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As Grim As It Gets | ||
Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth. They rather candy coat
a situation then expose it for what it is. This next artist has no
qualms about this at all. Coming from the mean and sometimes hostile
streets of the slums of South Central Los Angeles Young Grim is bringing to the music business his life story. But, Young Grim is not only making music about his life. Some of his tracks are just about life in the club and a variety of other day to day events. Young Grim, whose government name is Deon Dirks, stated recently on his CD Baby account that he became a "fan of hip hop the moment he was introduced to artists and groups such as the Beastie Boys, Fat Boys, LL Cool J, and Run DMC. However, it wasn't until he heard NWA that he fell in love with hip hop, because NWA spoke to his reality"
{http://cdbaby.com/cd/younggrim). Check out this recent interview
that Young Grim took the time to complete with me recently.
Isaac-Joseph: Young Grim, I have to ask: What inspired your name? I am thinking a part of it was your background/surroundings.
Young Grim: Young Grim is my name from the hood. By hood, I mean my affiliation with street life. When I was put on the hood, people said I looked liked Mista Grim. Ya know? He is the dude who made the song Indo Smoke with Warren G.
Isaac-Joseph: I read in your bio that you have been actively writing and performing for the past 7 years. Explain to us what is it like when you are writing about your life experiences?
Young Grim: It’s hard to write about my life experiences because it brings back negative things I have experienced. But I guess it is therapeutic, because it helps me deal with a lot of sh*t that I've seen and done.
Isaac-Joseph: I know that NWA was your biggest influence for getting into Rap/Hip-Hop. Describe that first feeling you got when you heard their album. For me, I was literally blown away. What about you?
Young Grim: Pretty much the same feeling you had because they touched on things that were happening in my neighborhood. It affected me a little bit more, since it spoke directly to my experiences. Song’s like Gangsta Gangsta”, “Dopeman”, “Fuck tha Police”, and even post Cube era with Always into something are all songs that captured the feelings I had many of my homies had at that time.
Isaac-Joseph: I noticed in your bio that you started with the Pentagon, a well-known underground rap group. Explain your thoughts on how this group prepared you to move to where you are at now?
Young Grim: As far as preparing me, I learned a lot regarding show etiquette & studio etiquette. It taught me to strive to be a perfectionist in the booth. Not just another person rapping over a beat spitting bullshit or just talking about the hood and popping muthafuckas all day. I learned how to ride tracks and switch up flows and better communicate my thoughts on pen and pad, not just “ABC” rap that many West Coast artist spit, which is why people have that perception we can’t flow on the West. And it is not that they are wacked, it is a difference in regional style.
Listen on the East Coast people battle rap all the time, dissing each other and nothing is taking too hard. Well out here when someone is dissed it ain’t just battle rap it is taken personally. So in the short, many West Coast artists never develop the skill of battle rap, which makes a person cleverer with their flow, because the culture of West Coast rap never had a need for it. That is what I learned with the Pentagon!
Isaac-Joseph: It has been quoted that one of the reasons why you left the group was due to the fact that "you felt the need to produce music with greater substance verses primarily focusing on partying and clubbing". How important is that to Young Grim?
Young Grim: Very important because I don't want people to view my music as one dimensional. Listen, the real is everybody experiences some cold situations; however, it is not all bad, so I want people to know it’s cool to talk about partying, ice, and women, “being drug kingpins”, but it has its place. That’s not real life all the time. What about reality? What about drugs, AIDS, unemployment, Struggle? As Betty Wright said in her song “a little bit of pleasure brings a whole lot of pain”, so put some real shit on the album that everyone can feel, whether you grew up in tha hood or in the suburbs.
Isaac-Joseph: What can the fans of Young Grim expect with the release of your debut album "As Grim As It Gets"?
Young Grim: `They can expect a well put together album with a touch of everything. It is not your traditional "West Coast" album. We got club bangers on it, Street bangers, and real hits that everyone can feel like, keep on shinning, I don’t wanna die, and in South Central that gives a person something to think about, ya feel me?
Isaac-Joseph: What are some of your immediate plans for 2008 as far as touring, appearances, and other projects?
Young Grim: Well for 2008, a compilation is in the works entitled:
Southern California-Tha otha Dirty South letting people know we still grinding out here in California and will have some heat on it with appearances by Fear, Poverd, Scat Ratt, Tha Masta Piece All Stars, and many other hot independent artist Southern Cali. By the way, big ups to the South for doing their thing; I say that because the South is open like the West Coast in terms of embracing music. They embraced West
Coast music from the beginning and always showed luv.
In regards to Touring, we are in conversations with a few major people to hop on some tours, but other than that we are opening for major artist who perform in Los Angeles, and just building the fan base.
Vernail Skaggs, President/Cofounder
S&T Entertainment
400 Continental Blvd Suite 600
El Segundo, CA 90245
Ph:310-426-2244
Fax:323-939-7615
Website: www.s-n-trecords.com
Special Thanks to Vernail Skaggs for setting this up.
Photo used in this story was provided by Vernail Skaggs.
