One of the core MCs from the eight-man Hieroglyphics crew, legendary rap artist Casual has been representing hip-hop from Oakland, the Bay area and the West Coast for over a decade.
His follow-up to the 2001 solo album “He Think He Raw,” was his solo project titled “Smash Rockwell” that dropped September 2005. ‘Righteous’ collaborations highlight this gritty, aggressive 15-track burner. Notably, Casual enlisted two West Coast icons Too Short and E-40 and Chicago’s Psalm One to keep things interesting. Casual’s latest 12” single “In the Whip” is super dope and demands heavy rotation.

The track that defines Casual’s style right now “Say That Then” is a richly layered soundscape that conjures a ‘mad’ slow-rolling beat. And anyone familiar with Casual’s flow will surely recognize the razor-sharp mic skills.

Casual, just as his persona would indicate, is laid-back, one of those train-of-thought type heads. As ‘the stage ruler,’ he is also a multi-faceted personality with plenty of opinions and relishes his crew member status.

With Casual, it’s more than obvious that the bonds that have kept he and his crew strong, as friends and collaborators, go back to grade school. One way or the other, the Bay area rappers Casual, Aplus, Del The Funky Homosapien, Tajae, Opio, Phesto, Pep Love and others kept up local rhyme battles against each other. “The incidents always sparked fierce competition yet were always kept at the level of respect,” Casual explained.

I wanted this 15-year career strong MC who recently performed as one of the headlining acts at Cincinnati’s hip-hop convergence, Scribble Jam, in early August to shed some light on industry lessons for up-and-coming mic controllers.
Lesson One: The music business is hard, and the major label experience taught him plenty of lessons on the fly. “New artists need to be focused on creativity and imagination and proving how you can bring that to the record.”
Respect for the art of rhyming is mandatory for Casual. “We weren’t standing on the street corner, thinking we would get ‘put on’ we developed our style battle after battle.”

Now that he’s in control, away from the major label, Casual is doing things his way. On working with Too Short and E-40, both more prone to ‘West Coast OG and playa pimp aesthetics respectively,’ he says: “I didn’t respect the separation in hip-hop, it created an environment where I could not work with people I respected,” he said. “My art is who I aspire to be.”

Lesson Two: Casual’s strong suit is his street influence which helped round out the various styles. “I was born and raised in East Oakland, Calif.,” Casual said. “People (MCs included) around the block had an influence on me ... ”

Lesson Three: Let people be people. Casual was quick to say that he and his crew would not be where they are career-wise were it not for white kids, computer nerds and skateboarders. “They were the fans we found that wanted to be more connected to our music through the Internet,” he said. “Hiero crew was telling the world, ‘This is how we chill from ’93 ’till. We never talked about it but we just lived that way. You could hear it in our lyricism ... in the depth of the music.”