Throughout the past few months I have been hearing a lot of great things about this emcee “BdotCroc” but as skeptical as I am, there is really only one persons opinion that matters when it comes to Hip Hop and that person is me. Therefore, at the beginning of July, I set out to a Studiiyo23 event at The Cabooze in Minneapolis to finally hear what Bdot was all about with my own ears. They were not lying; BdotCroc was the truth that night! In anticipation of her upcoming project, I was honored to chop it up with BdotCroc to give all of you, and myself a little more insight into who this dope emcee is. Find out how Bdot got to this point and how she is going to give them more to talk about.
BDotCroc! How’s it going? How you living?
Good, I’m living good, working hard, just taking my time. Doing my thing.
BDotCroc, explain the name.
My last name’s Crockett, first name Brynne, me and my homegirl, her name’s Diddy by the way, she helped me come up with it. In high school Myspace was kinda big, everybody had their headlines of whatever their feelings were or whatever and I got tired of quoting people so I just put a “BdotCrockett” so then everybody in high school started calling me BdotCroc or BdotCrockett. I thought it was different so I took it and then when I started rapping with it, it sounded even tighter so I was like ahhh. Then some people say I kinda snap like a crocodile so they think that’s where it comes from but it really comes from my family name.
How long have you been rapping?
Since I was 8 years old. We would always go in the basement with my Uncle, or on the holidays we would just be freestyle battling. I didn’t start writing music till I was about13 but I didn’t really like it because I freestyled my whole life so I thought writing was pointless. I didn’t like sitting down writing anything. But when I hit 18, that’s when I really started focusing on writing music.
Was it hard to switch your mind set from the freestyle mentality to writing lyrics and putting concepts together?
Yeah, it wasn’t really hard it was, like you said, a mind switch, because when I’m freestyling its so raw and natural but when I write I take more time with it than I would if I was freestyling….it’s different. I’m a big critic of everything I write, everything needs to connect…to tie somehow, where freestyle I can pull things out of the air and make them connect a couple bars later. I used to battle a lot, so to go from battling to then coming up with content for a song that you want to compose is really different. I had to stop making it seem like I was attacking somebody because I was so used to attacking people freestyle wise. When I started writing it became more about the artistry.
When do you find yourself in a writing process or a writing mode?
Man, I could be in writing mode at any time. I could be chillin here with you right now during this interview and think of a tight punch-line and try to remember it, but I like to write as much as can. I don’t like to force it because when you force it, it doesn’t sound as natural. When I write I have an adrenaline rush, and sometimes I feel like when I write it just flows out of me. When I’m writing, I write in my Blackberry, it sounds like my hands are going crazy into work cause it feels like it is just ventilating out of me so fast, I don’t know how I do it sometimes. I’ve written a song and been jumping around in my room going crazy just because of the energy I get from it. I think of the concept before I get a beat but then I get that extra energy from a beat.
Who would you say is your inspiration?
I’m inspired by all creative people to be honest with you. There are definitely parts of my music that other female emcees have had an impact on for sure, they definitely influenced me. I give shououts and congrats to all of them but the main ones people compare me to or associate me with, I get MC Lyte a lot because of my voice, I get Da Brat sometimes because of my look. To be compared to them two in itself is like a big thing, I mean you got MC Lyte you know, she’s just raw talent lyrically, then you got Da Brat, she can go fast or slow to whatever. Her style…she just flips it in so many different ways. To be compared to them, not to put myself on a pedestal or nothing, but that’s dope! That’s some inspiration! Missy Elliot too, she is another huge influence. As far as males, I like Jay-Z… A LOT. His whole craft and how serious he takes it… that is how I feel about my music. Beat-wise, I love Kanye West’s work, because I like soul music. I feel like when you have soul music you can just take off…you know what I mean!? Sometimes you get the beats where they all sound the same and you get the same type of song from seventy different artists. But when you get a Kanye beat or any of those type of beats, you cannot say the same thing. My inspiration is definitely Hip Hop period. 2Pac is another inspiration, I love his story telling, his story telling really inspired me to be able to stretch further than Brynne or BdotCroc, to be able to look through other peoples eyes. Biggie got crazy punchlines and wordplay, that’s a little before me but I definitely go back and listen to the music. I listen to more of the old school music than I do the newer stuff to be honest.
Real quick, Illmatic or Reasonable Doubt?
Man, you’re gonna do that to me!?? Man… It was an Illmatic beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Reasonable Doubt andIllmatic were 2 of the best Hip Hop albums PERIOD. It’s hard to say this is better than that…I listen to both equally. I like Nas and Jay-Z, I’m happy they stopped their little thing they had going on.
Word. Fair enough! A lot of women in rap are talking out about being called Femcees. There is a lot of talk from artists like Jean Grae who say something along the lines of, I’m an emcee first, why do you have to say a female emcee? What is your take on that?
