What’s the science behind your name? Or Is there any?
There is no science behind the name it just means #1 that while most cats are still on the same ol bullshit we are way Pazdat #2 we like to get a sak of some bomb and Pazdat.
What do you think of Mainstream Hip Hop?
Big Shade Dawg: Mainstream hip hop is cool I guess but it allows a lot of cats that with no hip hop talent get out there while the cats with skills are left in the dark.
Yung Feez: I thin mainstream hip hop has made a big change. It’s more materialistic than the actual skills.
Swainy Makk: I think it’s cool but I think it’s been distorted a little bit.
Top Notch: I think it’s great. It’s the best music I ever heard.
Hugg B: I think the mainstream hip hop is cool because it helps the artists branch out and reach a whole different facet of people, cultures, and it allows us to expand and give them a closer look at how we live and how some of us think inside our own culture which is hip hop.
How was your upbringing?
Big Shade Dawg: I was brought in Pasadena with my mother and sister. Pops was around every now and then. Moms had anigga in church but I still got into a lot of bad shit but I think I was brought up pretty good because I ain’t dead or serving some long ass jail sentence like how a lot of the homies I came up with.
Yung Feez: I was brought up in a musical family, church going guy, loved sports but my whole persona of being brought up was around hustlers and gangsters.
Swainy Makk: You know my up bringing was pretty cool growing up with two older brothers, we fought all the time. A nigga came from a single parent home that was the only minor set back having to deal with street life and every thing that comes with it you know gangbangin, drug sellin, etc.
Top Notch: In the hood but it was cool though.
Hugg B: My upbringing was very spiritual and family oriented, I was taught values at home being raised by a single parent and how to live in society standards as far as being a provider, being a good parent, and making sure your seeds have the necessities of living. I was taught to always pray and keep faith in God and keep Him first in all you do.
What inspired you to become a hip hop artist?
Big Shade Dawg: I guess I would have to say when I first seen the video for Rock Box by Run DMC on MTV and I was like that’s what I want to do.
Yung Feez: Run DMC, the homie Tommy Gunn and my cousin Rest In Peace Chris Swain and the fact that I’m naturally talented with rap skills.
Swainy Makk: Wack ass rappers and anigga getting tired of taking penitentiary chances.
Top Notch: It’s just in me. I’ve been doing it since I was eight years old. That’s what I grew up listening to and that’s what I wanted to do.
Hugg B: Watching Run DMC perform in front of millions of people and seeing cats like Cube and them from the west coast come up and make millions of dollars just by speaking their mind and pursuing their goals and dreams. I realized in elementary or junior high around that time that that’s what I wanted to do, rock the mic in front of millions of people.
What other hip hop groups do you listen to?
Big Shade Dawg: I listen to niggas like Cube, E-40, Too Short, W.C., CJ Mac, Ludacris is tight, Busta Rhymes, Snoop, Rakim just to name a few.
Yung Feez: Outkast, The Eastsidas, DMX, Nas, Ice Cube.
Swainy Makk: Strictly West Coast artists like W.C. CJ Mac and the tightest nigga to ever touch a mic Earl Stevens A.K.A. Charlie Hustle A.K.A. E40.
Top Notch: Outkast, them Dogg Pound cats, them Rocafella dudes, Goodie Mob, Nas, Method Man and Redman, 40 water, I like them Sik-Wid-It dudes, and that’s about it. I really don’t mess with too many of these dudes.
Hugg B: Outkast, I’m feelin Nas right now, always got Pac in the changer, Jay Z even though they beefin he still got flows, and some west coast underground hip hop from a couple little mixed cds and a little bit of everything.
How would you describe your music?
Big Shade Dawg: Our music is a breath of fresh air to the hip hop community because it is different with a mixture of west and east coast hip hop, funk, and a little rock to keep the party bangin.
Yung Feez: Crenshaw low ridin, beat bangin, street hustling, gangsta rap.
Swainy Makk: I think on this particular album I think that it’s just me comin out. I was gouing through some shit in my life where I was in and out of institutions, I lost my brother and overall just something to give people an insider on Swainy Makk.
Top Notch: Top Notch
Hugg B: Influential, it’s information for cats coming out the ghetto that’s still in the struggle.
How would you describe yourself?
Big Shade Dawg: I am the cat that you will never know what to expect next but I’m a` real cool dude just don’t cross or disrespect me and we can be straight.
Yung Feez: I’m the ladies man with a good heart and will to do good music.
Swainy Makk: I’m a preppie look crook.
Top Notch: Top Notch the preppie look crook and extrad out.
Hugg B: A time bomb waiting to explode in this rap game. My fuse is lit when I’m in the booth and I hear one of them tight tracks you know them head bangers and once I ignite and start spittin my rhymes I’m trying to blow up everything that’s in my path to pieces so make room.
What are your future musical plans?
To get this album off the ground and be releasing another one around November 2002.
Out of the songs you’ve created, what is your personal favorite, and why?
Big Shade Dawg: I would have to say “Questions” because you can smoke a fat one, close your eyes and it’s like it’s taking you on a trip somewhere else.
Yung Feez: I would have to say, “Tic Toc” because when we did the beat my mind went on a crazy expedition through my life.
Swainy Makk: My personal favorite has got to be “Turnt Eem Out” because that song could be talking about anybody whose ever dealt with street life not to mention the hood took me under at a young age.
Top Notch: Kick Rox because I ain’t never heard a song tighter than that shit in my life.
Hugg B: My personal favorite is Kick Rox Because my verse on that is how I’m approaching this rap game and life. When I was doing my thing in the streets I put my life into it, my heart, my all into whatever it was.
Where can fans listen to some of your music?
www.pazdat.com, https://pazdat.iuma.com, www.rapstation.com, www.artistdirect.com, www.passthemic.com, and www.coolsongs.com.
Have you ever rocked events, if so, what was your favorite event you rocked?
Yes we have and our would have to be when we did the Martini Lounge in Hollywood because the mics kept cutting off but we still rocked it with five people and only two mics.
Have you ever found Jesus?
Big Shade Dawg: Jesus is always there so you don’t have to find Him just talk to Him.
Yung Feez: Yes
Swainy Makk: I still got my grandmother in my life and that right there should answer your question.
Top Notch: Naw. Jesus ain’t never been lost, he found me.
Hugg B: Yep fa sho no doubt. With out Him nothing is possible.
How long have you been rhyming? How do you see hip hop, and you? Do you see Hip Hop as a religion, art, culture, a career, job, or just a hobby?
Big Shade Dawg: I have been rhyming about 10 years and producing for about 5. Hip hop is my life and I see it as a career, job, art, a culture, and a hobby but I don’t think hip hop is a religion although I am doing it religiously.
Yung Feez: I have been rhyming for about 15 years and I see hip hop as all of the above.
Swainy Makk: I started rhyming when I was between twelve and fourteen. To me the rap game is like a stepping stone and I use the rap game the same way that niggas like Nini Brown use the dope game, to fulfill my dreams. I see hip hop as a job.
Hugg B: I been rhyming for a good part of my adolescent and tenn years to now. I see hip hop and me as voice of madia, a way to reach people. I see hip hop as all of that because in the end I’m rapping to feed me and my seed and it’s hard work.
Top Notch: I been rapping for fourteen years. If it wasn’t for this rap shit I probably be robbin people because 9 to 5 don’t pay enough.
Do you have any hip hop quotables that you live by? Any song lyrics ever touched you?
Big Shade Dawg: Haters gone hate but they don’t count nigga hustle – E40
Yung Feez: Yea. “I can’t be stopped smoking big blunts while I’m dodging the cops – Pazdat
Swainy Makk: I live by a statement made famous by damn near all of today’s rappers which is “stay sucka free.”
Top Notch: Chips paper metal or plastic shit is getting drastic imma get rich even if it cost you getting yo ass kicked or killed so what you sayin no delayin give me yo chips we ain’t playin – Pazdat and “If it can’t make me rich then I don’t want it” – A Hunnid Plus
Hugg B: In these streets I put my life on the line In this booth on these bars at a show I put my life in these lines – Pazdat
Do you have any shot outs you would like make?
Big Shade Dawg: Yea I want to say what up to my girl and my kids, Jay Blade and all the Penn State Rida homies.
Yung Feez : Fisrt a shout out to God then to moms, Pazdat Family, Penn State Ridas, and the Westside niggas period.
Swainy Makk: To everybody from the bay, keep it pimpin, to all my family, west coast and east coast, especially my uncle Robbie, my big bro T- Mack, and to my mama, my kids, to every punk ass police officer who ever arrested me, and to my nigga rest in peace Eric “Eazy E” Wright for paving the way for all true gangstas and last but not least I would God Allah for giving me the strength to keep on keeping on. Rest In Peace Chris Swain A.K.A. Big Swainy Mack.
Top Notch: To John Jay Blade because that nigga been so mad about his name not being on the album this is just for him. That’s It
Hugg B: A shout out to the family first both sides, my mom, to all the homies, my nigs on the view, my nigga Iceberg Slim A.K.A. Thurston Howell III, my Pazdat label mates,and al the Penn State Rida homie, and to everybody in Dena to L.A.
Now please make up and answer 3 more questions that you feel your fans, and or viewers would like to know. They can be about albums you’ve done, songs you’ve done, etc, anything that will help you and your music get more exposure in this interview.
Where are you from?
Top Notch and Yung Feez: Los Angeles, CA
Big Shade Dawg, Hugg B, Swainy Makk: Pasadena, CA
Why is the album called “Family Jewels”?
Because we are all first cousins, were brought in a very musical family, and we are the first to make it this far.
Would you like to get into anything besides music?
Yea. We want to get into movies, clothes, and anything else that may come our way.
Peace. Respect. Props.
https://www.hiphophotspot.com
