Cavaliers. Browns. Indians. As a sports fan, that’s about all I know about Cleveland, OH. Oh wait, there’s Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, unique rap quartet who exploded in the mid-nineties when there was no Midwest- just two warring coasts. Today, Cleveland remains a symbol of urban pain and neglect, a city with a troubled history of race explosions, police and community tensions.
According to Sony Universal recording artist Ray Cash born (Wardell Raymond Cheeks), that’s just the tip of the iceberg. According to him, Cleveland is all about swagger. After this interview, I for one, believe him. I guess you’ve got to have a swagger with a name like Wardell…
R.C.: I just wanted to be called what people called me in the streets, in school, all my life. They call me Ray. You know, like state your name and your purpose. My name is Ray, and my purpose is the money. Like we all love this shit, but don’t let people spin you wrong. They doing it for the money too. People say its kinda fucked up when I say I do it for the money but if niggas wasn’t getting checks for this shit, you know, you wouldn’t take it as seriously as you do. People see the hunger, the swagger, and recognize a real nigga when they see one. People like Ray Cash for who he is, which is Ray, without the cash. Like, people fuck with me for the reasons I want to be fucked with. Don’t fuck with me cause I gotta video out. That don’t mean you know me. Just cause we smoked a blunt don’t mean we cool.
C.O.D.: Cash On Delivery, is his debut, propelled by the likes of Rockwilder, Rick Rock and Knoxxxx.
R.C.: I tried to put my all into it, and I tried to put the Cleveland swagger all the way out there… to show them the Midwest thing… that we can actually write rhymes, (to show) a real MC: a nigga that can really get it in.
Nowadays, most cities have somebody that they can point to as a pioneer, the person or group that put them on the map, so to speak. For Cleveland, that somebody is undoubtedly Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. By most accounts, hip hop is in its mid-late twenty’s. Ray Cash is 25. Its crazy to think of Bone as “back in the day”, but their influence on a new generation of artists is unmistakable.
R.C.: Aww man, ’94… I was like 13, 14 years old when they came out. It had the city in a frenzy to see them (Bone Thugs-N-Harmony) fuck with the heavyweights. When we heard Bone and B.I.G, it was a wrap. Then when we heard Bone and ‘Pac, they was really progressing; winning Grammys and shit like that. To see that shit was just the way of telling us that shit was possible. Somebody from our little run down city (as they call it) could actually make it up outta here on some real shit. Cleveland is real man, we do the same shit everybody else do. You’d be surprised. I go outta town and a lot of niggas got mad respect for Cleveland. Because they heard that niggas get it in. It’s a real laid back city: you don’t fuck with me- I don’t fuck with you. Its cool, I love it. I don’t wanna live nowhere else but here.
*Note to sports fans: I did ask him about Lebron James.
HHDX: Are you a Cavs fan?
R.C.: Of course.
HHDX: Is LeBron the next MJ?
R.C. : Umm… I don’t know, that’s a heavy comparison. Lebron is my man. He’s a good dude, I mean, he’s a beast. I think he can be. It ain’t been nobody with that much hype that’s lived up to it like that. To have that much pressure, and you don’t even see it. That kinda shows that up-top swagger. He just might be the next. I’ll put my money on him any day.
For a debut, Mr. Cash certainly does not hold back. Not only does he recruit rap heavyweights (Bun B, Scarface, Pastor Troy, Beanie Siegel) but he spits the swagger of a veteran while maintaining the humility of a rookie.
R.C. : It was an honor working with those guys. Certain people like that only fuck with people they believe in and respect. For niggas to really take a liking to me and show me respect really showed me that I’m making an impact, just by being myself. I don’t gotta have a crazy rap story to make these niggas know I’m a real nigga. So it was cool to be in the mix, see how they maneuver, because first of all I’m new to this. So I see how they carry themselves and how they make they music; to kinda rub off on me and make my process a whole lot easier. Like Bun… I had to record in Atlanta, but I had the flu. So I’m in the studio. I look up and I see Bun coming down the stairs and I’m like get the fuck outta here. So we talked, smoked, and he was just telling me shit about the game. He heard that "Sex Appeal" joint I put out last year. And he said that he heard me say if I’m rich and you broke, you must be trying to get some from me, free Pimp C. And when I put it in the song, me and my man was just fucking around. We never thought it would go that far. I never thought we’d shoot a video for it. And when he heard it he was like I gotta watch you. To get with Pimp, Face, Devin, Bone, Beans and Freeway. These niggas I really fuck with, niggas I really look up to. We all get a long and are able to make music. That’s good shit right there.
