Clinton Sands AKA Mr Payback Interview

Check out our exclusive interview with Clinton Sands aka Payback. We discuss his start in music, working with Ice Cube and other heavyweights in the game and much more so check it out

All right, we’re here with Clinton Sands. How’s it going, man?

Man, I’m straight, man, like an Indian hair. How you doing, bro?

Doing good, doing good. Tell me a little bit about how you got your start in music, and who are some of your musical influences out there coming up?

Oh, there are musical influences coming up. Well, I went to school with George Clinton’s manager when I was growing up, and his kids. And so George Clinton needed some kids to do One Nation and their group commercial from the radio.

So, you know, like the kids do that, we played the reason to the flag. So we did, we played to the front, One Nation and Their Group, blah, blah, blah. And so that was my first, so I realized who they were.

And then my mom was trying to keep me out the street. So she had me a piano lesson, but I’m like a pianist, but she wanted me to do something. And so I saw Bootsy play.

And I started noticing, at the time, bass lines were really noticeable in songs. You know, Brick House, or, or after To The Light. You know, I could sing the bass line, you know what I’m talking about.

And so I identified the bass, and I started playing the bass. So Booty was my inspiration. I was surrounded by a lot of musicians, Lonnie Marshall, Billy Bass, Maureen Marshall, Blackbyrd from Parliament.

So just fun at first, but then I really enjoyed it, and wanted to make a living from it. So that’s how I started.

Okay. And you’ve worked with Who’s Who in hip hop, Ill Al Scratch, Me and the Click, Westside Connection, Gangstas Make the World Go Round, Mack 10, Coolio, WC, Rich Rollin, Dogg Pound. Just from a creative process, what is the creative process that you kind of go with, with artists and producers?

Do you kind of come with an idea, or the artists have kind of an idea on how they want as far as the bass line, or how they want you to play the guitar on a track? Just tell me a little bit about the creative process you go through. I’m sure it’s different with every artist, but just kind of a process that you go through.

Yeah, it’s one of two things. It started with, I guess, I started with BBD, and I would just make up bass lines, and then I started working with Ice Cube. The reason I started working with Ice Cube is he wanted to replay samples, so he would have to pay for clearing them cheaper.

So I saw a replaying sample, so they would have a song, learn this bass line, and play to this drum beat. And then, so it was either that way, or I played the drum beat, just come up with a bass line. So for like, I think it was like that.

At his house, I was a baby, I kicked drum and I clapped. Yeah, kind of beat my back. I hanged, I hanged, I hanged, just whatever.

But those are the two different methods.

Okay, that leads right into my next question, actually. Ice Cube, I would say probably only second to Tupac. They’re actually pretty much tied for me.

One of my favorite artists of all time. Tell me a little bit about working with Cube. A lot of people, unless you really are a diehard Ice Cube fan, don’t realize he’s produced a lot of hit records on the West Coast.

And you’ve been a part in helping with the baseline and production on a lot of it. Just tell me a little bit more about working with Ice Cube and just your relationship of working with them.

Well, Ice Cube, like you would think with the Gheri Curl and the gangsta rap and the bitches and the hoes and the motherfuckers, that he’s like a business, that is this. But he was a school for architecture, so he’s very organized and very disciplined and professional. So he shows up on time, he’s fun as hell, he’s laughing, he’s joking, you know what I’m saying?

Cracking jokes, whatever we did, he’s very productive, he tries to get right to it, and then he keeps the checkbook with him. So when he’s finished, you know what I’m saying? He gets you a check right there and there.

So, man, when he called, bruh, I was, oh, I can’t even tell you how many times I was having sex, but I was feeling like he paged me out, and I was like, no, I gotta go. Bye, babe. But yeah, he, he’s dope, man.

He, he, he really tried to look out. I mean, most of the artists were his friends. He was really trying to look out for people.

