The HEXXX Interview is here: The West Coast Artist sits down with ROX-TV for an exclusive interview.
Welcome back to ROX-TV for another amazing interview. Tonight’s interview is a special one with the big homie HEXXX760 fresh off the plane from the West Coast, Los Angeles to be exact. I caught up with HEXXX in Detroit the other night and he was gracious enough to sit down with ROX-TV for a one-on-one interview. HEXXX stays busy and is promoting his brand-new track “The Devils in the skills” which dropped two days ago. On top of that he has a video out now for his song “The Return” which he had been working on. “We shot it with 4k cameras, rented out some rooms in a high rise, to shoot this whole cinematic movie and shit” HEXXX told me during the interview.
HEXXX is a man on a mission, determined to spread the West Coast Wicked Shit to the nation and beyond. I was excited to fire off a couple of questions and learn more about his music, background, and what was on his mind. This is the part that I really enjoy and that is getting inside the world of the artist for that unique perspective that only can be explained by the person living it. I value history, as many of you may know, and am always curious to find out when that pivotal moment of music discovery happened for the artists that I talk to.
HEXXX, when did music really become important to you?
“That’s actually an interesting story. My father used to be part of a band called “Little Ray and the Tear Drops”. This was back in the seventies. I’ve always had music in my family…you know what I mean, they were like La Bamba type shit, that Chicano Rock and Roll. So some crazy shit happened, and he really couldn’t pursue that, you know what I mean”.
“But we always had music in the family. My father liked to play guitar and there would be jam sessions going on, it (music) was constantly around when I was a kid, the instruments, the music” HEXXX said and leaned back in his chair. Sipping a Modelo cerveza, HEXXX started to talk about being born and raised in the High Desert.
“I was into broadcast too you know what I mean…cause when you live out in the high desert, the desert area, it’s not LA. There’s nothing like that out there. All you have is the music, at that age. In 1985…I was born and raised in the high desert. Its empty and there just isn’t much out there”. As I listened to HEXXX I tried to picture the vast emptiness of the desert. Just hearing about it sounded lonely and maybe even a little dark.
I decided to ask him if being out in that extreme isolation, away from everything helped shape who he is as a person and an artist? Perhaps those feelings that only the high desert could produce, had some influence on the music? So I asked him.
“I would say definitely man, I started dealing with death at a really young age, living out there. A lot of my elders were passing, my homeboys were passing, some from overdoses and others from suicide. Fucking car crashes…there were a lot of funerals, you know what I mean. And then there was the wicked shit, the wicked shit. On top of that your growing up out in the desert man. Victorville California, at that time was one of the most dangerous cities in California outside of LA and places like that. I believe it was in the top five” HEXXX said and took another sip of his cerveza.
Victorville, which is located about 64 miles away from Los Angeles is definitely no stranger to hard times. The FBI released data in 2020 showing that a person had a one in thirty-seven chance of being a victim of violent or property crime in the city. The same set of data also concluded that Victorville had a crime rate that was 75% higher than the other cities and communities in California that year. Located in San Bernardino County, Victorville is no joke.
“I progressively saw the desert get worse, as the desert got worse, life….and because of that, to get through shit…you had to be aware, to survive bro. That’s about all I can really say on that. I’ve done some crazy shit out there (high desert), some of it, I’m not proud of” HEXXX said reflecting back on his own roots. “It’s not something you wanna flex. I rap about a lot of shit on tracks, but that real shit…. No, No G shit. I don’t talk about it like that” and judging by HEXXX’s demeanor and seriousness, some questions are best left un-asked. Real deal cats don’t brag up their shit because they don’t have to. So I decided to move on with some more questions, going back further into the earlier years for HEXXX, to find out what he was digging on back in the old days.
I asked him what one of the first albums he had really gotten into and he said Snoop Dog’s Doggystyle album which dropped back in November of 1993. “I was at a bus stop and my homie had the Doggystyle cassette tape bro. I remember that line “pocket full of rubbers and my homeboys do too”. I got back home and was saying the raps when my mom was like “what the hell is that? She flipped, and rap, at the point was already a taboo subject in the house. Ya know…it was a rock and roll family…so it was kinda like “No, No, No”. My dad is a Marine and he wasn’t playing that shit, so naturally after being told no, you just want to hear more, know what I’m saying?
I most certainly did. I had encountered the same pushback on rap from my parents, but no matter how much complaining was worked into the mix, and no matter how many of my tapes were tossed out, I couldn’t stay away from the genre. HEXXX had hit the nail directly on the head with that shit. “Naturally that no is going to push you in that direction. So I was always fuckin around with music as a kid. Back in 9th grade, first period…. a couple of the homies had a cd. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was like a “smile now, cry later” clown and it said Jeckel Brothers on the case” HEXXX explained.
The Amazing Jeckel Brothers album he was talking about was the 1999 release by Insane Clown Posse on Island Records in association with Psychopathic Records. The certified platinum album by RIAA was an amazing album which featured Snoop Dog and Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and even has The Jerky Boys on a track. Coming in at 69 minutes and thirty seconds and produced by the world-famous Mike E. Clark and ICP, the album changed everything for HEXXX.
“When I popped it in, I was like what’s the best song? The homies said “Everybody Rize” (song 9 on the album). That moment changed everything…ya know. I was already on the wicked shit ya know…murder was the case, Cypress Hill, fuckin Puppet Master, Metal, all that kind of shit, but when the Clowns came into my life…. right then and there, I was into everything from then on…. ESHAM, ICP”.
“I was a Juggalo from that point forward. I got a Dark Lotus Cross on my arm. I’m with the shit bro, been with that shit a long time. Talking about the Milenko 500 era, way back shit you know” HEXXX said. “From Glaze you dead donut websites, Left Coast Juggalos, all that shit bro…. they all know me. Since then, its been a progression upwards. I’ve gone to the shows, I went to the shit…. I actually got a story” HEXXX said and took another drag of his Modelo cerveza.
“The Grove of Anaheim, The Wicked Wonka Tour right…I had already been to the Big Money Hustla’s movie tour (A screen play by Violent J and directed by John Cafiero, released in July of 2000)…shit like that. These were the planting of the seeds to be a Juggalo. I went to the show and I already knew who Rudy “Rude Boy” Hill was from the JCW wrestling tapes and all that shit right. So I see Rude Boy at the bar and there isn’t anyone around. He was with Scottie D from Faygoluvers (Owner). I was with my little Juggalo homie at the time and was like “Yo that’s Rudy”…oh my god bro, I was like “can I get a picture”.
“Rudy was carrying all these beers in his hands. Like an armful. I was like please dog…for a Juggalo. Rudy looked at me and was like “alright dog” and he put down all the fuckin beers, no shit….and grabbed my ticket to sign an autograph for me. I didn’t have a marker or nothing so I asked the bartender for a sharpie. He signed the back of the ticket and took a photo with me. Then he grabbed his beers and went backstage. Years later….now…right” HEXXX said with a wave of his hand and laughed. The irony of being in the studio as a guest on Rudy’s world famous CRB Cruisin The Barrio show was perfectly fucking illustrated.
“I’ve been grinding in this shit, seeds like that…that got planted. The dream ya know…what I’m saying. Shit like that brought me here (tapping on the table to drive home the message). So this shit is got to be destiny. Playing it full circle dog! You feel me, this shit is wild to me. So yeah…. this Juggalo shit, the music, all that shit….hell yeah” HEXXX proclaimed and finished his cerveza.
“The Juggalo culture is legendary, we believed and still do. The Wicked Clownz bro…Violent J, the galaxy that’s inside that mans mind bro…and 2Dope and Jumpsteady. The way Detroit has affected the outside…I talk to some cats and they always say, “the closer you are to home, the more real it feels”. Well, the farther you get away from the home, the crazier the legends and the lore get. A lot of cats on the West Side, there like “this wicked clown shit is life”. The Psychopathic Rydas dog! You got to understand, in San Bernardino, Victorville, Rydas ride out! We were thuggin out to some Rydas shit. I fuck with the Hatchet” HEXXX said with a smile.
When did you start rapping?
“I literally started rapping in 1999, that was when I really started to take the shit serious and get it cracking. I dropped my first shit in 2004. Stigmata, but that was a compilation of myspace tracks in 03 and 04. We are talking real gutter Juggalo shit bro, I’m talking studio mics…hell, we didn’t have one on that first shit. All we had was the microphone on the computer monitor. You know how speakers have mesh on them, I taped that to the computer as a spit guard. Standing over the computer like this” HEXXX explained and gave a visual demonstration of how that looked, then continued with the story.
“If your real, then you got to do real shit. So I went and burned a thousand of those CDs and took them to swap meets, slangin and bangin my shit. (that trunk life shit, fucking old school). “Everyone knows me in the 760 dog, the High Desert, the West Coast, that’s why I got love from the Underground. They all know me out there dog, I’m just doing my thing bro. West Coast Wicked Shit is what I’m trying to do bro” HEXXX said.
When you talk about the Chicano Juggalos, what were some of the things that you identified with when you heard Insane Clown Posse for the first time?
“Obviously, when I seen that Jeckel Brother’s artwork, that instantly reminded me of the “laugh now, cry later” faces that is represented strongly in the Chicano world (tattoos and artwork). For HEXXX those images spoke to his own Chicano heritage and when he delved deeper in the music of the wicked clownz (ICP) he heard even more examples in the music. Anyone familiar with Insane Clown Posse’s massive library of releases will know exactly where HEXXX is coming from. “Hey Vato” was a track that was influential and also spoke to the Chicano vibe” HEXXX told me. “Hey Vato” was recorded at Rythmatic Studios in 1993 for Insane Clown Posse’s Ringmaster LP, but was never released. After some tweaking, it became “Wagon Wagon” on the Macabre side of Ringmaster in 1994.
“Hey Vato”, is the seventh song on ICP’s first Forgotten Freshness released in 1995. It featured unreleased or “lost” tracks that were hard to track down. “Ringmaster had that Chicano vibe” HEXXX told me. “The Insane Clown Posse was always talking about Mexican Town (Southwest Detroit) in their music. For those unfamiliar with the boundaries of the Southwest Detroit, it is bounded by Michigan Avenue to the north, downtown and the Detroit River to the east, to the south by Downriver, and finally by Dearborn to the west.
Home to my favorite mexican restaurant of all time, Armando’s (4242 Vernor Hwy), Southwest Detroit is home to a large population of Mexican Americans, who came to Detroit during several larges waves of immigration starting in the 1920’s, 1970’s, 1980’s, and one more time in the 1990’s. The neighborhood was dubbed “Mexican town” as part of a public relations campaign.
From Southwest Strangla to Ringmaster to Dog Beats, the Chicano influences are there if you know where to find them. HEXXX and Rude Boy were in the studio later in the evening, at Cruisin The Barrio and spoke about those very things in length. “Having Shaggs rocking the bald head, beanies, Pendleton’s, that’s all huge to the Chicano Juggalos” HEXXX explained to me. I could understand what HEXXX was talking about, because as a young Juggalo myself, we always listened to the references to Southwest Detroit and over time, the music and the legends continually grew within the culture. To hear about Vernor Highway, The Clark Park, or the sets that get shouted out on Inner City Posse’s 1991 Dog Beats Maxi Single release on the track Ghetto Zone, it was intriguing to Juggalos everywhere.
As the interview wore on, we got a little pressed for time. So I decided that it would be a good time to wrap up the interview and let HEXXX get back to some other engagements in the city. He was a scheduled guest for the CRB Cruisin The Barrio show featuring the Rude Boy, DJ Carlito, Lady T, Eric, and A.T. Huck., Detroit’s home for the old school and dope ass music.
I told HEXXX this was the part of the night where he could drop his shout outs to the readers of the ROX-TV website, so that’s exactly what this bad ass Vato did. Here they are….
Shout outs:
First because this is the Juggalo Weekend Month, shout out to Shaggy the Airhead…we got a track coming soon called Blood Drip…. brand new shit. My High Desert Family, the 760, the Vegas Fam, Night Breed, all my producers and all my DJ’s, everyone that I’ve worked with. 72 Topless….shout out to Dangerous, Elegant Car Club, Origins Clothing, and Lost Angelz.
I would like to give a special shout out to my wife Macey, my manager my muse without her none of this would be possible, she’s everything to me and I just want to give a special shout out to her because she’s my partner in crime.
Shout out to everybody man….so many people. People that keep my shit going. South Side Rydas in France. Everyone all across the world. The homies in Australia, Canada, Mexico…Brazil! Homeboys in Brazil, in the FAVELA!! Shout out to Detroit. I love Detroit man. If is wasn’t for Detroit, the music that was made and came out of this city…..I wouldn’t be here today. Shout out to Esham. Shout out to Rudy “Rude Boy” Hill, DJ Carlito, Cruisin the Barrio, and of course ROX-TV, mad respect to ROX.
HEXXX.com (link to:) https://www.hexxx.com/
@HEXXX760 (link to:) https://www.instagram.com/hexxx760/
Spotify (link to:) https://open.spotify.com/artist/37MJj0hRRmf3rSxiXmPRoG?si=4dMdNoDgSH6IWcxGNPi2Kw
It was a pleasure to interview HEXXX and welcome him to Detroit on behalf of ROX-TV. We can’t wait till he come backs to the Motor City. Hopefully, we will be able to catch some HEXXX shows when the fucking world opens back up. That would be fresh as hell. Until next time….
Signing Off,
Mike Shepard
ROX-TV Head Writer
Kidvicious810 on Instagram.
