Septembers Featured Artist of the month is Cool Nutz, a true pioneer of the Portland music scene. His career is going on 20 years strong, raise your hand if you can say that. He speaks on Portland's media, Poh Hop, the origin of "I Hate Cool Nutz", what's been up the last couple years, hell even the Boy-scouts. Take a Ride with the one and only.


BELLY) Let's start with some Bio of Jus Family and where you're coming from.
COOL NUTZ) Basically I'm from NE Portland, grew up in Hip Hop. B-Boying. Me and Bosko started breakdancing and had a little crew, breakin in the lunchroom at school and that kind of stuff and as Hip Hop kind of evolved, Bosko started taking on the music side of things djing, he got a couple keyboards and started making beats and we had a rap crew. I was kind of the youngest so they were always kind of like, "Ehhhh You can't rap". When the older dudes started doing different stuff, they kind of fell to the side. Me and Bosko were already good friends so I just stepped up to the plate so we came together on the music and started doing shows back in like 85 or 86. Stuff people probably wouldn't even know about like up on 17th and Alberta at the Exodus. Us, Lifesavas, Jumbo but Jumbo was in another group, Marlin was always around, the Brown Hornet and all them cats. We just started from the ground up and as we started doing more and more stuff we decided we were gonna be serious about it so we put together a demo. I was in high school it was around 87-88 started letting people hear the demo and people kind of started liking it. Bosko went to USC on an academic scholarship and I was still here in Portland so I'd go down there to record and put songs together and we put together the first Cool Nutz album "Dis Niggas Nutz". That's on some more sample heavy, really twards that era of Naughty by Nature. Kind of like Naughty by Nature with a West Coast twist. So we put out 500 of those, sold them and had good response from it so we came back with a single, "Player Vision and "No Toes". The song "No Toes" was a tribute to my brother who passed away in 93, he got killed. We pressed those on cassette singles and did close to 1200 of those off straight consignment in the stores. Bosko got a deal with Big Beat/Atlantic, then I got a deal with Big Beat/Atlantic so I put out Kenny Mack and G-Ism "Nuttin but the Family" kind of like a group effort. Sold a good amount of those but the deal didn't work out so I figured I was putting out releases independently so I put out "Harsh Game". I thought it would do pretty good but it was like Pop! Bam! and it kind of amazed me the way it caught on. I think at that period of time, people weren't putting together albums of that quality at that level of production, everything from the artwork to everything. Alot of people played a big role in that from Pete Miser to Jumbo, Vursatyl, G-Ism, Bosko and alot more. That album was kind of like Portlands version of "The Chronic" to me in the scence that it was all these elements that came together that made this album classic material. So that really put Jus Family and Cool Nutz on the map and made people take notice that there are people in Portland being serious about it. So that's where the real Jus Family, the actual label vehicle, bringing in money and it being lucrative and supporting what we're trying to do came about.


BELLY) So what's your EARLIEST memory of Hip Hop culture?
COOL NUTZ) One of the things that sticks out to me most, that inspired me from an MCs standpoint. I was walking home from Summer Daycamp on Alberta and Mallory and this cat had a radio in his window and I heard Rock Box. What it was so different about it it wasn't like "The chicken it tastes like woooood", it was Hip Hop with an edge, it was serious. Some different rhyming and I was like "ooohhh, that's mean right there". It made me want to search out that song and I saw there was a different side of Hip Hop. I heard Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel, Busy Bee and it was really playful, I heard Rock Box and it was Hip Hop that was serious. From there I started hearing KRS One, people like Schooly D and Ice T, Eazy E, those are the things that kind of brought about my love for Hip Hop and MCing.


