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Home » Interviews » Kwan Interview (December 2002)
Standing at a towering 6’3 and weighing in at about 252 lbs Kwan can be an intimidating specimen both on the mic and in person. As a member of the North Mississippi based rap outfit SSP (which stands for Still Scandalous Posse) Big Kwan has been laying it down for his home state since 1996 when he first joined the group.

Representing on SSP’s sophomore LP Still Scandalous Kwan bowled fans over with his thunderous voice, laid back style and narrative flow, which he says is his specialty. But on Country and Hard Headed, the long awaited follow up to Still Scandalous Kwan brought the hype drama as good as any of his Southern peers doing crunk music.

This year Big Kwan as he is called by family and friends steps out from under the SSP umbrella and drops his solo debut 360° --the Circle Ends where it Begins. It is the first of a series of solo project to come out of the Scandalous Records camp, with records coming from Venomous Smoke and Lil Juice soon to follow. Recently, Kwan and I sat down over a steaming platter of Chinese Food and he gave me the skinny about his life, his career with SSP and the new album.
Down-South: Now you’re from North Mississippi, right.

Kwan: Yep, I’m from Tupelo.

Down-South: That’s the same place that SSP’s from?

Kwan: Yep.

Down-South: What’s the name of your neighborhood?

Kwan: It didn’t have a name it’s just the south side of Tupelo, North side of Tupelo. It’s just Tupelo.

Down-South: Okay, what side of Tupelo are you from?

Kwan: I moved to the north side of Tupelo, but I grew up in Okolona, Mississippi, Oak Town.

Down-South: Okay what was it like growing up there?

Kwan: It was slow. It was cool, but it was slow. It wasn’t full of a lot of dreams, ya know.

Down-South: So you didn’t grow up thinking you were gonna be a doctor?

Kwan: Naw, I didn’t grow up thinking that… It was more like man I gotta make some money.

Down-South: What kind of music did you grow up listening to?

Kwan: A lotta R & B, a lotta old music. You know people like ya Al Greens, ya Bobby Womacks…a lotta blues. I grew up listening to some rap also.

Down-South: What kind of rap did you grow up listening to?

Kwan: LL, Ice T, NWA stuff like that.

Down-South: What was the deciding moment that made you say, man I gonna do this rap thing?

Kwan: Well, I used to write poetry. And I had a first cousin from Detroit who was visiting down here. One day we were watching LL on TV and we started talking about how he was flowing and I was like, man he’s tight. And he said he basically doing with rap what you’re doing with your poetry. You just ain’t saying it like him. So he took my poetry and started rapping it and I was yeah, I can do that.

I always wanted to be a rapper, but I thought that they all just freestyle their lyrics off the top of their heads. I didn’t know the whole thing behind it at the time.

Down-South: What year was that?

Kwan: It was probably about 86, 87. I was young, maybe about 12 or 13 years old.

Down-South: Okay when you finally figured out how to rap, what made you go from doing it for fun to doing it for a living?

Kwan: Well I liked the ideal of show business all-together. I fell in love with that. I like music. But I can’t sing, so when I found out that I could take a passion that I had like writing and actually become an artist with it. It wasn’t no looking back from that point on. It was just a matter of trying to network with cats that had the same vision I had.

Down-South: Okay, being in North Mississippi, which really has no hip hop scene did you ever feel the need to leave and go to a bigger city like say your fellow North Mississippian PBT did?

Kwan: Naw I didn’t find it necessary to leave in order to make it. At the time my biggest thing was taking advantage of what I had here. Like when shows come up here I am 12 and 15 I was there trying to open up those shows. It didn’t matter whether it was blues or whatever. I just didn’t take it that we couldn’t just mix different music, so anywhere I could get seen I was there. I looked at it like this: instead of looking at what’s not here, how can I make it here.

Down-South: How did you hook up with SSP?

Kwan: Through one of the members, Big Mac. He introduced me to X-Mas and we sat down and talked.

Down-South: What year was that?

