A LIL FLASH BACK SEATTLE TIMES!!!!

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Nov 7, 2003
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E-DAWG

Some might say little Mike Johnson, E-Dawg, has come a long way from the time when he drove a different car to high school every day and peddled drugs during class. Local addicts supplied the cars. "Clucks," the kids called them, because they would do anything for money for their habits.

Today his neat Federal Way subdivision, with its speed bumps and child curfews, reflects little of East Horton Street in South Seattle.

The street he grew up on provides inspiration for his music, gangsta rap, but E-Dawg has moved onto another playing field altogether.

"You're supposed to rap about your past, what you've been through, what you've seen," is his philosophy.

To the consternation of the music's critics, what E-Dawg has seen fits a formula that in the past has translated into stellar sales.

Expletives roll as easily off his tongue as multi-syllabic adjectives from the mouth of a college professor. But E-Dawg said his music is a description of real people, not a mindless advertisement for crime.

He has plenty of real stories to write about. Like the time he took a bullet in his shoulder - intended for his head - from a passing car. Or the time he was greeted at his kitchen door by six gun-toting members of an enemy gang while his infant son slept in the next room. Or the clucks.

Back then meeting Sir Mix-A-Lot was nothing but a "dream thing." E-Dawg pursued the dream, attending parties given by Mix-A-Lot, and eventually being introduced. Endless badgering led to joining Mix-A-Lot on the B-side to the hit "Baby Got Back." Then E-Dawg joined Mix-A-Lot on his 1992 "Mack Daddy" national tour.

"I got really motivated when I went on tour" and fans were screaming his name, E-Dawg said.

E-Dawg's new single is the first release from an upcoming compilation of Seattle rap brought together by Mix-A-Lot called "The Dark Side." "Drop Top" is a bouncy paean to convertible cars, flashy rims, and cruising Rainier Avenue South. A second song talks about 12- and 13-year-olds with guns.

"Rap ain't going nowhere," said E-Dawg. "Ain't nothing going to die as long as you are telling it like it is."

Mike Johnson (E-Dawg), 21, lives in Federal Way.