ALL STAR 2011 - Ozone Magazine

You mentioned your situation with Akon. Areyou signed to Konvict Music?Te Money: We’re doing the same thing we didwith Dolla; it’s a joint venture with KonvictMusic. We’re also still working on the realityTV show. It’s bigger than just music. The musicreally comes last; it comes easily to us. It’s moreabout us getting along and reaching out tohelp somebody else.What’s the focus of the reality show?Te Money: Just tryin’ to get out of the hood.A few weeks ago I told Lefty to come to the“my grandpa’sbeen to the jointand probably hisgrandpa too. everykid looks forthat fatherlyattention orrole models.you’re just a kidand don’t knowwhat directionto go, so youwant someone tolook up to. theyteach you thatshit and you pickit up. it passesdown to everygeneration.” -chinoBeverly Center. He lives like twenty minutesaway from there and had never been therebefore, even though he’s lived [in Los Angeles]his whole life. L.A. is separated by gangs, andwhen you grow up here, you feel like, “This ismy hood, so what do I need to go over therefor? Matter of fact, we beefin’ with them overthere so I’ma stay right here and protect myhood.”Lefty: Yeah, I just stay in my comfort zone.So you’re broadening your horizons. Do yousee the gang situation in L.A. getting betteror worse?Te Money: For me, since I grew up, I’d say it’sdefinitely calmed down. Especially since theRodney King [riots], L.A. has calmed down andis getting along more. It’s more Crip on Cripbeef than anything, and the blacks and brownsdon’t get along period. It’s kinda out of ourcontrol. I didn’t start the gang, I just grew uphere and got involved in it. Somebody’s gottago talk to the muthafucker that started all thisbullshit.Lefty mentioned that he didn’t want his sonto join a gang. If you had it your way, twentyyears from now, would you have gangs eliminatedperiod?Te Money: Nah, not really, because sometimesgangs are family. Some people get involvedwith gangs because they don’t have a family;sometimes that’s all you have.Lefty: They got love for you and you feel comfortablearound all your homies.Chino: Not every gang is [violent] either. Alot of gangs started out as clubs and just gotlabeled as “gangs.” There are a lot of clubs justfighting for rights and fighting for our people,and that’s what we’re here today to do.How do you think you can keep the familyand community aspect of the gangs but takethe violence out of it?Te Money: Everybody’s an individual. You can’tstop somebody from what they wanna do,you can only tell ‘em. I got homies that wentto school and were on the honor roll and wenton to play [professional] basketball and stillcome back to this neighborhood. Then I’vegot homies that shoulda played [professional]basketball but instead they were like, “I needthis gun, this dope, this money right now.”If you had grown up in the suburbs, where doyou think you would have ended up?Te Money: Lefty would probably still be gangbangin’.Some people are just fascinated by it.It depends on the individual. Sometimes youcan be born into it if your mom and dad areinto it. But I know some people that grew up inthe suburbs and just started comin’ over to ourneighborhood.Lefty: Some people are fascinated by the70 // OZONE MAG