[On asking MJG what “MJG” stands for]
“You’re white. He’d definitely shoot you.”
“So you ask him.”
“I’m not asking him, he’ll shoot me too.”
Anyone with a social media presence has been made aware that Lil’ Boosie was released from prison yesterday. Naturally, today’s morning playlist was Boosie-themed, and made a stop at “In My Pockets,” a UGK remix of “Sho’Nuff.” (FYI: The three of them are known to create masterpieces of vulgarity together.) From there, procrastination led back to the “Sho’Nuff” video, and then a cursory Googling of some Suave House-related minutiae, which then revealed that Chris Nieratko had written an article about hanging out with the Suave House guys in 1997.
“The House That Suave Built” appeared in the short-lived not-short-but-not-very-long-lived, mostly-skateboarding-but-occasionally-other-stuff magazine, Strength in 1997. (A lot of the Chrome Ball scans of semi-obscure east coast names likely originate from Strength, as it was known to give east coasters slightly more love than Slap or Thrasher back then.) The article details the 72-hour period Nieratko, Clyde Singleton, and Bill Weiss spent in Houston with the Suave House VP. It’s not some end-of-Thrasher interview with an “underground” rapper, but a feature-length chronicle of rap video debauchery coming as close in contact with intoxicated skate tour antics as it ever has. Amazing to think there was a time when skateboard publications would spend money on travel and accommodations for their writers to come back with something as off-hand as this.
Suave doesn’t enjoy the waves of nostalgia that Cash Money, No Limit or Hypnotize Minds do today. That is partially due to the fact that no streetwear companies have re-released apparel with their logos on it, but also because it was more of a gold-selling label than a platinum one, i.e. 8Ball & MJG were its most high-profile artists. It was responsible for a lot of great music though, in addition to getting Clyde Singleton laid in a Houston hotel room.
Scans stolen from Nieratko’s site. Also related to mid-nineties southern rap dynasties and skateboarding: Nieratko and Mike York interview C-Murder.
