On June 20th 1995, Kausion’s debut single, “What You Wanna Do?” featuring Ice Cube, was released and followed by their debut LP, South Central Los Skanless, on October 10th. Later on, they left Lench Mob Records due to disagreements with Ice Cube; they claimed to have been cheated out of their royalties. Gonzoe went solo and signed with Death Row Records, which was at the time the most successful record label in the rap game and home to other rappers such as DJ Quik, Dr. Dre, Nate Dogg, Snoop Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound. In October 1995, the late Tupac Shakur also signed with Death Row Records. Gonzoe and Tupac would soon meet each other through their manager, Sharita Knight. They became friends, went on tour and recorded three songs together, including “Die” and “This Life I Lead.” Tupac gave Gonzoe the nickname Young Ritzy Outlaw. On September 7th, Tupac was shot four times in a drive-by-shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada after attending a boxing fight between Bruce Seldon and Mike Tyson. He was taken to the University Medical Center, where he died a week later at the age of 25. After Tupac’s death and the imprisonment of the record label’s CEO, Suge Knight, the Death Row empire started crumbling. Like many other artists on the label, Gonzoe left. In 1997, he formed a new group, The Regime, with his cousin, Late “Phats Bossi” Bankoudagda, Jerold “Yukmouth” Ellis, Keith “Madd Maxx” Walker and Kenneth “Poppa L.Q.” Gonzoe signed a solo record deal with Menes Music Group, whom released his solo debut LP, If I Live And Nothing Happens, on July 28th 1998. It featured the first single “Got It Made.” On the intro of the LP, he was introduced as the newest member of the Outlawz, a group formed by Tupac before he died. He later left both the Outlawz and The Règime after falling out with both groups as a matter of “fucking each others’ bitches,” as Gonzoe described it in an interview with HitEmUp.com on December 3rd 2003. Their issues were later on sorted out and Gonzoe once again joined The Regime. Gonzoe recorded 18 new songs for a second solo LP, but Menes Music Group refused to release it, because of economic problems. He left the record label and signed with Champeli Entertainment, where he recorded a third solo LP entitled Chasin’ The Sun 2000. Neither this LP was released, which resulted in him leaving the label. The future looks bright for Gonzoe. He is the proud father of his daughter named Khaelen. His new album, No Ice, is finally scheduled to be released this year by Fo’ Sho Recordz, which is exclusively distributed by Image Entertainment. The first single is “I’m On Tilt.” No Ice features guest appearances from Cel and Kaydo from Kausion, Jayo Felony, Knoc-turn’al and Yukmouth and production by Jelly Roll and Kenny McCloud. Gonzoe has also recently been in the studio with Crooked I and Eastwood from Death Row Records. He has recorded a song calling out multi-platinum rapper 50 Cent, who Gonzoe feels is a fake gangster. Following the release of No Ice, Yukmouth’s Smoke-A-Lot Records is scheduled to release The Regime’s debut album, Regime Life. Gonzoe also plans on releasing Grown Folks Music exclusively on StreetHop.com. He’ll also release a new mixtape every second month exclusively for purchase on StreetHop.com. |
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