Latest / The Scene Projects / C-Critt Veda

Transcript

C-Critt Veda · The Scene Projects

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  This program is part of the Scene Project Podcast Network.
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  Scene Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
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  from across the Midwest.
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  Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
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  Welcome into a very exciting episode of the scene.
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  I'm your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is my brother, Seek Raveta.
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  What's going on, buddy?
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  Hey.
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  What's up, man?
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  Glad you had glad you had me on here.
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  Thank you.
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  Well, you got some big shows coming up that are gonna affect our community in a big way.
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  You got the hip hop for charity shows.
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  I wanted to get you on to talk about them all.
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  Before we do that, though, why don't you tell our listeners a little bit, the short story,
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  right, of who you are and how we got here today?
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  Well, I'm a as he said.
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  I'm over here in the Black Hills Of South Dakota.
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  I spent most of my life as a extreme addict and doing outlaw shit, and now I've turned it over.
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  And I'm doing good things now, like positive stuff, charity shows, and I've giving my life
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  to music and my platform.
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  So that's my story.
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  Well, and charity is how we met the time.
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  You were part of our show, back there in Rapid City in December.
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  We did a show for Saving Avery, which is now the name of the foundation that the Klima
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  family have started.
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  And, I really appreciated you coming on with us then, taking a chance.
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  You know, a lot of what we do is around the, you know, country and rock music world, and you
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  are our hip hop artist, you know, to do the showcase.
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  I actually it got another one, and and it's something that I wanna do more of.
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  Right?
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  That's songwriters.
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  Songwriters are storytellers, and that's really what we're about.
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  There's no genre of music that's that's typical.
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  They we all tell a story, and, you know, I think hip hop is finding its feet right now
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  with the effect they can have on their community.
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  It feels like, you know, growing up, for sure, you know, the last thirty years that the hip
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  hop world was all money, fame, women, all of it.
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  Right?
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  It was about the party.
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  It was about the the just all this stuff that's not even really real.
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  You know?
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  And for most of those people in that world, it wasn't real either.
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  You were living a false a false life on a different timeline, and I feel like the genre
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  and, maybe it's from talking to my buddy West Coast just a few minutes ago out in Vegas, but,
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  that it's changing.
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  People are tired about writing about superficial junk.
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  You know?
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  We wanna talk about the shit that's real to us, and then we wanna take that out into the world
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  and to use it to affect our communities.
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  And nobody embodies that better than you, brother.
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  Thanks, man.
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  Yeah.
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  It's hip hop has really taken a journey from, like, gangster rap in the nineties that was
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  real influential in in negative ways.
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  And it it after that, it's really like you said, it's really changed and progressed into a
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  lot of people using it as a way to get their voice out platform, especially in the
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  underground.
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  You know, it's it they say it in the mainstream music.
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  They they say things on their platform that, like you said, it may be make believe.
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  I don't know.
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  Here in the underground, we're definitely trying to use our platform in a positive way
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  because we are in these communities and and it's all community really.
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  I mean, why not attach a good cause to a music event and bring people out and raise some
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  awareness for these things?
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  I thought what you did with, saving Avery was amazing, and it was it was a blessing to be a
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  part of that.
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  Well, and now we got some big ones coming up for you.
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  We got Hip Hop for Hope.
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  Why don't you go ahead, talk about Emily's Hope a little bit and the work that you're doing
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  with that organization, and then we'll go through some of the other shows too.
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  Awesome.
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  Yeah.
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  So February 1 at the J Bar, we have, Hip Hop for Hope.
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  It's a fentanyl awareness fundraiser for a South Dakota charity named Emily's Hope who's
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  agreed to provide me with naloxone kits and fentanyl test strips for all the shows this
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  year.
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  And so that's huge because a lot of a lot of the situation on the streets is with fentanyl
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  poisoning.
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  It's ending up in our our THC and our and other drugs.
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  And it's important that we have these kinds of things in our hip hop community because, you
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  know, people do drugs, and that's that's a fact.
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  So let's keep our drugs as safe as possible.
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  Well, and I think that's something that, you know, obviously, most of the population doesn't
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  do drugs.
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  Right?
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  So they don't realize the dangers of, you know, addiction.
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  And a lot of what's happening now is exactly like you said.
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  You think you're getting one thing, and then it's laced with fentanyl, and you're dead.
