MC Craig G started his recording career back in 1985 with Shout on Lawrence Goodmans Philadelphia-based Pop Art label in 1985, before Droppin Science for Marley Marl and releasing two solo albums on Atlantic before he took the independent route. Despite being initially known for his freestyle skills, Craig has since refined his song-writing abilities and dropped his latest project at the end of last year. We talk about Queensbridge, the Juice Crew, working with Marley Marl and his involvement with 8 Mile.
Robbie: What sparked you to start rhyming?
Craig G: My older brother was in a neighborhood rap group, they were called the High-Fidelity Crew. They did a party for my sister this was in Queensbridge and they had left the equipment there overnight, and decided to bring it back later the next day. So I just started messing with the turntables and acting like I was an MC. I just liked how it felt and from there I just started practicing and practicing, but I didnt even write my first rhyme until my first record. I used to freestyle everywhere. I was 8 or 9 nine years old when this happened.
What was the first park jam you went to?
I had to be home by the time it was dark, so I was there but I didnt get to see the real live action. The ill MCs in the neighborhood wouldnt even crack the mic until nine oclock. I used to get a little charity rhyme during the day, but nobody really cared, they were still getting it ready. The party jumped-off about an hour before the shooting started. That was all you needed to know! [laughs] If they started shooting, you was like, They was rocking right before then! Damn, man! Just hood sh-t.
How did you get down with the Super Kids?
I wasnt a member of them, that was Trag. The weird thing is me and Blaq Poet were in a rap group together before any of us made a record. We used to just go around the neighborhood, battling people. I dont remember the name we were calling ourselves, its the funniest thing. Ive gotta call him up and ask him.
How would you decide who to battle back then?
In Queensbridge, it was pretty much a travelling news thing. You knew who the MCs were and who werent. Whether it was a school or just walking around the neighborhood, youd just get into little battles. They had this talent show, and first me and Poet were gonna be in this talent show rapping, and I was already in a breakdance crew I used to pop-lock and we were doing the talent show, and I was the worst guy in the crew so they kinda put me out of the crew before the show started! So I rapped at the talent show and I won, which is when it all started to make sense that I wanted to do it for real.
How did you link up with Marley Marl?
Marley lived in my building in Queensbridge I lived on the 2nd floor, he lived on the 6th floor. I started checking the times when I know hed leave, and he never took the elevator, he would always take the steps, so I would just made sure when he came down the steps I was in the hallway, rapping. After bugging him for I dont know how much time, he was like, Yo, we got an idea for a song. Come to the studio. That was the idea for Shout Rap. I had to have MC Shan help me write the first verse, cos I knew how to rhyme well, but I didnt know how to structure songs. I didnt count bars I was twelve years-old! For me, I didnt realise the impact until I heard it on the radio.
Did you get a good response to those two Pop Art singles?
Shout Rap got a great response. Every time they played the original on urban stations they would mix it with mine, so it was on radio all day long. I didnt receive much money for the song, but it wasnt about that then for me, it was about being on the radio. The second song? I dont think did as well. But Im a kid, and the people from the label are like, Well, Transformers are popular so lets come up with something on the strength of that. But the rhyme had nothing to do with Transformers! [laughs] Im 13, 14 years-old at this point, I didnt know know what the hell I was doing yet!
Were you able to perform shows since you were so young?
My mother would sometimes let me go on the weekend if my brother went with me. My moms was a nursery school teacher, so it was not gonna get in the way of school.
What happened between then and the In Control album?
There was Juice Crew All-Stars, the single, which was two years later. But before that time there wasnt nothing. I was in school. There wasnt even an In Control when we were working on some of these songs that wound-up on there. Duck Alert just happened cos I used to work at the radio station, answering the phones. Duck Alert happened from just a freestyle on the air. Marley was playing the Antoinette record and started scratching it up that part where she says Duck alert, the alarm and we was freestyling and Marley said, Weve gotta make a record of that, and then it turned into that, that Monday. I was pledging allegiance to who I worked with. Red Alert is one of the nicest guys I know in the music industry! I was just standing up for my crew. It wasnt really nothing personal, but then again, back then, none of it really was.
Did anyone from Reds crew ever respond?
My name was never mentioned in any of those joints, which was pretty good. Maybe they all knew I was young?
What was the story with MC Glamorous from Juice Crew All-Stars?
That was Mr. Magics girlfriend, or one of the girls he was seeing at that moment. No disrespect to her, but we didnt really know her like that. Everybody else was from the neighborhood, or would be around the neighborhood, so we all knew each other.
She even got her own set at the Juice Crew show at the Apollo in 88.
That was Magic. They wanted me to just do The Symphony, and I remember me and Marley going, Nah, were not gonna do that, yo!, because Droppin Science was an extra on BLS, which wasnt fully added yet but it played all the time, so we knew that song was hot already. So me and Marley went in the backstage of the Apollo and were like, After Ace does The Symphony, lets just go into it. So we did it without telling them and the response was crazy. It was a pecking order in the Juice Crew back then. I may have done more than some of the people, but I was one of the youngest, so they were trying to make me earn my shine.
So the songs that you appeared on for Marleys album were all selected from random sessions?
For as long as my relationship with working with Marley was except for my first ever album on Atlantic we did not ever purposely go to record music for a place for it to wind up. We would just do music. When I did the first album, The Kingpin, we recorded that in two weeks. I am ashamed of that album! Very much so. It was a rush. Honestly, we did not put our best foot forward.
Dopest Duo and Take The Bait were great though.
Take The Bait wasnt on it, that was a b-side. That actually wound-up on my second album. I actually named my second album Now, Thats More Like It. It was a much more focused effort. We worked really hard on that album, cos it felt like a second chance.
What set off those songs about MC Shan that you had on the second album?
It all started cos they had to ask me about the Juice Crew, and at that time when they asked me the Juice Crew was pretty much over. Kane wasnt rockin with it, Biz, none of em. So I was honest, I told em. So later in the interview with Shan, they told him and he said something about Im a son. It was a magazine interview. At the end of the day, you cant be mad at me for something someone else [said]. Its the same thing as The Symphony story you cant get mad at Ace for something Marley told him. Even that wasnt personal. At the end of the day, Shans still like my brother. Brothers fight, they get older, they get over it. It was one of those situations.[/quote]
unkut.com – A Tribute To Ignorance (Remix)