BELLY) What are some of the major differences at Jus Family from the very beginning and now?
COOL NUTZ) The climate trying to sell music, music being downloaded, cats wanting to download your music rather than buying from you not realizing that's how you support the music and being able to make music to give them. Another thing is the seperation in Hip Hop. When I first started doing Hip Hop in Portland in terms of the Poh Hop and things of that nature, there was no seperation, if it was gangsta, if it was backpack, if it was concious, if it was street it didn't matter as long as it was good. Back in the day if you had a Big Daddy Kane album you had an Ice-T album, if you had a Kool Moe Dee album you had an NWA album. It was never like, "That's not Hip Hop!", as long as it was good, it didn't matter. I think that has kind of effected Hip Hop cause you have Hip Hop that goes 2 different directions. Let's say you have a Scarub show at Berbatis and a Spice One show at the Roseland and you'll have two different audiences. When we started doing Poh Hop at La Luna it would be a completely mixed audience and people were there just to see and hear good music. And I think that's one of the biggest thing that's effected Hip Hop not only in Portland but in a whole. Imagine if everyone supported 50 Cent or Atmosphere or Living Legends or E-40 as apposed to I'm gonna support him and this is the genre of music I ride with and if it's not like this, I'm not supporting it. It cuts into everything and I love Hip Hop music as a whole and a culture cause I grew up in it from when it started. I can appreciate everything about it cause I see where it came from and where it went to and cats getting all this money. Even from an independent backpack level a lot of cats are making real money. Atmosphere is selling out the Crystal Ballroom, Blackalicious is selling out the Roseland. It's crazy how lucrative it could be and it could be even more if there wasn't that seperation of "This isn't real Hip Hop", "This is Hip Hop". It is what it is.


BELLY) Where'd you get you're name from?
COOL NUTZ) Alot of people think it means my nuts are cool, but really it means Cool but Crazy at the same time. I'm glad people think that though beacause it catches peoples attention, as soon as they hear Cool Nutz it sticks in peoples head. Most of the time people just assume, "Oh are your nuts really cool?" they don't think it could mean something else but it's doesn't. I'm not Busta Rhymes or a smooth layed back chillin pimp rapper I'm kind of in between, Cool Nutz kind of cool and crazy at the same time. Even the stuff that I do, it's not geared to be sexually explicit like on "Verbal Porn", Verbal Porn didn't mean it was going to be like a Too Short album, it meant it was going to be verbally raw. The album is raw, the porn skits were put on to tie the concept together but if you listen to the album, it's really MCing.


BELLY) How is your time divided between the music and business at Jus Family?
COOL NUTZ) RIght now it's waay more business than music cause things are at the point right now where if the business doesn't get handled there's not going to be anything to facilitate the music happening. With the growth of anything, more time gets put into the administrative side of things to make sure we're touring, there's press and publicity, retail, marketing and things of that nature. Right now I'd say it's probably 70/30, I'd definately like it to be more music going on but with me running the company it's hard to accommodate that and I'm naturally a hands on type person that doesn't feel comfortable handing things over to people, I know what needs to be done it's routine, it's hard to educate someone and say this is what you need to do here and there.


BELLY) Do you have any achievements outside of Hip Hop to speak of cause I heard from a good source you we're pretty big in the Boy Scouts?
COOL NUTZ) Oh yeah, all through high school. I think that helped kind of define me as a person in terms of experiencing some things most people don't get to like hiking 12 miles through the woods with a fully loaded backpack and camping for a week, snowcamping and being in the woods and being in touch with things you normally wouldn't be in touch with. I was in Boy Scouts with DJ Zig Zag and Bosko too..


BELLY) And Void,
COOL NUTZ) And Void


BELLY) Hip Hop Boy Scouts
COOL NUTZ) We were kind of the cooler Boy Scouts, kind of like a bad news bears type thing, it wasn't the square Boy Scouts. We were the cooler Boy Scouts. Even now though, from Boy Scouts, Summer Camp, alot of that stuff I teach my daughter. It was educational till I was done with it my last year in high school.


