"DUBCNN Dec '06 "

Dubcnn: We're here with One-2 right now, go ahead and introduce yourself to everybody.
Wassup man this is One-2, repping Xpand, chilling with my man Nima, putting it down for the W, you know what I'm saying? West Coast in the house.

Dubcnn: You were born in Iran, but moved to Sweden at an early age, is that correct?
Yeah, I moved to Sweden when I was two years old, because of the revolution and shit in Iran. Iran was ruled by the King (Shah) back in the day, it was all peaceful, but then the Ayatollah came along and changed the whole system, it became more conservative, and more islamic, so we had to move
out. There was war all over the place, so my mom and my pops moved us out quickly when I was two years old. We moved to Sweden, more peaceful place, where I was raised. Then I came to the States in '99 when I was 13 years old, started a new life, and that's where I picked up rapping.

Dubcnn: When did you first pick up a pen?
The first time I picked up a pen actually was in Sweden, when I got 2Pac's "All Eyez On Me". My cousin bought it for me on Christmas, and I really got into it. It wasn't serious back then, I was just a kid, scribbling some thoughts down, I wasn't really serious, just doing it for fun back then. But
when I came here, the first year I came to the States, I was shy and shit. I wasn't really mentioning that I was a MC and what not, I was 13 years old, but then one of my cousins heard me bust some shit and he was like "Yo man, you're pretty tight, you should make a career out of this." So I gave it a shot. I made a few demo tapes, stacked up a few shows at my school, I noticed that people were giving me attention, people liked it, so I just pursued it.

Dubcnn: Your first mixtape was called "High School Dropout". How was your time at school?
It was aight man. Around 10-11th grade, shit just started falling apart. I was a good kid in 9th grade, but then 10th grade I don't know what happened man. Komplex and a few other of my homies started going to my school, and we just started chillin' in the music room all day, cause they had a MPC, and we started fuckin' around with the MPC, making beats. I started writing rhymes and we made songs all day instead of going to class. We used to bring liquor to school and we used to get drunk in the music room and make tracks, by lunchtime we were wasted, just fuckin' walkin' around campus and shit. But we'd have some hot ass tracks in the music room, that's what we'd do all
day. Our music teacher would let us, he didn't care, cause he loved the fact that we were so passionate about it and we were making music all day. So he'd let us fuck around all day instead of going class, and that's basically how everything fell apart and I became a high school dropout, which is how the first mixtape came along.

Dubcnn: Who are your influences, who do you look up to?
The regular legends, I look up to 'Pac, I look up to Biggie, Jigga, Nas, the regular people. I look up to a lot of heads man, Mobb Deep, I love Damian Marley, it's not only Hip-Hop, I have a lot of influences. Bob of course, Bob Marley. Hip-Hop wise, I like old school cats like EPMD, I like Def Squad (Redman, Erick Sermon & Keith Murray), I like Black Moon's old stuff, Ice Cube, Ice-T, W-Tang, Dead Prez, Tha Liks, Dogg Pound, Rakim, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Big L, a lot of people.

Dubcnn: Describe yourself as an MC. What makes you stand out?
I got a different story to tell. It's kind of different from the regular things you hear, I lived a different lifestyle, something Hip-Hop has never seen. I mean any MC you ask this will tell you "Yeah I'm different, I stand out." but most of them don't. I feel like my background is kind of different, and maybe my way of writing, my way of expressing myself, capturing my pain on a track is different than a lot of cats. I like to really express pain, and really make the listener feel what I'm saying,
which is something I feel nowadays a lot of MC's aren't focusing on. All they're focusing on is irrelevent and ignorant topics, that's what most of these MC's are talking on. But I try to have concepts and shit on songs. Lately all the tracks I've put out is mixtape tracks, but right now what I'm
trying to focus on is no more mixtape tracks, I'm focusing on tracks with concepts, fully complete songs with deep topics.

