mitchy slick interview
Mitchy Slick: Yea Dat
Thursday - August 17, 2006

While working to put the real SD on the map, Mitchy Slick is also bolstering the New West Movement, a regional campaign that has united rappers up and down the San Andreas Fault.

BallerStatus.net caught up with Mitchy as he prepared to go on stage at a recent show at Hollywood's House Of Blues. While creasing up an Eazy-E t-shirt, Mitchy spoke on San Diego, the New West Movement, and his upcoming album, Urban Survival Syndrome, due September 12.

BallerStatus.net: What is your contribution to the game?

Mitchy Slick: The music that I'm making is street music and coming from people that have actually been involved in the streets. Let's say for instance, if there was stories being told by somebody that was in the military -- like somebody that got a Purple Heart, or really went to Vietnam, or went to Iraq and did that -- you're gonna be listening more to his stories than someone who played the role of the doctor in Iraq. No, I was on the frontline! So, all my stories really identify with the people that are into this West Coast, or this gangsta, or this reality music. I'm not glorifying it, I'm just telling a story from a position of a street cat.

BallerStatus.net: Don't you think that too many MC's are capitalizing off that? Aren't you doing the same thing?

Mitchy Slick: I never think of it from an industry perspective. I couldn't tell you a rap about anything other than my life.

BallerStatus.net: Talk about your upcoming album, Urban Survival Syndrome.

Mitchy Slick: I did this sh-- all by myself. I'm talking about every aspect from picking the producers to sequencing the album to skits -- I did everything myself. And now being in the situation I am -- with DJ Muggs (Angeles Records) -- is crazy because I'm walking into the studio with wood floors and plaques on the wall. So, I got him as far as production, The Alchemist, Jelly Roll, DJ Khalil...there's a whole bunch of features: Xzibit, Dub C, Tiny Doo, Tha Wrongkind -- that's my click, Damu, Strong Arm Steady.

BallerStatus.net: How did Strong Arm get started?

Mitchy Slick: We started making these mixtapes, Strong Arm Steady mixtapes, when the mixtape thing wasn't crackin' on the West. So we was like, we gonna strong arm these beats and we gonna stay steady about putting out these mixtapes, and we gonna make us a name. That's where that came from. If you listen to the older Steady mixtapes, you got cats from other crews on there: you got Ras Kass on there, Planet Asia, Crooked I. Then before you know it, more offers started coming through, and this became Strong Arm Steady the group: that's me, Krondon, Phil Da Agony, and Xzibit. And it was over after that.

BallerStatus.net: You, and a lot of the people that you work with, are lumped in this New West Movement. Do you consider yourself New West, and do you think that marginalizes the contributions of the "old" West at all?

Mitchy Slick: I consider myself New West, but when you start speaking in terms of marginalizing or making a separation -- no. I'm still part of the same tree. And yea it's new, but it's still from the Dr. Dre tree. The whole West is built off of that NWA tree in one way or another, whether it's off Mack 10, Xzibit, Snoop, or whatever.

BallerStatus.net: Same tree, new branch...

Mitchy Slick: It's new music, but the West Coast is the West Coast. And I'm down with everybody.

BallerStatus.net: That reminds me of one the tracks off your latest mixtape...

Mitchy Slick: It's called "I Know." "I know Kurupt, I know Kokane, I know 40 Glocc's pain/ I was with Big Hutch everyday until the Federals came/ Hip-hop's now Pop I guess the gangstas have changed/ it's cool for every n---- except for a West one that bang..."

There's another section of West Coast sh-- that a lot of cats don't know about. This is the world that Mac Dre came from. There is a gangsta, West Coast underground where E-40 is king. Where The Source is not the source, it's Murder Dog. I got a movie out right now, a hood DVD called "Strong Arm Robbery 2," and it's for that world.

BallerStatus.net: You're from a part of the West that doesn't get a lot of shine, San Diego, except on maybe a tourist level.

Mitchy Slick: San Diego look real pretty...on the outside. But where I'm from, San Diego is really on some Blood and Crip sh--. It's really got this sh-- going on. I don't glorify it; I put it to the forefront because we really get done bad in San Diego. I want you to be aware of what's going on because I know my folks down there are struggling. We don't have a lot of opportunities being Black people. It's dominated by business and the tourism type of sh--, and you don't hear a lot sh-- going down in San Diego 'cause they don't want it to distract the money flow down there. But we're nowhere near that.

BallerStatus.net: What will it take for the West to move to the forefront?

Mitchy Slick: To all the West Coast cats that's thinking about getting into hip-hop, all my street n----s, there's more things to do than just rap. More street cats being involved in West Coast hip-hop will get us to where we need to be -- DJ's and radio personalities; we need more CEO's that are hood cats. All my West Coast cats let's grind. It's time to show the world what's happening with us.