Sup Yall, for those of you that have read the last issue of Xplosive Magazine, which came out a lil while back, we did a feature on Frisco, and one of the main stories was San Quinn. Due to space constraints, and it being a City 2 City where we don't do real long interviews, I had to chop a lot of it down. Sorry for takin so long, I had always intended to put this up for yall, but here is the uncut original version of the story, no cuts, no edits.....I believe this was written sometime in April, so if some of the material is dated, don't get mad, it's good reading though, ...check it.....Story by: C-4
SAN QUINN (UNCUT XPLOSIVE INTERVIEW)
Likely the hottest rapper in the Bay Area at this time, one of the founding members of the pioneering group Get Low Playaz, San Quinn is already a proven star that countless people consider the next person to blow up from northern Cali. on some international sh*t. It took some time and help, but I was finally able to catch up with him on the phone out making moves with his partner at Done Deal Entertainment, Charles Kelly. For those that aren’t up on, well I’mma steal a line from wrestling’s Brock Lesnar, for those that aren’t up on ‘the next big thing,’ here’s some background on San Quinn. “I’m from the Fillmore, from Fillmoe. I put out my first tape in 1993 when I was 15 called ‘Don’t Cross Me,’ so this is my 10th year anniversary. My first time on wax was JT’s ‘Frisco N**gaz Ain’t No Punks’ in 1992. I was on Get Low for two records. The record ‘Live N Direct,’ and another solo ‘The Hustle Continues.’ ‘Live N Direct came out when I was 17 in the 11th grade at George Washington Highschool, then when I was 18 I put out ‘The Hustle Continues’ through Get Low/Priority.”
So it’s always been GLP, Get Low affiliated? “Get Low is a dance that came out the neighborhood. It’s like a Fillmoe crip walk. Back in the days we formed the crew, me, D-Moe, Seff Tha Gaffla, Seff’s in the feds right now, he’ll be home though. The Get Low name came from the dance.”
How does it feel to have been part of some of the classic albums to come out of the Bay Area? “It feels good to know that the support I get now everybody feels like I deserve it ‘cause I have been a part of that. I feel like it’s love, I love the Bay, I love people for respecting the game. So all the radio play, that didn’t just happen, it took 10 years for them to have a San Quinn, couple of minutes, and bring back old records that I thought woulda been getting played. When we made them songs, at the time if we had the right support maybe we would have bubbled. It’s beautiful what they trying to do now and I’m wit it.”
“The Hustle Continues” was released on Priority, what was it like working with a major as opposed to a independent? “They didn’t really work with me, it was just like being independent. We had the major stamp up under us, but they weren’t behind my deal. They weren’t behind my record like they were behind JT’s record ‘cause I wasn’t signed the Priority I was signed to JT. We put that album out with minimal promotion.” It should have done more. “Yeah I was writing for the world when I was 18 years old, it hurt me in a lot of different ways. Still today ‘cause I feel like I might hold back on some of the sh*t I write ‘cause I know it’s only gonna go so far. It wasn’t JT, Priority didn’t see the vision. It was a number of things, it wasn’t my rapping and it wasn’t the music, and that’s all me and JT is really responsible for.”
“The Mighty Quinn” came out on Champelli, it had a different sound and was received different. “Yeah I don’t like ‘The Mighty Quinn.’ I just like the song ‘Give It Up.’ Nobody really dug it in the streets. Just ‘cause I’m so real, I lost a lot of friends it was at a point where I was changing and growing too, 23 years old, you get tired I been writing the same raps for 8 years, it’s only so many times you gone say the same sh*t over and over. But from what I see though that’s what everybody wants you to do is just repeat yourself. Not really repeat yourself but the street life’ll never go no where, it just change up. I’m back on being me, I really was trying to stray away from rappin’ about some of the street sh*t. When you see 20 of your potnas dead, they killing each other, and you got n**gas going to the feds, over birds that they be glamorizing that sh*t ain’t cool. That’s why I took that direction.” I heard Champelli put limits on the album. “I had made my kind of music, they picked the songs. Champelli, it was they first time doing a record and they wanted to have full control over my creativity like they was a major. I like Champelli but personal and business is two different things, they tried to come and tell me about some sh*t that I had been in. Yeah but ‘The Mighty Quinn’ was canned man, print it quote it, I didn’t like it that ain’t me, don’t get me twisted by that. The real Quinn ain’t never left, I was trying to go a different direction.”