Kwan: This was in 96.

Down-South: So you’ve been with them for a few years now. You were in the second manifestation of SSP….

Kwan: Yeah, cause I had already went through a lotta the bogus contracts and meeting people who talked big and had big dreams, but wasn’t really willing to put in the actual effort. I mean the stuff they saying sounds good, but when you go to them to follow-up and they ain’t doing nothing. That was the most shocking thing about meeting X-mas and seeing how he had things set up. I guess that for this area and outside of this area—because I had traveled a little bit—I was the biggest thing going as far as rap goes.

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 Down-South: Now at this time had SSP put out there first or second album?

Kwan: That was when they had put out Tales from the Southside. That was their first album. That was with a whole other group of guys. In fact, that’s how I first heard of them. But at the time you have to understand I was in the mind frame that you have to make it happen for yourself so seeing them have an album out was all well and good, but I was like yeah they cool but they local like me. Then I sat down and heard the quality of it and I was like I need to meet these guys.

Down-South: So your first appearance with SSP was Still Scandalous?

Kwan: yeah.

Down-South: Were you a full fledge member of the group then or you were just doing a guest appearance?

Kwan: I was a full fledge member then.

Down-South: That album actually was the one that put you all out there. I remember seeing you all’s ad in the Source. Tell me a little bit about your experience recording that album?

Kwan: Well it help really helped to create the style I have now because when I initially got with them I was more of a laid-back story-telling type of rapper. When I got with them we started talking about more of what you actually experience in your day-to-day life in the streets verses you creating stories. And that right there brought out the more hustling side of me. It crunk it up a little bit more, gave it that flavor, that juice. I started hooking up with other cats [in the group] and checked out their chemistry. X, he’s got a real aggressive chemistry. Juice he loves club music. So with my trying to mingle with their style and using my own style it created an identity for me that I didn’t even know I had.

Down-South: Speaking of Identity when did you first decide to do a solo album?

Kwan: I’d say it was around last year or so.

Down-South: What prompted that decision?

Kwan: We just looked at all of the material that we had ready. I do a lotta writing and I was real comfortable with be solo so we just decided to go on and do it.

Down-South: You’re the first member of SSP to go solo does that put a lot of pressure on you and if so how are you handling it?

Kwan: Yeah, it does put pressure on me, but my team helps me deal with more than anything because they keep reminding that even though you on the front of the cover we’re still a team. We’re still together. If this is successful it’s because of all of us, if it not it still falls back on all of us because everybody put the same amount of energy into the record, they put the same amount of energy into promoting it as if it was a SSP product. So it give me a comfort zone verse them just saying lets just put it out there and step back and see what you can do. I’m not alone on this one.

Down-South: Now your album is entitled 360° --the Circle Ends where it Begins, explain the meaning behind that and the cover art?

Kwan: Well we wanted to do something to make a lotta people think. We wanted to create something that when you look at it you can tell that this cat has something to talk about dealing with life issues as a whole. When you pick up the album I don’t just want you to think ok well all this guy is going to talk about is partying. Yeah, we gonna talk about that and then we’re going to talk about other things that happen in life.

Down-South: Are there any final words?

Kwan: Basically what we’re trying to do is put Mississippi out there and let people know that there is some moves being made down here. Cats really got something to say down here. It’s some serious things going on. We’re trying to fix it so that cats down here can move units down here. Because Mississippi is a big market, other people are getting rich off us. A cat down here should be able to move big units down here. That’s why we’re trying to bring the spotlight down here to where I don’t have to worry about whether I sale unit in another state. Quite naturally I want it to move that way, but, as independents, we should be able to move units to the point where we don’t have to worry about somebody from another state is going to buy my units. We should be able to take care of our own. Hell, as an independent, if you sell 5,000 unites that enough ...

I wanna leave yall with this: All I’m trying to do is keep it real with myself and rep Mississippi to the best of my ability.

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by: Charlie Braxton.  © 2002 Down-South.com

 

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