But he didn’t do the scouting or, or, you know, like a showcase, something like that. He was always, he was a lot, he’ll pick the beats for them. He’ll write the raps or the songs or the hooks, and structure everything, getting the deal.

He was looking out, so it felt like a family. Everybody had stories of junior high and high school in it that I was working with. So it was K-Dee was one of his artists. We met again, some bunch of people.

He had Kausion for a while, too, on his Lench Mob label.

He had Kausion, he had, yeah, you know. So there was a lot of producers, a lot of artists were working that. Lench Mob, Yo-Yo, Mack 10.

Of course, I can actually name, he was also helping with WC. You know, a lot of records he produced, people don’t really know that. He actually had the drum machine, he had the whole studio at his house.

So he wouldn’t just write and rap, he was doing beats. And so my relationship with him, he trusted me, we worked our little deal, and he would just play a drum beat. I play the bass, but then I hire and pick the musicians, the keyboard player, the guitar player, the singers, and then we knock out whatever we’re knocking out.

He also had Don Jagwarr. People know him as Earl on Crenshaw. So, Dom did the hook on Wicked, it’s probably the Wicked.

He was also a rapper, and Cube got him signed on Priority. I don’t know what happened with that record, but that was one of the early ones after he performed at Camp. Yeah, so yeah, he’s super cool, man.

He’s, you know, he’s trying to look out for advice. If you look at Cube’s career, he helps people. A lot of people you wouldn’t know of, but he gives them chances, you see.

People are really, I… I don’t think they would get in the props. You wouldn’t really know Chris Tucker like that.

You wouldn’t know Katt Williams like that. You wouldn’t know Kevin Hart like that. You wouldn’t know…

What’s one name you know? That’s Michael…

Mike Epps.

Mike Epps, you wouldn’t know him like that. You know what I’m saying?

Yep. Gary Gray, the director. I mean, that was…

Friday was his first movie. So, yeah, man, he’s… He’s solid, man.

He’s real. About quality, about family. Anywhere you see him, you see his life and his kids.

His studio, his life will be right there. He just big three. His life and kids are there.

Any awards show, his wife and kids are there. He ain’t wrong with a whole bunch of idiots, you know, getting high, fighting and shooting. He ain’t had no drama.

He’s been here 37 years, you know what I’m saying? And so, he’s very organized. He’s planned out by the year ahead.

Like, he already knows what he’s gonna do all until next year this time. He’s already planned out. He’s very organized.

It’s ridiculous. So, he’s a good person to model after, just in general. And he ain’t no punk.

He don’t take no mess. He’s right to business. He’s a smart people.

Smart people, you can credit for him.

Absolutely. Now, with all of these studio sessions, all of these great songs, classic songs that you’ve worked with, with so many artists, do you have one session that sticks out that you had the most fun with or just sticks out in your mind the most? And the reason behind it, a story?

Four of them. Four different ones. I met…

The first time I’m working with Ice Cube is when celebrities walk in. So I just started working at Ice Cube. I don’t really know him like that.

We were doing beats, and we were in the studio, and he puts out his rhyming book. He types out his rhymes and puts them in a notebook. It’s all organized with tabs on them and shit of different colors.

So he’s busting his rap, and somebody says, hey, man, you got company. He stops the machine like, man, what the fuck? Turns around, and I’m looking at him.

I’m thinking, you know, this one, he just left the NWA kind of this. So I’m like, I don’t know if it’s Eazy E, you know what I’m saying? Like, so I turn around and look at and it was fucking Rick James!

So I’m all like, frowned up like, like, like a, like a, like a, you know, I don’t know, like a gang video or some shit. I’m frowned up looking, oh, I got my hat on, you know, my big baggy t-shirt and all that shit. I’m looking like, damn, n***, I ain’t put it aside, I’m like, n***, Rick James and shit, I want to jump on him and shit, hug him and shit, sign my base, you know what I’m saying?

So another time, well, first time, I guess, seeing Cube, when he called me, I got to see him do a song. I guess that was the first time. I’m like, damn, I couldn’t believe I was there.

