Welcome To aBlackWeb

Register

COMMUNITY Chicity Presents: 5th Letter Interviewing HerbalVaperCapers

5th Letter

5th Letter

Moderator
Mod Squad
5th Letter- Where are you from

HerbalVaporCapers- Born and raised in the Mission District of San Francisco. Currently living in North Carolina

5th Letter- What was your early life like

HerbalVaporCapers- It was rough, but incredibly beneficial at the same time. For pretty much every negative that I could count in my experience, it came with some positive aspect either in the environment I was raised in or once I left it.

As far as specifics go, my family was poor even for the standard of the time, the neighborhood had a fair bit of crime, as well as a gang problem, and the crack epidemic was all encompassing at the time I started going to school.

But at the same time, growing up poor and never having the fly gear made me want it less and less as time went on and my finances got right. Not to mention it forced me to develop a sense of humor and a personality.Same goes for my family: my dad was a disabled war veteran and troubled by his experiences back in Northern Ireland, but he was able to instill in me an identity and belief in a cause that I would have went searching for in the streets. My mom instilled a sense of work ethic and a respect for the women folk, while reinforcing the political beliefs my dad taught me.

And as for the neighborhood, I grew up around every type of person from every country imaginable and got introduced to both hip hop and Islam at a young age.

5th Letter- Did you ever get directly involved in the negative stuff growing up?

HerbalVaporCapers- Absolutely. I started being affiliated with the gang in my area when I was 11. My mom had sent me to a Church summer camp to get me outta the house and away from trouble in 1995. Totally had the opposite effect because I started hanging with dudes from the set every day from that point on.

Tbh though, it would have been hard not to be affiliated with something at that time, in part because it was so glamorized and also because it was so widespread. Some of the posters here can't remember a time before the internet (or weren't even alive) but back then you just went outside and got to know people, played ball, hung on the corner listening to music etc. And if you were from an area that was claimed by some entity, if you went outside you either had friends who claimed something or claimed it yourself. To the people who hated your neighborhood, it didn't really make much of a difference what your level of involvement was and the consequences were the same either way.

Like I said though, I never felt like I "needed" to be from somewhere due to my upbringing and that kept me from going full force. Getting sent to a school with rival gang members and getting into nonsense all the time got old too. By the time my homeboy Ronnie got killed (http://www.sfgate.com/news/amp/Boy-16-Arrested-In-S-F-Chinatown-Shooting-3003614.php ) I had already slowed down but that slowed me down even more.

The gang stuff aside, I was involved in graffiti and just general knucklehead type of stuff, but none of that was all that serious. People still fought back then (God, I really am becoming an old head
frowning.png
) so a lot of the lesser stuff got handled without gunplay.

5th Letter- So if you don't mind answering what do you do for a living?

HerbalVaporCapers- I'm an accountant. Done everything from working security to managing condos before I took on my current position
 
5th Letter- How did you get into hip hop

HerbalVaporCapers- Hip hop was... Everywhere when I was a kid, but I got introduced by my sister who's older. I would sit down with her at like 6/7 years old and watch mtv but also the Video Music Box. She would put me on game to stuff initially but once I got my feet wet I was a fiend.

At school, everyone was enveloped in hip hop as well. It affected every aspect of our lives, the same as it had in the years before and after. You HAD to know the lyrics to the new song that was out, had to watch In Living Color to see who preformed ,had to cop new tapes before everyone else. It was everything to us then.

The hip hop scene in the bay at that time was fertile as well, so even if I didn't have an older sibling I would have been exposed just by walking outside and hearing what people were playing.

By the time I got to 5th grade and starting breaking, hip hop influenced every part of my life.

5th Letter- For you what was the Bay Area scene like coming up?

HerbalVaporCapers- Maaaaaaan it was lovely. Not only did each section of the bay have it's own rappers and producers, but each artist had their own sound and persona particular to them. E40 sounded different from Mac Dre (from the same city), Too Short sounded different from Dru Down (Both from Oakland who rapped about the Pimp game, no @5 Grand) and the MCs from San Francisco (RBL, San Quinn, JT tha Bigga Figga) didn't sound like anyone else, even though the subject matter was about the same as what was out there.

