At this time it is self-evident, the proof is in the pudding: Awall a.k.a. 2Piece is one of the greatest MC’s to ever come out of Tacoma, WA. He is a highly-respected veteran who has the utmost respect from the younger generations. He is not nicknamed the “Ageless Wonder” for nothing. Awall has a broad range of musical capabilities. He can turn out some of the sharpest, well-thought-out street rap you have ever heard. He can have fun, party, and make jokey weed-raps, and he can even channel his inner Jimi and get his rock on. 2Piece has solo albums, group projects, and multiple compilations to choose from. Uncle Wallygator is his latest incarnation. It is a perfect mesh of classic, lyrical, slapping Hip-Hop mixed with stalwart Awall west coast vibes and street aesthetic.
Awall a.k.a. 2piece Is in Top Form On Uncle Wallygator
The first song “Ice Cold (Remix) is a slumping, bizarre, super bass-heavy, head-twisting, hurricane of a beat from DJ THMC that allows Awall to break into braggadocios raps nice and slow to match the tempo of the blaring bass-line. If you thought Awall could only tell street-stories and not slap you upside the head with straight bars then now you know better.
The next song “Sasquatch” has a quintessential Westcoast riding beat. There is a playful chorus of people channeling Jagged Edge’s “Where The Party At” singing “oh oh oh oh oh”. Uncle Wallygator takes on the personality of the infamous Pacific Northwest Sasquatch. He is a mythical forest creature playing on humanity as well as a legendary Northwest rap-artist who is rarely seen but always heard. He is lurking. He is here, hidden behind the fog, mist, and trees of our region.
The next part of the album features Awall’s rap family Blue Nose Music. Within these next two songs, we have appearances from Mac Dre as well as Tall Cann. This part of the album has a hyphy, Northern Cali’, Yay-Area feel.
The fourth song “Until the End” takes ‘Wall back to his roots. Here we have him spitting his barbs, riding a hard beat, jabbing his opponents until they throw in the towel.
The next song “Real Deal” has more appearances from his Blue Nose friends as well as J-Diggs (the legendary Vallejo OG MC). It is easy to hear Awall’s microphone prowess when compared to his rap compadres. Even next to a national-presence such as J-Diggs it is easy to hear how much skill and precision ‘Wall has on the mic’.
Track 7 “Shrapnel” is a fast-paced, big-band, horn-blaring, blast of a beat provided by producer Three Times. Awall gets his Hip-Hop skillset rolling on this one and he raps live the whole way through.
The last song featuring talented producer and singer Marcus Lee from Tacoma, a longtime coworker of Awall’s. The two make all types of unique sounds and music. This song has Awall tapping into his rock aesthetic. It lets the listeners know Awall can do it all.
All in all, this is a well-rounded album from our Tacoma OG. It mixes his best Hip-Hop skills, with his street story-telling ability, and his fun side with his Blue Nose friends, and even a little Rock sensibility.
I got a chance to sit-down with Awall to discuss his career. Instead of focusing on his latest album, since we all know it will be dope. I thought it would be more interesting to ask ‘Wall some lifelong questions I have always wanted to know. I have been a fan of his music from the beginning so this was fun for me to think of stuff I always wanted to know. Here is what happened:
JOSH – Where do ya rate yourself in Tacoma Hip-Hop history?
AWALL – Top of the food chain but I sit at #2 and that reason is because I never had a major record deal.
Are you the Tacoma G.O.A.T.?
Yes, I am. Some might argue but everybody’s entitled to their opinion.
You and King Wojack seem to be the main ones left from that generation. Shout out other area rap vets like Young Krime Da Ghetto Baby and E-Dawg as well. Is there anyone else left?
To be honest: No, and if they are I haven’t seen it so sorry.
When did you know this was all you wanted to do and do you ever see yourself stopping?
I never really knew. This is what I love to do and as long as the generation I come from keeps wanting to hear this adult contemporary rap I’m going to provide the soundtrack.
