Authentically Oakland, Authentically Richie Rich

One of my all time favorite MCs from not only the Bay but the west coast is Richie Rich. Whether his classic collaborations with 2pac or his solo projects, he always is authentically Rich. How appropriate his new album is entitled Richard. Without further ado, Richie Rich gives an update on his career.

Man, I’m working, bro, just dropped a record. We dropped it on even about 40 days, 35, 40 days ago, but then it just hit the DSPs on the 7th of this month. Uh, shit, just shooting a bunch of content, videos, just trying to get back in the loop, you know what I’m talking about?

I got a brand new project out right now. It’s 10 songs. It’s called Richard.

They dropped them all at DSPs. It’s available everywhere now. Got some cool features on there.

Featured got one single that we’re running right now. It’s called We Different. It’s got E40 on it.

My boy V. White. I locked up with my boy Larry June.

I got a song with him and Curren$y, and then I did a song with Jane Hancock. I don’t really go heavy on features a lot, but this time, I featured a few of the people that I really did. You know what I’m talking about?

I’m just dropping back into the fold. But yeah, I’m back, bro, making music. Dude, I mean, I could go on and on about the hiatus and how I’d be eating out.

I had a love-hate relationship with music, man, for various reasons, but I got the hate brought out of the air and I’m back on the love side of things. So shit, I’m back moving. You dig?

Rich gets into the process of selecting the blends of veteran and newcomer MCs on the new album

You know, with the creative side for me, bro, I’m just keeping it a bug. Shit kind of just happens. I reached for 40 on the record.

I figured it’d be dope to get Earl on the record based on, you know, I don’t know if he… We had a little spat, like, in 2020, and we squashed the shit, but it was a lot of people still lingering. So I figured it’d be dope to get him on the record just to let motherfuckers know, like, that shit is way behind us.

I actually featured my homeboy V White on the same record. He’s a native of Oakland from an independent group called The Delinquents. So every now and then, I like to give a guy a look.

So I figured, you know, put him on the record with me and 40 would be better than just giving him a solo record with me and him, because more eyes would be on the record. That since 40 is on it, you get where I’m coming from? I also got a young dude from Oakland named Young Jr. He’s an up-and-coming talent from the town, a young dude.

I like what he’s doing. So for me, bro, I’ll be honest with you, shit kind of just happens organically. I’m not really a find out type of guy because I learned early in music.

You can plan shit out and shit don’t always go that way. So what I do is I’ll send records to people. Be like, bro, I’d love to have you on this.

Every now and then you got to chase people down. Sometimes the shit just happened just like that. But for this record, damn near everybody, I kicked the songs too.

They kicked them right back to me. Larry June got back to me quick. Darcy got back to me pretty quick.

So it kind of just happened, bro. I like to tell a lot of people that I got a ghostwriter, and they be like, for real, and I be like, it’s really like these lyrics, they just, when the music is right and I turn it on, dude, the peon just, it just flows. So for me on this Richard record, everything kind of just fell into place.

I’d be lying if I sat here and told y’all strategically put this together like this. I shot some records to some people that I didn’t get back in time. Some people that I didn’t think was going to fire back quick enough, actually fire back, and that’s what we put on the record.

You know what I mean?

Rich gets into being one of the elder statesmen of the city of Oakland in the music scene and what that means to not only him but the city as a whole.

Well, right now, it’s detrimental, bro. And I’m going to tell you why. I walked away from music in 1996.

I was with Def Jam. I put out one album with Def Jam. Some things happened.

Shortly after that, I lost 2pac. I lost Shakir Stewart. And that was the beginning of my love-hate relationship with music.

Another thing was the amount of money that I was told I was going to be getting per album once I got into the logistics with Lior and Russell. It just didn’t make a lot of sense to me, bro. I come from an independent game where we used to make a lot more money, and I knew the Def Jam was a good look.

But at the same time, I’m a hustler, bro, and I did a lot of time getting my money in the street, and the cash and carry is quick, you know what I mean? And I kind of got addicted to that. So in my Lior, my hiatus, my region went cold.

You know what I’m talking about? My region went cold. And I feel like I played a big part in that because people have still…

The reason I… Part of the reason I came back to music is because people never stop asking me like, Richie, you’re not going to drop no more music. Damn, bro, we need some of that Rich.

We need some of that Rich. And I don’t mean just people here. I’m talking about since the internet came along, people from overseas, just people from everywhere like, damn, we ain’t making no more music.

So for me, Oakland has never been portrayed the way I see it when I step outside musically. You know what I mean? And we’ve got a lot of artists from here, and that’s not a slight to any of those artists.

I’m just saying my zone has never been portrayed correctly. And I was in route to doing that when I went to Def Jam, actually showing… Because I’m a guy who’s been…

I’ve been all through this city, bro, on so many different levels, bro, from the street to the… I mean, just… I don’t want to cut all the way into all of my business, but I don’t live this shit the real way it goes.