(I remember when we were doing the DJ battles and I made a bay mix for the regional competition we had. @brideofkilla said she thought it was gonna be just an hour straight of e40

We listened to music from NY and LA as well (death row and ruthless we're popping off at that time) but we had so much local music coming out that we could just listen to that and be straight. And when something did pop off nationally from the city or the bay, like Players Club by Rappin 4 Tay, it was like the whole city got put on as well. I remember when that first video came on MTV and he shouted out the projects down the street from my house (Army Street), I damn near jumped out the window in joy.

Like I said in the other question you asked, the music at that time was just everywhere. You just lived life and those songs were the soundtrack to everything you did. In the days before MP3s or even CDs and walkmen, the word on new music travelled fast. Once something dope hit the streets you heard it banging outta cars, on he corners, dudes walking down the street rapping the lyrics, just everywhere.

I also wanna add that the artists at that time were hella accessible too and you saw them everywhere. Even though they were local artists and not selling millions of records, to us they were icons. And it wasn't nothing from them to stop and talk to you/dap you up when you said what's up to them on the street.

5th Letter- Do you feel that the Bay doesn't get enough credit?

HerbalVaporCapers- I don't but I understand why.

For a lot of people, the sound of certain rappers/producers turns them away from the music. I can listen to 40 all day... But Ive been bumping his music since I was like 9 or 10. Same goes for a dude like Keak Da Sneak who's been out since the mid 90s and is huge in the bay but nowhere else. If you haven't had his music, or 40's music as a soundtrack to moments in your life then it's just music. You'll be like, why does this dude keep making up words or why does this other dude rap in one hella long run+on sentence????

Plus, though we have a bunch of albums we consider classics, with the exception of Pac's work of course, we don't have that one. We don't have that Illmatic, or Chronic, or Aquemini that's accepted by everyone as a universal classic from the Bay.

On top of those two things, I do have to say that after the hyphy wave of the mid 2000s, I've come to find that folks from other regions think we might actually be retarded. Could have something to do with it as well.

It's in the hands of the youth and ultimately you have to respect that. There are things about the music I don't like, such as the lack of originality and the content. It would be hypocritical for me to get up in arms about it though because I grew up on music that was just as ignorant as today's music, but just with a different slant.

At the end of the day, I'm a white dude in his mid 30s, who's also a practicing Muslim, so I can't really say any of it is made with me in mind and my opinion is pretty much irrelevant.

One thing I do like is the fact that anyone can make music at any time. While some may feel that such accessibility to equipment and exposure has watered the sound and the culture (to which I can't argue that it hasn't), I can also argue that it enables musicians who are dope but might be broke as hell or live in places where no one else raps. Those artists may never be heard otherwise, but with technology being what it is now the next new artist or sound is always around the corner. It might be dope, it might be back, but there will always be something new.
oo much either in the grand scheme of things.

With all that said, there definitely was a rivalry between San Francisco and LA, but that's related to baseball and just general saltiness. And sadly just about 100% of that saltiness comes from us in San Francisco. Dudes would come up from LA just to visit or because they had a new job and get torrents of hate as soon as they said where they were from. All on some "You're from LA? FOH why don't you go back already???" They would be on the defensive or feel like they might have to square up...All behind a stupid rivalry that they had never partaken in or even knew existed 15 seconds prior lmao

5th Letter- Who are some of your favorite and least favorite rappers

HerbalVaporCapers- My personal top 5 is:

1) Rakim
2) Andre 3k
3) Cube
4) Ghostface
5 E-40

Nas, Raekwon, GZA, Deck, Common, Pun (RIP), Scarface, B-Legit, Mac Mall, Coughnut (RIP), Young Cellski, RBL Posse, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, The Dogg Pound (I feel like Daz is underrated on the mic), Snoop, Pac (RIP), Biggie (RIP), Mr Lif, AZ, Black Thought, Twista and especially Too Short are all favorites as well.

Can't say I have any least favorites. If I don't like something I just figure it's not for me and don't listen to it. However, when Drake first came out he was on some relentless Captain Save-a-ho-ism and I couldn't get jiggy with that whatsoever. That nonsense irked me on a soul level at that time but those feelings have since passed.

5th Letter- What are some of your favorite albums

HerbalVaporCapers- That's a long list, but off the top of my head as far as hip hop goes:

In A Major Way (E-40), Game Related (The Click), Operation Stackola (Tha Luniz), Criminal Minded, Paid In Full, Enta Da Stage, Enter The 36 Chambers, Wu-Tang Forever, Illmatic, It was Written, Stillmatic, Atliens, Aquemini, The Score, All Eyez On Me, Don Killuminati, Ready To Die, Mecca And The Soul Brother, The Realness (Cormega), Soul Food, Doggystyle, The Chronic, G Funk Era, Dogg Food, N-z4life (NWA), Creepin on a Come Up, East 1999 Eternal, Midnight Marauders, Iron Man, Liquid Swords...