Your Tacoma Top 5 (not including yourself)?
I can’t answer that question because there’s more than 5 favorite rappers from Tacoma but I’ll tell you this if you take Run from Run-DMC, Kurupt, 2Pac, Nipsey Hussle, and MC Ren you get Awall.
How did you meet Young Krime, Miss Jesse, and the Felony Records crew?(editor’s note– Felony Entertainment was the label that Awall was with when his career began rolling in the late 1990’s)
My big bro’ Adrian Walker AKA Quickie brought Krime to Willie AKA Cold-Piece’s house and I rapped from Krime and he loved me and took me under his wing. From there I was doing a show with the homie Tall-Can and he brought Miss Jesse up to me and we were introduced. Then Miss Jesse had me on a show and I told Krime to come through. I introduced them two and Felony Entertainment was formed.
Were you treated like an underdog?
I wouldn’t say underdog. I would say written-off. They try to say it’s a young man’s game. Get out the way and let youngsters do it. I feel like I’m written off until they see me perform. Then they know.
In closing, I wanted to give Awall some flowers and credit while he is here and everyone can read. Awall is an innovative, artistic, designer as well. He is the first one to use a thumbtack as a graphic for The Tac, the originator of the term Squashington, and the first one to design and use the Pac 12 logo and flip it to Tac 253. SO STOP BITING AND GIVE THIS MAN HIS DUE!!!
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Barz! Lays The Law Out on "The White Rapper Show"
Barz! has never been a slouch at telling people how he feels. From rifts with big name streamers over censorship of his album covers to his callouts of snakeism in the music industry, the lifetime Tacoma flag bearer is known to speak his piece. So it’s no surprise that given the rise of melanin challenged rappers who have little to no respect for the culture and roots of Hip Hop that the City of Destiny’s favorite white MC would put the flames to these types. His new track “The White Rapper Show” is the culmination of this.
“The White Rapper Show” features Barz! waxing on white privilege and systemic racism in between calling out various rappers by name. Over blistering self-produced murder music, Barz! tosses out barbs at Tom MacDonald, Haystack, Merkules, and Yelawolf at varying levels. Its a clinic in how the soul of Hip Hop must be protected and preserved and never exploited without repercussions. We were able to get on the phone with Barz! and talk about it along with many other topics. Here are some highlights of the interview. The full piece can be heard at the bottom of this page.
You have a new song called “The White Rapper Show” that just dropped. And in it, you go in pretty hard man on a number of white rappers by name and just the group as a whole. And so I was wondering if you could give us some background on that track and how it came to fruition.
Basically, just a little backstory, even further back than the song. So there was a show on page, one called “the white rapper show” and I had some friends at the time, shout out Rick Ross, the real Rick Ross from Tacoma, Washington. They actually took tapes of me and submitted it to be on the white rapper show. They were choosing 20 contestants for the show and I was number 21 on the list of a couple 1000 people that actually like sent submissions. And so I was supposed to be on that show which is pretty funny.
So fast forward, this happened almost 15 years ago. But, I saw a clip of it on YouTube and I was like wow, man. You know, I was just thinking about it and on that show and I was just like what you know, MC Serch…what I appreciated about Serch was that he was always trying to enlighten you know some of the white rappers. They were a little ignorant and they didn’t really know too much about black culture. And they didn’t really know too much about lines that they shouldn’t have crossed.
So, and I was just like, man, like, there’s a lot of motherfuckers, you know, now that are just kind of crossing the line. And have crossed the line and, you know, I don’t feel that they should have a place in hip hop. So you know, I had to name people and people that I felt needed to be addressed in that situation.
Two of those rappers that you named, Merkules and Haystack. I’ve seen you go in on both of those guys especially, on social media. Can you give, for people that don’t know, can you give some background on why those two guys especially need to feel your wrath?
Well, with the Merkules thing you know, I kind of like I’ve already dissed Merkules and for anybody that doesn’t know I dissed him, I have a little explanation video on why I dissed him from about a year, year and a half ago, which goes into detail the reason why. Because a lot of people that were fans of him started to become fans of me and they were questioning that. And they were just like, why are you dissing this guy? And we don’t understand. So I broke the whole story down of the reason. Now me bringing him up again in this song is basically just, you know, I’m kind of just poking the bear. You know, I’m just thinking about when Jay Z and Nas went back at each other. You know, I have respect for him lyrically, but I don’t respect the fact that I feel that he stole my cover art. So I’m just kind of, you know, reopening a wound a little bit on that one. You know, just throwing a quick little line at him and just seeing if he’ll take the bait, which he probably won’t, because according to him, I’m clout chasing whatever.
And then we have Haystack. And the reason I brought up Haystack is because he’s had two rape charges against him. Both with underage girls. One of them got turned into a lesser charge. And I believe the other one got dropped completely, right. So nowadays, you know, there is the chance that you know, women lie or you know, things can be fabricated. But I looked up the paperwork, I did my research, you know, and when I say timing is everything, I say it because of this. So, at the time, he got his second charge, it was about 2005 in between 2005 2007. And the second charge at the time, he was trying to sell features on MySpace at the time, for a very, very low price for what he was normally asking, because he was trying to pay for the lawyer fees for the second rape charge.
So, you know, at the time, like I remember when he was actually like, promoting that he was selling features, but I had no idea why. And then I looked at the paperwork, and then I looked at him making public posts about he on trying to be able to afford an attorney and not saying why.
Now it all makes sense. But I’m a firm believer in that if you get charged for something that serious, not once but twice, there’s got to be some form of truth to this. Because how are you getting involved with these underage girls? How do they even have contact you?
So in addition to those guys, you brought up Yelawolf man. And this is something that I’m asking just out of my own curiosity. Did it ever get confirmed what Royce was tripping on him for?
I merely called him out for Fefe Dobson.
Yeah, his wife.
Because Fefe Dobson is like, a middle class girl that came from Canada who is kind of sheltered during her life and it’s not a diss to her, but–I don’t how to put this–she was obsessed. She seemed obsessed with white culture as far as rock music and, you know, the figures that exist in it. You know, and that’s not a bad thing. You know, but I think that someone like YelaWolf would take advantage of that, you know what I mean. And, you know, I remember him putting out merge, you know, for fuck man, at least 10 years straight with nothing but rebel flags associated with the merge. And I’m just like, you know, I know the history behind it, you know, and I’m not a fan of it. I’m never gonna represent that. People can say, this is our heritage. But your heritage is fucking racist you know. Like, there’s no fucking way you could turn this flag that represents evil into love. There’s no fucking way you know what I’m saying. So my thing is I get it’s a part of Southern culture, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t abolish it. That doesn’t mean if you’re truly not, you know, this hateful person that you shouldn’t get rid of it.
No, I agree completely. He finally adhered to that too though in the long run, didn’t he? Because he got so much pressure to address this.
Here’s the thing right. So Royce calls him out about, you know, him obviously saying the N word to one of the–I think it was his cousin or like an understudy of him that he sent out to work with him. And the dude basically came back and told Royce that you know, YelaWolf said he’s gonna say that in front of them, and everybody in his crew’s gonna say in front of him, and he ain’t gonna do nothing about it.
So basically, you know, to me, that was like, again back to Fefe Dobson you know. Like to hear that it’s like, I’ve met Royce. I’ve been around Royce you know. I remember getting snuck into the Pay Deuce concert by Crooked I. And Royce and Crooked I were calling Joe Budden a fucking bitch the whole time. And then Royce never really seemed like a person that was gonna sugarcoat shit with you. He’s gonna be straightforward with you, and he’s gonna you know, he’s gonna bring up disrespect, if it’s, you know, happening.
