Aural Reports

Producer/rapper Loose Logic has a song for every day of the week.

Do people have preconceived ideas about Orange County rappers?

Definitely. I've had people be like, “You're from Orange County. What can you possibly know about hip-hop?” It's not about where you're from.

Do rap battles and aspects like that help diffuse criticism when there's a “put up or shut up” side like that?

Yeah. Most of the comments I've heard aren't from other hip-hop artists. It's people who don't know much about the culture of hip-hop, the music and what it's about. They're on the outside trying to figure out what it's about. But I've never gotten any negative feedback. It's just people trying to poke and see if they can push a button.

How did you get started in hip-hop?

I was in high school. A friend and I discovered a producer program called Fruity Loops. You can make beats in it. We were just messing around, making techno beats. We were surfing on Napster, and we found a song some of our friends did over a Puff Daddy beat, and we were like, “We can do this better.” So we made a song and put it on Napster. It caught on. People in other high schools would have it in their playlists. I just started writing all the time, and I was trying to figure out how to do it and how to write a chorus. Now I'm producing my own stuff, and it's a whole other world.

Do you produce everything you rap on?

Yeah. If I'm going to put it out there, I don't want to have to worry about other people being involved. I want to own everything I do. It's not that I don't like to work with other people. I do mixtapes on the side with seven or eight different rappers and a couple of different producers.

What's your goal with making your album and paying for it all by yourself?

I could just be doing it at home, but I want it to be good enough that if I get the right connection, I want it to sound legit. So I'm going to pay some money to do that. I'll pay for it now so when somebody has the money to back me later, they're hearing a good product. My album holds up with those industry albums.

Do think you have a certain sound or style that fits with other West Coast rap or Orange County specifically?

Some people hear my stuff and compare it to [Dr.] Dre or whatever. And my flow is a little bit more West Coast. But I feel like it's a little bit of everything. I'm just being real to what I like and what I think is good music. I think it's starting to be more universal, where people don't care where you're from or what the music sounds like as long as it's good. They always want to compare you with someone they're comfortable with.

A lot of hip-hop is also considered especially materialistic.

From the beginning of hip-hop . . . it's basically bragging. Instead of “I've got this much money,” it was “I've got the dopest rhymes.” It evolved from that. But I think the way they're doing it now and the way they're bragging . . . it took away from the lyricism and the creativity. It's not as creative and witty as it used to be. It's fine to do it if the song is appropriate. If you get a new car or a new shirt that you like, you want to brag about it and show it off. But there are people putting out albums where every single song is like that, and that's overkill.

How about other divisions in hip-hop, like gangster, conscious, or mainstream?

I feel like the majority of my stuff is conscious. I always try to say something and have meaning behind my songs. But some of the beats might sound a little more gangster sometimes, or clubbish. It's just real hip-hop. Everyone has that party side to them. It's a part of life and a part of the culture. So I don't think there's anything wrong with a club song, but if that type of song or feel consumes your whole album, that's where there's a problem. When you're trying to impact someone with your music and touch them and maybe move them, you want to have everything. A person's life doesn't go through just one emotion. You want to have a song that can connect with a person on every day of the week, no matter how they're feeling. They can throw it on and relate.

LOOSE LOGIC PERFORMS AT THE HOUSE OF BLUES, 1530 S. DISNEYLAND DR., ANAHEIM, (714) 778-BLUE; WWW.HOB.COM. OCT. 31. CALL FOR TIME AND COVER; LOOSE LOGIC'S BEFORE THE STORM IS OUT NOW ON PASSION PLAY PRODUCTIONS. VISIT WWW.MYSPACE.COM/LOOSELOGIC FOR MORE INFORMATION. ALSO SEARCH “LOOSE LOGIC” ON WWW.ITUNES.COM AND WWW.CDBABY.COM.