Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Crhymes lets the government pay for his next record

Federal pandemic relief programs benefit local rapper

Legit loot: Cesar “Crhymes” Tellez has no fear of going to jail for his financial manuevers.
Legit loot: Cesar “Crhymes” Tellez has no fear of going to jail for his financial manuevers.

“I was able to secure a PPP loan with the SBA to support my music career,” says southeast San Diego rapper Cesar “Crhymes” Tellez. Despite losing 15 months of career traction to Covid, “the blessing was the opportunity to receive help from the Small Business Administration in form of grants and forgivable loans. I’m just a tenth grade high school dropout, and I was able to figure this shit out all on my own.”

“Turns out 2019, I actually for the first time ever made more money in music-related revenue than in Uber or Airbnb combined. I started accepting payments for my merch and musical services through PayPal, Cash App, and Venmo, and those companies track your sales and send you a 1099 form to file your taxes. With that 1099 filled out and filed, I was able to prove that I am a legit taxpaying small business. That’s how I was able to secure the SBA’s $10,000 EIDL grant. Later in 2021, they made a new rule that states that if your small business suffered more than a 50 percent loss in revenue, you can received an additional grant of $5000. I went ahead and did my 2020 taxes and it showed that I suffered a loss greater that 50 percent. I then turned that in to the SBA and received that extra 5K.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

That wasn’t the end of the government green. “So then I saw that the state of California was giving out grants to small business owners as well. I read and met all the requirements for that program and, bam, I got another grant to use for my small businesses. Thank you, California Relief Grant program and SBA. After seeing that I was able to get approved for those other grants based off my taxes, I figured, why not give the PPP a shot, too? They just recently changed the rules for independent contractors like myself, to use the gross annual income of 2019, as opposed to the net income, to calculate the forgivable loan amount. Seeing that I’m a legit small business with taxes and financial records to back it up, I had no fear of going to jail.”

Tellez first made his mark with Sicko Records and DagoSD.com, as well as hosting a Friday night Imperial Beach event called Club DagoSD and collaborating with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. His first solo effort, One Breath Closer, was followed by Evolution of Crhymes. His record label Crhyme Mate Entertainment has signed artists from San Diego (Big Ev & Thee Husstle) and the United Kingdom (Shakezpeare).

Thanks to the government programs, “I have money to put into ads, to promote, support touring, create more merch, and all around keep me in business. This is money I can use towards my independent career that I don’t have to pay back, so long as I use it just for my business payroll and expenses. And that is exactly what I am doing with this extra cash flow.”

He considers the bounty an improvement over being signed by a major label. “A record deal is essentially just an advance for a loan. The record label is the bank, and your record deal is the loan. If you don’t make the money they advanced you or the money they spend on your album rollout, guess what? You have to pay every single penny back with interest. And, more than likely, you’ll be shelved and blackballed if you can’t pay it back.”

Crhymes will use some of the money to remaster a deluxe edition of his album Thuggery, which included contributions from Snoop Dog, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and a divorcing superstar whose cred took a nosedive. “At that time, Kanye West made that ‘slavery was a choice’ remark, right when I was rolling out the project back in 2018. That didn’t help things at all. At that very moment, no one wanted to hear any new Yeezy tracks, the public was big mad.”

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Houston ex-mayor donates to Toni Atkins governor fund

LGBT fights in common
Legit loot: Cesar “Crhymes” Tellez has no fear of going to jail for his financial manuevers.
Legit loot: Cesar “Crhymes” Tellez has no fear of going to jail for his financial manuevers.

“I was able to secure a PPP loan with the SBA to support my music career,” says southeast San Diego rapper Cesar “Crhymes” Tellez. Despite losing 15 months of career traction to Covid, “the blessing was the opportunity to receive help from the Small Business Administration in form of grants and forgivable loans. I’m just a tenth grade high school dropout, and I was able to figure this shit out all on my own.”

“Turns out 2019, I actually for the first time ever made more money in music-related revenue than in Uber or Airbnb combined. I started accepting payments for my merch and musical services through PayPal, Cash App, and Venmo, and those companies track your sales and send you a 1099 form to file your taxes. With that 1099 filled out and filed, I was able to prove that I am a legit taxpaying small business. That’s how I was able to secure the SBA’s $10,000 EIDL grant. Later in 2021, they made a new rule that states that if your small business suffered more than a 50 percent loss in revenue, you can received an additional grant of $5000. I went ahead and did my 2020 taxes and it showed that I suffered a loss greater that 50 percent. I then turned that in to the SBA and received that extra 5K.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

That wasn’t the end of the government green. “So then I saw that the state of California was giving out grants to small business owners as well. I read and met all the requirements for that program and, bam, I got another grant to use for my small businesses. Thank you, California Relief Grant program and SBA. After seeing that I was able to get approved for those other grants based off my taxes, I figured, why not give the PPP a shot, too? They just recently changed the rules for independent contractors like myself, to use the gross annual income of 2019, as opposed to the net income, to calculate the forgivable loan amount. Seeing that I’m a legit small business with taxes and financial records to back it up, I had no fear of going to jail.”

Tellez first made his mark with Sicko Records and DagoSD.com, as well as hosting a Friday night Imperial Beach event called Club DagoSD and collaborating with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. His first solo effort, One Breath Closer, was followed by Evolution of Crhymes. His record label Crhyme Mate Entertainment has signed artists from San Diego (Big Ev & Thee Husstle) and the United Kingdom (Shakezpeare).

Thanks to the government programs, “I have money to put into ads, to promote, support touring, create more merch, and all around keep me in business. This is money I can use towards my independent career that I don’t have to pay back, so long as I use it just for my business payroll and expenses. And that is exactly what I am doing with this extra cash flow.”

He considers the bounty an improvement over being signed by a major label. “A record deal is essentially just an advance for a loan. The record label is the bank, and your record deal is the loan. If you don’t make the money they advanced you or the money they spend on your album rollout, guess what? You have to pay every single penny back with interest. And, more than likely, you’ll be shelved and blackballed if you can’t pay it back.”

Crhymes will use some of the money to remaster a deluxe edition of his album Thuggery, which included contributions from Snoop Dog, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and a divorcing superstar whose cred took a nosedive. “At that time, Kanye West made that ‘slavery was a choice’ remark, right when I was rolling out the project back in 2018. That didn’t help things at all. At that very moment, no one wanted to hear any new Yeezy tracks, the public was big mad.”

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego beaches not that nice to dogs

Bacteria and seawater itself not that great
Next Article

Secrets of Resilience in May's Unforgettable Memoir

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader