2MEX

2Mex is in love. Unfortunately, it’s not with a lady because the dude just doesn’t have time for that right now. What with his self-titled solo and a new Visionaries album (Pangaea) already out this year, he’s busy as shit. He’s been playing a lot of shows, doing in-stores, hosting Coachella events. He’s headed out with the Visionaries on a European tour next month, and he’s always got some new shit to move to the front burner once he’s got a little time. He’s still in love, though. Guess who it’s with, guys? Yeah, that’s right–hip hop. (I know…that’s a totally played metaphor, and it came out all corny. I was going to try to do it straight-faced, like some article for Spin, but I couldn’t. Whatever, though; it’s still true.)

“We live hip hop like a complete culture,” 2Mex told us. “We’re not afraid to like other shit, but it’s a complete culture. Like that picture.” He points to a photo on the wall of LA’s current underground luminaries. Modeled after “A Great Day In Harlem,” the famous photo of Fifties jazz legends, the picture on 2Mex’s wall was taken for Urb a couple of years ago. It’s a big group of folks, about forty or so, posing in the park. Most of them have known each other for years. They all discovered music together.

“We come from a place called The Goodlife Café [in Leimert Park], which is a Muslim healthfood store,” 2Mex explained. “They had an open mic in the late Eighties, like Eighty-eight to Ninety-four. On Thursday nights from 8 to 10, you come to this corner spot in a strip mall, and you pay two bucks. If you want to rap, you sign your name on a list; you get to do one song. You can’t cuss–they were disciplined, man. There would be a ten-minute freestyle portion at the beginning. Then, they read the list, and you get to do your song. If you suck, they boo you. If you were good, they’d cheer you or whatever. And then, at the end, there’d be another freestyle session. At 10, everybody from there would go outside and there’d be people freestyling and battling and just hanging out and having a good time. It was one of those things where you learned discipline. And a lot of the people [in the photo] I met there in Ninety-one and Ninety-two. Now it’s 2004, and, not only do I hang out with them as my friends, but they’re the people I work with. It’s someone you’ve been working with, in your mom’s house, since 1992 and we’re still all in each others’ lives. The Visionaries, The Shapeshifters, OMD, Busdriver, Aceyalone and Abstract Rude, O.D., and DJ Nobody, Subtitle, Pigeon John, Dilated and all these cats–we’re like a big-ass family. We’ve just known all these cats. We were teenagers going to The Goodlife. If you were hip hop and in our scene in Ninety-one, you’re still hanging out with us. You’re probably doing something with music. Or you’re just living the life.”

The Goodlife is fucking legendary. It is LA underground hip hop. Look back at those names. Holy shit, right? It continues as Project Blowed, but most say it’s not the same. It was just one of those things that came about completely organically. Music history at a little café off Crenshaw. And these dudes are still all friends. You get that kind of stuff a lot when you talk to 2Mex–he likes family. He likes being a part of something big and helping it to move forward. He’s part of a hip hop scene that’s arguably making some of the best hip hop ever. Yet, many of its members haven’t hardly broken yet. They’re well known in places like Austin, TX; Boulder, CO; and Copenhagen, Denmark, but they haven’t blown up on a large scale.

“A lot of us are just kind of at the point where we’re exposing [our music] out there. A lot of these groups are barely putting out these indie records that are getting enough attention to be able to hit the road. These people are happy to play in venues where they’re respected, and the sound system’s good and
(continued) people know who they are, not in some fucking bar for thirty people. A lot of that is progress. A lot of that is what helps groups, gives them the mental reward, where it’s like, ‘I know I can keep going.’ Appreciation goes a long way.”

2Mex makes music because he loves music. He’s happy that he’s able to make a bit of a living from it. He’s not really trying to be some huge ubiquitous conglomerate of a rapper, but he couldn’t get away from music if he wanted to. When he’s not making music, he’s listening to it or talking about it with his friends, always learning.

“Hip hop came from the East Coast. But to see that influence come out here and have its own original formation with the gangster shit or N.W.A.–all that shit. And then, come in like 1991, the whole Freestyle Fellowship, Hieroglyphics and going onto the Jurassic 5, Dilated era. And then this era–we’re trying to make a new era, too, you know?”


Is there anybody in particular, out of [the Goodlife] group of people, that is kind of ignored but shouldn’t be?
Yeah, there’s a couple of people. One is a group called Darkleaf, man. They put a record out on Ubiquity called Fuck the People. That shit is hard, man. They’re hard. They’re dope; people should know who they are. Other people, that are getting attention now, like Pigeon John. Or CVE–Chillin Villin Empire–and Hip Hop Klan, they’re just as important to the LA underground scene as Freestyle Fellowship or Jurassic 5 could ever have been. They influenced rappers, not only that rap today, here on the West Coast, but they influenced rappers that are in Germany and the U.K., everywhere in the world, man. A lot of the time, you were influenced by East Coast rappers when you were young and living out here, it’s the other way around. [Hip Hop Klan and CVE] developed their own style and influenced a lot of rappers from the Midwest and even the East and other places–Europe, all over the world. A lot of groups that came out in the late Nineties jacked their styles, but they’re coming back out.

Any ladies in 2Mex’s life?
A couple, sadly enough. A couple, instead of one good one. The shit that sucks about doing this full-time is that there’s no time to have a girlfriend. It sucks because you’re always out and…I don’t want to be with somebody, that it’s like, “Alright, baby; I’ll see you in a month.” That shit’s weak. So, it’s kind of like, I’ve had a series of half-assed relationships. I pretty much have somebody, like, a girl for every fucking emotion. You just have somebody, like, Oh, that’s who I can talk to. That’s who I actually chill with. That’s who I go visit at night, hookup with, whatever. I’ve pretty much been regulated to that.

How are the movie nights going?
The movie nights have been suspended. We haven’t really been home enough to have one. Every now and then I get an email, and it’s usually cool.

Will you explain it real quick?
Yeah, Monday Movie Night is where we invite any female fans that hit up our website, 2mexla.com, that want to come down and watch a movie on Monday nights when we’re not on tour. We just kick it, smoke some J’s, watch a couple flicks, have a couple drinks, whatever. We’ve actually had a lot, but, like, the movie night’ll happen and we forget to take pictures. It’s usually just a fan, if they’re old enough, to come over and hang out. You know, I’ll be getting emails from girls that are like fifteen. “Naaah, you can’t come over. I don’t wanna get in trouble with the law.”

It has to be females, right?
Yeah, I got too many homies already. I don’t need to meet anymore male people ever. I got homies; I have an army of homies, man. I’m done; I’m cool with the homies. If I could, I wouldn’t even shake men’s hands for the rest of my life. I don’t need it; I’m cool. I don’t want to meet another guy forever. That shit’s too much already.

About Monday Movie Nights.....

On Mondays (when i’m in town) from now on it will be “Movie Mondays”. Every Monday 2 (or more) underground female hip hoppers are invited to the crib to come watch movies with 2mex and Deeskee. Requirements: A cool attitude, microwave popcorn, and doja (if applicable). Movies this month include: “Bowling for Columbine”, “The Last American Virgin” and “Old School” (Unrated and out of Control version) or your choice of anything out of our extensive DVD collection. For details e-mail 2mex@2mexla.com or deeskee@la2thebay.com this is no joke!