Dubcnn: How did the connection with Treacherous Records happen?
There was this dude named Super Sako, back in the days when I was in high school, we'd have shows ands hit like that, and he'd always come check me out, always standing in the corner. I remember I'd always give him a shoutout too while I was on the mic, and this cat, in the Armenian
community, I guess he was like a big shot, and he basically introduced me to Treacherous. One day I was just working, I was a lil kid, like 16 years old, and Super Sako came and picked me up from work, and he was with Tico, which is the owner of Treacherous. He picked me up and gave me the 411, "We're starting a label, we're interested in you." They took me to the studio like a week later to record a song with Big Syke. As soon as they brought out Big Syke, that was enough for me, I was like "Aight man, you got me. If you got connections to Big Syke, shit it must be serious." So that's how that happened.

Dubcnn: How was it working with Crooked I, Jayo Felony and Big Syke on the mixtape?
It was beautiful man, I learned a lot from them. I learned a lot from Crooked man, Jayo, Big Syke, all of them. Cause they're vets, they've been in the game for years. We just recently had a meeting too, I was chilling with them, and they teached me a lot. When I came in the game I didn't have
any knowledge on how you're supposed to carry yourself, how you're supposed to handle your business, Crooked always tells me, stay on top of your game! Nowadays as an MC, you gotta be able to cover all aspects, you gotta be your own manager, be a part of the corporate world as well as the entertainment world. You can't only be a rapper, you gotta be able to take care of your business and shit too, stay on top of your game. They put me on game, taught me how to be a complete artist.

Dubcnn: You were featured on K-Young's "Happy Together". That song got a lot of play overseas, did you get some good feedback off that?
Yeah yeah, I got a lot of love for that. It ain't really my cup of tea, all that R&B stuff, but my man K-Young had a hot ass track and he wanted me to hop on it, so I did it! We even shot a video for that, it was a fun experience, stuff you learn from. I got a lot of feedback for that, a lot of girls liked that. It was good, it got some radio play too, I liked it.

Dubcnn: Let's get to the new mixtape, "New Day, New Money". Tell us about the title.
"New Day, New Money" is basically like a follow up to High School Dropout. It's basically the dropout that got out of school, and he doesn't have a steady job, he doesn't really have a future planned out for him, he doesn't really know where his life is going, so he lives life by the day. Everyday he wakes up with a "New Day, New Money". The high school dropout wakes up everyday, and focuses on accomplishing something in that day. What the title states is that you take life by the day, day by day, and you just hustle hard everyday and try to make the best of it.

Dubcnn: It's been pushed back quite a few times, why is that?
It got pushed back for a lot of different reasons. First time it got pushed back was cause the music wasn't really there, I didn't have all the guest appearances I wanted, it just wasn't complete. These past months it's been pushed back cause of some politics, label problems here and there, but it's
coming out on the 20th, and that's for sure. It was supposed to come out early in the year, but it didn't unfortunately, but it's coming out now and it's pretty updated, it's got some new joints on it, so people who get it are not gonna be disappointed. I got some new shit on it, like the track with me and Crooked I "Shoot To Kill", it's some fresh stuff. It's gonna be hot.

Dubcnn: There were rumours of Treacherous Records shutting down, what's up with that?
That's not true man, that's not true! The thing is, sometimes Treacherous is on freeze, they don't really do shit, and people just start talking, thinking they're shutting down. They're not shutting down, they're actually active, it's really just a lot of stuff that I can't talk about cause it's confidential, but the main heads behind Treacherous, I guess there were some issues, some people wanted to leave, some people wanted to stay, some people are buying out other people, but at the end of the day, Treacherous still stands. It might just be on freeze sometimes, but it's still there, doing their thing.

Dubcnn: What's the current roster?
The current roster is me, Crooked I, Big Syke and Knoc'Turnal.

Dubcnn: Who can we expect on "New Day, New Money" as far as guest appearances?
The thing is, at the time when I was recording the mixtape, Big Syke couldn't do any music cause of legal issues that he had, and Jayo's been gone, he lives in Diego, he wasn't around during the time I was recording, so Jayo and Big Syke are not on it, so the only person I got is Crooked. But I'm still gonna make tracks with Jayo and Big Syke, it ain't like we ain't cool or nothin'.

