San Quinn Back To Business: Full Interview Audio (36:20)

Words: nando
Published: March 3, 2010

After a year-long hiatus from releasing projects, and turmoil with longtime affiliate and blood relative, Messy Marv, the mighty San Quinn is ready to get back to business.

With three new solo projects in the making, and various duo albums, as Quinn puts it,  he is ready to prove himself to the industry again in 2010, or 2000-Quinn rather. Quinn also discusses putting his problems with Mess to rest, his project with Berner being put on hold due it, and much more.

Baycentrik: So how you doing Quinn?

San Quinn: Just taking care of family right now, getting ready for this 2000-Quinn, the year is gonna be a great year musically, hopefully for the whole bay area you know?

Baycentrik: Right off the bat let's clear up your label affiliation. First you were Done Deal, then Deal Done was established through SMC. What's your current label, is it Rockin Up Work?

San Quinn: It ain't no label, I'm the label. San Quinn is a brand. It could be a number of labels but I'm just trying to keep the name around, San Quinn. It's basically the label. I could be working for anybody or working for myself. It's always Done Deal forever, that's me Ya Boy, Big Rich, Bailey, Willie Hen, Young Know. That's Done Deal, that's always gonna be what we all started from, Chuck too. I'm just trying to make myself a brand, San Quinn

Baycentrik: So you're a free agent, for hire.

San Quinn: I'm for hire, I ain't really pushing a movement, I'm more interested in 3 Story Records, I'm down with Livewire, and it's good to see all my boys have they shit off the ground. I'm just supporting all the other labels and crews, and always apart of everything like the up and coming dudes that's my family like J. Stalin, Big Rich, I'm a part of what they doing.

Baycentrik: What happened to Deal Done? You had a lot of potential there and it seemed as if the label was going to take off after the Done Deal era. You had J. DaVinci, Hollywood, your son Lil Quinn...

San Quinn: Well I'm still dealing with Hollywood, and Lil Quinn. Like I said my label was Done Deal, Deal Done was started because me and Chuck had Done Deal, everybody went they separate ways and then the people I was dealing with which was my cousin Wendell and my patna James Gordon, they wanted to keep Done Deal. But legally if you got somebody's label on the back of your record they can sue you, take you to court. So we switched it to Deal Done, that shit was Done Deal the whole time. It was just a bunch of messy shit that we didn't have to go through.

Baycentrik: Last time we spoke, you touched on the fact that you are part owners of the original Done Deal catalog with Chuck...

San Quinn: Me and Chuck own Done Deal, the name. Chuck started Street Cred, Big Rich started 3 Story, Bailey started City Boyz, Ya Boy just signed with Akon. Willie Hen has

"Every year I find myself having to prove myself again to people in the industry.."

established himself with Scarface and the group The Product. Our roots is Fillmore Done Deal, but everyone as men grow up and wanna do shit they self, feel me. That's just life.

Baycentrik: You have a series of albums coming up this year, talk about those.

San Quinn: First off all just to start the year off I have a record in stores now with a cat up out of Sacramento that's been putting in a lot of work, his name is E.Klips Da Hustla. San Quinn and E.Klips Da Hustla have an album out called Detrimental, that dropped in January. I took a year off last year over little frivolous beef and other shit I was going through with Marv, to clear that up before you even ask, me and him is cool. We family, we squashed that shit. We haven't physically talked to each other, but through people we both acknowledged that that shit ain't got nothing to do with us being successful. I took all of last year off, I dropped Welcome to Scokland and Boy to a Man at the end of last year, 2008. 2009 was just a transitional year, the industry changed a lot over the last 2 years, as far as people dropping records.

So I went ahead and dropped that Detrimental with E.Klips Da Hustla early. I got San Quinn presents Guns Oil and Drugs that's coming out through record label EHustl that did the Keak Da Sneak and the All City SF Anthem video with me. It's not really a presents because I'm all over it, I got about 8 solo songs. It's 19 tracks but it's also featuring my big brother Shake from out of East Palo Alto. He was a pioneer, one of the first rappers out of EPA, he finally getting a shot on this GOD Guns Oil and Drugs: Recession Proof. That will be out sometime this month, March. So I'm getting that out the way in order for me to drop this trilogy with 2000-Quinn Volume 1,2, and 3 Growth and Strength series. It's looking like it's gonna be May, August, and November. 10 Songs intro and outro on each one, all new songs. A number of features but they're real solo records. I'mma have E-40, Homewrecka, Lil Quinn, Livewire crew, it ain't no telling. I'm working on two of em, I got one done already. Ain't no telling who you'll hear on there, you might hear Jay-Z on one of them. And it's not gonna be no stolen verse or nothing like that, it's all gonna be real. I'm not really into the mixtapes, instead I'm doing songs featured with people that really did a record with me.

It's gonna be good and the reason I'm doing this is because fans have a short attention span now. With iPods and all that shit being out, I see the boy Plies, he might have came out 2005, end of 06, dude might have had like 4 albums out already. Since 06, I dropped two solo albums and Welcome to Scokland and All City. With the iPods, kids ain't really paying attention to CDs, they really online and the life of an album isn't what it used to be, like when NWA dropped Straight Outta Compton, or Mac Mall put out Illegal Business. You gotta have a little bit more now for people to buy. So I'm just trying to have them follow the series. The reason I did 2000-Quinn 1,2,3 not just cause this is my year and my year alone, because I'm just gonna put my foot back in this industry because every year I find myself having to prove myself again to people in the industry. They like oh you back, Quinn is back! I ain't ever went no mothafuckin where. But that's how the industry is, you constantly gotta prove yourself.

Baycentrik: We've heard you on a lot of group albums and duo albums, you had the All City album with Big Rich and Boo Banga and also Welcome to Scokland with Keak Da Sneak. Are there any other projects similar to those that are in the works?

San Quinn: Yeah I also have an artist coming out, his name is Insain. He's a Italian boy/Latino out of the Sunset district, representing San Francisco. You know how it's multicultural, so he's somebody that grew up on music but he's a great producer, great person, great artist. I'm gonna be presenting him, introducing him this year. I also have Gentlemen of Leisure coming out sometime this year with Lord Geez out of the City Side Crew. That's a phenomenal album, you can look at YouTube right now, we already got 3 or 4 videos jumping off with that record. A song called You Be Cattin featuring Willie Hen. We also have Hustle Like Me featuring Matt Blaque and Equipto from Bored Stiff. Them videos is already up where you can get a visual of Gentlemen of Leisure.

Baycentrik: We actually have that Insain song with Traxxamillion and yourself up on the site, We Good In The Hood.

San Quinn: Oh yeah that's with Insain.

Baycentrik: I personally haven't picked up a copy of the Boy to a Man DVD but it just did recently come out. Is this a documentary style film? Elaborate on it.

San Quinn: Yeah I forgot to even mention that. That's something real big that I did. Basically it's a documentary about my life over the past 2 years, the ups and downs, the good and the bad about trying to be a positive black role model doing rap music. Somebody who still take care of his family, but still battling with drug addiction, which I'm trying to conquer. People don't feel like they addicts. The kids that be at the club every weekend having a drink, or people who sit around the plate having the blow or popping a pill, they don't feel like they leading to addiction. I went ahead and admitted it for myself, and for all my peers sipping on Bo, sipping on Lean, sipping syrup and shit like that and think that shit ain't addictive. The reason why it ended up being an addiction with me is it helped me make bad decisions. It made me miss out on opportunities and I wanted to be the first one to really say out the bay area that hold on to it in an addiction type of way that it ain't good. Don't embrace drug use. Don't embrace smoking weed, getting high and all that shit, too much of anything will kill you except worshiping God.

