The Dayton Family have never really had a chance to tell their story until now. I sat with them in the Lotus Pod studio and asked them all the questions that have been burning inside you. One thing was clear by the end of the interview–The Dayton Family is going to flip your fucking wig. When I asked Violent J why he decided to sign the Dayton Family he replied with, “Their energy. They way they yell their lyrics. Listen to Shoestring yell his verses. Listen to Bootleg scream his. they are not lazy. You can hear them taking hard breaths. They are real. We are going to bring the best out of them.” With that said, let me introduce you to the Dayton Family.
How did the Dayton Family start?
Shoestring: The Dayton Family started with my brother and his (Bootleg) brother, Eric and Tyrese. I was in the studio recording my album and he was locked up. His brother was telling my brother how dope his brother was. They were talking about who’s brother was better. We he got out of jail our two brother put us together. Bootleg started rapping and I was doing a beat with my mouth. When I heard him rapping i was like, “Damn, he’s so dope. We gotta hook up.” So I started hooking up the studio and for three weeks I would come over and try to get him and he wasn’t serious about it. After two weeks I told him this was the last time I was coming over. Then he came to my house and told me if I hooked the studio up one more time I guarantee I won’t miss it. We went to the studio and layed down four tracks. We had five or 6 songs we were going to start. Matt Hinkle was his (Bookleg) friend who I didn’t even know. Matt loved the music. I knew we needed an investor so after we recorded it I said that we needed to get somebody to invest in it so we could put it out. I played the music for Matt and it was OK to him. So we added another verse to one of the songs and added his name to it. After he heard his name in the song he loved it. After he heard his name and all his friend’s names he was down.
What made you guys get into hip-hop in the first place?
Shoestring: When I heard Run DMC I knew what I wanted to do. Me and Bootleg use to be in Michael Jackson contests. That mother fucker influenced us. For “Dope Game” I had the beat. It was our hardest song. Bootleg already had the lyrics. So I started doing the beat and he kicked his verse and ever since then we’ve been rolling.
Backstabber: Back then I was deep in the game. I was hustling and riding around and taking the music to people all over the city and they were tripping. We weren’t called Dayton Family at the time so I was just like, “These are my Dayton niggas.” We just kept in the studio and started doing shows at all the local clubs. Before we knew it we made ourselves.
Shoestring: I was a good dude that played basketball but I loved the music. It was the music that had me.
So did you name yoursleves after the street in Flint?
Shoestring: That’s where the name came from. We lived on Dayton and all our friends were on Dayton.
Backstabber: That was the hustle block. I made a lot of money on Dayton. Without Dayton none of this would be possible. That’s why we glorify it. Everything we do is our story. We’re not just talking. Its the real story. It was what we did. We are telling the real story.
Bootleg: Kilos, we saw those.
I hear Flint is pretty rough.
Shoestring: Pretty rough is an understatement. 51 murders in 8 months.
Are you happy that Flint is where you grew up? Is there a parallel between Flint and your music?
Shoestring: We’re from Flint. We grew up there. We’re not happy mother fuckers be getting murdered.
Bootleg: We’re older now but back then it was normal to us.
Shoestring: Flint taught us how to survive. You can drop us off in Africa and we can make it home.
Bootleg: If you can make it in Flint you can make it anywhere.
Shoestring: You can drop us off with one dollar in our pocket and we can make it home. We are survivors. To live to be 30 in Flint is hard.
Backstabber: I had a son that got shot and lost his life to a gun wound at 16 years old. We know how it is.
When did your first release come out?
Shoestring: In 1991.
Backstabber: We did a five song EP in 1991 and it was so hot in Michigan.
Shoestring: “What’s On My Mind?” came out in 1993 or 1994.
Backstabber: It was nationwide. Sylvia Rhone from Atlantic Records called my house. She was head of Atlantic Records at the time. She called the record store first and then called my house. The next day we had three plane tickets in the mail and we were off to Atlantic Records. When we got there the limo driver was holding a sign that said Dayton Family. They took us to TGI Fridays and gave us a credit card. When they heard our music they went crazy.
Shoestring: We had never been anywhere before.
Backstabber: Those two (Shoestring and Bootleg) had never been anywhere before but me and the crew I was selling drugs with we use to always be out everywhere going to black colleges and stuff. Just having fun and live life.
Why was the Dayton Family on like a million different labels?
Shoestring: A majority of the them were majors.
Backstabber: Before our record even came out on Atlantic we were having legal problems with our producer that was doing the music. That really hurt us a lot. At that time Atlantic was the best thing happening in music. A lot of people came through that pipeline. Tupac came through that pipeline.
Shoestring: And these two (Backstabber and Bootleg) were locked up.
How was it trying to keep a group together while members of it are locked up?
