Few West Coast groups embodied the unfiltered energy of ’90s Hip Hop quite like Tha Alkaholiks. Known for their explosive live shows, razor-sharp lyricism, and party-starting beats, Tha Liks carved out a unique space in underground rap, bridging the raw grit of the streets with a celebratory, unpretentious vibe. At the heart of it all was Tash, whose commanding voice and quick-witted bars made him a standout in a crew of standouts. From ’21 & Over’ to ‘Likwidation’, Tash helped define a sound and spirit that still resonates today.
The Hip Hop Museum caught up with Tash in this exclusive interview to discuss his solo album ‘Rap Life’, what he first thought when Pharrell gave the group a Pop beat, his favorite Liks album and more.
Adam Aziz: Do you feel like you get the respect you deserve when you talk about Hip Hop’s greatest MCs?
Tash: That’s a loaded question. I receive compliments all the time from people who grew up listening to my music. And if you look at my career, I’ve worked with the upper echelon of MCs. I’ve got songs with Pharrell, Wu-Tang Clan, and Snoop Dogg. And I held my own with all those people. I never walk around saying I’m this great MC, beating my chest or anything like that.
I think my humbleness pushed me to the side a bit. I’ve developed a new show called ‘Underrated’ with The Pharcyde, where the whole idea is to spotlight people and artists who are underrated. We’ve started production on that.
AA: I want to talk about your solo album ‘Rap Life’ that dropped in 1999. The album dropped between ‘Likwidation’ and ‘The XO Experience.’ What do you remember about that album and dropping your solo debut?
Tash: ‘Rap Life’ to me was the ultimate dream come true because when I first started rapping, I was a solo artist with E-Swift, and then we started hanging around with J-Ro and King Tee, and that’s when the group thing developed with Tha Alkaholiks.
My group members cosigned me to do the album. It wasn’t like, oh, I’m beefing with Tha Liks, so I’m gonna do a solo album. I wasn’t planning on doing a solo album. I just had a whole bunch of demo tapes. I had songs that I knew J-Ro wasn’t gonna feel that beat, or he wasn’t gonna like that subject matter.
I recorded a couple of songs, and an A&R heard them, and then Loud/Sony offered me a deal out of nowhere. I went and talked to my guys, Tha Liks and made sure they were cool with it. When they offered me a deal, I thought shit, I’ve got something going, I’m going to wait and start a bidding war with other labels.
I had a conversation with Steve Rifkind and his pops, Jules. RIP Jules. They took me out to dinner and convinced me to do the deal with Loud.
AA: My favorite Alkaholiks album is ‘Likwidation.’ One thing I love about that album is the artwork. How involved were you guys in the creative process around your album releases?
Tash: Everybody has their ideas, but Loud had a dope creative team, but a lot of that shit I thought of. I even assisted in directing most of our videos. For the “Rap Life” video, I wrote a treatment and sent it to Loud. I told them to bring this out; we need someone like Little X or Chris Robinson.
Even with me on the side of the wall in the “Daaam!”, we did that before Inspektah Deck in the “Triumph” video. I don’t think ‘Likwidation’ is my favorite album, but I do hear that a lot though.
AA: What is your favorite Alkaholiks album?
Tash: The first one. ’21 & Over’ will always be my baby. People don’t realize the grind. We turned down a lot of temptations because we were focused on being musicians. We were hanging with drug dealers and gangbangers, but we were like the rappers of the crew. First, E-Swift and I were a group back in 1988. We were Tash & Swift. Then we met J-Ro, who introduced us to King Tee, and that’s how the Likwit Crew formed.
’21 & Over’ was our demo tape. Someone heard it and wanted to sign us, and Loud gave us money to go and record. All we did was re-record the demo. After that came out and did well, then we had the pressure of the sophomore jinx, so it wasn’t as much fun making those other albums because of the pressure.
AA: Tha Liks always represented the West Coast to the fullest, but you were also heavily integrated with the East Coast and frequently featured East Coast MCs and producers on your projects. You had a lot of respect out east as well and were able to transition between the two coasts more easily than other acts. Why do you think that was?
Tash: E-Swift and I were born in Ohio. We migrated to LA. When I arrived in LA, I was 12 or 13. All I heard growing up was Funk and bands like The Ohio Players. My dad was in a Funk band called The Chandlers. All I heard was Funk from Ohio. Growing up in Ohio, we were exposed to all the Hip Hop from New York, so it was in our DNA. Even after we moved to California, we still had the plug for the New York mixtapes, and we continued to listen to them. Both Swift and I were heavily influenced by the East Coast.
Before gangster Rap and N.W.A., the West Coast was just like everywhere else from a Hip Hop standpoint.
AA: Is it fair to say the ‘X.O. Experience’ album was built around trying to make Tha Liks go Pop? Were you guys happy with how that album turned out?
Tash: I was happy with the album. I wasn’t happy with what I was wearing on the album cover [laughing]. But as far as the project goes, you have to take chances sometimes. But yes, that’s exactly what Loud Records was trying to do: make us more commercial. They were the ones who initiated the name change from Tha Alkaholiks to Tha Liks. I told them this was a bad idea because we already have hundreds of thousands of fans who bought Alkaholiks albums, and you’re going to confuse them.
In Hip Hop, going Pop was the worst thing you could do at that time. When you change the name to Tha Liks and start forcing a Pharrell-assisted song down their throats, and it doesn’t work, you can’t come back from that.
Pharrell actually approached us to work together on “Best U Can.” We still appreciate him for doing that. He was the one saying he knew we had been underground for too long and that we needed to be on the radio charts. He came to us and said I’ve got this beat for you. He said that’s all I’m giving you. One beat for free. He was up and coming at the time. This was coming off of Clipse’s first album.
I thought we were going to get the Hip Hop Pharrell, and he gave us the beat for “Best U Can.” I said that’s a dope beat, but it’s not for us. I didn’t like it at first. We went to Pharell’s spot in Virginia, and I laid my verse. I wrote my shit shit on the plane. I didn’t fight it once we finished the song because I liked the way it came out.
A quick story. As soon as we hit Pharrell’s spot in Virginia, I was ready to go because I wrote my lyrics on the plane. So I finish my part, and I’m like, alright, I’m about to get out of here and see what Virginia is all about. Pharrell asked me if I wanted his boy to take me around the city. He said we could use his truck and threw his boy the keys. I had no idea who his boy was at the time. We were driving around, and I was complaining about the beat Pharrell gave us. His boy ended up being Pusha-T.
AA: Tha Alkaholiks appeared on that ‘Loud Rocks’ album back in the day, where Hip Hop artists were paired with Rock artists. There was the “Daaam!” remix with Finger Eleven. What do you make of how much genres are blending together today? It happened back then, but not to the same extent as today.
Tash: We did the Vans Warped Tour three years in a row back then, so we already had a pretty big Rock following. We were on tour with Pennywise and Fishbone. We were the only Hip Hop group on the whole thing. We’ve always been with all genres of music.
AA: What else are you up to these days?
Tash: We dropped a remix to the song “Attention Is A Drug.” The remix features the entire Likiwit Crew, including King Tee, Defari, Tha Alkaholiks, all three of us, and Xzibit. The killer part of “Attention Is A Drug” is that we looped A Tribe Called Quest. That’s our brothers, man. They put us on our first tour. I called Q-Tip. He heard it and said he loved the song, so he jumped on the remix too. You can hear the song at flashytashy.com
Follow Tash on Instagram.
