anseny

Shady fans who ‘Re-Up’ in ‘07 won’t need to blast the volume to pick up intense vibes from the varied voices of Chi-Town native Ca$his on “Everything is Shady” and “Talkin All That.” The Orange County transplant crafts talk about bubbling off blow and knocking out foes with enthusiastic flair; after all, he’s pretty happy to be here. Like so many of his peers, rap rescued this gang member from an ill fate.

When NBS checked in for an album promo session it was apparent that Ca$his shifted the same cliquish mentality developed through his membership in the notorious Chicago set Gangsta Disciples to his new job as a Shady Records recording artist. It’s almost scary how he jumps from the frying pan into the fire, throwing serious jabs at Shady opponents, some of whom don’t even rap. Yes, it’s that real for a guy who claims to have done so much dirt that the prospect of an interview seems a little suspicious. In hopes that this new comer only makes the news for thorough music, NBS caught up with Ca$his to find out what he has learned from the great Eminem and why he’ll lose it if dudes think it’s just music.

Nobodysmiling.com : What’s up man? How you feel?

Ca$his : Man I’m good. I’m nice; I’m high and shit-I’m good.

Nobodysmiling.com : (Laughs) That’s what’s up. Being a solo artist, what was the hardest part about fitting into the team concept at Shady, considering your solo album might sit on the bench for a while?

Ca$his : Naw man; I never was concerned about-I didn’t think that that would happen; not because I’m better than nobody or no shit like that; it was because I was being told this; I came at the right time; I came and Fifty wasn’t about to drop-Fifty, he was doing what he was doing for G-Unit and now he’s back working on his album. Obie was dropping, so I came at the perfect time. I was just lucky man.

Nobodysmiling.com : Wouldn’t it be more profitable to be independent instead of under fourlabels-Universal, Interscope,, Aftermath, and Shady?

Ca$his : Well naw, I’m not signed to Aftermath. I’m part of the Aftermath family, but I get paid from Shady/Interscope/Universal.

Nobodysmiling.com : OK. Were you doing the independent thing before this whole deal?

Ca$his : Naw dog. Me and my partner, we were the Renegades; Me and Rikanatti, we was trying it, but I was getting respect-I was getting hella respect-but it wasn’t getting me no money. I was still selling drugs. Like I was getting respect as a rapper and getting arrested. And then we were trying to take meetings with certain labels and independent labels, but they were like ‘OK. We can do this for you-get you distribution,’ but I wanted to be pushed out there the way like Obie get pushed or Fifty get pushed. I wanted to be able to really make big money because if I’m only-like say if I was to be a independent rapper and I was only gon bring $50 to $75-cuz… even $50 to $100 thousand dollars a year-I might as well keep selling drugs. It’s not gonna be a difference; you know what I’m saying? I wasn’t gon be a difference.

Nobodysmiling.com : But the risk-not to cut you off-the risk is-you know; you either go to jail or make records right?

Ca$his : Yeah, but I mean I was fixing to flip into some real estate-start getting it crunk. I wasn’t the biggest dope man in the world , but I had a gang of kids and I was supporting them and I was cool. I coulda' kept doing that. I didn’t wanna be like…Nino Brown or nothing. I think I coulda bubbled under the radar just long enough to where I coulda' started up some sort of business; I was bout to open a barbershop and all kinds of lil shit.

Nobodysmiling.com : OK.

Ca$his : And it woulda been cool. Like, that wasn’t my life plan to do that, but that’s like-I don’t like jobs; I don’t wanna go no where and have to dress in a suit and tie and someone tells me what to do; I don’t like that; I don’t feel like I was made for that. And people be getting like-around here-what? Nine/ten dollars an hour? I can’t support all my children off that; you know what I’m saying? And plus I’ma felon, so what kinda job I’m really gon get?

Nobodysmiling.com : That’s real. A lot of people are in that predicament. I feel you. How did you originally come to Eminem’s attention?

