SheineTone: Who Says Whiteboys From San Fran Ain’t Got No Flow?
SheineTone
The Inaugural Interview
By Justin Vela
Anyway, so you walk through the garage doors and there the man is, SheineTone (pronounced "Shine Tone") being watched over by a poster of a swimsuit model in a yellow bathing suit and benching 135-pound weights. He welcomes you, tells you to take a seat while he finishes up his final set of ten, and then leads you into his house.
If MTV’s Cribs ever went to the home of a normal person without a million bucks, SheineTone’s would be at the top of the list. The place is neat and well vacuumed. Large glass windows let light into the living room. There’s a tropical fish swimming in a fish tank, bottles of booze organized on the counter, a slight smell of pot, and a statue of a naked angel in the corner. Watched over by a poster of Clint Eastwood, he begins the interview. The thing you like about SheineTone is, he ain’t trying to impress anybody. He’s just a guy renting a house with a buddy, looking someday to be a chef, and rhyming some of the greatest lyrics in the Bay Area.
NadaMucho: This is your first interview? SheineTone: Yeah
SheineTone
The Inaugural Interview
By Justin Vela
Anyway, so you walk through the garage doors and there the man is, SheineTone (pronounced "Shine Tone") being watched over by a poster of a swimsuit model in a yellow bathing suit and benching 135-pound weights. He welcomes you, tells you to take a seat while he finishes up his final set of ten, and then leads you into his house.
If MTV’s Cribs ever went to the home of a normal person without a million bucks, SheineTone’s would be at the top of the list. The place is neat and well vacuumed. Large glass windows let light into the living room. There’s a tropical fish swimming in a fish tank, bottles of booze organized on the counter, a slight smell of pot, and a statue of a naked angel in the corner. Watched over by a poster of Clint Eastwood, he begins the interview. The thing you like about SheineTone is, he ain’t trying to impress anybody. He’s just a guy renting a house with a buddy, looking someday to be a chef, and rhyming some of the greatest lyrics in the Bay Area.
NadaMucho: This is your first interview? SheineTone: Yeah
NadaMucho: This is your first interview?
SheineTone: Yeah
NM: What do you want the world to know?
ST: Shit. The world is not what it seems. I try to express myself in my music. Talk about things I’ve done and seen. Things that friends have done. I’m trying to give things a positive outlook. Overall I’m trying to be positive. I don’t want to have a negative image or put negative stuff out there. There are a lot of people out there that are rapping about just the typical stuff like murder, raping women, robbing people. That’s really not what it’s about. Some people choose to rap
about that, but I sure don’t want to bring it around any of my music.
The first album was me reflecting on stuff I did as a kid. Now on my third album that’s coming out at the end of the month I’m talking more about stuff more in the present and in the future. Where I want to be going.
NM: Where do you want to go with music?
ST: You know I never say stuff to pump myself up. I never say to myself this is going to be my ticket to getting rich or famous. I look at music as something I love to do. I’ve been writing since I was a little kid. My Dad’s a writer so writing’s always come easy to me.
This is the new age. I could put it on paper, but I always feel it tends to hit you more if you’ve got some music behind. I’m trying to take it to the next level, but I’m not trying to make money off it right now. I just want to get it out there. I’m trying to open people’s eyes to new music and get them looking at things differently. I want to get them looking at the rap world differently. There’s not too many white people out there doing this.
NM: What was growing up in the Bay Area Like for you?
ST: My Parents were divorced so I was going from house to house, two different neighborhoods, two different groups of friends, living two different lives. You’ve got to live in different places. I got in a lot of trouble as a youth. I became a ward of the court, in and out of Juvenile halls and rehab programs. It’s not a good feeling having to push a button to piss or being told when you can eat, it’s a really good feeling to have freedom, but I’d say I was actually pretty lucky growing up. A lot of kids had it a lot tougher than me.
NM: You’re coming out with your third album?
ST: Yeah, the third one’s called A Fist Full of Dollars. It’s a duet with Ron Lyte and we’ve got beats from a really good artist called Cosmo. He’s very famous in the Bay Area. I really respect his music and he happened to like my lyrics so he gave me some good deals on some beats and this album is going to be a shocker.
ND: Cosmo’s done all your beats?
ST: No, but he’s co-produced on every album. He had four or five beats on my first album and then he’s got ten on A Fist Full of Dollars. He’s got his own albums out. He does stuff with G-Unit and a bunch of other people in the Bay. Our other co-producer is One Drop Scott. He’s worked with Dr. Dre, UB-40, Tupac, anybody that’s pretty big he’s gone and messed around on their boards.
NM: What do you listen to?
ST: All music is great. I love how it makes me want to move. If it has good rhythm, good lyrics, and a good message, there’s no way I’m turning it off. I love UB 40. Dre when he was with the NWA. I love that. Eazy-E. I love the old school rappers. I love The Fat Boys, Michael Jackson, Twister, Ludacris, Eminem. I like people that come with their own style and talk about their own shit and make you think serious or make you laugh or make you sad. I like somebody with
expression who can make me feel something through the music. I don’t want to listen and think well, he did an elaborate rhyme scheme and the beat’s good, but what the hell’s the message? What am I getting from this?
NM: What do you think of George Bush?
ST: I don’t like him. I think the past three years would have been a lot different if he wasn’t in power. He’s not a positive person. I think he’s greedy.
NM: How’s the Bay Area Music Scene?
ST: (laughing) It’s what I wish it to be. There are a lot of good artists coming out of here right now, but you never hear about them. Nobody’s really blowing up. These days, if you want to make it big you have to go to LA or New York. Nobody big is coming out San Francisco. I feel like we’ve got a lot of talented people in the Bay Area right now and it has to get bigger.
NM: Anything else you want to say?
ST: An album I did with two other Bay Area artists called Crease and Debt comes out next month. It’s called Group Effort. If you don’t like me you might like Crease. If you don’t like Crease you might like Debt. You never know. It’s good production and good lyrics. I think people will like it.