Nutz started POH-Hop with his friends David Parks and Steven Spirit in 1995 in an effort to bring the Portland hiphop scene together, and since then has showcased several upcoming artists and bigger names like Andre Nickatina, Ras Kass, the Luniz, and Mac Dre. The festival is more than just entertainment, though, financially giving back to community groups like KBOO and the Black Education Center.
Regarding the secret to his longevity, Nutz says, "A lot of it is common sense. You give everybody the respect that you want them to give you and it will come back to you."
It hasn't always been smooth traveling for Nutz, but he's managed to turn hard times to his advantage. He was able to start Jus Family in 1992 using the $25,000 he received from Big Beat/Atlantic when a deal with that label fell through. When he released Harsh Game for the People five years later, people started to take notice, but Nutz was really considered one of the great hopes for Portland hiphop when his group, D.B.A., was picked up by Universal in 1999. Unfortunately that label later dropped him, but he refused to give up. "It not working out was a good and bad thing. I really found out who my real friends and business associates are," he says. "When you reach a certain level and people see your features in the Source, Murder Dog, or Juice [Europe's equivalent to the Source], and then you get dropped, you see what people are really in your corner and who isn't."
Nutz says the one misconception that has always plagued him is that his mentality is completely street-based, mostly because his raps are about hustling, partying with girls, and getting money. "Just because my audience is more identifiable as a black audience, people have a certain misconception that I'm a gangsta rapper," he says, "but I'm better than that, I have talent. I'm more like a cross between Jay-Z and E-40." And like Jay-Z, his lyrics don't shy away from his past influences on the street.
"I call [my music] 'hood hiphop,' music influenced by what you live," he explains. "It just so happens that I grew up in Northeast Portland, and you base your music on your life experiences--like my brother getting killed, or riding the bus every day when the Crips and Bloods were [in their prime]. At the same time, I was a b-boy and grew up in hiphop."
Looking at the shift in popularity away from the thug-life narratives of G-Funk and the Bay Area hardcore scene to the more emotional indie hop movement, I ask Nutz when he thinks West Coast rap will make a resurgence. "Unless it's Snoop, Too Short, or E-40, backpack hiphop is what packs the club. It's something that's always been happening, it just gets more limelight when the major labels catch on and market the sound to a national audience," Nutz explains. "It happened on the West Coast during the G-Funk era, and it's happening now in the South with the 'Get Crunk' phase, as major labels have always been like parasites, exploiting one trend until they run it to the ground, only to jump onto the next one that emerges from the underground."
Next year be on the lookout for Nutz's new album, I Hate Cool Nutz, which is slated to drop in March on Jus Family and E-40's label, Sik Wid It, and enlists national talent like Sticky Fingaz of Onyx, Ras Kass, Kurupt, and of course E-40. In the meantime, you can check out Cool Nutz's skills for yourself when he arrives up north this weekend.
Cool Nutz will be performing Sat Nov 15 at the Vera Project with Bad Luk, 3 Mysterious, One Famm All-Stars, and Sonny Bonoho, $8 ($7 with club card), 7 pm.
