Oakland, California has always been about the hustle. From Felix Mitchell in crack to Too $hort in rap, self employment has always been of the utmost importance to “Tha Town”. With that said, how could the hardest rapper the streets of Oakland have ever birthed deny his birthright?
Unlike many of his rapping peers, Yukmouth, born Jerold Ellis, is a hustler turned rapper, not the other way around. Oakland’s 69th Village will forever be infamously remembered for the hustlers it’s raised, Yuk being one of them.
After crafting the Hip-Hop classic and weed smoking anthem, “I Got 5 On It”, a platinum plaque in the US and Germany, 3 Luniz albums, 2 solo albums, fucked up record deals, topped off with growing up, Yukmouth is no longer satisfied with his fate being in the hands of someone else. The release of United Ghetto’s of America on Yuk’s Smoke-A-Lot Records marks the beginning of a new chapter in the unbelievable ongoing story of Yukmouth and his career in Hip-Hop.
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You’ve been talkin’ about Smoke-A-Lot Records for a hot minute now, even before you did your last solo album.
It took a lot of strategizing. I was waitin’ for a big label deal to come through and all types of sh*t. I had a lot of offers for the Regime. I had about five deals on the table but there was a lot of hatin’ and politics going on as far as me being in the group and my exclusive rights and all that. So I was like f*ck it, if I can’t do it with no one else, I’ll do it myself.
So what’s the transition from an artist to a CEO been like?
I’ve always been a businessman. So it’s nuthin’ different, it’s just more money.
Your first release is a compilation called United Ghetto’s of America, what’s the deal with that?
The comp is off the muthaf*ckin’ richter. Everybody got their West Coast Bad Boyz, Down South Ryda’s, Midwest Gun Slingers, or whatever the f*ck. I got everybody unified. Down South, West Coast, East Coast all on the album, ya feel me? I got underground artists with big artists. I got the Outlawz, C-Bo, MC Eiht, Big Hutch from Above The Law, Richie Rich, B-Legit, Jazze Pha. A lot of muthaf*cka’s is on there. I got my new artists on there, Monsta Ganjah, my female artist, Nyce and my kid group, Bricks-R-Us it’s three of them, they comin’ to knock Bow Wow and Romeo ass out the box. They’re from New Jersey. The comp got me on all the songs.
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Yeah, one thing I noticed was how you calmed down your voice, not really yelling like you was on your solo’s.
I got a lot of complaints about that. So I had to take it back to show these n*ggaz that I’m still Yuk. I’m still incredible with the lyrics, whether the voice is deep and grimy or it’s just straight. So I’mma tone it down and give it to ’em this way and see how they like it. If they feel it I’m a keep it this way. It’s nothin’.
What’s with you beefin’ with Scarface?
Them n*gga’s is beefin’ with me, man. I’m just defending myself, I’m a man. I just can’t let a n*gga just step all on me and do me wrong. My fans wouldn’t appreciate that, they wouldn’t even f*ck with Yuk no more if I let a n*gga do me like that. The whole sh*t started from them two n*gga’s. This n*gga (Scarface) – knowing that Too Short, we cool supposedly – but he knowing that this n*gga (Too Short) got an album talking about me don’t get on that song ‘cuz you gon’ automatically look like you talkin’ about me too. So this n*gga get on the song with Too Short, and Short talkin’ smack dead about me. I don’t know what made him do it. I guess he tryin’ to get his Oakland thug fan-base back, ‘cuz I rule that. So he gotta go head-to-head wit Yuk. He writes some lil’ sneaky sh*t. I’m a fan, I listen to his sh*t and hear him dissin’ me and then I hear the n*gga ‘Face on the next verse sayin’ some stupid sh*t about me. I’m like come on man, they ain’t sayin’ names, but we all know who the f*ck they talkin’ ’bout. So I came with my “Thug Lord” song. It was a lot of politics with that too. So I called J (Rap-A-Lot CEO) and was like, ‘J, I’m signed to you, f*ck ‘Face. This n*gga dissed me, I gotta song I’m sendin’ it to you.’ I gave n*gga’s a head up. I didn’t even do no sneaky sh*t, like putting it on the album after it got mixed and no one heard it. They (Scarface & J) called me on three-way and ‘Face was like, ‘dude, I’ll never diss you, we family. Too Short dissed you, but that was him.’ So I was cool, and took the song off my album. Then [‘Face] came out wit his album and he got like four or five songs about me but he ain’t sayin’ my name, feel me? What type of sh*t is this? It’s like he ain’t have sh*t to write about. It’s like his whole album was a battle rap album. He had a couple of songs that was about something, but the other sh*t was all about your boy. I don’t take two years to make an album, I do sh*t in three weeks. They feel I’m a young n*gga coming in the game. I ain’t tryna take sh*t over, we together. If I’m from Oakland, Short should be down with me. If I’m on Rap-A-Lot, ‘Face should be down with me, off top. The only n*gga I got beef with is Master P for bitin’ me. All these other n*gga’s, I’m just defending myself. That’s them, they on some ho sh*t. They some millionaires, they need to cut the b*tch sh*t out.
What’s up with a new Yuk album?
We about to start workin’ on that now. Lil J called me the other day but it’s about this United Ghetto’s comp right now. It’s like the closest thing to a Yuk album you gon’ get.
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What other projects are you workin’ on?
Numbskull’s solo sh*t, it’s called Ghetto Platinum. It’s the real Num album, we almost finished with that. Me & C-Bo finna start our album, the Thug Lords album. I got my new artists Monsta Ganjah, my female emcee, Nyce, and my n*gga’s Bricks-R-Us, and we good.
