Tone Loc: A ‘Wild Thing’ in the World of Rap

“Gimme one of those,” said rapper Tone Loc, pointing to a pack of cigarettes on the conference-room table in his manager’s West Hollywood office. “I’ve quit smoking, but what the hell. I do everything else I’m not supposed to.”

It was early evening. Loc, who has a smash hit single, “Wild Thing,” was, as he said several times, feeling good.

“I’m taking the rap world by storm,” Loc boasted, laughing--almost howling--in triumph. He pulled a bottle of beer--his third--out of a carton, walked over to the window and, using the window ledge, popped it open. Raising the bottle in a toast, he said: “To ‘Wild Thing.’ ”

You can’t blame Loc, 22, for gloating. Three months ago he was just another promising local rapper. His two previous singles, “I’ve Got It Goin’ On” and ‘I’m on Fire,” had gotten some attention on KDAY, L.A’s major rap station, but stardom seemed far away. Now, thanks to the racy “Wild Thing”--which is in the pop Top 5 and a debut album, “Loc’d After Dark,” on Delicious Vinyl Records--stardom may be just around the corner.

With a fullback’s build (6 feet, 1 inch tall, 230 pounds), Loc can be menacing--and he knows it. “Women like the tough approach and I like women,” he said. “That’s what ‘Wild Thing’ is all about.”

“Wild Thing,” which boasts an overpowering beat, is downright lewd. Like many rap songs, it’s full raunch and sexual swagger. According to Loc, that’s a plus: “Kids like it because it’s dirty. Let’s face it. They know what it means. If it was clean, who’d play it? Who’d listen to it?”

Originally, Loc said, it was even racier: “The first version was real dirty. It was going to be an album cut, not a single. But my producers wanted it to be a single. They had me rewrite it, clean it up. This guy Marvin Young helped write parts of it here and there.”

When Loc was signed by Delicious Vinyl, which is now distributed by Island Records, he was the first artist on the label. It was the first record contract for Loc, who had been writing rap songs since his mid-teens. But until last year he never really considered making a career out of it.

“I was in a group for a while, but when it broke up I retired,” he said. “I had to go to work to earn money to live. But my cousin, who used to be my manager, hooked me up with the guys who were starting Delicious Vinyl.”

Loc’s “Wild Thing” is a totally different song from Sam Kinison’s current hit of the same name, a remake of the Troggs’ 1966 classic. Naturally there’s been some confusion. “People ask me why I did that remake,” Loc said. “They thought I was white--that I was Sam. They thought I was singing his song.

“My single came out first. I didn’t know about his song. A few weeks later, somebody told me there was this other song called ‘Wild Thing.’ He (Kinison) does all that screaming and hollering. I don’t do that. It’s an insult for people to think I sing his song.”

Loc is now starting a national tour, which includes playing clubs. He’d rather play big arenas but, he said, if the fee is big enough, he’ll play anywhere.

“For the right money,” he said, “I’d play a Ku Klux Klan rally.”

Like many rappers, Loc got into the genre because it’s so popular among young ghetto blacks. He, however, isn’t from the ghetto.

“I had to take a bus to get there (the ghetto) to hang out with the fellas,” Loc said. “I was raised with money, on the Westside in a two-story house. My father died when I was 5, but my mother runs a business that makes a lot of money. My friends didn’t have money, but I did.”

His real name is Tony Smith. Tone Loc, he explained, is a gang name, with Loc being short for loco. “I’m not in a gang anymore, but I kept the name,” he said.

These days it’s fashionable for rappers to claim they’re former gang members, since that instantly projects the kind of tough, street-wise image that lends credibility to their lyrics. While some rappers’ boasts of gang ties don’t ring true, Loc’s seem legitimate.

“I was serious about it (gang involvement),” he said. “I was in one of the major gangs. Being in a gang wasn’t really necessary for me like it is for other guys. They’re in it because they’re born poor and don’t have much else. I had all these other opportunities and I was still into the gang thing.”

One big reason for his involvement, he said, was to provide an outlet for his violent nature: “I don’t know why I’m like that. I always wanted to start fights. I always thought I had to be a little tougher than the other kids. I still have this violent thing in me. I’ve learned to control it--to a large degree. But it’s still there. I can get crazy at the drop of a hat.”

Although gang existence is behind him, Loc emphasized that he still has his share of vices. “I drink and I smoke weed (marijuana),” he said. “My mother knows it and as long as she knows it I don’t care who else does. She doesn’t approve, but that’s life. . . . But I don’t do any hard-core drugs.”

Loc attributes his exit from gang life largely to the influence of his first love. “I was about 17 or 18 and I was so in love with this girl,” he recalled. “She didn’t like me being in a gang. She said it was too dangerous. I’d be in fights. I was even shot once. But I didn’t want to lose her, so I got out.”

Now Loc lectures at high schools on the evils of gang life. “I tell them there’s a world outside of gangs,” he said. “I tell them they don’t have to hang out with gangs and be fighting and shooting each other. There’s honest ways to make money--like rapping. You can make a ton of money and still be cool--like me.”