Keshaun McClendon, aka the legendary Ganjah KMC
Danksta Life: An Interview with
Ganjah K
As the late great Guru once said, when it comes to
hip-hop, it's mostly about the voice. Combine a dope voice with top notch
lyricism and you get another class of emcee. Add to that the complex vocal
stylings of the Good Life and you have Ganjah K, possibly the most underrated
and slept on rapper on the west coast. This is largely due to a lack of
material being available. Other than his Danksta Life album and a
handful of guest features and soundtrack appearances, the only thing most
listeners had heard until recently was a God awful dub of Harvest for the
World, which only whet the appetites of heads fiending for more material.
Fortunately, Ganjah came through and over the past few years dropped several
albums through his Bandcamp page,
taking the first step in claiming some much deserved recognition for his
innovative styles and contributions to the art form. I had the opportunity to
chop it up with KMC about his past, present and future in this in depth
interview.
I wanna start at the beginning. Can you talk about your earliest experiences
with hip-hop and some of the early influences that inspired you to start
rapping?
I would have to say my first experience with hip-hop was when I
heard the Sugarhill Gang, "Rapper's Delight." When I heard that, I
thought it was so dope, and it seemed to speak to the common person, to the
point where I thought, "That's something I could do!" That's what
inspired me to start. But when I first started though, I started as a DJ. I
started mixing records and got two turntables. There was this Belizean cat who
stayed upstairs at my cousin's house who had this massive DJ system. He had
these big ass speakers. It was a little ass apartment, but he had these massive
speakers. Then you'd go to the back of his room and he had all these records
and he had two turntables and a mixer, and I was really awed by that. I was
really young, like ten or something like that. He was mixing these records,
Jamaican funk and all these jams and shit. I was like, "Damn! I could do
that too! I wanna do that." So since that was something I seen happening
in action, I gravitated towards that at first. Then later on, I was hearing
rapping from artists like Cool J and, you know, different artists coming out at
that time and it made me pick up the mic. That was around junior high school.
When I talked to Sach, he said he felt you really found your style and came
into your own after you started rapping at the I-Fresh. Can you talk about how
that came about and that whole era?
I can't put my finger on exactly how I met Ben [Caldwell],
but we became pretty close. He started this thing called I-Fresh and we'd
perform up at Southwest College, at different radio stations. He had that same
spot where Project Blowed is being done right now, that was I-Fresh. We'd go
there and put on acts and do our thing. Sach was one of the artists who was
there. We had Deryl with the Curl and Tuxedo Tee. We were all just in Leimert
Park, getting down on the mic. That's when I started battling and stuff like
that. I have never lost a battle. I did pretty good at the I-Fresh. Me and Ben
became very close because he really believed in me, as an artist. When you see
somebody believing in you, and when you start winning battles, you start
getting more confident. So that's probably why Sach felt that's when I found my
style. That's basically what it was. It was just understanding that, "Hey,
I'm a pretty dope emcee!" [laughs] I started realizing that.
In junior high school, that's when I really
started winning battles. That was a thing back in the day, you had to hold down
your school. If you called yourself the rapper of the school, you had to hold
it down! Anybody who comes from anywhere to check in to the school that raps,
you had to take 'em out. If somebody came from another school, you had to take
'em out. Anybody who went to that school, you had to take 'em out. So
that's when I started really becoming who I was. They used to call me Pee Wee
Jam because my voice was so high at the time, but I used to kill people on the
mic.
So how did you end up going to the Good Life?
Well, before I went to the Good Life, I met Myka 9 and
Acey. We were workshoppin' together. Me, Mike and Ace, and Jup - Jup was in and
out of town - but me, Mike and Ace would get together every day. I mean every
day. I actually met Mike and Ace through Meen Green. He wasn't a rapper at
the time, but he just knew both of us and he knew we all rhymed hard. Then
since we met, me, Mike and Ace, we was thick as thieves ever since. 'Cause,
see, I had my own group, The Chronic, which was me and Bombay.
Well, I know a lot of people actually thought you were part of Freestyle
Fellowship because you were on the cover of To Whom It May Concern...
But that was just you guys hanging around a lot?
