ThaFormula.com - So let's talk about your album and the Afterlife crew.

2Mex - The Afterlife it's our crew which consists of CVE, Hip-Hop Klan, Busdriver, Cypress 7, and Of Mexican Decent. We been a crew for like ten years. Were part of a collective from The Good Life Cafe on Crenshaw and Exposition. Groups like Hip-Hop Klan and CVE were there since like 89. The Afterlife itself is independently owned. We have our own label and we independently manufacture our own CD's. We have like 24 selections, but out of those 24 selections, I'd say like 18 of them are what we call real underground CD's, which we make ourselves. We package them ourselves and are basically home made CD's. We just operate like that out of South Central and we sell our shit on the streets. We also sell it to the stores and sell it to distributors. Some selections, like with this new record. I did it in conjunction with a distribution / label called Mean Street. This one is doing good and as time progresses, our records are getting to more and more people through dubs, CD burns, and the Internet. This is our job and we basically make CD's all day and ship them out and make calls to handle our kind of raggedy distribution which were trying to improve right now.

ThaFormula.com - Who had the biggest influence on you during the whole Good Life period?

2Mex - I was really influenced by all of it. Freestyle Fellowship, Volume 10, Medusa. It was all beautiful stuff. Unity committee and all those cats that became Jurassic 5. At the time that I personally first went which was late '91, we just went up there performed and did cool, but we were like Wow!, a place where you can come rhyme.

ThaFormula.com - How do you feel about groups like Dead Press?

2Mex - I really am into there message. I went to Havana Cuba last year and we just missed them by like one day. It was at the Black August music festival. We played on the last day.

ThaFormula.com - How was the Black August Music Festival?

2Mex - It was incredibly beautiful man. The people out there were so full of joy and love. It was like a weird sense of humbleness. You really go over there and you become very humble. Once you see that people don't have anything. No money and there not getting off of the island. They are livin' there forever livin' in that house until you die. I mean once you see all that they go through and the fact that they are still happy makes you very humble.

ThaFormula.com - How many groups is 2Mex in?

2Mex - Really, I'm honestly in 2 bands. One is called Of Mexican Decent, which is my main group. .

ThaFormula.com - Who does the production on your projects?

2Mex - We work with a lot of people. Mostly 3 people. One guy named Mums The Word. Another guy named OD and another guy named DJ Nobody. On this album we had stuff from Jacken from Psycho Realm. He's on the album and produced 2 songs. There is Visionaries on it like LMNO and Zen. Visionaries and OMD are pretty much family, since those are my 2 things. We always chill, but since their is 6 of us and you got guys like Rhettmatic who is so busy going all over the planet, we meet a couple of times a month and record and build or whatever. We all used to live together at different points, but fools are busy.

ThaFormula.com - So how do you feel about your new album B - Boys in Occupied Mexico?

2Mex - I think it's very well produced and sonically really, really tight. We actually mastered the album somewhere nice. It's just the resources were available to do things. When the resources build, we are beginning to build better sounds.

ThaFormula.com - What's the thing to watch out for in this industry for those that are trying to make a move as an artist?

2Mex - Everything in this record business is completely shady on all levels at all times. Unless you own your own record company, no record company will ever pay you what your supposed to be paid. Every record company will jack you always. Personally I used to be a promoter. I used to work for Geffen records, Columbia Records, Immortal Records, Dreamworks, Relativity, and I used to intern at Immortal Records and Buzztone Management. The fact that even the employees are constantly getting jerked, but since music is entertainment and everybody wants to be a star, basically you will get hired and then get fucked over. As soon as you leave there is already 10 people waiting in line that wants to be you.

ThaFormula.com - How did you work this album out distribution wise?

2Mex - Well, with this album I did it in conjunction with Mean Street distribution so basically they give me an advance and they have the cost of production and things that I sign off on and agree to invest in. So we put it out and made those investments. I'll put it to you this way, on the day the record came out we sold enough records to pay all that back.

ThaFormula.com - Do you do a lot of shows?

2Mex - Yeah, we play a lot man. Were not really trying to charge people up. The Visionaries is definitely charging real competitive, but that's because we split the money 7 or 8 ways sometimes.

ThaFormula.com - So where to you make more money from. Your shows or your CD's?

2Mex - It's pretty much even. But were literally playing like 10 shows a month. This year we have been to at least 20 states.

ThaFormula.com - How is the response when you go to other states compared to L.A.?.

2Mex - It's way liver because they don't get to see it. This is Cali where everywhere is always poppin'. We just went to Boise Idaho and the energy is just way more intense.

ThaFormula.com - What do you think of all these mc's out there spittin' meaningless rhymes?

2Mex - There is definitely bands and mc's out there that suck really bad. There is a gang of wack mc's. Some of them are my friends and some of them are my cousins. But it's not about being wack, it's about groups that wanna already be on stage when they haven't polished their work. You gotta pay your dues. I mean I'm payin' dues tonight man.

ThaFormula.com - Where did the name 2Mex come from?

2Mex - One of our members of our group passed away last year. His name was Memo and that's was actually the name of a crew we were gonna start when we were in High School. We were on the bus and we said that we should call ourselves 2Mex cause were 2 Mexicans and were down and shit like that. So I went straight to the swap meet and got me a 2mex hat. I went the next day to school and fools started calling me 2Mex.

ThaFormula.com - What do you think of the success of Dilated?

2Mex - Dilated is dope man. I think that there shit is banging. They are my friends straight up. I've seen Iriscience kicking hardcore freestyles since like 1991 on Melrose just fuckin it up. At shows also when they were called the Phatliners. I have recorded with both of them cats. Rakka is somebody that put me up on a lot of knowledge back in the day. I've seen Dilated putting it down since day one.

ThaFormula.com - I have noticed that they get love and hate from a lot of people.

2Mex - Yeah, well it's because you are coming out of the L.A. underground and their is so much jealousy. They are like the only rap group on The Beatles label. They got their second album with mad push. They got New York lovin' them so you know there is a lot of jealousy out there. I personally think both of there albums are slamming. You can't fuck with them. they got beats, rhymes, and cuts. The DJ is million dollar and if they want they make their own beats.

ThaFormula.com - Your thoughts on Sept. 11th?

2Mex - I'm saddened for the people that passed. I think that a lot of people have been waiting for a day like this. Even the U.S. themselves have. I recorded a show from channel 7 a few years ago, where they break down Anthrax, that the Twin Towers might get bombed, and Osama Bin Laden. They put a 5 million-dollar bounty on his head over 5 years ago and the United Nations condemned the U.S. for putting the bounty on his head without having any proof that he did anything. I don't even like to get into the logistics of all this though.

ThaFormula.com - What are you trying to do with your album?

2Mex - One, I'm trying to make good hip-hop songs that are banging and that I love. I don't really produce myself. I co-produced this record, but I don't really do it all myself. So I'm just seeking beats that I love and are original to me and besides that the message I wanna give to people is to be aware. Not of the devil or shit like that, but to be aware of how there day to day is being affected by everything that is going on.

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