So basically, you know, I really felt like I didn’t feel like he was lying about that, or fabricating that. Because Royce the 5’9 doesn’t just call people out for nothing. He doesn’t call people out. You understand? Like, there had to be something behind it. But back to Fefe Dobson it’s like, well, if you are doing this to Royce’s understudy, and saying N word with a hard ‘R’ around him, what are you saying to her when you go home at night? What are you saying to her? What are you saying to her when all other people leave? You know, and it’s just you guys in the house at that point.
I’ve seen and witnessed being around people that used to be friends of mine, like in interracial relationships, and then them using that word to their partner and thinking it’s okay. It’s never okay. You know what I mean? That’s the stance that I hold. So I kind of really brought that up mainly on her behalf. Like because, I mean, do we know what’s going on? You know, and she’s been up the spotlight for a very long time. So I don’t think we’re gonna hear any press release or her coming forward about anything.
What do you think are the correct moves for white rappers that are in the game right now, not Haystack. Fuck Haystack, but Merkules or YelaWolf right now what would you think are the right moves for them to make as far if they want to continue to rap and be a part of this culture? What do they need to be doing?
I just kind of feel regardless of what type of songs that you make, most of these guys that I mentioned, even the ones that aren’t necessarily racist or anything like that, they don’t ever seem to touch on topics like race or Black people. I just personally feel that if you’re going to rap and be white, and you don’t talk about Black problems at some point, or at least do something to signal that, hey, you know, I’m gonna defend the people that started this, I just kind of feel like you’re out of place. You’re avoiding it. White silence is violence.
All this shit going on with police brutality, this ain’t nothing new. This is old news. You know, it’s just new to this generation. But this has never left. It’s never been different. So for them to completely ignore these topics is to me, you’re tucking your fucking tail. You have a voice and a platform and what are you doing? Eminem did it. Eminem didn’t have to. He didn’t have to do nothing. He can sit at home and fucking shit out a bunch of fucking songs and it’ll still go platinum. And he don’t have to talk about none of that. But he’s taking this platform, and he’s doing so.
So for all these guys that aren’t, I feel like it’s one of two things. I feel like you’re too scared to get involved. You know, because you just feel like it’s not your say. Or two, you don’t want to lose your racist ass fucking fans. Because they’re buying your fucking merch and they’re fucking streaming your fucking albums all day.
From a business standpoint, I understand that you don’t want to shit on your clientele. But again, it goes right back to the circle of it. Like, I worked for a company that had customers dropping $30,000 at a time with them, and they were racist as fuck but they didn’t want to lose the business. So as a business standpoint, I get the way you have to separate yourself. But again, if this business was created by people that are constantly being murdered, constantly being criminalized, then what the fuck are you doing? That’s like a contradiction to me.
So speaking of the album that you got coming out, let’s talk about that. What’s next for Barz!?
I’m not gonna reveal the title of it until I put up the album cover art work. But at the same time, it has a lot to do with race. Every single song has to do with race. And has to do with the economy and not just race, but class. And I’m just basically speaking my own perspectives on instances of my life. There’s moments when I say things about my own family. About how, you know, they would say things that were fucked up that I didn’t know at the time. I didn’t get it. And now as I get older it’s like oh shit, that’s what that meant. You ain’t shit just like the rest of them.
And so you know, I’m not afraid to talk about that, because I feel when I do actually tell the truth, which I pretty much do every song even if that truth may be damaging to myself, I don’t care. And because there’s always somebody out there, that’s gonna be like, damn, I went through that shit too. I get it. And not everybody’s gonna get it. Like, this album is going to piss people off. It’s gonna piss a lot of people off. But I hope that they can at least take away that this is just my perspective. When you at least actually sat down and listen to each other’s perspectives, without comparing struggles or without, you know, comparing lifestyles or comparing skin color or anything like that, and we just sat down and listen to each other without interruption, and just listen to our perspectives, then we will truly understand each other, and then this wouldn’t be an issue anymore.
LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW RIGHT HERE