Ryme Kryme Family Entertainment started in 2002 by these two deeply rooted street hustlers. Releasing a number of mixtapes (The L.R.C.A. (2002), Bullet Proof Love (2004), I-70 Traffic (2006) they started making a name in the Colorado rap scene. In midst of using music as a medium of getting to the top, they were also letting the street business intertwine a little too closely. Up until 2006 things were moving at a steady pace and their street buzz was starting to add up, Creepy Loc and several other RKF recording artists were targeted, charged and convicted of being part of an organized drug ring. The heartless charm of the game swept a majority of the team off the streets leaving IZM White the only man standing on free soil.

He was able to stay out of jail keeping the label afloat releasing solo projects such as Colorado Crack 2007, Heart Of CO 2008, More Bars In More Places 2009. IZM toured across the U.S. as the opening act for Ghost Face Killah on his Wizard of Poetry tour, as well as touring overseas in Switzerland with Main Flow. In late 2009 Creepy Loc returned home from prison and hit the studio hard, immediatly releasing his debute solo mixtape “Return Of A Rider Vol.1″. Soon after In 2010 IZM and Creepy along with M. Mansin dropped a group project “Red White & Blue”. In 2011, RKF continued their stride by releasing Izm White’s critically acclaimed mixtape “Cloud Surfin” (The Smokers Tape) and Creepy Loc’s “Return Of A Rider Vol.2″. With captivating stage presence and undeniable talent Izm White, Creepy Loc and their label Ryme Kryme Family have became regular opening acts throughout Denver and Aspen, CO for legendary artists such as Nas, Scarface, Mobb Deep and many more…

USM: Damn… touring in Europe sounds hella dope, tell me a little more bout the Euro-Experience…

Izm White: Switzerland and Norway were dope, Switzerland reminds me a lot of Colorado actually. I did a three city tour out there with Main Flow of the Hi Tek Ohio super group MOOD, and one of my own shows in Oslo, Norway. Everyshow we did in Switzerland was dope. The crowds showed mad love, they have a real appreciation for hiphop out there. The people are cool, the weed’s good, and the women are pretty, what more can you ask for. After every show we Flow and I partied hard acting straight fools. Crazy story though: The morning I was gonna head to Chamonix, France to snowboard for a few days before my next show in Oslo. Main Flow and I went to the studio to record a track before I caught the train to Chamonix. After I recorded the track I started vomiting lots of blood, all the way to chamonix I threw up mad blood, once I got there my friend took me to the hospital where they treated me for a bleeding ulcer. I couldn’t eat or drink for 3 days, and all I could have were these little moistureized cotton swabs to suck on while I was on an I.V. I lost a lot of blood and stayed there recovering for 4 days not being able to speak a lick of french. I ended up having to threaten to take the I.V. out my arm on the fifth day because I had a show in Norway that night and was determined to make it. I had never been to Norway and was finally eating some soft foods and feeling better. I had to have the promoter talk to the nurses and I guess she threatened to call the police on them for kidnapping if they wouldn’t let me go on my own will. So they made me sign my life away basically saying the hospital isn’t responsible for my death, and then the old french guy in the bed next to me walked with me outside the hospital to where he could point to where the train statin was at. I thanked him, then went and got on the train to Geneova where I caught the next flight to Oslo, Norway. I only perfomed three songs that night because I was so weak and drained from losing so much blood and not eating, but I still rocked the house and got a lot of love from the fans in Norway. It was a crazy trip I fux with Europe.

USM: Everbody knows IZM love’s to smoke, how happy are you that Colorado legalized marijuana this year?

Izm White: It’s monumental, but long over due! It feels good to enjoy a joint and not be treated like a criminal! Denver now has more weed stores than it has Starbucks and Mcdonalds combine. And I would go even as far as saying Colorado has better weed than Cali, yup I just said it COLORADO HAS BETTER WEED THAN CALI!”

USM: Creepy the first time we heard you rap was on Ryme Kryme Family’s 2004 mixtape “Bullet Proof Love” which was almost 9 years ago, since then you’ve been in and out of prison, released a number of mixtapes and have brought out many national hiphop acts to perform in Denver through your production company RKF Promotions. How have you noticed the game change over the past 10 years?

Creepy Loc: The game has changed drastactlly, its harder now to get noticed, it seems like everyone’s a rapper now a days. And all these kids think they gotta do is record a song on their computer and upload it to Youtube. The era I came up in you actually had to put in work, you had to Show-n-Proove!

USM: What can we expect next from Ryme Kryme Family Ent. as a label?

Creepy Loc: We are gearing up to release IZM White’s debute solo album: (still untitled) which is our main focus right now, but in the meantime we are going to release a new RKF mixtape titled “Welcome 2 the Family”. Also be on the look out for my new mixtape “Return Of A Rider Vol.3”, as well as RKF’s newest addition to the family Lowdy Trail‘s new mixtape “Subconcious Music”. We can’t stop, and wont stop, its RKF4L2D!

get at em’

www.izmwhite.com / www.creepyloc.com / www.souncloud.com/izmwhite

and instagram @izmwhite

If you’re not familiar with Rittz you may think he’s a new artist. You may think because you just found out he signed to Strange Music you’re ahead of the game and know a little something about him. Truth is Rittz came from the bottom, struggling his way to the top during the golden era of hip hop in one of the most acclaimed cities for breeding “What’s hot in hip hop” to this day. While starting to rhyme in the early ninties, Rittz got with his boy Ralo and became part of a group Ralo & Rittz. They imitated Outkast and looked up to the mega giants of Atlanta. He recalls “Outkast, Goodie Mob… It was a great time for Atlanta, to me that music was just classic Atlanta rap shit. That was a great time in music.”

Being from Gwinnett County wasn’t quite the place to be from to claim street cred as a rapper. In the nineties the upper North East suburb of Atlanta wasn’t recognized for creating famous rappers. “There was a little bit of a line drawn because I live in the suburbs of Atlanta so the line was drawn where I was from than actually being in Atlanta.” He dropped out of high school and hit moments in his life when times were getting really scary for him. He had set forth to become a famous rapper and if this didn’t happen, he nods his head rather not wanting to think of what could have been the outcome if his time didn’t come and Strange Music didn’t added him to the roster.

USM: What were the politics of coming up in the Atlanta rap game?

Rittz: The formula was really getting a song, trying to get it played on the radio or in the strip club. So it was a lot of grimy shows, where you’re standing all night in trap spots waiting to perform two songs. Then there was so many trends in Atlanta with Atlanta being on top of the rap game for so long. You had Crunk, then Snap, and then the Trap shit. It was hard being me making the type of music I make to get on. I finally got on the radio in 2007 and that’s when I started getting a little push. I was with Chrome Recordings, a label I was with then. We just got on the Battle Grounds, a little contest they do on 107.9 where if you win 5 nights in a row they retire your track.

USM: What track was that?

Rittz: It was song called “770” the area code where I’m from. So everyone in the 770 were calling in and requesting that song. I was reppin real hard cause Atlanta didn’t fuck with Gwinnett. Now it’s changed, they gotta say the North Side. Before they’d say “South to the East Side West Side”. Now you’ll here it mentioned with the different rappers being from different areas. It was crazy but after that everything just kind of fell flat.

USM: What did you do between that and Strange Music?

Rittz: I did a lot of things career wise, different managers different opportunities all through out just grinding. My manager Scender was in a group with Yelawolf “The Dixie Mafia”. Scender was Yela’s homie, when he moved to Atlanta he looked up local rappers, seen my shit. It was through him that me and Yelawolf hooked up. Me and Yela were kinda rappin’ comin up on the Atlanta seen. He was coming up pretty big and I was trying to get down to where he was doing his shit at. We ended up being tight. He got me the studio time to do “White Jesus” and gave me the opportunity to come off his momentum by putting me on “Box Chevy Pt. 3”. I did the Slumerican Tour and was just pushing “White Jesus”.

USM: Where did your title “The Life And Times Of Jonny Valient” come from?

Rittz: It’s just a nickname I had growing up. My names Jonny and my homeboys would just call me that. I put out “White Jesus” on some nickname shit. I wanted a title that was going to be controversial, but with this I wanted it to be something that was more about my life. To let people in on me, exactly Rittz. I kind of knew I wanted to name it that because before the Yelawolf thing I was going to name my album “Jonny Valiant Vol. 0”. That just never happened, those songs got shelved and I came out with “White Jesus”. So I kinda knew what I was gonna name it.

USM: After a long road, your debut album hits the stores 4/30/13… is that your main focus right now?

Rittz: Yea I’ve been focusin’ like a motha fucker. Basically I got off the Slumerican Tour with Yelawolf November 17th. I had then until the end of December to write the album. I write slow… it takes me awhile. So I was under pressure, I wrote a lot on the bus but not enough. The pressure was on as soon as I got back in town. I got Thanksgiving out of the way and it was just like bang. Plus you gotta have bonus tracks so all together I have like twenty something songs. With the stress of my first album and getting it done, being with a new label, and then with the Independent Powerhouse Tour coming up. It was just a lot of shit going on at once, but now I’m just happy to be on the road, album bout to come out… a little bit of pressures easin’ off.