Me, I’ve never really been called a femcee, putting female in front of my lyrics doesn’t make me tighter, I’m tight without the female in front or back. I get that all the time “Aw she’s dope for a girl”, no I’m doper than a lot of dudes too. It doesn’t disrespect me, there’s definitely female emcee’s that you can feel the feminine power, you got the Queen Latifah’s, you got the Lauryn Hill’s that come out and speak from a feminine stand-point but still hit you hard core. They were never docked points because they were speaking for females.
When is the project dropping?
July 24th. 7.24.2011. I kinda pushed the date, my whole plan was to get InBetweenCrowds, which is the title of the project, out before the summer was over cause I’ve been working on it for about 2-3 months. I felt like, I need a day, I need a date but I didn’t want to drop it just to drop it. I looked at 7.24 and thought oh 24/7 and that’s how I feel about my music, I want it to be my 24/7 lifestyle. That’s why I picked the date 7.24. I’m excited for InBetweenCrowds. The reason it’s named that is because it relates to me in so many different aspects as far as my music goes and me personally, I don’t fit in with just on specific crowd like we talked about. I freestyled, a lot of people can’t do the battle scene then do the music scene. You see a lot of battle rappers go to music and you’re like ugh! As far as I’m concerned, I don’t want to be stuck in either crowd. People want me to go to venues and battle emcees and I’m like, I’ve done that for so long, I don’t want to do that anymore. I still do ciphers and freestyling. There are some many crowds in Hip Hop and sometimes people get stuck in a crowd or sometimes they feel like they don’t fit in so they’re in between crowds. I truly feel I’m in between crowds, even the songs I have on my project I’m not talking about just one thing. You can have fun with my project, you can go somewhere else mentally with my project, you can feel old Hip Hop, you can feel some of the new upper bass type Hip Hop, it is just a lot and for different crowds. I want to be in every crowd’s view. I feel like the best art is presented in front of everybody not just one specific crowd.
Real dope. Production wise, who do you have on InBetweenCrowds?
Man, I’ve got some dope local producers, just to shout them out, my main one is King Ralio. He remade my “Funkdafide” beat …shoutout to Da Brat! That’s one of my favorite joints on there. Other than Ralio, we have Jimmy Eazy, he is also my engineer and producer. He does that soul to it type beat. He has a track on there called “See The Light”, it’s so crazy, it’s so tight! I got Castles on there. I got Wisdomatic on there, he’s a part of Jimmy Eazy’s camp. DJ Corbett, he’s been working with Saigon lately, I got him on there. I got Gmobeats and Rich, they are really dope. Man, I got beats from so many people who showed me love on this project. I got Urban Noize from Florida and they have been showing me so much love they produced 3 tracks. I got Sinister Grinch, he was in the Big Tune too, that’s where I met him and did some networking. I think that’s it, all the producers I worked with were real dope. Most of them are from Minnesota.
What’s up next?
Getting this project out! I need some visuals more than anything. That’s what I’m working on is getting some visuals because I’ve dropped a couple virals on my youtube and I had this video called “Cypher” where I just went through the whole Jae Millz beat, “Who”, without stopping. I did the video for that in 1323’s building. My homeboy Fly shot it, and people went nuts, like people were going crazy and it wasn’t like a super video. I mean he did a little editing and that was it, so I can’t wait for my first official video. Then I made a video for my remake of “Juicy” by Biggie. I did a freestyle to that and an in studio video. Now I want to do a real video where I get the chance to direct it and help whoever is editing it, that’s what’s next, getting some visuals for people to see me, not just here (Minnesota) but nationally and internationally as well because I have a lot of fans in different places. I have fans in the United Kingdom and to me that’s what inspires me the most knowing that I can reach people out of arms reach.
Any final thoughts?
First of all, shout out to all my fans. Shout out to my family and everyone at #TeamBdotCroc! Shout out to Studiiyo23 and Mohbama for holding me down and helping to make this project possible. I just want people to listen to my music and see me as who I am, BdotCroc, that’s me, the artist. I love the comparisons, no disrespect to anybody they’re comparing me to but like any artist, I want to be known as ME. I’ve definitely been inspired and definitely been influenced by many but at the end of the day I’m gonna be me. I’m gonna stay original to who I am. Everybody’s geared to change so don’t expect me to be the same 5 years from now, everybody should change and evolve. People get so upset when a Hip Hop artist does something different but then when they keep doing the same they say “This CD sound like that one, why would I want to buy this one?” You can’t ever beat the critics…so I’ll just give them more to talk about. That’s my plan…to give them more to talk about. After InBetweenCrowds I will be in every crowd, that’s how I feel.
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Shout out to Studiiyo23 for hosting the interview between BDotCroc and myself! You can cop the physical copy ofInBetweenCrowds at Studiiyo23 on 2319 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis, MN, 55405 or online at studiiyo23.com this coming up Sunday, 7.24.2011. You will also be able to download the project via BdotCroc’s Bandcamp page on the same day. Do not be Serta Certified, cop InBetweenCrowds this Sunday!
Download link and streaming link here! ——> http://bdotcrocmn.bandcamp.com/album/inbetween-crowds
Purchase the album here! ——> http://www.studiiyo23.com/products-page/accessories/bdotcrocs-inbetweencrowds/
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