Kokane doesn’t have a
preference for either coast and feels the war needs to be squashed. To him, its
just another way for companies to capitalize on the artist.
“I know now that the music game is no
different from the dope game. People will always try to stir up some
controversy and the head man behind it is laughing, and making all the money
while all of us underneath are the sacrificial lambs. We need to be in those
record company positions, cutting out the middle man and getting the money,
hooking up from East coast, West coast, Japan, anywhere we’d like.”
Kokane neutral feelings might be
attributed to the fact that he was born in New York and moved to Pomona,
California at the age of four, or the fact that his cousin, Above The Law’s
187um and his early East coast flavored rhymes influenced Kokane to pursue
rapping.
Like other problems in Black
communities, Kokane sees the absence of respect among artists as the main issue
in the coastal conflict and feels both coasts could find more success if all
the friction would cease. Without the friction, acts could collaborate and make
better music and more money.
Kokane points to seventies fun groups
like Cameo, Ohio Players, BT Express and Fatback, who were all from different
cities but weren’t into battling. They were all down for the same “Chocolate
City.”
In terms of unity, Kokane feels that
most of the squabbling is egotistical. He gives any artist he likes props for
their talent, music, lyrics and rhyme style. “It ain’t where you’re from, its
where you’re at” is a philosophy he can get with.
As the son of songwriter Jerry “Buddy”
Lee Long, who wrote such seventies hits like “Just My Imagination,” Kokane,
with help from Cold 187um has stepped beyond California or any state for that
matter to create a street blend of hip hop combining elements of those
seventies Funk groups he grew up to. Regardless of where you are from, if you’re
still checking for George Clinton, Parliament and The Funkadelics and don’t
mind some hip hop vocals dropped in, you’ll be noddin’ ya head to Kokane’s
grooves.