Album Notes

The West Coast rhyme icon has appeared on a string of hit soundtracks and compilations and has made a lyrical dent alongside such A-List talent as Snoop Dogg and Kurupt. Now releasing music on his own Dynasty Records in conjunction with Treacherous Records, Crooked I is ready to capitalize on the buzz that has made him the West Coast's most anticipated artist in nearly a decade.
As he demonstrates throughout the magnificent "BOSS MUSIC", Crooked I raps with authority about the streets on one track and showcases his unrivaled lyrical dexterity with a relentless onslaught of braggadocio boasts on the next. It's that type of diversity that makes Crooked I such a formidable talent and an artist qualified to propel Dynasty and Treacherous Records to the top of the music charts with a new look at gangster rap, especially on the West Coast.
"I want to redefine some of the terminology in hip-hop," he explains. "A lot of people think that gangsterism is being a cutthroat person and it’s not. Gangsterism has a lot to do with honor, respect, loyalty. These dudes out here in the industry don’t understand that whole concept. If they were really gangster, we would be a lot more prosperous over here."
Crooked I brings this keen insight to his recordings. "BOSS MUSIC" features the multi-talented rapper taking different approaches lyrically and stylistically throughout the explosive collection. He explores his rap aspirations on "It Was All A Dream," reflects on how he shortchanged himself by letting his lady go on "Biggest Mistake" and examines the struggles of the lower class on "Life As A Shorty."
"It's life music," Crooked I explains of his album. "It's good times and bad times, happy and sad, whatever I'm feeling at the time. It's like a reincarnation of Ice Cube's AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted and 2Pac's 2Pacalypse Now and Dr. Dre's The Chronic. I'm brining that back. I want to hear people talking about why Arnold Schwarzenegger wants the Three Strikes law to keep going instead of modifying it to where a brother ain't going to go to jail for life for stealing pizza. I want to talk about why police officers can beat up a kid in handcuffs and get off. Nobody's talking about that. They're stuck on club life throughout the whole album. I like going to the club, too, but the whole entire album is based off club life. But I'm kind of happy that a lot of people aren't on that page because it allows me a little more in my own league."
Crooked I is in his own league for other reasons, too. He gets equal respect on the lyrical showcase the Wake-Up Show radio program and on the streets of some of the most grimy ghettos. In fact, Crooked I has been traveling the country as he worked on his debut album in order to expand his lyrical and sonic aim.
"I've been posting up in Houston, St. Louis, Oklahoma, Chicago and just absorbing the kind of stuff that's moving them," he says. "I can't make music that only my coast is going to ride with. I want to make music that everybody is going to ride with. We all have things in common no matter what city we're from, what state we're from."
Crooked I was raised in Long Beach and Los Angeles and also spent a year in Philadelphia during his teens. By that time, he had already started recording music at the urging and support of his mother and her twin sister. Crooked I and his brother settled in Long Beach and Crooked I started making musical headway.
A talented rapper with a passion for crafting exceptional lyrics, Crooked I soon became a part of Dogg Pound Productions. He opened shows for Snoop Dogg, Daz Dillinger and others and got a record deal in the mid-1990s with Virgin Records. He then made memorable appearances on the Ride soundtrack on a song with Snoop Dogg and on the Caught Up soundtrack on a song with the Luniz.
By the end of the 1990s, Crooked I signed to Death Row Records and became its flagship artist. While on the label, he recorded a number of classic cuts, including "Gangster Rap," which teamed him with Scarface and Naughty By Nature's Treach and was featured on the Too Gangsta For Radio album.
Crooked I left Death Row without releasing an album and aligned himself in early 2004 with the up-and-coming Treacherous Records, also home to Jayo Felony, Big Syke and others. Treacherous gave Crooked I a home for his Dynasty Records company and is set to introduce Crooked I as a double threat artist and business executive.
Crooked I wants Dynasty Records to give the West Coast hope for a new generation of artists. "My whole objective is to make myself a force, my company Dynasty a force in the industry to where, OK, if we all do want to sit down, then we sit down as bosses at the roundtable," he explains.
And when that happens, Crooked I will be an established superstar and his group the Horseshoe Gang (which features his younger brothers) will have established themselves as the West Coast’s newest, hottest crew through their own recordings and DVD releases.
"We've got to put out good music, step our game up," Crooked I says of his plan for music industry domination that will start on his native West Coast. "It's about competition and being competitive, but we've got to unite. If you don't want to, that's cool, too. We're going to roll right over you. But it would be so much easier if everybody just worked with everybody. The whole coast would pop."
And Crooked I will be at the forefront of that movement.
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