Black Truth News: I am a hip-hop junkie, but some days I might have some Norah Jones bumping because I’m in that mood. What is Ron C bumping? How is the music-making you feel right now?
OG Ron C: Hey man, just to keep my sanity, because I have been doing this for over 19 years. Just to keep my sanity with the rap game and I don’t fall out of love with it, I jam R&B and I jam Rock & Roll. I may pick up a hip-hop CD every now and then! (Laughing) I jam most of the time to screwed R&B. If not that, I listen to Rock & Roll. You know Alternative Rock & Roll is not that hardcore, but Avril Lavigne or Norah Jones.
That’s the type of stuff I listen to because I like music too, and those things have music, everybody knows what I’m talking about when I say music, not a drum track and some sounds. I’m talking about people playing that shit. That’s why I listen to a lot of R&B man. I am going to tell you the truth when people say they don’t like what’s going on in rap, that these songs are trash, that’s another reason I don’t listen. Not to say the songs are trash, but everybody is trying to keep it so real nowadays. If it is not on the radio, it’s probably somebody trying to “keep it real.” I’m tired of hearing all that, I came from that. I came from all the drugs and violence, so I don’t want to hear that shit all day.
That’s me personally, I’m thirty-something know what I’m saying, that was probably cool when I was at that age, but I’m saying that’s me. I don’t fault anybody else but I’m from the old school, I like to feel good music, that’s the way rap used to be, now they talk rap is not what it used to be. What it used to be then? Let’s talk about the songs “Laffy Taffy” and (sings “don’t push me because I’m close to the edge”) it’s all entertainment.
That’s why I said we getting away from the point. When they made those old school records, they were talking about feeling good at the party. Rapper’s Delight, come on man, nobody wasn’t talking about that wasn’t real hip hop back then. You had some people like KRS-ONE but if you didn’t like hip hop now, you didn’t like rap back then.
Black Truth News: Do you think a niche exists for people who are talking about more than “keeping it real” in their songs?
OG Ron C: You do have a couple of dudes out there who will step out there and say” F- the world” and make that kind of music. Take for instance Lupe Fiasco, the man rapping about skateboarding, he doesn’t give a damn! All my ghetto niggas love that too, trip me out! If you really writing it from the heart, in the studio, that’s keeping it real, and it will entertain folks, trust me. That’s why people can’t produce a lot of hits, because they go to the studio trying to write a hit. If there was a way to write a hit, everybody would have one, so if you are at home trying to write a hit you going about it in the wrong way.
Article Appeared in The Black Truth News Volume 1 Issue 2 Jan. 2010