The first seeds of Psycho Realm were sown in the tough downtown Pico-Union neighborhood, right across the street from Doheny Park. First-generation Americans and the eldest two of the four Gonzalez boys, Jack and Gustavo, a.k.a. "Duke," grew up in the contentious neighborhood in the mid- and late-1980s.
"Our side of town is the 'Sick Side' of town. They have the South Side, North Side, East Side, whatever. Our side is the Sick Side," Jack explains over a lunch of Argentine Lomo and Mimosas on Hollywood's Melrose Avenue one recent Sunday, fresh off a series of concert dates in Italy.
The patriarch of the Gonzalez family came to the U.S. from Mexico at the age of 15 and supported his family by painting cars. Their house was filled with music: classic oldies, which surface prominently in Psycho Realm's tracks, along with regional Mexican music and giants of the 1960s and '70s like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Led Zeppelin, and Jimi Hendrix.
Immersed in hip-hop as a middle-school student, Jack's neighborhood friend, Yonjo, got ahold of a record featuring a guy out of Miami rapping in Spanish. They threw it on the turntable and, inspired by what they heard, the boys wrote a Spanglish rap about all of the friends they grew up with and the growing specter of neighborhood gang warfare that would crest just a few years later in the early 1990s.
Older brother Duke was attending Cal State Northridge (CSUN) at the time, and Jack and Yonjo made the trip out one weekend to see Latin hip-hoppers A Lighter Shade of Brown play the on-campus pub. When the following act was late to the stage, a deejay friend of Duke's threw on an instrumental beat and persuaded Jack and Yonjo to get on stage. Their song about the neighborhood characters got the crowd going crazier than the headlining act, and Jack was hooked.
Eventually, Yonjo dropped out to work for his family's business, Duke got in on the act, and his days at CSUN soon came to an end as well. "I think he went with the intention of doing something, but didn't know what he wanted to do," says Jack. According to his little brother, Duke spent most of those two years with his '79 Regal backed up to the door of his dorm room, juicing up the batteries on his hydraulics with free electricity, courtesy of the Cal State University system. When the party was over, he left.
By now Jack was attending the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies' (LACES) magnet high school Mid-City. Always a talented writer, he once won an essay contest for an opportunity to travel to the Soviet Union, but those plans were derailed by the ill-timed collapse of communism. Jack also played first-chair trumpet in the band and rubbed elbows in Miss Cox's music class with Lucas MacFadden (a.k.a. DJ Cut Chemist of Jurassic 5, Ozomatli and the Brainfreeze projects with DJ Shadow), and a certain actor you may have heard of named Leonardo DiCaprio.
Jack admits that he and his boys used to give Leo a hard time, but when they ran into each other years later at a Playboy magazine party, there were no hard feelings. "He was like, 'Hey, your music's tight.' I was like, 'You're acting's dope,'" Jack remembers.
After graduating from LACES, Jack also took a stab at higher education, attending Santa Monica College on scholarship, taking random courses for credit like weight training. "My dad always wanted us to do the college thing," he says. "Get a good job, make eighty-, a hundred-thousand-dollars a year. Live the good life, you know?" But with an infant daughter to support (he's now the proud father of five girls) and a waning interest in academics, Jack decided that his energy was better spent working and nurturing Psycho Realm's music.
About that time, Psycho Realm caught what could be considered the band's big break. It was 1993 and they were playing a free "End Barrio Warfare" show at the Olvera Street Plaza downtown, which happened to be attended by B-Real of Cypress Hill. B liked what he heard, met with Jack and Duke after the show, and eventually signed Psycho Realm to his production company and the Ruffhouse/Columbia/Sony label, mentoring the fledgling duo. "He was a good mentor," says Jack. "He helped us structure our songs more.
Live shows, he taught us how to work the crowd."
B-Real was so impressed with Psycho Realm that he actually wanted to join the group and make it a trio, but Jack and Duke were reluctant to let anyone else in the fold. "We had the mentality of the old rock bands: If you can't do an album on your own, you ain't shit," says Jack. The brothers told B-Real they would pass, but he was persistent. "We told him if you're going to be in the group, you've got to do all the promotional stuff, too. You don't get superstar status. And he was down with it, so we were like, 'Let's do the whole album.' And we did the whole first album with him."