And then Rick James is one. And another time, he called me. Just back in the day, he was paging me.

He was like, where you at? I said, I’m in the hood. He was adding, I lived down the street from Street Knowledge’s studio.

He said, can you come through? I said, yeah. I said, I gotta go home and get my bass drum.

He said, no, I don’t get it. So what the fuck? Like, I don’t sing, you know what I’m saying?

So I came down to the studio, there’s a door that’s way in the back. As he entered through the door, he’s smiling. Why the fuck are you smiling at?

And we started walking and shit. We get closer to the room and he goes, uh, yeah, baby, uh. And I was like, wait a minute.

Turn around, man, it was fucking Bootsy Collins.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, I got a picture of whatever there. They were like, n***, Boosie? That was my idol, you know what I’m saying?

Now I have to be grown, playing because of him, and he doesn’t make it to media, n***. That was everything. That’s like Chris Brown meeting Michael Jackson or something.

I was like, hell yeah. And then he let me hold the bass and play it. Oh, my God, that was like, that was a trip.

And then that was three. And then the fourth time was George Clinton. We were sitting in Cube Studio, and my call that was picking George Clinton up from the airport and bringing him to the studio, where they were about to do Bop Gun.

And so, he said, You got him? And the guy said, Yeah, bring him to you. And he looked at me, hangs up the phone, started smiling.

What the fuck is a thing that’s smiling at you, for? You know, he’s usually hard. Cube’s already got that frowned up, mad-looking face.

He’s smiling like a motherfucker. I’m like, what the fuck are you smiling for? All of a sudden, man, I hear the back door open up, and I hear him and George Clinton.

I know George Clinton’s voice. I hear the n*** talking. And I said, nah, my heart dropped.

I turned around, looked out the blue, and that n*** walked in with George Clinton. N***. So then, Cube had an interview or something, like 10 minutes.

So just me and George Clinton sitting on a couch in the studio by ourselves. And I didn’t say anything to him, because I’m just feeling shocked. So, he’s looking at me like most young kids don’t know who he is.

So he’s thinking I don’t know who the fuck he is. So I start playing Flashlight, and all this shit. He’s looking like, oh shit.

So then after that, he’s like, man, we ain’t said nothing to each other. I’m still nervous. I’m tripping.

Like I couldn’t, I’m a starstruck. Oh my, I couldn’t talk. And so he started humming.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I had my bass blood there, and I was going boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. He said, okay.

He went boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Like figure that out, n***. And I went boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Oh, man. He gave me another high five. The Cube came and got it, and I was about to let him know and remind him.

Hey, man, I was playing the keys, and I was listening and hearing, but I was, that’s one thing, but I was playing another thing. He does drugs, but his memory is cold. He remembered the day in that whole session.

He didn’t remember the keys names, but one of the things that happened is he told someone, the limo driver. I’m gonna go ahead and get us French fries. He came in with a bag with a big ol McDonald’s bag full of French fries.

I think it was either me or Miles Rand and grabbed the bag and the bag opened up and all the French fries fell out on top of the piano and said, I remember y’all, somebody spat the bag in piano and French fries all over the piano. I’m like, damn, you remember all that shit. That was like, for the dim moment, that was it, and I was like, it could get no better than that for me.

I mean, I’ve had dope sessions with musicians. Part of different songs, and oh my god, later on, for me, it’s me the producer and the drum machine. They play a beat, I lay the bass, and then I leave.

I don’t hear the song, I don’t hear what they added to it, I don’t hear singers, rappers, nothing. And I don’t hear it just on the radio, so. The sessions are real quiet, simple for me.

I’m the first thing I want. I lay the drums and the drum machine, I lay the bass, and I’m gonna be leaving after that. But yeah, that was before time, so I don’t know.