BELLY) Why don't you let people know about what you've been going through the last few years with Jus Family, as much as you can.
COOL NUTZ) I feel the last three or four years have been a real learning experience in terms of the record business. We did a deal with Universal and learned a lot from that from a major label perspective. Got a lot of money from the deal, got a lot of press and promotion from the deal, things that benefit me to this point, being in the Source and stuff like that. Eventually that didn't work out due to the way the industry works. We needed our single to be added at Power 106 in LA for Universal to really push the button. We had the add and the label came in after that and told them to take the Juvenile record "Set it Off". After we didn't get the add at Power we were kind of done cause we were the new guys on the block and didn't have the dedication and loyalty of the label. After I got out of that, I put out Verbal Porn, I went through a situation with my distributor and had to get a lawyer to go handle that. I reallyset my mind of working as hard as I can to sell Cool Nutz to as many people as possible in as many places and do the things I feel like I needed to do to establish myself on an independent level. We stayed on the road, dealt with the distribution situation and we're at this point with the catalog back in stores, "Harsh Game" G-Ism and "Speakin upon a million" back in stores. Releasing all that with "Collabos" which is a project to bring people up to speed with what we've done plus letting people know there are people from Portland working with bigger artists. We're re-establishing ourselves with the public cause when you're not on the shelves it's out of site, out of mind, we weren't out of mind cause we were doing big shows with Westside Connection, some shows with 95.5, being as visible as possible but being selective so we don't over do it with people. We've just been getting people ready for the real, the real fire we got coming. We got some hot records coming. So basically the last 3 years it's been a re-invention of Cool Nutz and Jus Family even in the industry things have changed but we're ready for them.


EDADDY) The Power 106 thing, was that when you moved to California?
COOL NUTZ) One of the reasons I moved to LA, I've been around here doing music for a long time and I feel like I've given alot to the Portland Hip Hop scene and helped it actually even be worth anything, you know what I'm sayin? Contributed to alot of peoples gowth, but at the same time, because of the kind of music and what alot of the people just percieve what I do, alot of the people within the press, probably don't even listen to my records they just naturally assume that....


EDADDY) I noticed that in looking up some info on you we were asking ourselves if they even listened to it or what.
COOL NUTZ) Alot of the reviews are from the standpoint of they had to write about me cause they knew it was newsworth cause I was selling records, and doing shows and doing a lot of stuff for the Hip Hop scene but from the standpoint of appreciation for the actual music, I never got that from the press. With the success of Harsh Game and how big a record that was, it was frustrating to have them completely overlook the growth from Harsh Game to Speaking Upon a Million, the production, the song ideas, the evolution in the rhyming. To have them overlook that, it was kind of insulting and made me wonder if there was anything else for me to do here in the Portland. I've contributed to the scene, not just the Hip Hop scene but overall the Portland music scene. To never get the appreciation musically, you can work hard and have somebody say "You got your picture in the WIllamette Week or you're on the cover of the Rocket." but that doesn't mean much if you know you sit for hours to write a dope rhyme or write songs that you know are hot and the people who are in control of exposing it to the people who validate it are on some bullshit. Like the Collabos album from Willamette Week, they get the most ignorant motherfucker they could find, dude did his first review, he didn't even know that I rhymed. Didn't know W.C, Kurrupt, Mac Dre, Yukmouth none of em. He e-mailed me and asked which voice I was on the album and if I emceed and what exactly does Cool Nutz do at Jus Family? That in itself is insulting to what I'm doing cause within the Portland music scene you got the Pink Martinis, Smooch Knobs, The Decemberists, Everclears, The Lifesavas, Cool Nutz and a few other noteworthy people who you can go out and say have you heard of such and such and people are like oh yeah... There are only maybe like 15 of them total in Portland and that's across numerous genres. Old school bands like Heat Miser, Pond, Dandy Warhols. I gave all the press in Portland 2 months lead on the record, the album, press clippings, source clippings, Murder Dog magazine, me on the cover of WW, reviews from big websites of things that we'd done. When we did the Collabos album release party we got snubbed in the press, a bad review from WIllamette Week. It was evident that if I wasn't making this certain kind of music it's not gonna get love. That's one of the main reasons I moved to LA after "Speakin Upon a Million", the same shit. I don't do this from the standpoint of me doing it for myself. When I put out Western Conference All Stars. I put that out for the sake of Portland HIp Hop. I paid for the whole project, recorded most of it in my studio, paid for everything, didn't ask for anything from any of the artists, put it out and pushed it to establish that this is Portland Hip Hop. You got Emerge Emcees, you got Libretto, you got Maniac, you got AL C, you got all these artists from Portland. Like I said before and it wasn't a seperation, it was a melting pot and a double CD of hot music to let people know not only am I an artist but I'm also working for the betterment of the whole Portland Hip Hop community. People didn't realize Poh Hop 3, maybe Poh Hop 4. I'm the one risking $13,000 with the Roseland and Berbatis bringing the Luniz and Spearhead and that kind of stuff. To come out at the end of the show and there's a profit of $100 but everyone had a good time and alot of people don't take that into consideration.