[The film] also profiles my son Lil Quinn, that's really what my focus is. I'm trying to let the world know about my son, Lil San Quinn. I'm not gonna throw him no album out but he's gonna be featured on every one of those records that I mentioned to you. He's a part of every record that I'm doing, Gentlemen of Leisure, San Quinn Introduces Insain, definitely

"The reason why it ended up being an addiction with me is it helped me make bad decisions. It made me miss out on opportunities and I wanted to be the first one to really say out the bay area that hold on to it in an addiction type of way that it ain't good."

on the 2000-Quinn Volume 1,2,3. It's really just letting people know about San Quinn is doing, that I'm a regular person. The rest of these rappers is too, especially these bay area ones. Ain't nobody really doing it that big cause ain't nobody changed the economy of where we live at.

Baycentrik: We interviewed Messy Marv and he spoke on being very open to patching things up. He wanted to hear your side of things before jumping to say that everything was all good. So what's the status with that?

San Quinn: Everything is all good. I love dude, he's phenomenal, he's family. When me and him get together we make beautiful music. It's all bullshit, people wanna be in control of people life. We all grown as fuck, it ain't no problem with me and Mess, it's just a lot of people in between me and him that liked to see the separation. Everything is good, that's what I can honestly say. I don't care if he came and called me a thousand bitches tomorrow, it gonna fall on deaf ears. It's more like I'm trying to move on and be peaceful, something bigger and better for Northern California with music. Also by squashing that beef it showed that we both grown men. A lot of people enjoyed and grew up on both me and his music together. When we got to doing that bullshit, it got to make the people have to choose sides, it just was a bunch of bullshit. I can say I played a part in it, talking and running my mouth and shit like that, but I apologize to everybody that I disrespected or who I hurt doing that time period. It wasn't worth it.

Baycentrik: What really happened to make both of you decide to just drop the issue? I mean serious insults and threats were thrown back and forth between each other. I spoke to people, and people on the internet were scared that someone would get hurt or be in danger as a result of this.

San Quinn: Yeah cause they know we both dangerous niggas, we from a dangerous neighborhood. If you look at the statistics in my neighborhood, Fillmore niggas killed Fillmore niggas since the beginning of time. It wouldn't have been nothing different than Trevy Lo dying by the hands of a homeboy who is in jail and got convicted for it, who's name I won't even mention, cause I don't know if he did it. But there's many people I know who died by the hands of another, every person I know in my neighborhood got killed by somebody from over there. So it's the cycle that had already been going on over there, it wasn't too far fetched that if me and him crossed paths it was bigger than some rap shit.  I don't feel like neither one of us would be happy if anything like that happened to either one of us. I know I damn sure wouldn't wanna go look at my cousin in no casket, and I'm pretty sure he feel the same way about me. It ain't nothing but a funky ass rap battle. Say something about my mama, say something about my broad. We grew up cappin anyway, so I call him telling jokes. That shit is water under the bridge.

Baycentrik: Even through all this I know you had love for Mess. I came out to a show you had here in the city at Blue Macaw and you went up there with a bunch of Fillmoe cats and said, "if anyone got a problem with Messy Marv or anybody they gotta answer to us," if I did hear you correctly.

San Quinn: Yeah, yeah you heard it right! There was a lot of people there that's down with him, Homewrecka and Boo, a lot of people. It's just communication, it's a lot of lack of communication jumping off. When you don't communicate correctly, you leave people in the darkness, you leave people to think whatever. It's just like the relationship with me and my wife now, feel me. If she ain't talking to me, I ain't talking to her, that's bound to end up being a problem. We gotta communicate. Even with the homies, you can have a misunderstanding just based on not talking! That's all it was, we all got love for him cause he from our neighborhood. He makes good music. That's all we do.

It ain't no room for no hate in the world today, we got Obama as President, earthquakes in Haiti, earthquakes in Chile, it ain't gonna be too long before disaster strikes out here,

"I know I damn sure wouldn't wanna go look at my cousin in no casket, and I'm pretty sure [Mess] feel the same way about me. It ain't nothing but a funky ass rap battle."

humankind gonna have to pull together. Everybody in between it was like fuck, forget him or probably people coming up to him, oh forget Quinn and they don't have nothing to do with me and my cousin, who we slept in my mama house together, we been on planes together, made classic records together. Other people had nothing to do with our business, but other people started making it their business. And I felt like me, people started not wanting to be around me. My whole attitude changed, it's just that I was on some bullshit. Beef is beef, but beef ain't about a mothafuckin thing if it ain't making no money. At least our names was ringing and we know that shit is over. That's how I'll leave it.

Baycentrik: Mess also mentioned a song that Showtime, Hunid Racks CEO, was trying to put together with you and Mess. Can you talk about that?

San Quinn: Yeah, it's in the makings man. You might hear another record with him and me together. But it's gonna be bigger than we ever did it before. I know the bay area needs it, the world needs it. It's no limit to what we might do. We are in the process of doing something, just a peace treaty type thing through our uncle Showtime. I already put my part down, we just waiting on Mess part to come through, however it go. However it go I know it's peace, and that's it.

Baycentrik: Relating to all that, we interviewed Berner back in December and he mentioned that a duo album was in the works with you and him, but that once you heard news of his Blow album with Mess, your feelings on completing that project changed. Now that all that's patched up is there still a possibility of Berner and San Quinn album?

( Listen to Berner discuss his potential duo album with San Quinn from our December interview)

San Quinn: I don't know. Berner just lost his mother, so my heart and my soul, condolences go out to Berner and his family. He's my partner, dig what I'm saying. When you pushing a hate movement it's gonna be hate on all levels. If Berner wanna work it's all good, if he don't I ain't trippin, He's a young life protege of mine out of Frisco, he come from up under. At that time when we was going through that, for him to single himself out, he did a couple of records and it seemed like he left me out. He was trying to not fuck with me. I was on the first Drought Season. Then Drought Season 2, he didn't put me on there with him and Jack. Then he did the thing with Mess and left me out. Then it kind of made me, when I look at him, it made me feel like he was picking a side.

Once it got out in the air that I was hot about it, he wanted to try to pass the shit up. He a good person, but how would you think about that? He cool and shit, it's just that I'm paying attention to what niggas doing. So for him to leave me out the thing and not reach out and say Quinn let me throw you a bone, come jump on this Jack record with me, Quinn I'm doing this thing with Mess, why don't you just get on there. He was neutral enough to do that. But then after he found out niggas is mad, he wanna come and try to clean up the situation. Just cause I remember the dude when he just started rapping, he don't owe me nothing but the same respect I give him. But don't try to single me out, and he from my city! You from San Francisco. So I could stop it from where..I ain't even worried about Jack, J.Stalin, all these other people doing music with him cause they ain't from my neighborhood. You a young dude that's from my city that try to put yourself on boss status and go do that, and he could have had other people on his line, not just me. Feel me? But even though we past all that, I do know I was paying attention to how he was moving. I know when somebody is deliberately trying to leave me out. When he could have just gave me a call like at least jump on the one with him and Jack. Maybe not the one with him and Mess but he was trying to act like he wasn't fuckin with me at all! That's how I took it. But he did come back and cleaned it up like a man. I ain't got nothing bad to say about him, that's all true shit.

Baycentrik: You touched on new bay area youngsters doing their thing, right now we're kind of in a middle space in the bay. Hyphy is long gone. But alot more quality music is coming out at the moment, where do you see things going for the bay right now?

San Quinn: See you know with the hyphy thing, that was Mac Dre. When Dre died, for us to get a lil bit of love that we got off that movement, Mac Dre and Keak Da Sneak. It was something we all had to grab a hold on to, whatever movement pops up now we gonna grab a hold of. But Mobb music ain't ever went nowhere. With J Stalin and Livewire and Jacka doing real good for us, his record selling real good, Husalah is back on the streets, that's good. The Mob Figaz, they been doing Mobb type music so it's good for people to be able to be they self. Hyphy was kind of gimmicky, but Mac Dre wasn't no gimmick. What he was poppin was gangster pimp rap, fly shit and people took it how they wanted to take it. Dress up goofy but have a whole lot of game. The hyphy movement just got misconstrued, it's still people running around here, they call him 18 Dumb or whatever now, niggas that will go stupid on you and bust your head wide open. Take a pill and go stupid, that shit is still out here but it just ain't that type of music, it's more or less people going back to what we originally came from which is good. So I see people just making real music, not being able to be caught out of character for making a song. Only thing about hyphy, mothafuckas always wanna see you high, or ghost riding the whip, stunna shades, it created a whole persona that was too hard to live up to every day.

Baycentrik: So where do you see things going now?

San Quinn: Hopefully this shit get better. With MTV, and us shooting more videos. I just wanna see more unity. I see us just constantly selling to the people that we been selling records to. To the people that support they home, that's what I see happening. Hopefully this shit get bigger and better and hopefully the world grab a hold of it. Being with rap music, and people with studios in they house everybody got a fuckin studio, so everybody's a rapper now. That's the only problem now, in the other regions where we sell a lot of records like Louisville, Kentucky, Kansas City, Missouri, a lot of them people firing up they own movement. Really where I see it going, it's getting good, we can be better, we just need the people out here that's in the bay area to be the consumer to go out and buy our records. Instead of being on the computer, being a little faggot on the computer, always got something to say, always got an opinion but you the main one burning people's records, downloading peoples records.

We need people to get up off they ass, go to the stores, and buy the records. People ain't selling records like they used to, and I'm not just talking about myself, we settling with 10,000. Jack did the best with that 30 which is great! Mac Mall sold 200,000 records in 1992 and '93. So what I'm saying is we need it to get back to that. not saying that it will never get back to that cause shit is changing. Digitally and all that shit, we just need support of the greater bay area and California. You gotta think, in between Sacramento and San Jose it's at least 7 million people. We supposed to be selling to 10% of the population. 700,000 people out here listening to rap music. Our SoundScan should be way up there. I'm really just looking to the consumer to go out and start buying records, or this shit is gonna get worse.It could get better but because of the internet and people not really supporting it's gonna get worse.

Baycentrik: When we interviewed Big Rich a few weeks ago, he hit the nail on the head. He said people are buying albums in the bay area, but those albums are not bay area albums.

San Quinn: Yeah! I been told them that. You can look at Kanye West SoundScans, or anybody else they have 50,60,70,80 thousand just in the San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose! That counts Pittsburg and everywhere else, just in this area. So it's people buying, they just not buying our records! It's like a bunch of people rooting for the New England Patriots, and we got the 49ers here and the Raiders. That's how I look at it. I'm just really looking to the consumer, I ain't at it with no rapper, I want all of us to be successful, it's just I need to consumer to do they job and support us. Instead of always having something to say, and most of the time it's something negative if they saying something. If you really do love us, people see me and are like are you still doing your shit, it ain't on them to keep up with me, but if they could if they wanna know, if they interested, if you riding around listening to Gucci Mane. I made a comment on my record, I said "they on Gucci and Jeezy, that's weak to me". Not they're weak rappers, that's weak that you guys are on they shit more than you on your own shit. You buying dope from out of town, when your homeboy right there with 100 kilos in his house, you going all the way to Atlanta, transporting the dope back when your patna right there next door, but you so envious and jealous that you don't wanna help the nigga next door to you.

Baycentrik: And just like Rich said, the fans need to go back to being fans.

San Quinn: And stop trying to be in the shit! It's hella niggas with the ProTools in the house, even though I done sold verses to some of these cats that need to go ahead and throw that shit in the garbage. Then go give it to somebody and go back to respecting

"It's people buying, they just not buying our records! It's like a bunch of people rooting for the New England Patriots, and we got the 49ers here and the Raiders."

somebody who really put this shit down. And I'm not saying just me it's always room for somebody new. J. Stalin ain't just popped up out of nowhere that boy been rapping forever! But mothafuckas just now really getting a super bar of him. Big Rich was rapping when I first started rapping. When I was 12, he was about 8 years old, his name was Dolla Bill and he was getting on the mic right with me. It's people that been around. Jack and Mob Figaz they been around, they been putting music down for 10 years. 10, 11 years in this shit, now people just getting a bar of them. The people who rise to the top are the people who been at it for a minute. They deserve all the accolades that they get. I really don't believe in the overnight success. Anything outside of the sun going down and coming up overnight ain't good.

