The West Coast is being hit with a major wave with the release of the Diirty OGz’s We Got Now and Next. Group member Weazel Loc joined Soren Baker on Unique Access for a special behind the scenes glimpse of the Diirty OGz group dynamics and the LP he describes as “a special project right there.” Kurupt, Tray Deee, Tha Chill, Kokane and Weazel Loc all join forces after years of working together and knew they needed this collaboration after Tray Deee was released from prison.
“That was something that came together, me and Tray Deee, when he came home, we was already talking about doing a project,” Weazel Loc says. “Me and Kokane and Chill had already started on different projects, so me and Tray Deee got together, called Kurupt, let’s finish these records, we went to Josef Leimberg, shoutout to Grammy-Award winning Josef Leimberg, he laid the foundation and the platform, facilitated it. We did five dope records. Chill came home and added everything we didn’t have, man and that’s pretty much just One Take Jake on how fast the Diirtys got started as far as this project.”
The Pomona City Rydaz member explains how the group creates a sort of “gumbo” with all of their influences. Hailing from around Los Angeles, including Pomona and Compton, Weazel Loc explains the major impact the Diirty OGz has with the help of members from The Eastsidaz, CMW and Tha Dogg Pound.
“We throw it in the oven for like 357 degrees, let it simmer and bake and we got dope like cocaine, man. …” he shares. “It’s like Kurupt always say, man, Hip Hop is in us and our job is to deliver good music. Everything else is gonna ride with us. That’s Diirty OGz right there. You can’t find five niggas fresher right now. I can’t think of ’em.”
The group has released several visuals, with a sixth on the way. Weazel Loc explains the importance of having good music videos to go along with an album rollout.
“Right now, we G’s in this. We been doing this for a long time,” he says. “Just a little bit of game for artists that’s trying to do something, you can’t come with a half-ass project. You can’t have an album that ain’t mixed. You can’t have an album that’s not mastered. And you damn sure can’t have a mixed and mastered album done with no videos. So just to give you those visuals, people want to see us. They want to see us interact, they want to see those dope visuals and ideas. And we got it.”
He continues that what separates the Diirty OGz videos is that they are based off real life. They don’t need to hire pretty random women or gang members to act as extras.
“We ain’t have one casting call video,” he says. “We call the homegirls and the homeboys. Bring out the low-lows. ‘Y’all put your little skirts and shit on today. Come get your crip walk on in the video young homie, G homie, whatever.’ We make real phone calls.”
Besides the music videos, the group is also working on a movie. Several rappers have gotten involved in the film industry and Weazel Loc says the Diirty OGz aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel, just keep the momentum going.
“I don’t necessarily know if it’s gonna be anything new that hasn’t been done,” he says, “but the originality is gonna come because of who’s doing it and the ideas that we bring. So, it’s all gonna be original, although it’s been done before. Ice-T and them did it first, back to that Power. So that’s pretty much how I see it.”
Each member has their own project in the works as well. And the Diirty OGz will make sure you’ve heard of them by promising a tour you won’t want to miss.
“We’ve got a lot of dope ideas amongst us,” Weazel Loc continues. “We working on a lot of projects right now. Kokane got the King of GFunk out right now. Tray Deee, he has The 3rd coming. His album is out right now, it’s dope, so go get all of that. We got so much more shit to say. We got so much more stuff to do, so we might as well put that in movie form, and just give you videos, movies, good dope music and we got some damn shows coming at you that’s finna be slumpin. Out of this world. Dope shows.”
Perhaps one of the most interesting elements of the We Got Now and Next album rollout is that the group is releasing the clean version to the prison system JPay a week before its street date. Weazel Loc leaves with a special message for those locked up with no sense of hope.
“Keep your head up, Diirtys is coming so you can get through some of this shit with some good gangsta music, some good righteous shit,” he says. “It’ll get you through some of those hard days and nights.”