A diamond will always be diamond; whether its in the rough, in a rough environment or in rough times. Primitively, a diamond doesn’t look like a diamond and if you don’t know how to bring a diamond to its pinnacle, it could very well be undervalued and overlooked.
It takes fire and pressure to bring them to their immaculate state. The more pressure applied, the more it illuminates. Even after its been buried in the mud, once you clean it up, it’ll always give you its natural illumination.
For Bay Area musician, Jerold Dwight Ellis III, aka Yukmouth, his past as well as his hit song is depiction of a diamond. Ellis grew up in Oakland in a callous environment during a time where blacks were transitioning and dealing with the aftermath of Black Panther Party. There were the pros and cons, but unfortunately for many, the cons eclipsed the pros. When the smoke cleared, a lot of blacks were left to fend for themselves in a poverty-stricken environment that was plagued with drugs.
Many of the offspring had to learn how to survive in this jungle with the odds against them. Some became drug addicts while others sold the drugs. Unfortunately, Ellis succumbed to the latter and started living the “street life,” which caused him to have many brushes with the law. He was in and out of jail since youth years.
After growing weary of his own ways, Ellis knew that he had to make some vital changes to have an amended future.
“I wanted to quit being in the streets. Once I went to jail, I had a lot of time to think, a lot of time to sit down. I was just tired of running from cops and shootouts and with enemies blocks, hopping fences, watching over your back from dope-fiends and enemies. That’s all crazy, I just wanted to get away from that life,” Ellis said.
Ellis always had a passion for music stemming from musical background inspired by his father. His father introduced him to instruments such as the trumpet at a very young age. During one of the most grim times in his life, his incarceration, he decided to dig deep inside himself to discover his true passion.
“I was just tired of it all, so I started focusing on the music and thank God it worked,” he said.
One of his friends, Garrick Desmond Husbands, aka Numskull, stuck around and they entwined their passions and desires to revise their rocky journey collectively.
They decided to form a rap duo. Inspired by their witty, comical lyrics and the cartoons “Looney Toons,” they came up with the whimsical name, The Luniz. “It was basically funny rapping/gangsta music, like “Looney Toons,” like the cartoon, with crazy music!”
Although, they had a checkered past with drugs, ironically, it was the “drugs” paralleled with their fate and grit, that presented them with this opportunity of a lifetime, getting signed to a prominent independent record label in the Bay Area.
During their times hanging out at the “Trap House” (drug house), they were able to network with some people that would change their lives.
“At the trap house, there was Too-Short’s friend, Baby Jesus. After we got the (drug) deal, we were like, forget the deal, hook us up with Too-Short! He said, let me hear you rap, so I busted a song called, ‘The Ice-Cream Man.‘ I wrote that song in juvenile hall and also created The Luniz, came up with Num(skull) name and everything.”
After hearing them rap and seeing them prepared, Baby Jesus was impressed and let them know that he had his own record label despite his connections with Too-Short and was interested in signing them the next day.
His record label was the home of a popular Bay Area artist by the name of Dru Down, that bred one of the biggest hit songs in the Bay Area. Preparation blended with determination ushered them to their destination and their ticket out the street life.
“We turned a dope deal into a record deal and never went back to selling dope after that,” he said.
Subsequently, The Luniz rose to become one of the most legendary rap group out of the Bay Area after they dropped their debut album, “Operation Stackola,” with their lead single “I Got Five On It,” which featured vocal contributions from R&B singer, Michael Marshall. The song reached No. 2 in Germany, No. 3 in the United Kingdom and No. 8 in the United States. The single was certified Platinum by the RIAA and sold one million copies domestically. The song’s eccentric rhythm, coupled with the group’s authentic talent also drew the attention of Diddy (formerly known as Puff Daddy/Puffy).
Diddy sampled the song and created his hit, “Satisfy You.”
“I Got Five On It” became an international hit but it was also became rooted in Bay Area culture.
After time passed, things started to simmer down for the group. They faced some turmoil and it eventually led to Husbands being sent to in prison for seven years.
With all of the backlash and controversy, Ellis felt like retiring from music altogether. He saw the true colors of some of the people that he trusted the most and it was discouraging.
Shortly after, Ellis was inspired to get back in the studio after the success of his show, and after his partner Husbands, (the other half of Luniz) was released from prison. From there, they began recording, rebranding themselves and slowly resurrecting their career.
From there, he continued to grind and unexpectedly hit a heightened level of inspiration when he received the news that their classic song, ‘I Got Five On It’ would be the main featured song in a new movie called “Us” by Jordan Peele.
Initially, he was appreciative and humbled by the fact that people wanted to revive his classic, but he didn’t realize the level it was going to be on, that his song would soon be the theme in a major motion picture.
“When we first saw it, we saw a trailer of the movie about three months before it even came out. So, I thought it was a Netflix film or a YouTube, I didn’t think it was going to be big. I was excited like, they’re about to use our (song) in a movie, this is crazy! And then on Christmas, It was the best Christmas gift ever, because the trailer debuted on Christmas. The game is going down and all you see is the ‘Us’ trailer. Everybody was calling, it was literally the best Christmas gift ever.”
Over 20 years later, their classic song has once again given them international victory but this time, it’s greater than ever.
The “Us” movie grew to become a historical film by becoming the highest grossing, most successful African-American horror movie to date. Its first weekend grossed 70 million dollars. As the numbers soared for the movie, the numbers were also climbing for the Luniz, breathing new life into the classic.
