Chronic Vacation caught up with Mr. Kee for an exclusive interview.  In this piece, you’ll learn about Kee’s two new albums, “The Great Paperchase” and “Money To Blow,” his relationship with Thizz Latin, his opinion on the state of hip-hop, and much more.  Blaze one up and get to reading pimps!

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MR. KEE (July ‘09)
Interview by Cory J

CV.com: What up Kee, thanks for taking a Chronic Vacation with us.  How you doing man?

Mr. Kee: Man I’m good, I’m good, living large.

CV.com: For our readers that don’t know you, can you tell me a little about yourself and how you got started in rap?

Mr. Kee: Been doing it for a minute man, seen other cats doing it and stuff, a lot of cats on my block were doing the hustle thing so when I started doing my spits and everything they were all for it.  The whole word play thing man, I’m a music lover period, from Earth Wind & Fire to Metallica to whatever.  I love music period.  So when I started seeing how cats put words together and everything I just had to get into it.  That was one of my favorite things in school was English.  The teacher couldn’t stop me from writing a summer vacation story.  She’d say one page and I’d give her ten pages, you know what I mean?

CV.com: So you’re like 5 albums deep now?

Mr. Kee: I got about 4 solid ones that I call my own, going from “14k Dreams” to “The Latin Plague” to “The One” and then another one I had called “First, The Last, The Only.”  So those are like the only four real solos out there.

CV.com: You got a mixtape for free download called “The Hangover” out right now, can you tell me about that?

Mr. Kee: Yeah I had another mixtape also called “The Hennessey Project” and that went pretty good so I decided to go ahead and call that one “The Hangover”.

CV.com: You got a couple other albums listed to come out, “Money To Blow: The Chase Begins” and “The Great Paperchase”.  Are those both still due to come out?

Mr. Kee: Yeah my next big album is called “The Great Paperchase”.  The “Money To Blow” is a street album and it’s ready to come out.

CV.com: So “Money To Blow” is ready to come out soon?  What about “The Great Paperchase?”  Is that like a late summer release?

Mr. Kee: Yessir, “The Great Paperchase” is being held because I’m at that point in my career where I’m trying to do something a little bit bigger than what I’ve been doing.  So it’s really on trying to get a good distribution or even a major deal.  So instead of just keep putting these albums out , I want to make that one more step.  I’m at that point right now also where I’m not just looking for a Mr. Kee deal, I’m looking for a situation where my whole company can go with it.  My company is called Money N Muscle Entertainment, so I’m hoping I can get a, say for instance, Money N Muscle/Universal deal.  I got a lot of artists under me that are very talented and young in the game and just starting off and they deserve a shot.  So I’m basically putting myself on the line to try and get that one good deal where I can turn around and tell these bigger companies that I got people coming and they ready to rip a hole in the game.

CV.com: So you got Money N Muscle Entertainment.  Are you still associated with Thizz Latin?

Mr. Kee: I always stay associated, no bridges are burned or nothing.  I’m not signed to nobody else, I’m just Money N Muscle period, so when it comes down to Mr. Kee, it’s Money N Muscle Entertainment.  But yeah, I do affiliate with a bunch of cats that I’ve always worked with.

CV.com: Your “First The Last The Only” album was on Thizz Latin right?

Mr. Kee: Yeah it was the very first album Thizz Latin put out.  That was a little sit down with Kilo Kirk in Miami and Goldtoes Julio and they started the whole Thizz Latin thing.  I was happy to be a part of that, especially being the flagship artist off the whole situation.  Cause Thizz is huge, and especially at the time, that was a real good time to jump on board with that.  But everybody I’ve worked with always knows that I’ve wanted to do my own thing, so it’s not like there’s no hard feelings with nobody because I’ve been like that ever since I started.

CV.com: So back to “The Great Paperchase” & “Money 2 Blow,” do you have any special features on those?

Mr. Kee: “Money 2 Blow” has got some good features on it to like Doonie Baby, Federation, San Quinn & Turf Talk, so it’s not like I’m throwing out no garbage.  I got some good features on it.  What I’m trying to do with “The Great Paperchase” is basically if you’re a Mr. Kee fan, try to bring you back to that “14k Dreams” where I do got that B Legit, Spice 1, Celly Cel, Black C, you know the classic Bay cats and then move it forward to the Clyde Carson, Mistah Fab, Beedaweeda and the newer Bay cats to where it’s like a mesh between what everybody liked about “14k Dreams” to the newer cats now.  I’m going to still have my solo songs on there to show everybody that I can still rip.

CV.com: Sounds like a damn good album.

Mr. Kee: Man it’s going to be off the wall, plus you heard the songs that we sent to you.  I mean I’m trying to go left field with a lot of stuff.

CV.com: You’ve been in the game for quite some time and done a lot of albums and compilations.  Is there a favorite artist or producer that you’ve worked with?

Mr. Kee: For different reasons,  Koop Nut.  I’m from Frisco and Koop Nut is like the godfather of Frisco.  Plus the way he was so embracing.

CV.com: So you’ve got a group called Soldiers of Fortune also known as SOF.  Tell us about that.

