Interview: ICB of Vicious Beat Posse talks SD Rap History, pt. 2
We continue our chat with ICB, member of San Diego rap groups DBX and Vicious Beat Posse from the ’80s. He speaks on the short-lived careers of those groups and how they got bit by Industry Rule #4080. If you missed part 1, check it out here. After you’re done, continue on to part 3, where ICB delves into his work with Gangsta Ern, Orko Eloheim, Damu, and Black Mikey, and part 4, where he talks about what he’s been up to since.
SDRaps.com: So Vicious Beat Posse was four separate acts thrown together, right? Were you guys all from San Diego?
ICB: Marv [Marvee V aka Marvee Vicious] was from New Jersey originally. But he was here. He was also the elder statesman of the group, he was the oldest cat. We were all from there though. Just individual acts that had never ran across each other prior to Darryl Sutton and Delton Dormer bringing us together. So like I said, they had this vision–and really all they did, I’ve come to learn, was a production label deal. And they cut a production label deal. They was gonna get the label to put them up, kinda produce the records. And they was gonna kinda put them out there. I guess the easiest way to segue into that–you know how a record deal goes, they got the option. So if they start out with a compilation, that was the one way to get us an opportunity first. As opposed to saying, “Ok, DBX goes first. Superslim goes second.” What we had was we did the first single ["Legalized Dope"] which was the collabo. Which was everybody.
SDRaps.com: Was that the only song on the album that featured all four acts?
ICB: Yup, the only one to have everybody on it. And the second single was Slim’s “Give The People What They Want.” And then after that, we didn’t push no units. So we were out the door, haha. But like I said, the experiences, the tour. Man, we made some hella connections in that time in the business.
SDRaps.com: You were around the San Diego scene before. Had you heard of any of those acts–Superslim & DJ Candyman, Marvee V, MC Deb B–before you got together?
ICB: I’d never heard of any of them. I knew about the Dam Lab because they had some cats that was into the battle thing. My boy, Icylee. Of LPSD. We used to go at it, we used to battle. I had heard some of the demos that they was doing at the Dam Lab. They had some real nasty sound like some of that Boogie Down Productions’ real hard-hitting drum sounds. And we was kinda on the light, poppy side. I was envious of that sound that they had. Once I found out who that was–I had some run-ins and some work with Frank Z, who was apart of the [Vicious Beat] project as well. But Frank Z was a DJ/producer. He wasn’t a rap act. He was the only person I had any acquaintance with prior to the project.
SDRaps.com: I noticed DBX had more of a conscious, Afrocentric vibe. How did you guys develop that and who were some of your biggest influences?
ICB: At the time, gangster rap wasn’t true to who I was. So I would never coin myself or consider myself a “gangster rapper.” At the time, you had–the X-Clan was out there. I heard the messages from KRS-One even with Criminal Minded. He was just saying, “I gotta talk to you like this to get you to hear me. But this is not who I am. I’m a teacher.” He was dropping that even with the “South Bronx” cuts, he was dropping some of that knowledge stuff. I was deeply influenced by some of that conscious rap. My parents heavily influenced me with music. I remember hearing the Last Poets and Gil Scott-Heron, stuff like that, growing up. It just happened that being around that kind of stuff on a daily basis. So I wanted to be uplifting.
And then again with the hindsight. Because the West Coast wasn’t ready for that. At the same time, you got Tone Loc, Young MC, MC Hammer, and NWA just barely making their way on. And then you got that. You got that over there. Nobody would want to listen to that. But as soon as we came out, you got Poor Righteous Teachers. You got all of these other groups that’s coming out doing the knowledge. But when you talk about the West Coast being synonymous with doing the knowledge in 1989-91, it ain’t gonna happen, not so much. There were beats like the one we used for “Fundamental But Essential.” Dr. Dre used that same one for Tupac’s “California Love.” Poor Righteous Teachers used the same beat that we used for “Mass Confusion.” Whenever we would hear stuff, we would always know that we was on the right path. But it was the business of music which we had no sense of.
SDRaps.com: Yeah, what’re you gonna do? You’re like 16 years old and from San Diego. No one’s really checking for San Diego.