At this point Chucks phone died and we lost touch for almost a week before I was able to get ahold of him and Quinn again, and this is crazy, when I started talking to him again, he picked up the conversation EXACTLY where we left off, what a memory. “I was talking about that Champelli record was canned, I remember right where we was. They tried to have creative control, you can’t take the ghetto out a n**ga. The beats wasn’t there and some of the topics wasn’t fitting what’s going on out here.”
Tell me about Done Deal Entertainment. “Done Deal is me, Chuck, Fully Loaded, Willie Henn, Submarine Funk, also our whiteboy group Funky Fresh Sex Crew (F.F.S.C.) Everybody got something in stores right now. Willie Henn’s record is coming out, we also got the ‘Done Deal Fam - Runs In The Family,’ we put a record out on AP.9, our albums came out at the same time and they was feeling him a little more ‘cause it was directed toward the right area. At the time, I was going through witnissing homies getting killed, looking at my son thinking about what I would say to him in my raps.”
What else is coming? “We got the ‘Mind Motion Rocks... The Done Deal Party,’ that just came out on March 25th. They been spinning it on KMEL, we been getting love from Big Von, Mind Motion, Rick Lee all the DJ’s. My mixtape is coming out, ‘San Quinn For President,’ in May. My solo album ‘I Give You My Word’ will be out, we hooked up with Rider Entertainment, that’s JR Rider’s label. Call me back for a good interview when it’s time, I’ll holla at yall about it, I got some big features it’s gone be colossal for the Bay Area.”
You’re starting to get a little radio play. “I think it’s people out here in the Bay that been hearing me, been hearing the rap period, not just me, but all of it, they’re calling the stations, they’re fed up with it.” It’s sad that you gotta rap over someone elses beat to get played. “I like takin’ them suckas beats, they take all our game anyway.”
As if he doesn’t know it, I had to tell San Quinn that he has a huge buzz going on around him right now and honestly EVERY single person I have talked to about who is going to be the next star, says him. “That’s a trip, I’m thankful, I love muthaf**kas out here man. I do it from my heart for us. I feel like that’s what God put me here for, I thank God it’s going like that, God is moving the people and making them feel me. I ain’t taking it to my head, I take it to my heart. It’s a blessing, I’m gonna move on it for us. It’s a lot more to be heard once I break through. Cats like the Jacka, Keak Da Sneak. You know Hammer came out and sold 17 million, 40 went and got 3.5, Master P came from around here and got damn near a billion dollars. It’s just a whole Bay Area revolution that I want to be a part of if I got to be the leader or if I got to be a indian, I got to play I’m a player.”
Who else do you see that’s got the major potential? “Of course the Done Deal Fam, also Messy Marv, the Mob Figaz them n**gas got style, Keak Da Sneak, and that boy Locksmith he spits. They ready for the world.”
You’re on E-40’s new record right, on a song with B-Legit, E-A-Ski, Richie Rich, & Messy Marv. “Finally I’m a 40 album. We been around each other a long time since I was young, he been waiting for me to get well groomed. He always supported me, he never made me feel like a peasant around him, he always treated me like royalty. I’m on a song called ‘Califoolya,’ my father James Bailey, Fat Ratt he came up with that, they trade a lot of game.
Do you and Messy Marv still plan to do another album? “Yeah we just setting it up. It was so much in between, like you say so many people showing love now, I wanted them to love that record.” Yeah “Pop Yo Collar” should have been a big hit. “It was big. The nation grabbed ahold of it. Everybody. The world accepted our game. That was a sign, we gone get some platinum out here.”
I’ve heard you already have major label offers, true? “Yup. Getting my paperwork together. I need the best one that’s gone let me come out right away and be behind me, don’t sign me and have me come out a year or two years later.”
Do you have any idea how many albums you’ve been on? “Probably about 250 or so. Me and Chuck counted. We in the Guiness Book of World Records, tell the people to check the data.”
SAN QUINN (UNCUT XPLOSIVE INTERVIEW)
Likely the hottest rapper in the Bay Area at this time, one of the founding members of the pioneering group Get Low Playaz, San Quinn is already a proven star that countless people consider the next person to blow up from northern Cali. on some international sh*t. It took some time and help, but I was finally able to catch up with him on the phone out making moves with his partner at Done Deal Entertainment, Charles Kelly. For those that aren’t up on, well I’mma steal a line from wrestling’s Brock Lesnar, for those that aren’t up on ‘the next big thing,’ here’s some background on San Quinn. “I’m from the Fillmore, from Fillmoe. I put out my first tape in 1993 when I was 15 called ‘Don’t Cross Me,’ so this is my 10th year anniversary. My first time on wax was JT’s ‘Frisco N**gaz Ain’t No Punks’ in 1992. I was on Get Low for two records. The record ‘Live N Direct,’ and another solo ‘The Hustle Continues.’ ‘Live N Direct came out when I was 17 in the 11th grade at George Washington Highschool, then when I was 18 I put out ‘The Hustle Continues’ through Get Low/Priority.”
So it’s always been GLP, Get Low affiliated? “Get Low is a dance that came out the neighborhood. It’s like a Fillmoe crip walk. Back in the days we formed the crew, me, D-Moe, Seff Tha Gaffla, Seff’s in the feds right now, he’ll be home though. The Get Low name came from the dance.”
How does it feel to have been part of some of the classic albums to come out of the Bay Area? “It feels good to know that the support I get now everybody feels like I deserve it ‘cause I have been a part of that. I feel like it’s love, I love the Bay, I love people for respecting the game. So all the radio play, that didn’t just happen, it took 10 years for them to have a San Quinn, couple of minutes, and bring back old records that I thought woulda been getting played. When we made them songs, at the time if we had the right support maybe we would have bubbled. It’s beautiful what they trying to do now and I’m wit it.”
“The Hustle Continues” was released on Priority, what was it like working with a major as opposed to a independent? “They didn’t really work with me, it was just like being independent. We had the major stamp up under us, but they weren’t behind my deal. They weren’t behind my record like they were behind JT’s record ‘cause I wasn’t signed the Priority I was signed to JT. We put that album out with minimal promotion.” It should have done more. “Yeah I was writing for the world when I was 18 years old, it hurt me in a lot of different ways. Still today ‘cause I feel like I might hold back on some of the sh*t I write ‘cause I know it’s only gonna go so far. It wasn’t JT, Priority didn’t see the vision. It was a number of things, it wasn’t my rapping and it wasn’t the music, and that’s all me and JT is really responsible for.”
“The Mighty Quinn” came out on Champelli, it had a different sound and was received different. “Yeah I don’t like ‘The Mighty Quinn.’ I just like the song ‘Give It Up.’ Nobody really dug it in the streets. Just ‘cause I’m so real, I lost a lot of friends it was at a point where I was changing and growing too, 23 years old, you get tired I been writing the same raps for 8 years, it’s only so many times you gone say the same sh*t over and over. But from what I see though that’s what everybody wants you to do is just repeat yourself. Not really repeat yourself but the street life’ll never go no where, it just change up. I’m back on being me, I really was trying to stray away from rappin’ about some of the street sh*t. When you see 20 of your potnas dead, they killing each other, and you got n**gas going to the feds, over birds that they be glamorizing that sh*t ain’t cool. That’s why I took that direction.” I heard Champelli put limits on the album. “I had made my kind of music, they picked the songs. Champelli, it was they first time doing a record and they wanted to have full control over my creativity like they was a major. I like Champelli but personal and business is two different things, they tried to come and tell me about some sh*t that I had been in. Yeah but ‘The Mighty Quinn’ was canned man, print it quote it, I didn’t like it that ain’t me, don’t get me twisted by that. The real Quinn ain’t never left, I was trying to go a different direction.”