Shoestring: It was hard as hell.
Backstabber: We’ve been through hell and back.
Shoestring: Beyond hell. He’d get out for like two weeks, drop his verse and go right back to getting locked up.
Backstabber: We never got a chance to go on tour or nothing. The “Bang, Pow, Boom” tour was our first.
Shoestring: All the hype about the Dayton Family was based off the music. We didn’t tour or anything.
Dayton Family just got signed to Hatchet House. Fill in the gaps. What were you doing before that?
Bootleg: Making dope ass music.
Was being on Psychopathic/Hatchet House something you guys had thought about in the past?
Shoestring: I had met with Violent J about 5 or 6 years ago but we never made it happen. I know they worked with Breed and Esham and it didn’t go right and then they went on tour when we were talking about it. I ended up going my way and never really got back with him. We ended up hooking up later on and doing the Gathering and from there we’ve just been dealing with them.
How do you feel about the response from the Juggalos?
Bootleg: We love them!
Backstabber: In every city and state we’re out there talking to them and getting up close and personal with them.
Shoestring: We like hanging out in the crowd. We never hang out backstage. We like kickin’ it with them and getting high with them.
Do you feel you will be able to keep your original Dayton Family fans but also adapt to the Juggalos?
Shoestring: They told us not to change. Most of the juggalos we talked to like us the way we are. They don’t want us to sound like anything that’s already on the label. Good music will be appreciated no matter who it is.
Out of your whole Dayton Family career what have been your favorite highlights?
Bootleg: I would say getting our first big check. We bought three brand new cars all identical but different colors. We shut the whole city down with those.
Shoestring: My favorite highlight was when we did a big show in Saginaw with 2 Live Crew. It was our first concert and there were like 13,000 people there. We rocked it so hard. Not only were the black people going crazy but all the white kids knew all the words.
Backstabber: This is Backstabber checking in. The reason I got into street life so quick was because I lost my momma when I was just 13 years old. She got stabbed to death. She got stabbed 17 times. She told her boyfriend she didn’t want to be with him no more and he did what he did while she was at work. She worked for General Motors. He was an engineer and he stabbed her while she was at work in front of all her friends. All her friends had to watch. They were too scared to do anything. So it feels good to turn street money into this. I didn’t know anything about music. I just believed in what I believed in. If I liked it I liked it. There was no Puffy Combs, no Bad Boy, no Master P. I was the first person to ever do that! (Invest) Cash Money wasn’t. Death Row wasn’t.
Bootleg: The day our CD dropped every other car in Flint was holding our CD out the window. Every car that rolled by was playing it. Every car in the city. Even the police were playing it.
Backstabber: Even when we weren’t getting any money we were spending two or three thousand dollars on clothes. We were fresh and fly.
Shoestring: All the rappers are always talking about flossin’ and we were doing it in the early 90’s but we weren’t rapping about it.
Backstabber: We had the best of everything. If you ask all the people at the top of the game they know about the Dayton Family. Ask Gucci Mane. They knew what we were doing.
Shoestring: When we said, “Fuck being indicted” that was ahead of its time. We were talking about cocaine when we were teenagers.
How did you feel when other local acts such as Kid Rock, Eminem, ICP, and Esham blew up?
Shoestring: If it wasn’t for the law we would have been the biggest Midwest rap group of all time. We couldn’t stay out of trouble. We never had the radio put out a single.
Bootleg: We never had a merchandise deal.
Shoestring: We were happy they made it big. Anytime someone puts a light on our area its good. We never hated. All we did was sit back and tell each other, “You know we’re supposed to be right there.”
Backstabber: We didn’t have beef with rappers. We knew we were the shit. We didn’t care what anyone said. We didn’t need proof. We don’t care what ya’ll are doing now. We’re doing this.
So the Gathering was your first time performing in a long time?
Shoestring: It was the first time we had been on stage together in years. We were still rapping and stuff but we had to eat. Everyone was making their own moves to win.
Was there ever hesitation in signing with Hatchet House?
Shoestring: No. We love it.
Bootleg: I love it. We found a company that was rugged enough to handle us and deal with us.
Shoestring: They have the right fans to handle us.
Bootleg: Juggalos to us is just the people we grew up with.
Shoestring: All our friends are juggalos and they don’t even know it.
Backstabber: We are use to that type of personality.
Shoestring: People that get high and drunk and talk shit don’t scare us. We hang out with them at the Gathering all night.
Bootleg: We are hands on with the juggalos. We don’t want to be stars in the sky. We want to be with them.
Do you ever go back to Flint now that you guys are all famous and stuff?
Backstabber: All our family is still in Flint so yeah we go there.
Interviewers note: At this point myself and the Dayton Family smoked a fat blunt and ate pizza and hot wings.