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  And now somebody's child and somebody's brother or sister or, you know, somebody's parent,
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  right, is dead now because of it.
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  And, yeah, it's really easy to go, well, don't do drugs.
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  Okay.
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  Well, stop drinking your coffee every day.
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  Yeah.
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  You know?
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  And let let's let's wake up to the fact that, you know what?
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  95% of this world 95% of this country at least is hooked on something.
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  Whether that's TikTok, like we just saw all the freaking addicts come out of the woodwork
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  there.
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  Right?
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  You know, if you're out there screaming about over an app, man, over something that's popping
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  thirty second or less videos out to you, now you have some small taste of what it's like to
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  be a heroin addict.
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  You know?
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  Yeah.
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  No.
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  Minus the sweats and minus the, you know, the withdrawals when you don't have it and the the
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  situations that you're gonna be in.
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  Right?
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  But come on, man.
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  I I think there can be a lot more compassion for addicts and for people that you know, we we
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  don't wake up one day with perfect lives and decide we're gonna throw it away for drugs.
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  Most of us come from situations like me and you where life wasn't good.
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  Drugs are a mask.
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  Drugs are a a something to make me forget about my shitty life.
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  You know?
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  And it takes a lot to to pull ourselves out of that.
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  I know for me, prison was that.
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  Prison gave me the time to, self reflect, to to look to the future of my children's lives.
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  And, you know, the two years that they spent without me, I I was bound in a term and to let
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  that be the only two years they ever spent without their dad.
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  Absolutely.
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  Yeah.
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  And, unfortunately, in in prison, you you either use that time to to heal or you end up
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  on knucklehead time in there and
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  Yeah.
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  You use that time to network for when you get out and you're trying to go right back to the
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  same stuff.
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  I saw plenty of that too.
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  I know you have.
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  Yeah.
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  And I I unfortunately did that for the revolving door for a long time.
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  But while I was doing that, I was collecting knowledge and I was I knew that someday I would
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  be using my platform like this to do change.
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  And I I think in my dreams and aspirations in the future are to become a drug counselor and
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  stuff like that.
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  But as for right now, mean, yeah, these shows attaching awareness to to a show like this and
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  being able to pass out in the locks and kits and test strips and we'll definitely be
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  bringing out some important statistics that show like I got I got a bunch of statistics to
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  bring up at the at the event and stuff like that.
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  I'm also gonna be getting on Monday, I'll I'll be doing an interview for the newspaper on the
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  event, and then Thursday, I'll also be on Cota Territory News on the event as well.
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  Man.
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  Perfect.
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  Well, maybe we'll try to pop this one off next Thursday so it's all hitting the stream at the
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  same time.
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  We'll try to amplify that message, and I know that territory is not gonna let you say shit on
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  their program.
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  So
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  Probably not.
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  So we got hip hop for hope.
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  That's February 1 at the J Bar out there in Rapid City.
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  Great spot.
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  Great people that run it.
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  They've been doing a lot of good things.
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  A lot of friends have been playing there.
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  But you're also coming out to my neck of the woods on the other side of the state here soon.
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  Can we talk about the hip hop for hunger shows?
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  Yeah.
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  Absolutely.
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  So after that, March 1, we have, Hip Hop for Hunger, which is a food and fundraiser for
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  feeding South Dakota.
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  The door entry will be, you know, ten dollar or five canned food items or $10, and 100% of all
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  proceeds go to these charities.
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  We're not taking anything.
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  All these all these artists are per you know, providing their time and their energy and and
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  coming out and performing for free for these charities.
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  And that's that's just amazing to me too.
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  So we got March 1 in Spearfish at the back porch and then April 12 at Windy City Bites in
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  Sioux Falls, which is a huge one over there.
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  I mean, I've heard some good things.
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  I know it's not a big venue or anything like that, but I'm excited about that one just to
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  get over East River with some of these artists and see what we can do.
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  Well, a little bit about me that maybe you didn't know.
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  My family's from Chicago.
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  So it was probably three, four years ago, Windy City Bites.
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  They were just a food truck.
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  And I remember I I still haven't yet to get up there and eat some of their food, but just
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  seeing it where I was like, you know, it's so funny, man.
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  Little things that that take you back.
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  Right?
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  They had these little, the little bags they put their fries in, and it immediately took me back
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  to being, you know, six, seven years old and and still living out there and just it was
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  crazy.
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  So I've been a big fan of them.
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  They've done some really cool shows, some really cool, comedy shows that they've had
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  there.
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  So, yeah, super cool spot here in Sioux Falls, Windy City Bites.
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  Awesome, awesome people.
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  Can't say enough about them.
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  The back porch and spearfish, man.
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  That's gonna be a huge one.
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  I know you're working together with some friends of ours, Dirty Dog Productions as well.
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  Jenica and her husband, Eric, are just incredible people and have the same heart as
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  you do, man.
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  We're about the artist, but we're about the cause.
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  And we're about really using these platforms that we've all built, and maybe we're not Joe
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  Rogan.
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  Right?
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  But we all have people that are looking to us in our community to to, for guidance.
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  You know?
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  And it's somehow just by, I guess, surviving this long, we've become the OGs, you know, and
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  have pulled ourself kind of out of that out of it.
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  Still in the scene, but out of the shit.
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  And we want to be there for our communities to serve.
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  I think it's so important, man, so that the next generation of kids coming up, these kids
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  that man, they're going through stuff too.
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  Right?
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  But you don't have to turn to these drugs and this party.
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  You don't have to turn to that.
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  You know?
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  Turn to music or turn to art or, you know, turn to all these things that we just didn't, man.
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  We we made the wrong choices, and we're here to own it.
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  And we're not here to tell you no.
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  Don't do that.
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  We're here to tell you, look, brother.
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  We did it.
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  You know?
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  Look, sister.
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  We we done that.
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  You don't need to do this.
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  You you don't.
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  There's a different way.
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  Absolutely.
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  Yeah, it's lead by example for sure.
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  Also when you're making your music keeping your vibe right to because you don't want to be, you
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  know, talking about using a platform for good things and then writing songs about killing
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  people and selling drugs.
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  Well, and I you know what's funny is that we had some cats up from Sioux City or no.
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  They came all the way from Omaha up to Sioux Falls, mutual friends, and, I had them on to do
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  their show.
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  And the kid came out and, like, did this song that was all about these bitches and this,
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  that, and the other.
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  And then he's like, I love women.
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  I lie I don't mean anything by it.
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  And I was like, but why would you even bother writing, like, like, either don't apologize for
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  it and own it.
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  Right?
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  Yeah.
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  Or don't play the fucking song.
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  Right.
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  You know what I mean?
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  Like, if that doesn't represent who you are, then why would you want to show that to the
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  world?
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  And I remember this kid got really butthurt about it and you don't know anything and all
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  that.
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  I drove through and I was just like, look, brother.
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  Obviously, what I said, and I didn't even say it to him.
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  You know, I had told it to his friend and his friend told it to him.
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  So he's probably some things got lost in translation a little bit there too, but it was
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  my taste of being like, yeah, man.
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  Like, you don't wanna be putting out stuff that's not authentic to to who you are.
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  And if you have to go out there and before you play the song, apologize for it, why do it?
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  And so, like, that doesn't make any sense.
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  Well, I mean, I I do make fun party songs and, you know, there there's things in my lyrics
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  that I don't absolutely do all the time.
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  But for the most part, you know what?
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  If you listen to my music, you'll hear a message and and loud and clear, really.
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  Especially, I'm a be dropping a new album here in the next couple months and a EP I'm working
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  tough with Jordan Truly.
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  And he's he's a artist that's gonna be emerging here too, and he's he's headlining these,
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  charity events with me.
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  But, yeah, him and I are working real hard together on on bringing a good positive message
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  EP out here.
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  We'll be dropping soon.
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  I love it, man.
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  Well and I was very I loved everything you shared with me, you know, not just your story,
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  but your songs too.
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  You brought some real vulnerability to our event.
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  You know?
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  I don't know how comfortable you'd be with me sharing some of those because I know we had
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  some technical difficulties, and and maybe daddy forgot a verse when he's rapping about
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  his daughter on a song or something.
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  You know?
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  But I was incredibly moved by it, man.
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  And to to know a little bit of your story, to know where you came from, to have been I've
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  been there, man.
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  I've been in those same prisons.
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  You know?
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  We we we probably got mutual friends in there.
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  Yeah.