Ca$his : We sent in a demo as ‘The Renegades’ and we got it up to-we were actually bout to get signed with Def Jam right when Kevin Liles left and LA Reid-remember that transition they made?

Nobodysmiling.com : Right.

Ca$his : And I didn’t wanna fuck with Def Jam-

Nobodysmiling.com : Why not?

Ca$his : Because I wanted to be with Shady. I wanted to be with Em-my goal was to get to Fifty so then he could get me to Em.

Nobodysmiling.com : Oh.

Ca$his : Cause Fifty was hot and he was popping right then and I was loving his shit. So I was like ‘OK, he came in, he did a “How to Rob” and that got everybody’s attention.’ So I was like ‘Man maybe I should do some shit like that.’ I wanted to get his attention so he could take me over there. But then Def Jam was fucking with us, but…they wanted…they wanted a look. I don’t know-

Nobodysmiling.com : A certain image?

Ca$his : They wanted me to be like I’m from LA. And I’m not from LA. I’m from Chicago. But I’m from Cali-I live in Orange County-but I’m from Chicago; [it’s] certain ways that people out here dress that I don’t; know what I’m saying? I’ma Midwestern ni**a still, so I still dress and talk and move and do things the same way. And I wasn’t bout to fold for them. Plus we didn’t wanna go there, so it didn’t work out. We met with Paul Rosenburg; he liked the stuff but said we wasn’t ready yet. Then we tried it again with the mixtape ‘Stars and Stripes.’ Derek Parker, my homeboy who the director of A&R up there at Shady heard it and he was like ‘Yeah. Now why don’t you go solo and have your boy make beats? Lets see what you can do solo; I think we might be able to work something out.’

Nobodysmiling.com : Right.

Ca$his : And I was-I did like a grip of songs in two/three weeks-fifty/sixty songs-something retarded; sent them in-I record at least three songs a day.

Nobodysmiling.com : OK.

Ca$his : If not I’ll be in trouble. I stay in a lot of trouble so I try to record about-I think I’ve lived enough wild shit to where I can record about all the shit I’ve done and hopefully never have to do any of that shit again. I really don’t wanna-I’m a very, very extremely remorseful person, but some of the things that I have-because I have too many children now and I don’t want that shit to come back on them and I would never want them to grow up and react the way-the situations that I was doing; you know what I’m saying? I’m tryna be a responsible person. I’m tryna mature, but at the same time I’m still a ni**a and I can only do so much.

Nobodysmiling.com : Word. God willing you sell out of the roof and Ca$his becomes a household name, but what happens when you run out of the wild shit to talk about? What then?

Ca$his : Man I got way more than wild shit though bro! On the real! When you hear my shit-man I got songs for my kids; I got songs for-street shit that’s tryna tell you to stay up outta shit; I got stories where I’m talking bout-I got a lot of partners that’s locked up doing life and they never coming back. And some of the situations I may have been with them in the vehicle when shit happens and they took a fall. And I’m writing from my perspective of how I feel about them and the situation, and I’m also writing from their perspective on how they feel about being on the inside and what to tell the youth. I’m way different than most people think; most people gon box me in and think that I’m lyrical but rapping hard shit all the time. I’m a gangsta, so whatever I’ma do I’m not gon do no cheesy or no corny shit. I have a lot of different topics. You gotta think: I was raised by all females. I have eight or nine daughters.

Nobodysmiling.com : Wow!

Ca$his : So of course there’s a softer side of me-a side with reason. But then I react -how women get emotional? I’ll react like that but react on the ni**a side: I don’t wanna argue with you; I react and I just wanna fuck somebody up. When I don’t think sometimes I tend to fuck up, so it’s a hard balance and that’s what you’re gonna find in my music; cause I have-I believe in God; I have a lot of pain-all of my male family members have died at the age of twenty three except for two or three of us now.

Nobodysmiling.com : I’m sorry to hear that man.

Ca$his : So that’s fucked up. One of my cousins just got killed-one of the ones that just lived over there-and he was like twenty-seven/twenty eight, and he just got killed.