Well, actually, I'll give you a wild story. The first
Freestyle Fellowship was me, Mike and Ace. We were all solo artists but we entered
a rap contest in Compton and we wanted to all enter together, because we all
kicked it every day. We wanted to enter that contest together, so we said,
"What're we gonna call ourselves? We'll call ourselves Freestyle
Fellowship."
Wow! That's crazy.
Yeah! [laughs] See, Sumbi, he was me and Bombay's
DJ. That's why I'm on the album cover [of To Whom It May Concern...]. We
were supposed to have a song on there. But John (Bombay) was always workin' at
the time so we were never able to get a song on To Whom It May Concern...
But Sumbi, he was me and John's producer. So, of course, I introduced them to
Mike and Ace. But the first Fellowship was me, Mike and Ace. We entered a
contest in Compton. Then after Bombay died, they had signed to Island Records and
they asked me if I wanted to come on in. But I think I was still grieving. I
didn't want to enter another group because I felt that was betraying him. I
kinda wish I had joined them, because I was one of the originators of these
styles anyway, but I just felt I'd be betraying John. He had just passed
away. So I decided not to do that. Sometimes I regret that, but you never know,
man.
Well, like you said, you were one of the originators of those styles and
fortunately you did release a record in 1991 on Wild West Records where you are
styling like that. That was also a record where you and Bombay were credited as
The Chronic, again, in '91, before the Dre album. Can you talk about how you
hooked up with Wild West?
That was through MC Torche - he was a graffiti artist in
junior high school - we used to call him Gumby. He started rapping after junior
high school. 'Cause see, Marc the Murderah, me and Napom, we all went to high
school together, you know what I'm sayin'? But I was the only one really rapping
at that time, I believe. With Wild West, when I reconnected with Gumby, he was
going by Torche and was working with Wild West. He told me to go up there and
meet them, so that's how that came about. We did a few songs with them. That's
how I believe I met Bird. Bird did a lot of production on my demo.
Did Bird also produce the original version of "Scud Missile" that
was on your demo?
No, the original version, me and Bombay wrote it, but
before we were able to record it, he passed away. Then Matt (Mathmattiks) from
the Earthquake Brothers, he did a beat and me and P.E.A.C.E. - 'cause
P.E.A.C.E. was part of First Brigade before he was part of Fellowship - we did
"Boomin' Scud Missile." I went out to see him last summer and he
doesn't have a copy either. I wish I had a copy of that. He did John's parts.
That song was really me and John going back and forth. He'd say a line, we'd
say a line together. When we performed it at the Good Life, we tore it down! It
was over with. Me and John was like the coldest west coast Run-D.M.C. you ever
heard. We'd come in, "BOOM! A scud missile." We'd be going back and
forth stupid! He'd say one line, I'd say one line. We'd come together:
"Three blind mice, three blind mice, see how they run!" It was just
ridiculous. That was my brother in rhyme, man. I still, to this day, miss John.
I was just in my room recording, thinking of old rhymes he said. I was
recordin' them over some beats Fat Jack gave me. I was recording that just the
other night, some real old rhymes!
So getting to the Good Life, this is the way that I remember
it. I was talking to Mike or Ace about it at the reunion and they seem to have
a different recollection than I do, but this is how I remember it: when we were
getting together at Ace's spot, he said he knew a little cafe where people were
busting, and was like, "We should go up there and see what's up." So
we started going up there. Then the Good Life was born. We started going there
and doing the styles we were doing at the house, mixing in jazz, playing with
the microphone like it was a trumpet, you know, doing styles like that. All
that came from using our voices like instruments. That's kinda where it derives
from. If you really listen to what we're doing, it's like we're playing an
instrument but doing rhymes with it. Then, all of a sudden, a lot of people
caught on to it, and everybody started doing their version of it. That was the
whole underground movement, how it was born.
Well, you were part of the Good Life, but you were also
doing stuff with RBX and Tha Dogg Pound, which is the other side of west coast
hip-hop, so you had your feet in both those lanes.
Yeah, that's true. See, Mike actually knew Reality Born first. I
didn't know RBX. Mike brought him into the circle. He had this song,
"Every day I fight a devil." It was so dope! The song was just
ridiculous. So when I got to meet him, we became cool. He had this DJ called
Create.
