ they thang and I just felt like it was perfect. Obviously the chemistry is good. Y’all did a track on Snoop’s album (Blue Carpet Treatment), which was one of my favorites off top! But with everyone working on solo projects, what keeps y’all together? Fly: ‘Preciate that. We know the mission. All three of us know where we’re trying to get and we know on the West Coast it’s a little harder for a solo act to break through and make it. We’ll never quit, but we also got a backup plan and not so much back up, but a cornerstone plan, which is the Westurn Union. And there’s just always strength in numbers. You ain’t never heard of a gang with one nigga in it. The more niggas the better. That’s the whole approach we take to it. We got three aspects of incredible music, from lyrics to ideas. From Damani, to Lucc’s, to mine, so we just tryna put it all together and make a whole complete package out of the situation. Part of the reason for Snoop putting the Big Squeeze together was to promote a West Coast resurgence that everybody says couldn’t happen. With you all representing the West the way you are, how do you feel about that united front? Fly: I’m not completely satisfied with it of course. It’s a struggle.
here?” I’d been knew Soopafly, but he was always on the road. He was already crackin’ to me. Soopafly was already in the game, so I didn’t really think about him at first. So I heard Lucc one time spittin’ at his studio and I was like, “Damn, that’s Westurn Union.” It’s crazy ‘cause a nigga be right up under yo nose. And then you got Fly, whose not only a dope rapper, but this nigga got some of the best beats on the West Coast! It wasn’t hard to decide to put Fly in the group. We just thought Fly was gon’ be super busy, like he wasn’t gon’ be around. But it all worked out and it’s still workin’ out. Fly, with your experience and what you’ve been able to accomplish, is there an element of coaching or a pecking order so to speak? Fly: Just a little bit. If any nigga been through something that another nigga ain’t been through and y’all cool, of course that nigga gon’ give you some advice. I don’t tell niggas what to do. I just tell niggas how it worked for me and how it might not have worked and a nigga gotta make his own choice. As far as the group, we divided by three. I put my input in. If they take it they do. If not, we can experience it together and take it from there. But these niggas ain’t new. They been on the block. They been in the streets and they know how the game go. So it ain’t that hard. Bad Lucc: I look at it like big homie, little homie. I look at everything like that. Somebody gotta listen and somebody gotta take information. And somebody gotta give it. That’s what Fly is. Fly gotta be big homie. Even if he don’t wanna be big homie, he gotta be big homie. He been in the game for years doin’ classic music. How you not gon’ listen to a nigga like that? I respect it and I always play my position. Damani, you wanna add to that or you cool? Damani: Welll… Come on, man, I thought pimps talk fast. (laughter) Damani: Yeah, but I’m a player right now. That pimpin’ was too harsh for me… Nah, but he pretty much nailed it. At what point did Snoop come on officially and back the project? Fly: I had kept in his ear all while we was on tour and I started bringin’ Damani around and he started likin’ Damani on a personal level. Same thing with Lucc. So I just persisted and was askin’ Dogg when we was on tour and when we got back we came together and did the song. So tell me about the album. Damani: Classic, next question… (laughter) Nah, somebody answer, cause I’m just gon’ ramble like a muthafucka. Lucc: I think it’s dope man, straight up. It’s nostalgic. It’s like a new classic. I ain’t tryna come up with some new term or no shit, but what dudes was lovin’ the West for, wherever they was at, it’s in there. Then there’s that new twist, which is us. We’re the new voices on top of what you fell in love with the West for. And I don’t mean that disrespectfully. But Fly is a musical dude. “Like This” is musical. It’s not a typical West Coast track. That shit’s so melodic. Everybody from my moms to my little nephew like that song. So we’re just bringin’ music with that hard shit behind it.
Bad Lucc: I’m satisfied in a way, because I see where it’s going and where it’s going to end up. I do want to be at the forefront of music and I look at it like we gotta all stick together. We gotta all be down. That’s all the up and coming cats, the new cats, the cats that’s been in the game; we all got to support each other and go hard. That way, the people in the streets will respect it more and start ridin’ like they used to ride. Like anything, when the south started poppin’, everybody started steppin’ up. They started throwin’ they A’s up and flyin’ they flag. So I feel like we’re in a good place right now. We just gotta go hard and bang on niggas and let them know we here and we fuck wit all y’all. We stayin’ down and we go hard by what we do. Unity is the key though. We gotta put all the petty shit to the side. The street shit is what sometimes splits us up. It’s still serious and it’s still very relevant today.
Some groups fall out of favor with each other because they don’t spend enough time with each other. Do you all kick it frequently?
Damani you had the idea of kind of unifying three very influential hoods (Watts – Bad Lucc; Damani- Inglewood; Fly – Long Beach) with this group. What was the original concept behind Westurn Union?
Fly: The definitive statement is Westurn Union period. Westurn Union need to be a household name, first on the West Coast and then on from there. Of course we wanna be worldwide, but my whole thing as far as what I wanna make is Westurn Union and that’s more than a group. It’s a union. Damani didn’t pick that name for nuthin’. Back in the days your uncle or whoever joined the union because he felt safe there. They take care of you. They give you sick leave or whatever. It’s the same thing with this. This is the Westurn Union. It’s safety within this union. //
Damani: It wasn’t nobody crackin’ out here and of course the whole gang shit, that’s fucks up a lotta shit, especially when you comin’ up and you new comin’ up? It’s so many reasons why a nigga don’t fuck wit a nigga. Anyways, I was just thinkin’, like, “Shit, what if we had a nigga from here, here and
Damani: Well, Fly live in Vegas. (laughter) Fly: Yeah, I’m way out here. Them two kick it way more than I do, so I’d have to get out the house and make a whole trip. A nigga workin’ on that aspect too, but when we all get together it’s all three of us. It ain’t got to be music. We can come together and talk about music or we can talk about bitches. It really don’t matter. We all compatible. Is there a definitive statement that y’all wanna make with this album?
OZONE WEST // 13