Gold Toes
Interview by Scott Bejda
What is up with the name change of your label? You had Black-N-Brown, then Gold Toes Entertainment, now Thizz Latin?
It’s not a name change it’s just another company that I own. Kilo from Thizz Entertainment came to me and we teamed up together to create Thizz Latin. It’s a new label ran by me and him. City Hall gave us a distribution deal and I’m running it. I’m the President and Kilo is my Vice President. It’s another branch off of Black-N-Brown, Gold Toes Entertainment, and Thizz Entertainment. Black-N-Brown is still around and the outcome of all of these labels is that everything is going to be pushing each other. I’m proud to be the President of Thizz Latin because to me it is an honor to run a company in the name of Mac Dre. I want this muthafuckin’ Thizz Latin to go all the way to Central America. I’m going to have muthafuckaz Thizzin’ all the way in Puerto Rico and Mexico. We got bi-lingual rappers coming in like Freddy Chinga. I even brought Mr. Kee, who is one of my main hard hitters from Black-N-Brown, over to Thizz Latin.
What will be the first project on Thizz Latin?
The first project is "Gold Toes Presents Thizzed Out". It’s a double CD of all up and coming rappers here in the Bay Area along with a little help from some of the big guys like Keak Da Sneak, Mistah FAB and Bavgate. I re-mixed a whole new version of a Mac Dre song and I’m rappin’ with him and that shit came out slappin’.
You started to spit?
I’m rappin’ too now! I’m the only Latino from the Bay Area besides Baby Bash that they got playing in LA on Power 106. I have a song called "I’m A Gangsta" with Lucky Luciano out of Houston Texas which was off my "Game Untold" album and it has been playing for two years now. I have only rapped on two songs and every song I have ever rapped on has been on the radio. With saying that, me and Kilo have decided now that I’m going to put out my Gold Toes album. Like I tell my artists and people that I’m working with I really concentrate on them but once I concentrate on myself who knows what is going to happen because I ain’t gonna slack off on none of my shit. My shit is going to be on point.
How was it to make the transition from CEO to MC?
It wasn’t hard, it was just that I didn’t know if I sounded good. I’m not really the guy that gets on stage and raps in front of everybody and starts dancing around. I’m the muthafucka while you are on stage making sure everybody on the floor has got a flyer. I’m out there hustlin’ for my artists. Now it’s time for me to get out there and give myself a chance. I’m not going to lie, I always wanted to rap, but I never had the faith myself to say I could do this and I was always caught up in my projects.
Do you think you will be able to balance both roles?
It’s hard for someone out there who is a rapper to put out other rappers. I’m not going to neglect anybody that I have on my team, but when I do my album, which will be coming out around March of next year, I will concentrate on myself and I won’t have anything else at that point to be concentrating on.
How did the deal come together with Thizz and you?
Kilo called me up and said "Hey Gold, we want to fuck with you and want you to be down with us." They wanted me to put a compilation together for them. I put "17 With A Thizz" together and chose who to put on what verses and put the whole thing together from scratch. That was our merit and from that day we merged our companies. After that we had to think what was the next step and we said Thizz Latin. I was like "Fuck it, let’s ride!" Now we have another compilation coming out called "18 With A Thizz".
It sounds like you work well together!
"18 With A Thizz" is going to concentrate on all of the Thizz artists and rounding up the whole year on everything that Black-N-Brown and Thizz put out. Right now we are hitting the Bay hard but we are ready to put a crack in the whole muthafuckin’ nation. We want to let everybody out here know how we get down. We are doing it on the independent label! I believe we are the first two major independent labels that are doing what we are doing and at the same time moving forward on what Mac Dre was trying to accomplish. Besides being a rapper he was a label CEO and that is where the honor comes in for myself. Me and my boy Gangsta Flea were locked up as cellies and we had these pictures of me, Mac Dre, Flea and everybody and the deputies came in and ripped up the pictures. The first song that starts off the whole Thizz Latin is on the Gold Toes "Thizzed Out" double CD, it is the first song I did with Mac Dre and he is reppin’ Black-N-Brown on the hook and I’m reppin Thizz Latin. Everything to me is a cosmic connection and I feel Dre is looking down on me and all of us and he is making moves up there.
How long did you know Mac Dre?
I knew Dre for almost 11 years when I started "17 Reasons" back in 1996. That was when me and Dre actually got together and did our thing. These muthafuckaz is some real ass niggaz! A lot of people don’t get down like that and it was all some real Bay Area boss shit!
Who is all on your label?