A funny story: me, Mike and RBX were doing a show in Vegas
at the Thomas Wright Center, right? So we're in the van, me and Mike, going to
Long Beach to pick up RBX. And we're waiting in the back of the van like,
"What is takin' this motherfucker so long?" So when he finally gets
in the van, we're like, "What the fuck?" And he's like, "I was
just battlin' my cousin Snoopy. I had to show him what's up." We're like,
"Man, we're trying to do a show. Who the fuck is Snoopy?" So we drove
out there, performed in front of all these students. The Thomas Wright Center
was packed. But we didn't know the little dude he was talking about battling
was Snoop Dogg!
I got so many stories. We was at one of those hip-hop
functions, like a summit type thing. RBX was like, "Why don't y'all come
over and meet my cousin. You know, Dre and them, Snoop, whoopty whoop." So
we like, "Alright, fuck it!" We went over, me, Mike and Ace, and met
all those cats. Me and P.E.A.C.E., they really liked us, so we started kickin'
it with them a lot. We all became pretty close. I got pretty cool with Dre but
mostly it was Snoop and Daz - and Kurupt of course, he came from the Good Life
before he got into the gang banging and all that shit. He got a lot of respect
at the Good Life.
I know one time [laughs], me and P.E.A.C.E. went to Kurupt's
auntie's house in Inglewood. We wanted to get in our freestyle so much, we were
just freestyling at the table at two in the morning. His auntie kicked us out
and me and P.E.A.C.E. had to find our way home from Inglewood. I just seen
Kurupt this year actually, him and Warren G. It was good seein' 'em. I was
tellin' Kurupt how proud I was of him. He was like, "Ganjah, we just
gettin' started." He was treating me like a star.
So we kind of talked about this off the record, but for the readers, there's
a rumor that you had an album prior to Harvest called Season of the
Chronic but that was just a single song from your demo, right?
Yeah, it was a song called "'Tis the Season"
by The Chronic. If I remember right, it was, "Tis the season, welcome at
your own risk, to the fortress, the First Brigaaaaaaaaade! Chronic!" I
dunno, I think Bird did the production, or it might've been one of the
Earthquake Brothers. Freestyle Fellowship was there. They helped us on the
hook. So that's probably how people mixed that up and put that together and
thought it was an album.
I have another story: I had a song that me and Matt did. After
John passed, Matt from the EQB did a lot of my earlier shit. I had a song
called "Hip-Hop You Don't Stop." I was performing at Guadelupe's and
Treach from Naughty By Nature was there. I was performing my song, which was a
tribute to hip-hop. "Hip-hop, hip-hop, you don't stop!" Then I hear
"Hip Hop Hooray," right? So I always thought, since Treach was there,
there was some connection, but I couldn't put my finger on it. So I'm at The
Gavin watching Diamond D perform, just by myself in a crowd of people. Then
this guy starts coming toward me, through the crowd, and it was Treach. He
reached out and shook my hand. We didn't even say nothin'. He just shook my
head. And we kinda both knew what it was about, you know what I'm sayin'? And
he left and I haven't seen him since.
So your first album then was Harvest for the World. Did that album
get shelved when Pallas folded? Is that what happened there?
Yeah, basically. That basically sums it up. It got
shelved, not once Pallas folded, but once the CEO of the label got fired, and
they got a new CEO of the company. There was a guy from Japan who actually
funded the label, but a guy named Jerome, they put in charge of everything,
including all the artists. That was me, Muhammad, which is Phoenix Orion - they
had Alien Nation - and Supernatural was part of that label as well. That's how
I met Supernat and we became like brothers. I was actually in New York when
Supernat had that battle with Craig G. I was at a photo session. Then when I
got done, he was like, "Ganjah! They set me up!" I was like,
"What are you talkin' about? Calm down. What happened?!" He was like,
"Maaaan, I was up there for a freestyle exhibition and they got Craig
G!" I was like, "Craig G from the Juice Crew?" He was like,
"Yeah, man! He started dissin' me! It was like he knew it was gonna
happen. He had lines ready!" I think that was like the first battle he
ever lost, so he was hotter than fish grease on a Friday night! [laughs]
So when I'm back in L.A. he calls me up like,
"Ganjah! I got that motherfucker back, man!" I think it was
Supernat's birthday. He was like, "I was walking around New York and I
found out he was doin' a show and I went up there and smashed the mic! I got
that motherfucker back!" [laughs] That's my guy, Supernat. We was just
talkin'. I introduced him to the Good Life and that's how he became cool with
everybody out here.
