Pete Rock & CL Smooth Albums:

The Main Ingredient (1994)

Mecca and the Soul Brother (1992)

All Souled Out EP (1991)

Solo Albums:

American Me (2006)

MP3:

CL Smooth Audio

Podcast:


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Website:

CL Smooth

CL Smooth, a.k.a. the Mecca Don, came onto the scene in the early 90s with his partner and producer Pete Rock following Heavy D. and The Boyz as one of the landmark groups to hail from Mount Vernon, NY. He and Pete managed to put out an EP and two well received albums before CL hung up the mic while at his peak. It was their chemistry, Pete’s obscure jazzy beats and CL’s penchant for thought provoking rhymes that led to the creation of classics like Straighten it Out, Mecca and the Soul Brother, and what many have called the greatest hip hop song of all time They Reminisce Over You. After ten years out of the game, CL is back sans his former partner to close the final chapter with his album “American Me.” Unfortunately, there’s no love loss between he and Pete. So if you were expecting or hoping for a reunion you might as well give that up. Peep the interview as CL breaks down the relationship with he and Pete and discusses his past, present and future.

Halftime: So let’s take it back. What got you into hip hop and made you say rhyming is gonna be your profession?

CL Smooth: I grew up listening to jazz with my grandfather and that just gave me a newfound love for music and I just took that with me throughout the years.

Halftime: How did it translate from jazz to hip hop? What kinda things did you see that were similar that attracted you?

CL: Ahh man just the way the artists formulated with the different instruments, hearing lead vocalists and instrumentalists and just having the curiosity as a young kid. Back then there weren’t any video games to keep you in the house so either you were physically doing something or you weren’t doing anything at all. It was a point where you had to choose something. I loved sports and I loved music so it was either one of the two.

Halftime: How did coming up in Mt. Vernon influence you as an artist?

CL: Well it is a small town so everyone knows everybody if you grew up in the town or you have family there. I was just blessed to come there as a young teenager, take my high school years and really elevate in that small town. I had a great grandmother that recently died and she was one of the first black women to own a home in that town. She was one of the first college graduates to be in that town. The town is very historic so I felt that if I could do something positive that would make my great grandmother say that’s my great grandson I knew I was on the right track. It wasn’t really hard when you’re coming after a legendary group like Heavy D and the Boyz. It was just about passing the torch so to speak.

Halftime: You mentioned Heavy D. How did him being from that area and already putting it on the map help you coming into the game and what kinda relationship did you have with him coming up?

CL: Well, I had a relationship with him from fighting in the street and him coming to me about one of his homies saying we gotta squash this. [He was like] this is getting too crazy, people are getting hurt and we need to come together at some point. I guess he cared enough to bring me to the side and not escalate the problem but alleviate the problem. That’s when I found out he was much more mature and focused on being a man than what was out here. When I picked up on that and realized how small I looked even though I may have been in the right or justified for defending myself. That was the first point where I was like lead by example.

Halftime: Heavy D’s crew was in the streets scrappin? I wouldn’t think of him as a cat in the streets like that.

CL: Trouble T-Roy was always the catalyst for all of it. Trouble T-Roy was a tough dude. He didn’t just dance, he’d dance on your head too. So it was to the point where you are gonna defend yourself or you’re gonna hold that and go through the rest of your life, career, in the streets or wherever you go. That fight was historic for that town.

Halftime: Really?

CL: No doubt. When you fighting in front of Big Lou’s and you can get the whole town to empty out that’s a big thing. It seemed like you had the rich folks on one side that was traveling the world and the street dudes on the other side hustling.

Marcus: Yea, you did mention that “Meeting in front of Big Lou’s fighting in the street.”

Jbutters: Yea, I knew the line but I didn’t think that’s how he met Heavy D and all of them too.

CL: It was about who was strongest. It was the gladiator’s school so it’s gonna have that tension. It was a small town so you had tension in town and out of town and the thing about Mt. Vernon dudes they would go anywhere and do their thing.

Halftime: Yea, I always heard stories about cats from Mt. Vernon going to the Edenwald projects or whatever fighting.

CL: Yea, that’s where you got the rep from and the biggest soldiers came outta Mt. Vernon. People think they only come from Harlem or Brooklyn. I’ve seen a Mt. Vernon dude tear a Harlem dude and a Brooklyn dude up at the same time.

Halftime: I remember the YG’z used to be big out there.

CL: No question that was one of the leading catalysts. We all came up together in the struggle and what I try to do is write about it.

Halftime: How did you and Pete meet up back then?

CL: We met up through school. He lived on the same block as Heavy D. They’re family. It was just a matter of after school him having a desire to make music and me having a desire to be an artist that really brought us together.

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Posted by Jbutters on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 and is filed under HIP HOP ICON SERIES.