Subscribe
HipHopWired Featured Video
CLOSE

Candyman 187 Interview

Candyman 187 has been on the grind for a minute and is gearing to drop his official release If Tomorrow Never Comes this fall.

Reared by Tupac and game certified by Snoop, peep how the West Coast MC plans to marry the club and the streets.

Hip-Hop Wired:   First of all, you have your new single out, “High Off the Fame” with Snoop Dogg as well as one song that is more of a street song “Show Em All”.   How do you manage to merge those two styles? They seem totally different.

Candyman 187:   “Show Em All” is what I do normally, that’s my style usually, the street stuff.  The thing is, the industry isn’t really willing to open their doors for you unless you’re willing to do the pop and crossover top 40 hit, so I reached out to Snoop Dogg, because after doing this for years, we weren’t getting the same types of breaks pop crossover songs were.

We got advice from Snoop as to where to get a big break, and we got the beat for “High off the Fame.” One thing led to another, and the song took me a little bit longer because I had to go into the “pop song” mode, but in the end it worked out.  I feel like I was able to keep my soul intact.

Hip-Hop Wired:   Absolutely. Being diverse is important in the new Hip-Hop climate. 

Candyman 187:   Basically, I felt like “Show Em All” wasn’t going to get me enough radio play.  So I thought to myself, what I can do in order to get more known?  Do I sit here and continue to do the whole Hip-Hop  to the streets music?   Snoop basically told me that I can always put that type of music on my albums  but you have to put out something that they can play in the clubs.  From there, people will start getting a better general idea of who you are and trying to find out more about you. And once they listen to your album, they know who you really are.

 

Candyman 187 feat. Snoop Dogg “High Off The Fame”

Hip-Hop Wired:   How did you build your relationship with Snoop, and what made you take his advice?

Candyman 187:   That relationship has been around for years.  I grew up with Tupac  and he brought me into the music game. We also dealt with Snoop a lot in those days. When I came together with Meech Wells, Meech had access to Snoop and beats and soulmechanix. My goal was to create something for the West Coast.  Don’t get me wrong, I love New York and the entire east coast, but I still wanted to incorporate an ode to the OGs from the West Coast. As far as taking advice from Snoop, he’s just a good person, he talks from the heart. I’ve never known Snoop to be a dude that would give you advice unless he really meant it.

We had a good conversation about how I needed to change my style of music, how the industry wasn’t the same how it was fifteen years ago, and how I needed to work into the system before I could really stray away from the songs being played. He also knew that my parents were part of the Black Panthers, and a mantra of theirs is “You need to work with the system before you can break it”, basically referring to the fact that I have to create songs for the current music industry before I can go astray. That resonated with me.

Hip-Hop Wired:   You and Tupac had a situation called the “Havenotz” and you also mentioned that your parents were  part of the Black Panthers, is that how you and Tupac initially met?

Candyman 187:   Tupac took me in when I was ten. When we got together, he was always into poetry. The first thing he asked me if I had ever tried rapping, and I replied no, I wasn’t a rapper, I just wrote poetry. And he replied “What do you think my raps are?” That’s where it all started, and he was always a teacher to me. He would always take me into the studio and was like an older brother to me.

We were always a family and when Tupac put together Outlawz, I was way too young, but he and I later created a movement called “Havenotz”, which includes pretty much 90% of the world, and it came together. Sooner or later, we started working on an album, but he died before we could finish it. We started having it said on a couple of the songs, and we planned to put the entire thing on the Euthanasia project , and it was supposed to come out through that, but God had different plans for us.

Candyman 187 – “Show Em All”

Hip-Hop Wired:   What’s the new plan for you guys? You already have two singles out, an album, and you have an independent project in the works.

Candyman 187:   I have people supporting us. I was fortunate enough to meet a group of people who were willing to support me with money, and I don’t want to mess that up. I want to play by the rules of the game before I change the game. We’re doing a double album.  As far as I know, no other artist has come out with a double album as their first, and I’ve worked with many people like George Clinton and Digital Underground, so there’s a lot of work I’m putting into both albums.

The first album is some of my older work, while my second album is my newer work. It’s risky, but my whole life is a risk, so I’m just taking it and running. I’ve got a song with Jim Jones on the album, and a couple other big names. I can’t quite talk about all of it yet, but a lot of those artists showed love  from both coasts of the U.S., and I feel blessed. It’s coming this year. It’ll be called “If Tomorrow Never Comes.”

Hip-Hop Wired:   Why did Tupac decide to mentor you?

Candyman 187:   After we both grew older, Tupac realized how much dumb Shyte I was doing back in the day, and he took me in and tried to guide me in the right direction.  It seemed like everyone else in my life was trying to push me in the wrong direction, but he was leading me into the right. I remember when I met him again, he asked me for my number, and I gave it to him, thinking that he wasn’t ever going to call me and put me on.

But sure enough, a couple days later, the phone rang.  We just started writing, and people told me that he saw the power and hope inside of me, and he wanted to bring that out.  I’m not taking any shots at anyone, but a lot of the work the people who worked with Pac made as compared to the work they’re putting out now isn’t as good.  Pac pulled that out of people.  I credit him with turning me into the man I am, and he believed in me when no one else did.

Hip-Hop Wired:   What’s behind the name Candyman187?

Candyman 187:   We used to call Weed “candy”  and I always had it.  That’s where the name came in. Back then, weed wasn’t as socially acceptable and everyone thought Tupac had the biggest “sweet tooth” in the world. The 187 came from when Tupac sat me down and basically told me that we were all born to die, and that we were all eventually going to die. The only question is, can you beat the odds?

Can you beat the statistics? If one of your friends dies at 25, the next has to die at 30 and so forth. That’s where the 187 came from, because when they put 187 next to your name, that’s because you’re under a death sentence. It freaks out a lot of people and radio stations when they hear it, but I have to do it with a name that Pac gave me first, and maybe eventually I’ll use another name on my second album.

Hip-Hop Wired:   You’ve mentioned that you’re Pakistani.  You also  said your parents were part of the Black Panthers, how did this come about?

Candyman 187:   I’m half and half. So, I’m from both sides. I always joke about that, saying I’m a “n*gga and a terrorist”. For me, I feel like it’s the best of both worlds. This time around though, I feel like the revolution surrounds all races.

For More info on Candyman 187, log on here http://candyman187.com/ and follow him on Twitter at @Candyman187