Before label marketers peddlers dubbed artists by region, and before there was a rap scene in every town with a population of a thousand, great rappers were known more for their loyalty to their origins…less for their gerrymandering. Instead of getting points just because you were the third person to do Crunk, or the second to do Hyphy, you got props for being original.

Weezy-ana, as much as he catches flack for living far from Ninth Ward, is a representative of Southern hardship. Straight gangland swagger. That duo from Virginia splashing their fictive but vivid coke tales, The Clipse, made coastal VA seem like a world of its own. So much so, every music writer practically salivates when they say the word ‘gram.’

Raps can be referential, territorial and scintillating in kind. Peedi Crakk is North Philly. He has no qualms expressing his proximity (in style and geography) to his hometown. Although he’s undergone the customary name-change, there’s no eponym that describes that region better. It’s cold and neglected at times but there’s liveliness in the cracks. And his flow infuses it. An original.

Words by Drew Ricketts

TSS: What up? How you feeling man?

Peedi: Pretty good.

TSS: Yo, I’m definitely a big fan of your work. I appreciate the development you’ve undergone as an artist in the years you’ve been on the scene. And I always wanted to ask you about your origins – specifically about growing up in Philly. What’s the difference between a North Philly cat, a West Philly cat and a South Philly cat?

Peedi: Yo that’s a real good question man. A lotta people who don’t live in Philly don’t understand that there is a difference. They think maybe like you from Philly, you just one of ‘em Philly boys…

TSS: Nah nah…’cause I’m from Brooklyn and I know Queens n*ggas is different from Bronx n*ggas and Harlem n*ggas, yaknow?

Peedi: Yea, we grew up in different sections and every section you know got a…is just accustomed to their own slang and…just tradition, what they do, you know what I’m saying….the way how they do things.

TSS: What’s, like, the North Philly slang?

Peedi: North Philly is like…it’s more…it’s less proper talk. The North is the gutter-est part in Philly. You go anywhere else in Philly, you might get a little [better speech]…out of a South Philly dude or a West Philly dude. North Philly is just straight slang like if you ain’t from down here…and you hear a straight North n*gga, you talkin’ to him and he might lose you. In a conversation and shit. I dunno, we create our own shit. We make shit up. But it’s cool, though. It’s not corny. You know how [people] make shit up, and it be wack, nahmean. You be like, ‘what the fuck is he talking about?’

TSS: Yeah.

Peedi: It’s been like that all my life, too. North Philly always had that originality to it, man.

TSS: Yeah.

Peedi: North Philly always had the good, fly, grimy shit. Not that nasty slimy grimy where you be like, ‘nah, I don’t fuck with that n*gga’…just a fly griminess to it. You know the type that turn the chicks on; that type of griminess.

TSS: That’s wassup. I feel you. Talk about that kind of “fly griminess.” Like the last mixtape you put out, it had some real grimy joints on there right but –

Peedi: Which one the Whoo Kid joint?

TSS: Yeah, yeah.

Peedi: This last one? This new one? This “Torture”?

TSS: Yea, man.

Peedi: Okay. You liked that joint?

TSS: Yeah, man. I even liked that joint you put out called “One” –

Peedi: What…choppin’ on Juelz?

TSS: Yea. But then you also have that song “Take Me Home” which is a banger, too. How do you craft joints that are so different? On such different ends?

Peedi: I think it’s all about emotion. To be honest with you, emotionally, I probably was upset at the time when I was getting at Juelz so I guess you might hear a little anger in that. You know what I’m saying? Not anger like – not no corny anger…just anger when you feel offended by somebody.

TSS: Yeah, I heard dude kinda…crossed you a little in a public situation. Was that the basis of it?

Peedi: Nah, he ain’t really come at me. He just kinda brushed me off…and I took offense to that shit. If it was anybody else that was brushing me, ‘cause I know a lot of these phony-ass industry niggas can be – they could have they little Hollywood shit wit ‘em – so I don’t take offense to it. But when it somebody that’s … that you say’s ya man…and you claim this n*gga like…somebody say something about him and you like, ‘naw, that’s my man. Naw Juelz cool. I hollered at‘im personally.’

TSS: Yeah.

