Friday, May 1, 2009
On Tuesday (May 5th), Fat Joe will officially expand his Terror Squad movement to include a new campaign sweeping the streets: K.A.R. – Kill All Rats. Alongside Joe’s friend of over 20 years, Pistol Pete, the two will be unleashing Joe Crack & Pistol Pete Present K.A.R., an album dedicated to spreading the Kill All Rats movement worldwide.
Overseen by Bronx native Pete, and driven by rappers representing almost all of New York City, including Rob Cash and Onez (both from Harlem), Leader (Yonkers), and Mike Beck (Brooklyn), K.A.R. are a rap group on a mission to spread their street philosophy as far as it can go.
“Kill All Rats started in jail,” Pistol Pete explained to HipHopDX recently regarding the origin of the K.A.R. movement. “That was something that was started when I was in the Feds… It was a bunch of good brothers from all over… We all lived by the same morals and principles. We just all got linked up together and was like, ‘Yo, you already know, kill all rats.’ We didn’t fuck with no rats.”
Having spent a total of 17 years of his life incarcerated, Pete first did a 10-year state bid for attempted murder, coming home in 1996 only to return back to prison less than a year later for “extorting drug dealers and shit,” as he noted to DX.
During his brief nearly year of freedom, Pete was able to enjoy himself alongside his by then famous BX brethren.
“I went out on the road with [Fat] Joe, with [Big] Pun,” he recalled of that time. “We used to be buggin’ out… We used to fuck with Cuban [Link] at that time, so he was there also. We went on the road, having fun. Just coming home and all that, it was all great.”
But the fun times for Pete were cut short.
“I got wrapped up,” he explained. “The Feds came to the Bronx – helicopters and all types of shit – and came and got my ass… I was Bronx Most Wanted and shit. That was a hell of a fuckin’ experience too.”
Having kept in contact with Joe while doing his Fed time, Pete began indoctrinating the Terror Squad head into the philosophy behind K.A.R.
“He used to hear the whole Kill All Rats shit like, ‘Yo, what’s up with this Kill All Rats shit?,’” Pete recalled of Joe’s first exposure to K.A.R. “[And] I used to be like, ‘Nigga, that’s what it is nigga. That’s the movement. But it was something that basically was a negative thing in jail, ‘cause we didn’t fuck with no rats. If there go a rat, he can’t come around us, we’d pound him out. He’d have to leave. He can’t live in the same spot that we live. But my visions for [K.A.R.] was bigger than that. I wanted to do something that could represent the struggle, [for] the dudes that ain’t coming home…”
Pete was finally released from custody for good in 2002. And after a couple more years of ridin’ out on the road with Joe again, he began taking the steps to take his K.A.R. movement from the bing to the streets, as he recalled to DX, “After I got off the road – I used to always be like, ‘Kill All Rats’ everywhere I went and all that… And Joe used to be like, ‘Dang, Kill All Rats is kinda strong.’ At the beginning he was a little bit hesitant as far as supporting it. Like, he was afraid like that might get you in trouble or something like that. He didn’t want to look at it like being in a gang, ‘cause it’s never been a gang… So [then] I had met this brother, Mike Beck… His cousin was locked up with me. He was a Kill All Rat dude in jail… And then from there Rob Cash came, and Onez. One of my dudes out here is from Harlem, and [he] introduced me to ‘em…”
After adding the last piece of the K.A.R. group puzzle, Leader, who was introduced into the fold by Terror Squad singer Tony Sunshine, Pete set to work building his own studio with Butter Beats (who produced half of K.A.R.’s debut disc) to get the Kill All Rats music movement moving.
K.A.R. subsequently started unleashing mixtapes, culminating with their arguably most eyebrow-raising street release, last year’s Gay-Unit. Hosted by Fat Joe, the mix was, as its title suggests, squarely aimed at 50 Cent and company, a rebuttal of sorts to G-Unit’s Elephant In The Sand mix mocking Fat Joe.
“At this point, man, it’s like [the beef] shit is already wack,” said Pete of the G-Unit/K.A.R. mixtape disses. “We did what we had to do. We came out with the mixtape. [G-Unit] said little funny shit here and there [about Joe]. [And K.A.R.] kinda like got back [at them] a little bit. At the end of the day, I think it’s just wack. I tell the [K.A.R.] fellas like, ‘Fall back.’ Not that they getting’ crazy [with the dissin’] or something like that. [Because] we [still] don’t fuck with [G-Unit]. We know they don’t fuck with Joe, so I don’t fuck with them.”
With no desire to attack 50 Cent and G-Unit in song or on video going forward, Pete is instead focusing his time and energy on educating the public about the Kill All Rats movement, which includes clarifying to the Hip Hop masses once and for all just what a rat is.
“A rat is a person that’s selfish, man,” he explained to DX, “a person that like to only think about himself – get caught up in a jam or something, in [a] hole – just a snake… [He] pretend to be part of something, but when the heat is there…”
But is a rat the same thing as a snitch?
“Of course, I don’t see a difference,” replied Pete when asked. “A rat is a snitch, it’s the same shit… That’s the same shit with the Cam’ron [statement from 60 Minutes about what you should do] if you have a serial killer [living] next door… And I just say [to that], if I have a serial killer [living] next door to me, we gon’ give that pussy…he ain’t gon’ be no more serial killer. We gon’ handle our business [Laughs].”
More of K.A.R.’s codes for the streets are outlined on the group’s debut. And while the album’s first single, “Oh Baby,” featuring the disc’s co-executive producer, Fat Joe [click to watch], is fare for the females, the majority of Kill All Rats’ first full-length is dedicated to explaining the values and virtues of the prison-originated movement.
“At the end of the day I’m just happy that I got to turn this around, and make this into something positive,” said Pete. “Something that’s gonna bring a couple brothers out the hood, [and] have they dreams come true.”
Joe Crack & Pistol Pete Present K.A.R. is due May 5 from Kill All Rats Entertainment/E1 Entertainment (formerly Koch Records).