Nobodysmiling.com : I’m sorry to hear that brother.

Ca$his : I got all they names tatted on me cause I feel they live through me. They wanted me to rap when they found out I was rapping. I never really wanted to do this; I never thought I could make it rapping. I never…and I felt I’ve done so much wrong that I never wanted to become that easy of a target.

Nobodysmiling.com : Yeah.

Ca$his : OK all you gotta do is look on the computer nowadays and find where a rapper gon be at and if you really wanna get em you can get em. And I didn’t wanna put myself in that position cause I’ve done some outlandish shit. But to feed my kids I’ll do it. My boy Rick got me started and my dead comrades, that’s gone, they pushed it. And now I love rap. Now I love this; I’m not married. I’m married to the music. I love this shit and I’m not gon let nobody take my spot away. So everyday I write-that’s why I said I do three songs a day, if not more, because everyday I know there’s a new ni**a starting and people are better nowadays when they start off.

This is ’06-’07-it’s not the same as when maybe I started rapping in ’97. People are already more advanced because music is more advanced, so I have to stay ahead of them and I have to figure out how not to go too far ahead of the people to where they don’t get it. So keep it relevant to today but stay way ahead of everybody else and still have-that’s what keeps me with the hunger of writing, cause I think-everyday I’m writing I think I’m battling against “Emcee Nobody” that was in Chicago where I was and tryna take my spot; you know what I’m saying?

Nobodysmiling.com : Word. Ca$his what’s the main thing you’ve absorbed from Eminem about being a music industry professional?

Ca$his :: The main thing I’ve learned about Em is that you have to be yourself. You have to be yourself and you also have to be more outgoing than normally. Like me, I’m a person that’s not a outgoing person; I don’t like talking to people. I stay to myself because I’m discrete-I’m usually doing the wrong thing. And people mistake that for shyness. I’m not shy-I’ll speak my mind-but I like to just watch and after I get to know a person, I’ll converse with you. He’s coached me a lot on that. I have to be the way that I would be to my homies or I have to be the way that I am when I’m around him-cause people wanna know and it’s good that they wanna know. Cause usually, if you a street dude, people asking you too many questions [then] you like ‘Man why you wanna know?‘

Nobodysmiling.com : Of course you’re gonna be suspicious.

Ca$his : You know? And that’s my natural reaction. So I’m fixing that and he’s taught me how to do that. And he’s also taught me that I’m good.

Nobodysmiling.com : (Laughs). Word.

Ca$his : Yeah, that I’m good-that I can rap. Eminem-if you see the excitement on his face when I do a record in Detroit or I send em a record and he calls me; or he just calls me like ‘Man I just made ten beats; you gotta hear these. I think you gon like em.’ That lets me know ‘Damn I’m doing something right.’ So I’ve learned to go with my instinct-my gut-from Em. I might say some shit, or say it in a tone, and somebody in the studio might be like ‘Man you sure you wanna say it like that?’ But I know what I’m doing though; I know what I’m doing now. And I know how to stack my vocals. I learned that from Em. I learned a lot of shit on how to be a professional person and how to carry myself and not react to situations the wrong way but still if I gotta fuck somebody up, do it. Em clearly told me that. And he’s taught me how not to get caught up around people I don’t need to be caught up around; it’s certain entertainers-that’s even from my coast, from California-that you would never see me around. It’s not gon happen and I don’t wanna be around em.

Nobodysmiling.com : Really?

Ca$his : Because of the situations that’s going on. So Em has taught me that: how not to get caught up like I’m standing next to somebody and somebody take a picture and it makes it appear as if I’m turning on my camp or some shit like that. I’m learning. It’s a lot of politics in this game. It’s just like going to the county jail; if you go to the county jail you may have Mexican homeboys, but when you in the county they ain’t your homeboys. I gotta ride with my people and you gotta ride with your people. When we get out we homies again, but-

Nobodysmiling.com : But in that circumstance you can’t work like that.