The Big Debut
When it came time to put out their self-titled debut album in 1997, Jack and Duke were adamant that it was credited only to Psycho Realm, minting them as their own brand. Sony didn't go for it. "On everything, every sticker, it said, 'Featuring B-Real of Cypress Hill,' " recalls Jack. "You can't really blame them because they're sinking so many dollars into it. They're going to go for the marketing aspect." It wasn't all bad news, though. Even now, when Cypress Hill comes up, Psycho Realm usually gets a mention, and vice-versa.
Timing was not on their side, however. Simultaneously, Cypress Hill, Nas, and the Fugees were all on the Ruffhouse label, and they all had big radio hits. Not being a radio-friendly group, Psycho Realm fell into a no-man's land, and consequently fell through the cracks. "They didn't know what to do with us," laments Jack. "Two Mexican guys from L.A. rapping. They were just like, 'What is this? How can we market this?' "
Psycho Realm eventually decided it was best to part ways with Sony. "Sony did give us a worldwide promotional campaign, so we're known all over the world now," says Jack. "We can go to Europe and have promoters pay us to do shows. And we have fans that are coming to the shows all over the world – Mexico, South and Central America, Europe, Australia."
With a DIY work ethic, the Gonzalez brothers have also cultivated a vast network of independent distributors around the globe, keeping their music, their fans – and their profits – close to their chests. Jack breaks it down: "Instead of making eighty cents a record, we're making six or seven dollars a record. It's more of a direct contact with the streets, too, because on a day-to-day basis I'm going around to stores dropping off product. People at the shows buy it, people see me on the streets. I'm out there every day. It's being accessible. I think a lot of people can relate to us and the fact that we're in everybody's face, we're standing next to everybody, it makes it that much more real."
The ugly face of Los Angeles street violence got a little too real for Psycho Realm in late January 1999, just a month before their second album, "A War Story, Book 1," was scheduled for release on their own Sick Symphonies label. After a Delinquent Habits show at the El Rey theatre, Duke and a few friends went in search of late-night nourishment, ending up at Tommy's burger stand at Beverly and Rampart. Following an altercation in the parking lot, Duke was shot in the neck, severing an artery, with the bullet ending up right between the "L" and the "O" of his "Los Angeles" tattoo.
War Story II
By the time Jack made it to the scene, Duke was already on his way to County-USC Medical Center, and only his jacket remained in the street, ringed by yellow police tape. He caught up with Duke in the hospital hallway, barely alive and disfigured by swelling, bandages and clamps. Duke survived, and the police arrested the shooter, but his injuries left him a quadriplegic at 28.
Jack calls the months after Duke's misfortune "The Dark Ages." "I wasn't really doing much," he says. "Not really making music, just cruising the streets." Duke eventually convinced Jack to get back to making music, and he hooked up with dedicated foot soldiers of the Psycho Realm promotion machine and fellow Angelenos, Street Platoon. Together they recorded "The Steel Storm," released in 2001. Dad went to nursing school so he could care for Duke full time and Psycho Realm eventually got back on track.
Now, along with his musical contributions, Duke runs Psycho Realm's cyber-domain, maintaining the Web site and mailing list. And L.A. hip-hop's favorite sons released their long-awaited third album, "A War Story, Book 2," in November 2003. On one of the 15 new tracks, "Poison Rituals," MTV News' Kurt Loder even recounts the night Psycho Realm's lives changed forever at the burger stand. Standout and single-worthy tracks also include head-bobbing party track "Good Times" and street anthem "The Killing Fields."
By all appearances, Psycho Realm barely missed a step. When they threw a record-release party at the El Rey, the same theater where they attended the Delinquent Habits show that fateful night in 1999, Sick Soldiers lined up around the block, and the 600-plus fans that were turned away incited a near-riot. The L.A.P.D. even showed up, decked out in riot gear, though the situation eventually ended peacefully.
"We do it all ourselves," says Jack. "For two guys [Street Platoon], me and my brother, who's quadriplegic, we're not doing too bad."
ONLINE:
For a list of independent retailers carrying Psycho Realm's catalogue, tour dates, news, and merchandise, visit www.psychorealmonline.com.
