Veteran Status

The mix-tapes are out, telephone poles have been fliered, buildings have been spray painted and we’ve received millions of text messages from the founders of Sac Hates Hip-Hop documenting the movement’s every footstep. But did you know there’s actually a Sac Hates Sac Hates Hip-Hop movement?

Well, not really.

But there is C-Dubb, a heavyweight in the rap game whose message is simple: Shut the fuck up. That’s basically it, but to clarify, what C-Dubb is saying is stop whining, do your thing—just don’t complain. He’s sick of it. You’re sick of it. The world is sick of it. “Be active,” he says.

And it’s not like he’s just some guy who randomly shoots off at the mouth. C-Dubb is eight albums deep—and his latest release, Veteran Status, is arguably his best effort yet. He’s on the top of his game; he’s worked his ass off to become a Sacramento hip-hop figurehead.

The rapper has been an intent student and practitioner of the Bay Area’s street-oriented and gritty mobb-music sound, and he’s been featured so far on more than 40 compilations, with the likes of Messy Marv, San Quinn, Keak da Sneak, Jay Tee (N2deep), Young Droop, Hollow Tip and Brotha Lynch Hung. Plus, he was lucky enough to recruit Keak and San Quinn, along with T-Nutty, Doey Rock and R.I.T.Z., for appearances on Veteran Status.

Like a father talking about his newborn baby, C-Dubb can barely hold in a smile when he describes Veteran Status. “Track one, ‘Let’s Go,’ has a real hard beat,” he says, thinking about his favorite cuts on the album. “The one with Keak [‘Smashin’] is real good. The one with Sann Quinn [‘It’s Nuthin’] is real good. … Um, ‘Get it Poppin’ is real good.”

Basically, he likes all of the songs.

But so do other people. “We got the CDs back from press yesterday, and I’ve already gone through 250 copies in 24 hours,” he says. With the help of EFFU Records, C-Dubb has been able to hook up a distribution deal through Best Buy, enabling him to move a lot more records than your average indie artist.

He’s proud. And he should be. Veteran Status is by far C-Dubb’s most profound, lyrically and musically; it’s whole, complete and really, incredibly interesting. While C-Dubb has matured as an artist (better production, varied rhyme patterns), he’s stayed true to the grimy mobb sound that he was raised on. That’s to say, on Veteran Status, you’re not going to hear any sappy love songs (“The happiest I get is belligerently drunk,” he says), and the thuggish rapper won’t be venturing into territories other than hard-core rap—in other words, “Spillin’ My Drank” isn’t going to be about the presidential election.

“ … It is, actually,” jokes C-Dubb. “And ‘Pimp Recycling’ addresses a lot of the natural disasters in the world.”

A thug with comedy!

The final song on the album, however, might not be funny to some. “Rappers Actin’ Bad” is a classic diss song that goes out to the Sac Hates Hip-Hop movement: “ … put on your backpack and battle each other and take a hike / Sac Hates Hip-Hop? No, Sac hates weak shit and ya’ll the poster child for weak shit, I mean this / Peep this: How you gonna cry for support when you never dropped an album to support?”

That hurts, but maybe Sac Hates Hip-Hop should listen to the dude. After all, C-Dubb is a Sacramento rap veteran with one of the hardest rap albums to drop this year.