You could feel the weight of Jonny Valiant’s past lift off his shoulder’s as we finished up the interview and he proceeded with his day on tour with Strange. He started as an underdog in one of the biggest rap mecca’s and finally grasp his dream because he never gave up. He fought strong to the top and at the end of the day he’s signed to largest independent label in the world. You can say what you want about Mr. Rittz but at this moment anyone who ever doubted him is looking back like man that’s the guy who we never thought would make it. Although he carry’s his swag to the fullest in his latest video’s such as “Like I Am”… in person he carry’s himself with utmost humble respect. For tomorrow you will get to hear the full story on “The Life And Times Of Jonny Valiant”. You can cop that at www.strangmusicinc.net or any of your local retailers. Lift your cup to a true vet!

USM: Any last words?

Rittz: I just really want to say thanks, thanks to everyone who fucks with me! This rap shit not easy… at all. That 21 years of grindin is real shit. I’m really appreciative of anything I got going on, anybody who gives me attention, or interested and listens to my music it’s a big deal.

Interview by Breez

As the third anniversary of Guru death make it’s desolate cycle, the hearts of many loyal hiphop fans still live with the somber untimely death like it was yesterday. So many unanswered questions still only known to Solar who was at the center of the controversy. Did he do what was right? Was this really what Guru wanted? Has his family made mends with him? Does his decisions still haunt him to this day?… Well, really only he can answer those questions… Will he?

Most likely not. After Guru’s death he basically went into hiding. Claiming he was going to revamp Jazzmatazz and keep Guru’s dream alive. Nobody has heard any of that. His twitter account was hacked and in 2010 after a series of tweets degrading himself by the hacker nothing else was done to fix that, to clean up his name. He has seemed to give up what he said he was going to do. No tweets from Guru’s account since 2010 have popped for any reason either… Does somebody have access to that account… It’s verified by twitter! Yet nobody knows how to feel about the legend passing. Is it anger, or pure grief that his exit was filled with such controversy? We can’t put a finger on it but at some point we need to release him to eternal peace and let the past be the past. Guru obviously had love for Solar he was with him day in and day out for the last 6 years of his life. He managed his career and from the emails, people got a devious vibe from what he was trying to set up as if he was using Guru and walking all over him. Was he just being a manager trying to keep him afloat? They toured through Europe and the U.S. together. Will he ever release more music they had made that still exists? So many unanswered questions with so little closure. Will the recluse come back out and try to justify his actions. If so, he possibly would have tried to already.

As far as what really matters is he was one of the greats. His death resides in special place in the heart of hip hop just as Tupac, Biggie, and many other legends that lost their life before their time. It takes it to another level such as Elvis or Michael Jackson, to the point where we don’t even want to believe they died. Of course that’s what music is about, that the soul lives forever through music which at this point through technology will never go anywhere. We hope this interview may answer some questions, maybe give you a better understanding as to what they were going for with the music they were creating. You see the love they had for each other as you’ll hear Guru refer to Solar as “Lord” and “God” several times. Which is nothing out of the ordinary for East Coast slang, but they must have built a relation that they set in motion to create the last of Guru’s collection of music. What’s really the truth as far as Solar is concerned only Guru and Solar and maybe some of his family know, but after a few months of his death it was just… silence. DJ Premier spoke out unhappily about the situation.

I hear the cocky side of Solar in this interview as he interrupts Guru a few times and at the same time I hear someone who is actually really saying something. Of course Guru could kill it in just one sentence where as Solar took his time to get his point across. I do hear empathy coming from him but at the same time it’s his way of thinking that is the truth in their world. It sounds to me like his beliefs is what you’re suppose to go by, as he expresses himself with such confidence. That may be why Guru grasped him as his manager feeling he was ailing so much that he needed a strong person behind him. To the point where he said “Here’s the keys, you drive”. He sat back and let him do the hard part to make it easier for him to do what he did best. Spit ill poetry to the people he raised as the first generation of Hip Hop. Your Voice Lives On Forever! RIP GURU

In 2003 he spit his first freestyle while out a house a party. From there it was a snowball effect of practicing and writing rhymes that led him to the decision he made to give up all the fun stuff and actually become a performer. In 2005 he came out with the mixtape series “Mixtapes Most Wanted” which had 2 volumes to the collection. U.T.I.C.A. reminisces… “It was all jackin’ for beats. Back then in the mixtape game that was new and that’s basically how people figured the format was at the time.” Little did he know this would actually be a future career move.

