Up for the Movement

At age 19, Temps is already making a name for himself in Orange County hip-hop as a rapper and the man behind Sick House Records.

Do you consider what you do gangsta rap? 

It's gangsta rap, it's hip-hop, it's rap to me. I don't label it. I rap. I put my life experiences and everything in it. I do it for the cats that don't rap, but they feel the same as me.

Is it hard to be taken seriously as a rapper from Orange County?

Man, that's funny you asked me that. I think being a rapper in Orange County is one of the hardest things. It's weird, though, because Orange County is so rich. If someone invested in one rapper that has decent skills, I don't understand how you can't go platinum in Orange County. You've got million-dollar houses. Nobody sees the picture yet. They see Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County. And the people that don't live that lifestyle, they get shitted on. “Man, you're like The Real OC, the TV show.” I live nothing like that. I've never been to Laguna Beach. I don't know nothing about that lifestyle. They have no idea what it's like to live in a house where there's 10 people and two bedrooms, and people sleeping in the alleys and shit. Two weeks ago some fool got shot in my alley. You don't see that on The Real OC.

You rap about Garden Grove in some of your songs. 

I've been in Garden Grove all my life. Not a lot of rappers rap about Garden Grove. Everybody raps about Santa Ana. I know Garden Grove like the back of my hand. I still represent Orange County. Everybody raps about and represents where they come from. This is my area. This is where I come from.

And you've also got a song called “Orange County.” 

That was on the mixtape I did. That shit's dope. I think that's one of the hardest tracks I did on the mixtape. It was me, my homeboy Mesk1 and Joker from Westside Cartel. Orange County, Garden Grove—I'm up for the movement. If it was up to me, I'd rather have Orange County on the map. And fucking Arte Moreno ain't helping with changing the Angels' name. I just wanted to throw that out there. I don't appreciate that one bit.

Do you get a hard time for the “Bitches Ain't Shit” neck tattoo? 

I have a lady friend, so I don't care what other females think. That's the way I feel. Bitches ain't shit. It's not that I'm sexist. It's not just females. A bitch ain't shit. A bitch to me is somebody that owes me money and don't want to pay me. A bitch is somebody who'll tell the cops you were with him. There are some bitches out there that are just . . . fuck a bitch. You know what I mean?

VISIT WWW.MYSPACE.COM/SICKHOUSERECORDS FOR MORE INFORMATION.