Peedi: They like, ‘You sure Crakk? I dunno about some of these Harlem n*ggas.” Naw, they cool as shit. I fucks with a n*gga. And he one of them type of niggas…for him to front on me, it’s like a slap in the face. So that’s why I think that anger came out on that. Then, opposed to that, when I write joints like “Take Me Home,” I was just having fun on that. I just knew where that joint could go. When I have fun, I have fun with a joint. I don’t try to be all tough. That’s one thing I think I was blessed with: to be able to be myself. I’m a hood n*gga and I’m also a real calm chill n*gga too though, on the same hand. And I’m a respectable n*gga too.

TSS: That’s wassup. For people who don’t really know…you talk about being from Philly and being a chill dude and a real sincere dude…what’s that strip out on 6th and Cecil B. (Moore) like? If you were never to come…if you had to describe it to somebody else who had never come? What would you say [about it]?

Peedi: You talkin’ about 6th and Cecil B. Moore?

TSS: Yea.

Peedi: Ain’t nothin’ really out on 6th and Cecil B….what’s out there? That’s a strip but that’s just around the way, like, ain’t really nothing crazy out there…

TSS: I heard people get it poppin’ over there…you know with the pills, cracks, weed…all that.

Peedi: Mmmm…I don’t think that’s Cecil B. Moore. You probably got it mixed up. That wasn’t a spot…not 6th and Cecil B. But [there are] spots around here. My bad what was ya question though? You threw me off when you said 6th and Cecil B. Ain’t really nothing there. It’s like a lot and …ain’t shit there. Seventh and Montgomery, 5th and Lehigh, 8th and Susquehanna, 8th and Diamond…those is all poppin’ spots. What was ya question?

TSS: Yea, but what’s the “spot” like? That’s where I [went] but what’s the spot like, if you’ve never visited? What is that like for you?

Peedi: I dunno man. See, it’s so normal to me that it only seems weird to me when someone out of Philly mentions it. You know what I’m sayin’? But it’s normal as hell to me when you roll up to the spot and [people] be like, ‘weed, wet, powder, dope, ready rock’ all on one strip. One boy might have all that right in his pocket: weed, wet, powder, dope and ready rock. And it’s said so freely like it’s nothing. Like there’s nothing wrong with it.

A lotta shit is like that in the hood where it’s like we’re so immune to this shit. Not to even say we immune to negative shit – even though it’s negative shit – it’s as if the shit is okay. Only time it seems like it’s not okay is when somebody points it out. They say ‘what is that like?’ living down there. I’m like, ‘Oh. Aight. Damn, you don’t know.’ But it’s normal to me though.

TSS: That’s crazy man because them Philly streets – I’m from where I’m from – but them Philly streets [are kinda] rough. Everybody out there in the jackets. Got the long beards. You pull up in the whip and there’s several heads ready to holler at you with the ready and I don’t think a lot of people know how gully it really gets down there.

Peedi: It wasn’t always like that neither. That’s the crazy part. Back in the day – I’m a lil’ older…I been around back when it was all right. When shit was nice around here. A little nicer than it is anyway. It always was the hood. Not to say the hood is a bad thing. That don’t mean it’s bad, saying it’s hood. Same shit happens in the suburbs. Suburbs just look different. They a lil’ more discreet about their shit. The hood just all out and the shit look like a war zone. Saying…n*ggas out on the strip with the hoodies on…shit look like some real renegade shit.

But, it wasn’t always like that though. It used to be real calm and chill. You know what I’m sayin? Now it just got crazy. It got crazy. I don’t even chill out. It got outta hand. It used to be bearable but I guess I might be getting to that age ‘cause a young boy – it might be okay to a younger n*gga in his teens to be going through all this negative (that he don’t really gotta go through). It might be aight to him. But now that I’m older, I don’t feel it’s necessary for me to have to go through the bullshit. Especially when I see that there’s a better side to life. When I see other people living a better life. There’s better things you [can do] with ya life. I dunno. It just don’t seem worth it.

TSS: When you speak on the better life – it’s crazy because you were on the Roc (State Property link) and that staff that you had going with you, the Gunnaz, Oschino and Sparks …all those dudes. You were making crazy posse cuts like… I remember that joint that goes ‘One for Peedi Crakk/and two for Free’ …

Peedi: That’s my first joint.

TSS: That was real dope to me. And I guess it’s like, yo, me and a lot of other people listening to the music at the time really expected that to be a real, strong team. Do you look back on that with regrets at all?