Baycentrik: You need that progression.

San Quinn: You need progression, you gotta know struggle, you gotta know your place!

Baycentrik: Speaking of progression, you've accomplished a lot, you've had a long career. You've been in the Guinness Book of World Records, you've been signed to a major label, you've put out countless albums. Do you feel you still have something to achieve in this rap industry? What really motivates you to keep going?

San Quinn: I'm trying to get millions of dollars man. I'm trying to get that Jay-Z money still. I'm trying to get to that executive Quinn level, you feel me? to where the San Francisco bay area is respected, economically and physically when they look at us because of what I'm doing out here. I wanna be played on the radio in New York City a thousand times still. I wanna be hot in Atlanta, I wanna be hot in London. I wanna win a mothafuckin coupe of Grammys! American Music Awards. I still have the desire to be a superstar, on a big level. Not just local, but in Japan. It's not to fuck no bitches like that, it's just cause with me and Lil Quinn, and Mess, Jacka, Berner, J. Stalin, I want the light to be on us. If I can help, I would like to. I wanna be able to buy my mama a couple of houses, buy my friend a Bentley, off of rap music. Like niggas in New York, and in the South is doing, it's a whole lot left for me to do. I'm not in no competition that nobody that's out here, my competition s #1 on Billboard. My competition is #20 or #5 on the Forbes List. Having paper, that's where my mind is at. It's a lot left for me to do.

Baycentrik: Speaking on a more local scale, how do you feel about the landscape of San Francisco changing so drastically over the last decade? Gentrification, gang injunctions, evictions, mom & pops shops that were staples in local neighborhoods being shut down.

San Quinn: Well I'm partially responsible for that because through this music I could have made some better business decisions and been a stronghold in the community. It's bad that we getting moved out. I'm living outside of San Francisco right now. All the black people that I know from San Francisco, either live in Pittsburg, Antioch, or Sacramento. It's kind of fucked up because it's a beautiful city, beautiful place, and only thing that's gonna change that is us making an economic dent in this shit. I don't know one nigga from my neighborhood outside of Jason Hill that plays for the Niners that made it to the NFL. Nobody has made it to the NBA. JT and Andre Nickatina probably got the most paper up out of mothafuckas in our neighborhood. It ain't really been no real progress. It ain't been no financial progress, no economic progress. At all. It's fucked up but it is what it is. Until we're able to change that, I could sit back and complain but who the fuck listen to that.

It's really based on the consumer going in the stores, buying our records man. They could put us on another level. We could be selling 200,000 records in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and the greater bay area. If you put $6 and $6 a record, that's 1.2 million dollars. That makes a change, that's a store, that's a Wingstop opened up by blacks in our community. Instead of Fillmore street turning how it's turning. What's bad, you still can come outside and get your head knocked off. So we not making it no easier on ourselves either. They still come out and kill and damn near nobody there.

Baycentrik: Any last words you wanna end the interview off with?

San Quinn: Just get ready for 2000-Quinn volume 1,2, and 3. I'd like to give a shoutout to the whole bay area, everybody all the rappers taking care of they business. All the consumers everybody that's listening, start going out and buying our records. When you see me it ain't no beef, I don't have no beef with no rappers so don't ask me about it. Say hello, shake a hand, I'm happy to see you, and go buy this 2000-Quinn volume 1,2, and 3. Be on the look out for Welcome to Scokland Part 2 also and Guns Oil and Drugs. Anything with my name on it, the verse ain't been repeated, it's a brand new record. I'm about to be on the shelf heavy this year, you can look me up on iTunes, if you on the computer and buying records, rooting for us, or making fucked up sucka comments, go to iTunes and buy my records. Don't just free download.