November 04, 2004 @ 2:20 pm

Online Exclusive: Guerilla Black - Doing It Way Big

by: Tiffany McGee

You better believe it – Compton-bred MC Guerilla Black can flow. And the 27-year-old West Coaster is on a mission to regain his region’s top position on the hip hop map. In the past few years, artists from the Midwest (St. Louis, Chicago) and the South (Atlant

"We can do the whole west coast rap thing, but that's kind of played out in a sense," G. Black states. "It really reached its peak. Now it's a new day, a new age, new styles, new beats, new producers, and a total new face to the whole game. After Pac died, there was a 7-year hiatus and a lot of lyricists let the pot pass. There really was no direction, no guidance, and no sense of what's next. A lot of older cats were in disarray, and a lot of ignorance and laziness really put us almost at a demise. We were never dead, but we weren't at the plateau making records at a national level the way we were before. [People are] gonna see the force that I'm trying to bring to rebuild the west coast with me making universal music that's accepted." This new concept of West Coast "universal" music explains Black's decision to venture into more creative territory on his first album. While he retains a bit of the original early 90s West Coast style, courtesy of rap crooner Nate Dogg and producer Fredwreck Nassar(West Side Connection, Kurrupt, Snoop Dogg) on the G-funk track "What We Gonna Do," Black also samples a little reggae flavor with Beenie Man. He enlists even more A-list production assistance from guaranteed hitmakers Jazze Pha, Red Spyda, Rodney Jerkins, Carlos Broady and Mario Winans to raise the bar and provide a solid backdrop to showcase his rhyming skills. But it's those rhyming skills that have the streets talking. With his physical stature eerily, yet undeniably mirroring that of the late Notorious B.I.G. and his similar baritone flow completing the all too reminiscent match to Christopher Wallace, it's no wonder G. Black has been under fire. And many hip hop fans and critics want answers before they offer the necessary credibility to Guerilla Black. His debut effort debuted at #20 on the Billboard charts, selling a mediocre 46,023 copies. But there's definitely no denying the West Coast heavy weight's ode to his hometown - his first and current single "Compton" featuring Beenie Man - is heating up radio airwaves and clubs in a major way. And the heavy production behind his debut speaks volumes to the support he's getting from his label, Virgin Records. His album's production credits reads like a producer's honor roll, proving Virgin is behind him 100% - and reaffirming their willingness to put their money where his mouth is. (Especially considering Virgin isn't really known for having a stellar rap roster.) So just who is Guerilla Black? And where did he come from? Born in Joliet, Ill., the rapper, born Charles Tony Williamson, moved to Compton from Mississippi at the age of eight. His mother hoped to find better opportunities on the West Coast, and brought her children with her. Unfortunately, the family still experienced rough times. Black, along with his younger brother Hot, also an MC, spent several months being homeless. At the age of 12, G. Black turned to hustling in his neighborhood to make ends meet. Hot had already been writing lyrics detailing his experiences, and he encouraged Black to do the same. Soon, under the moniker Guerilla B.L.A.C.K, Black's freestyles were getting heavy rotation in the Southern California mixtape circuit. After an argument with his girlfriend, his girl threw out his rhyme books. From that day on, Black began memorizing all his lyrics and keeping them in his head to make him an even better MC. "I guess after you do it for so long, there's no need for me to actually write rhymes anymore," he says. "That night [his wife threw his rhyme books out] I spit 12 verses. Everything is buried in my head." Flash forward a couple of years, and Guerilla Black suffered a devastating blow. He lost his 21-year-old wife to meningitis. "I was at a moment and a place when I didn't really care what people thought or how they felt, and there was no more happy raps or party songs really in me at that time," Black recalls solemnly. He returned to the streets in hopeless desperation after his loss, while his brother pleaded for him to return to the game. Finally, on Hot's birthday, Black agreed to come back to the studio. "I laid down three songs in about 15 minutes real quickly," he remembers. "I got them on track and everything. Those three songs got the guys so excited. They just started calling everyone and eventually like 75 people were there." Including LA-based A&R exec Pete Farmer, who then signed G. Black to Virgin. Given the circumstances, G. Black knows he can't put an end to those who think he's just biting Biggie. After all, there is that obvious laid back, staccato Biggie-esque cadence in his delivery that's hard to surpass whenever he begins to flow. But he believes comparisons will always exist. "I don't think I was the first to be compared, and I don't think I'll be the last. Before there was a Jay Z, LL sounded just like Jay. Or you can say Jay Z sounded like LL. I think when people start listening to me more, and listen to the album, and get into my life and see me the way that I am, and the energy and vibes that I carry, they'll see that. It takes time." Well, maybe not Jigga and LL...but when Ja Rule first burst onto the mainstream scene in Jay Z's "Can I Get A..." in 1998, a lot of people quickly assumed Ja was emulating DMX's raspy, growl-influenced flow and he took the heat for it. A year later, Ja seemed to want to separate himself, and began delivering sing-song hits like "Between Me and You." But Black still insists he never attempts to sound like B.I.G. - it's just biology. "I sound like me," he maintains. "This is the way I sounded my whole life. I'm just a big, black dude, so I guess that just really sets off an alert, and a feeling in a lot of different people that I can't really help. My father was a really dark skinned man and my mother was a heavy-set woman, so that's just the reality of it. That's the skin complexion my father gave me, the big boned-ness my mother gave me, and the voice God gave me." And once hip hop fans get past the fact that yes, Charles Tony Williamson has a similar voice, cadence and even physical appearance to the Notorious B.I.G., they can look past that and listen to the whole album. But just in case they can't get far, Black opens the album by dispelling all rumors of him emulating Christopher Wallace, and declares his own individuality in the lead track, "Hearts of Fire.": "I just wanna stay humble and patient/ That's when stupid niggas come at you with gay shit/ He look like Big, he sound like Big /Yo I'm B-L-A-C-K, nigga' ya dig?" "His voice sounds like [Biggie], but he doesn't rap exactly like him," said Nassar, who produced "What We Gonna Do?" "I didn't try to judge him. The people who are gonna hate are gonna hate no matter what he does." And to those haters, Black has a simple message: "God bless them. I want people to hate. Hate is my fuel. Hate is the thing that gives me the power. The more you hate, the more I know that God's blessing is really awaiting me. This is no imitation, fabrication, duplication or incarnation. I'm Guerilla B-L-A-C-K. This is me." For more information on Guerilla Black, check out guerillablack.com. His album Guerilla City is in stores now. Click here to check out the video for Guerilla Black's "Compton" featuring Beenie Man.

Article tags: Online, Exclusive, Guerilla, Black, Doing, Way, Big 

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