Good music indeed. C.O.D. is already getting rave reviews, most notably for Ray’s clear departure from “the formula” that has become commonplace in commercial hip hop. Again, Ray points to the swagger. "Sex Appeal (Pimp In My Own Mind)" is clever…
R.C. : It’s the swagger man. You might have woke up like damn, I’m dumb fresh today. Like it’s about how you carry yourself. Do it on your level. It ain’t got nothing to do with a cup and a prostitute. It’s about doing you, being comfortable with yourself. Shining on your own.
Then there’s the controversial Fuck Amerikkka…
R.C. : (Laughing) Everybody wanna say it, but they can’t cause they scared they’ll lose they jobs. They wanna feed they people. You really wanna go to work and be like yo fuck you. And I been there. I done worked a couple of spots and that’s why I’m doing this, cause I couldn’t take that shit. If you not really doing something you love than it’s not really…I’m just blessed enough to be in a situation where I do something that I like to do. So like Fuck Amerikkka is just my way of speaking for niggas who can’t speak for themselves. Niggas that are locked up, that know what they did; but some niggas don’t have options. For niggas that don’t have an option that’s fucked up. I wanted to speak for them. For a nigga that don’t have a job I wanted to speak for him. I ain’t trying to ruffle nobody’s feathers, I’m just telling the truth. That’s how we feel.
How real is that? I mean, political commentary aside, I woke up the other day and found out that President Bush had boarded Air-Force 1 for a surprise trip to Iraq. I remember thinking: boy oh boy, I wish that he could a few surprise trips to the hood.
R.C. : I ain’t no political dude. I don’t get into it like that. I just talk what I see. I don’t get into it like that, but…Bush is a sneaky ma-fucker man! (laughs). I would never trust that nigga man. Never. It’s crazy that people don’t see that. It’s nothing that you can do about it, and I think that’s fucked up. The people ain’t happy, but it ain’t about the people. It’ll be alright. I’ll vote for Hillary next time.
Ironically, it was another president that played a key role in Ray’s rap career. Ray Scrilla lists many hip hop god-fathers as influences on his music (Scarface, UGK, Jay-Z, N.W.A, Eightball and MJG) with none bigger than President Carter himself.
The Hard-Knock Life tour came through Cleveland in ‘99. That was like crazy, to see dude come out and he wasn’t with 30 muthafuckers- it was just him. And he came out, he didn’t just come with "Jigga What Jigga Who". He came with "lotta speculation about the money I’ve made, the honey’s I’ve slayed…" You know? Not that shit that we heard all day on the radio, but the shit that that I was really in love with. To see a nigga be himself and see him control all those people like that. And be accepted for being himself with no gimmick or nothing, just a fresh nigga with a chain on. That kinda made me be like yo if I can do this shit and be me at the same time, and not have some bullshit gimmick behind it, I would do it.
According to Sony Universal recording artist Ray Cash born (Wardell Raymond Cheeks), that’s just the tip of the iceberg. According to him, Cleveland is all about swagger. After this interview, I for one, believe him. I guess you’ve got to have a swagger with a name like Wardell…
R.C.: I just wanted to be called what people called me in the streets, in school, all my life. They call me Ray. You know, like state your name and your purpose. My name is Ray, and my purpose is the money. Like we all love this shit, but don’t let people spin you wrong. They doing it for the money too. People say its kinda fucked up when I say I do it for the money but if niggas wasn’t getting checks for this shit, you know, you wouldn’t take it as seriously as you do. People see the hunger, the swagger, and recognize a real nigga when they see one. People like Ray Cash for who he is, which is Ray, without the cash. Like, people fuck with me for the reasons I want to be fucked with. Don’t fuck with me cause I gotta video out. That don’t mean you know me. Just cause we smoked a blunt don’t mean we cool.
C.O.D.: Cash On Delivery, is his debut, propelled by the likes of Rockwilder, Rick Rock and Knoxxxx.
R.C.: I tried to put my all into it, and I tried to put the Cleveland swagger all the way out there… to show them the Midwest thing… that we can actually write rhymes, (to show) a real MC: a nigga that can really get it in.
Nowadays, most cities have somebody that they can point to as a pioneer, the person or group that put them on the map, so to speak. For Cleveland, that somebody is undoubtedly Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. By most accounts, hip hop is in its mid-late twenty’s. Ray Cash is 25. Its crazy to think of Bone as “back in the day”, but their influence on a new generation of artists is unmistakable.
R.C.: Aww man, ’94… I was like 13, 14 years old when they came out. It had the city in a frenzy to see them (Bone Thugs-N-Harmony) fuck with the heavyweights. When we heard Bone and B.I.G, it was a wrap. Then when we heard Bone and ‘Pac, they was really progressing; winning Grammys and shit like that. To see that shit was just the way of telling us that shit was possible. Somebody from our little run down city (as they call it) could actually make it up outta here on some real shit. Cleveland is real man, we do the same shit everybody else do. You’d be surprised. I go outta town and a lot of niggas got mad respect for Cleveland. Because they heard that niggas get it in. It’s a real laid back city: you don’t fuck with me- I don’t fuck with you. Its cool, I love it. I don’t wanna live nowhere else but here.
