When thinking of the genres that vary within the music industry, I think it’s undeniable to say that Hip-hop is the inspiration for a number of these genres. Ranging from pop to R&B, even electronic and alternative sounds, elements of Hip-Hop, whether it’s rhythm, lyricism, production style, or cultural influence, have deeply impacted the way other genres are created and received. While the spotlight often falls on the performers we know and love, the pioneers behind the beats often go unrecognized.
To highlight the unsung heroes of the music industry, particularly the producers working behind the scenes, I had the honor of speaking with Coppe Cantrell, an artist, mother, businesswoman, and the widow of multi-platinum producer Johnny J. Known for his work with Tupac, Bizzy Bone, and many others, Johnny J helped create the sound of an era. Coppe Cantrell worked alongside him for 17 years, witnessing the world of Death Row Records through the eyes of a partner and professional.
Today, Coppe Cantrell focuses her music career within the Christian genre, she has also decided to develop a documentary titled LEGEND. The film will highlight unreleased collaborations between Johnny J and Tupac alongside other iconic artists.
Perspective is key to understanding the world around us. In this interview, I was able to receive not only the perspective from someone who has witnessed the world of hip-hop and production, but who has now come into the music industry to act as a vessel for God’s word. Join us in this journey of perspective, reflection, and understanding the path God had for Coppe Cantrell.
Anaya: What was it like being the wife and business partner of a multi-platinum producer?
Coppe Cantrell: I mean, we were looking at TVs on a crate together. So, it was a grind together, to say what it was like to be married to a multi-patent producer, I just looked at him like he was my best friend. I didn’t look at it like that. So it was a wonderful thing because, you know, you got to experience things in life, you know, material things, and stuff like that, but beyond that, the relationship we already had was solid on the ground of nothing. I was his biggest fan, though, I would always be cheering for him, and I always wanted so much more for him. I didn’t look at it like, oh, he’s this multi-platinum producer, even though I was his fan of his work, because I could hear every kick, every drum, every snare, everything he created, I was right there in the creative process.
Anaya: I love that! I think that speaking to someone for such a long time, it’s different from how the outside receives and perceives them, because we know who they really are. That sounds like such an amazing experience, and I know it had a lot that came with it. Which brings us to my next question. What was experiencing Death Row Records firsthand like? You weren’t experiencing it from the tabloids or from what you saw on TV, you were living it.
Coppe Cantrell: In the beginning, it was like, you thought it was a great thing, you know? It’s just one family. Everybody is sitting there doing their music. They had a room called the Wack Room. You had them doing their music, you had studio A, B, and there’s, you know, other people doing stuff in that other little room, and then the kitchen area and two kitchen areas, actually.
It was like a family, but in a family, you can kind of experience a little bit of like, hmm, what are they doing in there? Then you’d hear people, you know, speak of little jealousies and stuff like that; but for the most part, at the beginning, everything was good. Now I’m like, oh, my God, I think about all the things that I did see. I’m like, oh, my God.. Now that I think about that stuff, oh, we’re talking about some other stuff now, you know, people getting beat down and stuff like that. Seeing the aftereffects of a beat down. That’s a whole other thing, like, oh, my God, I thought they were so nice, and which, you know, I’ll say that this, you know, dealing with Suge and everything was good, you know what I’m saying? It was nice, he was cool.
Even Johnny was like, hey, if it doesn’t go like this, because Johnny was boisterous about his own, you know what I’m saying? If it doesn’t go like this, I’m not coming back. So he was straight up, and he didn’t have a problem with telling anybody how he felt either. It felt like a family, but you know how families are. You have your little cliques, and every clique is like, look at them over there. Like, what are they doing? You can say it’s a little jealousy in the room, but I think it was a cool jealousy.
At the time, everybody said, “Oh, what are they doing? Okay, we have to come correct, we have to come better. We have to come stronger; we have to come faster.” So, I think that it was cool to analyze that. Everybody was cool by joining on, like, on All Eyez On Me, on the project. Everybody did their part, they played their role, they came in and did what they were supposed to do, so that was a wonderful experience. I don’t even know if you know that I’m on that.
Anaya: Really? I never knew this!
Coppe Cantrell: The world didn’t know until I started telling it because they thought Faith Evans did Hit Em Up. That’s me doing “Take Money.” That is actually me on that part. I said, now, how did that sound, how would Faith Evans sound doing her own diss record? That’s the silliest thing I’ve heard. That’s actually me, it was a little hidden thing. I didn’t even tell anybody, and I was the one who did the credits on the album. Like, I told someone in an interview, if I wanted a credit, I would have put the credit on. You know, but I’m telling people now because they’re like, who did this?
Who did this? And I’m about to tell this story. So, I have to let it be known. That is me on Take Money, on Hit ‘Em Up doing the take money, because it was supposed to be, from their Get Money, right? So, Tupac was like, Hey, go in there and do this part, have her do this part, Take Money. So, I heard the little Get Money, so I said let me try to be as close as I can to that little melody. I went in there and they sampled my voice, my husband did, and flew my vocals in. Because I was tone deaf, I couldn’t sing on beat!
Anaya: Oh, I am, I am the exact way I’m tone deaf. I have no rhythm, so you are preaching to the choir, but this is mind-blowing. I never knew this!
Coppe Cantrell: I did the intro to Death Around the Corner. That’s me doing that part. That’s me on, How Do You Want It, the radio version doing the ouu’s and the ah’s. There are some songs that never got released. At least our version of it, Me, Johnny, and Tupac were like, that is so wack. There’s a song with K-Ci and JoJo, I did that part. There are a bunch of other records that I did with small parts. I called myself the ou ah, girl, because I’m doing these ouus, and ahhs, I wasn’t a singer, but God changed that later, right? God changed that later.
Anaya: This connects to some questions I had later on. Before I got to those, we were just talking about how you were there to witness it all. I would like to know, How Do You Feel Witnessing the Seeds Death Row Planted, Sprouting Today?
Coppe Cantrell: Ooh, they’re everywhere. I mean, we have all of these independent record companies that have sprouted up. So, I think they planted a huge seed, all over the nation, with these independent record labels. It’s a blessing that it could be spread, but, you know, we just pray that it’s spread not in a negative way, but so many young artists have died. So, there has been a great, great seed that you hear that black people and, you know, even if they’re not black, Latinos or whoever they are, they’re eating, you know, off of the music. But the saddest thing is, there are so many more who have died since. (see full response in online version)
Anaya: I agree, the seeds of Death Row are truly everywhere. Speaking of seeds planted, I was just thinking about what you mentioned earlier, about how God is working through you. Especially with your song “My Daddy.” I loved it because it had such an impactful message, and I wanted to know what the creative process looked like for creating the song.
Coppe Cantrell: What inspired it? I was missing my father. He passed away 20 years ago and some change. Then I had the real thought about it, like, hey, my daughter and my son, they’re missing their daddy. Then I said, hey, wait a minute. Johnny didn’t have a father at some point in his life. I thought about everybody else who didn’t have a father, and our Heavenly Father spoke to me and said No, they all have a father, it’s me. So, I just started saying for my daddy in the sky wave em high, for my daddy in the air, wave em like your care. It wasn’t like I just started saying that. I was just so joyous to know that I still had a daddy that was here. Heavenly Father, and then as a parable, like comparing, like what he gave us our hips, our lips. Everybody part, I was like, you know what? I don’t even care if people are hating me for saying my hip to my lips, and I would dip. I said, ‘I don’t care ’cause my daddy gave it to me now. I started being like a little whiny little brat. He’s like, “Yeah, you see, I hear it.” And that’s what you’re gonna sing on it.” My daddy gave it to me now. It was so fun and funny, just like a little kid, like a little girl, and knowing that my daddy gave me all these things and knowing that you have a father too. He’s right up there. My heavenly father, he gave me the lyrics to this. The anointing of the holy spirit along with my experience of missing my daddy and other people not having a daddy. Our heavenly father is our daddy. So it was a joyous moment for me, and I thought for a lot of people who don’t have a father, I thought maybe this would bring them joy, too.
Anaya: How do you feel knowing that God is using you as a vessel for His Word?
Coppe Cantrell: It is an amazing thing. I think about it, like, you chose me. I mean, literally, it happened six months after Johnny died. I was prophesied that I was going to be singing. In April of 2009, and I laughed at the prophet. I said, “Me?” I said. He said, “No, you’re going to be singing your own music.”I’m like no, I’m not.” A few months later, July 1st, 2009, at 3:00 a.m., God woke me up out of a sound sleep, like I felt like, I dunked in some water, just started singing. I started singing and singing and crying, singing and crying. I started writing lyrics, and it’s crazy because I told the prophet later. The prophet was my school teacher. I went back to school when Johnny was incarcerated.
After he passed when I was getting all these revelations and I went to read the Bible. I read the Bible for those six months, and then, you know, the Holy Spirit came upon me by reading the Bible. After that, he’s like, well, you know what? You’ve got to put those lyrics to your husband’s music. I’m crying more now. I’m sitting there bawling like, how am I going to do that? I came up with all these songs. I had like 10 songs without any music. I wrote the melodies and wrote, like, about 10 songs at this point. I’m like, how am I gonna do that?
I had to match Johnny’s tracks. The prophet told me God wants you to utilize Johnny’s music, and your lyrics to glorify God. They belong to God now. So, it’s amazing to know that God gave me the gift to write and to sing. Johnny always wanted me to sing, and I always wanted to sing. I never knew that it was going to be to glorify God. He didn’t want me to have the voice for the secular world, and he said he wanted him for the saved world. It’s such a blessing to be able to glorify him. I work directly for him. I’m having my breakthrough moments like the prophet told me my third album would be the breakthrough album, and it’s breaking through. I’m just grateful to be able to do what I can do for our king, the Holy Trinity, just every aspect of our Heavenly Father through Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I have a few songs where I’m acting as if I’m a child. I did it like a spoiled little brat. I did all that I could on every aspect of the song. Like, I didn’t hire a background singer, that’s me doing all those parts. It’s not children playing those parts, that’s me.
Anaya: That is pure talent. Having the ability to say every piece of this song is my voice. For my last question, I would just like to know, what is something you want people to take away from the LEGEND documentary?
Coppe Cantrell: Well, I want them to realize this, because even though Johnny and Tupac knew this at the time in the ’90s, you know, people look at the album credits. Now, everything is digital, and people aren’t looking at album credits. They need to know that when you look at Tupac and Johnny’s music, it’s hand in hand. There was a partnership. There was a marriage that was meant to be. It’s not to take away anything from my little brother, Tupac, because Tupac is who he is, but in a day, of people honoring other people with their tracks and beats, and they’re praising them for that, Johnny deserves his just, because I get this in the community—of the Latin community. Like, well, because they’re trying to wipe him out. Johnny, you know, he felt like he was being blackballed. I think part of that was that he was being blackballed. So, they erased his name, sort of from the scene. Once he passed away, his name was erased, but even prior to passing away. So, I think the world needs to understand who Johnny was and his music lives on.
One thing you have to understand is there is no radio station that plays a capellas. It’s the whole track. It’s the whole song, and the two become one. Like a marriage. It becomes one thing. It’s joint authorship, joint, teamwork together. It’s the artist performing and the track. So people need to understand who Johnny J was and what he contributed to hip hop, not just for Tupac, of course, hundreds of songs with Tupac, Bizzy Bone, just so many other things, and so many other aspects of how he started it, and different parts of hip-hop. People need to understand who he was, and what he did for hip-hop himself and not take away from him. He deserves his flowers like anybody else. Don’t take it away because of jealousy, and these two loved each other so much, so Pac wouldn’t be happy to know that they’re not giving him his credit.
They were friends, they were brothers, they were musical, genius partners together, all of those things. Tupac loved giving back to people and helping other people and he gave them their credit. He gave people their chance. I think everybody needs to show some love and respect for Johnny J. This documentary that I’m gonna bring out is gonna show you all the areas that he said started in and how he ended his life, you know, because of the nuances of things and life that happens and just taking people’s credit and taking away their identity. I want his identity back. I’ll say that I want his identity back. He deserves that, and that’s what I’m about to give him his identity back.
I was told there are a lot of hip-hop Latinos who are coming up in the world right now. They deserve their shine too, because people are saying they didn’t do anything in hip hop, but here it is. They’re happy to know that Johnny J is their hero. He is their hero, and so that’s driving them to say, “Hey, we want to be a part of this documentary. We want to be a part of this biopic film that you got.” So they want to be a part of it with me. Johnny, you know, he thought he was black, right? I mean, he was adopted by a black father and a Latin mother, so he didn’t know anything but that was me, until he found out later on it wasn’t, but that was part of his soul. And he deserves to have his identity.
To silence a story is to narrow our vision of the world around us. Every unheard perspective, or untold truth, is a piece of the human experience left hidden. The life and legacy of Johnny J isn’t just a chapter in Hip Hop. It’s a bridge to understanding its soul. To truly grasp the depth and diversity of Hip Hop culture, we must listen. We must remember. We must tell his story.