Peedi: Naaah. No regrets, man. Not even ‘cause I tell myself to live with regrets, or to learn to live with regrets. I try to remind myself of that sometimes but…that’s not even the case with that. It was more beneficial to me than something that I would regret. If I didn’t go through that shit, I probably wouldn’t be here today. I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in now. I’m in a good position. I’m in the position that I really wanted to be in the beginning. I guess, I had to go through that shit, yaknow? It’s like a blessing in disguise. People be like, “Damn Crakk, what happened man? That State Prop broke up. And wassup with Sigel? I heard y’all niggas ain’t been talking…I heard Dame and Hov don’t fuck with each other no more…” All this negative shit but, in actuality, I wasn’t real comfortable with the situation at the time. I was just grinding it out anyway…taking shit on the chin. N*ggas wasn’t getting the proper checks they were supposed to get. The shit wasn’t productive…

TSS: You were really vocal about that when it first went down. You had some words about (Dame) Dash and how he was as a person. And looking back, now that Jay is saying some of the same shit, do you feel like you were the first person to come out with it and say, like, “Dash is really on some other shit”?

Peedi: At the time, you know what? See this is the weird thing about people – about life. When you goin’ through something [at the time] emotions is a motherfucker. You in ya mind…ya brain. You ain’t thinking about your next move…you just thinking about what this n*gga did to you and how you’re gonna get back at him…but that’s just some emotional shit. ‘Cause when I look back on that shit now, I’m not upset at Dame. To be honest with you, I had a talk with my mom and it’s like I’m more appreciative [of him] now. His good outweighed his bad. He got his shit like everybody got they shit. I was talking to Bleek about it the other day. It was funny ‘cause I was saying that we all can be a dickhead, but that n*gga could be a 24-hour dickhead.

TSS: (laughs)

Peedi: We all can be assholes at times. That n*gga was just like a 24-hour asshole. That was just how he conducted his business. But the better half of him outweighed it ‘cause that was the first person to gimme that opportunity. That was my first time on the screen, first time shooting a video, first time being heard worldwide, first time on a soundtrack, first contract with a major label. He gave me that opportunity so I can’t even be mad at dude. I really appreciate what he did for me, man. Straight up. At the time, I thought, maybe that’s what was coming to me like if he [didn’t do it] somebody woulda…but I look at it now, I see how this game all fucked up, n*ggas don’t get that opportunity. I know some n*ggas that was rhyming before I was rhyming…some of them nicer than me…and ain’t never get that shot. So that was a blessing for him to come in my life and help me out.

TSS: That’s wassup. How did you link with Freeway to even get seen by Dash and all those other guys?

Peedi: See, I always knew Freeway. This the honest truth. This how the shit really went: I always knew Free…we grew up together since we [were kids]. We lived a block apart from each other. And his cousin was like my right hand man…still is to this day. His cousin, Indy 500. That’s his blood cousin so we all grew up together. You know how back in the day…your neighbors are family too. We grew up and went to school together and all…and we always rhymed. We used to always rap …never together…but I guess we just [grew on each other].

But then we got older and we went our separate ways. He got locked up. I got booked and life just wasn’t going in that right direction. God works in such mysterious ways. It’s crazy ‘cause we ended up right back together. But in reality the reason I did end up at Roc-a-Fella wasn’t because of Freeway. Like, Freeway had something to do with it by affiliation, by me knowing him…like ‘we know Crakk, yea’ but it was Oschino and Sparks, man. Beanie Sigel might take some credit for putting me up there but at the time, I used to give B. Sigel my CD every time I seen him. He used to pull over and take my CD and I’d see him somewhere else later on down the line and he’d be like, ‘Yo, that number 5 was sickening. Crakk spit that jawn for me. That shit crazy. [He’d] come around in the Bentley like, “Go get the Puerto Rican boy. Go get Peedi Crakk!”

Actually what sparked my opportunity…they was out in Miami recording the soundtrack to the first movie, the first State Property movie…Me and Oschino and Sparks, I had just met them. We became friends. Me and Sparks would buss it up on the phone and he took a liking to me, yaknow? He dug my attitude and my rap style so he called me and was like, ‘Yo Crakk, we out in Miami. Everybody out here. Me, Chris, Beans, Neef, Oschino…if you can get out a flight, you can come out here and stay on the couch. So, I flew out there. I called my management. My peoples that manage me now, they put me on a flight the next morning. And I slid out there and stayed with them.

That first night [I saw] Beans out there…we staying in Miami in the same building. This was my first time ever on a plane…To be honest – Beans’ll probably be pissed when he hear this shit – this is real rap. At the time, Beans …he ain’t really push my shit. It wasn’t his job to push my shit. But he wasn’t pushing the envelope for Crakk to get up there. But once I got up there, when Omilio Sparks and Oschino was up there …Mac kinda cuffed me like, as if he booked me out there or something. Like, ‘Awww, yeah, we got Crakk here…this the boy I was telling you about, Dame.’ Sparks ain’t really have a say-so in this but he was just like, ‘I really was the one who told him to come up here but if you wanna bust a move for him, go head. Fuck it.’ Then [Beans] introduced me to Dame and I got signed in 10, 15 minutes. I ain’t spit nothing…that was the craziest part. I thought I was gonna have to audition for this n*gga and do all this tap-dancing and shit. He just pulled me aside and asked to talk to me in the hallway. I just want to say, ‘I heard about you from everybody and they fuck with you. Everybody talking about Peedi Crakk, Peedi Crakk. I’m wondering why I don’t got you. Why you ain’t with me? If you don’t mind, I’d like for you to be part of my family and shit.’ And I’m like, ‘If I don’t mind? N*gga it’s on. Thank you! This is what I been waiting for’ And I got signed that day.

TSS: Who advised you to change your name from Peedi Crakk…to shorten it down to Peedi?

Peedi: Nobody really advised me. You know I’m real observant. And I peep how people take to – I peep body language and how people react to something they might feel is offensive or something. And Peedi Crakk was kinda offensive to anybody who wasn’t some hood muhfuckas, like some hood chicks or some hood n*ggas. If you’re like an older white dude or an older black woman or mothers…or little kids…

TSS: They would look at you kinda sideways?

Peedi: Yeah they like, ‘Crack? What the fu…? Why crack?’ I kept hearing that and I was thinking …this crack shit. I don’t think I’ll be able to hold on to that name too long and be successful, yaknow? [That name] could only go but so far ‘cause a lot people shy away from that shit. One time I had an opportunity to do a commercial for Corona. This is when “Flip Side” was poppin. And you know, Corona’s like a Spanish type of beer…it’s really like a Mexican beer. But you know Mexican, Spanish…it’s all from Latin shit. So, you know, I’m a Puerto Rican rap n*gga…but they found out my name was Peedi Crakk. They just knew I was dude who says: “Te tu quiere mujeres/she says she blow LaLa”…They [knew me as] dude from that joint. But then they found out “his name’s Peedi Crakk? Naaah, we can’t do that. We can’t put that name on our product.” You know what I’m saying? So that made me say hold up, that’s not gone work. I told my lawyer to just take the “Crakk” off and just make it Peedi Peedi. And when I used to see people all the time, the majority of people, ironically, would always call me Peedi Peedi beforehand. I guess from me saying it in my rap.

TSS: Yeaaaa, man. I don’t wanna cut you off but that flow man…honestly, that flow is unmatched right now in rap. Jay had this thing he said in an article about how he just makes his voice a layer on a song. He’s not just trying to rap, he’s trying to put a new layer on the song. You’re the only other person I see doing that right now, trying to make yourself a part of the rhythm of the song.

Peedi: Yeah, I’m very [rhythmic] man. You gotta get into the beat. You can’t just be rapping on top of the beat. It’s so easy. Especially when people [say] ‘Yo Crakk, you gotta write some heat’ and I tell ‘em ‘it’s probably only gonna be as hot as the beat….’ The beat’s all right…my verse might just be all right. If the beat’s sickening, and it got all these snares and these drums and it got a piano somewhere playing in the cut, I’m just gon’ adapt to the piano. I’ma bounce off the snares and I’ma ride the drums…with my vocals.

Besides the content of what I’m saying, I just mean, as far as using my voice as an instrument. Like when I get on a track and I say: “JU-elz picture me pullin’ up a city stunt this/just what you get when you pump fake and front/git Jimmy, get J.R., know what I do to Un/with this M-1 all they do is/run (sings) Do Run Do Run Do Run/Bezzle how you rotten? I thought this n*gga from P-A/next time I spot ‘im, I’ll definitely catch a new case/when I get him, I got him/hunted we could speak the gwalla gwalla oo-wopped up/Do Run Do Run Do Run…/plottin’ in the Caddy, the matic filled to the tip now/this Crack Daddy I definitely let off a shit now/lick a shot for B.I.G., Pac and Big Pun, two pop/them birds can’t (sings) Do Run Do Run Do Run… …And in the background all you hear is: (Mimicks beat to the pattern of flow.)

TSS: (laughs)

Peedi: You know what I’m saying? The horns. I’m just ridin’ on the horns.

TSS: Yeah, man.

Peedi: That’s what I do – is just ride the beat. That’s been my claim to fame dog, seriously. I used to keep it to myself ‘cause I thought’d be like some secret weapon, some best kept secret but I started telling mufuckas that and they still don’t get it. So I guess it won’t hurt to let it out.

TSS: Yo, I read in another interview that you did that Kool Keith and Ultra-Magnetic played a big part in the music you were listening to when you were coming up…can you talk about that?

Peedi: Yea well it wasn’t only Ultra-Mag but I was a serious Ultra-Mag fan. I was a vicious Beastie Boys fan. I go through phases. Whatever came out that was just crazy and real innovative, just a shocker, if it grabbed me, man, I clung to it. I can’t say specifically like Ultra-Mag [was what grew me]. It was that era of hip hop with Slick Rick, and The Fat Boys, and all of that good shit back then…it just molded me. The Old School of hip hop is really what created me.

TSS: Hmm. I know you did that song with (Black) Thought, “Long Time,” and you, obviously, were around Jay when you were with The Roc…You’ve been around some great emcees and you’re a great emcee yourself. What do you think is the common thread between the great emcees?

Peedi: The most common thing with great emcees…to me man, honestly…I don’t know if this might sound just boring but it’s always been originality. A n*gga ain’t even have to be the nicest [with] wordplay or the nicest poetic type of muhfucka…you just had to be original. Originality always made an artist great to me. My best muhfuckas always was original as hell.

Like, I never heard a fat n*gga like Big Pun rap like that. You never heard no big, fat Rican boy rap like that. That was some original shit! And to see a n*gga like B.I.G. who was one of the most original muhfuckas, man. And he ain’t have just one flow; this n*gga used to always come with some new shit! Originality. I just continuously keep making original new flavor. I can never write a rap like the last rap. My rap always gotta be better than the last one…and that has to sound way left [compared] to the last one. If the last one was calm and smooth, the next one gon’ be mean and radical. And if that one radical, the next one gon’ be some sly lyrical talk, as opposed to me just spazzing out. I get to spazzing out, then I get real calm, then I get articulate with the words. I just try to make a bunch of different graphics. I try not to bore ‘em ‘cause I notice, in the past, I get bored fast with rappers. If you’re not keeping my attention, your shit is not gon’ get played.

TSS: I was wondering…because I heard you were at this spot in New York called Max Fish, and you did the CMJ showcase…and that whole scene of kids who listen to rap…it’s different, yaknow. It’s out there. Some people say those kids are “nerdy”…even me doing the whole internet thing and looking at hip hop a different way…How do you think you linked up with that whole crowd? You think that originality is partly what linked you to those kids?

Peedi: I think just the fact that I’m bold and I’m rebellious. It shows. I’m a rebellious person, just naturally…besides rap. But it shows in my raps. You could tell if you listen to some of my freestyle that this kid, you can’t tell him what to do. He really don’t give a fuck. You can tell that I’m set in what I wanna do. I think that’s more for that kinda crowd, to answer your question. That kinda crowd is more like that rock, rebellious crowd. They just like to have fun and [with] no rules. I hate patterns and I hate rules. Sixteen, a hook, sixteen, hook…that shit so boring. I gotta switch it up.

TSS: What can people expect from you in [the coming year]? I know people are waiting on the album and you put out a couple fire mixtapes…what can we expect from you?

Peedi: I had a lot of fun on that Whoo Kid mixtape, I’ma tell you. Throughout the whole joint, I just had a ball on that. When I listen to it, I’m real happy with that mixtape. If you wanna know about Pete Crakk, that mixtape was a good explanation, from beginning to the end. But this album, God helped me out with this album…’cause I was scared. I was scared to do this album and not do it right but I’m real happy with this album, man, straight up –

TSS: And I’m really looking forward to it.

For more info on Peedi, visit www.peedipeedi.com

Shouts to Lew-minary for the reference points in this piece.