At this point Chucks phone died and we lost touch for almost a week before I was able to get ahold of him and Quinn again, and this is crazy, when I started talking to him again, he picked up the conversation EXACTLY where we left off, what a memory. “I was talking about that Champelli record was canned, I remember right where we was. They tried to have creative control, you can’t take the ghetto out a n**ga. The beats wasn’t there and some of the topics wasn’t fitting what’s going on out here.”
Tell me about Done Deal Entertainment. “Done Deal is me, Chuck, Fully Loaded, Willie Henn, Submarine Funk, also our whiteboy group Funky Fresh Sex Crew (F.F.S.C.) Everybody got something in stores right now. Willie Henn’s record is coming out, we also got the ‘Done Deal Fam - Runs In The Family,’ we put a record out on AP.9, our albums came out at the same time and they was feeling him a little more ‘cause it was directed toward the right area. At the time, I was going through witnissing homies getting killed, looking at my son thinking about what I would say to him in my raps.”
What else is coming? “We got the ‘Mind Motion Rocks... The Done Deal Party,’ that just came out on March 25th. They been spinning it on KMEL, we been getting love from Big Von, Mind Motion, Rick Lee all the DJ’s. My mixtape is coming out, ‘San Quinn For President,’ in May. My solo album ‘I Give You My Word’ will be out, we hooked up with Rider Entertainment, that’s JR Rider’s label. Call me back for a good interview when it’s time, I’ll holla at yall about it, I got some big features it’s gone be colossal for the Bay Area.”
You’re starting to get a little radio play. “I think it’s people out here in the Bay that been hearing me, been hearing the rap period, not just me, but all of it, they’re calling the stations, they’re fed up with it.” It’s sad that you gotta rap over someone elses beat to get played. “I like takin’ them suckas beats, they take all our game anyway.”
As if he doesn’t know it, I had to tell San Quinn that he has a huge buzz going on around him right now and honestly EVERY single person I have talked to about who is going to be the next star, says him. “That’s a trip, I’m thankful, I love muthaf**kas out here man. I do it from my heart for us. I feel like that’s what God put me here for, I thank God it’s going like that, God is moving the people and making them feel me. I ain’t taking it to my head, I take it to my heart. It’s a blessing, I’m gonna move on it for us. It’s a lot more to be heard once I break through. Cats like the Jacka, Keak Da Sneak. You know Hammer came out and sold 17 million, 40 went and got 3.5, Master P came from around here and got damn near a billion dollars. It’s just a whole Bay Area revolution that I want to be a part of if I got to be the leader or if I got to be a indian, I got to play I’m a player.”
Who else do you see that’s got the major potential? “Of course the Done Deal Fam, also Messy Marv, the Mob Figaz them n**gas got style, Keak Da Sneak, and that boy Locksmith he spits. They ready for the world.”
You’re on E-40’s new record right, on a song with B-Legit, E-A-Ski, Richie Rich, & Messy Marv. “Finally I’m a 40 album. We been around each other a long time since I was young, he been waiting for me to get well groomed. He always supported me, he never made me feel like a peasant around him, he always treated me like royalty. I’m on a song called ‘Califoolya,’ my father James Bailey, Fat Ratt he came up with that, they trade a lot of game.
Do you and Messy Marv still plan to do another album? “Yeah we just setting it up. It was so much in between, like you say so many people showing love now, I wanted them to love that record.” Yeah “Pop Yo Collar” should have been a big hit. “It was big. The nation grabbed ahold of it. Everybody. The world accepted our game. That was a sign, we gone get some platinum out here.”
I’ve heard you already have major label offers, true? “Yup. Getting my paperwork together. I need the best one that’s gone let me come out right away and be behind me, don’t sign me and have me come out a year or two years later.”
Do you have any idea how many albums you’ve been on? “Probably about 250 or so. Me and Chuck counted. We in the Guiness Book of World Records, tell the people to check the data.”