Premonitions
The Psycho Realm Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Of war drums and suicide missions
Prosecution, execution, revolution, mass confusion
All over ready for war, I'm a soldier
Nightmares of cross-airs, concentration camps
And electric chairs marking you with the stamp
Prepare yourself
The whole world destroyed?
Civilization raped, ain't no escape
Situations escalate in the date of 2001
Revelation, or is it just my imagination?
Invasion dreams reoccuring
I can't explain it but it's the same one everyday
Televisions trackers citizens massacres
And cashless systems
The new order with no border renegades
The rule over the new age Malaise
Picture the gray haze consuming the world
This dream never goes away
I wish I knew the meaning of all this
Cause the pieces of the puzzle just don't fit
Premonitions of war cloud my every tought
Battles fought, won and lost a holocaust
Always the same ending, don't ever change
But I refuse to believe we all go down in flames
I wake up in the middle of combat
From the attack of the bomb killing on impact
Disintegration over the whole nation
And overseas victory to our enemies
The Psycho Realm's song Premonitions is a dark and ominous depiction of the artist's visions of war and destruction. The lyrics are rife with apocalyptic imagery, referencing everything from concentration camps, electric chairs, and cross-hairs to the destruction of civilization, massacres, and a cashless system. The singer's premonitions are vivid, recurring, and haunting. He wonders if he is paranoid, but the visions of war cloud his every thought. He wakes up in the middle of combat, from the attack of the bomb that kills on impact. Despite the grim picture the lyrics paint, the artist refuses to believe that we all go down in flames. It's a powerful and unsettling depiction of the fears and anxieties that many people experience in times of political unrest, social upheaval, and armed conflict.
Line by Line Meaning
I got mad visions, pictures and premonitions
My mind is filled with intense images and predictions
Of war drums and suicide missions
I see aggression and self-destruction everywhere
Prosecution, execution, revolution, mass confusion
People are being punished, killed, and turning against each other causing chaos
All over ready for war, I'm a soldier
Everywhere I look there's a fight, and I'm mentally preparing like a soldier
Nightmares of cross-airs, concentration camps
I have dreams of being targeted and held prisoner in brutal camps
And electric chairs marking you with the stamp
Execution methods like the electric chair have become common and seen as a symbol
Prepare yourself
Get ready for the intense and dangerous times ahead
Am I paranoid? Why in my dreams, have I seen
I question if I'm crazy to have these visions and why they keep coming
The whole world destroyed?
Everything is ruined and broken beyond repair
Civilization raped, ain't no escape
Society has been violated and there's no way to avoid its destructive outcome
Situations escalate in the date of 2001
Things got worse after the year 2001
Revelation, or is it just my imagination?
I'm not sure if these visions are signs or just products of my mind
Invasion dreams reoccuring
I keep dreaming of being invaded
I can't explain it but it's the same one everyday
I don't know how to understand it, but the dream is always identical
Televisions trackers citizens massacres
I see on TV that people are being tracked and murdered en masse
And cashless systems
People can't use money anymore; everything is digital
The new order with no border renegades
A new ruling system is in place where there are no boundaries and outcasts are in charge
The rule over the new age Malaise
This new order is causing a widespread feeling of unease and discontent
Picture the gray haze consuming the world
There's a fog of war that's spreading everywhere
This dream never goes away
This nightmare persists and I can't escape it
I wish I knew the meaning of all this
I want to make sense of what I'm seeing and experiencing
Cause the pieces of the puzzle just don't fit
None of it seems to add up or make sense
Premonitions of war cloud my every thought
I can't stop thinking about the war that's coming
Battles fought, won and lost a holocaust
There have been many battles and killings; it's like a genocide
Always the same ending, don't ever change
No matter how many times it happens, it always ends horribly
But I refuse to believe we all go down in flames
I reject the idea that we're all doomed to be destroyed
I wake up in the middle of combat
I have nightmares that I'm caught in the middle of fighting
From the attack of the bomb killing on impact
One blow is enough to kill many people
Disintegration over the whole nation
People and buildings are being destroyed across the entire country
And overseas victory to our enemies
Our enemies are winning battles and gaining power in other parts of the world
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: TURNER, GUSTAVO GONZALEZ, LOUIS M. FREEZE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind