Photo Credit: @mpvinny300
If you’re fortunate enough to cross paths with [Fredro Starr](https://www.instagram.com/fredro_starr/?hl=en) in your lifetime, you already know what type of energy he’s on. A true legend in the rap game, the Queens, New York native was first discovered by Jam Master Jay of Run-D.M.C., who signed iconic rap group Onyx which Fredro was a member of. The group is best known for their timeless smash “Slam” that’s transcended multiple generations, and continues to do so.
And let’s not forget about Fredro’s lucrative acting career. Beyond his top-selling albums, awards, and accolades, it’s his badass roles in classic films such as Spike Lee's _Clockers, Sunset Park_ (where Drake shouted him out in “_Light Up_”)_, Ride, Light It Up, Save the Last Dance,_ _Torque_, and more recently _Equal Standard_. He even performed _Save the Last Dance_'s theme song, "Shining Through,” alongside Jill Scott on the multi-Platinum soundtrack.
Fast forward to 2021, Fredro Starr is a proud co-host to his Rapper & Ballers podcast alongside Jonny Vulgar, still smoking that good weed, and still creating music like he never left. On the 8th episode of Shirley’s Temple, Shirley Ju sat down with Fredro Starr at Matrix Studios LA to discuss his Top 5 MCs of all-time, touring overseas with Onyx, smoking weed in the 80’s, memories touring with DMX, Suge Knight asking him to join Death Row, Tupac sitting behind him at the _Sunset Park_ premiere, meeting Jam Master Jay in a traffic jam, celebrating 25 years of _Moesha_, his 97 film credits, and more!
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**Who’s your Top 5 of all-time?**
There’s 30 years of hip-hop right? So you gotta have somebody from the old school. We keeping Rakim, Rakim’s the king. You gotta put some 90’s guys in there. We gotta put B.I.G., you gotta put Nas. Then you gotta put a West Coast guy, so I’d put Ice Cube in that. Snoop heavy, but Ice Cube’s the guy. You gotta put somebody that’s still rocking now, that’s still relevant and still going. That’d have to be Jay-Z, but I can’t put 3 guys in the 90’s. Scratch Jay-Z off, I’d put Conway and Benny the Butcher together as the next Top 5 to take it further.
**What do you think of the whole Griselda movement?**
I like it. I heard that shit on Statik Selektah, he played that shit. They’re doing mixtapes and I had my ear to the street. I remember we’re in Russia, cold in the winter. We’re at these dudes’ crib smoking shishka, that’s what they call weed out there. I said “put on the Griselda shit on YouTube,” them n\*ggas was loving that shit all the way in Russia. Stick’s like “what the fuck is this shit?” N\*gga, this that Westside Gunn shit. It was Westside Gunn really, Stick said “this shit is ill.” ‘Cause it brought back that Raekwon, that Wu-tang feeling. Raekwon’s one of my favorites.
**Bring us back to when you were trying to find weed in the Bay Area.**
We’re staying in San Francisco, but to get the weed you had to go to Oakland. We’re out there with Onyx, they had us in this cheap ass hotel. All I remember is a lot of fucking hills and mad Chinatown. We love Chinese food so we’re in Chinatown heavy. We needed some weed. We’re asking around, they said “you gotta go to Oakland!” Back in the days they didn’t have no navigation, you had to go over the bridge. When we got to Oakland, okay this is some hood shit. Word is bond, we’re driving around the neighborhood looking for weed. We seen some n\*ggas, they knew who we were. ‘Cause Onyx was out, all that shit was poppin’. They said “oh shit Onyx, follow us.” We went inside this dude’s crib to get the weed. There’s a baby sleeping in the crib, real ghetto shit. We got our weed and went back to San Francisco, that shit was ill.
**Talk about touring before COVID, Jonny told me Onyx has a ton of success overseas.**
We’ve been doing that shit for the last 10 years overseas, straight heavy. A whole other world over there, people don’t realize. The love, the food, the weed. Weed everywhere, especially if you go to places like Amsterdam. They’re the first to really pop off with the weed legalization. We’re going to Amsterdam since ‘94. Traveling and touring with Onyx is crazy because we give n\*ggas that real show. We don’t walk on stage and act like we all that, we really bang out. We got aggressive music so our fans are aggressive. It’s crazy ‘cause the first album came out in ‘93, but we be having fans at the show 16, 17 years old. How the fuck y’all know about this shit? We make music for adolescents. Even when we make albums now, we don’t rap about the crib in LA, the car we drive. We rap about the same stuff we always rapped about, we never changed our subject matter. With Onyx, these kids wanna hear “SLAM!” They want to get crazy so we always make music for that, that’s our thing.
**What were the craziest times overseas?**
A lot of partying. A lot of drugs, not only weed.
**What kind of drugs?**
I tried every drug except for heroin, let’s leave it at that. I did try lean, didn’t work for me though. Soon as I drank it, I threw it up. You can do all the drugs in the world, but weed’s the one. We had a lot of crazy nights out there but the craziest Onyx show was Survival of the Illest Tour with DMX, Redman, Method Man. It was crazy. We went to Jersey, we’re in Newark. “Last Dayz” came on, the smoothest record we got. Motherfuckers start tearing the club, so much energy and power in that record. I was on stage looking like “these motherfuckers is crazy.” You see this shit? You can go on YouTube right now and put “Onyx, Survival of the Illest tour in Newark, New Jersey.” That shit was ill. Motherfuckers was throwing chairs, throwing bodies, throwing cars. N\*ggas was in there wildin’, that was a crazy tour with DMX and them.
**How was DMX then?**
When DMX got to Def Jam, he was the guy. He was Onyx in one person, that’s how I looked at DMX. He was Onyx by himself. We did the “Shut Em Down” record with him. Redman, Method Man, we’re all under Def Jam. We went on tour: alright Onyx gonna close the show one night, DMX gonna close the show one night. We’re going back and forth closing, but we never performed “Shut ‘Em Down” live.
**Why?**
Never happened. We had our set, he had his set. Once we got off tour: they’re doing their thing, we’re doing our thing. It’s hard to do shit like that. He’s a big act so it’d be hard for him to do his show and our show. I’d love to do that record with DMX on stage live for the first time, that’d be crazy.
**Did you keep in touch with DMX after that?**
When I see him, it's all love. That’s my boy, that’s my man. We been through a lot together. The whole Def Jam alumni was like high school. Redman and Method Man, we’re all n\*ggas. It wasn’t no big I’s and little U’s, everyone’s on the same level. Everybody Platinum, everybody got the Def Jam jackets. We mobbin’ out.
**Can you bring us back to when Suge wanted to sign you?**
Well he didn’t have the paperwork, but it was an offer thrown out there into the universe. Suge was at the _Sunset Park_ premiere with Rhea Perlman. Shout out to Drake, I was rocking the yellow goose in _Sunset Park._ Tupac and Suge, we took pictures on the red carpet. Suge goes “yo, take a walk with me.” This is crazy because when I was watching _Sunset Park_ at the premiere, Tupac was behind me watching the movie. He had the popcorn, the whole shit. Every time I turned, he’s right there. I’m looking directly at this n\*gga. He’s having a good time, like “oh shit!” He was a kid watching a movie. I’m thinking to myself “shit, this n\*gga Tupac watching me.” I’m 50 feet in the air, this is my night. He’s there ‘cause he’s on the soundtrack.
_Sunset Park_ is one of the best hip-hop movie soundtracks ever. Mobb Deep, MC Lyte, the shit’s crazy. After the movie, we taking pictures and Suge says “let’s take a walk in the parking lot.” Boom, we take a walk. Tupac pulls out a blunt, we start smoking. He passes to me, I pass it back. Suge said “you did your thing in the movie.” Pac said “yeah man, shit was dope.” Suge said “I want you over at Death Row.” This dude was 6’5”, 300 pounds. I’m 5’7.5”, don’t believe Google. \[laughs\] When I looked at him, I said “I’m signed to Def Jam already.” He said “don’t worry about that, we could work it out.” I’m thinking about Jam Master Jay, what he gon’ say. All this shit going through my mind. Imagine if I was on Death Row with Pac? I was doing _Moesha_ at the time, I went on set and told my coworkers, “this n\*gga Suge offered me…” They said “hell no! Don’t do that.” Everybody said no. Shout out to Suge, free Suge.
**Bring us back to when Jam Master Jay discovered you.**
Coming from Queens, Jay from Queens. It just so happened we met Jam Master Jay like fate. We didn’t have a meeting or we called him to meet this guy, we saw Jay in a bad traffic jam. A traffic jam that’s not moving at all. You can get out your car and go to the next car. Mad college kids at a beach, crowded. Everybody’s trying to go home. The sun’s setting, it’s getting late. We see Jam Master Jay next to us in a big black van. You know my ass: “yo Jay, can we smoke with you?” It was the weed. Jay said “come smoke with me,” so now we inside this customized van. Shit is ill. We smoking, chillin’, talking. We vibed out.
**What were those early conversations?**
First, we told Jay we had a record deal on his same record label. “yo Jay, we signed to Profile just like you.” He said “you n\*ggas signed to Profile?” Yeah, ask Stewie and them n\*ggas. It was a n\*gga named Stewie P Fine. We had a single deal at Profile with a record called “Ah, And We Do It Like This.” This was before Sticky’s in the group. We managed to get a deal some fucking way. We always had that drive, even before we met Jay. When we told Jay we had a deal at Profile, he looked at that like “word? Oh okay, y’all serious.” We freestyling in the van with him, letting him know what we do. Got his number, politicked with him. He’d come through South Jamaica and check me, ‘cause he was from Hollis. We’d go get some weed, go get the Princess Black the blue bags. Get 10 dimes, smoke and vibe out.
**It’s so crazy, weed back then compared to now. Now it’s legal, how does that feel to you?**
That weed was brown too. That New York black brown weed. It wasn’t dry though, that shit used to get motherfuckers high. They used to say they put crack in that weed. That’s the rumor because it was so fuckin’ good. That weed was getting n\*ggas tore up, called Princess Black. Me and Jay used to get them Princess Blacks and vibe out. Weed being legal is good and bad. They’re taxing the hell out this motherfucker. You walk in a dispensary, they rape you. They robbing you, it’s crazy.
**How do you view the rap game today, compared to when you were coming up when hip-hop was poppin’ off?**
For me, I’m on a different level in the game now. We did our thing, we sold records, put a couple classics in the game. Now we’re touring, we got one of the best brands in hip-hop. We doing merch, a lot of music licensing. We’ve parlayed “Slam,” I can’t count how many times that record has been licensed by the NBA. When we made “Slam,” nobody thought basketball at all. We’re thinking about slam dancing, but the NBA kidnapped that record. The Gatorade commercial with Paul George to movies to Kevin Hart doing it on Lip Sync Battle to Jimmy Fallon performing it—every time somebody performs this record on television, it goes through a sync license.
**You guys get a cut right?**
Yeah, we got our publishers. For myself, I love it because this is how I’m rocking. The song “Last Dayz” is in _8 Mile,_ it’s getting licensed a lot too. I love what the young kids are doing, they’re taking it to a whole ‘nother level. I’ve seen hip-hop being born. When I see the kids dancing on TikTok, Kid ‘n Play been did that. Big Daddy Kane been had Scoob and Scrap, dancing’s part of hip-hop. When will rappers start getting backup dancers again? Big Daddy Kane, that shit was it. G Rap had his people, TCF Crew and them n\*ggas, everybody had their dancers back in the day. You go to Latin Quarters, I was in the Tunnel, every club in New York. I was a club head, a club kid. I was in the club with Brand Nubian all them n\*ggas before I had a deal. I seen Guru, Gang Starr in the club. I was going to the city. I was from Queens but I was going to Manhattan.
When you a club kid growing up in Manhattan, you’re going to Latin Quarters. You’re going to the Building, Powerhouse, these types of clubs. That’s part of the culture. My whole life’s been hip-hop. From rhyming in Baisley Park at the age of 15 in front of people, you gotta have some type of “I can do this.” You gotta be confident in your skills, especially when freestyling. Go on YouTube: Fredro Starr, Baisley Park, Grandmaster Vic, Tapemasters. You could hear the whole flow, I used to rap like Slick Rick. “It’s cool Fredro in the place to be, rocking on the mic tranquility. I’m chillin’ in the place to be, everybody wanna be a dope MC. Ain’t nobody can fuck with me,” on some smooth shit. That was cool Fredro, had to take you back!
**What inspires you to make music today? I know there’s a new Onyx album coming.**
The fucking Coronavirus. Ain’t nobody going on tour, everybody on Clubhouse. Everybody talking, everyone doing interviews. We got the Rappers and Ballers podcast poppin’, shout out to Jonny Vulgar. What we gon’ do? An Onyx album. _Onyx For Life_. Everywhere we go, the album title’s out there already. N\*ggas be like “Onyx for life!” I got a crazy record with Sheek Louch called “5AM,” produced by my man Jay Wex. We doing the #5AMchallenge. Get the beat, the instrumental, my man Jay Wex got a bag for you. All rappers if you nice with the bars, not that bullshit, tap in. Hashtag the #5AMChallenge on Instagram, we gon’ repost. Whoever we feel is the illest, we gon’ put them on the song and shoot the video. We like to reach back and see what’s in the streets. The hottest record in the streets, it’s going down. Shout to DJ Premier, Tony Touch, Kay Slay, Superstar Jay, Union DJs, Heat DJs, everybody spinning the record.
We was 4 n\*ggas from Queens with a dream. Rest in peace to Big DS, the founder of Onyx with myself. We started that shit, then Son See from Brooklyn. They used to call him Suavé, he’s the third member of Onyx. We got our deal, Sticky came, my cousin from Brooklyn. We formed that shit. We wanted to get out the ghetto and express ourselves, but it’s all about the bag. That’s the main reason why n\*ggas rap. When LL said “I’m bad.” he’s jumping out the limo. He got fans chasing him, we see that as a kid. We see the big chains Rakim had on. We came in the game and still doing it. Now we got 100 Mad, the umbrella of Onyx, friends, music we like. 100 Mad umbrella’s deep. I like where hip-hop’s going today. We still burning half these n\*ggas. I’m really nice, n\*ggas can’t fuck with me. If you really sit down and listen to what the fuck I gotta say, I put words together like Letterman.
**Do you write?**
I write, freestyle, whatever. However they want it, however you can get it.
**I gotta watch _Sunset Park_ too.**
Watch _Sunset Park, Save The Last Dance, Strapped, Torq, Clockers, Light It Up_, and _Equal Standard._ That’s a real movie, I recently shot _Equal Standard_ in Queensbridge Projects. Crazy, Ice-T and my man Hassan Johnson’s in the movie. That movie came out right at the same time as George Floyd. You have to see it because it’s about cops’ relationship with the hood. It gives you not only the hood perspective, but the cops’ point of view too. The movie isn’t one-sided, you get it from all angles. That’s why I like that movie, check it out.
**2020 was a crazy year with the #BlackLivesMatter protests. How did you handle it?**
Shit’s crazy, that shit been happening every year. Even when Obama was President, we had Ferguson. It happened to every black person in their lives. They’ve witnessed some type of racism because every day they wake up, they wake up to living in the hood. That’s systemic racism, we’re trapped in the hood. It’s nothing new. It’s getting worse because now we’re seeing it first-hand a lot. Black motherfuckers been getting beat up, tied up, kidnapped, drugs planted on ‘em, all types of fucked up shit for years. Police planting drugs on motherfuckers, doing all this crazy shit. All we gotta do is stay strong, smoke weed, stay low.
**A huge part of this show is mental health, what do you do to stay grounded?**
I’m crazy, fuck it. I’ve accepted that. \[laughs\] Fuck trying to fix this shit, we gon’ deal. Be crazy because everybody else fucking crazy too. I smoke weed, that keeps me grounded. Kids, family, that keeps a motherfucker grounded. It’s time to like the responsibility.
**You have 5 kids, how’s fatherhood?**
It has to be the right time. When it’s the right time, it’s the right time. You fully into it.
**Can you guys reunite with Sonny Seeza?**
I love Sonny Seeza. I asked Sonny Seeza to come to the studio, he said “nah, I’m not really…” You can’t make somebody do what they don’t want to do. Hip-hop isn’t forever for everybody. Some people move past it in their life and want to do different things. Sometimes it’s not gratifying enough or they’re not getting out of it what they want, so let me redirect my energy into something else. With me, I didn’t have to do that. I’ve done it with other things besides movies and hip-hop but for the most part, we found a lane. There’s a time when we wasn’t doing no shows. From ‘94 to 2007, we wasn’t even going overseas. It never left though ‘cause when we got back there, oh shit! This shit’s crazy! The shows be crazy. People gotta find what works for them and what makes them happy.
**You have the Rappers & Ballers podcast, how does it feel to be on the other side of the interview?**
We did mad interviews and I was always the one talking the shit. Sticky’s the one in the corner, Son See would be talking over me. We’d be talking over each other. I’m always talking and making my point of view be known. When we doing an interview about Onyx, that’s my shit. Fuck that, I’ma let you know. As far as the podcast, Coronavirus hit and everybody’s at home. I seen what Joe Budden was doing, what N.O.R.E. was doing, I like that. You gotta be built for that type of shit and I’m built for that. If you like to talk, why not? Some people don’t like to talk, don’t know how to articulate themselves. Like me, right? \[laughs\]
**How’s it feel to have _Moesha_ turn 25 this year?**
It’s on Netflix. It’s crazy because my Instagram is a bunch of 16-year-olds. Cute! Because they’re seeing it now. Whenever you do movies, TV, music, it’s forever. If somebody catches it 10 years later, it’s new to them. It’s cool we put classics in the game. My _Firestarr_ album hit 20 years, damn. 20 years.
**My intern said she had a crush on you during _Moesha._ How often do you get that?**
A lot of girls had a crush on Q, not me. Fuck me, Q not me. They don’t give a fuck about me. Q is not me. Q’s a whole different person. Q’s the smoothest.
**There had to be some real life inspo in there.**
I’m not really Q. Q is Q, they love Q. It’s so hard to get on TV. When motherfuckers get on TV, they say “oh shit, I’m on TV!” It’s a big deal. I didn’t even think it was a big deal, I was doing it. I was able to bring the culture into the character, that real shit was me as far as the slangs. I made that shit hip-hop, to where we even had a rap group on the show. They utilized my talents on the show with CPQ, rest in peace to Lamont Bentley. My input was very valuable to that show. I brought the whole hip-hop gang with me, that wasn’t there before I got there.
It was 16-year-old girls at the show, that’s the demographic. When I came out to do the show, all the girls was screaming “ahhh!” I couldn’t say my lines. I had to wait ‘til they calmed down, then I was able to deliver my lines. Fanmail was coming in crazy, I’m talking about boxes. Q was a teenage heartthrob at the time, that shit was ill. Not Fredro, they don’t give a fuck about me. \[laughs\] I’m nobody, it’s Q.
**How do you prepare for your acting roles?**
Smoked a lot of weed. Every episode I was high, I’m deadass serious. We’re smoking weed, taking one or 2 puffs before the shit to calm the nerves and do our thing. Lamont Bentley’s one of the best when it comes to comedy. To me, he was Kevin Hart before Kevin Hart. He had that animated, very quick-minded comedy. When I see Kevin Hart, that’s the Lamont Bentley lane. He would’ve been outta here. Check up on Lamont Bentley, do your Google.
**You got 97 film credits, how does that feel?**
A bunch of bullshit movies in there. Every actor got bullshit movies. Every rapper got bullshit songs, that’s gonna happen in your career. But I guarantee I got 10 classics to go up against anybody ten classics. Any actor, I got my 5 movies against your 5 movies. Denzel, Will Smith, whoever. I’m keeping it 100. When I do my thing, I do my thing. This is real shit. My first movie was _Strapped_, directed by Forest Whittaker. He saw something in me and put me in a movie. 10 years later, I did _Light It Up._ I got Forest Whittaker in a headlock in the movie, going against him as an actor. I’m bringing it to Forest Whittaker who’s one of the best, I’m doing a scene with him. He’s 6 feet, he’s very big. They told me, “you gotta grab him behind the neck.” They had to put a fuckin’ milkbox some shit, I had to stand on some shit to put this nigga in.
I did that shit and I went against Forest Whittaker. I’ll go against anybody when it comes to this acting shit. If you don’t think like that, you don’t deserve the fucking job! If you don’t think you that n\*gga when it comes to anything, and I’m out! Jamie Foxx, whoever. What’s poppin’? Say action and see what happens. I don’t have to front, everything’s there. When I’m gone, everything I say is official tissue. I don’t have to lie or brag, see and watch and be your own judge. I’m cocky, but I don’t brag. You gotta learn how to be cool and don’t have to do all that other shit, just be yourself. Either you gonna love or hate a n\*gga, just don’t touch me.
**Do you still have that yellow jacket from Sunset Park?**
That’s a good question, I don’t have it. I asked my moms: “ma, do you got that yellow jacket?” She said “nah, I ain’t got it.” That shit was a size XXL, I’m a medium.
**How do you feel when media blew up you calling Royce Da 5’9” a nerd rapper?**
It’s cool. Listen, everybody sits there and talks about rappers every day all day. This is me. Who gives a fuck? At the end of the day whenever I say something, it’s with intent. It wasn’t no disrespect. If I say those roses are fucking blue and you say no, they’re red, them shits is blue to me. Who gives a fuck what I say? When it happened, I reached out to him and like men, we did what we had to do. Not for the media and all that other bullshit. Now, we in rooms on Clubhouse together. Hip-hop is hip-hop and people can have their own opinions with this shit. Be real with it.
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