When Rusty California was listening to Kendrick Lamar rap over the instrumental of The Notorious B.I.G.’s “The What” on the launch of radio personality Big Boy’s return to radio March 9, he was taken aback by a particular part of Lamar’s lyrics.
“From Compton to congress,” the TDE artist rapped on Big Boy’s show. “It’s set-trippin’ all around / AIn’t nothin’ new but a [few] of / Democrips and Reblodicans / Red State versus a Blue State / Which one you governin’? / They give us guns and drugs / Call us thugs.”
Rusty California had a dramatic reaction to the rhymes.
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“When I first heard it, honestly, I got a chill down my spine and the middle of my chest,” Rusty California says during an exclusive interview with HipHopDX. “Then I asked the person that I was with, ‘Did he just say Rebloodicans? Then they said, ‘Yeah.’ I was like, ‘Damn I think he just said Democrips and Rebloodicans.’ Then I started listening more intently.”
The reason Rusty California took particular interest in Kendrick Lamar’s rhymes while on Big Boy’s radio programs — lyrics that are also included on To Pimp A Butterfly’s “Hood Politics” — is that he released a song called “Democrips & Rebloodicans” on his 2009 album, Live From The Struggle. At the time, Rusty California recorded as Pat’s Justice. So when Rusty California heard Kendrick Lamar’s rhymes, he was dumbfounded.
“I was surprised that I heard that,” Rusty California says. “I couldn’t believe it, and then from there I just wanted to make sure that he knew and the world knew that I created that word, period. That’s all I really said. I didn’t feel no good or bad about it.”
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Rusty California Coined Term “Democrips And Rebloodicans” In 2007
While recording as Pat’s Justice, Rusty California was known for his political raps, including “Innocent Criminal,” which he performed on Def Poetry.
He says he came up with the Democrips and Rebloodicans concept in 2007.
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“The word came from me in the process of creating the album that I was making at the time called Live From The Struggle,” Rusty California says. “I was in a real creative zone, trying to make songs and what not and the line came in my mind. It was just like Democrips and Rebloodicans, the words just came to me first. Then it said, ‘Gang bangin’ on behalf of the government,’ It was just a bar. I was like, ‘Oooh. I like that. Then I noticed, after the fact that, damn, Democrats are blues states and Republicans are red and then it just all made sense after the fact. It was almost like an accident.
“I learned over the times from artists like Tupac and other revolutionaries, they was like the police and the Government is like,” Rusty California continues. “When you look at it, it is that. So people have been talking about it a long time, but I was just able to diagnose it real quick. The politicians use the same tactics, and have the same characteristics as the bloods and crips, and in my experience, I feel like the bloods and crips are a poor man’s impersonation of the Government.”
Before Kendrick Lamar used Democrips and Rebloodicans on “Hood Politics,” Jesse Venture wrote a book in 2012 named DemoCRIPS and ReBLOODlicans: No More Gangs in Government. Unlike Kendrick Lamar’s usage of the words, Rusty California did not appreciate Ventura’s using the words.
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“I was offended,” he says. “I was like, ‘You know what? How the hell is this guy trying to sell a book with a word I created and not at least give me a shout out?’…I was offended because I was like this guy is on CNN and he’s elaborating on a word I created and I need to be the one elaborating on. If not he needed to figure out how to reach out to me and collaborate with me because I know nobody else used that word or said that word before me. Funny thing is, they all they all rhymed with the word government or govern, so that’s how I know that it came from me.”
Rusty California says that he’s working on new material he hopes will also inspire others.
“It’s a timeless body of work,” he says of his forthcoming album. “It’s the evolution. I would like to tell the title, but you I don’t want nobody to use it before me because it’s very unique. It’s going to basically be a album that is very relative to the title, but it’s deep and its going to be something that the hip hop game is missing. It’s very creative, and it’s very lyrical and it has great production on it. I feel like after I drop this album, everyone is gonna know who Rusty California is.
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As he reflects on Kendrick Lamar and Jesse Venture using Democrips and Rebloodicans, he sees the power of the words.
“When the word came to me, I knew it was a huge word,” Rusty California says. “I mean I think the word is important to culture, to the culture of America, and for Jesse Ventura to write a book, at the end of the day I’m honored because at the end of the day somebody felt inspired enough to write a book about a word I created. Then when I hear Kendrick Lamar, who is one of the top rappers in the game right now, on the radio say the word, no matter where he got it from, I know he got it from me, so I’m just honored, too, and that another great artist just felt the need to use the word.”