Ca$his Yeah. In this circumstance I was never-whoever got beef with my label, or anybody on my label, I was never cool with; I never knew these ni**as; I never knew none of these rap ni**as.

Nobodysmiling.com : Right.

Ca$his : So it don’t make me none. I’ma gangsta disciple-I’m GD-so coming into Shady I’m coming into a gang and that’s what I’m instilling into the artists over at Shady: we gotta bang this man because if not everybody gon take us out. If people think they can talk shit about Em or talk shit about Fifty or talk shit about me or talk shit about Bobby Creek or Obie or somebody in D12; or if they think ‘OK, we can be cool with the rest of them but I’ma talk shit about this person-that makes all us look like pussies cause we claim to be Shady as a family. And if we a family-only shit I can think of is, this shit is like Tha Row cause I’ma west coast dude. And not saying that I’m supporting Death Row, but I’m saying when the Row was popping-when they had Pac, Snoop, and Kurupt and Daz-when it was popping-it was like if you said some shit about-ni**as was too scared to say anything about-when Pac was dropping them “Hit Em Ups” and all that, ni**as was silent.

Nobodysmiling.com : Hell yeah.

Ca$his : There was no responses cause you knew you had to fuck with they whole crew. And that’s the way I want it to be for Shady. And Em feels it should be that way. And we have Shady, G-Unit and Aftermath; we have three power houses, so I’ma be the vocal point for my part-from Shady-and I’m tryna instill that…that riotness in people; I want everybody on the label to feel like-I want them to feel safe and secure in they position-you ain’t fixing to get dropped if your album didn’t do well. It ain’t that type of party-we a family. But you gotta ride. You gotta ride.

If Eminem is somewhere and he in a fight, I’m fixing to fuck somebody up. And not because that man pays me [but] because me and this man talk fucking four or five times a week for hours on the phone; you know what I’m saying? And I look at Obie and I look at everybody on my label like they my brothers- like I’m in a family. We’ve all recorded together; we’ve all been around them and they all respect me, so I respect them. And if we a clique-if you got beef I got beef; if you got rap beef then I got rap beef. I might not jump in it until you call me, but I’m letting it known that I’m on your side and if you need me then I’m there. But if you don’t need me to jump in it then it’s no need for me to fuck with it. And that’s what my position is.

Nobodysmiling.com : Word. You sound like you’ve emerged as sort of a leader-I know Eminem is the leader, but it sounds like you’ve emerged as somewhat of a leader in the Shady camp.

Ca$his : Man I’m not gon say that cause I’ma rookie still. I’m just a-I’ma vocal person and I speak my mind and I’ma G, so that’s just the way I act; when I see a situation and I don’t like something about it I voice my opinion and it just so happens that King Mathers agrees with what I’m saying. It’s the same thing that he thought-same thing that everybody on the label saw; we all know that we ride for each other, but no one knows how close we are. They all know we all cool and they probably think when we go to the videos we cool, but we all cool on personal levels also.

Nobodysmiling.com : OK.

Ca$his : And the public don’t know that. If you look at G-Unit you think G-Unit is tight-like they’re a family regardless of what, they riding for each other. Did you really think the same about Shady-that we’re all cool with each other? If you’re just a general listener would you think that we would just jump in each other shit? Most people that I know would say no; they thought we were just a rap label and that’s not the way I want it to be. And that’s not the way we rap about it, so we can’t live it like that. We gotta live it real.

Nobodysmiling.com : Don’t you think that’s a little dangerous? You want guys to feel like brothers waving the same flag, but Eminem’s a record executive; next week he could decide things aren’t going right and drop Stat Quo or Obie from the label-just theoretically? Isn’t it dangerous to get that emotionally tied in with a record company?