Dubcnn: What about the production?
Production wise, it's the same cats, MG, Komplex, and I got this cat Maestro, he made this beat "Guess Who", I don't know if you heard it, he's pretty hot. But it's the same cats as "High School Dropout" pretty much.

Dubcnn: Why not drop an album instead of another mixtape? Because your mixtape is like an album, right?
Yeah, to tell you the truth Nima, the reason I don't drop an album is because I don't want to drop an album unless it's distributed, marketed, everything is done the right way. I don't wanna drop an album that gets pushed halfway. I want it to reach every angle in the world, I want everybody to have access to my album, I want a machine behind my album, everything has to be on point. I just feel like it's not the timing right now. But to tell you the truth, I'm sick of making mixtapes too, I'm sick of this whole mixtape shit, this is probably my last mixtape that I'm making, for now. I just felt like I had to make a follow up to "High School Dropout", it just took longer than expected. There are talks about making an EP, but I don't know man, I don't know about EP, that's too much in the 90's. But I don't know what I'ma do next, so we'll see.

Dubcnn: So when is "New Day, New Money" dropping?
On the 20th. I'ma have the mixtape earlier, but we're releasing it on the 20th. We're having a big ass release party in Hollywood at Forbidden City, everybody is gonna come out, Big Syke, Crooked I, we're doing it big, red carpet event, all that shit, it's gonna be popping.

Dubcnn: I think we've cornered everything there is to know, is there anything else you'd like to let everybody know?
Just go get that "New Day, New Money", it's fresh to death. And if you can, come out and support me on December 20th at Forbidden City. That's about it man

"HipHopGame Jan '07 "

What’s up?
I feel great, man. 
You were born in Tehran and then moved to Sweden. Do you remember anything from your time in Tehran? 
I don’t really remember too much. I have some images in my mind, but I was too young. 
How was Sweden? 
Sweden was cool. At the time we moved there, it wasn’t really packed with immigrants. They weren’t really accepting a lot of immigrants at that time. I guess the ways of the country changed because nowadays it’s packed with immigrants. We were the only ones we knew from Iran out there. It was a peaceful place and that’s why we moved out there. My parents wanted to get away from the wars and live in a more socialistic country. That’s why we chose Sweden.
You moved to America when you were 14. That couldn’t have been easy. 
Nah, it wasn’t easy. It was a big transition. My mom wanted me to come here to the Land of Opportunity. We came here and school didn’t go that well, so I chose music.
How aware were you of hip-hop in Sweden? 
I came to America in ’99, but I got into hip-hop in ’96, ’97 with 2Pac’s All Eyez On Me when I was in Sweden. I didn’t really start taking it seriously until I got here. I realized I had skills when I was 15 or 16 when I would freestyle-battle cats at lunchtime. The reaction I was getting from people told me something was there. Then I started making tracks and my producer, Komplex, started making beats. We had a music class together. He started making beats on the MPC and I started writing rhymes and they came out hot. That’s how we started. 
What influenced your decision to sign with Treacherous Records? 
I wanted to sign with a West Coast label and Treacherous was an up-and-coming label. I was the first artist to sign there, but I knew they had connections to Big Syke and that they were coming up in the game. Plus the owner is Armenian. 
What are you learning working alongside guys like Crooked I, Big Syke and Knocturnal? 
They’re all vets. They’ve been in the game for years. I learned to stay on my toes, be consistent, don’t be lazy and grab the ball while it’s in the air. They taught me to know what I’m doing and not to be just an entertainer. You can also be a businessman behind closed doors. They taught me the essential things I needed to know in this business. I wasn’t aware of all that when I was young. 
Your new mixtape, New Day, New Money, is finally out. 
Yeah. The first mixtape, we were just handing it out for free because I just wanted to get a buzz on the streets as quickly as possible. It worked out. The second mixtape is a bigger thing. We’re throwing a release party for it and Crooked I and Big Syke are going to come through. It’s definitely a bigger experience and I’ve gotten a lot of attention from this one already. It’s a little different than High School Dropout (One-2’s first mixtape), and it’s been getting great response so far.
What are your goals for New Day, New Money? 
A lot of the tracks were recorded months ago. It was supposed to come out a long time ago, but it got delayed. Now that it’s coming out this late, all I’m trying to do is have a lot of shows in the West Coast area and just present myself with it more. I’m on the grind. I’m not in the position where I can just shit out mixtapes and not do anything. I have to hustle and grind because I have a lot more to build. This is only the beginning chapters. 
Are you happy with the musical quality of New Day, New Money?Yeah. I’m happy with it. It’s just a mixtape. It’s not really a big deal. My mixtapes, they do sound like albums because they’re mostly original material, but it’s still a mixtape at the end of the day. I’m excited by the fact the world is going to have a chance to listen to the music. I haven’t reached my potential yet and it’s going to go further. Once I have the listener’s attention, it’s on. I’m just trying to get more attention. 
You show a lot of different styles on New Day, New Money. How important is that to you? 
The thing is, I’m still young and I’m still expanding. I still feel fresh and I am still absorbing. I absorb the MC’s around me like Crooked and Jayo. That’s also why I’m releasing mixtapes. When I release my first album, I want to have a more direct, determined style instead of it being as versatile as I am now. The reason I’m being versatile now is because I’m trying to see what people like. I’m all about pleasing the listener. I’m still flexing my skills and seeing where it’s going. Whatever people like, then that’s what I’ll put my focus on. I don’t know where it’s really going yet. I’m still young. 
On “Get It Jumpin’,” you said you’re “what the industry’s been lacking.” 
I feel like I’m a piece of the puzzle that’s been missing. There’s not an MC in America’s mainstream that has Middle Eastern heritage, been all around the world and seen three different continents before 21 years. I feel like I am that MC and my background is different. Any MC is going to tell you that they’re different, but my story is real. I feel like my story is different and I’m bringing something different to the table. That’s why I say I’m what the game’s been lacking. I feel like I’m a breath of fresh air. 
“Fly Away” shows you at an emotional low where you’re talking about all the bad things that happened to you and the people you know. Are those songs hard for you to make? 
Everybody goes through hard times and I have the ability to really capture pain on a track. A lot of MC’s aren’t really doing that. ‘Pac and DMX were like that. I like to do that too. I think I got that from ‘Pac. You have to show pain because people go through pain everywhere. People who listen to that track can relate to it. 
Those tracks for me are easy to write. They’re a lot easier to write because it’s natural. At this point in my career, I avoid doing tracks like that because I don’t want to give too much to the listener yet. I want to save my tracks with concepts and meaning for later. I just give a little of that right now. Those tracks come natural to me. 
What are the advantages and disadvantages to being Armenian in the hip-hop game? 
It can hurt me because it’s a predominantly African-American music industry. It’s hard to get in. I’m brown. I’m not really a white person because I’m Armenian. The only challenge is being judged before you’re even given a chance. That’s probably the only way it can hurt me. The way it can help me is because it is different. The fact that I’m a minority in the industry could be a positive thing because it’s something different. 
Have you started working on your debut album? 
I don’t feel like it’s time right now to release an album. Right now I’m just holding back and working on the mixtapes. I have to be way more well-known before I release an album. If I release an album, I want it to be all over the world and I want it to be marketed. It’s just not that time yet. I also want to find myself more as an MC because I feel like I have a lot of potential to grow. 
What are your goals for 2007? 
Just to keep developing as an artist and to try to stay focused and consistent. Hopefully I can release more material quicker. Maybe even towards the end of the year I’ll start working on an album. I’m going to be making a bunch of tracks that are going to be album material, but if we’re going to drop an album or not is another question.
What do you want to say to everybody? 
Thank you for your support from anybody who supports the movement. It’s international hip-hop and something people haven’t seen yet. We’re opening doors all over the world. This is a monster, a movement. The world has never seen anything like this. I want people to pay attention to it because it’s going to be very big one day. And go cop that New Day, New Money mixtape. It’s got Crooked I on it. It’s going to be nice.