Back to the Pallas thing, after Fab Five Freddy took over
Pallas Records, they decided to start fresh and new, so they got those guys
from Chicago, Crucial Conflict, and put them out through Pallas. Then that was
the last of Pallas Records. But me and Fab Five Freddy became kinda cool. I
dunno how he took over the label, we got dropped, and I got cool with him. I
have no idea how that happened [laughs]. But I mean, I was still serving the
industry. I was getting emcee money without even being out, off of hustling. I
was one of the first rappers in High Times magazine.
Yeah, you also had some soundtrack appearances around that time. One of them
- we talked about Bombay earlier - was a tribute to him, "When Your Homie
Dies." I wanted to ask, you used a melody from an Earth, Wind & Fire
song on there. Did that song have some significance, or was that Fat Jack's
idea?
That was just one of my favourite songs. That whole
concept was me. I just had Fat Jack put it together. I wanted it just like that
song from Earth, Wind & Fire. So DK Toon, he was Lil Cartoon from 60s. So
then Big Cartoon from 60s got out of jail, and he had this amazing voice.
I was like, "Lil Toon, is it cool if I get Big Cartoon on this song?"
He was like, "Eh, I dunno." He wanted him to himself. They were from
the same set. I get that. I get the ghetto get-down. But I was like,
"C'mon, man! Let Big Cartoon get on the song." And that really made
it. 'Cause there was no way in the world I was gonna hit those notes [laughs].
And me, DK and Dutch did an album too, called 3 tha Hard Way.
When was that one recorded?
That was recorded between '98 and 2001, somewhere around
there.
And you're still planning to release that one, right?
Yeah, I just don't know all the ins and outs of how to load
that up, all the technical shit. Only reason I got what I got now up is because
Jizzm came through and helped me out. But he's been busy doing his thing. I've
got these two albums to post, plus I got two new albums. But I still have The
Ganjah K Chronicles and 3 tha Hard Way. I just need someone who's
hip to that who can help me load it up. Jizzm did the album covers for me too.
He was able to get Harvest for the World, Possession of Sales,
the First Brigade album, and I appreciate him doing that. I just gotta get
these other ones out.
Well, one that did get released back in the day was Danksta Life
'cause I saw someone post a pic of the CD. Did you just press that up and sell
it independently?
Yeah, Danksta Life was right after Pallas folded,
and the G Funk was out, so I had Danksta Life. So I put that out
independently. It came across pretty cool. A lot of people dug it. Harvest
for the World was really my first release. John had just passed away. Fat
Jack did a lot of that one. Plus you had The Nonce doing "Green
Acres," which was also part of my demo, J-Sumbi, we had Abstract doing the
hook on "All I Need." It was a dope record.
This isn't really a soundtrack appearance but one of the things that really
tripped me out was when I heard "Scud Missile" on The Sopranos.
Did they approach you for that, or how did that come about?
Man, I just seen that last year! I used to be in the
streets too much to see The Sopranos, but I was goin' through all the
seasons and I see the guys in the car, and I'm hearin' my voice, and I'm like,
"Fat Jack! Did you know our song is on The Sopranos." He was
like, "Ganjah, I dunno man, I released all the rights to my music. I was
done with it. So I dunno what happened." I had to rewind it back like
sixteen times to make sure I'm hearing what I'm hearing here. So I wait for the
credits to see if they say my name and there's nothing on the credits, no
nothing.
It's funny 'cause if I remember right, the son is playing
that in his car right after they catch him smoking weed in the garage, so it's
pretty appropriate [laughs].
[laughs] Yeah, man. It was a fuckin' shock. You're watching Sopranos
and you hear your song. It fucked me up, man. But, you know, I didn't get
paid but whatever. It was a long time ago. It was more of a shock to hear
myself on this worldly recognized fuckin' show. It blew my wig back. It's crazy
'cause nobody told me either! Like, "Hey, man, your song was on The
Sopranos." But nobody told me.