Ca$his : You know what brah? I think it is in a way; you feel me? I’ma be-on some ni**a to ni**a shit, I think that is hella dangerous. But I got “Shady” tattooed on me though; you know what I’m saying? Like…fuck all that; I don’t look at it like it’s a record-if artists on our label have a relationship like an executive-to-artist-relationship then…I don’t know nothing about that cause, to me, I think everybody is family. I don’t think nobody’s gon get dropped from the label. I think you would have to do some fucked up shit to get dropped.

Nobodysmiling.com : (Laughs)

Ca$his : You know what I’m saying? Green Lantern-

Nobodysmiling.com : Right-right-right.

Ca$his : But you would have to do some obviously disloyal shit. I don’t think that poor record sales would get you dropped. I think that would maybe make you not come out again as quick as you would like to, but I don’t think that anyone would get dropped because I think we all have abandonment issues; I know I have hella abandonment issues cause I’ve lost a lot of people-pop wasn’t there-all the same normal bullshit. Em has that same shit; 50 has that shit. I think we all have abandonment issues, so I think that’ll keep us together cause I can’t see Em dropping anybody.

Nobodysmiling.com : Really?

Ca$his :Not unless they really-really-really deserved it. I don’t know dog; you would have to really really deserve to get dropped. You get dropped over here you [then] you deserved it. That mean you fucked up man, and you did something bad that couldn’t be fixed. So many people are tryna –if there was inner turmoil, there are so many different…what do they call them fuckin people?

Nobodysmiling.com : What? Mediators?

Ca$his : Arbitrate-mediators-so many different mediators that would defuse the situation before it got out of control, so where if you got dropped from the label man you deserve it.

Nobodysmiling.com : OK. I hear you. You spoke about switching up tones in the studio. Why’d you change up your voice on the hook for “Everything is Shady?” Sounds like something Eminem would do.

Ca$his : Really? Aw shit, I’ll take that as a compliment: you say “Everything is Shady” sound like something Eminem would do. Um…I switched up my voice man cause that’s my Midwest style. When I first start rapping I rapped in that tone cause my voice was kinda lighter. So I had to stack my voice like a million times like that. If you really listen to it, it’s like nine or ten tracks of that tone and I’m saying it in different ways and then it comes out like that.

Nobodysmiling.com : Oh.

Ca$his : Yeah. That’s not-yeah, that’s dope though.

Nobodysmiling.com :(Laughs)

Ca$his : That’s just it. I got other records like that also; on my ‘Bogus Boy’ mixtape-“It’s Not a Problem For Us”- on that one I rap-the raps, the versus-are like that hook.

Nobodysmiling.com : Really?

Ca$his : That’s just my style; that’s just a style I have. I try-if you listen to ‘The Re-Up’ I try to sound different on the majority of records. I don’t ever want you to come in and automatically know like, ‘OK, he fixing to sound…’ you know like Jadakiss-I’m not talking shit about nobody-but you know how ni**as be reading shit [and] they say a “monotone,” the same delivery?

Nobodysmiling.com : Yeah.

Ca$his : I don’t want that. I don’t want you to hear it and be like ‘OK. Here come Ca$his again. He fixing to sound like this every time.’ I want you to expect the unexpected from me- like how Ludacris is sometimes unpredictable how he come on.

Nobodysmiling.com : Definitely.

Ca$his : Ni**as like when he do that; you know what I’m saying? So I just wanna do that from a gangsta perspective-me and Ludacris came up different. I just wanna do it from a G’s perspective but do it-that’s style to me…that’s having style. Rapping like Jay-Z is not having style; Jay-Z has style, but every other rapper out here raps like Jay-Z.

Nobodysmiling.com : Copycats.

Ca$his : Damn dog. That’s not style: cause he said it how Jigga said it. So I’m tryna say it the best way that I can. And, you know, I listen to a lot of music, so a lot of emcees have influenced me. So my shit is like a mixture of everybody, but it’s my voice though. I’ve never written a record like ‘I’m gonna write this record like Tupac,’ like, say, Ja-Rule did; I wouldn’t do that. I’m not gonna say I’m gonna write this record like Eminem because Eminem’s the best. I can’t be the best Eminem. I have to be the best me; I’m Ramone; I’m Ca$his-I have to be the best Ca$his.

