Some may be unaware of Myka 9 and his influence on Hip Hop, but that doesn’t keep him out of history books. One of the most well-respected artists in Los Angeles’ underground scene recently took time to speak on a few topics, including his ghostwriting, the underground scene out West and more.
He opened up to Wax Poetics about ghostwriting for an N.W.A. [click to read] project.
“I was hanging out with this guy Sean [Thomas], and his brother Xavier had a group called Rappinstine. They said they had an opportunity to do a record with a brother named Dr. Dre and they gave me 50 dollars to write each song! The most known one was called “Scream.” I only got 50 dollars, but they gave me the ‘M. Troy’ —my real name—in parenthesis on the credits on the original N.W.A. compilation, so I got to contribute to that. And through the years, I’ve always known of Dr. Dre and he’s always known of me, and that association has always helped me out. It’s the same with Eazy-E, RIP, he was always playing me stuff by artists he was working on to get my opinion, like Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.”
When elaborating on the culture of the area during that era, he went on to say that N.W.A. wasn’t all about the streets at that point.
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“I don’t recall these guys (N.W.A.) being more into the gang-bangin’ than the music. When I would go to the Roadium Swap Meet, it seemed to me they were more into music and getting high and making money than they were actually out on the turf bangin’ and jumpin’ on fools.”
He went into more ghostwriting and added that he once wrote for RBX [click to read].
“Aceyalone and I also recorded with a guy named Puerto Rock, and I also started writing for this guy RBX—then Reality Born X—and this is the same RBX from Dr. Dre‘s ‘The Chronic’ fame—Snoop Dogg‘s cousin. Back then Snoop [click to read] was rhyming, but he wasn’t recording. He’d call us on the three-way; sometimes we’d go to Long Beach and hang out with them.”
He also spoke on The Good Life Cafe [click to read], one of the most famous freestyle centers for Los Angeles rappers at one point.
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“Good Life was late ’80’s. It was the first open mic I’d heard of that allowed people to rap. It was about as big as a small bar, with a small stage, maybe fit a hundred people. The first week, maybe five people were there. But by the end of the month, it was 30, 40 people. And by the end of two months, it was so big they had to put the speakers outside.”