And if anybody is going to be able to show the world this city, it’s going to be me. You know what I’m talking about? Now, the fact that I laid off…

It was a lot of other guys who came up from out here and that I thought were going to be able to pull it off. It didn’t happen that way. I don’t necessarily think it’s because they didn’t do what they wanted to do.

Maybe the region… You know how music works? I tell people all the time, it’s a money thing with the markets, man.

These labels come in and look at the market. They see how much money they can make, and that’s when they exploit the market. By the time Def Jam was done with me, music was headed to the south.

You know what I mean? The labels were headed to the south. The south was a lot bigger than Oakland will ever be, a lot bigger than the west coast, and the labels just stayed down there.

Well, for me, I feel like it’s a lot of Oakland that people have not seen. We have been known for some things that I’m not proud of. Once again, I’m not here to slight nobody, but I’m just here to tell the story the way I see it, and the way I believe it should be told.

This is a very small city with a whole lot of shit to offer, bro, a whole lot of game, just a lot of wisdom, a lot of trickery. I’m not one of those guys who’s gonna jump on here and be like, man, n**** are stealing our shit. I don’t do all that.

Everything starts from somewhere. You know what I mean?

Everything starts from somewhere, man, and the fact that people pick up on something from somewhere, that’s just how shit go. Music started in New York. You know what I mean?

And people heard it, and then they start doing their version of it. So everything starts somewhere. So I’m not the guy who’s going to sit here and be like, yo, n**** are stealing our shit, and we ain’t got the recognition.

What I’m here to do is show you, I’m going to put the world behind my lenses and show you what I know about this signal.

You feel me?

And I’ve been playing with it on all levels, so I don’t think there’s nobody who could do it better than me from over here.

Richie Rich gives more details on the new album.

Okay. So the Richard album, I met a kid named JPZ. He’s from Kansas City.

I met him at Beelogy Studio one night. I was up there with Be. Be was going to feature with somebody, and I just kind of dropped in just to hang out, fuck around.

PZ was in there and he had did the Pete. So I was like, damn, who made this Pete? Beelogy was like, dude, right there.

So PZ is a little kid from Kansas City. I was like, damn, bro, I’d like to get some music from him. So we exchanged numbers.

He started sending me beats, and he just was sending me some cool shit, bro. So one day he sent me a folder, and the folder said, million dollars worth of beats. And I think it might have been 50 or 60 joints in there.

Now, I get beat CDs. I get beats from people all the time. They send me a bunch of shit.

And I’ll be honest with you, dude, it’s still beats in there that made it to the next project that I’m working on. I mean, the kid is just fired, so he produced a whole album. I was only going to put up 10 songs.

And the reason I was okay with doing that is because prior to this, I dropped a record with The Mechanix called The Grow Room. And it was one of the first records that I did where I let one producer run everything since I came in the game with DJ Daryl back in 89 when we did 41fivin. After 41fivin, people start kind of getting different beats from different people, just to get a lot of variation.

I heard Dre say some shit that made a lot of sense to me. If you can get one producer who can give you the continuity, I mean, I had luck with DJ Daryl back in the day. The Mechanix record was dope.

So I decided to try it again with just one producer. There is one record on that album that is not produced by JPZ. And it’s produced by the Chef Boys.

And it’s called, It’s Been a Long Time. And I felt I had to put that record on there because of what I was saying in the record. I needed that to be heard on this Richard record.

Let me tell you what Richard is about. Richard is to me, the last record that I want to do where I’m paying a total attention to my street history in Oakland. And what I mean by that is, when you play around in the streets, you get a lot of good shit that happened.

You get a lot of bad shit that happened. I had a little bit of both. And you get a lot of good chatter.

You get some bad chatter. Like I said, I had a lot of both. So in some of these records, you will hear me addressing things that if you’re not from Oakland, you won’t know what the fuck I’m talking about.

But the people from Oakland here are loud and clear. So Richard was my last shot at the city, not shooting at them because I’m shooting from the city, but also shooting at the city about certain subjects. And I named the record Richard based on, I’m learning now to write from my chest, like from my stomach and not from my ego.

You know, rap has always been an egotistical sport, a bravado sport where we just kind of chop and pop our shit. But I learned to write from the chest, like it seems that I’m really feeling. And my pen is starting to allow me to do that.

To me, this record is the most that I’ve given, like what I’m really feeling. So that’s why I named it Richard. And from here forward, I’m trying to let my pen write on a nationwide scale because I don’t want my albums to just be centered around Oakland.

I want people to be able to, I noticed that people fuck with me everywhere, but you have to give everybody something they can fuck with. You get where I’m coming from? So I’m trying to let my pen spill and not be on just a regional Oakland game.

So that’s why Richard is like the last record where I’m going to be shooting straight from the town. I’m going to be trying to write a lot more worldwide, and I’m trying to give everybody something they can get with.