q&a Lil Rob You have ties in both San Diego and H-town. Where are you originally from? I’m from San Diego, born and raised and still live there. The record label is based out of Houston, Texas. How did you hook up with Upstairs Records? They were putting out another group and came to San Diego one day, and we went out to lunch. They invited me out to a show and saw the reaction of the crowd when they said “Lil’ Rob.” They started checking me out on Soundscan and wanted to work out a deal with me. You put out several albums before you got signed. Would you say you’re a good businessman? I never was a really good businessman. Throughout the years I’ve gotten burned a couple of times. We were doing it ourselves, got a little bit of money together, went into the studio, hooked up with another rap group from San Diego who pointed us in the right direction. How did build such a strong fan base early on? We ordered tapes, back in ’92. I was 15 years old. Putting together neighborhood raps and taking them to the indoor swap meets and selling them under consignment. Go back next week and see if we sold any- getting paid that way. It took a while. But back then, there weren’t that many Chicano rap artists. Just a handful were out. It was a good time to put my name on the streets. It all happened to work out for me. I was actually done when they came to me. You mean you had actually hung up your mic? I didn’t want to rap no more because I’d been burned so many timesbootlegs. Now, I look at it different. If they weren’t out there making bootlegs of my music, a lot of places wouldn’t even know who I was. So it’s a good and bad side. What made you want to be a rapper? Just the music alone. Back in third grade I was break dancing. My brother was DJing. He had all the music: Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force, LL Cool J, Krush Groove. My dad used to be in an oldies band. My grandmother used to sing Mexican music. Put all the elements together and you got Chicano rap. What did you bump coming up? Back in the day, I was listening to it all. When LL Cool J came out with Radio, Run DMC, NWA, Two Live Crew. When I was 12 years old, my dad wouldn’t take me to the parties, so I stayed home and wrote raps about the neighborhood and put them on tapes. It’s been a long time. Since the beginning of rap. I was born in 1975, and ever since then… I used to like Michael Jackson, “Pretty Young Thing.” Off The Wall was off the hook. Nowadays, I’ll listen to SOS Band, Gap Band or Zapp & Roger before I listen to today’s rap. I like old school and oldies. How did you get the name Lil’ Rob? I was break dancing in third grade, and back then you had break dancer nicknames. I was Lil’ Roc. So the “c” tuned into “b” because my name is Robert. But it’s been that for a long time before I knew about Lil Bow Wow and all these little people. I never heard of them before. Do you rhyme in Spanish? It’s in English, but I throw little Spanish words in there. They call it calo. It’s Mexican slang, Chicano slang. I throw a little bit of Spanish in there too. It’s English with a Chicano accent. At 18, you got shot in the face. How did that change you? It took a little while to change me. I got shot and then I stopped rapping for while. I got shot in the mouth and my jaw was wired shut for seven weeks. I got home and I saw my mom crying, figuring out how to pay the hospital bills. Whenever I left, she was scared I might not come back. I was still the same guy. I wanted to take off and hang out. I didn’t change right away. As time went by and I saw some of my homeboys not going anywhere, getting locked up, I didn’t want to be that guy. I have family to take care of and house payments to take care of. That’s why I do this. I’m changed now. But right after I got shot, I 42
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was still talking the same stuff. “You got me now but I’m gong to get you back.” Nowadays, I don’t want that drama. I don’t understand why I was doing it anyways as a kid growing up doing the same thing my brother did and my uncle did. I got caught up in the mix. The day I went to the operating room, they said I wasn’t going to talk the same or that I could be paralyzed because the bullet was lodged in my spinal chord. So to be walking and talking and rapping and doing shows- it’s different for me. I tell these little homeboys going down the wrong path, 13 and gangbanging, “take it easy.” There’s no future in it. I wouldn’t have listened, but hopefully, they’ll take (in) what I say. They’ll find out there’s a bigger world out there and other places to go. I’m in Philadelphia now. I never thought I’d leave my town. Some people won’t change. Do you have any songs about your accident or about changing your life? “Ain’t No Future In It” (is) about drugs. These kids experimenting with drugs think it’s cool. It’s just the beginning. It’s time for a change. If you ain’t doing nothing but wasting time, you have to figure out what you’re going to do with your life. The independent scene is big on the West Coast and in the South. Do you feel a lot of local love? I look at it different. I rap and do my thing. But I remember radio stations saying we don’t have Mexicans here. We don’t play that kind of music here. I went through that. Me and the label are doing our thing. Trying to make people understand where I’m coming from and how we do it. Just like the South does it. They have their own style. It’s us against the world and making them feel what I do. It’s hard work. What makes Lil’ Rob stand out as a rapper? I’m the only Chicano on radio right now. It’s different. When we do shows, I walk out with a bandana, all creased up. I might take a little break and put on mariachi music and walk out with a serape. It’s a different look. I’m not all hip hopped out, with bling and my hat to the side. I say I don’t need a watch because I know what time it is. Bandanas and a t-shirt and I just go rock it. I feel like I’m opening the doors a little bit (by) being on the radio, making videos. Get people to see where we come from and making it OK to be Mexican and rap Mexican. You don’t have to use everybody else’s slang. Do it your way. “Summer Nights,” the first single from your latest album Twelve Eighteen, went Top 10 on Billboard Monitor’s radio chart. What has changed with this new success? More travel and more shows. I can’t go shopping like I used to at the indoor swap meet. That’s where I go to get my clothes. Everybody wants autographs. People ask “what are you doing here?” And I’m like “I just came to buy t-shirts.” They’re like, “keep it gangsta, homie.” I’m the same dude. I go to the same places. What is the greatest achievement of your career so far? Being able to make the payment every month. That’s the main goal. To take care of the family. I take it day by day. And I work on getting the respect from other people for doing my thing. - Jessica Koslow (Photo: Dustin Pedder)