*Note to sports fans: I did ask him about Lebron James.
HHDX: Are you a Cavs fan?
R.C.: Of course.
HHDX: Is LeBron the next MJ?
R.C. : Umm… I don’t know, that’s a heavy comparison. Lebron is my man. He’s a good dude, I mean, he’s a beast. I think he can be. It ain’t been nobody with that much hype that’s lived up to it like that. To have that much pressure, and you don’t even see it. That kinda shows that up-top swagger. He just might be the next. I’ll put my money on him any day.
For a debut, Mr. Cash certainly does not hold back. Not only does he recruit rap heavyweights (Bun B, Scarface, Pastor Troy, Beanie Siegel) but he spits the swagger of a veteran while maintaining the humility of a rookie.
R.C. : It was an honor working with those guys. Certain people like that only fuck with people they believe in and respect. For niggas to really take a liking to me and show me respect really showed me that I’m making an impact, just by being myself. I don’t gotta have a crazy rap story to make these niggas know I’m a real nigga. So it was cool to be in the mix, see how they maneuver, because first of all I’m new to this. So I see how they carry themselves and how they make they music; to kinda rub off on me and make my process a whole lot easier. Like Bun… I had to record in Atlanta, but I had the flu. So I’m in the studio. I look up and I see Bun coming down the stairs and I’m like get the fuck outta here. So we talked, smoked, and he was just telling me shit about the game. He heard that "Sex Appeal" joint I put out last year. And he said that he heard me say if I’m rich and you broke, you must be trying to get some from me, free Pimp C. And when I put it in the song, me and my man was just fucking around. We never thought it would go that far. I never thought we’d shoot a video for it. And when he heard it he was like I gotta watch you. To get with Pimp, Face, Devin, Bone, Beans and Freeway. These niggas I really fuck with, niggas I really look up to. We all get a long and are able to make music. That’s good shit right there.
Good music indeed. C.O.D. is already getting rave reviews, most notably for Ray’s clear departure from “the formula” that has become commonplace in commercial hip hop. Again, Ray points to the swagger. "Sex Appeal (Pimp In My Own Mind)" is clever…
R.C. : It’s the swagger man. You might have woke up like damn, I’m dumb fresh today. Like it’s about how you carry yourself. Do it on your level. It ain’t got nothing to do with a cup and a prostitute. It’s about doing you, being comfortable with yourself. Shining on your own.
Then there’s the controversial Fuck Amerikkka…
R.C. : (Laughing) Everybody wanna say it, but they can’t cause they scared they’ll lose they jobs. They wanna feed they people. You really wanna go to work and be like yo fuck you. And I been there. I done worked a couple of spots and that’s why I’m doing this, cause I couldn’t take that shit. If you not really doing something you love than it’s not really…I’m just blessed enough to be in a situation where I do something that I like to do. So like Fuck Amerikkka is just my way of speaking for niggas who can’t speak for themselves. Niggas that are locked up, that know what they did; but some niggas don’t have options. For niggas that don’t have an option that’s fucked up. I wanted to speak for them. For a nigga that don’t have a job I wanted to speak for him. I ain’t trying to ruffle nobody’s feathers, I’m just telling the truth. That’s how we feel.
How real is that? I mean, political commentary aside, I woke up the other day and found out that President Bush had boarded Air-Force 1 for a surprise trip to Iraq. I remember thinking: boy oh boy, I wish that he could a few surprise trips to the hood.
R.C. : I ain’t no political dude. I don’t get into it like that. I just talk what I see. I don’t get into it like that, but…Bush is a sneaky ma-fucker man! (laughs). I would never trust that nigga man. Never. It’s crazy that people don’t see that. It’s nothing that you can do about it, and I think that’s fucked up. The people ain’t happy, but it ain’t about the people. It’ll be alright. I’ll vote for Hillary next time.
Ironically, it was another president that played a key role in Ray’s rap career. Ray Scrilla lists many hip hop god-fathers as influences on his music (Scarface, UGK, Jay-Z, N.W.A, Eightball and MJG) with none bigger than President Carter himself.
The Hard-Knock Life tour came through Cleveland in ‘99. That was like crazy, to see dude come out and he wasn’t with 30 muthafuckers- it was just him. And he came out, he didn’t just come with "Jigga What Jigga Who". He came with "lotta speculation about the money I’ve made, the honey’s I’ve slayed…" You know? Not that shit that we heard all day on the radio, but the shit that that I was really in love with. To see a nigga be himself and see him control all those people like that. And be accepted for being himself with no gimmick or nothing, just a fresh nigga with a chain on. That kinda made me be like yo if I can do this shit and be me at the same time, and not have some bullshit gimmick behind it, I would do it.