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  And, it's just something that I I never wanna go back to, and I don't wanna see anybody else
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  go there either for the sake of they just didn't have anyone to talk to.
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  You know?
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  They didn't have anybody to guide them, and and, you know, we didn't have good mentors
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  growing up.
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  I didn't have any.
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  Brother.
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  I was floating.
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  I was doing like you, man.
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  I'm a outlaw.
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  I didn't give a shit.
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  And I was doing whatever I wanted to do.
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  And, you know, after, you know, getting out of prison and settling into, you know, the regular
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  job.
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  You know, I did five years welding in a factory and everything, but even that was that was like
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  a different prison.
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  I wasn't able to still like, I was myself, but I wasn't doing what I was supposed to be doing.
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  Right?
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  And what that is is exactly what I've been doing for the last, you know, six months to a
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  year is just out here being me behind a microphone in front of a camera using this
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  platform and these platforms like Facebook and the social media things to reach more people,
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  to tell more stories, and to heal people, to heal people that we're never even gonna meet,
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  brother.
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  And that's the beauty of this.
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  Absolutely.
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  There's so much that I've learned since I've started performing music about other people.
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  Like, you know, doing all that outlaw shit, I never really got to engage with people that
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  much.
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  I always had to, like, worry if they're gonna rob you or whatever the heck happens in that
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  lifestyle.
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  So you never I never really got to make a lot of really close friends outside of that world.
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  And so a huge part of this for me is just engaging with fans and and loving people.
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  Well, and it's it's hard to make friends when everybody's using everybody.
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  You know what I mean?
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  If if you're the dealer, everybody's just a freaking custody.
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  And if you're a custody, you know what I mean?
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  Like, it's, just those relation that that's not a relationship.
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  You know what I mean?
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  Y'all are just using each other.
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  Yeah.
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  Absolutely.
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  And you you really you really learn that when you sober up, and there's a lot of people that
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  are still in that lifestyle that I love and will always cherish as friends and stuff like
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  that and pray for all the time.
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  In fact, just this year, I've lost a friend to fentanyl, you know, here in the Black Hills.
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  It's super sad stuff.
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  Right.
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  And I think that we like to pretend like it's not around us because we're in these small
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  towns and everything, but it definitely is.
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  I I know you're probably working today, and you got a limited amount of time.
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  Why don't you go ahead and plug everything one more time?
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  Tell us where we can find the shows, and then I'll let you get out of here.
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  Alright.
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  Yeah.
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  So February 1, don't miss us at the J Bar here in Rapid City.
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  That's hip hop for hope.
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  And you can you can catch all that information on Facebook.
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  March 1 and Spearfish at the back porch, we got hip hop for hunger.
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  Bring five cans of food, come through the door, and let's party.
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  Then and we also oh, yeah.
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  Hip hop for hope, we have Dakota Faye coming down.
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  He's a huge regional artist.
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  He's awesome.
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  I I love his music.
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  He's about to drop a whole new album.
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  So I'm sure he'll be performing all that stuff.
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  So get over there and don't miss that.
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  And then in Spearfish, at that hip hop for hunger, we have D Luke.
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  He's gonna be headline coheadlining over there with us on that.
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  And then in April 12, at Windy City Bites in Sioux Falls, we have another hip hop for hunger
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  with Jay Gray Buffalo.
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  He's an awesome artist.
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  He's gonna be coheadlining over there with us.
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  And like you said, we got dirty dog productions.
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  Their artists are all over the place.
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  We we love them.
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  We've been locked in with them.
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  Happy.
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  Any art
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  I'm a see if my man Night Shields got, got an opening on that April 12, if he's gonna be
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  joining you or not.
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  Gabe's Gabe's a good dude, man.
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  Talk to him.
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  I mean, he, I actually tried to get him to jump on that show, and he had something else going
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  on, but he is gonna pull up and support.
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  So, yeah, he'll be there.
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  He's great, man.
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  Well, you got a beautiful community around you.
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  You just keep going and keep letting us know about these shows so we can promote them
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  through our channels.
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  And just just keep living, brother.
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  You're doing it.
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  I'm so damn proud of you every single day, and, I love you, man.
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  Thanks for being part of the scene.
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  Thanks for having me on, man.
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  Appreciate you.
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  Thanks for tuning in to the scene projects podcast network.
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