TOPR & Dick Nasty

But first - Kaffeine sat down with TOPR and Conceit, who are both local legends in San Francisco Bay Area rap and are united in their focus on expanding the recognition of themselves and their crew while maintaining an allegiance to the self-motivation of independent hip-hop that is undeniably the most singular influence on their style. Well, that and maintaining a healthy buzz…

The two rappers have collaborated on numerous singles, mix-tapes, albums, groups, and expansive crews during their years in San Francisco.

Having just disbanded his Strangeface collective (which included TOPR and dozens of other members), Conceit recently took first place in a YouTube Video contest, winning him an Interscope record deal and $10,000 from Guitar Center. As a result, he also garnered attention from local press and, via the internet, from individuals all over the world.

TOPR is currently working on his fifth album as a solo artist, and has worked on two full-length collaborations (one with Conceit and one with Foul Mouth Jerk) as well as numerous featured appearances on other artists’ albums and on mix-tapes. His discography alone is impressive for an unsigned artist, and his skill and talent are a further surprise that he remains independent. Having got his early performance footings as one of the house acts at San Francisco’s now closed Maritime Hall, Top has opened for huge acts like KRS ONE, LL Cool J, De La Soul, Kool Keith, Goodie Mob, Mix Master Mike and Z-Trip

Silver-tongued banter comes naturally to the two rappers, raised on freestyles and street-side battles next to their local watering holes. Peppered with foul language, Nanny 911 would be hopelessly outdone in the house of Gurp City, as the phrase ‘fuckin-ahhhh…’ replaces ‘umm…’ and nearly every sentence ends with ‘…and shit.’

They finish each other’s sentences constantly. The eternal dialogue with this duo (and the rest of the Gurp City crew, for that matter) is an endless piston-like rattle that frequently crescendos in agreement, where both parties are saying the exact same words at the same time in a battle simply to see who can say them the loudest. In unison, the thundering peaks compound their individual knacks for being irrefutably convincing; and as the liquor flows (and it does) the thunder gets louder and more regular—and more hysterical, indeed.

Kaffeine Buzz: Let’s start off with some background on Gurp City and how you got involved.

TOPR: Gurp City is the brainchild of Thuggie Fresh, from Chico. He used to bring artists that he was into up there to do shows...

Conciet:: …like Z-man, Eddie K, Sacred Hoop…

TOPR: …local Frisco stuff. And I had known Sacred Hoop and those guys for years cuz I used to do stuff at Stanford in Palo Alto where fuckin’ Luke Sick’s from, so I knew them. And then me, Z-Man and Boac did Warped tour two years ago. Conceit drove for part of it, but he got food poisoning or some shit…

Conceit: Yeah.

TOPR: …Half way through…

Conceit: I bitched out, so…

TOPR: …We needed a driver. So Thuggy stepped up, and that’s how I got hooked up with [Gurp City]. I started going up to Chico and doin’ shows with Z-man and those guys up there…

Conceit: …And then I went with TOPR and basically the cycle began. They were always doing the Gurp City thing; but at that point they were trying to take it more seriously, and pushing it outward—more than just like a Chico thing…

TOPR: What it comes down to is, it’s a group of artists that this certain crew of people in Chico were really into. A lot of [the Gurp crew] used to go see me with the Earthlings at Maritime Hall. They’ve always listened to Eddie K, Z-man and Luke Sick. When I started kickin’ it with those guys more it all gelled. It’s not like everyone sat down one day and said ‘this it what it is;’ it just kinda happened. Thuggy moved down here while I was working on Legalize Murder, and G-Pek—who was his partner—made a lot of the beats for that. I started bringing Conceit around more, and we all became tighter and tighter.

KB: What’s the official tally of people on Gurp City?

Conceit: It’s a lot.

TOPR: It’s not like you can just name them all right now.

Conceit: It’s a collective…

TOPR: …Of artists. There’s like, punk bands involved in it, like One In The Chamber, and…

Conceit: …There’s MC’s producers, DJ’s…

TOPR: …Bloggers…

Conceit: …Artists…

TOPR: …Journalists…

Conceit: …Web designers.

