There’s no telling where inspiration will come from, and for Horseshoe Gang — already chomping at the bit for a challenger to emerge — Funk Volume and Hopsin came out of nowhere on Sway In The Morning to announce they’ll battle anyone, anytime for 500K. Whether or not they return fire, Horseshoe Gang went for the throat on their immediate followup “Half A Meal.” A track that’s deliciously confrontational, especially now coming off the lukewarm barbs traded by A-listers Meek Mill and Drake in a fiasco that continues to stain Hip Hop weeks after. They named names. They dropped enlightened bars over quick time flows and down-shifts in bass-line. They went at Fetty Wap too, again (if anyone’s counting) and they did it with a Long Beach style that isn’t just Vince Staples’s.
They’re ready. They’re hungry. And they’re willing to smash through anyone that stands in their way. They’re also the four biological brothers of the legendary Crooked I, and their story is as harrowing as it is inspirational. Rap, literally, changed their lives (no Lupe Fiasco) and they’re riding on their prodigious talents to take them out of their current situation and into a way cushier one.
Horseshoe Gang Explains It All
Horseshoe Gang On Family
DX: Speaking of Crook, you guys are four biological brothers, and you guys had some tough lines for your family. Can you talk about that relationship and the foster home?
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Demetrius: Man. Growing up, our mother was the black sheep of her family and we inherited that, so they really cast us out. They would do things like call and get us put in foster homes and shit. So like I said, if any of my family members, or “relatives” is what I call them, are watching… fuck you. […] Like I always say, it doesn’t matter who your relatives are, it’s who you grow up with and was in the trenches with who’s your family. It could be your girl, it could be your best friend, it could be your uncle, whoever. Whoever is in the trenches with you is your real family.
Dice: I think my bro-ham going extremely hard. The reason why he’s going extremely hard is because when the sheriff’s knock on the door and say get all your shit and you got to get out, that pissed him off. When you’re in an abandoned house and run the electrical cord to your neighbor’s house to plug your lamp up, that’s what’s pissing him off. Y’all gotta excuse him, man. *laughs*
Horseshoe Gang & The Long Beach Story
DX: You guys are from Long Beach, and there’s such a tradition of dope people coming out of Long Beach. Carrying that tradition right now is Vince Staples; what do you think about the tradition of Long Beach rap?
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Demetrius: Definitely Dr. Dre helped kick the door open for Long Beach when he brought Snoop up, shout out to Dre and Snoop, Dogg Pound, Vince Staples – shout out to them. And King crook came with the lyricism when it came to Long Beach and he really shined the light on us for that reason. […] We’re trying to keep the legacy of lyricism from Long Beach alive. Everybody out there should know you can’t fuck with us on this motherfucking mic. We’re right from Long Beach, right from the West Coast. Know that we’re out-rapping everybody, and out-working everybody, too. Long Beach in the motherfucking building!
Horseshoe Gang’s Dream Collaboration: Eminem & Slaughterhouse
Demetrius: Eminem is in our top 3 of all time, so if that were to happen, that’d be a blessing. I don’t know if you know something [that] I don’t know, if you got some connections and can make this happen… Please! Throw the whole Slaughterhouse on there. Us, Eminem, and Slaughterhouse against the entire industry…
Kenny: Murder.
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Julius: You know how Marvel got all those series of movies that lead up to Avengers? I feel like Horseshoe Gang, King Crook, and Eminem is kind of like that. We haven’t got together yet; you seen Eminem’s solo shit, seen Slaughterhouse shit, Horseshoe Gang. We’re gonna come together as the Rap Avengers.
Horseshoe Gang On Why Trap Needs To Go, Fetty Wap & Battling Anyone
Demetrius: Horseshoe Gang is here to stay and we want to push out that mainstream bullshit.
Julius: To be honest, if I asked each one of y’all to name the top group right now without mentioning Slaughterhouse – not a crew, not label-mates – being a real group who came up together, who do you think of? We feel like we need to bring groups back – between us and Slaughterhouse, we’re bringing the real group back. Back in the day, between Bone-Thugz, Wu-Tang, they had chemistry. They weren’t just like ‘Well, I’m signed to this label so I’ll link up with this dude.” Nah.
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Dice: Speaking of working everybody, we put out a mixtape last year every month for a full year. So we’re just trying to kill them. Not only that, we put out 14 projects altogether. We really want people to hear us, but we just want y’all to know we’d kill y’all niggas.
Julius: Me personally, I got to keep it all the way G. I don’t knock nobody’s craft. If you want to rap about spaghetti, if you want to rap about whatever, that’s cool. If you’re dope at it, I can support that. But me personally, I feel like “trap” music needs to go. If you’re a trap rapper, cool. I don’t knock you, I’ll give you a dap and all that. But when I’m riding through the hood, and I’m seeing niggas strung out, motherfuckers knocking on my window begging for change and all they’re doped out… trap music is like a jingle to that. I don’t want to listen to a jingle about bandos and D-boys, fuck all of that. So I’m saying if you got a problem with that, Horseshoe Gang. Also, I’m not stupid; I know the powers that be have more to do with drugs in the hood than a fucking rapper. But rappers ain’t helping. Me personally, I don’t wanna hear nothing trap. None of that.
Demetrius: I feel you, I agree with that. There’s a hit on the radio called “Trap Queen” and you got little girls singing ‘I wanna be a trap queen!’ That’s some bullshit. Not knocking him – I actually like the song, but that’s not a cool message to send. But to answer your question, as far as the balance goes, sometimes you want to turn up, sometimes you want to hear lyricism. I’m not mad at no kinds of music, it’s just that the fans out there need to take some responsibility – y’all letting whack shit get popular. It’s not always just the artist’s fault; it’s the fan’s fault too.