But my all time favorite album of any genre is Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. Hands down

5th Letter- What are your thoughts on today's hip hop

HerbalVaporCapers- It's in the hands of the youth and ultimately you have to respect that. There are things about the music I don't like, such as the lack of originality and the content. It would be hypocritical for me to get up in arms about it though because I grew up on music that was just as ignorant as today's music, but just with a different slant.

At the end of the day, I'm a white dude in his mid 30s, who's also a practicing Muslim, so I can't really say any of it is made with me in mind and my opinion is pretty much irrelevant.

One thing I do like is the fact that anyone can make music at any time. While some may feel that such accessibility to equipment and exposure has watered the sound and the culture (to which I can't argue that it hasn't), I can also argue that it enables musicians who are dope but might be broke as hell or live in places where no one else raps. Those artists may never be heard otherwise, but with technology being what it is now the next new artist or sound is always around the corner. It might be dope, it might be back, but there will always be something new.
 
5th Letter- How did you discover the IC

HerbalVaporCapers- Illseed and the rumor section. It was a couple of years before I migrated over to the IC. After a couple of years of lurking I started posting

5th Letter- How long have you been on the IC

HerbalVaporCapers- I wanna say I started lurking in 2008/09???

Started posting in 2012. Don't even remember what got me to finally create an account, but if anyone has followed me through the years then they know I can't resist replying to idiocy, so I'm guessing thats what did it.

5th Letter- So you're an argumentative poster

HerbalVaporCapers- Argumentative is a .... strong word hahahhaa If something is worth debating, I'm down to discuss it and argue my point of view. But I'm way more down to clown (no @genocidecutter)than anything. Clowning and capping is too ingrained in my being to ignore any opportunity to do so

5th Letter- What are some of the craziest things you've seen since you've been on here

HerbalVaporCapers- The reoccurring goofiness is probably what keeps bringing me back to the IC lmao. Over the years there's been some doozies:

Both Trillfate/SleepwalkinginJapan sagas
Bawse D. Lox ruining the word salute for everyone
@Gee757 dressing that unfortunate looking woman up like the homie @Ghostdeinidagawd
The extreme measures @Brian B. took to defend the honor of Starlito

But most of all would have to be 5 Grand derailing my offset thread and making "don't blink" the two most ominous words in the English language for the rest of my life

5th Letter- Who are your favorite and least favorite posters

HerbalVaporCapers- I mess with a lot of posters on here. Shout out to my bay family @Turfaholic and @Leftcoastkev. @Busta Carmichael @matches malone @T. Sanford @Beta and @Ghostdeinidagawd are all straight up comedians and I stay dying at the stuff they post. @Stew and @Sion are cool as hell. You're cool as hell too @5th Letter, plus I messed with that Jersey mix you put together.

Shout out to @$tayrichrollin and @harlemthumzup. Shout out to @IngelwoodB, @PureYangand all my other west coast posters. Shout out to @Capital B (forever pimpin, never simpin, that's how it is). Shout out to @AP21 (forever simpin, never pimpin, that's how it is). Shout out to @MallyG, who's a super underrated poster and who I mess with heavy, even if he said I look like the Carvana dude hahahaha

Shout out to @brideofkilla and @jazzybella for being in the mix of the musical discussions. And definitely shout out @Kat for holding it down on the social discussions (don't be salty you're this far down the shout out list!)

Can't say I got a least favorite poster. Everyone brings something to the table: genocidecutter is a die hard juggalo but those classic album threads are dope. You can say what you want about @Gee757 too, but dude consistently comes up with the most hilarious rapper nicknames possible. Damn! I mess with @englishdude, @irony and @hafbayked too. Knew I was forgetting something folks

5th Letter- What are some things you'd like to change about the IC

HerbalVaporCapers- As far as the actual IC itself? Nothing at all

I always like it when posters drop their personal and are just open and honest about some topics, so I wouldn't mind seeing more of that

5th Letter- Any last words before we wrap up

HerbalVaporCapers- Health is wealth, so I want everyone to watch their sugars and drink lots of water in the big 18. Try not to drink and drive, keep an eye out for one time, and if you ever want some attention from an IC lady, just say you're religious and abstinent.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top