Flow to the Koze

Quickly made topical records, cut on the fly to capitalize on something in the news, are a tradition as old as pop music. Where do they come from? In the case of rapper Dynasteé, an on-air phone call to KHTK 1140-AM sports talk personality Jim Kozimor, and the flow of words that followed, resulted in the CD single “Step Onto the Court,” which was recorded, mixed, mastered and released on Taste Records (you can listen to a clip at tasterecords-company.com) in very short order. Its chances at sports immortality, of course, perished with the Kings’ shot at winning the NBA championship. But, as Giants fans have said for years: “Wait’ll next year.”

How did your record come about?

“Step Onto the Court"? I used to listen to Kozimor after the game. I was listening to him during the Dallas series, and I said, I’m gonna go ahead and just call Koze up and I’m gonna do this rap for him. It wasn’t that rap; it was something else that I had incorporated the Kings into. And he said he liked it! He said, you shoulda been performing at halftime. This was some rap I did. And then, click, I hung up the phone and started writing. I’m like, I’m really going to write a song this time—a whole song, about the Kings. I did it, and we created it in the studio, and a couple days later it was out.

When was this?

Right before the Lakers. We were three-to-one up on Dallas.

And then what happened?

We went into the studio. I wrote it on a Sunday, and we went in the studio a week later, and it came out a couple of days later. We started pumping it up. I started hitting some clubs up, hittin’ Bobby McGee’s really hard out there on Sunrise. I performed there maybe four or five times during the Lakers series, during halftime. You know, word of mouth—it just got out. People were liking it, you know?

So do you ever stop and think about what might have happened if the Kings had gone even further?

Oh, definitely! It’d be international right now. But there’s next season. We’re gonna hit ’em up from the gate. As soon as the season starts: Remix. Basically, the same song, I’ll probably change some names, change the year. It’ll be pretty simple to do.

Which King plays with the style you like the most?

I think the attitude I like the most is Chris. I dunno, I play basketball, too. It seems just like he hates to lose, the way he comes out with energy all the time, he’s a good leader, I love his smile—it’s addicting. But, all of ’em. Who we gonna get rid of?

I don’t know.

I think I know: Brent [Price], Mateen [Cleaves] and Chucky [Brown] of course, are gone. But we’re gonna be so awesome this year. It’s incredible.

You say you’ve taken your record to clubs. What have you done?

Just performed in a couple of clubs. The fact that [the Kings] didn’t go for it; that’s just why there ain’t nothin’ to do right now. It’s like if they went further, if they had made the finals …

What do you think about that?

They cheated themselves. Free throws. I know, every day, they’re just thinking about it. You think that the fans … aw, man, I go to work, I talk to patients. I work at Kaiser, my whole hallway at my job is Kings—nothin’ but Kings.

Which Kaiser?

In Rancho [Cordova]. It’s incredible. It’s newspaper clippings, little basketballs hanging from the ceiling, a calendar I cut out everybody’s picture from and hung from the ceiling, streamers, pictures—everything. This is my whole hallway scheme. All of my patients, they know I’m a Kings fan. I’m diehard. Almost every person, we talk about the Kings and, after the series was over, it was like, “How you feeling? I know you’re depressed.” And they’re like, “Yeah, I went to a depression class …”

You’re a nurse?

Yeah, a medical assistant. … It’s depressing. Think of the toll it’s taken on the fans; imagine the team. I mean the fans are, like, oof—brokenhearted.

What are you gonna do about it?

Keep moving. In four months, the song could be out again, and I’ll be hyped up again. I mean, I’m still hyped on them ‘cause, you know, we’re getting better and better.

What kind of a reaction has your song gotten outside the Kings organization?

Everybody’s like, wow! You know. A couple of patients at Bobby McGee’s, they didn’t know I worked at Kaiser but I didn’t know they were our patients, either, they said [in falsetto] “You performed at Bobby McGee’s!” I’m like, “I sure did. Didja go get the album?” Older people, some of them 60-, 70-year-old people.

So are you going to cut an entire album?

Oh, yeah. I’ve got a lot of songs done, and I’m gonna add about three or four more tracks to it, and then the plan is to get that thing out before the end of the summer.

Is it all going to be hip-hop?

Straight hip-hop. With the 2003 Kings song on it.