CJ Mac came up in the rap game alongside some West Coast legends, including WC, DJ Pooh and Mix Master Spade before a stint with Houston’s Rap-A-Lot Records. Despite his talent that wowed those who knew him, his career always had an uphill battle because of his past in the streets.
In an interview with Soren Baker on Unique Access, Mac recounts how he started writing raps on paper bags at 14 years old. He first believed he could actually take the craft seriously when Mix Master Spade started introducing him to people such as DJ Pooh and King Tee.
“I didn’t really think that I could do it professionally,” CJ Mac shares. “Then I met Mix Master Spade and he just started bringing me around everybody, ‘Hey, this is CJ. I like his voice, he can rap.'”
King Tee had just signed a deal with Capitol Records, which released King Tee’s first three albums. Mac shares how he used to run into the crew at what he remembers was Red Onion where DJ Pooh would spin while Mac went looking for a fight. But building relationships is what continued to give Mac confidence.
“We’d kinda tear Red Onion up,” he reflects. “But that’s how I met those guys. They let me see that wow, I can do this also. So that’s where I saw them working every day and doing their music. Pooh was funny, always telling jokes and everything, but they were serious about their craft. I got a chance to go out to their video shoots and different things like that and that started to really influence me to say, ‘Hey I can do this too.'”
With his reputation as a guy from the streets, CJ Mac had to put in extra work to prove he was serious about rapping. He continues to credit DJ Pooh for helping him grow as an artist and says Mix Master Spade introduced him to Eazy-E and Dr. Dre before releasing his first project, Color Me Funky, in 1991. Besides his direct mentors, Mac says LL Cool J and Big Daddy Kane were people he used to stay motivated.
“I think everybody just looked at me as the street dude that got some money and he’s not serious,” he says. “But I was serious. So I was kinda taking it personal, man what’s up man? They’re not really giving me the shot I want.”
From there, CJ Mac had the opportunity to work with Southern rap giant Rap-A-Lot Records. He had an encounter with label owner J. Prince, who was seeking to start Rap-A-Lot West and had a local audition.
“I was just in there playing dominoes with them,” Mac says. “Then someone said, ‘CJ rap too.’ He was like, ‘You rap?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ He was like, ‘Bust something.’ So I bust ‘Powda Puff.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, you got some more music?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, but my house is way out in Moreno Valley.’ I had a house, studio, equipment. ‘My producer up right now working.’ He’s like, ‘Let’s go.’ It’s 2 in the morning. So he drove a two-hour ride with me all the way to Moreno Valley, basically, sat up for another two hours listening to music, and then left. I was like wow.”
Prince had an offer for Mac that rivaled the check he got from the streets, which further affirmed his path as an MC.
“I basically said, ‘God if you give me this, I’ll stop doing this,'” he remembers responding. “They signed me and everything and they gave me an opportunity.”
Mac released his True Game album under Rap-A-Lot in 1995, but continued to struggle to gain acceptance with a broader audience.
“I think it was difficult for them, they didn’t really know how to handle a West Coast act,” he says. “They had a lot of influence in the South, but my music was West Coast, so they couldn’t really have the same hand, forceful hand if I can say so, with radio and different things like that in the West Coast. And there was a lot of things about me and a lot of other stuff that was coming into play.”
But even when almighty J. Prince couldn’t make CJ Mac a superstar, a fellow West Coast MC, WC, continued to help him pave his path. He recalls the first time when WC took him to a radio station and the program director and deejay grimaced when they were introduced to Mac. But WC was never fazed and even featured CJ Mac on the title track of his Shadiest One album.
“WC really legitimized me because when I was on Rap-A-Lot, there was still a lot of controversy,” he says. “There were certain people that were saying I have to be watched and I’m an older member from a certain area and he’s not no rapper, he’s something else. It’s really deep like that. They got political with the radio stations and different people at the radio stations. … There’s some things people don’t know. But WC, he was really instrumental in bringing me in the game and making people believe, no he’s really doing this. He’s really an artist.”
The hardships continued for Mac as he decided to join another friend, Mack 10, in his deal when his Hoo-Bangin’ Records signed with Priority Records. The two had linked back when DJ Pooh was coming up and had built a friendship where they agreed to help each other’s careers however possible. Mack 10 let CJ in on the Priority deal, which didn’t really pan out in the long run, but CJ says he isn’t upset because Mack kept his word and offered something different than Rap-A-Lot.
“He ain’t gave me no money,” Mac says. “I was like let’s roll with it. It was a lot different because Mack was just starting out and he had to do things a little bit differently. J. Prince had a little bit more control of what was going on. But Mack had the West Coast, he had the market, but I don’t know, things just didn’t really pan out in that situation for that label at all. None of us really did well, but I appreciate him and he kept his word and looked out for me like you said. From the jump, he was like, ‘We’ll see what happens.’ So I can’t be mad at that.”
With all of the music circulating, CJ Mac says that what made him stand out was his first-hand perspective of the streets. While most rappers were talking about drug dealing, he felt he knew the real stories.
“I think I brought awareness that, man, we were losing a lot of people at that time,” he shares. “It was hurting. I have friends right now that are just getting out of prison from when I made that record. Names that I’ve mentioned, they’ve done 22, 23 years and they’re just getting home and not because of anything violent, not because they killed anybody, but for drugs and trying to survive and make money. So that hurt me and I think I brought awareness to that. No one else was really talking about that to that extent. People were talking about what’s going on like Cube’s ‘[My] Summer Vacation’ or this or that, but I’m like man, this dude is locked up for a kilo and getting 35 years. So I think I was kinda the only one that was really that close to the game. I was so close to the other world that I could talk about it in a way that no one else could.”
Mac got to bring some of that reality to the big screen when he played a New Orleans drug kingpin named Gator in the movie Thicker Than Water. The flick starred Mack 10 and Fat Joe and also featured Ice Cube, MC Eiht and Big Pun. Mac reveals that Gator was originally scripted for Master P, but he happily stepped in to continue his street legacy and remove some of the stigmas that followed him.
“I think that character was important because that showed the character he was true, he was true to his word, he was a real hustler,” he explains. “He was really, really with it. That role was not unfamiliar with me and my life, so that wasn’t a really, really hard role to play per say. But I think characters weren’t seen like that in that light, a good guy that he wasn’t trying to kill everybody or anything like that. He was a real, real fair guy. He was hard and he was serious, but he was fair. And he handled business at the end like he was supposed to.”