I had some other soundtrack appearances too. I was on Playing
God, Thin Line Between Love & Hate, Next of Kin, Dead Homiez. We did Action
Jackson. There was another movie about a little white kid and the black kid
who played in Family Matters. That was one of the first soundtracks I
did. So as far as soundtracks, I've had my share of those. Thin Line Between
Love & Hate was due to RBX. He took me right into Warner Bros., and was
like, "Look out for my boy, Ganjah K." They were like, "We got
this new movie. If he can give us something for that, we can put him on
that." RBX, we became pretty close. That's my dude right there.
You were supposed to drop an album called Puff Daddy back in the
early 2000s on J. Sumbi's label, Beats & Rhymes. Did that album ever get
finished?
I don't know nothin' about Puff Daddy...
It was on a website he had for his label, Beats & Rhymes, and he had,
coming soon... Puff Daddy.
[laughs] It's called Puff Daddy?
[laughs]
The only Puff Daddy I know is... Puff Daddy [laughs]. Maybe
it's supposed to be something else? Like... puff, puff, pass? I had a rhyme
about Puff the Magic Dragon. Shit, I don't remember that. Who was supposed to
be putting it out? J-Sumbi?
Yeah, it was on his website, "coming soon, Puff Daddy."
[laughs] I gotta see that.
A lot of people have been asking me if you plan to release any hard copies
of these albums. Is that the plan, or are they gonna be digital only?
Yeah, I do plan on putting out hard copies. You know, I had
this box of cassette tapes. A big box. It was deep as hell. I put it in storage
and didn't pay my storage fees and they auctioned my shit off. I guarantee you,
if I had that box of cassettes, I would have me and P.E.A.C.E. doing "Scud
Missile." I would have shit that nobody heard. I think about it a couple
times a year, about what it could've had in it. But at the time, it was getting
in my way, it just seemed like nothing. But God, I wish I had that box now. It
had all my old shit. But, you know, that's what happens when you just take for
granted that shit is just around.
I also got offered to be part of Tha Dogg Pound, but, at the
time, I just decided to do my own thing. But, you see, Dogg Pound wasn't out
yet. I don't even think Snoop had done Doggystyle yet. But I wish I took
that opportunity. All I had to do was get on somebody's album and shine. It
would've lifted myself up. But hindsight is 20/20, you know?
On your more recent stuff, like Possession of Sales and Swaggerific, you've
adopted a more modern sound. I know a lot guys feel they need to stay relevant
but in your case, it kinda sounds like that style comes naturally to you. Am I
right about that?
Man, it really does. I made vow to
myself that hip-hop will never pass me by. I promised myself I would always be
able to get whatever's going on in hip-hop. So the reason it sounds like
it comes natural is because I get it. I want to get it. I don't want to be one
of those old guys who were like what old guys were like when we were young.
"Oh, you doin' that boom bap? What's that?" I didn't wanna be like
that. These guys who are like, "Oh, this ain't the old hip-hop anymore!"
We sound just like them. We were tellin' them, "You old school. You
don't get it." Now they tellin' us we don't get it. But if I do have one
qualm about the new school today, it's that everybody fuckin' sounds alike!
That's the only thing I don't get. If you close your eyes, everybody
sounds like one artist. He sounds like him, and they sound like them. That's
the only thing I don't get. But knowing how to spit on there, it comes
naturally to me because I understand it. Plus I don't listen to the radio every
day. If I was listening every day, I'd probably be doper! But I hear it, at
clubs when I'm out, and I get it. But back in the day, with KRS-One, Rakim, we
listened every day. These new songs, I couldn't rap any of their lyrics. If you
put a million dollars in front of me, I couldn't do it.
Do you have any new projects in the works you'd like to talk about? Napom told
me you guys were planning to record some new stuff, and I know you have solo
records in the works.
I have probably recorded about two or three albums worth
of new material because I do it here at the house. I was gonna do Danksta
Life 2, of course, and I was gonna do another album called Back to My
Roots, on some hip-hop shit. Goin' back to just straight melodic hip-hop
tracks, you know what I mean? I have some other things in the works I
can't reveal now, but it's some crazy shit in the works.
https://www.facebook.com/keshaun.mcclendon
https://ganjahk1.bandcamp.com
https://ganjahk.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/ganjah-k