Access Sez So: Interview: Sergio Hernandez
Later than expected but well worth the wait, here is another installment of Access Sez So. In an ideal world, Wes would’ve gotten a journalism degree and would be covering local hip-hop for CityBeat, The Reader, etc.
Originally I had set out to do a mini review of the Strange Habits EP by Sergio Hernandez, which dropped late in November last year. EP’s are short in nature, so I found myself struggling to review the release and thought that it’d be a lot more interesting if I got to know Sergio a little better through an interview. The result was my unprepared disorganized self asking a lot of questions out of sequence that turned into much longer conversations about music, art, beer and me trying to relate his upbringing in San Diego to my experiences with hip hop growing up as a teen in small towns on the East Coast. As I realized interviews were a lot harder than planned, he agreed to come back to the shop to finish up the interview and the next day he presented me with a bottle of beer that exceeded 10% abv, I assume so I could relax a little and get focused, and so I basically reworked my entire interview based on the previous day’s conversations. This turned out to be a much better call then shorting SDRaps.com readers with a quick review, where you would have missed the parts about this OG San Diego graf head and an extremely talented individual.
Sergio Hernandez “Roaches” [prod. MRR]
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Wes: When I first met you a few months back at Access, I thought you were just another customer, we talked about hip hop, the local scene, you even purchased something. But then you hit me with the question we get asked the most and I thought, “Here it comes …” and sure enough you wanted to see about stocking your release in the store. Sorry if I seemed a little aprehensive at first.
Sergio Hernandez: Yeah I noticed that but I figured that has to be your natural reaction to that question because of how many times it must happen to you guys. But I knew you guys carried Psychopop’s music and MRR so once I mentioned that they did the beats I figured it was cool.
W: My reaction certainly changed after you mentioned their names. So first and foremost you are a graf artist, when did you start and what was your inspiration?
SH: Well I lived in South East San Diego and I had a neighbor who was writin’ who kinda encouraged me to get into it. I’m not like a historian on the subject but Graf was really taking off here early 90′s, it dates as far back as the mid-80′s down in San Diego and being so close to LA was part of how it made its way here. But a real specific memory is when I saw KRS-One’s “Duck Down” video from the Sex and Violence BDP album. They had members of TatsCru throwin’ up pieces in it. It was awesome. So yeah from there, early 90′s, I started gettin’ into it. At first it was about the adventure of it and then it became something that I was really passionate about. I got in with MDR in ’96 and DTM around five years ago, a lot of heads come from those crews.
W: Should we not be mentioning your involvement?
SH: Nah, it’s all good man, I already did my time for all that shit. Still paying those fines off to this day.
W: Our shop gets tagged a lot, every building up and down this block has, even when the Armory’s second location was right next door to us, the same kids who were buying markers from them would then tag them up too. Shouldn’t places like ours be off limits? Aren’t there some kind of rules of engagement?
SH: Honestly no, not really. It’s great that this is a hip hop spot but the culture is weird sometimes. I know graf heads who don’t even like hip hop.
W: That’s kind of weird to me but it makes sense. In regards to hip hop have you always listened to the music and who were some influences growing up?
SH: Yeah man definitely. Growin’ up, it was my older brother, he had a nice record collection. NWA, Public Enemy, Run DMC, Beastie Boys, Eric B. and Rakim, you name it. He had good taste.
W: How do you feel about mainstream hip hop?
SH: For me man I’ve learned to deal with many different types of people and personalities in my work, so I respect everyone’s opinion when it comes to that. If someone likes Lil Wayne I’m not gonna try to convince them its garbage. That music is appropriate at the right time and places … I don’t listen to it, I grew up on Rap City and Yo! MTV Raps when even mainstream rap was good. If you do catch me listening to some mainstream type stuff it’s usually West Coast, gangsta shit, Southern stuff, you know there’s still some street in it. If someone grew up in a grimey environment you can hear it in their lyrics, and I appreciate that type of music. If it reminds me of how I grew up then I can relate to it.
W: What made you want to make the jump from graffiti to emcee?
SH: As a teen, locally, some inspirations were Masters of the Universe holdin’ it down for San Diego, also on some other underground, when I heard that old 3 Melancholy Gypsys tape, the Log Cabin Crew, when they rhymed over that Nirvana loop. I wanted to do that. It was different. So I started writing rhymes in the late 90′s. Cal86 and MRR and myself, we were all supportive of each other but I was trying to keep up with them really, ’cause I knew I was horrible, but I got better at it through their encouragement.
W: So you used to go by your graf name, Surge, in BoxFeedrs, why the change to your full name?
SH: It’s my nickname, that’s what people close to me called me and it was convenient. I’ll come up with a name for a concept album or re-use Surge sometimes like on my new project with XR Moontooth, Mexican Kick of 1976. But I changed it because people I didn’t even know started calling me Surge and I just decided there was nothing wrong with just being myself, so its Sergio Hernandez now.
W: I remember picking up the BoxFeedrs album around ’06 and I really liked it but there were no credits that listed who was who and I never heard anything else from you guys as a group after that. Was it just a one-time project?
BoxFeedrs ft. Sumach “Millenium Soup”
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SH: To this day I’m still not sure why we didn’t list any type of credits on the album besides the featurings. When me, Robust (MRR), X0 and Cal86 first got together to form BoxFeedrs we tried to entertain the idea that since we were also graf artists, we should rep the four elements but to be honest we couldn’t always figure out a way to do that. Before that CD came out we had a bunch of stuff on tape. But it took us like three years to complete Millenium Soup. It was a real meticulous process that MRR really took the reigns on with the whole thing. But I always felt there had to be a better way to complete an album.
W: Why was there such a long hiatus between Millenium Soup and then your solo, the Master of None EP?
Sergio Hernandez “Dust Particles” [prod. Psychopop]
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SH: Everyone started doing other stuff, our schedules were all mixed up, MRR went on to do MHE and got signed to Sound In Color and Stones Throw. But I kept writing lyrics and a few years went by and I met up with Shawn Fantastic and Speak Easy, they’re old friends from school who make beats and have a studio and we started recording together.
W: How did Livin Dead Records come to be and who else is involved with the label?
SH: Livin Dead began with Rocksteady and Bebop, its a reference to LDK (graf crew), they work near me Downtown. They heard my Master of None EP and approached me. At first they wanted to just do one track together but it ended up that we hit off really well and we recorded a lot more. With Livin Dead, each album we do, we do that day, that night, we all collaborate all at once, everyone thats on a song is there when we record and we start having conversations and start feeding off of each other and that’s how the songs are created. It’s like a jazz band having a session, there’s good energy there, improvising, except with us it’s rhyming and expressing our thoughts and document our day leading up to the night, the songs take the shape of the moment.
W: And this is all at Speak Easy and Shawn’s studio, the Beat Farm?
SH: Yeah. I mean it’s not a fancy studio, it’s not big, but with all these people in there at once it creates a real sincere atmosphere. None of us will let another rap about some shit they’re not doing or haven’t done. So if you hear something on a song … it means it really happened.
W: You guys are really getting the ball rolling with Livin Dead Records: two group albums, plus side group stuff like The Locksmiths, Earthworms, Rocksteady and Bebop’s joint, and that new one with XR Moontooth. Do you plan on getting some shows going soon?
SH: I don’t know how much support there is yet for us doing live shows but it could happen. We’ll see. We’re gonna try, but right now we’re just having a lot of fun recording. We still got a lot of projects in the works, including one coming up with Psychopop (of Skrapez) producing an entire Livin Dead album.
W: In addition to graf as your art, you are also an accomplished tattoo artist, when did you start inking? Is that the right word to use?
SH: (Laughing) You can use it, but I usually don’t. But yeah it was about six years ago, I was painting a mural downtown and a guy who was about to open his own tattoo parlor saw me and asked if I knew how to or wanted to learn to tattoo. At first I wasn’t really into it but it was my wife who got me to change my mind so I hit him up. And from there I had an epiphany and decided I no longer wanted to be working 9 to 5′s for the rest of my life and wanted to become self-employed and not have to answer to a boss anymore. Right now I’m at 7 Seas Tattoo shop Downtown. One of my clients there is from Australia and is flying me out for an art show.
W: Wow, man that’s a pretty big deal! Ok, so another passion of yours that involved some traveling is Jiu-Jitsu right? Hows that going?
SH: Goin’ good. I’m a purple belt.
W: Is that good?
SH: Well you go from white to blue to purple then brown then black. Really the only way to advance is to compete, to see how good you are, ’cause your Master can let you know when your ready to move up, but you really don’t know until you compete. I’ve been doin’ it four years now and fell in love with it.
W: So what made you want to get into it?
SH: I had seen the old UFC tapes …
W: You mean the ones where Royce Gracie would take down much bigger dudes than him?
SH: Right, and I thought if I knew how to do that, then one day I might be able to beat one of those dudes. I mean initially I thought if I only had just a little training in Jiu-Jitsu then I could win an MMA fight just by choking someone out. I won three pro fights, and some of the guys I trained with at Undisputed made it to UFC. So this wasn’t on some shitty level, but that was never my goal, I just wanted to say that I did it. Now I’m more into the art of it, grappling and submissions.
W: So, you seem to be someone who likes to stay busy, and with all this other stuff going on, at the end of the day what does rapping do for you?
SH: It’s fun and I look at it as part of a larger body of work that defines who I am. Its fun to express myself putting words together and entertaining my friends. I’m interested in the craft and want to keep putting out albums. But I have a job, so my love for making music is not gonna compromise how I make a living. I respect the underground life that some of these guys lead but I’m not interested in it. I would love to tour and do shows but not all the time because I have a family to support. Knowing though that people have shown interest in my music from Access is enough for me, even if it’s just a few people who keep buyin’ it, then I’ll keep making it for them if they’re the only fans.
W: Well I really dig the Strange Habits EP as you know, and I mentioned that it really does have that San Diego sound that is unique to this city’s underground hip hop scene. Not a lot of people can keep up with that kind of production but you pulled it off. Tell us a little more about how that EP came about and what it means to you …
Sergio Hernandez ft. XR Moontooth “Rockboy” [prod. MRR]
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SH: I reconnected with MRR, he’d been really busy with life and everything, and he gave me a couple of beats and Psychopop also was open about hooking me up with some beats as well and I finished it in like two weeks. I wanted to make reference in the music to my experiences growing up in South East San Diego and being affiliated with MDR, and the type of reactions we get from that, whether it’s from cops or the general public or others hating on us. We’re a graffiti crew, and there’s a territory that comes with that, but it’s where all our members come from, it reflected the way we carry ourselves. So you either let people walk all over you or you defend yourself. There were aggressive people within the crew, but this is where the misunderstandings came from, from people on the outside looking in. We’re a really diverse crew, ethinically, we welcomed all kinds of kids from all different backgrounds, as long as they were passionate about it. We were accused of being a gang, and according to the SDPD and court documents, we are considered a gang. And we’re not. It just reinforces my opinions of how fucked up the judicial system is and that it’s nothing to do with justice, but about money, and who has enough of it to stay out of jail. If two people commit the same crime, the rich person walks, and the one who’s poor serves the time. These are the kind of thoughts that I had with Strange Habits. It’s like that Ganglands piece I did. It’s an abstract depiction of what unfair gang profiling tactics would be like in the future.
W: Every major city around the world has its problems with violence and its relation to local hip hop scenes, San Diego is no exception, but after the loss of Moderfire people began to ask questions that really just didn’t apply. He was a respected graff artist and emcee, and he was murdered over something completely unrelated to hip hop. Purely coincidence as some have said, despite the fact that the man who shot him was involved with LDK, who just so happen to be alleged rivals of Mode’s BCX graf crew. Is there any negativity being aimed at you merely because of your loose connection to the person who did it, who you knew through your membership to Diamond Dogs and your association with members of his crew in LDK?
SH: First of all, Diamond Dogs is a nationwide collective in support of artists of all kinds and yes, I knew of him through Diamond Dogs, but those were the actions of one person, so I hope there’s no negativity or retaliation being directed at anybody else really. I think it’s fucked up what happened, tragic, and I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. The way I look at it, nothing good came from that, one person lost their life and another is in prison for the rest of his. I’m cool with Mode’s people, and right now I believe there is peace among the crews throughout the city. If anybody I knew were to talk about Mode in a negative light in my presence I’d be the first to say its not cool.
W: Well I appreciate you adding your thoughts on the issue, man I feel like we need to have a beer now … What’s your favorite beer or beer style, from one beer connoisseur to another?
SH: Right now I’m into the Belgian styles. I go through phases.
W: I’m all about the IPA’s myself. Thank you very much for the beer. I will definitely have to bring you some next time. Thanks for making time to do this.
Sergio Hernandez ft. BigUgly “Nighthawks”
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For more information about Sergio Hernandez and to view his art, you can visit his website here.
-Wes
Reading be fun though:
