GOLDEN
GOLDEN
Saint Paul, MN
Hip Hop / Pop / Rock
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About
In the immortal words of Rakim, “It ain't where you're from; it's where you're at.” And while hip-hop hometowns like New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Houston have long been the norm, you'd be foolish to underestimate an MC named GOLDEN simply because he's from Reading, PA.
Yes, that Reading. The NY metro area's outlet shopping mecca is also the birthplace of one of hip-hop's newest talent. While Reading may not be the South Bronx or Compton, the inner-city was a resting station for the drug trade going up to New York. GOLDEN credits the city's economic “diversity” for giving him a better perspective on life. “I didn't live in a bad part of town. I lived in a section called Hampton Heights, which is in northeast Reading, but while I lived in a nice house and firmly in a middle class/upper middle class community, three blocks away were Section 8 and the projects.”
Like most kids his age, GOLDEN fell in love with hip-hop through music videos. “The first real hip-hop record that I fell in love with was Kool Moe Dee's ‘Wild Wild West.' I ordered that thing on [music video channel] The Box like a hundred times in a row. I remember my parents bugging out when they got the phone bill because it was like x amount of cents per call.” However, it wasn't Kool Moe Dee, but rather another MC from New York that led young Casey Golden to his chosen profession.
“When Nas put out Illmatic, that record literally changed my life. Right then and right there I was like, ‘Wow, I want to rap forever. I want to be an MC.'” GOLDEN says Nas taught him that rhyming about what he lived and believed was most important.
The Jewish youngster was always active in various city sports programs, so it was natural that he had friends of various ethnicities. And with his love of hip-hop growing, it only made sense the he and some of these friends form a rap group. Now all they needed was a name. “We were walking through the mall, looking for a cash register to pay for something and a security guard stopped us, accused us of stealing and the whole nine. We walked away from that wondering why is it that kids who dress the way we dress, in baggy clothes and everything else, are always suspected of doing some wrong shit.” Hence S.U.S.P.E.C.T.S. was born.
GOLDEN's sole focus was not always hip-hop, he was also an avid athlete. In fact, he was recruited to play basketball at Minnesota's Macalester College. However, his hoop dreams were dashed after he had to undergo reconstructive wrist surgery. Although ballin' was out of the question, GOLDEN stayed in Minneapolis and even convinced his S.U.S.P.E.C.T.S. crew to move out there with him to try their hand at making music. “Back in Reading, we'd do parties and I am the only white guy rhyming and the only white kid in the crew, and regularly I would be threatened to be killed because Vanilla Ice ruined it for a generation. But coming to Minneapolis, it seemed like the biggest group up here at that time was Atmosphere and white cats were allowed on stage—and they were actual stages in actual venues instead of just some party where you rented out the V-Dub [Veterans Hall] and waited for a fight to break out.”
While S.U.S.P.E.C.T.S. eventually disbanded, after attempts to form an indie label failed and personal issues caused division, GOLDEN's time with the group did yield personal dividends. He connected with two members of the Black Eye Peas' backing band Bucky Johnson—Printz Board and George Pajon, Jr.—after his group opened for the Peas at Macalester's Spring Fest. GOLDEN and Board kept in contact, and eventually recorded the MC's first track together in the kitchen of The Quest, a Minneapolis club once owned by Prince. Two weeks later, S.U.S.P.E.C.T.S. disbanded and he called Board, who flew him out to Los Angeles so they could continue working together. In L.A., GOLDEN cut four more tracks with Board and then was signed to his production company, Beets & Produce.
With Board behind the boards, GOLDEN crafted his debut, PEDDLING MEDICINE, over the next four years. A collection of thought-provoking, lyrically inspired tracks, it has something that most hip-hop albums are missing—heart. From the upbeat “Elevator Music” featuring Fergie (“She cut the vocals in a classroom right there on the spot because she liked it.”) to the white MC anthem “It Ain't Me” (“No matter how you think you're going to define me, whether it's by what you see or what your preconceived notions of what a white rapper is, I am going to change your mind.”), PEDDLING MEDICINE has the cure for what ails you.
And if you still don't believe this Jewish rapper from Reading is for real. Just ask him.
“If you're going to put a record out, it's going to last hundreds of years. It's a record of what you believe and what you think. So, whatever you put down on record you're going to have to be proud of that for the rest of your life. So for me to just rap some bullshit over a dope beat really doesn't make too much sense to me if that's the one thing people are going to take away from who I am as a person.”
