7 and 7 number one: Luckyiam.PSC (of mystik journeymen/living legends)
(in my goal to find a new creative outlet for my work, I decided to interview the homies around me that have influenced me in one form or another over the past decade plus. I ask everyone 7 questions and ideally, they give me 7 answers. as usual, I’m about that information…)
Tommy Woolfolk AKA Luckyiam.PSC or PSC or whatever he says to call him at the time, is one of my oldest friends in my fledgling rap career. He served as a mentor to me during the turn of the century and unknowingly got me off of a path that would have surely ended in self-destruction of some sort, so I love the dude. Ladies love him, dudes wanna be him, he’s a great dad, an amazing lyricist with volumes and volumes of work to his credit and he never gets the accolades that he is due on the mic. He DOES get them in the boardroom though, he and his partners in crime Living Legends basically wrote the book on how to hustle in underground west coast hip-hop. When I say such a thing though, this is A.D. (After Deals: when every rapper got dicked by one label or another and went underground to regroup…) versus some time in the far past where it was truly the wild west and you could do analytics on your product by watching people dance in the record store when they played your record…..
1. what is the immediate difference in PSC and LuckyIam that should be discernable upon first listen or look?
> Ummm, PSC was amateur underground rap & Luckyiam or @luckyovlegends
is a savage Altered Beast like the video game.
2. you and your group/crew wholeheartedly spearheaded a revolution in how independent hip-hop was released and marketed on a grassroots level in the west coast. so much so, to the point where you had a yearly festival, your own label/s complete with deals, endorsements, YOUR OWN REEBOKS. you were even one of two artists from L.A. to release a 12” on rawkus records when that type of thing actually mattered. WTF was going thru your head when all of this was happening before your very eyes? did you see a ceiling for any of this? have you guys even reached your ceiling yet?
> We was just young doots doing shit..we peeped game from Too Short & E-40 and ran with our own version of DIY hustling. And ceiling? What the fuck is a ceiling?! Yup, looking back on it all now is like whoa! I wish we would of documented the ish better cause a lot of the ish is unbelievable!
3. coming from a time frame where your group provided D.I.Y. tactics to a scene that was (and still very much is) ran by egos and the ubiquitous “cult of personality” that exists and transcends actual talent, can you tell me and whoever is reading this about some of the obstacles you and your team had to overcome to get to where you are now? what are things in “the industry” that you still have to deal with 15 years later? are you guys still knocking out errant promoters that don’t know how to live up to their end of the bargain?
>first we couldn’t get shows so we said fuck it and threw our own shows. Then we couldn’t get in magazines so we started our own..then we went through the whole East coast bias shit..and dealt with the westcoast ppl who were all on New York’s dick & etc..these days it’s still a struggle cause we have new issues from shady promoters & everybody in our genre touring the same cities at the same time to having to earn the respect of newbs that think Murs is a rap god cuz he rhymes with Slug or because Brother Ali an Aes Rock was they’re introduction to hiphop.
4. do you sit around at your house “listening to your friends” on the radio all day or are you in touch with the “real world” in regards to music, as it were? what are YOU listening to these days?
>I’m listening to mixes of my new unreleased stuff alot… I listen
to other ppl when I’m on tour and that includes the homies* I listen
to classic rock nonstop on XM radio and I’m in Love with Natasha Kahn
of Bat for Lashes* also I have a BBD cd that I bump & Bobby
Brown..plus Stevie Wonder rules.
5. name 4 guerilla marketing techniques that you developed and implemented that have been appropriated by the mainstream urban music community? who fared better, legends or them?
>1. The internet. We invented that shit, fuck Al Gore.
2. Tapes/cd’s for sale on the street…we kick anybodys ass in that medium.
3. Hennesy,Patron & ecstasy. We did all that before any gangster
rappers learned it or rapped about it..before Mac Dre (RIP) knew what
thizz was. (ed. note: this is true, we got high at lots of raves and rode around in golf carts all thru our twenties…)
4. Being independent/controlling your destiny. Come on now, the shit’s a
novelty nowadays.
6. after literally assigning a price to wholesale units and setting the standard as far as how music was sold on the west coast underground (I mean sold WITHOUT a distribution deal), and then getting exclusive licensing deals in other countries when that was unheard of in our community and THEN working with all the relevant labels of the scene, what do you think about the current pervasive download culture that is kind of setting up shop, not unlike squatters do in old government buildings? do you think the sudden outlet that has become available to everyone and anyone (coinciding with the drop in price and instantaneous availability of pro-quality recording equipment for under 300.00) is actually helping the community, or is it similar to a tumor that was malignant but now out of control?
>I could say hella ish but I won’t…basically fooos need to pay dues*
7. what do you think the immediate future is for the “rest” of the music industry, meaning those who haven’t made their own market over a decade ago? what about the dude who dropped his first album for free on new year’s day? do you think that dude has the same chance and opportunity to make a name for themselves in this day and age, even if he has the talent, drive and support of his scene and sub-genre but no true promotion?
>Unless you get a golden ticket and have Jesus executive produce
your album, without history, a significant co-sign or talent much
greater than mine & my comrades, you just ain’t gonna matter. But that’s
cool, do you and occasionally I’ll rap about you or disassemble you via
twitter. It’s all love, fun, art, sex & money . Get some bitches.
Peace. Luckyiam
(oh yeah, he has LOTS dropping and already available in both free and paystyle formats. go cop.)
