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[HIP-HOP] It's easy to take Cool Nutz for granted: The MC has been hustling—for his own music and the greater Portland hip-hop community—for a decade and a half; his freckled, bespectacled face has graced countless fliers and mixtape covers; his Northwest Breakout Radio Show has become a savvy last bastion of regional hip-hop. But even with all his extracurricular activities, Nutz—born Terrance Scott—has continued to hone his craft. His new album, Incredible, is his most balanced and well-produced disc to date, finding Nutz both verbose and balling ("Shinin'," "Tellin'") and showing his soft side ("Love Iz," "Mama"). More than any of his other albums, Incredible—despite the bravado in its title—is the definitive portrait of the artist as a rap-game vet. We caught up via phone.
WW: You've had a million names of albums that never came out.
Cool Nutz: Yeah, there's the I Hate Cool Nutz album, Liquid Language, Young Obama…Gorilla in the Trunk. When we first started making music, you'd just name it and take a picture and that was the album cover. But as I started getting older and more in tune with caring about the length of the album, the story, the music and why I was doing an album—it becomes more interesting and more involved.
You seem more excited about this album than the past few.
Yeah, because this one was the first time I've worked with one producer [Terminill] all the way through. It's a lot more insightful music—the sonic landscape he gave me really drew that out.
"Monster Up" is hard and fun—how do you balance that?
Well, we've done a lot of stuff that was street-geared music, and I still walk that line. I want to make music like the first Dogg Pound album, Dogg Food. It was street but it was lyrical—Kurupt was an incredible rapper. Those guys were hungry and you could hear it. Not just hear it, you could feel it.
So, flash forward: Your son is a teenager and he says "Dad, I want to be a rapper." What do you say to that?
First and foremost I'd wanna make sure he was skilled. I wouldn't want him to pursue something he had no future in. And if he had the heart to do it, I'd love to be able to guide him in the right way to make him successful. If I had somebody 10 years ago who knew what I know about the music business and telling me, I'd probably be worth $10 million right now. Straight up.
How thin is the line between confidence and arrogance?
Well, I've always been a realist, and I've never really liked the whole fake side of music. That's one thing that has kept me able to make music—that I was never a stage prop or a character. Whatever you see onstage is who I am...that's how I'm gonna be if I sell 10 million records. Because the way you go up is the way you come down.
What if another MC puts Portland on the national map?
I'm completely cool with that. Of course I'd be like, "When is it gonna be my turn?" But there's a difference between "When is it gonna be my turn?" and "Fuck that guy." It makes me proud when we're in Park City, Utah, and there's a guy with a Sandpeople shirt on...it gives me something we can both relate to. So if someone blows up from Portland, we can all be happy about that.
SEE IT: Cool Nutz releases Incredible on Friday, Aug. 6, at Berbati's Pan, with Mistah Fab, Bosko, Maniac Lok and more. 8 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show.
WWeek 2015