ICB: Right, right. It’s ’89, 19 years old. And then they give you a check. And they say, “Ok, this is a check. You wanna work for hire? You wanna work for print credit?” I didn’t even know the difference. They tell me, “Here’s the lawyer. He’s gonna look over the papers for you.” That’s the lawyer for the record company, that wasn’t my lawyer. I didn’t know none of that. But they gave me a little bit of money. And just to rap? Really, I had been doing it for free up until that point. So you gonna give me a couple grand? Let’s roll!
SDRaps.com: What happened with MCA? The album, Legalized Dope, didn’t sell that well.
ICB: No. We over-thought it. We over-thought it. Anything that’s good shouldn’t be gimmicky. It should be on the merit of the music, not the concept. And so we had this concept of legalized dope. We never thought that when you said that fast enough, it sounded like we’re saying to legalize drugs. As opposed to saying this music was legal dope. I mean, c’mon man, haha, we tried way too hard with that. I can’t even say we missed the mark. We didn’t even get on the field. We were so far off of where we needed to be that it was ridiculous. But again, that’s hindsight. Because you sit in the studio and you hear yourself making the record. And everytime somebody does a take or they rap their part, it’s like, “Oh man! That’s hot! That is the shit!” And I think everybody who gets in the studio does that same thing. When they finish that track up, that’s the hottest thing. That’s getting ready to blaze the airwaves. And not even knowing that it’s not going any further than where you just heard it tonight.
So yeah, they dropped us like a hot potato. And again, I had established some relationships. Not on the merit of my own work. Someone had definitely helped me out. We got a publishing deal with Universal/Paramount. So I got to work on the Skat Kat project with Paula Abdul. I got to do movie soundtracks.
SDRaps.com: Yeah, DBX was on the soundtrack for Only The Strong.
ICB: Right. So we were still giggin. It’s just we didn’t perform as DBX. We was just independent writers. Marcel “ICB” Branch. Patrick Dizon. We just independently did work.
SDRaps.com: Oh, so you did behind-the-scenes stuff.
ICB: And I never worked for credit. I always worked for hire. If I had known what I know now, I’d still be raking in my $0.20, $0.35, $4.50 checks for the rest of my life … instead of taking the money right then and running.
SDRaps.com: And that’s one of the things you would’ve done different in hindsight?
ICB: Of course hindsight is 20/20. When you’re 21, 22 years old, you’ve been getting paid from rap music just a few thousand here, a few thousand there. And then you got the gangbanging stuff starting to filter in. The hip-hop thing is gone. We ain’t hip-hopping and wearing Lees, saying we’re from New York–that shit is gone. Now we banging. We’re out there, ’89, ’90, every year the banging gets more intensified. I say by ’88, hip-hop is dead and gangbanging was on. So we would start doing that stuff. We would supplement our rap income so it never felt like rap was gonna make me who I was. I was making a name for myself out in the streets being grimy. That was subsidizing my income.
So somebody says to you when you’re in the studio, “Okay, we’re gonna make this record. You get print credit, I’ll give you $5k. Or you can work for a point, I’ll give you $1500.” I didn’t even know what a point is. I don’t want that damn point if it’s gonna cut my $5000 down to $1500. So he gave me the $5000.
SDRaps.com: So the point would’ve given you those royalty checks?
ICB: Exactly, exactly. And so now the last work that I did was that Only The Strong. I’m saying, “C’mon, karate and fucking rap? Who’s gonna fucking mix karate and rap?” Who would’ve knew the Wu-Tang was gonna come out and do something that was gonna blend that shit like no tomorrow? You know?
I saw the movie at Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. I saw it on Showtime. And I’m thinking, if that point, it was worth $0.50, $0.20, those would’ve all been still coming to me. So I end up buying a copy of my own shit off eBay!
Continue onto part 3 our extensive interview with ICB, in which he speaks on his influence in the San Diego rap scene, including working with Gangsta Ern, Black Mikey, and Orko Eloheim. The read the conclusion, where ICB speaks more on the battle rap scene in the 1980s. If you haven’t already, check out part 1 of this interview.
Reading be fun though:
