Donut Shops, Lil Ranch & History In The Making: One Night With The Jealous Guys in LA (INTERVIEW)

July 29, 2011 15 comments




The Jealous Guys (Ayinde & Biz Y Casa) are an up-and-coming hip hop duo from a “City Brainwashed by London,” San Francisco. San Francisco has always been Los Angeles’ cultural counterpart, deciding for the rest of the world’s benefit what is cool. Fitting that 3|4, the boutique agency that helped unleash Odd Future on the world, is giving us The Jealous Guys next. Their first effort “The Love Mixtape” earned praises from the Internet’s most staunch critics for the basshead-jazz production and elite lyricism that has been missing from popular contemporary music.

Ayinde’s style reminds me of the intricate wordplay of Dice Raw matched with the inspired pentameter of the Last Poets. Casa possesses all the qualities of a mythical unicorn with supreme unheralded storytelling in the vein of AZ.

I was invited by 3|4’s Nick “Stoveman” Santiago & David Airaudi to hang out and interview Ayinde & Casa when they were in Los Angeles to work on the follow-up to “The Love Mixtape,” entitled “Audiobook.”

I walked up the stairs to King David (who produced several songs on Lupe’s “Lasers” and for Redman)’s studio and felt really cool about the warm welcome I received upon being announced as ‘the mostly junk food guy.’ Ayinde was smoking a Backwoods and Casa was in the corner getting in the zone to spit his verse on an untitled track they’re saving. Every time I heard that verse played back that night I got the chills. Seeing is believing.

When conversation was struck up about Tupac in the studio, the engineer told us how he worked on “Thugz Mansion” (all versions) and shared kind words about Tupac’s mother Afeni. I quickly realized that history was very well in the making again that night in the studio on Santa Monica Blvd. As I zoned off and imagined an older version of myself reflecting back on the night for VH1’s “Behind The Music,” the California sun was quickly rising.

By 4 AM after some serious studio magic, we headed to a nearby Donut Shop for glazed treats and refreshments. I briefly spoke with Ayinde and Casa about their late friend Lil Ranch, the greatest Hip Hop duos of all time and how the whole Jealous Guys thing came to be.

Check out part one of our interview after the jump

Who are the 5 celebrities you want to smash?

Ayinde: *pulls out cellphone to read list* Let me see…Jill Scott – I’ve had a crush on her for years and even though she lost weight I would still take her when she was bigger. I’ll be her young tender. Adele – I truly wanna make out with Adele. I respect her for what she does in terms of being herself and not trying to keep it dumbass Hollywood especially with her image. Chrisette Michelle cuz her fashion game is stupid. And probably on just hanging out for 2 months then giving up – Rosario Dawson.

You know Jay-Z used to hit that, right?

Ayinde: Then I would definitely smack that to have her holler at Hov for me.

What about you, Biz?

Casa: I like regular women, so.

Ayinde: Matter fact let me speak on that too – these are just fantasies i like regular women too.

You heard that, Jill Scott it’s on! So tell me real briefly about how this whole Jealous Guys thing began.

Casa: Basically we’ve been together since age 3. We started rapping in 08-09. First we saw rappin as our little hobby or whatever. We were going to the same school since I just transferred to his school. Our first rap name was Class Presidents – needless to say that didn’t last long. Ayinde came up with the name The Jealous Guys and we worked the whole summer on ‘The Love Mixtape,’ which was a completely different project than what we put out.

Ayinde: There’s basically two versions of ‘The Love Mixtape.’ In terms of how the foundation started, Casa was always different. By the time my mom passed away and I was 15 I really didn’t give a fuck about shit at all. So it got to the point where I was outside trying to find myself in the wrong lane. Then he came around and basically told me that I need to be myself. That, in terms of transitioning into a person and actually opening to music for the first time made me want to be The Jealous Guys.



“We’re not trying to save hip hop, we’re trying to save art.”

Yeah I wanted to ask how you came up with the name. Makes me think of the John Lennon song.

Ayinde: To me there’s two things in the world that cause its rotation 1) negatively, money and 2) the power of the pussy. I believe females have a big hold on what goes on and how things work. We have more game, but they have more attention and control. we’re not trying to rap as if we’re at the top but rap as regular people. Everyone has to admit they have some form of jealousy. If you can admit you have jealousy you can move on and say I get mad, I get pissed so-and-so. No matter what the emotion is, expressing that and not being scared of being yourself. Not trying to act as if we’re at the top before we’ve even made it to the top.

I know Kreayshawn fucks with you heavy. Tell me about the scene in the Bay.

Casa: There was this debate a while ago New Bay vs. Old Bay. Basically we are trying to unite the new and old bay. It’s about the art. We’re not trying to save hip hop, we’re trying to save art. As long as we stick to our craft and continue to strive to be better artists that’s what it’s all about. But we fuck with kreayshawn tough, we fuck with White Girl Mob. There’s a lot of people in the Bay we fuck with. We’re happy to represent San Francisco, but it’s more than that too.

Ayinde: Yeah it wasn’t trying to be ‘those rappers from the Bay.’ They built that empire, but at the end of the day me and where I’m from – yeah that can be shock value but at the end that’s not what I want you to capture from the music. You can have #1 if we have our own lane. We don’t care about The Bay, the South…Yeah we happen to be from the Bay but I don’t want to be in a competition with anybody. At the end of the day we live what we live and that’s Life Insomniac, which is not sleeping on life. It’s about making music. Kreayshawn supports, Lunice supported, Clams Casino supported. Everyone who’s hard to get in contact with fucks with us. Jeremy Rose is our brother – he produced some of the shit off the Weeknd’s House of Balloons mixtape. This shit is not about where we’re from it’s about branching out and grabbing as many hearts and ears as we can.

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For part 2 of my interview with The Jealous Guys click here