BELLY) Shows that have the vibe of the early Poh Hop shows are few and far between now a days. Did you go to the MYG release party? I think that's the closest thing I've seen in a bit.
COOL NUTZ) Nah I was out of town but I heard it was packed. We did a Zac Randolph party and Bosko "Next Files" listening party and it was like boom. A few performances and just a party, it was dope. That's where I want to see Portland Hip Hop go. Like I said, you get excitement out of Lifesavas, you get excitement out of some of the things we do and a few other acts. When we started doing Poh Hop it was the whole Portland Hip Hop scene and as soon as you saw a poster go up for Poh Hop it was like everyone in town was like "Poh Hop's coming, Poh Hops coming". That's where I'd like Portland Hip Hop to go. Even the little remarks they make about Wickeds mixtape. I met Wicked when he first started Djing, we went to PCC together. Knew him when he got his first mixer, we kicked it tough. He's a real good friend of mine. To see him trying to do something different that no one else is doing, putting his money into it, getting ads and actually pushing it. And having people talk about "oh another 70s du du du" All that funny shit.


BELLY) Seems like there's a lot of rock journalists around here.
EDADDY) That's kind of one of the things we saw when we started that there's a big void in Hip Hop coverage in the media.
COOL NUTZ) I think your site is a much needed thing in Portland because you actually have a forum where people can see all this stuff in Hip Hop that's happening in Portland, you're going to shows, you're writing reviews of the show, taking pictures, you're actually in the mix of it. If I had the time to do it I would cause I feel like people need to know that it's not just about "There's the gangsta rap scene in Portland, There's the underground scene in Portland, they need to know there is a Hip Hop scene in Portland" but it is what it is.


BELLY) Do you have any un-released collabos that might suprise people?
COOL NUTZ) Yeah, I've got a hot record with Sticky Fingaz from Onyx, Rass Kass, a number of records with E-40, oh I got a hot track with me and Karim from Boom Bap Project and DJ Friction, One man Armys DJ. We were on tour, it was me, Oldominion and One Man Army and did a song that's just crazy. There's alot of stuff we haven't put out yet. I feel like right now, even with all the records I've put out, I'm just now at a point where I'm comfortable with what I'm doing as an Emcee. We got "I Hate Cool Nutz" that's coming out, I got another record, "Gorilla in the Trunk" we're putting out.


BELLY) Is that like a trunk monkee?
COOL NUTZ) It's like a saying, like the speakers beat so much it sounds like you got a gorilla in the trunk trying to get out. I feel like now I'm at a point where people hear the new stuff we're really trying to compete with the big boys.


BELLY) I got the question from hearing you on Smokes tour CD.
COOL NUTZ) Ohhh, did he put that song on there with me? Yeah I did a song with him, I did a new song with Sirens Echo, I did a song with Boom Bap that didn't make the album cause they thought it would be a little offensive. It's about all the hippy rappers, so called "Concious" rappers basically but when it came down to the final cut it was like, "I don't know, people might take offense to that".


EDADDY) I was reading somewhere that I hate Cool Nutz started when someone put up posters all over Portland...
COOL NUTZ) Really what happenned, Pete Miser came up with that. Me and Pete were always doing music business. Pete did all the artwork for "Harsh Game", late nights in Kinkos, this was before all the people had all the graphics stuff at home. He came up with the I hate Cool Nutz campaign where I go out of town and someone puts up the posters. It was funny cause I had one of my boys call me up and he was in the streets like "Man, I just saw this dude putting up these I Hate Cool Nutz posters man, whachu want me to get him or what? He's out here right now, down the street two blocks I'm just calling you to make sure it's cool." I had to tell him he was with me and it made the newspaper and people were talking about it.


