The name Lil Keke is certainly not a strange one to true fans of Southern rap. For the past ten years the Don of Southern hip hop has been ruling independent rap game with an iron fist and velvet glove from his home base in Houston Texas. Known for his smooth lyrics and lightening quick flow and vivacious personality, Lil Keke has achieved an impressive resume over the past ten years.

As a founding member of the infamous Screwed Up Click Keke ruled the Houston rap game along side the late great Fat Pat, ESG, Lil Flip, H.A.W.K., Big Moe and others.

His solo debut Don’t Mess with Texas, sold a whopping 40,000 units in Houston alone. The success of that record lead to a distribution deal with an independent LA Based distributor and Keke re-released the album renamed "The Commission" nationwide. It sold over 100,000 units fueled by the classic club banger "The Southside", a record that still rules dancefloors down South. Likewise his sophomore LP entitled "It was All a Dream" sold over a hundred thousand copies.

Down-South.com recent dow with the Don Keke to have a nice long talk about his life, career and his work with the late great DJ Screw and Fat Pat.

 
Well first of all, how many kids who grew up with rap back then who wasn’t trying to do it? I’m talking about the early days. I’ve been doing this every since the sixth grade. I’ve always been a class clown type guy. I’m still playful till this day. I love to play and joke and have fun.
So earlier….when I was in middle school up till I was about in the twelfth grade all I kept hearing about was Screw tape, Screw tapes. They were real famous, man.

Screw is like one of the most famous DJs in the South. He’s like ….what’s the name of those big DJs in New York?
 
DJ Clue?
 
Yeah. Screw is DJ Clue or Funkmaster Flex. When he was doing the mix tapes that shit was like it. At one point in time that’s all people was really listening to was them Screw tapes. We wasn’t even listening to fast tapes no more.
 
So when Screw came out it was a scene that was out around those tapes. You used to could go to Screw and give him a list of songs that you wanted, pay him fifteen dollars and he’d put all the songs you wanted on there. Now he was going to scratch it up and put his little thing on there and before you know it you had a tape that he’d sell to other folks.
And after a while ballers from different neighborhoods would get together and have their own tapes made. You’d have folks from 5th Ward, 3rd Ward, Botany, Dead End and other hoods would have their own tapes out and people from all over the city would buy them.
It was a big thing. Screw was selling a thousand tapes a week at ten dollars a pop.
     
After a while people started saying well, we gonna put a few songs on it but we gonna take ten or fifteen minutes of the tapes we are going to do some free-styling on it.
This was starting to become the shit. Every neighbor hood that did a tape would have somebody grab the mic and free-style. And people would talk about who was the best. It would be like: Oh, have you heard so and so from Botany, he got flow. That’s what we would call it back then, flow.
 
And Herschelwood wasn’t big in the gangsta department. I mean we had our few ballers who had their cheese and their cars and all, but we weren’t really rolling like the other hoods that were putting out Screw tapes. We couldn’t go in there and buy out studio time and pay to have a whole bunch of tapes out. You know those ballers were pushing weight so they could go in there and buy up a bunch of studio time and throw Screw a couple of hundred dollars and supply him with all the drink, the weed, and stuff. And then everybody in the crew would buy his tapes for ten to fifteen a pop after it was over.

We just didn’t have it like that. Man it was dudes making Screw tapes before I even made it over to Screw’s house to make a tape.
 
So when I was a youngster on the corner I used to say man when I get my money right I’m going to go over there and make a tape. So we used to be in the hood steady free-styling. Eventually I got some money up and went over there.
 
Do you remember you first time when you went over there?
 
Yeah! Man, the first time I went over to Screw’s house I caught the bus over there. That was in 1993. I’m twenty-five. That was in 93. I catch the bus over there me and my partner to make my own tape. Naw, I take it back the first time I went over there I went with a dude from my neighborhood who cut hair. He knew Screw and went over there to get a tape made for himself. I only got to do one little free-style cause it really was Steve’s tape. But my dream was to make my own Screw tape.
 
What was it like working with Screw?
 
Man, That’s a major experience. Getting to go over to DJ Screw house was like hooking up with Def Jam or something and getting with Russell Simmons. This was just how major this was. So when I finally got my money together I went over there to get my Screw tape done and he tells me to set an appointment.
 
An appointment?
 
Man Screw was so booked up back then that you had to set an appointment with him. He was so much the shit back then that Screw subject to set your appointment two month later. He was just that much in demand.
 
So what happened when you finally made your tape?
 
Man, I must’ve showed my ass on that tape! I destroyed it! I was the talk of the town. People everywhere was talking about me. Man, did you hear that Lil’ Keke from Herschelwood? You hear his tape? Screw selling more of these tapes than almost any of the rest. He couldn’t believe it.
 
Now the biggest name around as far Screw tapes was concerned back then was Fat Pat.
That was the biggest name out there. I looked up to Fat Pat because of his freestyling.
Man it was a point in time when me and Fat Pat was so dangerous and so ridiculous that me and him felt like we were going to do our tape freestyle. When we finally got to put out our tape we were going to do it freestyle. So this was big in our city. Fuck what everybody else is talking about we don’t know what New York is listening to, we don’t know what nobody else is listening to. On the East Side of Houston, hell, on the North side of Houston….in Houston Texas man, Screw is the shit and that’s what everybody jamming is freestyle. It had gotten to the point that when a nigga was putting in his list for a tape and all they wanted was some freestyles. Niggas was doing whole freestyle tapes! That’s just how serious it had gotten.
 
But when I got over there, I must’ve shown Screw something he ain’t never seen man, because every beat he put on I was right there….right off the top of the head and he was loving it. So Screw wrote my number down and he was calling me. People from other hoods was calling me. I’m talking about all the big timers man. Not the Bigtymers from Cash Money, I’m talking about all the big timers in the neighborhoods. They getting ready to go make they tapes they were calling me to freestyle on they tapes! I’m one of the first ones besides fat pat that was doing freestyle on another neighborhood tape.
 
How old were you back then?
 
Man, I’m young…bout 17 or 18 and they picking me up and letting me wreck on they tape. I got known just that fast of freestyling on Screw tapes. At this point I could have had a fan base of ten thousand.
 
The main thing that everybody was waiting on was the hook up of Keke and Fat Pat. I feared that moment. I feared Fat Pat because he was such a dynamic freestyler that once he click on it was gone be just awesome.
 
So how did you two hook up on the historic Screw tape?
 
Well one night I’m over at Screw’s house making a tape for myself. I had gotten to the point to where me and Screw were doing tapes it wasn’t even about me paying him or me getting paid we just loved doing it so much  
 
Okay so back to Pat. Like I was saying one day I was at Screw’s house making a tape and one day Fat Pat shows up. I’m talking about my heart was beating fast and everything. He looked at me and said, “Hey, I heard about this little dude. Screw put one on. This is a long awaited moment let’s get this one on.”  And man we made history right there at that moment. Really when we made that tape there that night that’s when the Screwed Click originated.
 
Man a lotta people done said a lotta shit through a lotta things…but everybody that was really around during that time….they know that the real heart and soul of this Screwed Up Click was me, Fat Pat and DJ Screw. Screw was the DJ and Me and Fat Pat was the two best freestylers, besides ESG.

Now don’t get me wrong, ESG was a good freestyler, but, at this particular time, he was in jail. He was known to be big and good and had a lot going on. But at this particular time he was in jail and had been in jail for about two or three years. So in these two or three years me and Fat Pat was the shit in these street man. By the time 95,96 came we had done so many freestyle tapes that Screw finally got a chance to put one of his mix tapes in the stores. He ain’t doing no songs, he ain’t making no beats he was just putting out a mix tape out..............

.....At that time I had just finished doing two or three months in jail and I came to Screw and said: “Screw I know you’re doing a mix tape, please just let me put one rap on here that I want to write. This could be my ticket to the big times man. Just let me put one rap man, just one rap.”
 
That was the first time that I had really kicked a written rap. I had been writing raps here and there, but I really started writing raps and putting them together when I first came out of jail. And that song was called Pimp the Pen on 3 in the Morning. And that shit became a hit. It was a Southern regional hit. All of a sudden I’m twenty years old. I ain’t never had no tape out or no album and I’m doing shows all over Texas and Louisiana. I’m getting three thousand dollars just to do one song. Which was no money, but to me, at that time in 1995, that was a lotta money.
That song was on the radio. That’s how Screw got on the radio was with that song. Before that Screw wasn’t on the radio. He wasn’t even concerned with radio. He was selling a thousand tapes a week at ten dollars a pop, tax free!
 

How much did you guys get?
 
At the time we wasn’t even getting none of that money. We wasn’t even trying to get any of that money. That wasn’t our hustle man. We weren’t rappers. Screw was just making a mix-tape and we just freestyling. Man me and Fat Pat must’ve sold twenty to thirty thousand mixed tapes before we even knew anything about a record deal. I mean twenty to thirty thousand just off us alone. Not other tapes like Big Pokey’s who has come on up on the scene doing Screw tapes.

You mean people were buying yall tapes like that?
 
Man four and five hundred people would actually be lined up at Screw House trying to get our latest tapes just like we were regular artists with tapes out.
 
How did don’t Mess With Texas come about?
 
Screw was real busy. He was selling damn near a thousand tapes a week. Plus people were trying to give him his own deal. Man that Pimp the Pen song had blown up so big that I had a bunch of labels coming at me with deals. I had maybe five or six record deals man in the city. Rap-A-Lot had got at me….just everybody man.

What made you get with Jam Down?
 
I went with Jam Down because they had put out a couple of tapes before, but didn’t have too much success with them. But they had money. And my thing was that they was the first people who wanted to give me a real shot. They were like we want to pt out this solo album with just you. You gone be our only artist and we gone put your shit out now, not later, not after so and so drop, but right now. We gone put all of our money into you and we got the chips.
 
Why didn’t you just wait on Screw?
 
I’m not saying that I didn’t want to wait on Screw, but, at this particular time, Screw had to worry about what he had to do and I had to worry about what I to do.

When I took the deal [with Jam Down] and did Don’t Mess with Texas everybody felt like Keke is fixing to come out with one of them freestyle tapes. But when I dropped this Don’t Mess with Texas and people saw that I could actually write raps I sold 40,000 units in Houston alone. Hell, I was making $40,000 a month doing shows. I was charging $3,500 a show and was doing at least three shows a week.
 
Man, I was making so much money for promoters that I was the first independent rapper to get on stage with master P and all the big rappers at the Compact Center. I was the first independent rapper perform at the Astrodome. Cats in New York had not even heard of me. But at that time “Southside” was a classic in the South. And what’s so bad about it is that even though my skills are 100% better than what they used to be Southside is really a hard hit to replace.
 
Now I have that song on the Commission album…
 
Yeah that was when Jam Down decided to take a distribution deal with little people outta California, which offered them a lotta money, which had the kinda of money we needed.
 
So basically The Commission was Don’t mess with Texas just re-released?
 
Yeah…..just re-released with five new songs on it. Songs like Southside, Don’t Mess with Texas, and Pimp the Pen, all of them songs were on Don’t Mess with Texas. Don’t Mess with Texas is a classic. It’s the record that really set the independent scene off down here in Texas. A lotta people had put out independent records, but they really didn’t do what I did. It was ridiculous. Man, I know I was seeing thing and having way more things that the average rapper who was signed and had plaques wasn’t seeing at that time.

At the time I wasn’t really worrying about the business. I didn’t worry about things like publishing and points and all of that. I’m getting maybe $30,000 or $40,000 a show. On top of that I’m getting all the women I want, I’m driving nice cars, my tape’s selling, I’m known all over the city and outside the city. I wasn’t concerned with publishing. I wasn’t concerned with points….none of that. It was a learning process that I had to go through. I don’t regret it. I’d go through it all again if I had to.
 
Now you second album was called It was All a Dream, how many units did that album sell?
 
It scanned over 100,000 units.
 
How did you get the deal with Koch and are you still connected with Jam down?
 
First question, am I still on Jam Down. No! The second question, how did I get with Koch? I got with Koch because when I got away from Jam Down…..well, I really forced myself away from Jam Down. This was way before contracts, before any of that. See I’m from the streets and I got streets ways and I didn’t want to start no siege or nothing. So once I decided that things wasn’t going right and I wasn’t going to do it no more I don’t care what they had, what kinda of paper or what they had to do I let it go. I gotta away. It wasn’t no major situation or no beef or nothing like that. Everybody just do they thing. I just did what I had to do.
 
Koch were the first people who really came to me and was willing to let me control my own shit and control my own budget I could’ve went over here or there and I could’ve been a lot further than I am right now, but I didn’t really want to make no more millions or no more money until I understood more about this game. I wanted to learn how run a record company, how to control a big budget, how market a record. Koch was the first one to give me that opportunity and that’s why I’m with them.
 
That’s refreshing to hear from a artist of your stature, most artists in your position would be wanting to platinum or gold.
 
At this point in my life platinum and gold ain’t a major force in my life. What’s major to me is learning how to be accountable when I am platinum and gold. I’m resurrecting my career at this point. I’m in control. I make my own decision. I’m in control of my budget. I put my tape together. I’m twenty five years old right now. By the time I’m twenty-seven I expect to be able to live the kind of lifestyle and have the type of financial status of a Jay-Z or a Jermaine Dupree enjoys. That’s the type of music mogul I am. I’m not an overnight rapper. I have longevity. I’m going to be here for a minute.
 
Tell us about you new record Platinum in the Ghetto, which is obviously a reference to your huge popularity down South?
 
I got kids clear through elementary, high school, little league, which I have a team of my own, whose lives I inspire and changed for the good. It’s no way you can’t come down here and convince them that I am not as good, or better than a platinum artist. For what I do, what I know and the impact that I had on this city I’m already platinum in ghetto. I’ve already touched a million hearts.
 
What’s the lead single?
 
I’m going with Calling my name which feature Eightball. Platinum in the Ghetto is my second single.
 
You’ve worked with Eightball before on the Southside remix.
 
Yeah, we did the Southside remix, I’m on his album, and I’m on MJG’s new album. We collaborate pretty good together. He’s one of my people.
 
I like Platinum in the Ghetto…
 
Yeah that one of my favorites too. That’s one of the reasons why it’s the first song on the album.
 
What’s the other reason?
 
Because it’s an example of my transformation in the game. It shows my growth in the game. It shows the different subjects and things I can talk about. It shows the different ways that my mind can travel. I got so many different subjects that I can touch that it ain’t all just about the riding and the smoking. The other part about it is that I did a clean version to it and didn’t have to take out nothing but the word nigga. There’s no cursing in the song period. I’m not no big cursor anyway. I don’t just rap like muthafucka this and muthafucka that, son-of-bitch and goddamn..that ain’t really my style anyway.
 
Another thing about that song is that younger people like it and older people like it. My mother even likes Platinum in the Ghetto.
 
Do you consider yourself a gangsta rapper?
 
Well, I don’t really consider myself as that. I call it that because that’s what the media calls it. I’m just telling you about a side of life that I see and a side of life that I love. I consider myself a G, if a G is a gangsta, but I’m an educated gangsta. I don’t look for trouble, but when trouble comes my way I try to avoid it to the best of my ability. But I’m not going to accept anything. So I call it gangsta rap because that’s what everybody else calls it, that’s the form, that’s the name of it. My raps never consist of I kill, that I gang bang or nothing like that. But it does consist of that I roll with a click. This is what we do. This is how we roll and, if you mess with us, this is what we will do. But it’s really not gangsta rap, per se’, it’s more on the playa/baller tip.

by: Charlie Braxton © Down-South.com