TOPR: But musically, Gurp City All-Stars is the core group. That’s me, Conceit, Eddie K, Z-man, Brandon B, Luke Sick of Sacred Hoop, DJ Mars, DJ Quest and G-Pek on production.

Conceit: Like we said, a lot of people are in it, but right now the focus is on the cats that are tryin’ to get the shit out there.

KB: TOPR, when did you get involved with the Earthlings?

TOPR: I met them when I was pretty young—like 16 an’ shit. That’s me, Bootleg, Boac, Dick Nasty, Safari... A bunch of those guys have moved away and stuff; but that’s pretty much the group I came up with performing at Maritime Hall.

KB: Was Maritime Hall the only spot for hip-hop at the time?

Conceit: It wasn’t the only, but as far as a large venue that brought quality artists out, that was the only spot. There were other paces like Kennel Club—which is now The Independent.

TOPR: The (Oasis)

Conceit: …and DV8. There was a lotta clubs, but they focused on smaller independent acts, or up-and coming acts that were getting their name out; but as far as seeing bigger acts and hip-hop legends, Maritime was the only place.

TOPR: Maritime had a capacity of like 2,400; and at the time (fuckin, ahh…) Bill Graham owned all the major venues and he wouldn’t book hip-hop, he wouldn’t book punk rock, and he wouldn’t book reggae. Basically, other clubs assumed there would be violence if they booked black artists or punk bands.

KB: Some clubs still won’t book certain acts for the same reason.

TOPR: Well, there’s still turf music where violence does break out.

Conceit: But it’s also a matter of having the right security.

TOPR: At Maritime, like, Wu Tang would play and we’d have turf fools in the crowd; but the shows would go off without a hitch.

Conceit: It’s a matter of having mad security…

TOPR: …and just knowing how to handle the crowds and shit. So Maritime offered a larger venue for national acts who weren’t even playing those size venues anywhere; and they also had a lot of local openers. That’s how I came up—around cats like 7 Gen, Bored Stiff, Hiero, and Living Legends. A lot of those guys got their start opening at Maritime. Now everyone books tours as a package and local acts rarely get to perform at big capacity venues.

Conceit: It’s kind of a shame, cuz for the City, that was a huge stepping stone.

TOPR: And, there’s no all-ages venues anymore either; Maritime was all-ages.

Conceit

KB: Conceit, you were the head of Strangeface crew until it recently dissolved. Can you give some background on that?

Conceit: It was like ’99/2000, Strangeface started out as a collective. At that time I was in a group called Underground Prophets with four or five members of Strangeface, including Optic, Wordsmith, Rush... but I’d been in numerous groups throughout the years, and during the time I’d been doing music, I had friends that did music too, and different collectives that I knew throughout the City and throughout the Bay Area. It seemed like everyone was pushing toward the same goal, but not working together on it. So it became, over the years, different people that I worked with—that I respected—as well as the group I was currently working with. It became a network that I put together with cats who were like, ‘alright, look, we got DJs, we got producers…’—kinda like the Gurp City thing— ‘these cat’s that MC, and we’re all on the same page; we’re workin’ to the same common goal.’

TOPR: Basically, it was all Conceit’s friends.

Conceit: It wasn’t really like a group, ya know; it’s not like a gang, but it’s some shit we can all rep. While everyone had their solo careers and careers, and did what they do, in the meantime it’s a collective that’s pushing towards something, like we’ll do a mix-tape and book shows and whatnot. Also, if you come to Frisco and you ain’t from here, and you go to some shit, you holler out ‘Strangeface’ most likely there’s somebody there.

TOPR: Also, back in the day there used to be open mics at Java House on 5th and Clement (then moved to Rockin’ Java on Haight) every Monday—for all ages—would open the mic up and fools would be able to get a couple verses freestyling. A lot of the Strangeface cats went to the open mics and sharpened their skills.

Conceit: A lot of us knew about each other, but there we were actually sittin’ and talkin’ face-to-face. Top and Megabusive battled there back in the day and ended up both bein’ in Strangeface.