That indeed should be the GOLDEN rule.
Yes, that Reading. The NY metro area's outlet shopping mecca is also the birthplace of one of hip-hop's newest talent. While Reading may not be the South Bronx or Compton, the inner-city was a resting station for the drug trade going up to New York. GOLDEN credits the city's economic “diversity” for giving him a better perspective on life. “I didn't live in a bad part of town. I lived in a section called Hampton Heights, which is in northeast Reading, but while I lived in a nice house and firmly in a middle class/upper middle class community, three blocks away were Section 8 and the projects.”
Like most kids his age, GOLDEN fell in love with hip-hop through music videos. “The first real hip-hop record that I fell in love with was Kool Moe Dee's ‘Wild Wild West.' I ordered that thing on [music video channel] The Box like a hundred times in a row. I remember my parents bugging out when they got the phone bill because it was like x amount of cents per call.” However, it wasn't Kool Moe Dee, but rather another MC from New York that led young Casey Golden to his chosen profession.
“When Nas put out Illmatic, that record literally changed my life. Right then and right there I was like, ‘Wow, I want to rap forever. I want to be an MC.'” GOLDEN says Nas taught him that rhyming about what he lived and believed was most important.
The Jewish youngster was always active in various city sports programs, so it was natural that he had friends of various ethnicities. And with his love of hip-hop growing, it only made sense the he and some of these friends form a rap group. Now all they needed was a name. “We were walking through the mall, looking for a cash register to pay for something and a security guard stopped us, accused us of stealing and the whole nine. We walked away from that wondering why is it that kids who dress the way we dress, in baggy clothes and everything else, are always suspected of doing some wrong shit.” Hence S.U.S.P.E.C.T.S. was born.
GOLDEN's sole focus was not always hip-hop, he was also an avid athlete. In fact, he was recruited to play basketball at Minnesota's Macalester College. However, his hoop dreams were dashed after he had to undergo reconstructive wrist surgery. Although ballin' was out of the question, GOLDEN stayed in Minneapolis and even convinced his S.U.S.P.E.C.T.S. crew to move out there with him to try their hand at making music. “Back in Reading, we'd do parties and I am the only white guy rhyming and the only white kid in the crew, and regularly I would be threatened to be killed because Vanilla Ice ruined it for a generation. But coming to Minneapolis, it seemed like the biggest group up here at that time was Atmosphere and white cats were allowed on stage—and they were actual stages in actual venues instead of just some party where you rented out the V-Dub [Veterans Hall] and waited for a fight to break out.”
While S.U.S.P.E.C.T.S. eventually disbanded, after attempts to form an indie label failed and personal issues caused division, GOLDEN's time with the group did yield personal dividends. He connected with two members of the Black Eye Peas' backing band Bucky Johnson—Printz Board and George Pajon, Jr.—after his group opened for the Peas at Macalester's Spring Fest. GOLDEN and Board kept in contact, and eventually recorded the MC's first track together in the kitchen of The Quest, a Minneapolis club once owned by Prince. Two weeks later, S.U.S.P.E.C.T.S. disbanded and he called Board, who flew him out to Los Angeles so they could continue working together. In L.A., GOLDEN cut four more tracks with Board and then was signed to his production company, Beets & Produce.
With Board behind the boards, GOLDEN crafted his debut, PEDDLING MEDICINE, over the next four years. A collection of thought-provoking, lyrically inspired tracks, it has something that most hip-hop albums are missing—heart. From the upbeat “Elevator Music” featuring Fergie (“She cut the vocals in a classroom right there on the spot because she liked it.”) to the white MC anthem “It Ain't Me” (“No matter how you think you're going to define me, whether it's by what you see or what your preconceived notions of what a white rapper is, I am going to change your mind.”), PEDDLING MEDICINE has the cure for what ails you.
And if you still don't believe this Jewish rapper from Reading is for real. Just ask him.
“If you're going to put a record out, it's going to last hundreds of years. It's a record of what you believe and what you think. So, whatever you put down on record you're going to have to be proud of that for the rest of your life. So for me to just rap some bullshit over a dope beat really doesn't make too much sense to me if that's the one thing people are going to take away from who I am as a person.”
That indeed should be the GOLDEN rule.