BELLY) When was that?
COOL NUTZ) 97-98, the thing was when we did it I was out of town so people would say I was doing it. They'd call and I'd be like I'm out of town in LA I don't know what's going on. That was the early days of Portland Hip Hop. It was one of the things that made it exciting. I don't know if you came to the last days of La Luna concert. It was on a Thursday, it was Me, all of Jus Family, Lifesavas, Hungry Mob and I think one other group. 700 people, I have footage of it I'm gonna include on the Jus Family DVD with the "I Hate Cool Nutz" album. The energy was just crazy for the local groups. Another one was the first or second Poh Hop where we had a picnic on stage. We brought the table, the cooler, giving everyone in the crowd soda and chicken. A picture of it is on the inside of "Harsh Game", back then it was a whole different thing. It's a trip now cause you're fighting an uphill battle cause everything is controlled by certain types of writers. I hate to have to go to them and be like, "Cool Nutz is a significant artist in the Portland music scene" you only have a few artists in the music scene that people are going to look back and say he played a big part of what was going on in Portland.


EDADDY) You made it in the EMP.
COOL NUTZ) When they first built it one of my boys went up there and told me "You in there with Mix-a-lot!!" I finally made it up and saw it and that in itself just to be recognized. There's only Mix-a-lot, Me, and a couple other Seattle rappers in there. I ain't mad at em.


BELLY) Why don't you talk about I Hate Cool Nutz"
COOL NUTZ) I'm trying to put together a phenominal album. One of the albums that really kind of changed my thoughts on Hip Hop was the first Blueprint from Jay-Z. To be that far in his career and come back with an album to change the sound. The whole landscape of the music he was doing. He made everybody start sampling again and go back into these soul vaults and he came out of no where with it. That record made me feel like people can still put out really creative records. And thats basically where I'm going with the Cool Nutz record cause over the last 3 or 4 years, I've seen alot of stuff man. My best friend got killed last year, my cousin got killed. Having to hold my best friends son over his casket. As a person from 3 years ago, I'm a whole other person. When you hear the I hate Cool Nutz album, you'll hear that. I've always been more of an MC rhyming about MCing and being in the streets and stuff like that. I hate Cool Nuts is the same feel but it's more introspective and personal. People will get a better feel of me as a person. I feel like, that's what it's gonna take to get the credit I deserve from the press here and in this region because their eye is on a different kind of music. I manage Sirens Echo and that's the direction the Portland press is interested in. Real concious music that they look at as being unique, being as our stuff is so urban, I think it almost makes them feel uncomfortable to listen to it. It's hard for a 27 year old white college cat to listen to a record and we're saying nigga and on Alberta and beats was bumpin. They don't understand that this is what's going on in NE Portland, this is where I'm from. I don't even talk about a lot of the stuff in the press we've been through like being out of town and seeing a cat get shot right in front of you cause I'm not trying to sell records from being a gangsta. Listen to the record and you'll see I can rhyme, that I'm thinking about what I'm sayin, every song ain't about bitches and hos. All I want is that respect, that's it and I feel like with I Hate Cool Nutz record that's what I'm trying to get. Typical example, I did a story for the Stranger and made it a point to articulate the fact that I listen to a lot of different Hip Hop. I told him about some of the stuff I listen to like Roots Manuva and Aesop Rock, he's one of my favorite emcees. They edited all of that out to mold me to what they feel like I should be. I don't want to be confined to some west coast bay area gangsta rap genre cause that's not what we do. That's why we call it hood hip hop cause we from the hood, but first and foremost we want to make good songs where the rhymin is thorough and every song isn't just "Jumped in my car, head to the bar, I'm a rap star and I'm gonna get far!" there's cadence in my rhymes, the rhyme patterns and there's creativity in the wording. That's what I'm trying to convey with the I Hate Cool Nutz album and everything that's coming from this point on, people are gonna see. Give us our respect, and I don't want to have to beg for it. I just want to put out good music, have people hear it and say that's hot.


BELLY) Is that the next release?
COOL NUTZ) Nah the Gorilla in the trunk will be the next.


BELLY) (Laughing) When's Goon Sqwad coming out?
COOL NUTZ) Goon Sqwad and "That Fire" will be out in February. I feel like alot of the die hard Cool Nutz fans are waiting for a brand new Cool Nutz solo project so I'm putting out "Gorilla in the Trunk" in November for the holidays to give the people something new and to give them a preview of the next phase of Jus Family. The only cats on there will be me, Maniac, Bosko will be singing on the hooks, Phranchise and Bleek will probably be on one track.


