“I could always do both, but I’d always been focusing more on producing,” he replies. How did he make the move from producing to rapping? I started deejaying and mixing (songs) at parties and kept at it until I got better.”
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“I asked him to show me how to do it and he showed me. “I used to watch him work when I was a teen-ager and I was fascinated by producing,” he recalls. Griffin, though, does give his older brother full credit for inspiring him to become a producer. Griffin, who rapped with Snoop Dogg as a youngster in a group called 213, also helped with some of the lyrics on “The Chronic,” Dre’s blockbuster 1992 album.Īlso, meeting director John Singleton through Dre led to Griffin producing and rapping on Mista Grimm’s “Indo Smoke” and 2Pac’s “Definition of a Thug” for the soundtrack for Singleton’s movie “Poetic Justice.” Def Jam executives, Griffin says, spotted him in the “Indo Smoke” video, which led to his record deal. Griffin’s recording debut was a small speaking part on a 1991 album by N.W.A, the quintessential gangsta rap group featuring Eazy-E, Ice Cube and Dre. Maybe Dre didn’t personally get him signed to a deal but Griffin might not have been in a position to command a contract if his rich and famous relative hadn’t helped him along the way. So nobody can say I’m using him that way.” He was going to do a track but he didn’t have time.
“I was offered this deal with Def Jam based on them seeing me in a video with Mista Grimm. (They’re actually half-brothers.) “That’s not what happened,” he insists. Griffin was just as huffy about the notion that he’s riding on Dre’s coattails. Anybody who messes with me will find that out in a hurry.”
In his most macho tone, the usually soft-spoken Griffin snapped: “Just because I don’t do that stuff doesn’t mean I’m a sissy. In some circles if you’re a rapper who doesn’t do gangsta rap, it’s open season on your manhood.