TOPR: The thing ended at 10:00, and we’d all go get 40s and just freestyle and drink in the park. That’s how we got to know each other. It’s also how drinking got so deeply engrained in the Strangeface mythos.

Conceit: Strangeface was about music, but it was also kind of a bond. We’d be out partying, working on music, freestylin’ or seeing each other in the streets or at clubs or at parties, you know. We’d either be rappin’ or drinkin’.

TOPR: Usually doin’ both.

Conceit: There were people who just gettin’ started, getting’ serious about making music, and there were people who were established, like Top.

TOPR: We were two of the older members. When we met Rush and Optic and Wordsmith, they were like 18, 19. We ended up in the park drinkin’ and freestylin’ cuz they couldn’t get into the clubs and shit.

Conceit: Because they were underage they wouldn’t normally be able to book shows. We’d book shows and actually get ‘em into the clubs so they’d get the exposure. But the whole time it was just a collective. It was my baby—my brainchild.

KB: Is there any other group around that’s—loosely, but nonetheless—organized like that?

Conceit: Bored Stiff is a group and a collective. There’s different cats; there’s Think Beat (Secluded Journalists), Gas Mask Collective… but those are still smaller, like three member groups, four member groups. Bored Stiff is like a seven man team.

TOPR: Seven Gen.

Conceit: Actually, Seven Gen was a crew that was around in the ‘90s in Frisco that was members of Board Stiff and different collectives, but they disbanded.

TOPR: There’s probably a lot of other collectives out there; but we probably don’t pay attention to ‘em too much.

Conceit: Honestly, I gotta say, Strange ran shit for a large period. I mean, we still do. Strange was like 30 members at one point. Not everyone was artists, but…

KB: And you guys just disbanded.

Conceit: It’s still there in the heart. We’re still friends. It’s all cool. It just came to a point where everyone believed in it the way that they used to; and everyone was goin’ their separate ways—which is what it was intended to do: to get everybody on they’re feet.

KB: We thought you did this to get famous.

Conceit: Yeah. (Both laugh.) People still get on me about that shit. They’re like, did you plan this shit? This shit popped off like, right after we disbanded. (Referring to Conceit’s recent YouTube success and resulting recognition on the front page of San Francisco Chronicle’s Datebook and elsewhere.) It was just to a point where, I look at it like ‘I love ya’all, and, I don’t wanna hate y’all. And the way we’re headed…’ I held my tongue on a lot of things and it finally came to a point where I was like, ‘I don’t like what we’re doin’ with this, so I’m backing out of it.’

TOPR: You also have Gurp City All-Stars, which are all older, more established musicians like us, who all kinda have the same view on music cuz we all grew up in the same era, and we all have been doing it for a long time, and all respect each other’s music. There’s no older brother-little brother goin’ on there. We’re all kind of in the same boat. We’ve all kinda been underground legends in the Bay. We’ve been tryin’ to do shit for a long time.

Conceit: That wasn’t my reason for pullin’ outta Strange, but I can slightly say that’s the step I woulda liked things to move forward to, and Gurp City is definitely pushin’ it a little more serious.

TOPR: Gurp City is more on the same wavelength I am as far as what I wanna do with the next couple years of my life.

Conceit: And, more-so, everybody’s on the same page. It’s like he said. Me and the cats—everybody in Gurp City has put in their dues and gone through all these experiences. It’s cats with common goals, knowing what they gotta deal with and knowing what they wanna do. Strangeface, it was great. It was nuts.

TOPR: Strangeface was a lotta young bucks, and we brought up those young bucks; and now those young bucks are older and they don’t need us to bring them up anymore. They got their own shit goin’ on. You gotta let the birds outta the nest. We’re some old men hanging out with some other old men now.

Stay tuned for Part Two of the Kaffeine Buzz interview with TOPR and Conceit, and come out to see TOPR on tour in Colorado, performing Friday, May 16 at Falcon Bowl (next to Gothic) at the Kaffeine Buzz Street-2-Screen Party, and Saturday, May 17 at Redfish Fish House in Boulder.

www.myspace.com/topr
Street-2-Screen - TopR

-Jef Hoskins, May 8, 2008