Nobodysmiling.com : Exactly.

Ca$his : Whatever the-if you were to send me a beat I would write to whatever part of the beat I like; I just ride whatever sounds in the beat I like and I just try to match my voice to-I try to make it marriage between the way my voice sound and the way the track sound; not even what I’m saying cause what I’m saying is always gon be gutter. But if I say it differently it can get played and certain people won’t even-it’ll fly right by em cause they’ll hear and like the tone. But people that’s listening to what I’m saying is like ‘Damn, dude is hard.’ Like did you catch who I was talking to in the second verse of “Everything is Shady?”

Nobodysmiling.com : Nah-not really, to be honest.

Ca$his : Listen to it again. When you really listen to that song again you’ll see. I say that’s why Em put it up at number five on the album- cause it’s letting you know how we feel man, like ‘…I’ma ride now for Proof/ Shady gang ni**a/ I hope you bullet proof fat fuck lame ni**a/ know who I’m talking to/ I’m glad ya fam dead/ you bout to get it too/ rest with ya man’-if you hear about the story bout how Proof got killed-

Nobodysmiling.com : Oh yeah! I did think, when I heard those lyrics, that you might have been talking to the folks that got Proof.

Ca$his : Yeah. And that’s what-people in the D, they hear it and they understand it. That’s what I’m saying: I’m jumping into everything dog; I have nothing to lose right now. I have nothing to lose man. Em gon make sure that my children are straight, so I have nothing to lose and I just wanna be the best me that I can be and put out the realest music and not be scared. That’s the reason why I didn’t wanna sign to no other label but Shady-you can say what the fuck you wanna say on Shady and not be censored. Em could kill a hundred fags in a record and still Elton John got on TV and did a record-

Nobodysmiling.com : That’s crazy right?

Ca$his : That’s the way I want it to be. I don’t wanna be censored or be forced to have to come with this club record or-cause I got club records, but I do em in my style. If you force a artist to do it that’s when a artist comes out with corny music.

Nobodysmiling.com : Bullshit, right.

Ca$his : Remember that Lil Flip record, “Sunshine?”

Nobodysmiling.com : Aw man!

Ca$his : That beat was hard and the girl that was singing was good, but he said ‘I’ll treat you like milk/ I’ll do nothing but’- come on brah!

Nobodysmiling.com : No offense to that brother, but I didn’t like that joint either.

Ca$his : Yeah. Nothing against him, but it was like ‘Damn dog! You just played yourself.’ And ever since then-that album sold and he hasn’t been able to come back out since that. And I never wanna be in that position; I never wanna drop some-I would never wanna be forced to drop bull-if that shit happens [then] let it be my fault. Let it be [that] I was stupid and chose to do some bullshit and I deserved to be on the back burner. But I don’t wanna go to a label that would even encourage that. If I came to Eminem with a record like that dog he would probably laugh in my face. (Laughs)

Nobodysmiling.com : Word. Well, on the flipside, you don’t think “Smack That” is a reach at-

Ca$his : Ay but man “Smack That” wasn’t Em record though; Em just-Em rocked a verse on there; that wasn’t his whole record, so you can’t say that.

Nobodysmiling.com : OK. OK. Just checking.

birdman2187

Propz Cashis is the future of Shady Records

Montana Diary

Props on this shit. Good read.

__________________

that-damn-good

real good read, cant wait for the album

__________________

mrawesomeness

Damn good read propz on this

__________________
Chuck Norris and Mr.awesomeness walked into a bar. The bar was instantly destroyed, as that level of awesome cannot be contained in one building.

shady713

shady cant stop fire

~laydee-tease~

propzzz gud read ...

__________________

denilson

props man.

BenzinoDickRider

props nice read dude

Vjay88

Dude's got crazy hard tracks
Can't wait for his new shit

Shady, Better Believer the Hype is Real

ChUcK C

real tite interview,propzzzz.....