Myself, Sam Weber which is the label manager, Sean G who is Vice President of the label, Kilo who is also a Vice President, then the artists who are on Thizz Latin are Mr. Kee, Freddy Chingaz, Tito B, the new artist coming off of Gold Toes Entertainment/Black-N-Brown is Jimmy Roses. The Thizz Latin/Black-N-Brown producers are Baby Boss and Chosen, our two DJs for Thizz Latin/Black-N-Brown are DJ Cozmo and DJ Nino. The guy who does all of our artwork is Bugsy, our Black-N-Brown/Thizz Latin comedian is Tone Loc, and another Black-N-Brown/Gold Toes rapper that is coming out is Stunna.
When is the first project going to be released on Thizz Latin?
There will be three projects that drop August 15th which are "Gold Toes Presents Thizzed Out" and I’m featuring Jim Jones, Fabulous, Mac Dre, Mac Mall, Keak Da Sneak and everybody. After that I got Mr. Kee and Freddy Chingaz which also come out on the 15th. Then on October 17th Gold Toes Entertainment is dropping Jimmy Roses. Then either January or December "Treal TV Thizz Latin" will be dropping! My newest producer for Thizz Latin and Black-N-Brown is a 17 year old kid named Baby Boss who produced most of Jimmy Roses’ album.
Do you think Latin Rap gets slept on?
I don’t think it’s being slept on, but I do think it’s underestimated what Latin Rap can offer to the music world. With the impact that Latin Rap will have in our communities, it can uplift us. There is a lot of prejudgment on Latin Rap, but we are still in the beginning stages. People think we have been rappin’ for ten years but that just means we are getting started because muthafuckaz have been rappin for twenty. We are about halfway in the game. South Park Mexican was one of the biggest rappers after Fat Joe and Big Pun and too bad about his situation when he got caught up in the game, because he was a leader for the Latinos.
They got him on some shit!
Personally I don’t believe he would get down like that. I think it was a conspiracy to bring down one of our Latin voices.
SPM was a legend!
He is still a legend. No matter what these muthafuckaz say about him, we at Black-N-Brown don’t believe he got down like that. That was one Mexican who could have 10,000 Mexicans in front of him and he would be throwing his arms up telling everybody to put their finger in the air and say "Fuck the police". He is incarcerated right now and they are still playing his songs on the radio. They have a new song of his on the radio right now. I believe he will be getting out soon. As time goes on the truth will be revealed. I got my boy Gangsta Flea who only had one album, but he is doing life in prison and he is innocent. We are fighting for Gangsta Flea and throwing fundraisers for him.
You are doing shows in the pen?
We got a show August 19th in San Quentin. I will go up there and speak in the yard to all of the prisoners. Right now for all these new laws coming out I can’t speak on the nation but as far as the Bay Area a lot of these neighborhoods are at war and a lot of these kids are dying due to the violence and due to the gang banging. Look how the economy is with people not having jobs and people not having self-confidence in themselves. Look at the older people who are not a positive influence in their community. It is easy for me to be negative because I have been negative for a long time and now I’m looking back to all my youngsters. I’m lucky I have made it through these last ten years with out being killed or going to jail for life. I want to be able to open up more doors and give more chances to our youth out there. I want to let them know that gang bangin’ and selling drugs ain’t all what it is about and muthafuckaz have to learn about getting jobs and utilize their resources in their community. I’m more like a Brown Panther!" I’m ready to start a whole other movement and you will see that in my "Treal TV Thizz Latin." You will see me in San Quentin talking to prisoners on some real shit and telling people that being negative is not the way to go and positive is the only way to go.
I agree, but what made you go in that direction after being negative for so long?
Rudy Corpuz of the United Playaz is the one who put me in the game and started bringing me inside the prisons. And through him I also started working at Thurgood Marshall High School as a mentor. We are dealing with a lot of different personalities and kids with different problems going on in their life, but they are all good kids. I work twelve hours a week doing violence prevention but I do more than that because there are a lot of these kids that I am attached to. I ain’t going to tell you to go to class, because I am not their principal, and I’m not going to call the cops on them or none of that. They know they can tell me anything and they know I’m going to figure out the best solution no matter what it is.
Other than rap and business I think you just found your calling!
Exactly! To tell you the truth I was nervous and had doubts how people would look at me but nobody is perfect. I let the kids know that there is still shit that I go through in my life like right now I got a busted knuckle because I had to knock a muthafucka out in Reno.
What happened?
Muthafuckaz want to run up on me and they get knocked the fuck out. That’s what happens when you fuck with Gold Toes. I still got my wild ways, but I keep it down because before when I was a youngster I was loose. If you gave me a beer and a gun I was off the chain. You don’t need no gun because if you carry a gun you are going to use it and there goes your whole life. Leave that shit alone! My whole thing is showing everybody around me the responsibility of self-determination. That goes for the Rap game too! Also I am with the Ameri-Can Program, which is sponsored by Jim Brown. I am meeting with street leaders from all over the West Coast. That’s what I’m doing right now! I’m not saying I’m doing this and I’m some fucking angel, all I’m saying is I need to be smooth so I can be in tune with my youngsters so I can give them a chance