BELLY) Do you have any views or advice for the Portland Hip Hop community?
COOL NUTZ) Man, stop thinking cause you got a computer you have a record label. Everybody and their mother raps now, everybody has a CD, everybody has some outlook on Hip Hop. I feel like all these cats coming to the game if you don't have what it takes and you're not ready to put out a record sit back and let the real rappers do it. Let the Oldomininons, the Cool Nutzs and Librettos, Boom Bap Projects, and Sirens Echo forge the way. Then once you've perfected what you're doing follow suit. Otherwise I don't wan't anymore CD-Rs, I don't wan't cats calling me asking what I think and when you give them an honest opinion you're a hater. People feels like you can help them if they have a cd. We get on the road and put it in, I keep most of the stuff but if Maniacs in the car he'll throw it out the window. It's insulting for everyone to be thinking their rappers or producers or they have a label. It just crowds it for all the people. Sleep from Oldominion shoudn't have to be at a show with 40% of the crowd standing there with their arms crossed like "I'm an emcee too!" I'm tired of that man, it's old. Let the real rappers do it first. Respect them, support them cause till people embrace cats from out here and push em instead of thinking "I'm not gonna support Lifesavas cause they're taking my chance to shine" or "Why is this cat opening for whoever". We need that Snoop Dogg from Portland or that Nelly from Portland or that Rass Kass from Portland. Cats are so ignorant they don't know. We're around here selling a few thousand CDs. Nelly sold 130,000 right here in Portlands market. We should be doing 10% of that.


BELLY) Anything you say about this years Poh Hop.
COOL NUTZ) Oh yeah, Poh Hop's gonna be bigger better larger this year. We're putting a political subject matter to it with the election coming up with Poh Hop being the end of October and the election the beginning of November. We're working with the bus project to get people to register and educate people. We're doing panels this year at Ash St and Berbatis. We're having a booking panel with some of the bigger promoters. Ron with Direct, Trevor with Thrasher, Mike Quinn from Monqui, David with Double Tee, Anthony at Ash St. a panel with how politics relates to Hip Hop, a panel on how to build a project from the ground up from recording, mixing, mastering, artwork, booking, promotion, press, distribution. I want to make it where it's really informative and so people can get info from people they respect. Like if you come out and don't know David Lychin is the brain and the brawn of the Roseland when you see him and he's booked Xzibit, E-40, Too Short, the coliseum and such. I hope that sparks some of the younger cats interests.


BELLY) Are those gonna be all ages?
COOL NUTZ) I'm trying to work that out with the clubs where we can do it from 5 to 8 and they won't be serving liquor and possibly get all age cats in there for the people who need that information. I want to make Poh Hop more informative this year to have a bigger and better cause to it. Last year we did the women in Hip Hop so this year we had to come with another element that will make it even more newsworth. We got Opio Sakoni from 1480 KBMS, he's gonna help with alot of the political stuff. I got Marc Baumgarten from the WIllamette Week, trying to get Marty from the Oregonian to speak. Just a number of high power people that can give people some info that will be worthwhile.


BELLY) Or you could just bring back the soda and chicken.
COOL NUTZ) We might do that this year, we tryin to take it back to all that man.


BELLY) Alright real quick, what would you like your legacy to be in the end of it all.
EDADDY) Real Quick though.
COOL NUTZ) Realisticaly, I just want people to respect me for what I've done musically, the albums we put out and what we tried to do within the Portland music scene and helping establish a Hip Hop scene that's really it. I just want to be respected and when we stop doing music or fade away or whatever, people will remember something.


EDADDY) You kind of got it with that museum spot.
BELLY)Alright, do you have any shout outs?
COOL NUTZ) Just everyone who's helped Jus Family be successful. The artists Maniac Lok, Bosko, G-Ism, DJ Chill, DJ Wicked, all the clubs and publications that supported what we're doing and all the fans.

Cool Nutz presents "Collabos" is available here and fine retail establishments all over the country. Be on the lookout for his new release on Jus Family Records "Gorilla in the Trunk" coming in November. For more information hit up jusfamilyrecords.com.

VURSATYL GIVES COOL NUTZ HIS PROPS ON KPSU