By Stranga The Great
Hip Hop Vibe Staff Writer
This week, Hip Hop Vibe has focused on the Oakland hip hop scene. At the right time, a lot of attention has been placed on Oakland. Several rising stars in the rap game are from the city and many of hip hop music’s most-talented people come from Oakland, including Yukmouth.
Yukmouth has held the game down for over twenty years and he continues to go strong. This year, Yukmouth already talked to Hip Hop Vibe about an ongoing beef he had and he dropped both a mixtape and an album with The Regime. Next up, Yuk plans to release his project with J-Hood.
Without some sort of Yukmouth mention, Hip Hop Vibe had no business doing something like Oakland Week. Yukmouth is currently in Nebraska on tour and he took time out from his schedule to speak to Hip Hop Vibe. He discussed Oakland hip hop, his Rise N Grind Tour 2 and his upcoming new music.
Read the entire interview below:
Oakland was at the center of one of the hottest songs with Yo Gotti’s “Act Right” featuring Young Jeezy and YG, are you feeling that song? I love it. I like when artists who use the Bay Area’s style and they show love. Shout out to Drake because he did the same thing with “The Motto.” Both of those guys shouted out Mac Dre and they shot their videos in the Bay.
Would you be open to hopping on a remix to that track if it was offered to you? Oh hell yeah! That would be a good look for both me and the Bay. Even beyond that, just to do a song with even Yo Gotti, YG, or Young Jeezy.
Yesterday, Hip Hop Vibe talked to Mistah F.A.B. and he said he was glad the focus is back on Oakland, what is your take on the Oakland hip hop scene? I’m loving it. It feels like the 90s, they are finally showing love back to the Bay Area. Iamsu!, LoveRance, Clyde Carson, Sage Gemini, there are so many youngsters. Philthy Rich and a lot of them, then the veterans like Too $hort and E-40, $hort had a song with Lady Gaga.
Can you talk about your appearance on E-A-Ski’s “This Ain’t No Heat” remix alongside Richie Rich? Oh man. Shout out to the OG, my big homie E-A-Ski. He hit me on the horn and he told me about this track with Richie Rich. He told me he had that heat and ironically, it was called “This Ain’t No Heat.” I loaded it up and put it out and I was honored to be on the track with those legends and go viral while doing it.
You’re on the Rise N Grind Tour 2 right now and Lincoln, Nebraska is your date tonight, how do you feel about the city? Man, I really haven’t had a chance to check the city out. But, there are a lot of sticks and trees (laughs). Later tonight, I will hit the party scene and check the people out. This ain’t Oakland where people walk the streets, so I will check it out. It rains a lot here though.
You’ve been doing this thing for a long time, can you tell us what your touring routine is like in terms of how you get prepared to go out there and perform every night? Basically, I listen to my show CDs right before I go to the club so I know my songs and how I will interact with my fans. But, I have a different CD for each show because different markets like different songs. Right before I go on stage, I get my smoke on, get a little drink, get some girl scout cookies, and then I’m good to go.
Even though the mixtape is a few months old, can you talk about your mixtape, The Last Dragon? That was me and my Regime dudes. We made this project, Freeze, Monsta Ganjah, Ampichino, Dru Down, Kuzzo Fly, Tech N9ne, Chop Black, T-Lew, we are all on that thing just killing it. We have been doing this Regime thing for many moons and it’s out. Then, we came with the album, Dragon Gang, and we have the single, “Go Nutz,” with Tech N9ne and Lee Majors. The video is on MTV Jams, doing numbers and we have six more videos coming. So, go check out this stuff, cop that Dragon Gang, it’s in stores now, it’s bout twenty of us in the crew, so we had to do a double album. Salute all my Regime niggas too.
When do you plan on releasing a follow-up project? Shit, my next project is me and J-Hood and then’s my solo project. But, probably next year is when me and the Regime come together, end of 2014.
Since a lot of rappers are doing compilation albums with their crews, would you consider doing something along those lines with Smoke-A-Lot Records? Always. I always put my Regime dudes on all of my albums, DVDs, soundtracks, and all of that. Yeah, definitely. I got the next project coming out soon with the mob, a soundtrack with the mob on that, and we got a couple of movies coming up, we got a track on the Denzel Washington movie. I’m working on a bunch of stuff, me and the mob getting it in.
Where can we connect with you on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram? Facebook is Yuk Mouth. Twitter @THAREALYUKMOUTH. Instagram is @REGIMEGENERAL. Hit me up on my website, Smokealotrecords.com for all the merchandise, my videos, albums, all of that is right there.
Follow Stranga The Great on Twitter @StrangaTheGreat.