Mr. Kee: The only SOF album that ever dropped was called “Bay Area 51”.  I had to rush to put that together because I actually sent a couple songs to the radio station, one called “Cali Clap” where I flipped the “Nolia Clap” and named a bunch of cities in California and called it “Cali Clap” and that started blowing up on the radio all over the place, so I kinda had to rush to put something together.  But the thing with the group is, if you were from the Bay Area and knew about SOF man, it’s not just a rap group.  We got close to 30 people with the SOF tattoo on their arm and it says “Death Before Dishonor: SOF.”   It’s more of a movement more than anything.  Some of the solid artists I got off it from the other cats off “14k Dreams” like Shady Shay, Dooks Sheisty, my brother Young Sideways and I then started bringing in other cats like my boy Mugz Money.  He’s like one of my main artists off the whole SOF thing.  I’ll put money on that dude when it comes to battling and just doing his thing.  Then the list just keeps going from there: Pablo Fetty, Spliff, Duece, I got a bunch of cats under the thing.  It’s kinda hard working with a big group of people [though.]  A lot of cats got to learn patience and pick and choose their time to shine.

CV.com: That “Cali Clap” track is what got me into your music…

Mr. Kee: It was perfect timing for me man, the second I heard that “Nolia Clap” on the radio, that night I recorded “Cali Clap” and sent it to them and they didn’t play “Nolia Clap” no more cause they were blowing it up out here.  Then I got a call from Reno and they were playing it out there.  So it opened up a bunch of doors for me because I didn’t really have nothing on the radio.  So then I followed it up with another track called “Bay Ballin” where I took the 2Pac and Trick Daddy track “Still Ballin.”  So I took the “Cali Clap” [idea,] shrunk it down, and just named every city The Bay Area.  That was a good opportunity for me cause they weren’t playing mixtape tracks on the radio and they really don’t play them anymore anyways so it was just a good time for me.

CV.com: So besides rap, do you have any other ventures that you’ve branched out to?

Mr. Kee: I’ve always had studios here and there but we opened up a new studio and I’m calling that Fort Knox.  Sometimes I feel like I run a Boys and Girls Club cause a lot of the cats I mess with need some good direction, direction that I never had.  So I feel good about stuff like that and I’m trying to make it like a one stop shop where you walk in the building and you can get a photograph taken right there, go record a song and by the time your done recording everything you might have an album cover already done cause the graphic artist is here.  Everything else I do on the side all has to do with the business.  We’re trying to do a Money N Muscle Magazine also.  [We want to] make that a His & Hers perspective type of magazine to where when you flip it over you can read the magazine the other way and maybe the same questions were [asked from] a female point of view.  [I’m] just trying to take it one step further with a lot of stuff.

CV.com: So I see you have a tour coming up that started on June 12th with Chino XL and Omar Cruz.

Mr. Kee: Yeah I got that going and I’m trying to do a parallel thing [with] Chingo Bling.  June 20th is the first one in Utah, so I don’t got all the dates with the Chingo Bling thing yet.  It’s more of a trial and error type of thing where I’m going to go there, do my thing, rock the show, and if the numbers work out right and everything works out right then we continue the whole thing.  I’m promoted on everything but I know how it is.

CV.com: How do you feel about the state of rap as a whole nationwide and how do you feel about where the West is going right now?

Mr. Kee: I feel good about it.  Why do you think I want to be put onto a label where they can let me maneuver?  Like I said, a couple of my SOF cats, these are all hand-picked cats, and I know not to put them into a box.  I know to let them spread their wings, I know to let them fly, because that’s the future of music period.  The future of music period is anything you feel is right.  As far as the West and everything, that all slowly starts dissolving as far as the border lines and all that stuff because 15 year old kids nowadays listen to rap and ride a skateboard.  It’s so meshed up.  So as long as we all go along with the times and keep it going, I feel good about music.

CV.com: So with the South and the East getting all their shine, how do you feel about the West not getting their shine and radio play?

Mr. Kee: It’s really that we don’t have the major deals, but there are cats that are starting to push that envelope like The Jacka, he’s starting to get some good radio play.  E-40 and Too Short cracked that.  But I think it’s more sound wise, like I think the West Coast – we’re a little stubborn with our sound.  We can do anything anybody else can do, it doesn’t mean we got to copy but you can pick and choose cause it’s all hip-hop, it’s all the same to me.  Music is music to me.  I don’t care what it is.  If you stay in that mindstate - “No, this is West Coast music, we’re going to keep it gangsta,” that’s fine, but you can’t complain when you can’t get on the radio.  I’ve never swayed from nothing.  I don’t just make a left turn and leave everything behind, I touch on everything.

CV.com: So with your new album “The Great Paperchase,” is that what you’re doing with the new tracks?  You’re trying to get more of a different feel and have it cohesive?

Mr. Kee: Exactly.  Song 1, 2, & 3 would setup song 4 and then bring you back.  Instead of taking sharp curves, [it would] take you on a little windy road.

CV.com: I wanna say thanks for taking a Chronic Vacation with us!  Is there anything you want to say to the readers?

Mr. Kee: Yeah man, stay up.  Stay chronified out!