Getting noticed by Nino of Stellar Music Entertainment, a local tycoon who’s been in the Denver rap scene for over a decade. Nino felt the lack of organization and business ethic in Denver’s music industry, deciding it was time to make his artists actually sign record deals. Offering the artists studio time, quality videos, and topnotch quality graphic design from the labels in-house graphic company N-Lyne Designs in exchange for his piece of the pie of the artists music. In 2010 U.T.I.C.A. signed a legitimate record deal with SME. Since has released two professional projects, several music videos and has learned to work at a pace which consists of sticking to schedules, meeting expectations of not only his label but of the fan base he since built.

USM: How did you link up with Nino and sign to Stellar?

U.T.I.C.A.: I came across Nino in 2007. I had freshly did a project. He reached out to a fellow artist of mine. So it was through a mutual friend at the time. I did some work back in 2010 with Young Cracka on a video called “They Don’t Like Me”. Later in 2010 after the video I officially signed to SME.

USM: Tell me about your rise to success with Stellar. What projects and videos have you done?

U.T.I.C.A.: I started a 3 part series with my first album release being “The Nomination”. Then came “The Campaign” which was my second release. I shot 3 videos off that album. I shot one for “Say Yeah Pt. 2”. I dropped one for “Dreams”. Then I shot one for “Shining Star” featuring Jonathan Carey. Right now I’m working on a project that’s all original “The Revolution” which is the last of a three part series and ends the saga.

USM: Which tracks are you really grasping off the project “The Revolution”?

U.T.I.C.A.: It’s early in it’s stages right now. But this track we’re shooting the video for “We Be Mobbin”… it’s just one of those joints I got from Chef Premier. It was like real easy to just whip something up for it. It’s an inspiring track that I just go straight bars on.

USM: Break a line down out of the song for me…

U.T.I.C.A.: I have a part that says “They say that this life’s a bitch / Well I think that saying is over used / The time for change has been overdue / So don’t play the game if you ain’t know the rules / Like Juice said we’s built to win / But coming in we was born to lose / So be who ever that you want to be / and you can do whatever it is that you want to do!” Basically just saying I get tired of cats saying “Life’s a bitch” or this and that. It’s more just saying get up and get yours. If that’s the case you can do what you want to do and be who you want to be. You just got to do it and get to it!

USM: Where do you get your name from and what’s behind that?

U.T.I.C.A.: Well it’s an acronym for Undeniably The Illest Cat Around but I get the name because that’s the block I grew up on a majority of my life. Shout out to the “U” Block. Really I’m a regular dude that wants to do extraordinary things, but at the time there’s a dude inside me that’s very flashy that every now and then comes out. That can take control of the situation and grab attention. Performing has always been in my blood. I used to be a singer but after pounds of marijuana I just kind of lost it. (laughs)

USM: What artists are you feeling right now in the game?

U.T.I.C.A.: Kendrick Lamar, Big K.R.I.T., ASAP, Danny Brown… I’m really feelin’ School Boy Q, Ab-Soul… I’m going to his concert tonight. Childish Gambino, Max B definitely Chamillionaire.

USM: What do you have to say about the Denver music scene?

U.T.I.C.A.: The scene in Denver is finally starting to build some character and grow. We’re always gonna be a melting pot. I don’t think we’ll ever have a sound, a specific sound. We’re always gonna be a place where you can grab from here, you can grab from there. I like it, lyricists are stepping their bars up, performers are stepping their performances up. Bands are making great music. There’s still kinks and bugs we can work out. We’re definitely headed in the right direction.

USM: What’s U.T.I.C.A.’s niche in the game?

U.T.I.C.A.: I make feel good music. I have a knack to make songs that are catchy, but at the same time I feel like you have to cover a variety of subjects. If you’re happy when the song comes on and you start moving and you’re happy after that track, that’s what I really want to make.

USM: Any shout outs?

U.T.I.C.A.: Shouts to first of all my Stellar team. www.stellarmusicent.com Holla at Nino and N-Lyne Designs check them out. Holla at Young Cracka for features. My boy Sid Madrid. Shouts to Midnight Run, Jeremy Pape, John Carey of course, Clearview Films and 8ight Tha Sk8. Unda$treaM Magazine appreciate you very much. Everybody I forgot apologies but much love and respect to everyone that supports our movement out here.