All right, let’s fast forward now to the present. Is there anything currently that you’re working on, any new artists, or you just kind of, almost a hit map or hire, like you just explained there towards the end, you come in, kind of do your part, and then, you know, whatever the artist or the producer does with the track, that’s what they do. But do you have any other, as far as music, specifically, why, is anything that you’re currently working on?

Yeah, yeah. So I had to play bass only, on like, the DVD, I think it was 92, 93. And then 95, I started producing.

So I produced, I started replaying songs for movies. So the first movie was Soul Plane with Kevin Hart and Snoop, and I re-did Gin and Juice. So I’ve always done that.

So last year, I did The Message with Melly Mel, Don’t Push Me. So I re-did the beats in a movie called Rob Peace. So I re-did the beat in Melly Mel, re-wrapped it before we could get on the master.

And the same movie, Rob Peace, ROB. Peace, it’s on Netflix now. I did Thuggish Ruggish Bone with Layzie Bone over it.

I just liked it. And so I’ve been producing for a lot of people, Flavor Flav and stuff with Ice Cube, Mack-10, E-40, B-Legit. Recently, I’m like, I don’t know what’s going on new.

And then I have a charity song I’m doing to raise money for the victims of the LA fire. So I’m doing it with the Red Cross and Music Cares. So I got Montell Jordan singing the hook, and I got Kurupt from the Dogg Pound, Treach from Naughty by Nature, Yukmouth from the Luniz, and some new artists, Miss Toi and Namiq.

And then I’m getting MC Lyte and Ice T.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, so it’s going to be coming on. It’s like the We Are the World with 2025, so it’s going to be a bunch of celebrities. I got the horns section from California Love from Tupac.

Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. They’re playing horns on the song. I got Amina Butterfly from Love & Hip Hop.

I think it’s New York.

Yep.

She’s playing the piano. And today, actually, Keith Robinson, he’s an actor. He was Anthony’s…

He was Chynda Frantzen’s character in Dreamgirls, brother?

Yes.

In Dreamgirls. And he was also in All Eyez On Me from Tupac. He was the manager.

He’s the other guy. He’s on a TV show now. I forgot the name of it.

Behind the Gains or something. But he’s singing in it, like a little sample part I used. Yeah, so TMZ is going to break it.

It’s coming out on Columbia Records. And so we’re almost done with that. They were shooting a video.

And then TMZ is going to break it. I’ve been doing a lot of stuff with TMZ. So they’re going to break it.

So I’m doing one with the Red Cross. A lot of money just goes to, you know, supplies and funds and stuff like that for people lost everything. So I’m doing one.

Then Ringo starts from the Beatles. He’s doing like a rock one. I’m doing the Irving one.

So that’s the current project. And I also have a gaming competition, a company called Global Gaming Vegas. So we have these competitions, global since 142 countries.

Okay. That leads right into my next question. You have other business ventures like Global Gaming Vegas, Tricking Bikes, LLC.

Talk a little bit more about what you got currently going on with them and any other business ventures that you have currently.

Well, I do a lot, like with Global Gaming, we’re doing business with Microsoft, so Xbox, we also do deals with Sony, so PlayStation. So they’re part of it. This thing, we also have, like, not just gaming, so we have a STEM program associated with it.

Since we have the key to the tension, we have a STEM program of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. And then we also have partnered with Dr. Fuller. He has a financial literacy program, so we teach the kids, instead of buying Nike, buy into Nike, buy shares.

So we’re giving away partial stocks to kids as gifts, as prizes, along with the main prize of $200,000 who wins. But for them to have some stock accounts and be able to invest in it, we give these partial stock credits to them. So we’re just trying to reach the kids.

Hell, too, I’m also part of the company, Check Your Risk. So we’re trying to motivate men after 30 to start getting checkups, because that’s when our bodies slow down within the eating desert. And a lot of the foods we’re eating are damaging us, and then the damage sets in and we can reverse it at a certain point.

Change the diet and exercise, but we go on to take it because we don’t get checked up. And then, before you know it, you got prostate cancer or you got diabetes or high blood pressure or something like that, heart attack or stroke. And so, yes, we got it.

It’s called checkyourrisk.org. That’s the website. So it’s like an anonymous survey.

You have to type in any information and you just ask a question, and they’ll let you know if you’re at risk for type 2 diabetes.

Oh, wow.

So I got, yeah, so I got people who I got, probably getting me involved with me with that. A lot of older kids, Dana Dane, WC, Coolio, Kurupt, Flex, the comedian, Chubb Rock. I mean, it’s like 49, Kid Rock.

I mean, Kid Frost. I mean, it’s like just young, you know, it’s a bunch of people along with it. Try to help.

Absolutely. Absolutely. You did mention that website, Check Your Risk.

Are there any other, with your businesses, any other websites you want to get out there, let people know where to check you out and see what you got going on?

For right now, you can go to my Instagram. It’s just MRPayback. MrPayback.

For right now, so the… And you can go to checkyourrisk.org. The Global Gaming Bag is coming up too.

That yet, though. And then the song is called We Got You, for the fundraiser. That website is coming up too, but that’s somewhere across.

But it’s going to be a big announcement. Our TMZ, they’re going to break it, so all the information should be available at that point. So they’re handling all that stuff.

But that’s it, that’s all.

All right. Well, that’s all. Absolutely.“All right. Well, that’s all the questions I have for you. Appreciate you getting down for your interviews.

Are there any last words or shout outs you want to get out there to the people?

Um, yeah, I just want to really shout out to people who are involved with this charity because this is a charity, man. They say a lot of blacks don’t do charity, but they had to do that for free, and I’m like, me is wrong. So, Kurupt, Yukmouth, Jamari, Miss Toi, Namiq, Montell Jordan, MC Lyte, Amina Buddafly, Elliot Charles, who was a saxophone player.

So, Trumpet, trombone players, Keith Robinson, Ice-T, we’re getting down. And then all the people at Music Cares, Scott Connections, and American Red Cross, they really, there’s not a legal structure for a song, royalties, to go to those companies that they had to create. So, they really worked hard to make this happen.

And so, it’s rewarding, because, man, if you were to go to out to Altadena, where people live and lost everything, almost every homeless act is full at night when people are sleeping in their cars, still. Wow. People are sleeping in people’s garages, on couches.

They don’t have nothing, bruh. That money, the Red Cross said they spent, they raised $110 million in January and February, and by March, that money was gone. So, you can imagine, people still need it.

It’s a constant need. There’s not one house been built enough to do that. I would say, yeah, people had a little money, they had better insurance, but some people didn’t have insurance, or they had, those houses were passed down from construction.

So, in the 20s, when they built those houses, black families moved there, built the houses, and the houses had been passed down. Those houses had burned down, and so the insurance does for the value of the houses, both. So, the money that they’re getting paid from the insurance that we’re covered, won’t be able to, it’s not enough to even build the house back.

Yeah, or get a new house.

That’s correct. Right, or get a new house to consolidate, and that’s California. So, if we’ve got to read a little paper, then you got a job, you got kids in schools, you got fans to us.

So, people have no idea, they’re not talking about that, because it’s not shock value, but if you’re able to see it, brother, and bring tears in your eyes, you’re like, damn. So, a lot of people lost, animals, loved ones. I got many stories about that one, but yeah, so that’s looking to be shut out, man.

There was a lot of people who were like, oh man, you know, what’s the budget? And some people were like, yeah, I’ll do it, but never return a phone call. I answer the phone, but a lot of people said, man, what you need?

All right, boom, here. It was Treach. What’s up, son?

Boom, I’m going to shoot it in the deck. Boom, gone, done it. You know what I’m saying?

Kurupt, do down the spot. Man, let me do it right now. Montell Jordan.

Man, I may never stop down. What do I got to do? Man, it was lovely, man, so I can’t even, you know, act in it, so that’s it.